One man opened a series of cinemas in abandoned London buildings (from Catford to Ealing, from Sidcup to Sutton) as part of a plan to revive the capital’s high streets. Politicians love the idea and provided millions to help. So why do they keep going bust? www.londoncentric.media/p/preston-be...

No public artwork could be inspiring enough to make me happy to be contemplating train-based lucky escapes as I pull into Stratford station.

The part-time low-traffic neighbourhood in Greenwich and Blackheath could be made permanent next month — despite the council admitting that it has exacerbated rat-running through side streets in Charlton.

The boss of the Trafalgar Tavern pub has said he feels “no glee” after winning a battle with Greenwich Council over benches and tables on the Thames Path.

The new fast Bakerloop bus between Lewisham and the Elephant & Castle begins on Saturday and will be free for its first week, TfL has confirmed. The BL1 is intended to be a stop-gap before a Bakerloo Line extension is built. greenwichwire.co.uk/2025/09/24/l...

A giant artwork depicting a whale’s tail has been installed at Stratford station – inspired by the day a sculpture stopped a train from crashing into water in the Netherlands. greenwichwire.co.uk/2025/09/19/w...

Community groups can now bid for a share of a £1 million pot of money from developers with the return of the council’s Greenwich Neighbourhood Growth Fund. greenwichwire.co.uk/2025/09/18/g...

Bexley Council's leader is to stand down after 17 years in charge. Teresa O'Neill - who became Baroness O'Neill of Bexley when she became a peer in 2022 - said she would continue to champion the borough from the House of Lords. greenwichwire.co.uk/2025/09/18/t...

London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan has been urged to say whether or not he was involved in a decision to suppress a TfL-funded study which found that low-traffic neighbourhoods do not reduce car use. greenwichwire.co.uk/2025/09/18/l...

Developers will need to find another £6 million towards a new bridge in the Royal Docks after Newham Council cut its funding by almost half. greenwichwire.co.uk/2025/09/17/t...

Drivers and bus users are being warned of delays until spring 2027 as construction work on the new Charlton to Woolwich cycleway begins this month.

The opening date has been announced for the Meantime brewery’s return to Greenwich – with its first bar in the area since the Greenwich Union closed down five years ago.

Happening today!

A backbench Labour councillor has been given a temporary promotion to Greenwich Council’s cabinet and will be taking charge of the controversial “sustainable streets” scheme to extend controlled parking zones in the north of the borough. greenwichwire.co.uk/2025/09/12/c...

The architect behind plans to build housing on the car park at Blackheath station has hit back after celebrities including Jude Law backed a campaign against the scheme.

Closing almost half of London’s police station front counters – including the one at Plumstead – is a “pragmatic” decision that will improve safety for Londoners, Sir Sadiq Khan has said.

Lewisham Council has reversed its planning permission for abandoned swimming baths to be redeveloped after the company that was due to deliver the scheme said it could not afford the project.

Residents in the Lesnes Estate in Thamesmead are refusing to leave so it can be demolished and replaced with 1,950 new homes, with one branding the redevelopment scheme “pure evil”. greenwichwire.co.uk/2025/09/12/w...

Labour government cuts to London funding could punch a £25 million hole in Greenwich Council’s finances by 2029. The council has already overspent its budget for this year by more than £15.7 million – with the possibility of new cutbacks soon. greenwichwire.co.uk/2025/09/11/f...

Like MPs pushing through welfare ‘reform’ to hit OBR targets, our cash-strapped council is bringing in parking charges that are clearly revenue-raising efforts, positioned as improving quality of life. Cllrs have done a terrible job of selling that approach to residents.

This seems symptomatic of Labour’s problems nationally, but I do wonder if the councillor who is looking forward to speaking up about the Democratic Republic of Congo quite gets why locals are so fed up (where the context is ‘backbench councillors aren’t really allowed to talk about local matters’)

Does Labour have a plan for getting out the vote at the next election? This guy is my local councillor, very hardworking and always out delivering leaflets and knocking on doors. He seems to have been deselected for objecting to Starmer's "country of strangers" speech. Who will be left to campaign?

A 3,000-seat theatre could come to the Greenwich Peninsula in what is being billed as “a new landmark for London”. Troubadour Theatres wants to open two auditoriums with 1,500 seats each next to the London Cable Car, on land currently used for coach parking. greenwichwire.co.uk/2025/09/10/n...

Two more Greenwich councillors have quit Labour and will sit as independents until the next elections in May, The Greenwich Wire can reveal. In total, four current councillors were barred from standing, while ten women are standing down voluntarily. greenwichwire.co.uk/2025/09/10/a...

Greenwich University is to merge with its Kent counterpart, the BBC reports. The two will use the name London and South East University Group but continue to award degrees as Kent and Greenwich. They say new no job losses are planned. buff.ly/7cIE8Po

Tickets for the first Blackheath fireworks display in six years have gone on sale. The new-look event, to be held on November 1, features live entertainment, DJs, comedians, a food village, craft beer festival and funfair. greenwichwire.co.uk/2025/09/09/b...

I've spent the day travelling around TUBE STRIKE LONDON talking to commuters and strikers and have been left unsure if "commuter chaos" is what I've actually been seeing. www.londoncentric.media/p/tube-strik...

I enjoyed Brassworks festival yesterday, and it was really nice to see Woolwich Works busy. It did hit home, however, that if they really want to rival the South Bank Centre as a cultural venue then it needs to be like that most weeks, not just a couple of times a year.

Scenes from the Blackheath/Charlton borders.

Plans to pedestrianise most of Deptford High Street have been shelved after a consultation. Lewisham Council said it would concentrate on cleaning the street and improving lighting instead , as well as tackling bad parking and antisocial behaviour.

Cash-strapped Greenwich Council is recruiting a new communications chief this week, with a salary of up to £120,000 – despite increasing debts at the town hall.

Labour has denied local party members in Shooters Hill the right to choose their candidates for May’s Greenwich Council election – just weeks after it lost a by-election in the ward with a candidate who had been parachuted in. greenwichwire.co.uk/2025/09/05/l...

The view across the Thames from the O2 could change again soon after more than 1,000 student rooms and 208 homes at Orchard Wharf were approved by Tower Hamlets councillors. A facility to process parcels delivered by Thames Clippers is also planned. greenwichwire.co.uk/2025/09/04/m...

This is brilliant to see - like the loo code crowd sourcing. But awful that people need to let each other know when the lifts are out of order because no one is taking responsibility for the Greenwich Foot Tunnel as essential transport infrastructure. 🤔

One of southeast London’s best-known hotels could close if plans to convert it into retirement flats are approved. For now it is still business as usual for the Clarendon Hotel in Blackheath, which has long been a key part of Greenwich’s tourist trade.

A disgruntled user of the Greenwich Foot Tunnel has created a web app so fellow walkers and cyclists can warn each other when the crossing’s unreliable lifts are broken. The lifts have been regularly broken since a botched refurbishment 14 years ago.

A shisha lounge near the Thames Barrier will have its opening hours cut by an hour after a series of stabbings, armed robberies and large-scale fights in its vicinity. A licensing sub-committee has ordered it to close at 4am at weekends and 3am during the week. greenwichwire.co.uk/2025/09/03/s...

The Duke of Greenwich pub is closing later this month after failing to agree terms with its landlord. The pub, which was formerly known as the Vanbrugh, had been at the centre of a long-running planning dispute over building a house behind its beer garden. greenwichwire.co.uk/2025/09/03/d...

Art lovers will get a chance to support local painters, ceramicists, sculptors, and designers this month when Greenwich Open Studios returns over two weekends. greenwichwire.co.uk/2025/09/02/g...

There will be no Docklands Light Railway service for two days next week, while the Tube faces almost a week of disruption because of separate RMT strikes. Tube disruption and rail engineering works will also affect The Big Half half-marathon on Sunday. greenwichwire.co.uk/2025/09/02/d...

Not sure this would be considered a good idea nowadays #ott #offtopictuesday

Woolwich Works will be throwing open its doors for the Heritage Open Days festival later this month, with tours, talks and activities about the history of the Royal Arsenal and of Woolwich itself

Major plans that would change the face of New Cross have been submitted: knocking down shops and a 1950s council estate and replacing them with 278 new homes. The scheme has been controversial, but Lewisham Council says it is "regeneration done right". greenwichwire.co.uk/2025/08/29/a...

TfL has released photos of the work to replace the escalators at Cutty Sark DLR station, which closed in May. Two of the old escalators have already been removed - two more to go....

Reform UK picked a dead woman to run in next year’s Croydon mayoral election, @insidecroydon.bsky.social reports insidecroydon.com/2025/08/27/f...

The London Fire Brigade has issued a warning after four hectares of Woolwich Common were damaged in a fire on bank holiday Monday.

A Greenwich Council-backed developer has applied to build 45 new homes across two sites: a dilapidated office block near Woolwich Barracks and land left over after the closure of Abbey Wood School. greenwichwire.co.uk/2025/08/26/m...

Greenwich Council borrowed more than £900 for every resident of the borough in the last financial year – the second biggest per-head debt increase in the country. The borough’s debt went up by 57 per cent in a year, a BBC investigation found. greenwichwire.co.uk/2025/08/26/g...

Cats and kittens from across the UK will descend on the University of Greenwich's Avery Hill campus this weekend to compete for the title of best in show.

Greenwich Council borrowed more than £900 for every resident of the borough in the last financial year – the second biggest per-head debt increase in the country. The borough’s debt went up by 57 per cent in a year, a BBC investigation found. greenwichwire.co.uk/2025/08/26/g...