The Time Out London blog team

Living in London, it’s fun to dream about what sort of grand property you would live in if money were no object. We now have another very swanky home for your daydreams, because the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has revealed its House of the Year for 2025. One London building was on the HOTY shortlist, making it the de facto best house in London for the past year.  Clinching the title for London was the ‘Chelsea Brut’ by Pricegore Architects. The minimalist’s dream home is an extension, refurbishment and retrofit of a four-storey 1960s townhouse in a dense part of west central London.  The house, which was unveiled in a special episode of Grand Designs, features a sleek grey brick façade, while its inside has been stripped back to its structure, also finished in grey using raw materials like lime plaster, lime slurry and clay-block floors. Photograph: Johan Dehlin / RIBA / Pricegore Architects When renovating the house, the architects were overjoyed to discover the foundations were 1.5 metres lower than the existing floor level, which allowed them to lower the ground and create a kitchen, dining and living space with 3.5-metre ceilings.  Chelsea Brut also features a small ‘oasis’ garden at the back, as well as a lust planted roof that sits atop the extension. On the second floor, the posh digs has a film room which doubles up as a spare bedroom, while the house’s previous five bedrooms on the top floor have been converted into three larger bedrooms.  ...

Londoners take a lot of flights. Not only was Heathrow this year named the most-connected flight terminal on the planet, but vast expansions have been approved for Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, and Luton. Now the world’s busiest flight routes for the past year have been revealed, and one is in London.  Aviation data platform OAG has revealed the most well-trodden airline routes around the world for 2025.  It turns out that Londoners couldn’t get enough of the Big Apple this year, and vice versa, because one of the most-frequented cross-border journeys on the planet was from London Heathrow (LHR) to New York JFK.  The LHR to JFK route saw 3,971,000 bums on seats throughout 2025, making it the world’s 10th most popular journey. London to New York also ranked 10th globally in 2024, and its popularity has increased by 4 percent since 2019.  According to OAG, the route had the highest one-way economy fare in the top 10 at an average of $585 (£432.74). The fare has increased by two percent year-on-year, with five carriers operating the route. The Big Smoke to the Big Apple was the only flight path in the top 10 outside of the Middle East and Asia.  Hong Kong to Taipei was the world’s most-used cross-border flight route in 2025, followed by Cairo to Jeddah, Kuala Lumpur to Singapore Changi and Seoul Incheon to Tokyo Narita in second to fourth, respectively.  The world’s longest flight will launch from London in 2027.  First look: inside the huge revamp of a Northern line station...

One of London’s most famous museums is dusting off the keys to old rooms that haven’t been seen by the public for decades.  The Natural History Museum in South Kensington plans to open two spaces, one of which hasn’t been seen by visitors since World War II. The aptly named Old General Herbarium has not been seen by Londoners since 1948 and is set to launch in 2026 as a pop-up Hidden Histories gallery. Origins gallery, which has been shut since 2004, will also reopen as a ‘Land and Air gallery’ sometime before the institution’s 150th birthday in 2031. Both spaces currently house some of the museum’s huge behind-the-scenes collection. But to get the rooms ready will require a serious logistical battle and the transfer of millions of specimens, from tiny beetles to fossils. As reported in the Times, the NHM has 80 million specimens, and for every taxidermied animal you see on display, there are at least 3,000 more specimens in storage.  Around 38 million specimens are set to move next year, some within the South Ken building and others will be moved to the Thames Valley Science Park, a multimillion-pound research centre near Reading. The man behind the plans is Doug Gurr, who’s been director of the Natural History Museum since 2020. He has set the ambitious target to keep updating the institution by introducing ‘one new thing a year’ until 2031, the Times reported. The reopenings are tied to the museum’s NHM Unlocked programme, which is backed by government funding and...