It's almost September again but never fear, London's putting on a last flurry of events, activities and happenings before the nights draw in and we're all invited. Here's my weekend-by-weekend guide to free September delights. (I've also included this weekend because the bank holiday was early so it feels quite Septembery already) All month Totally Thames (Sep 1-30): Once again a whole month of river-focused events, most ticketed, ranging from art to walks to virtual talks to a folksong singalong. Thankfully the website's events section is easier to scroll through these days, but I don't see many big highlights this year. Lambeth Heritage Festival (Sep 1-30): Dozens of free talks, guided walks and openings across the borough (plus a proper 32-page brochure to flick through, bliss). Hats off to whoever organises this every year. If you live locally you should definitely take a look. Weekend 0: August 30/31 Greenwich+Docklands International Festival (22 Aug - 6 Sep): This significant splurge of spectacular performances delivers artistic wonders annually. To see what's going on it's probably best to download the brochure. This weekend it's all about acrobatics in North Greenwich (1-5pm, both days). Creative Mile (Sat, Sun): Art in venues across Brentford, a full mile from the canal basin to the Steam Museum. Angel Canal Festival (Sun, 11-4): Waterside gaiety beside City Road Lock, now in its fourth decade. The Mayor of Islington usually arrives by narrowboat. I went in 2023. Brentford Festival (Sun, 12-6): Live tunes, stalls, vintage vehicles and the obligatory dog show in Blondin Park W5. Now in its 20th anniversary year. I went in 2023. Weekend 1: September 6/7 Greenwich+Docklands International Festival (Fri, Sat): On this final weekend it's waterborne theatre in Thamesmead and a heck of a lot of dancing in Stratford (Saturday affternoon only). Leytonstone Festival (Sat, Sun): Local performers - mostly actors and musicians - perform across E11 across the next week. The opening event is at St John's church. Includes Hitchcock screenings. St Katharine Docks Classic Boat Festival (Sat, Sun): Annual gathering of small boats near Tower Bridge, including Dunkirk Little Ships, dockside entertainment, opportunities to go on board and yachting celebrity Tom Cunliffe. Black on the Square (Sat, from 12): The Mayor's latest culturally-themed Trafalgar Square takeover, now in its third year. Performers include Janet Kay and DJ Wookie. Croxfest (Sat from noon): OK this one's not quite in London, but where else are you going to hear The Elastic Cats, Talk in Code, The Peppered Aces and Nothing But A Good Time other than on the Green in Croxley? Thames Barrier Closure (Sun, 7.15am-5.15pm): The annual all-day check that the gates still work. The spectacular bit is when the gates go into overspill around noon. Weekend 2: September 13/14 Open House London (this weekend and next): The grand-daddy of architectural festivals, with hundreds of weird and wonderful buildings throwing open their doors across the capital for two weekends. The online calendar currently includes 808 properties, over 500 of which are "just turn up". It's quite central-London-centric this year (5 in Havering but 80 in Westminster), although I always think the outer boroughs have some of the genuine treasures. It's possible to search by date, borough, event type and map location and also to filter out events that need pre-booking. As ever there's far too much to choose from, but if you need inspiration here are my reports from 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023 and 2024. Be there or regret it for the subsequent 51 weeks. Heritage Open Days (Fri - next Sun): In an awkward overlap, the nationwide opening-up of historic buildings coincides with Open House this year. 87 are in the capital, including sculpturetastic Dorich House, E3's House Mill and tours of Woolwich Works (many appear in the Open House listings too). London Design Festival (continues next weekend): Hundreds of design-er events, many aimed at "the trade" but others more public-focused. The online programme is so diffuse I have already waved the white flag and surrendered. Step Inside 25 Weekend (Sat, Sun): Somerset House celebrates 25 years of public opening with an entire weekend of free events, including artists' studios, large-scale sculpture and pop-up basketball. Thames Tidefest (Sun, 10-5): River-based activities scattered between Brentford and Chiswick, with a particular marquee-focus at Strand-on-the-Green, W4. Markfield Road Festival (Sat, Sun): Art, DJs and a carnival procession, spilling out into the streets up N15 way. Hampton Court Open Gardens (Sat, Sun): One of half a dozen opportunities annually to explore the palace's historic grounds for free. Scadbury Open Weekend (Sat, Sun, 2-5): Archaeological excavations at the moated medieval manor house near the Sidcup bypass. I went in 2022 and I enjoyed. Route 54 Heritage Event (Sat, 10-5): Free vintage bus rides along route 54 in Lewisham and Bromley, and not just for People Who Like Buses. (yes there is far far too much going on this weekend, they should spread it out better) Weekend 3: September 20/21 Open House London: Weekend two Heritage Open Days Weekend two Bermondsey Street Festival (Sat, 11-7): A designery "village fête", plus the obligatory dog show, plus curated live music, plus food and stalls. The Great River Race (Sat from 10.15am): 300 craft engage in a spectacular paddle up the Thames from Docklands to Richmond. Peckham Festival (Sat, Sun): Since 2016 a celebration of creative Peckham, with food amidst the art, music and fashion. Japan Matsuri (Sun, 10-8): Trafalgar Square once again hosts a day of all things Japanese, including mass drumming, kendo, anime and okonomiyaki. Chiswick House Dog Show (Sun, 11-4.15): With a theme of The Great British Bark Off, celebrity judges give the hounds of W4 the runaround. Weekend 4: September 27/28 Chelsea Physic Garden Open Weekend (Sat, Sun): Annual freebie at London’s oldest botanic garden as part of the Chelsea Festival. Woolmen’s Sheep Drive and Wool Fair (Sun, 10-4): The celeb leading this year's first tranche over Southwark Bridge will be revealed shortly, but they'll do well to beat Mary Berry or Michael Portillo. Come too for wool-related trade stalls and lamb burgers. Liberty Festival (Wed-Sun): Wandsworth are hosting this year because they're the Borough of Culture. The programme of disability artists peaks on Sunday afternoon with a picnic in Battersea Park.

30 things we learnt from TfL FoI requests in August 2025 1) There are approximately 2,620 trips per weekday on route 310. Of these 59% are made exclusively on the section between Finsbury Park and Golders Green, 26% are made exclusively on the section between Stamford Hill and Finsbury Park, and only 15% are made between these two sections. 2) 64½% of violent crime on the Underground takes places at stations, 32% on trains and the remaining 3½% occurs lineside. 3) During the last financial year TfL earned £352,804.01 from brand licensing (down from over £400,000 in the two previous years). 4) The strap hangers, grab poles and handrails on the new Piccadilly line trains will all be blue. 5) The charging sockets on the new Piccadilly line trains will be USB-A, but the front plate with the plugs is designed to be replaced should a decision be made in the future to change the port type. 6) TfL produced 40,000 pin badges as part of celebrations for their 25th anniversary. The total cost was £23,965 +VAT. This was covered through the normal Employee Communications budget. 7) From 2nd February passengers using contactless to pay for travel from Sevenoaks to zone 1 stations were overcharged during the evening peak. TfL were made aware of the error on 20th February and fixed it on 8th June. 8) Only seven new DLR trains have been delivered to Beckton depot. The delivery dates were 13/01/23, 06/03/23, 11/12/23, 27/08/24, 19/05/25, 17/06/25 and 01/07/25. 47 trains are yet to arrive. 9) Last year 155 complaints were submitted about buses being too hot. This represents 0.0000086% of all bus journeys. 10) Since 2020 there have been four murders on TfL trains/stations and six homicides on buses. 11) ‘Harlequin’ was on the initial long list for what eventually became the Lioness line. However it did not meet the agreed criteria for choosing a name so was not considered beyond the early stages. 12) The new accessible car park at Ickenham station cost approximately £1.4m. It provides three accessible spaces. 13) There are currently 382,737 active 60+ Oyster photocard cardholders. 119,735 new cards were issued in the financial year 2024/25. TfL estimate that £84m of revenue was foregone during the financial year 2023/24. 14) TfL is actively working with the Rail Delivery Group and Great British Railways to ensure that barcode tickets can be accepted in the future. However this would require a significant programme of work and there is no scheduled timeline at present. 15) Since March TfL has received 8 complaints about the withdrawal of the One Day Bus & Tram Pass, two from the same person. 16) The headcount of TfL's FOI Case Management Team is 10 (up from 8 two years ago). 17) Three Elizabeth line trains have been named. They are Heidi Alexander, Andy Byford and Jorge Ortega. 18) The most-used cycle hire docking station, by a considerable margin, is at Hyde Park Corner. The top 10 are all in Hyde Park or Kensington Gardens apart from 4) Podium, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, 7) Ackroyd Drive, Bow and 8) Maplin Street, Mile End. 19) Northbound buses on route 108 continue not to serve bus stops MU and MV on Tunnel Avenue as the requirement for reinstatement has not been confirmed. 20) There are 699 yellow box junctions on the TfL London Road Network. 21) There are no plans to add bilingual roundels at Whitechapel. 22) The three TfL modes using the most electricity last year were the Underground (£1,184,087,953), the Elizabeth line (£310,777,031) and the Overground (£182,437,992). 23) No refurbished Central line trains have entered service this year. Only two have been refurbished since 2023. The deadline to refurbish the other 80 remains 2029, somehow. 24) The seven roles reporting to the Director of Buses are Head of Bus Performance Delivery, Head of Bus Performance Management, Head of Bus Service Delivery, Head of Bus Tendering and Evaluation, Head of Buses Business Development, Head of Monitoring and Implementation, and Head of On Demand Transport & Victoria Coach Station. 25) If you start your request "Hey TfL, You're probably aware of how enthusiastic I am regarding maps" and then ask eight long-winded questions, you will get no useful response. 26) The presence of CCTV has been shown to have little impact on women's safety perceptions at bus shelters. However 73% of women said they'd be more likely to travel by bus in London if CCTV were installed at the bus shelters they use. 27) Work on replacing the glass canopy at Canning Town bus station is due to begin on 15th September and continue until December. 28) If you'd like a zip file containing 25 pocket tube maps from 2000-2009, look here. 29) If you'd like a zip file containing the new tube carriage diagrams, including the new Overground line names, look here. 30) There is no need to ask "how muvh TFL spent to repaint the overground trains in rainbows and pictures of diversity and inclusion" because they answered last year and they spent nothing.

45 45 Squared 30) CARRINGTON SQUARE, HA3 Borough of Harrow, 40m×15m We've got to do this one so let's get it over and done with. only two squares in Harrow. One is private within the luxury gated enclave at Bentley Priory and the other is in Harrow Weald. So Carrington Square it is. There is nothing interesting about Carrington Square, as I shall now demonstrate with the following list 10 uninteresting things about Carrington Square 1) I have no idea why it's called Carrington Square, although it was built on the site of a former builder's yard and maybe they were called Carringtons. 2) The Green Belt begins just over the back fence. 3) The speed limit in Carrington Square is 30mph, although if you ever tried to drive at 30mph within the bounds of the square you would undoubtedly crash horribly. 4) Carrington Square is lit by four lampposts. 5) Harrow footpath number 30 passes the backs of the higher-numbered houses on Carrington Square on its way to Brooks Hill (via footpath number 28). 6) Carrington Square is 250 feet above sea level (about 76 metres), so is intrinsically safe from rising sea levels. 7) It felt a Neighbourhood Watchy kind of place, but thankfully I got lucky on my minute-long recce by slipping in just after two vaping dogwalkers had left and slipping out just before a stern-looking granny returned from her constitutional. 8) Carrington Square backs onto one of the new artificial sports pitches at the Bannister Sports Centre. This is named after Harrow-born miler Sir Roger Bannister (although he grew up miles away in West Harrow). 9) The nearest coffee outlet to Carrington Square is the Costa machine in the reception at Jurassic Golf, the dinosaur-packed attraction less than five minutes up the road. 10) Carrington Square is the only Carrington Square in England, there are no others.

TfL launched a new campaign this week encouraging passengers to wear headphones on public transport when watching/listening to content or making calls. "Be considerate towards others" is the message, given that the majority of people find loud music and two-sided calls a right nuisance. But how will a few posters on trains actually help? I saw this poster on the Metropolitan line, but the perpetrators likely never will. 10 ways the new 'headphones on' campaign might work 1) When you hear a noisy device, point at the poster and the owner will surely react instantly. 2) When you hear a noisy device, walk over to the poster, remove it from the frame and wave it in the face of the miscreant. 3) The new campaign will coalesce public attitudes, emboldening the collective mindset and making loud noise socially unacceptable. 4) The oblivious millennial who would have sat opposite you next week playing random TikTok reels instead sees the poster, changes their behaviour and heads to the local public library for a good book instead. 5) If everyone on London's transport wears headphones all the time, nobody will hear any noisy phones anyway. 6) The 5 people who win noise-cancelling headphones in TfL's new Instagram giveaway turn out to be London's five most prolific noisemakers and the issue fades away almost overnight. 7) There are no on-board announcements associated with this campaign, which has singlehandedly made carriages less noisy. 8) TfL could buy up all the advertising space on TikTok with a campaign commercial that has no soundtrack. 9) The travelling public, galvanised by this campaign, will lynch anyone they catch playing tinny music out loud. 10) Everyone immediately stops using speakerphone to make sure TfL never run a campaign as trite as this ever again. 10 better ways to stop noise on public transport 1) Withdraw the Zip cards of any youngster who insists on moshing to MC Topkiller at full volume. 2) Refund the fare of anyone who snitches on a phone-blarer. 3) Rename the Elizabeth line the Headphones On line. 4) When Londoners get their 60+ Oyster card, include a pair of headphones in the envelope because it's the oldies who are the most transgressive. 5) All train journeys must be conducted in total silence. Bliss. 6) Introduce quiet carriages on the tube, because that works so well on trains right? 7) Force headphone dodgers to do community service (ideally removing graffiti from Central line trains). 8) Fine anyone whose digital racket exceeds 70 decibels. £1000 a time should do it. This includes TfL's "see it say it sorted" announcements, which may swiftly bankrupt them. 9) Force smartphone manufacturers to reintroduce a headphone socket. 10) Switch off all the 4G and 5G connections nobody wanted underground anyway.

London's Worst Bus Route 375: Chase Cross to Passingford Bridge Location: Outer London south Length of journey: 4½ miles, 15 minutes 375 is one of TfL's least frequent and least used bus routes. It exists to connect the village of Havering-atte-Bower to urban London, specifically Romford, and is their only public transport link to shops and a station. The Essex village of Stapleford Abbotts benefits too, this because buses have to continue almost to the M25 before turning round, Passingford Bridge being the site of the first roundabout across the border. This means the tip of the route is over 3 miles from any other TfL service, so if the every-90-minutes bus doesn't turn up you are royally stuffed. This is not why the 375 has become London's most balls-uppingly bad bus route. traffic closures are causing enormous disruption. The 375 goes nowhere near Gallows Corner - always at least two miles distant - and yet for some reason TfL have decided to curtail the route so it no longer serves Romford town centre. They first intended to do this in June, sticking up numerous posters warning passengers that the route would be starting at Chase Cross, then silently changed their mind. However last weekend they finally put the curtailment plan into action, the intention being that this much shorter 375 will continue to operate until the end of September. And now you can't catch the 375 in Romford, you have to catch it 2½ miles up the road, which is effectively the limit of TfL's advice to residents. Part 1: London's Worst Bus Route - northbound Also the yellow poster fails to explain where to change buses. 'Chase Cross' covers a fairly broad area north of the A12, and officially it's a crossroads the 175 doesn't actually serve. Most regular users of the 375 will of course know where the bus goes and aim correctly to change on Chase Cross Road, but anyone less informed might easily alight too early or too late and miss their connection. There are in fact two overlapping bus stops on Chase Cross Road where interchange is possible - Felsted Road and Belle Vue Road - but in the absence of a map or specific instructions who's to know? Also neither stop has a shelter, which when you could be waiting up to 90 minutes is potentially a big fail. The best all-weather option is to alight at Merlin Road and walk 80m round the corner to Avelon Road, or to ignore the 175 completely and catch the 103 instead all the way to its terminus. To test the sudden jeopardy I decided to see what would happen if I just missed a 375, as many people inevitably will. It's another 4½ miles to the end of the route so is it better to wait for 90 minutes or would it be quicker to walk? After half an hour I'd reached the edge of the village and also the edge of London. TfL would rather go no further, it'd mean they could run the bus every hour rather than every hour and a half, but like I said they have to continue because there's nowhere to turn round. That said there were passengers waiting on the other side of the road for the return journey, not just at the last stop in London but also at the first stop in Essex. What was odd, when I checked on Citymapper, was that the returning 375 should have been due but was instead apparently 25 minutes away. This was the first hint that my southbound journey was going to be a timetabling disaster but I didn't know that yet. Stapleford Abbotts goes on a bit - 2½ miles between the signs at each end of the village - although most people live towards the southern end. They boast a village shop, also a pub which doubles up as cafe and takeaway, also a school although that's quite a hike up the road. I hiked up the road, getting unexpectedly drenched when the earlier sunshine turned into a 20 minute shower. The returning 375 finally passed while I was sheltering under an overhanging tree, 27 minutes later than the timetable at the nearest stop suggested. I continued north past a surprising amount of housing infill, typically gated bungalows or clusters of detached fourbedders, also a few NIMBY signs saying the village can't sustain a few dozen new homes. The Rabbits, a popular pub serving an immediate population of about 20, beyond which one last downhill stretch took me to the Passingford Bridge roundabout. The former ford and current bridge are crossings of the River Roding, in case you were wondering. Here I found the 375's last stop out and its first stop back, so smiled because I had indeed beaten the bus. It turned up five minutes later, disgorging zero passengers into the middle of nowhere, and I smiled again because the ride home would be so much easier. And that's where I was wrong. Part 2: London's Worst Bus Route - southbound My previous assumption, based on everything I'd seen online, was that the normal 375 timetable would have been retained with the Romford end chopped off. People round here know the timetable inside out, thus they know to turn up at one of the nine times a day the bus actually runs. It would therefore have made sense to run it to time, i.e. to have the driver sit around at Chase Cross for the best part of an hour so that normal headway could be maintained. Instead it seemed some moron had tweaked things so that the longest wait was at Passingford Bridge, and then some other moron had decided not to print any new timetables. Even the so-called Timetables page on the TfL website still shows last week's timetable, not the new abomination the buses are running to now. Normal timetable Passingford Bridge (arr)07:0908:4910:2111:5213:2315:1916:3517:5219:17 Passingford Bridge (dep)07:1509:0010:3012:0013:3015:2416:4018:0019:30 Chase Cross07:3209:1710:4612:1613:4615:4016:5618:1619:46 Romford Station07:4909:3411:0012:3014:0015:5517:1018:30 19:58 New timetable Passingford Bridge (arr)07:0908:4910:2111:5213:2315:1916:3517:5219:17 Passingford Bridge (dep)07:5109:2510:5712:2714:2315:4317:0118:2519:30 Chase Cross08:0809:4211:1312:4314:3915:5917:1718:4119:46 I actually walked for over an hour, all the way back into Greater London, before the returning 375 finally caught up. Along the way I passed two people waiting patiently at remote bus stops thinking the bus would be along imminently, as timetabled, but instead it was faffing at the terminus for no good reason. One was aboard the bus when I finally boarded and one had plainly given up and gone home, and who could blame him? This is why I'm claiming the 375 is London's new worst bus route, because someone's changed the timetable without telling any of the passengers, and you really shouldn't do that with a bus that runs every hour and a half unless you're an institutional sadist. I should also say that the driver asked me to tell you this. She suggested sharing the news of the appalling new timetable with local residents, perhaps on Facebook, and getting as many people to complain to TfL as possible. She had no idea I write a blog people at TfL actually read, indeed last time I blogged about the ineptitude of the changes one manager emailed to thank me for "highlighting the inconsistency in the 375 publicity/service operation". It's ten times worse now, inadequately explained and leaving pensioners by the wayside, and all because nobody gives a damn about the residents of outer Havering. Let's hope somebody official works out what the temporary timetable really is, prints it out and tells people what's actually going on, else the 375 will remain London's most unnecessarily awful bus route until October.