London's newest open space

It’s rare for London to get physically bigger. But that’s what happened last week, when the Bazalgette Embankment quietly opened — giving Londoners access to three acres of land that has been reclaimed from the River Thames.

On Tuesday afternoon I walked along it with Clare Donnelly, the architect who helped design the capital’s newest public space. She explained how it took 17 years of work to get to this stage, how her team managed to turn the lid of a giant sewer into a place people will want to visit on a summer’s day, and the little details to look out for when you visit.

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We’ve got an investigation coming this weekend that has taken us months of work and cost thousands of pounds. If you’re able to become a paying member, it’s really appreciated — your money goes straight into helping us conduct ambitious reporting into what’s really going on in the capital.

Christmas in late January

Parts of London are still suffering from a festive hangover, as Christmas trees are left to litter the streets. One of the problems is that councils have cut back on free tree collections in recent years as local authority budgets have tightened — but it seems residents haven’t noticed. And as one reader pointed out, it’s easy to get a netted Christmas tree home without a car — but quite hard to get it to a recycling centre at the end of the festive period.

One of those councils that no longer collects trees for free is Hackney, turning some east London streets into a decaying forest. Sarah Young, Hackney’s cabinet member for climate change, environment and transport, told London Centric that the “vast majority” of the residents are recycling their Christmas trees responsibly, “with over 6,938 households subscribing to the garden waste service, which is more than the previous year”.

She said the council had communicated with residents before Christmas about the range of options available for ”responsible disposal,” and that residents were encouraged to “borrow a potted tree” or “invest in their own so that they can bring it indoors year after year”.

London Standard to merge with Independent

The London Standard is to merge its online operations with The Independent, with all existing staff offered voluntary redundancy. The news was first revealed by Dan Thomas at the Financial Times, whose report