London

    A bus which crashed into the front of a row of houses in in Lewisham, south-east London Residents received an unexpected wake up call today when a bus crashed into the front of a row of houses after careering off-road. The single decker bus came to a halt with its front wheels in the air after becoming wedged on top of a garden wall. Emergency services attended the crash in Vicars Hill in Lewisham, south-east London, shortly before 6.30am and helped the driver and his five passengers off the precariously positioned bus. No injuries were reported, police said. Mike Weston, Transport for London's director of buses, said: "At around 6.30am this morning, a route 484 single deck bus, operated by Abellio, collided with a wall on Vicars Hill near to the junction with Ladywell...

    Heathrow shops decline customers who refuse to show boarding passes Shops should be forced by law to reduce their prices in airports, the retail watchdog has said, as it urged ministers to pass new legislation to end the VAT rip-off. Boots, WH Smith and other stores claim millions in VAT discounts on items sold to passengers travelling outside the EU, but many fail to pass on the 20 per cent saving to customers. The rip-off has drawn criticism from the Government, but Dean Dunham, the retail ombudsman, said nothing would change without further action. "We don't have any powers to make retailers adhere because [passing on the VAT relief] is not law," the head of the dispute arbiter told BBC Radio 4. "The Government needs to make this a law [and] say to the retailers in airp...

    Tower Hamlets Council has announced that an unexploded World War Two bomb has been uncovered at a building site in Bethnal Green – at the junction of Temple Street and Old Bethnal Green Road. The Council has confirmed that the surrounding area is currently cordoned off to pedestrians and traffic. Residents are advised to avoid the area and through traffic is advised to take alternative routes and not plan to go through Bethnal Green. The Council’s Emergency Planning procedure has now kicked into operation to keep residents safe. The Metropolitan Police and London Fire Brigade are working with the Council on this. The Council has set up a rest centre in a local school and has sent a full Rest Centre Team to the school to support the rest centre. The Council promises upd...

People queue for a bus at London's Bus stops as commuters and tourists face a day of travel chaos because of a strike which has closed the underground Commuters faced 200 miles of traffic jams and huge queues for buses as the they battled to get to work with London's entire Tube network shut down for the day. Although 250 extra buses are being laid on by Transport for London, roads were crammed as many people switched to their cars in a bid to get to work on time. Shortly before 9am there were 428 separate traffic jams around the capital - a total of 197 miles of queuing vehicles, according to navigation software makers TomTom. The congestion was double the level of the previous Thursday, but significantly better than during last month's strike when there were 761 miles of jams. The wor...

    Portrait of Queen Elizabeth II by the British photographer Hugo Rittson Thomas, with a technique that involves the use of mirrors to show each sitter from all four sides Photographer Hugo Rittson Thomas has produced a striking quadruple portrait of the Queen - in one picture - and joked how the monarch put him at ease during the shoot. Using mirrors he was able to capture full-length images of the Queen from the front, back and sides, creating a picture reminiscent of Anthony van Dyck's famous triple portrait of Charles I. The Duke of Cambridge and Duchess of Cornwall have also posed for the photographer and all the images will be part of the exhibition The Queen's People, featuring photographs of members of the Royal Household and senior ceremonial figures in their tra...