Together with @jim.londoncentric.media, I spent a day trying to track down the Londoner running gift shops that recently burned down in Scotland. It was a quest that took me from Wood Green to Dagenham, and left me with more questions than answers www.londoncentric.media/p/edinburgh-...

On the trail of a London gift shop owner

Plus: "Vertical drinking" politics • Robocop comes to Greggs • Robotaxis controlled by humans • London's festivals-in-parks mess

londoncentric.media

I spent yesterday knocking on doors in Britannia Point, a very hot glass-fronted tower block in Colliers Wood, trying to understand how private tenants had access to air conditioning when those in temporary accommodation didn't – give the piece a read

Jim Waterson@jim.londoncentric.media · 2w ago

You’ve probably seen @peterwalker99.bsky.social’s story on the London flats where the temporary accommodation residents had their air con turned off in a heatwave; we had a look at what’s going on and who is responsible. www.londoncentric.media/p/air-condit...

Had a great time working on this with @jim.londoncentric.media - a story that took me to multiple courts, across East London, and into parts of the internet I’d never strayed before open.substack.com/pub/londonce...

The teenage millionaire hacker from Tower Hamlets who took down TfL

Traced through his takeaway order • Began playing Roblox • Allegedly handled £200m in Crypto • Based in his family flat near Bow Road station • One of the country's leading hackers

open.substack.com

Absolutely delighted to have won an Orwell prize for reporting homelessness and come runner-up for exposing Britain’s social evils! London Centric is a tiny team, so seeing our stories get recognition is wonderful and wild. Thanks as always to my truly wonderful editor @jim.londoncentric.media

Brixton Market, private equity threats, and can you raise £15m in 72 hours for a leveraged community takeover? www.londoncentric.media/p/brixton-ma...

What's really going on at Brixton Market?

The rush to raise £15m by Monday • London's indoor markets are facing fresh challenges • Who's actually wanting to buy it?

londoncentric.media

A Restore Britain spokesperson went viral claiming a London school left a pupil in tears after her ham sandwich was confiscated due to the school's ban on park. She challenged doubters to phone the school. So @kdenkwrites.com did. This is what she found: www.londoncentric.media/i/193542671/...

Leaked messages show how Lime has quietly removed speed restrictions in London's parks and pedestrian areas for Deliveroo riders in a bid to win them over to its service. www.londoncentric.media/p/lime-bike-...

Lime axes speed limits for Deliveroo riders

Plus: How to end the tube strikes • Did a London school really ban ham sandwiches? • Who's reclaiming lost sex toys from TfL? • Was a Waymo really lost on Waterloo Bridge?

londoncentric.media

Air-to-air heat pumps, fights at the lido, and West End strikes – here's a mid-week London Centric edition for anybody still able to read in this heat www.londoncentric.media/p/london-hea...

London's air con era is here

Plus: Kid's Meal Summer is coming to London • Petition to save a restaurant that doesn't want saving • A Wicked strike • The £5.5m London home for people who want to slide into their private cinema

londoncentric.media

🚨NEW: the RMT has called off this week's planned tube strikes A union spokesperson said: "At the 11th hour the employer has shifted its position allowing us to further explore our members concerns around the imposition of new rosters" New strike dates have been announced for 2 June and 4 June

As part of the 2.5 journalists in a trenchcoat, I'm delighted that our work is up for two Orwell Prizes

Jim Waterson@jim.londoncentric.media · 3mo ago

a proud day at London "2.5 journalists in a trenchcoat" Centric towers! www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-f...

What do the local election results mean for London? @jim.londoncentric.media and I broke down who won, what will actually change, as well as things you might have missed open.substack.com/pub/londonce...

How the elections will change London

Who won, what will they do in your local area, and what does this mean for Sadiq Khan?

open.substack.com

Reform UK expels London election candidates on eve of poll after London Centric uncovers them as ex-BNP members. www.londoncentric.media/p/reform-lon...

Reform candidates were BNP members

Plus: When you'll know the election results, where Labour is playing defence, the Extinction Rebellion founder backing candidates in Lambeth, and the Reform MP still urging people to vote Tory.

londoncentric.media

Very happy dipping my toe back in the union world - I drilled down into what today’s strike action was actually about

Jim Waterson@jim.londoncentric.media · 4mo ago

One very helpful thing about working with @pollysmythe.bsky.social, an ex-industrial reporter who actually understands union politics and union rivalries, is you can get a clear-eyed understanding of what the tube strike is actually about. www.londoncentric.media/p/london-loc...

If you read our investigation on the restaurant that ignored more than 20 tribunal judgments & thought "how bad can it get?" then read this amazing piece by @pollysmythe.bsky.social @londoncentric.media about the systematic non-payment of wages in hospitality www.londoncentric.media/p/is-your-co...

Is your coffee being made by an unpaid trial shifter?

Plus: Kanye vs Haringey Council, curious commenters, and the new Lime bike arrives on the streets of London.

londoncentric.media

Emiliano Mellino@mellino.bsky.social · 4mo ago

I’ve spent the last year investigating how the UK's broken employment tribunal system lets rogue bosses evade justice. But this is the craziest case,by far. A restaurant chain that lost 21 tribunal claims over several years, yet never paid a single one🧵 www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2026...

Did the person making your coffee get paid? I looked into how working for free just to be considered for a job is becoming the new normal in the capital, as young people navigate an increasingly brutal hunt for work www.londoncentric.media/i/192962193/...

Is your coffee being made by an unpaid trial shifter?

Plus: Kanye vs Haringey Council, curious commenters, and the new Lime bike arrives on the streets of London.

londoncentric.media

There’s been a lot written about the Clapham chaos this week. It’s probably one of the biggest global news stories about London this year. There’s a lot of emotion and speculation. So we tried to establish the facts and understand what *actually* happened. www.londoncentric.media/p/clapham-ch...

What actually happened in Clapham last week?

Teenagers running riot in an M&S food hall, disorder as a form of content creation, and a global focus on 'petty' crime in London just when the mayor least wants it.

londoncentric.media

Four weeks ago I asked billionaire Asif Aziz's Criterion Capital if they'd been issuing fake electrical safety papers to their tenants. Why? Because when we went door-to-door, we kept noticing the paperwork was curiously identical. And tenants said they'd never seen an electrician. Little thread:

London’s viral video crisis: “London has fallen” content has become so pervasive globally that Sadiq Khan held a meeting with the foreign office and British ambassadors to discuss how to convince foreign investors/tourists to ignore it and come to London. www.londoncentric.media/p/sadiq-khan...

The London viral video crisis

Plus: "Gulf Candy" on Oxford Street, a £4m converted chapel in north London, and we finally get answers from Asif Aziz's Criterion Capital.

londoncentric.media

Reform held its London local election launch tonight in Croydon - speeches from Farage, London mayoral candidate Laila Cunningham, and the newly unveiled Croydon mayoral candidate Ben Flook

I took a trip down to Richmond to get to the bottom of the bizarre economics of temporary accommodation in London - read the piece here

Jim Waterson@jim.londoncentric.media · 5mo ago

We're in a world where a London council is making private renters homeless so it can buy their flats to use as temporary accommodation so it can house Londoners who have been made homeless, sometimes to make way for temporary accommodation (and so on) www.londoncentric.media/i/192109222/...

Asif Aziz’s company in the Guardian, sticking to their line that sending someone a section 21 letter is not an eviction. “More than a third of households who were sent s21 notices had moved, Criterion said: ‘These were tenant-led decisions and we have supported them – they were not evictions.’”

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 5mo ago

Property company denies trying to mass-evict tenants before England’s no-fault evictions ban

from a little publication to PMQs and BBC homepage in a month, London Centric stories get coverage. The issue now is whether coverage is enough for the people who are stuck in limbo at the hands of Asif Aziz's Criterion Capital despite doing nothing wrong. Government quote at end of this is telling.

Dan Sohege@danielsohege.bsky.social · 5mo ago

For press and media officers, this is why it is important to utilise local outlets as well as national. I seem to recall it was down to the fantastic work of @pollysmythe.bsky.social and @jim.londoncentric.media at @londoncentric.media that this story broke initially. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Angela Rayner today decided to directly take on the “incredibly vindictive” landlord Asif Aziz over mass evictions of his tenants. She joined Croydon Labour mayoral candidate Rowenna Davis to say Aziz’s company has acted in a “disgusting and disgraceful” manner and “should not be landlords”.

Wrote about Asif Aziz's Criterion Capital and how landlords are changing strategies - with more evictions and changes in tenancies - ahead of the Renters Rights Act. Building on great reporting by @jim.londoncentric.media @pollysmythe.bsky.social and others as.ft.com/r/97c52505-0...

London landlord begins evictions ahead of new renters’ rights law

[FREE TO READ] Asif Aziz’s Criterion Capital owns several apartment blocks in capital as well as Trocadero centre in Piccadilly

as.ft.com

Sadiq Khan’s letter to Asif Aziz. The mayor met Asif Aziz only last week at an Aziz Foundation charitable event. A week later, Aziz isn’t responding to the mayor.

Breaking: *Asif Aziz's mass evictions of Londoners appear to be BACK ON *Sadiq Khan personally demands immediate response from the landlord *Leading homelessness charity cuts ties with the Aziz family and refuses donation *Questions over legality of paperwork www.londoncentric.media/p/asif-aziz-...

Can Sadiq Khan stop Asif Aziz's mass evictions?

We went to the billionaire's home to get answers, as a leading homelessness charity cut ties with the landlord and tenants begged the mayor to save their homes.

londoncentric.media

On Sunday, @londoncentric.media broke the story that Asif Aziz’s Criterion Capital was undertaking London’s “worst mass eviction in recent history” - after our investigation, hundreds of tenants who received section 21s have now had them rescinded www.londoncentric.media/p/asif-aziz-...

Billionaire halts mass eviction after London Centric investigation

Exclusive: Asif Aziz's Criterion Capital hoped to replace hundreds of tenants with more lucrative temporary accommodation. That plan has been shelved – for now.

londoncentric.media

Sadiq Khan's spokesperson on story: “It is completely unacceptable for Criterion Capital to evict hundreds of people out of their homes due to no fault of their own. The Deputy Mayor for Housing has contacted Criterion to make the Mayor’s position clear and strongly urge them to reconsider."

Jim Waterson@jim.londoncentric.media · 6mo ago

London’s “worst mass eviction in recent history” is underway; hundreds of households across London told to get out of their homes this week by the same landlord, ahead of the renters rights act. The landlord? Billionaire Asif Aziz’s Criterion Capital. www.londoncentric.media/p/asif-aziz-...

I’ve spent the last few days piecing together London’s “worst mass eviction in recent history” along with @jim.londoncentric.media. The landlord responsible? Asif Aziz’s Criterion Capital www.londoncentric.media/p/asif-aziz-...

The billionaire philanthropist making hundreds of Londoners homeless

He's the London philanthropist who says he's committed to solving homelessness. So why is Asif Aziz's Criterion Capital rushing to make hundreds of Londoners homeless in the coming weeks?

londoncentric.media

This started as a single tip about one building but on a hunch we got @pollysmythe.bsky.social to chase around London and check all the Aziz family’s properties. Sometimes she got there just before the eviction notices. The scale of the clearout is enormous – and we don't think we found all of it.