The man who sat on top of a lamppost for six hours
Plus: A £700,000 home in a converted garage in Hackney, how to quickly stop illegal fundraisers in London, what happened to steak prices, and more shenanigans in London Labour.
Thanks to everyone who got in touch following Tuesday’s investigation into tax evasion by some of London’s gift shops, especially all the readers based in HMRC and parliament. Our objective was to explain what’s really going on with the shops and break down some of the myths — not least the idea that the shops don’t actually bring in a lot of money.
One reader joked that lots of London Centric investigations have a similar theme: “Why is this inexplicable thing in London like this? Lax rules are being exploited. Government is doing nothing to enforce them”.
But while other news outlets make a profit from talking the capital down, we will never enter a doomster decline spiral about the city. We think London is a great place. Yes, there are many flaws and things that need fixing and we’ll continue to point them out. Yet when we do highlight the problems, the aim of our journalism is to enable people to better understand why their city is the way it is — and help them demand the fixes to make London even better.
Scroll down to read today’s story about the anti-LTN campaigner who found himself in court after spending six hours on top of a lamppost swearing at police — and what his radicalisation says about the future of politics, media, and protest in the capital.
High steaks in London’s restaurant world
London Centric was contacted by multiple readers horrified (and hungry) after a recent menu change at Piccadilly Circus staple Brasserie Zédel, where a fan-favourite steak was cut from the set menu.
Steak Haché has been an affordable eat-in stalwart on the prix fixe menu since the restaurant opened over a decade ago, described as "cheaper than a Five Guys or six luxury yoghurts from M&S" by the Good Food Guide. Even earlier this year, two courses including the steak still cost just £16.95 for a sit down meal, a comparative bargain in central London that was the restaurant’s “best seller by far”.
But inflation seems to have finally hit. In a set menu change at the start of the month, the dish was replaced by dhal or coq au vin, and relegated to the à la carte menu at a higher price. "Maybe they wanted something new," mused a waiter at the restaurant when we visited this week.
Soaring beef prices might also have something to do with it — or business beef. Zédel’s founders Chris Corbin and Jeremy King were ousted from their restaurant group in 2022 after a bitter dispute with new owner Minor International, a Thai hospitality group. Some fans feel it hasn’t been the same since.
How to stop London’s illegal fundraisers with this one weird trick
Change could be on the way following last week’s London Centric investigation into the lawbreaking “fundraisers” who make millions of pounds by standing outside stations, exploiting a loophole designed to enable the sale of newspapers.
This week a coalition of councils, police forces, and regulators have asked for three simple changes to the law that they believe could quickly force the likes of Inside Success or WeRBlighty off the streets of London.
The Fundraising Regulator, the Local Government Association, the Metropolitan Police, the Institute of Licensing, and the City of London Corporation are asking the central government to:
Increase the maximum fine for unlicensed fundraising from the current £200 to an unlimited financial penalty with the option of a custodial sentence.
Introduce fixed penalty notices to allow local authorities to issue fines on the spot outside stations and on high streets without having to repeatedly take the groups to court.
Extend the law to cover offences by company directors, to prevent individuals avoiding penalties by continually relaunching “fundraising” organisations under new names.
As we reported, although Inside Success gives the appearance of being an anti-knife crime charity, legitimate knife crime charities despair at its work — which mainly consists of employing young people to stand outside stations and raise more money.
A government spokesperson told London Centric they would consider the proposals and “provide a full response in due course”.
Preposterous property of the week
This is your chance to live in a converted garage in Hackney for £700,000. The narrow two-bedroom house was built in the early part of the 2010s using the shell of a lean-to corrugated iron shack, as can still be seen on Google Street View from before the development took place. The converted garage was originally sold for £320,000, with the list price more than doubling in the last decade.
There’s no garden but you’ve got a log burner for the cold winter evenings and you’re a few minutes walk from Newington Green, where you can admire the much-discussed statue of Mary Wollstonecraft.
Other things to know:
The Docklands Light Railway service has been slashed due to bodged and long overdue introduction of new trains.
More London Labour councillors have defected to the Greens, a theme that you can expect to see more of in the run-up to next year’s local elections, amid grumblings about lack of central government spending on the capital and the war in Gaza.
Talking of which, London Centric has seen a letter to councillors in Southwark from a group of unions warning that left-wing Labour candidates in the capital are “being targeted by the Labour party machine on contrived grounds”. Left-wing Labour councillor James McAsh was originally elected leader of the south London council earlier this month, only to have the result overturned on a procedural point, clearing the way for a more centrist candidate to take control. Unison, GMB, and Unite are collectively urging Southwark councillors to “do everything in your power to ensure the assault on local party democracy is over-turned and confidence in local democracy is restored”.
London Centric’s reporting is funded by paying subscribers who want to take a stand against clickbait local journalism. Thank you to everyone who makes this possible — new subscribers can join now for 25% off and receive members-only stories, such as today’s investigation.
London Centric Investigates: The Wimbledon LTN that became a battleground for conspiracy theorists
By Rachel Rees
On Monday, at Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court, a window cleaner called Thomas Bedford was convicted of criminal damage and a public order offence after protesting against the introduction of a Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) near his southwest London home.
In March Bedford scaled a lamppost beside the LTN and sat on top of it for six hours. While up there he asked police negotiators for an ice cream, falsely claimed he might have razor blades on him, and screamed “Fuck Sadiq Khan, fuck the C40 cities, fuck surveillance, fuck the censorship”. (The C40 cities are a global network of major city mayors aimed at tackling climate change.) He was also convicted of criminal damage for covering the LTN’s numberplate recognition camera with a bin bag.
The 30-year-old had entered a not guilty plea but three magistrates concluded otherwise after a trial. One of Bedford’s supporters in court, who described himself as Bedford’s “unofficial legal advisor”, was overheard delivering some frank words to his friend after his conviction: “Can I give you a bit of advice for next time? Don’t film yourself doing it.”
The court heard Bedford has 15 previous convictions, including for assaulting an emergency worker in Cornwall in 2022. London Centric has been following this particular case for months, because his lamppost sit-in occupies an intersection of media, politics and protest that is quietly gaining influence in the capital.
Bedford is the admin of a large neighbourhood Facebook group that gives him the sort of influence over local politics in Merton that used to be the prerogative of the local newspaper editor – his vocal frustrations are rewarded by the algorithm with a greater audience of fellow residents. Many others in the group, he found, shared his anger over the road closures that the council had brought in to encourage people to walk and cycle more and increased journey times for many drivers.
The type of direct action that landed him in court, filmed and uploaded to short-form video sites such as TikTok and Instagram Reels, is being used by everyone from potential Conservative leader Robert Jenrick to vigilante tube cleaners. As traditional media consumption continues to decline, it is these viral clips that are increasingly shaping Londoners’ views of what’s going on in their own city.
What’s more, Bedford’s political journey doesn’t run through any of the traditional party structures, instead rapidly developing from his opposition to a single LTN into a mix of deep conspiratorial thinking about a new world order, influenced by the ‘Bladerunners’ who attacked cameras introduced by Sadiq Khan as part of London’s Ultra-Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ). The attention Bedford receives online seems to give a deep meaning to his life; he was delighted to find we were in court and writing this piece.
This is a story about how a southwest London LTN led a man previously uninterested in politics down a online rabbit hole – and became a stormy battleground that sucked in anti-ULEZ activists, a hardline vicar, flat-earthers, and people quoting the Magna Carta to defy modern law enforcement.
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