News: Farewell to the cracked leather

Today the Royal Festival Hall bid farewell to the dusty tapestry, cracked leather seats and general shabbiness as it embarks on an upgrade which will see better facilities and acoustics in 2007 when it reopens.

Central London will be a bit interesting on Saturday as there is the Live 8 in Hyde Park, plus the Pride Festivities in Trafalgar Square and elsewhere. So combined with the sales and a few other events it could be possible that every man and his dog will be out and about on the weekend. Possibly a good place to be seen...