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This beautiful city offers a quieter alternative to the UK’s busiest festive destinations, with a magnificent medieval cathedral, riverside walks and traditional pubs to warm up in.

Christmas markets might put Bath, York and Edinburgh high on your winter travel wish list, but Norwich has plenty to tempt anyone seeking a quieter staycation.

With its medieval landmarks, independent shops and welcoming pubs, the city combines festive atmosphere with opportunities to slow down and explore. Spend a day browsing for gifts, strolling beside the river or admiring the cathedral before settling in somewhere cosy.

Norwich is Britain’s only city located within a national park — one of its major draws.

Norwich was among the leading UK staycation destinations picked by specialists at StressFreeCarRental.com in 2024. The company’s CEO, John Charnock, said: “As the nights draw in and the temperatures plummet, it’s inevitable that many of us start to feel a little down at this time of year.

“The picturesque Broads National Park has miles and miles of footpaths for visitors to truly feel at one with nature and help to keep active. Norwich is a great city to connect with the outdoors and practice ecotherapy.”

Back in the city, Norwich Cathedral is a highlight for visitors drawn to its medieval architecture. Its appeal extends beyond the building itself, with Christmas services, concerts and a light show adding to the festive experience.

On TripAdvisor, one recent visitor to the cathedral said: “Visited early on a Friday morning as the Cathedral was being prepared for the weekend with Flower arrangers busy creating displays. We had a lovely chat with one of the volunteers.

“A lovely building made of Caen Stone. We visited the grave of brave Edith Cavell. There is small gift shop if you wish to purchase something. Beautiful grounds around the building.”

While another recent visitor added: “An outstanding cathedral. Well worth visiting. Entry fee is a suggested £5. Wonderful cloisters and some very interesting and historic graves and monuments. I would definitely go back as there is so much to see.”

For Christmas shopping, Norwich offers a mix of independent retailers and familiar high street names. Its bustling marketplace, shopping centres and Norwich Lanes provide plenty of places to hunt for gifts and keepsakes.

Rather than one huge Christmas market, the city has a collection of smaller festive events showcasing local creativity. There are also multiple Christmas markets and late-night shopping on Thursdays in the run-up to Christmas.

Seasonal lights and decorations brighten the streets, while historic venues including The Assembly House and The Maids Head Hotel add to the celebrations.

When it’s time for a break from browsing, the decorated Norwich Lanes make an inviting setting for a leisurely wander. Alternatively, head out from Norwich railway station for a walk beside the River Wensum.

Along the riverside, sights include Pull’s Ferry, Cow Tower and Norwich Cathedral, with pubs such as the Compleat Angler and The Red Lion offering somewhere to stop for a drink.

For a longer dose of history, try the city’s circular walking route, which follows the Wensum and crosses ancient bridges. Medieval city walls, the imposing castle and churches are among the landmarks to look out for.

Norwich’s oldest pub, The Adam and Eve, is conveniently placed along the route. And after a day spent exploring in the winter air, one of the city’s traditional pubs with a crackling fire could be just the place to finish.

Stalwart bookstores Vroman’s in Pasadena and Book Soup in West Hollywood announced new ownership on Thursday, after a two-year search for a buyer.

Longtime owner Joel Sheldon, whose family has helmed Vroman’s for more than a century, announced his retirement in 2024. At the time, Sheldon said he was looking for “someone who shares our core values and who is committed to preserving Vroman’s as a community treasure.”

Sheldon said he found that in the new owner, Robert Hoffman, who has worked on tech regulation and other public policy in Washington, D.C., for several decades, but who grew up in Southern California with his family living in the area for generations.

“After talking with Robert and his family, I knew we had found the right stewards. They understand what makes this store special, and they’re committed to preserving that legacy while moving Vroman’s forward for our customers and the Pasadena community,” Sheldon said in a statement posted Thursday to the bookstore’s website.

Hoffman was born in Pasadena and has been visiting Vroman’s since his mother brought him in when he was 5 years old, according to the Thursday announcement.

His mother, in turn, had been introduced to the store by her grandmother, Georgia Bullock, a decades-long Pasadena resident and the first woman to serve as a municipal and superior court judge in California.

Hoffman was born in Pasadena and attended UCLA. He currently heads government relations and regulatory affairs at semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices, according to his LinkedIn page.

Book Soup, a Sunset Boulevard landmark, was founded in 1975 by Glenn Goldman, a UCLA graduate student who raised investments with his friends to establish the store. Goldman died in 2009 at age 58, and Sheldon acquired the store from Goldman’s estate that year.

A post to Book Soup’s Instagram page said Hoffman and his family are “genuinely invested in this community.”

“Same shelves, same staff, same WeHo icon. Same gratitude for you,” the bookstore said in the social media post.

Vroman’s was founded in 1894 by Adam Clark Vroman, an ex-railroad worker from Illinois who moved to California hoping the sunny weather would improve his wife’s health. His wife eventually died of tuberculosis, and a brokenhearted Vroman, a bibliophile, sold off a chunk of his vast book collection to collect capital to open the store. The Sheldon family stewarded the store after Vroman’s death in 1916.

Vroman’s catered to various clientele and communities, from traveling dignitaries to academics and leisure readers on vacation. When the federal government incarcerated Japanese Americans from the San Gabriel Valley and elsewhere in the 1940s, an activist lugged books from Vroman’s to the Manzanar camp in the Owens Valley. Science fiction author Octavia Butler, who grew up in the area, frequented the bookstore.

Vroman’s second location in Hastings Ranch was forced to close in 2024 after the company was unable to reach a new lease agreement with the property owner. The store was otherwise sustainable, but was forced to close “due to increasing occupancy expenses,” the company wrote in a social media post at the time.

Vroman’s flagship location on Colorado Boulevard remains open. However, the property itself changed hands, with Sheldon selling it to GD Realty Group for $15.5 million amid uncertainty about its future.

The bookstore has a long-term lease with the real estate group, whose chief executive, Arash Danialifar, said in a statement last year to news outlet Pasadena Now that the bookstore was a “staple of the community” and that he hoped it would remain there “for the foreseeable future.”

AN ICONIC London tower is being carved into a £1billion “Swiss Cheese” hotel as plans are unveiled for major refurbishment.

New terraces, restaurants, office spaces and panoramic views of the city are all part of the plans.

The HSBC Tower, located in London’s Canary Wharf, is set to undergo a major refurbishment next year, as its current occupants relocate to the city.

Plans for the refurbishment of the 45-storey tower have been submitted to Tower Hamlets Council by Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and Canary Wharf Group (CWG).

The revamp will be led by architects Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) and reports indicate it is set to cost between £800,000,000 and £1,000,000,000.

Proposals for the building will see sections of the tower’s higher floors cut away to create a series of terraces, creating the appearance of holes which have landed the building with the Swiss cheese comparison.

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Designs for the tower will also see it move from a single-occupant space, instead paving the way for multiple uses throughout the building.

Starting from the bottom, the lower and ground floors will be transformed into an 181-room hotel and leisure facilities.

It will also see the addition of a brand new public walkway that crosses through the ground floor to link the Elizabeth Line Station with nearby Canada Square Park.

Middle floors will be reserved for office spaces, designed to house multiple corporate tenants, with asset management company BlackRock reportedly eyeing the space, according to The Banker.

Staggered terraces will be a main feature of the top floor, as well as a huge glass box called “The Cloud”, functioning as an entertainment space with restaurants and bars and boasting panoramic views of the city.

In a statement posted to the CWG website, CEO Shobi Khan said: “We look forward to working with QIA on 8 Canada Square to deliver a building of outstanding design, engineering and sustainability standards.

“This redevelopment is another step in Canary Wharf’s evolution into a vibrant mixed-use neighbourhood offering workspace, retail, homes, leisure and amenities all in one location – a true 15-minute city.”

Elie Gamburg from Kohn Pedersen Fox said: “We are extremely excited to collaborate with QIA and CWG to reimagine the single-use office building as a blueprint for the highly sustainable, mixed-use building of the future.

“This transformation embodies the ethos behind much of our work, we see it as an integral part of the evolution of today’s single-use neighbourhoods into vibrant mixed-use neighbourhoods of tomorrow – an evolution of which CWG is already leading the way.”

The announcement late last year that the iconic train company would start running double-decker trains across its network from 2031 was big news for those of us who love the towering carriages found in Italy, France and Spain

Eurostar’s new-look trains will feature two-storey bars, maximizing passenger capacity and Continental drinking opportunities.

The announcement late last year that the iconic train company would start running double-decker trains across its network from 2031 was big news for those of us who love the towering carriages found in Italy, France and Spain, but never in the UK. The height of UK tunnels means we’re stuck trundling around on lower-capacity, single-storey trains.

Except that is on the high-speed line from London to mainland Europe, which is perfectly capable of taking taller trains, a la France’s TGV Duplex, Switzerland’s SBB IR Dosto and Germany’s DB IC2.

Eurostar’s double-decker announcement last year was exciting enough, but now the Belgium-headquartered firm has announced that its new Celestia trains will feature two-storey bars as its “star attraction”. A Eurostar spokesperson told Euronews Travel: “The name Celestia means ‘heavenly’, reflecting the idea behind the double-decker bar: to create a travel experience beyond the ordinary.”

Eurostar has ordered 30 Celestia trains, with the first scheduled to begin service in May 2031. As well as sporting the bar, the classic blue, grey, and yellow livery that high-speed train fans have become used to seeing whizzing through the countryside will be replaced by a new, more understated grey and green. Their capacity will also be increased.

A Eurostar spokesperson explained: “Eurostar Celestia will have a bespoke design to capture the unique, premium experience Eurostar passengers expect. It is expected that each 200-metre set will have around 540 seats. If running in 400m formation (as through the channel tunnel today), there would be around 1,080 seats per service, a 20% increase from today.

“The first trains are due to join the fleet in January 2031, with commercial services launching in May 2031. Six new trains will be operational at that time, marking the beginning of a new era for travel on board Eurostar Celestia. Once delivered, the new trains will operate alongside the current fleet of 17 e320s, bringing the total fleet to 67 trains – a 30% uplift overall versus today.”

The train company has pledged that the new trains will offer 20 to 50% energy savings compared to the current fleet.

Eurostar is upping its game ahead of the arrival of a potential competitor on the rails. In August, Virgin was granted track access by the Office of Rail and Road, having announced plans to run a rival rail service to Eurostar through the Channel Tunnel. The access will allow Virgin to run up to 20 daily return services between London and Paris, Brussels or Amsterdam, with the agreement running from 1 October 2030 to 31 December 2040.

Eurostar has held a monopoly on passenger services since the tunnel opened in 1994. Before Virgin can join it on the tracks, it needs to secure rolling stock for the services and get safety approval from UK and EU authorities. The ORR approval only covers the HS1 route from London St Pancras to the Channel Tunnel, and not on rail networks in mainland Europe.

RUMOURS of who will be supporting Oasis on their 2027 tour have reached fever pitch.

The Sun has already revealed that The Verve’s Richard Ashcroft will be supporting the rock band, but now bands Cast and the Manic Street Preachers have also been tipped to join the stage on the international tour.

Indie rockers Cast have already supported Oasis on their 2025 reunion to and bookies now have the at 5/4 favourites to play at Oasis’ Knebworth concerts.

Bookies William Hill also have Manic Street Preachers as the next favourite band to join the Hertfordshire gig after first supporting Oasis there in 1996.

Other rumoured acts rumoured to appear include, The Charlatans, Ocean Colour Scene, Kula Shakers, and The Chemical Brothers.

Bookies are also anticipating Noel and Liam Gallagher will release a new album as Oasis next year and have them headlining Glastonbury at 14/1.

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But they are also giving odds that the brothers will split up before the Paris leg of next year’s tour.

 “With the inclusion of Knebworth in Oasis’ 2027 tour dates announcement – on what will be 31 years since their historic concerts at the Hertfordshire venue – there’s a frenzy of speculation on who will support the Britpop titans,” spokesperson for William Hill, Lee Phelps.

“It is safe to say next year’s Knebworth gig will be nostalgic for many, and we make it 1/5 for any of their 1996 support to make a reappearance in the 2027 revival of one of Britpop’s most iconic performances.”

Liam and Noel Gallagher are taking their comeback across 11 cities, and organisers confirming there will be no general onsale, the official ballot is your only route to securing a spot in the crowd.

Oasis will kick off their live shows on 21 May next year at Celtic Park in Glasgow.

From they they will perform at Manchester City’s ground, Noel, 59, and Liam, 53, will fly to Europe for a round of shows including France, where Oasis will play for the first time in Paris since the group split in 2009.

The shows in Paris will begin on 23 July, before they fly to Italy for shows at the Stadio Olympico in Rome which start on 29 July.

Noel and Liam will then move stateside after the European shows before returning to Ireland and, as The Sun exclusively revealed earlier this year, Noel and Liam will then end their triumphant run of shows at Knebworth.

The four performances there will begin on September 11.

The Channel 4 star has continued to bag huge television and film roles

The Inbetweeners star Henry Lloyd-Hughes looks almost unrecognisable almost 20 years after he found fame on the hit comedy.

Fans will remember the British actor, 41, for playing school bully Mark Donovan in the now-iconic series. For those who missed it, the E4 drama aired for three seasons between 2008 and 2010.

It followed the wild adventures of pupil Will (played by Simon Bird) and his group of friends: Simon (Joe Thomas), Jay (James Buckley) and Neil (Blake Harrison). Donovan was known for picking on the main characters, and infamously snapped a picture of Will in the toilet on his first day of school.

We watched the schoolmates’ last adventure together over a decade ago, and Netflix is bringing them back for a third feature-length film. But whatever happened to villain Donovan?

Lloyd-Hughes, the actor behind the teenager, is almost unrecognisable these days. He has remained in the industry, just like most of his co-stars.

The London-born performer recently appeared in Netflix’s The Thursday Murder Club, opposite the likes of Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan. He has also enjoyed roles in Killing Eve and Steven Spielberg’s new thriller, Disclosure Day.

Although casual viewers may not instantly recognise the actor as a “grown up,” devoted fans can pick him out of a crowd even after all these years.

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Lloyd-Hughes shared the story of a sweet run-in with a fan back in 2021. “This is not a humblebrag but I was giving blood this morning. Obviously you’ve got to wear a mask,” he told Square Mile.

He went on to reveal that a nurse came over to him and said: “Excuse me, I’d like to ask a question. Have you ever done any acting?” To which he replied: “Yeah, sometimes.”

The healthcare worker then asked: “Are you The Inbetweeners?” Lloyd-Hughes went on to explain: “It was a middle-aged to elderly Indian man who recognised me.

“I was not expecting, when I was wearing a school uniform, filming for like £5 a week, that ten years later or whatever I’d be getting recognised. Even behind a mask!”

The Inbetweeners series is available to stream on Channel 4’s on-demand service. The Inbetweeners 3 will stream on Netflix.

ONE of the most iconic buildings in the capital’s skyline is set to become a 400-room hotel.

The Grade-II BT Tower in London is being transformed into a hotel, with rooms in the tower itself.

Levels seven to 23 of the Tower will all have accommodation, with each floor featuring four curved rooms around the central structure.

As for the lower floors, a new building will be developed at the bottom of the Tower, with a rooftop pool on level six, outdoor seating areas and wildflower roof gardens.

The lower ground floor will then feature events spaces and restaurants, and the ground floor will have a wine bar as well as other Class E businesses which could include a gym, shops and cafes.

Hotel rooms will then start on the first floor as well as another events space with the same for levels two to six, with some outdoor terraces, too.

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At the top of the Tower (level 34) – which used to be home to a revolving restaurant and viewing platform – there will be a 360-degree visitor attraction including a ‘revolving floor’, with suggestions it could be a restaurant again.

There will then be another events space on level 35 with an outdoor terrace and level 36 will have two more events spaces and two lobbies.

Levels 31 to 33 will also have events spaces.

Levels 24 to 28 and 37 to 40 will all be used for storage and building maintenance.

Outside the base of the Tower, a new public square will be constructed too.

The park will feature curved timber benches, large pebble seating areas and bronze metal artwork.

Construction is expected to start in 2029 and the hotel is then due to open in 2033.

The BT Tower first opened in 1964 as the Post Office Tower and was the capital’s tallest building until the NatWest Tower opened in 1980.

The Tower then closed to the public in 1981 – though, there will be some private events.

The hotel was then purchased by MCR, an American hotel chain, in 2024 for £270million.

AN ICONIC English pleasure pier has been forced to close while “essential works” take place this month.

The seaside structure shut today but is expected to reopen soon.

Weymouth Pleasure Pier will be closed for two weeks while essential surfacing repairs are carried out.

A refurbishment of the beach access steps is also set to take place during this period, while the new handrails will be finished off too.

Dorset Council has said that the beach access will be open in time for the town’s annual Ironman event, which will take place on Sunday, September 20.

News of the closure was shared via the council’s Facebook page in a post that read: “A reminder that the Weymouth Pleasure Pier will be closed for two weeks from Monday 7 September while surfacing works are completed along the wall.”

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It continued: “The beach access steps at the end of the wall will also be closed during this period to enable refurbishment works and completion of the new handrails.

“The beach access steps will be reopened ahead of the Ironman event taking place in Weymouth.

The council thanked residents for their “understanding and cooperation” while the essential works are carried out.

Weymouth Pleasure Pier was previously closed for seven weeks between June and July for more “essential maintenance”.

The site was shut down over the summer months to replace failing harbour walls and safeguard the seafront for the future.

The repairs are part of a wider plan in place to address longstanding deterioration in the seafront defences around the peninsula.

Other problem areas including corrosion and voids behind existing harbour walls, and small sinkholes near footpaths also cropped up in investigations.

Previous repair work to the structures was last completed in 1970, meaning they were no longer viable for withstanding pressure from rising sea levels and more frequent storm surges.

Work has been carried out to strengthen the existing structures to ensure they can serve their purpose for decades to come.