Natural History Museum tops UK attraction list with record visitors
London’s Natural History Museum (NHM) was the most popular attraction in the UK during 2025, with its renovated gardens, new climate gallery and lack of entry fee leading to record-breaking numbers of visitors.More than 7.1 million people passed through its doors, a 13% increase in visitors year on year and an all-time record for any UK museum or gallery.Bernard Donoghue, the director of the Association for Leading Visitor Attractions (Alva), which compiles the annual ranking, said the NHM’s success was partly down to its renovated outdoor spaces.“It’s an astonishingly fun, joyful day out and it’s free,” Donoghue said.
“Even in a cost of living crisis, it’s clear that the last thing that people are prepared to sacrifice are day visits and spending special time with special people in special places.”The popularity of the NHM’s Fixing Our Broken Planet gallery, which explores solutions to the climate crisis and received more than 2 million visitors, was another reason visits increased for the third year in a row.The British Museum was second on the list with 6.4m visits, with the crown estate in Windsor (4.9m), Tate Modern (4.
5m) and the National Gallery (4.1m) making up the rest of the top five.But, with the exception of the National Gallery, which reopened the Sainsbury Wing and underwent a rehang, the other institutions at the top of the rankings saw slight declines in visitor numbers compared with last year.Most of the top 10 struggled to get anywhere near their pre-Covid numbers from 2019, a bumper year for museums and galleries caused by a healthy economy and a staycation trend.Donoghue said the “slow and modest” growth in visitor numbers made sense during a 12-month period when many institutions struggled financially because of the cost of living crisis.
He said many institutions were adapting to the government’s autumn budget in 2024, which placed financial burdens on Alva members through increased national insurance contributions and an increased minimum wage,Donoghue added: “All of that was unplanned and hit in April of last year,So they found last year financially really tough,A lot of my members went through redundancies and restructuring programmes … It’s been a really tough operating environment,”The difficulty institutions are having in climbing back to the heights of 2019 is in part down to some foreign visitors not returning to the UK post-Covid.
Alva picked out Chinese visitors in particular as not coming in the same numbers, with Donoghue putting that down to the UK removing tax-free shopping, which now makes France, Spain or Italy more attractive to Chinese tourists who want to combine retail and cultural tourism.“In Italy, they’ve got back somewhere in the region of 120% of the Chinese visitors that they had in 2019; we’ve got back to 81%,” he said.“We are not as internationally competitive or attractive to the Chinese market.”Donoghue called for the government to reduce VAT on visitor attractions, reintroduce tax-free shopping and ensure that if a “tourism tax” is introduced, it is ringfenced to ensure proceeds are invested back into culture and tourism.There is optimism in the arts sector that 2026 will see higher visitor growth, with several big attractions and openings planned, including the British Museum’s Bayeux tapestry loan, the opening of the V&A East, the new London Museum and the Museum of Youth Culture.
FTSE 100 loses all its 2026 gains as Middle East conflict hits shares, and UK borrowing costs reach highest since 2008 – as it happened
Shares in London are suffering an end-of-week sell-off, following a report that the US is to send more troops to the Middle East.The blue-chip FTSE 100 share index is now down 90 points, or 0.9%, at 9970 points, back below the 10,000-point mark. That’s its lowest level since 5 January, as the Iran war wipes out almost all of its gains during 2026.Energy company BP (-3
FCA investigates collapsed lender MFS amid £1.3bn mortgage scandal
The UK’s financial regulator has launched an investigation into Market Financial Solutions (MFS), the mortgage lender that collapsed last month amid allegations of fraud.The move follows the granting of a £1.3bn worldwide asset-freezing order on MFS founder Paresh Raja on Wednesday, as creditors successfully gained court orders in London and Dubai barring the tycoon from dissipating assets.On Friday, the Financial Conduct Authority said it had “opened an enforcement investigation” into the stricken mortgage lender, which borrowed £1.3bn from a string of financial companies and slumped into administration in February
UK borrowing costs hit highest since 2008 as markets expect up to three interest rate rises
UK government borrowing costs have reached their highest level since 2008, while financial markets now expect up to three interest rate rises this year as investors digest the impact of the Iran conflict.The yield, or interest rate, on 10-year borrowing was pushed to heights not seen since the global financial crisis, as investors dumped UK government bonds.The market move followed the Bank of England’s decision on Thursday to leave interest rates on hold at 3.75% and hint at a future increase. By Friday, markets were pricing in as many as three interest rate rises in 2026
‘Huge build-up of risk’: London’s centuries-old shipping industry wrestles with Iran war
Shipping risk has been insured by Lloyd’s of London for more than 330 years, but now the centuries-old heart of maritime insurance is getting to grips with the most modern of threats – drones and missiles threatening hundreds of vessels stuck in the Gulf region amid the escalating Middle East conflict.For nearly three weeks the crucial strait of Hormuz has effectively been closed to the more than 100 gas and oil tankers and container ships that usually pass through each day.Pressure is building to find a way to safely reopen the narrow maritime channel to allow the estimated 1,000 vessels and their crews – mainly oil and gas tankers but also container ships – currently trapped in the Gulf to continue their journeys, restarting the global flow of fuel, chemicals and goods.A total of 23 vessels had been attacked between the start of the war and Thursday, according to analysts from Lloyd’s List Intelligence, including near misses and those that have sustained minor damage. Several crew members have been killed
JP Morgan Chase to use computer estimates to monitor hours worked by junior bankers
JP Morgan Chase has started to compare the hours junior investment bankers claim to have worked against logs on its IT system.The US bank said it would begin issuing reports to junior bankers that compare computer-generated estimates of their work weeks against their self-reported time sheets as part of a pilot scheme.The company said it planned to roll out the programme more widely across its investment bank, with IT estimates based on employees’ weekly digital activities including video calls, desktop keystrokes and scheduled meetings.“Much like the weekly screen time summaries on a smartphone, this tool is about awareness, not enforcement,” JP Morgan said in a statement. “It’s designed to support transparency, wellbeing, and encourage open conversations about workload
Marmite maker Unilever in talks to merge food business with US-based McCormick
Unilever, the owner of Marmite, Dove and Hellmann’s mayonnaise, is in talks to combine its food business with the US-based spice and seasoning maker McCormick.The Anglo-Dutch food company – which last year spun off its ice-cream division, the home to Ben & Jerry’s, Magnum and Wall’s – has entered discussions over the future of the “highly attractive” business.Unilever is valued at almost £100bn, and its food unit, which includes brands such as Knorr, could be worth tens of billions of pounds.McCormick, which owns brands including French’s yellow mustard, Old Bay seasoning and Cholula hot sauce, is valued at about $15bn (£11bn).“Unilever confirms that it has received an inbound offer for its foods business and is in discussions with McCormick & Company,” the Marmite maker said in a statement
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