Rachel Rees

Ashford, London

Journalist at Freelance

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Articles

The curious case of Sadiq Khan's new nightlife adviser

1 week ago | londoncentric.media | Jim Waterson |Rachel Rees

There was a big response to Saturday’s piece about London’s vigilante tube cleaners, and the political movement behind them. (The comments section is still very much alive and well worth checking out.)A lot of people told us they wanted to know more about exactly why it is that London’s tube trains are suddenly covered in graffiti. Sometimes the simplest way to find out is just to ask – so today we have a chat with a tube maintenance worker, who explains it all.
The Dominic Cummings-backed group cleaning up London's tube graffiti

2 weeks ago | londoncentric.media | Jim Waterson |Rachel Rees

Yesterday morning London Centric reporter Rachel Rees took the lift down to the platform at Lambeth North tube station, and joined a trio of young men wearing high-vis jackets emblazoned with the words “Doing What Sadiq Khant”. For the next hour, as commuters stared at their phones and tried to avoid making eye contact, the group (and Rachel) went up and down the Bakerloo line removing the graffiti that has plagued the trains on the route in recent months.
Sadiq Khan: Some cannabis possession should be decriminalised

1 month ago | londoncentric.media | Jim Waterson |Rachel Rees

Possession of small amounts of natural cannabis for personal use should be decriminalised, according to a massive review of drugs policy in London endorsed by Sadiq Khan, which has concluded the existing policy is racist and is used by the Metropolitan police as a justification to stop and search young black men. The mayor said the findings of the London Drugs Commission are “compelling” but he has no power to change drugs law in the capital.
Ukraine’s ‘drone war’ hastens development of autonomous weapons

1 month ago | ft.com | Rachel Rees

Earlier this month, the Ukrainian military claimed to have shot down a Russian fighter jet with missiles fired from an unmanned naval drone.
High-Rise dystopia: Disabled tower block residents "threatened" for posting about broken lifts on Reddit

1 month ago | londoncentric.media | Rachel Rees

Disabled residents have been stranded in an iconic London high-rise tower block without any working lifts for a week, amid allegations they have been threatened by the building’s management company for posting about the issue on Reddit. Business owner Peter Yu and student Vasundhara Gupte are both residents of the 28-storey brutalist Balfron Tower in Tower Hamlets, a high-rise east London tower built by a Bond villain namesake.
The £30,000 legal challenge to Mighty Hoopla and Field Day festivals

2 months ago | londoncentric.media | Liv Facey |Rachel Rees |Jim Waterson

We want to open today’s edition with a note of thanks to our readers. When London Centric launched seven months ago, it was based on an educated gamble that London badly needed in-depth reporting and that a community of people would be willing to pay for it. Proper journalism takes time and money – checking out tips thoroughly, making phone calls, knocking on doors, persuading people to speak, and working through legal hurdles when we are poking at people with expensive lawyers.
Kiln, the Newcastle café where the tableware is on the menu too

2 months ago | ft.com | Rachel Rees

Kiln is not your average café; less a café than a “live gallery,” as co-owner Richard Cullen calls it.
"The police are scared": Is a triad gang war underway in London?

2 months ago | londoncentric.media | Jim Waterson |Rachel Rees

Last week London Centric’s exclusive video of men defacing a residential London street with red paint as part of what appears to be a Chinese organised crime gang war received widespread coverage and was at one point leading the homepage of the Times. Reporting like this will always be at the heart of what we do, but it takes time and costs money. As ever, if you want to read agenda-setting investigations about the capital then they will be available first to paying subscribers.
Why Riley’s Fish Shop is catch of the day

Mar 30, 2025 | ft.com | Rachel Rees

At 6am every morning, a stream of fishing boats leaves North Shields Fish Quay on England’s north-east coast.
Revealed: The London flats pushing raw sewage into the Thames

Mar 20, 2025 | londoncentric.media | Jim Waterson |Rachel Rees

London Centric will go to almost any lengths to bring you a story — including wading through human excrement. On Tuesday I donned a pair of waterproof trousers and headed out into a heavily-polluted London stream, in a bid to verify a story that sounded too shocking to be true. This is the tale of “misconnections”, where badly-constructed homes illegally bypass treatment works and send their raw sewage into the waterways that feed the River Thames.