Lowri Griffiths on London in June 2026 — the heat, the politics, the Republic protesters at Trooping the Colour, and the specific British way of complaining about weather

By Lowri Griffiths, Big Smoke Broke

June in London: Simultaneously Too Hot and Still Somehow Disappointing

London in June 2026 has produced: a Trooping the Colour with Republic protesters chanting “not my King” at Kate and the children in the Ascot Landau carriage (Kate looked composed; the children looked uncertain; the protesters looked committed); a heatwave that France is managing by banning alcohol at outdoor events and Britain is managing by wearing the same amount of clothing and complaining twice as loudly; and a Prime Minister who resigned on a Monday morning while half of London was trying to figure out whether to go into the office or work from home because the Jubilee line was suspended for weekend engineering works that overran.

The Republic protesters at Trooping the Colour were, depending on your perspective, either expressing the legitimate democratic sentiment that hereditary monarchy is an anachronism that a modern democratic society should reconsider, or heckling children on a state occasion, which is the specific criticism of protest tactics that applies when the protest target includes people who did not choose their circumstances and are 12 years old or younger. Kate handled the protesters with the composure of a woman who has had three years of cancer treatment and has therefore recalibrated what she finds genuinely stressful. The children handled it with the composure of children who have been to many official events and have been coached for exactly this.

Trooping the Colour and Prince George’s Last Summer Before Eton

This was, as multiple royal correspondents noted, potentially the last Trooping the Colour that Prince George will attend as a Lambrook School pupil before he starts at Eton in September, which makes it significant in ways that readers of royal coverage find meaningful and that the 12-year-old in question is probably approaching with the specific mixture of excitement and dread that distinguishes every major life transition from the one before it. He will be the fourth generation of his family at Eton, following his father, his grandfather (briefly), and his great-uncle Harry. “All roads lead to Eton,” a source told People Magazine, which is the kind of thing sources say to People Magazine when the decision is already made and they want it to seem inevitable rather than chosen.

Kate apparently favoured Marlborough, her own alma mater and a co-educational boarding school, which would have represented a departure from the all-male Eton tradition and a signal that the next King would receive a somewhat more contemporary education. William favoured Eton. Eton won. This is being reported as either “Kate lost a battle” or “the family made a considered decision together,” depending on which publication you read and what their royal source’s agenda is this week.

The Heat and How London Handles It

The UK has been experiencing the second major heatwave of 2026, following an unprecedented May episode that Sante Publique France described as “historic and exceptional.” London has approached the heat with the characteristic British combination of surprise (every year), stoic suffering (the default mode), and rapid adaptation (the parks have been full since 11am on any day above 25 degrees, which is the specific British temperature threshold at which outdoor recreation transitions from “a bit of fresh air” to “basically a beach holiday”).

The specific experience of the heat in North London, in a Victorian terrace flat without air conditioning and with south-facing windows that have been storing thermal energy since approximately May, is one that I share with approximately 60 percent of the London housing stock and that no amount of pointing small fans at yourself fully resolves. The French government’s Green Fund cut — reducing climate adaptation investment from 2.4 billion to 837 million euros — does not directly affect London, but its lesson is applicable: the infrastructure for living in a hotter climate costs money that governments are finding reasons not to spend. The heatwave arrives regardless of the budget decision.

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What North London Requires of Its Representatives

The question that North London voters — in Kentish Town, in Camden, in Islington, in Hornsey — are asking of whoever leads Labour next is not abstract. It is specific to the conditions of life in the part of the city they inhabit: the housing costs that consume above-average proportions of above-average salaries, the public transport that works well enough when it works and is miserable when it doesn’t, the NHS waiting times that feel longer despite the government’s investment narrative, and the specific cost-of-living squeeze that makes a city full of interesting people in stimulating jobs feel, at the monthly bank statement moment, like a question about whether the interesting stimulating life is sustainable at its current price. Burnham’s northern credibility is real. His relevance to North London’s specific concerns remains to be demonstrated. The coffee shop in Kentish Town will be watching. The Northern line will be running, or not, regardless of who leads Labour. Both things will be true simultaneously, as they always are.

London’s Living Character

London in 2026 is a city in the middle of several stories simultaneously: the political story of a Labour government that just lost its leader and is searching for a direction that can beat Reform UK without losing the urban progressive base that considers Reform’s platform a threat to the kind of city London is; the economic story of a housing market that has made the city excellent for those who already own a piece of it and increasingly difficult for those who are trying to; the cultural story of a city whose creative output — in fashion, in food, in art, in music, in the performing arts — remains extraordinary by any global comparison, produced by the specific density of talented people who come here from everywhere and stay because what they find is worth the cost of finding it; and the civic story of a city that is doing many things right — the parks, the museums, the public transport when it functions, the diversity of experience available per square mile — while struggling with the structural challenges that every major global city struggles with and that London’s specific combination of history, geography, and governance makes particularly acute. The neighbourhood-level version of all these stories is what the people writing here have been trying to capture. The city-level version is what you encounter when you arrive, if you are visiting, or what you live inside every day, if you are not. Both encounters are worth having. London rewards them both.

SOURCE: https://bohiney.com