Protests, parades and a dip in the pool: London's 2025 in photos

This year in London has been eventful with protests, heatwaves and sporting parades all making headlines. Here is a look back at a selection of photographs that go some way towards summing up 2025 in London.

At the start of the year, hundreds of swimmers returned to south-west London for the Cold Water Swimming Championships at Tooting Bec Lido.

Almost 100 races, including a best hat competition, were held in the 5.5C (41.9F) water, marking the first time the championships had been held at the venue since before the Covid pandemic.

In February, a portrait was unveiled of Rizwan Javed, a worker on Transport for London's Elizabeth line who has saved 29 people from taking their own lives since 2015.

Artist Jack Dickson said he captured Mr Javed's "humility and dignity" as part of BBC One's Extraordinary Portraits programme.

Flights were suspended at Heathrow Airport in March after a fire at a nearby electrical substation shut down operations at the UK's busiest airport.

More than 1,300 flights were affected and passengers were told not to travel to the airport.

A subsequent investigation found that National Grid had been aware of a problem at the substation since 2018 but failed to fix it.

In May, thousands of Crystal Palace fans lined the streets for a victory parade congratulating their football heroes for their FA Cup win.

It was the team's first major trophy in their history, following their 1-0 win over Manchester City at Wembley Stadium on 17 May.

June saw a four-day heatwave, with London's Heathrow recorded as the hottest place in the UK, after it reached 33.1C (91.6F). It was closely followed by St James's Park at 33C (91.4F).

By the end of August, The Met Office had confirmed that summer 2025 was officially the hottest on record for the United Kingdom. It pushed the famous summer of 1976 out of the UK top-five, meaning the five hottest summers have all occurred since 2000.

Noel and Liam Gallagher marked the end of an almost 16-year split with their international Oasis Live '25 reunion tour in the summer.

More than 90,000 people travelled to London's Wembley Stadium for each of the seven sold-out concert dates in July, August and September.

The BBC's music correspondent Mark Savage noted how the band sounded the "best they've been since the '90s" on their return, which he wrote felt "like a reconciliation - or a sigh of relief - as the brothers buried the hatchet of a decades-long feud and reconnected with their fans".

In August the Met Police made its largest number of arrests on single day in a decade.

Officers arrested 474 people at a demonstration at Westminster's Parliament Square in support of banned group Palestine Action.

Scores of people simultaneously unveiled handwritten signs with the message "I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action" at the protest.

The government proscribed the group in July under the Terrorism Act of 2000, making membership of or support for it a criminal offence, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

By September, the London Fire Brigade (LFB) had announced its busiest summer since the extreme heat of 2022, with 83 wildfires recorded in the capital between June and August.

The most significant fire saw 25 fire engines and about 125 firefighters called to a grass fire in Dagenham on 14 July, at the height of the third heatwave of the year.

In November, tractors arrived in the capital as farmers protested the introduction of a farm inheritance tax.

Tractors gathered near Trafalgar Square despite a ban on vehicles in the Whitehall area by the Metropolitan Police.

In December, Grenfell Tower started to be lit up at night while it is being dismantled as a "visible reminder" of the tragedy.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) said beams of light would be projected upwards from the tower's corners, with 72 green lights also being used on anniversaries of the fire.

One group representing those who died in the disaster called the lights a "PR stunt", but another said it was important to do "everything possible" to ensure Grenfell did not "disappear from hearts and minds before the criminal process progresses".

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