After being dark for 14 months, West End theatres are finally starting to reopen.

Ahead of tonight's first show for more than a year, the set and stage at The Mousetrap, the West End’s longest running play, are being fumigated.

"We are sold out for the next few weeks, so there's clearly an appetite to come back to the theatre," said the show's producer, Adam Spiegel.

"Obviously we are operating with social distancing, so we have a reduced capacity, but my sense is that people want to get back out."

The counter in the foyer will greet the audience for the 28,200th performance - it had been stuck on 28,199 since March 2020.

London's mayor makes the request as about 400 people test positive for the Indian variant in London.

Figures from Transport for London (TfL) show a slight increase in public transport use up to 10:00 BST on Monday.

Tube journeys were up 5% from last week and bus journeys up 1%.

Officers who access records without a legitimate reason could be breaking the law, the Met says.

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People are starting to head back to London's attractions with some making the most of the additional space.

These visitors took the opportunity to get the ultimate selfie through the glass floor on a high-level walkway at Tower Bridge in London.

The chef and restaurant owner of Frenchie Covent Garden said his staff are "on fire" ready to welcome back customers.

Greg Marchand spent lockdown creating a new spring menu and said he can't wait to share it with people.

"We are thrilled to welcome back customers and see what a live restaurant sounds and feels like. It's been way too long for us.

"We've got a fully dedicated staff who have been at home for way too long and I assure you everyone is on fire."

The inquest into the 2016 crash that killed seven people begins after an initial Covid-19 delay.

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Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said: "Today we're not just getting a step closer to normal, we're getting back to the things we love.

"Cultural organisations can now reopen and venues across the country are preparing to welcome audiences back to performances."

Speaking at the Tate Modern, he continued: "Of course I recognise the anxiety people feel as we assess the situation over the next fortnight in the run up to stage four, but today is a huge moment for our hard-hit cultural landscape."

Mr Dowden said more support would "be on its way to our much-loved museums, music venues, theatres and historic houses" as they reopen.

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At The Ship Tavern in Holborn, pub supervisor Gintras Rinkevas says he's noticed customers seem happier than before lockdown.

"I think everyone appreciates being out and about more" he told the BBC.

"They've got more patience and more respect for waiters, people are happier I assume."

Mr Rinkevas said that as with many London pubs and restaurants, he thought it would be hard to get a table as they are almost fully booked up for the next few weeks.

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Paul Scully MP, Minister for London, told BBC London: "I'm really confident. There's a pent up demand and people are really looking forward to coming out and enjoying London.

"In terms of the Underground, the bus network, hospitality sector and cultural sector, they're all ready to give people a safe and warm welcome."

However, despite his optimism he has cautioned people to remember some restrictions are still in place.

He said: "We're really determined that this roadmap goes one way only, but we've got to be really careful.

"We've got to remind people that the virus has not gone away, so they need to stay alert, to adhere to ‘hands, face, space’.

"Because there are variants out there which we're monitoring and carrying out surge testing in areas of concern to make sure we stay on top of the virus and not just chase it."

Museums, galleries and some of London's most famous tourist attractions are reopening.

At the Tower of London, social distancing measures mean that little more than a fifth of their normal visitor numbers will be allowed in.

Debra Whittingham, deputy governor at Tower of London, said: "This time of year we'd be looking at having 10-15,000 people a day. The maximum we're going to be allowed to have in is about 3,300.

"So it's still going to be hard to get back to where we were until all the restrictions are lifted," she added.

“We're also waiting for international tourism to open up, as 70% of our visitors are normally from overseas."

But she added, there has never been a better time to come if you are from the UK.

"It'll be quiet, there won't be much queuing, you'll have some serenity."

Calum Franklin, executive chef at Holborn Dining Room, says he and his team are excited to have people back in their restaurant.

He told the BBC: "It's gone mad as we've opened the terrace [which] has been full, now we've seen it with the restaurant opening, we're going to be full again in here.

"I think people are desperate to go out, meet their friends, eat with their family outside, it's like a novelty. It's like restaurants never existed before and now we can do this cool thing suddenly."

Setting up a business is never easy, so what is it like to set up a restaurant with the added complications of a global pandemic and restrictions?

As restaurants get ready to re-open inside today Graham Rebak, co-owner of new restaurant HUŎ in Chelsea, tells the BBC about the hurdle's he's faced over the last year.

"Since we found the site in April 2020 it's been difficult all the way through. Finding tradesmen, craftsmen, builders to do the project was fraught with difficulty.

"And there were some times where you had to shut the premises because there was a fear there might have been an outbreak," he said.

"But we've battled through it and now we're hopefully looking forward to opening on 1 June. "

Mr Rebak said he had also noticed less people were replying to job adverts, something he has put down to many people moving out of the city during the pandemic.

"Finding people, in normal times, to respond to the advert you'd have hundreds of responses but now we're seeing far fewer responses so it's pring difficult but we're slowly getting there."

Marc Ashdown
Work and Money Correspondent, BBC London

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So the days of huddling round heaters are over. Indoors is the new outdoors.

But for London's battered economy, the next stage of "life after lockdown" brings as many questions as answers.

Firstly, how confident will people be to get out shopping, socialising and returning to the office?

Even if there is demand, limits on capacity will be an issue for live venues. Masks, sanitising and social distancing will continue for some time, so how sustainable will it be for theatres, cinemas and concerts to operate with a fraction of the usual paying audience?

What will it mean for jobs too? Thousands of EU nationals have left the capital during the pandemic, replaced by 'hiring' signs in many high street windows.

Opportunities perhaps for the younger generation, who’ve tended to be hardest hit by redundancies over the past year.

But as government financial support starts to wind down, businesses of all sizes will be doing some serious calculations to work out how to balance their books.

Overseas visitors will also be few and far between for some time, a vital revenue stream reduced to a summer trickle.

Businesses will be hoping they can return soon, but in the meantime with no queues and no crowds, will there be a better time to see some of London’s sights?

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Objects were thrown at police as they tried to move people from outside the Israeli embassy.

The mother of a tram crash victim says she will never be whole again after the 2016 tragedy.