Morning:
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From today more Londoners than ever before will be able to pick up the West End Final edition of the London Evening Standard with the very latest news.
All 600,000 copies will be printed later, bringing readers up-to-date coverage of news, City and sport with agenda-setting analysis and comment.
More copies will be available into the evening at mainline and Tube stations, retailers and strategically placed pick-up points to meet the overwhelming demand that there has been for the Evening Standard since we became the first quality newspaper in the world to go free.
All your favourite columnists will be back this week, as well as the regular sections of Fashion, Style & Sex tomorrow, Health & Beauty on Wednesday, London Life on Thursday and on Friday Film & Music plus ES magazine, London's favourite glossy.
To find the latest information on where you can get your Evening Standard call our freecall helpline or go to our online map.
In addition, a trial venture has been launched to allow local shops to make arrangements for regular readers to reserve their daily copy. Please speak to your newsagent if you would like them to consider joining this scheme. Go on our website at standard.co.uk/update to register your interest.
We wish you a happy New Year, and promise you an outstanding newspaper with the best journalism in London every weekday.
help@standard.co.uk
Freecall helpline 0800 141 2629
CLICK HERE TO FIND YOUR FREE EVENING STANDARD DISTRIBUTION POINT
TO READ THE E EDITION OF THE PAPER CLICK HERE
TO GET ES MAGAZINE DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR CLICK HERE
Public figures reveal the FREE things in life they love most
Gordon Brown, Prime Minister
The NHS is loved in Britain because of the excellent care it provides and because it does so free at the point of need. I would like to wish the editor and all the staff the very best today as they offer Londoners their Evening Standard free for the very first time.
Andrew Motion, poet
London has always been the great city of free spirits and free thoughts, and is full of free pleasures as well — free museums, free libraries, free parks, all overlooked by free-to-walk-in Hampstead Heath. Now its best paper is free. Wonderful!
Andrew Lloyd Webber, composer
One of my favourite things is to spend a morning in the Tate Gallery, particularly in the Pre-Raphaelite bit.
Nigella Lawson, chef
Free speech, free time, free Evening Standard. Fabulous.
David Hockney, artist
Smoke-free, the Evening Standard free... What next, free tea? The best of luck.
Boris Johnson, Mayor of London
The best things in London are free. Free elections, free museums, free healthcare. The Evening Standard is the indispensable guide to London. I wish the paper well.
VS Naipaul, Nobel laureate
It is wonderful that the Evening Standard is free. Other free things I like are landscape and meeting new people and a good dinner party. And the love of my wife and cat.
Lawrence Dallaglio, former England rugby captain
The best free day for family Dallaglio is to go to the ceramic section of the V&A. It's absolutely fantastic.
Alain de botton, philosopher
I like to go to the nearest big hotel and take a seat in the lobby. I wish the Standard the very best.
Nicholas Hytner, artistic director, National Theatre
I can't wait to pick up my free Standard every evening, maybe as I listen to the free foyer music in the National Theatre or cross Waterloo Bridge to admire the view.
Anya Hindmarch, designer
London parks. Walking fast over the river, I love the bridges.
Reader views (19)
There is no Standard available in Holloway Road (tube station) either. I have requested this more than a year ago and hope this will be soon introduced? We have thousands of London Met University students and staff who would love to get their copy of the Standard at the tube station in Holloway Road to help make our tube journey more interesting. Any chance of this happening, Please and thank you!?
- Denise Panattoni, London, 17/11/2010 07:57
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No standard is available anymore in either E11 or E10. One wonders why- are we not important enough to warrant a copy?
I have read your paper for many, many years, and really miss being able to do so any more. I would happily pay my 50p again to buy my regular copy.
It also seems rather odd to me that the Metro can be distrubuted to most Tube stations; yet the Standard can't be.
- Angie DR, Leytonstone, 03/05/2010 17:00
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There is nowhere in Canning Town to obtain a copy of the Evening Standard: as this is a major bus and tube interchange, it would seem to be an obvious place, but to date, the nearest location seems to be City Airport. Am I to assume all residents of Canning Town/Custom House/Royal Victoria are outside your demographic and therefore it is deemed unnecessary to make said publication available here? I would sincerely hope not.
- Paul Booth, Canning Town, London, 24/03/2010 16:51
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Please can you reinstate the supply of free copies to Tesco in Caterham-on-the-Hill. Plenty of copies were taken from there when it was available, when the paper first went free, but now the supply has ceased.
- Mark Bishop, Caterham, UK, 24/12/2009 15:35
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I was quite happy paying the 50p too but now even the two
places in Feltham where one could pick up a copy no longer get any.
Call this customer service...its diabolical
- John Moloney, Feltham, 03/12/2009 12:34
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Can no longer get a copy in High Wycombe, Bucks. Surely if the idea is to increase distribution, it should not be REDUCED?? I even used to be able to get a copy in Plymouth in years gone by, but that stopped due to Red Star train service not delivering anymore. So many places want copies and HAVE NOT GOT THEM!! CRAZY!! Keep the paper free by all means if this is what you wish, but keep the distribution as it was - WIDESPREAD!!
- Paula Egan, High Wycombe, UK, 02/12/2009 22:54
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I work in a highly competitive customer market and if I treated my customers like this we would be shot ... why is it that I have to drive at my inconvenience all over the place just to try and find a newspaper - namely Evening Standard - I live in Yeading, Northolt and Tescos has stopped distributing as so has all the supermarkets in surrounding areas. YOU NEED TO get your act together and whoever us in charge of Operations should be sacked - get a grip we are the customer. I still have no Evening Standard to read !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Maggie O'Donnell, northolt Middx, 01/12/2009 18:08
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I can't understand your distribution policy, with area you cover seeming to have now contracted within the North and South Circular. Previously the Bexleyheath area had three or four ditribution points but now it appears the nearest is Eltham. Don't to you want readers in the outer boroughs? Even the Metro gets a wider distribution, but I would much rather be able to get the Standard.
- Terry English, Bexleyheath UK, 01/12/2009 16:32
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I totally agree with Disappointed of Surbiton's comment. Surbiton is one of the biggest commuter areas of London and is currently an Evening Standard free zone! I've already called ES twice on this problem and the Station forecourt newsagent is desperate to be supplied but has had no response from ES over the last month. It's not much better in Kensington! I hope someone with some ability in effective distribution organises distribution efficiently soon as ES will soon be taken off the list of my and other companies advertising when they discover the reality of distribution coverage and efficiency with resulting redundancies and/or eventual closure of ES once advertisers understand the reality of current distribution policy. If it's a delivery cost concern why not let newsagents charge 10p-20p and recoup delivery costs from that. N.B. Piles of ES in limited locations is not an effective distribution and advertising reach!
- Barry Evans, Surbiton, 01/12/2009 12:12
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As a regular reader and purchaser of The Evening Standard over many years, it was ludricous to distribute it only to one Sainsbury supermarket in this area. It is not a location where you can just easily stop and pick up a copy.
Perhaps when you start charging again from January(20p I have been told), it will be more readily available in our local newsagents.
- André M Grossman, Cockfosters, 30/11/2009 21:35
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I just went to Sainsbury's in Surbiton to get my copy of the Standard (an irritating diversion in itself) only to be told that you have stopped supplying the store, to concentrate on central London. Surbiton is a major commuter town. A more sensible distribution point anyway would be the station. I was quite happy paying my 50p. Whose silly idea was this anyway!!!
- Disappointed Of Surbiton, Surbiton, Surrey, 30/11/2009 17:12
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I have been a reader of the Standard for most of my working life and once retired was able to buy it locally up until a week or so ago at Tescos, Sainsburys or Morrison stores. Now it is impossible to get it anywhere in the Pinner, Harrow, Hatch End or Northwood area. Would it not be more sensible to start charging for it again and let everyone have their evening paper back again.
Regards,
- R.M. Redman, Pinner, Middlesex, 30/11/2009 10:57
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I can no longer obtain the paper which I have enjoyed over many decades and was happy to pay for. The outlets you say you distribute through eg Tesco do not stock in in St Albans.
Are you only interested in Greater London?
I used to obtain it from my local village store.
Please advise.
- Nicholas Barry, Sandridge, St Albans, England, 11/11/2009 20:54
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Regarding Evening Standard Distribution, I would strongly recommend that Mile End Tube Station be an additional location as it is best suited for people living and working in the Bow Area.
- Jim Ives, London E3, 09/11/2009 17:13
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I use to be able to buy a copy of the evening standard no matter how late it was on my way home and I was happy to pay for it. Now it is free I have to go hunting for a copy and today by 8.45pm I couldn't get a copy anywhere at Waterloo station. I am really dissapointed because it seems those who get them free now are those who didn't pay for it before and those who use to pay for it now have to hunt around in order to get a copy.
- Kofo Oyeleye, London, UK, 05/11/2009 22:59
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my husband and myself are both disabled and unable to travel very far to get our copy of the evening standard,since it has become a free newspaper we have been unable to get a copy,the only places in stoke newington are hamdys and morrisons which are nowhere near where we live,pleasecan you advise us where else we can get it from or if its available through the post,we especially like it on wednesdays when you get the homes and property in it.
- Jacky Trew, stoke newington london, 04/11/2009 12:32
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I have been buying the Evening Standard at Stratford Station on my journey home for many years but since becoming free it seems to have disappeared from view. I have seen it being distributed if I'm travelling at lunchtime, but that's only the early edition, which I see no point in picking up. However between 5 and 6 in the evening I can't see the Standard anywhere. By contrast I can't move for copies of London Lite being thrust at me. Can you tell me what your plans are for improving evening distribution at one of the capital's major transport interchanges.
Incidentally what happened to the two people who used to staff the kiosk at the station? They were always chatty, friendly and helpful and brightened my day. Please pass on my thanks to them
- Alastair Kidd, Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex, England, 04/11/2009 11:54
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I cannot obtain a copy of London.Evening Standard here in New Malden. I am a 77 year old Londoner and regularly read The Evening Standard all my life. I miss it badly.
Today, I had to take the train into Kingston by riding on S.W.Trains,picking up the copy that an exiting passenger left on his seat at Kingston Station.
I used to buy my Standard from any of three news agents (one at the New Malden Station hallway)or a Tesco Metro store, all located in close proximity to New Malden Station.
I would appreciate knowing where is my closest pick up point?
Regards,
- Ron Gordon, New Malden, 03/11/2009 22:30
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Would it not be possible to have a distribution point near City Hall in Victoria Street, London. To obtain a copy the nearest is by Victoria Station, could there not be one half way up Victoria Street as well?
Thanks.
- Sally Tierney, London, UK, 02/11/2009 16:50
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