Underground cable fault plunges 32 London postcodes into darkness before power is restored within an hour

From the Newshound archive · first published 6 October 2026.

A fault on UK Power Networks' underground electricity cable in the Shoreditch area knocked out power to several thousand properties and businesses across 32 postcodes at around 10.30am, hitting the City of London, Islington, Hackney, Westminster and east London. Engineers rerouted electricity in stages, with full supply restored by 11.08am. Liverpool Street station's customer information screens went dark for around 15 minutes, leaving travellers milling around the UK's busiest rail terminus in confusion. UK Power Networks apologised for the disruption, saying its engineers worked as quickly as safely possible.

The outage caused no train delays at Liverpool Street, Network Rail confirmed, and TfL said there was no traffic impact despite some signals and CCTV in Hackney being affected.

Affected postcodes stretched from the City's EC2 and EC3 zones through east London's E1, E2, E8 and E9 postcodes up to N1 and N5 in north London.

Social media images showed confused commuters stranded beneath blank departure boards at Liverpool Street as offices across the City were cast into darkness.