A power interruption at a London data centre on Tuesday morning knocked out cloud services across the UK, disrupting major banks, delivery services, and court video links before Google restored operations.
The disruption hit Google Cloud’s europe-west2 region in London at approximately 0608 GMT on October 20, 2026, driven by a power event inside a data centre zone. The ensuing outage created elevated errors and intermittent network failures across multiple services hosted on the infrastructure, triggering widespread frustration for businesses and consumers across the UK. By Tuesday afternoon, Google reported that the issues were largely resolved, with most services returning to normal by 1210 GMT, around six hours after the incident began. An investigation into the underlying power failure remains underway, and the company stated it will publish an analysis on its service health dashboard.
Revolut, Lloyds, and HSBC Customers Face Banking Gridlock
Financial platforms felt the immediate weight of the infrastructure failure. More than 1,500 people flagged problems with Revolut on the Downdetector platform. A source close to the matter pointed directly to the Google Cloud failure as the root cause of the breakdown.
Major high-street lenders also absorbed the blow. Lloyds Bank and HSBC confirmed that customers experienced difficulties accessing online accounts and mobile apps. While Lloyds reported that underlying issues were resolved and expected its services to return to normal soon, Halifax—which is owned by Lloyds Banking Group—responded to a user on X to say it was aware some customers were having issues with its app and online services, adding an apology and stating it was working hard to fix the matter. HSBC stated it would continue monitoring the situation. Budgeting application Emma also went dark before posting on X that its services had returned to normal, though warning users that some balances may take a little while to refresh
.
We are currently experiencing a service disruption affecting multiple services. We can confirm that all our customers’ money and data are safe. We’ve been working to fix the issue since it was identified this morning and apologise to anyone affected and for any inconvenience caused.
Revolut spokesperson, via X
Court Hearings and Postal Deliveries Caught in the Interruption
The fallout extended well beyond personal finance. The HM Courts and Tribunals Service reported that its cloud video platform—vital for remote hearings across England and Wales—suffered temporary disruptions. At Southwark Crown Court in London, Mr Justice Bennathan addressed the technical stumble during the sexual assault trial of Russell Brand, noting that the proceedings had encountered problems with Google
before the video link came back online. Journalists observing cases reported the platform began working shortly after.
Delivery networks and postal infrastructure also absorbed knock-on effects. Royal Mail, DPD, property portal Rightmove, and forest e-bike services all registered operational hiccups as the data centre struggled. Internet outage trackers recorded hundreds of complaints regarding postal and delivery platforms throughout the morning hours.
Cloud Centralisation Risks Draw Cybersecurity Scrutiny
The incident has revived anxious conversations regarding corporate reliance on a handful of global cloud hyperscalers. Alan Woodward, a cybersecurity professor at the University of Surrey, told AFP that local infrastructure failures at these massive data centres carry sweeping consequences because modern commerce depends on so few providers. He added that the breakneck growth of artificial intelligence is accelerating demand for cloud capacity, potentially deepening that structural reliance.
Sam Richardson, editor of Which? Money. Money noted that consumers were rightly concerned
about outages that could prevent people making essential purchases or even paying their bills
. He suggested that individuals consider maintaining financial back-ups, such as backup cards from secondary banks or a modest amount of emergency cash.
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