The past lives on as Agatha Christie’s top hotel reopens October 17, 2010 ONCE you’ve been to Istanbul, Paris, Berlin and even London seem somehow paltry, a bit small-scale and even a touch banal. The enormity and seductiveness of the Bosphorous, especially at sunset, and the mesmeric mixture of ancient history, Ottoman splendour and Islamic architecture beguile every traveller. Its appeal was just as strong for the most [...]
HOTEL REVIEW October 17, 2010 The Oberoi – Mumbai THE GLEAMING five-star Oberoi hotel has spent a lot of time and money trying to forget the past. The Mumbai landmark, a playground for the megacity’s elite as well as foreign VIPs like former US President Bill Clinton, was reopened in April following an 18-month, $40m renovation after being at the [...]
TRAVEL NOTES October 17, 2010 London’s helipad hotel Take that, Claridges. The new Hotel Verta in Battersea (of all places) comes with a helipad for those who don’t want to deal with traffic. The 70-room Von Essen hotel is located within the London Heliport complex, and is the first of its type in Europe. Aside from the Bond-style arrival possibilities, [...]
Being eco-friendly can make you richer October 14, 2010 YOU may think that making your home eco-friendly is the kind of bore only liberal do-gooders relish. Think again. Jumping on the green bandwagon can add up to 5 per cent to the value of your property, make it more competitive on the housing market and help you save on energy bills. CityA.M. has taken [...]
FOCUS ON: BRENTWOOD, ESSEX October 14, 2010 CREST BASE Price: From £183,000 This new development in the heart of Brentwood has both one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments for sale. The living area is open-plan and each flat also has a bathroom and a kitchen. Depending on the stage of construction, you can personalise various aspects of the internal finish. For commuters it is [...]
PROPERTY NEWS October 14, 2010 HARRODS ESTATES’ PROPERTY ACQUISITION SERVICE Luxury real estate division Harrods Estates has this week launched a bespoke property acquisition services which is intended to help clients who may be too busy or who want to maintain their privacy through the whole home buying process, from the initial search to contract exchange and completion. The service [...]
BUYING October 14, 2010 MANAGING PARTNER, BLACK BRICK Q.There has been lots of negativity surrounding house prices recently. Are prices in central London falling? A.There has been a recent wave of negative headlines surrounding UK houses prices recently. The unexpectedly large 3 per cent drop in the Halifax house price index in September has grabbed the bulk of the [...]
How to start a cyber revolution October 14, 2010 FLM THE SOCIAL NETWORK Cert: 12A Zoe Strimpel THERE is almost nobody I can think of that will not be absorbed by Seven director David Fincher and writer Aaron Sorkin’s scarily well-made and well-acted film about the founding of Facebook. The social networking empire the then-undergraduate Mark Zuckerberg dreamt up at Harvard in 2004 now [...]
PREVIEW: October 14, 2010 Various venues, until Oct 28 Want to know what films are going to be making the headlines next year? The BFI London Film Festival, which opened this week and runs for the next fortnight, brings together a panoply of the most anticipated new films, as well as hidden gems from around the world and a [...]
OUT THIS WEEKEND October 14, 2010 FILM VAMPIRES SUCK It was only a matter of time until we got a Twilight pastiche. Guess what? It, like, sucks. OVER YOUR CITIES GRASS WILL GROW Documentary about German artist Anselm Kiefer. KNOCK OUT Swedish movie about a former boxer trying to make it as a country musician. DVD THE LOSERS Comic-style action silliness [...]
