New comparison website claims to be ‘Skyscanner for interiors’ August 30, 2019 Ever bought a piece of furniture that you thought was just right for your home, and then been dismayed to stumble across a very similar item that was a better shade, significantly cheaper, or just a bit nicer? This is the problem that Kuldea, a new comparison website billing itself as a kind of Skyscanner [...]
Focus on Balham: The family-friendly outpost is now pricier than Wimbledon and Putney August 30, 2019 In the post-war era, Balham was mocked as the ‘Gateway to the South’ in that infamous Peter Sellers sketch sending up radio adverts for far-flung holiday destinations. The joke was that nothing much exciting happened there – it was an archetypal dreary suburb. How times have changed. It is now a fiercely sought after location [...]
Londoners bury tradition to modernise their funeral services August 29, 2019 Londoners are abandoning tradition to give their loved ones more unique send-offs as religious funeral services appear to be dying off, according to new research. Co-op Funeralcare said it is seeing a rise in funerals which feature the deceased’s beloved pets, decorating coffins in bright colours and even hosting funerals at the zoo or on [...]
Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 review: A dramatic escalation in the war on noise August 28, 2019 Things have quieted down, if you’ll excuse the pun, in the field of noise-cancelling headphones. At the top of the unchanging pack sit Sony’s MDR-1000XM3, Sennheiser’s PXC 550 and the ageing champion, the Bose QuietComfort 35. Once seen adorning the crowns of every other commuter, the QC35’s long reign as London’s preferred method of blocking [...]
Wolfenstein: Youngblood review – a bonkers but thrilling co-op experiment August 28, 2019 Platform: PS4 (tested), XBO, PC Five years ago, Wolfenstein: The New Order took a gloriously silly, decades old game about shooting Nazis and turned it into a gloriously silly, throughly modern game about shooting Nazis. It married lightning-quick gunplay with a pulpy, sci-fi yarn about monstrous mechanical Panzerhunds and fascist moon bases, while somehow making [...]
Glass half full: Optimists outlive pessimists, study finds August 27, 2019 Viewing the glass as half full may be the secret to a longer life, according to a US study that found a positive correlation between levels of optimism and longevity. Conducted by Boston University School of Medicine, the study found that optimists not only live longer in general but have a better chance than pessimists [...]
Shifting stamp duty burden would hurt first-time buyers August 23, 2019 It was an interesting idea – and sounded great for first-time buyers. On Saturday, Sajid Javid appeared to be considering switching the cost of stamp duty land tax (SDLT) from the buyer to the seller in England and Northern Ireland. On Sunday, in a tweet, he made it clear that he did not support the [...]
Property of the week: Celeb-spot in this historic Abbey Road church August 23, 2019 If you are looking for a home with an interesting history, you could do a lot worse than this penthouse apartment in St John’’s Wood. Not only does the flat sit within a converted, grade II-listed baptist church, but it is also located directly across the street from Abbey Road Studios where the Beatles recorded [...]
Here’s where you should buy a home for access to the best London schools August 23, 2019 As the summer holidays draw to a close and parents prepare their children for another academic year, would-be property buyers who have a young family – or are planning to start one – might be prompted to weigh up their options when it comes to local schools. For lots of families this means considering a [...]
The Doctor at the Almeida review: Robert Icke signs off with a masterful medical ethics drama August 22, 2019 Robert Icke approaches a classic play the way a mechanic might approach a motor, breaking it down to its constituent pieces, working out what makes it tick, and then replacing half of it with gleaming new parts. This approach paid dubious dividends in his largely hellish revision of Ibsen’s The Wild Duck last year, but [...]
