Office Space: Step into Sessions House, the courthouse HQ of Ennismore, the company behind The Hoxton and Gleneagles July 24, 2019 From the outside, Sessions House is a slightly menacing proposition. Squat and grimly imposing, it looks mistrustfully out onto Clerkenwell Green, seemingly miles removed from the surrounding buildings. If you’re a frequent visitor to central London, you might recognise its austere, almost gothic facade, all dreary grey brick and prison-bar windows. Upon entering the building, [...]
Naked houses: Unfinished homes give buyers a discount price – but are they practical? July 24, 2019 In case you hadn’t noticed, Britain is in the grip of its worst housing crisis since the 1940s. The verdict, delivered in a recent report from the Centre for Policy Studies, will be endorsed by anyone who has endured the vagaries of the London rental market, where a ‘cosy one-bed’ can be a garage with [...]
Phantom islands thought to exist for hundreds of years are being “undiscovered” July 24, 2019 On a voyage from Manila to Mexico in 1528, the Spanish captain Alavaro de Saaverda reported stopping off at a pair of islands a few thousand kilometres north of Papua New Guinea in the Philippine Sea. He named the islands Los Buenos Jardines, and wrote in his diary about the friendly natives he’d met there. [...]
The bigger they come: The amazing story of Wentworth Woodhouse, the largest home in England July 24, 2019 You’ve heard of Chatsworth, and Castle Howard, that Brideshead dream. You’ve heard of Blenheim Palace, the Duke of Marlborough’s monumental home. But what about Wentworth Woodhouse, the biggest house in England? Wentworth Woodhouse, the former seat of the Earls Fitzwilliam, could have been a house lost to history. Five miles from Rotherham, it sits in [...]
London’s Indian summer: How a new generation of restaurants shook up the food scene July 24, 2019 You could spend a year’s worth of Friday nights eating out at London’s upmarket Indian restaurants and still have a few left over to carry into January. The capital is crammed so full of Kashmiri morels and quail naans there’s barely room for kulfi. The last couple of years have seen critical and popular success [...]
Let there be colour: Rado’s range of watches made to Le Corbusier’s famous colour system are deliciously on trend July 24, 2019 Does your house have chic grey walls? Complementary saffron accents? Maybe a statement colour chair and tiled section? Chances are all of these shades have featured in Le Corbusier’s Architectural Polychromy. Because, as well as designing buildings, planning towns and being an all-round polymath, Le Corbusier developed a theory of colour. Corbu, as he was [...]
Has ASOS just issued its third and final profits warning? July 23, 2019 | City Talk By Graeme Evans from interactive investor. With ongoing operational issues aplenty, investor confidence hinges on a belief in stock market adages. Warehouse troubles drove ASOS (LSE:ASC) to a third profits warning in less than a year as the fast-fashion giant slipped even further behind the market value of upstart rival Boohoo Group (LSE:BOO). Shares dived as much as 22 per cent [...]
A mechanical wristwatch may be based on 19th-century principles – but that doesn’t mean it’s immune to innovation July 23, 2019 The idea of “new technology” in Swiss watchmaking seems rather oxymoronic – especially when you consider how much stock this rose-tinted industry places in heritage and hand craftsmanship. But as mechanical watches have reasserted themselves in recent decades, after near-decimation at the hands of quartz technology back in the 70s, the more forward-minded brands are [...]
Da Terra at Bethnal Green Town Hall Hotel review: Three’s the dream for this storied dining room July 23, 2019 Bethnal Green’s Town Hall Hotel has been home to two of my favourite restaurants. When I moved to London in 2010, Nuno Mendes had just opened Viajante, his Portuguese-minded take on world cuisine. It was his first proper restaurant – and his first Michelin star – after running lauded supper clubs and gastro pubs. It was [...]
Tom Brown, the superstar chef behind Hackney Wick’s Cornerstone, cooks lunch for Last Shadow Puppets star Miles Kane July 23, 2019 Starter: Salmon pastrami; airdried monkfish; cuttlefish salami; oysters; brill tartare with egg yolk, peas and morels Miles Kane: We met through my mate Gizzi Erskine, didn’t we? She’s a chef, and she told me bout the place. I was intrigued when I heard it was named after an Arctic Monkeys tune. I came for a [...]