Holiday Homes: Head to Samoens in the French Alps to suss out new ski homes that allow you to resort hop at no extra cost February 18, 2019 Families wanting to buy a ski apartment without the hefty price tag of the best-known French resorts are finding smaller ski areas like Samoëns are a breath of fresh mountain air. An hour by car from Geneva, Samoëns is described by the French as one of their monuments historiques – that just happens to be [...]
Opinion: Why Michael Gove’s plan to force housebuilders to leave green spaces better than they found them is a good idea February 18, 2019 Last December, Michael Gove announced proposals to enforce biodiversity net gain at new housing schemes. This would essentially require natural environments to be left in a better state than they were found by developers. The consultation on the plans closed on Sunday and I hope it will produce a host of positive outcomes. The environmental [...]
Interiors: Laura Ivill reviews the new sustainable Ikea Greenwich on its opening weekend February 15, 2019 Four years in the planning, Ikea Greenwich opened last weekend as the company’s first “sustainable store” in the UK. A pilot ran in Germany, but the Swedish behemoth, the world’s largest homewares retailer, chose SE10 for its new dawn. Billed as taking sustainability to the next level, it opened with a BREEED 'excellent' accreditation for green [...]
Opinion: Lloyd’s Lend a Hand mortgage is a great deal for the bank, but is it any good for borrowers? February 15, 2019 A “new” mortgage called ‘Lend a Hand’ from Lloyds made the headlines last week – well, the real headline was the 100 per cent Loan-to-Value, which brought back memories of the financial crisis. Digging deeper into the mortgage itself, this product may well help first-time buyers, provided they are very careful, but, really, it is [...]
Focus On Wanstead: Families flock to ‘the Twickenham of East London’, where houses near green spaces have sold for seven digits February 15, 2019 There was a time when Wanstead, an unusually leafy spot of east London, was most famous for its Member of Parliament. They don’t come much more recognisable than Sir Winston Churchill, who served Wanstead from 1924 up to 1964 with a patch of absence in the middle for his Wilderness Years. But there’s one other [...]
New homes: Our pick of the new builds going on sale in London this weekend February 15, 2019 New developments on the market this week Ridgeway Views, Mill Hill From £569,995 Move into one of these two and three bedroom flats in time for the summer. The latest phase of homes, called Highwood Place, went on sale this week overlooking Totteridge Valley, with views of the rolling hills from private balconies and terraces, [...]
Diane Arbus: In the Beginning at Hayward Gallery review: A master who helped define New York City February 14, 2019 The latest blockbuster exhibition at the Hayward Gallery makes me nostalgic for a time I barely remember, and that will be completely alien to many who visit this show. It was a time when a single photographer could come to define a place and time, their work spanning decades, their vision becoming ingrained on the [...]
The American Clock at the Old Vic theatre review: A bad production of a bad Arthur Miller play February 14, 2019 The American Clock is Arthur Miller’s attempt to chart the death of the old America and the traumatic birth of the new in the years following the Great Depression. It has a loose, fidgety structure – it’s a series of vignettes, really – but the central dramatic arc follows the Baums, a well-to-do family who, [...]
The Boy Who Would Be King review: Arthurian legend meets London suburbia in Joe Cornish’s latest adventure February 14, 2019 Almost eight years have passed since Joe Cornish brought science-fiction to an inner city council estate in his alien-invasion movie Attack the Block. Now the writer-director deftly splices London suburbia and Arthurian legend in The Boy Who Would Be King, the story of a 12-year-old who yanks a big sword out of a bit of [...]
Tracey Emin at the White Cube Bermondsey: An agonised howl marks Emin’s return as an artist February 13, 2019 It’s been years since the last major Tracey Emin exhibition, but she returns with an agonised howl of a show exploring the gaping emotional wounds that threatened to destroy her as both an artist and a human being. The White Cube’s first room is dominated by 50 giant selfies of Emin in bed, taken on [...]
