Obsidian Tear/An Invitation/Within the Golden Hour at the Royal Ballet review: A joyous, moving and brilliantly danced production June 2, 2016 Royal Opera House | ★★★★☆ It’s a brave man who opens an eagerly anticipated night at the Royal Ballet in silence, and an even braver one who picks a fight with a ballet dancer. In Wayne McGregor’s latest contemporary piece, Obsidian Tear, the stage is practically bare save for two men, eyeing each other up menacingly, [...]
Cuttin’ It at the Young Vic review: A powerful 21st century take on an age-old tragedy June 2, 2016 Young Vic | ★★★☆☆ At just over an hour long, Cuttin’ It is a compact yet ambitious play that takes on the complex issue of female genital mutilation. Our guides through this painful subject are two 15-year-old girls, Muna (Adelayo Adedayo) and Iqra (played by newcomer Tsion Habte), Somali-British schoolgirls who seem to hail from different [...]
New homes on sale in London: from a Hackney reservoir opened by Sir David Attenborough to Shared Ownership homes in Greenwich and Penge June 2, 2016 Woodberry Down, Stoke Newington From £475,000 Live in an apartment overlooking a protected nature reserve in north east London that hasn’t been accessible to the public for 200 years. Sir David Attenborough re-opened the Stoke Newington Reservoir in April and now the first homes next to it, The Nature Collection, are on sale. Set across [...]
Property of the Week: We may have found the only bungalow in central London tucked inside a courtyard in Marylebone June 2, 2016 If you’re torn between living centrally in squished conditions or braving a suburban commute for a quainter way of life, then The Bailey in Marylebone may be the solution. Its sales agent Kay & Co claims it’s the only bungalow in central London. Bungalows – self-contained, single level houses – became popular in the inter-war [...]
Focus On Southfields: This south west London suburb is bucking the London property trend ahead of Wimbledon June 2, 2016 If you went down to Southfields today, you’d be in for a big surprise. Buying London property is hardly a teddy bear’s picnic at the best of times, but as buyers rush to the leafier outskirts in search of more affordable property, outer boroughs that were once overlooked are finding they’re in high demand. London [...]
Holiday Homes: Sussing out the property market in Barcelona, the Spanish city proving popular with cash-strapped millennials June 2, 2016 Barcelona is the millennials’ Paris. There are scores of city-wide events aimed at a younger demographic, the art galleries are overwhelmingly modern, and a cursory glance through social media will net you far more pictures of young couples standing atop one of Barcelona’s several hills than the Eiffel Tower. The city’s growing popularity means property [...]
Forget the dinner party chatter – Brexit won’t make much difference to the London property market June 2, 2016 Every week, City PM invites an industry professional to write about an emerging trend in the property market. While the Chancellor’s taxes have affected the number of property transactions in Prime Central London, this is not the chief spanner in the works being cited by prospective purchasers. That would be a fear of Brexit, which [...]
Enjoy a gin-fuelled long weekend at Bombay Sapphire’s Laverstoke Mill distillery June 1, 2016 A partnership between Bombay Sapphire and – improbably – the wine-heaped environs of the Vineyard Hotel in Newbury, the Bombay Gin Break is a package holiday designed with the more holistic bon viveur in mind. Arrive to complementary gin and tonics, then head to the very place they were made to discover just what it [...]
Olympic controversy and Zika outbreaks have done nothing to dampen Rio de Janeiro’s party atmosphere June 1, 2016 In what is surely a daily occurrence in Brazil, a bunch of transfixed foreigners sat speechless ogling a local. “Wesley, she looks friendly, get out of the van and walk up to her,’’ suggested our Iguassu Falls host Juliana. “I have two daughters, I’m not going anywhere near her,’’ Wesley replied. Juliana, let me confirm, [...]
Heineken hopes F1 will help its beer zoom off shelf June 1, 2016 Brewing giant Heineken is reportedly close to tying up a five-year £100m deal to sponsor Formula One. The sport is more globalised than ever, with races now taken place in extremely lucrative markets across the Middle East, America and eastern Europe. Although many consumer brands have sponsored the sport over the years – with Red [...]
