Its hip to be in the square, whether that’s in London or outside the city July 16, 2009 IN residential stakes, it’s pretty hard to top the London square. An emblem of elegance, a coveted enclave for the rich, famous and private, a square is where people who have reached the top go for a house. And despite the property market slump, those with cash still can’t get enough of them. Howard Elston, [...]
FOCUS ON: DARTFORD, KENT July 16, 2009 PRIORY LANE, EYNSFORD, DA4 0AYPrice: £1.35m This pretty four-bedroom home is thought to date from the 17th century and is set in the village of Eynsford, which is about half an hour from London by train. The drawing room is double aspect while the dining room has French doors which look out on to a [...]
Q&A: SALES July 16, 2009 Russell HuntMANAGING DIRECTOR, PROPERTY HUNTQ. I keep missing out on properties as they’re selling very quickly. What tips can you give me? A. If you are getting a mortgage then you must make sure that you can get your finances agreed in principle before you start looking. Remember that you will be coming up against [...]
Mixing business with glamour and killer heels July 15, 2009 THE TOWERING WORLD OF JIMMY CHOO By Lauren Goldstein Crowe and Sagra Maceira de RosanBLOOMSBURY £18.99 PART business manual and part snoopy fashion reportage, the tale of super-brand Jimmy Choo is by turns compelling and dull. Well, it depends on the reader, actually. If your primary interest is learning about what makes companies successful, then [...]
Middle of the road July 14, 2009 ANOTHER version of the popular and much-copied TT is here. Do I sound bored? I’m not really, it’s just that this sector is chock-full of perfectly good cars, many of which have taken a bit of the TT’s design and slapped them onto their own product. So, we see lots of this car creeping into [...]
Coffee is not the miracle drug it’s often made out to be July 13, 2009 LAST week scientists from the University of Florida released a study claiming that coffee can prevent the development of dementia, and even reverse it. When they gave caffeine to mice that had been bred to have the rodent version of Alzheimer’s, they found that the animals’ ability to perform memory tests increased and was soon [...]
The food was lovely, it was just a shame about everything else July 13, 2009 MURANO20 QUEEN STREET,LONDON, W1J 5PRT: 020 7592 1222murano@gordonramsay.comFOOD SERVICE ATMOSPHERE Cost per person without wine: £25 (set menu) WHEN Murano opened in 2008 it was greeted with trumpets and fanfare. It was the latest in Gordon Ramsay’s empire, and the food was by Angela Hartnett, one of the few women at the top of the [...]
THREE OTHER HIGH-END ITALIANS July 13, 2009 L’ANIMAClassy, chic, and with excellent food, this is one of the best new openings in the City in the past year, and one of the few Square Mile restaurants that you might want to visit with friends, as well as contacts. 1 Snowden Street EC2A 2DQ, tel: 020 7422 7000, www.lanima.co.uk. LOCANDA LOCATELLIAn oldie, but [...]
Beyond Tokyo Japan offers tranquility, history and cute monkeys July 12, 2009 KYOTOWhen America was at war with Japan, it left Kyoto off of its list of air raid targets. Even as an enemy, the US realised that it would be inhuman to destroy the city, with its countless temples and winding streets that drip with history, some of it dating back to the Eighth century. Having [...]
Google is not the only challenger to Microsoft July 9, 2009 GOOGLE opened yet another front in its war on Microsoft earlier this week by announcing the launch of its new PC operating system. Chrome will compete directly with Microsoft’s sacred cash cow, Windows, which accounted for around 45 per cent of the software giant’s $22.5bn operating profit last year. Google’s decision to take on Microsoft [...]