Regeneration is taking off in the Olympic quarters June 25, 2009 STRATFORD has long been one of those London areas that is supposedly on the verge of gentrification. The coming of the DLR, then the Jubilee Line, were meant to turn it into an up-and-coming area attractive to thrusting young professionals. It never quite happened. But last week, two things took place which mean that Stratford [...]
FOCUS ON: WOODFORD, ESSEX June 25, 2009 QUEEN MARY’S GATE, SOUTHEND RD, E18 2PAPrice: From £225,000Set in nine acres of landscaped gardens, this private-gated development offers residents an exclusive environment which is just 20 minutes away from Bank by Tube. Formerly university accommodation, the development has been transformed into one, two and three-bedroom flats, which are smartly decorated. Epping Forest is just [...]
Q&A: RENTING June 25, 2009 Louise SavageDIRECTOR OF RESIDENTIAL LAND Q.Dear Louise, I have a buy-to-let mortgage from when I bought a property several years ago. I’m really worried I’m going to start losing money on it – is it worth holding on to the property as an investment or should I get out of the market completely? A. This [...]
Bland of brothers June 25, 2009 FilmRUDO & CURSICert: 15BACK in 2001, a low-budget Mexican film named Y Tu Mama Tambien, about a pair of teenage boys on a road trip with a beautiful older woman, became an unlikely international hit, and made a global star out of young actor Gael Garcia Bernal. Rudo y Cursi reunites Bernal with his former [...]
NOW SHOWING SIX OF THE BEST June 25, 2009 ART Walking In My Mind The Hayward Gallery’s exhibition of installations reflecting the interior world of the artist. FILM Telstar Actor Nick Moran’s directorial debut, about 60s music legend and all round fruit-loop Joe Meek. THEATRE Arcadia Tom Stoppard’s ingenious comedy, at the Duke of York’s Theatre. THEATRE The Mountaintop David Harewood stars as Martin [...]
Smashin’ fashion June 25, 2009 FROM the dashing chaps in clean-cut whites back in the Twenties to the short skirts (plus frilly knickers) of the ladies’ game in the Seventies, tennis – and Wimbledon in particular – has always been a source of sporting fashion statements. It went through a bit of a lull when the most noteworthy look was [...]
Why Murdoch’s MySpace is going back to its roots June 25, 2009 WHEN Rupert Murdoch bought MySpace for $580m (£319m) back in 2005, most people thought he had gone crazy. A few years later when Microsoft snapped up a 1.6 per cent stake in rival Facebook, giving it a notional value of $15bn, all was forgotten; Murdoch had been right all along, picking up a mass market [...]
OUT THIS WEEKEND PREVIEWS June 25, 2009 FILMYEAR ONE The star power of Jack Black and Michael Cera can’t save this brain-dead pre-history comedy. TENDERNESS Drama with the world’s least tender actor, Russell Crowe. DVDGRAN TORINO Clint Eastwood delivers a terrific sign-off on his acting career in this race drama. CHE – PARTS ONE AND TWO Tiresome biopic with Benicio Del Toro. [...]
Bullets, bombs and books on the front line June 24, 2009 THE JUNIOR OFFICERS’ READING CLUB: KILLING TIME AND FIGHTING WARSBy Patrick HennesseyPENGUIN, £16.99PATRICK HENNESSEY is a 27-year-old trainee barrister, who happens to have spent the past five years as an officer in the Grenadier Guards, fighting his way through the horrors of Iraq and Afghanistan and – as the title of his book suggests – [...]
Frugal food hits the top table June 24, 2009 A RESTAURATEUR who grew up in the South of France once told me that the reason that French cuisine is superior to English simply because the produce is better. In the Mediterranean world, he led me to believe, tomatoes as big as your hand grow effortlessly, exotic fish jump straight out of the sea and [...]