Leadenhall Market to become neon-soaked cinephiles’ dream May 4, 2021 Leadenhall Market will this month swap its Victorian grandeur for in-your-face neon lights, transforming into a living art exhibition courtesy of God’s Own Junkyard. The neon artists at the famous Walthamstow-based studio will create Electric City, an “immersive technicolour production”, featuring highlights from its 40-year history making neons for cinema, including Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide [...]
The Return of Luxury Travel May 4, 2021 | Sponsored After more than a year of global lockdowns which largely paused the travel industry, especially its luxury segment, vaccination programmes’ arrival means that European summer holidays are firmly on the table — despite some countries being yet to settle on their entry requirements. The pandemic has also affected consumer thinking, and that of luxury travel [...]
Drinking around the world: The Corsican wine loved by Napoleon May 4, 2021 Napoleon, the son of an Ajaccio winemaker on the Granite island of Corsica, died two hundred years ago this week. Films portray Corsica as a place of scrubland, beaches, vendettas and banditry, while cookery shows spotlight the island’s world-beating urchins, “figatelli” smoked chestnut sausage, cured hams and ripened brocciu cheese. But they ignore the excellent [...]
Fidelio Cafe’s Raffaello Morales on the role of music in the City May 4, 2021 I caught up with Raffaello Morales, conductor and founder of Fidelio Cafe and founder and music director of Fidelio Orchestra, a London-based ensemble which brings together students, professionals and semi-professional players. We talked about the role of music in the City of London, how businesses can support the arts, and the importance of forging new [...]
The age of the staycation: Why you should visit… Guildford May 4, 2021 Welcome to the golden age of the staycation. Last week rail bookings trebled, with the most popular getaway destinations being Margate, Weymouth, Brighton, Inverness, Cambridge, Bournemouth and Guildford. The latter can be reached in little over half an hour from Waterloo. But what is the secret to Guildford’s popularity? The County town of Surrey and [...]
Red faces full of port wine: how to drink England’s favourite wine May 4, 2021 What’s the first thing you think of when you read the word “port”? I suspect for many of you it will evoke a very distinct stereotype, and not all of that will be positive. Some of you, I’ll wager, thought “gout”. Most of the images that came to mind will have been of well-off, well-upholstered [...]
The wine untouched by the scourge of daylight April 30, 2021 Slovenian Untouched By Light sparkling wine does exactly what it says on the bottle. Its Chardonnay grapes are picked on moonless nights on the Bouvier family (as in Jackie Kennedy) Radgona vineyard in south-east Slovenia and matured in pitch-black, 170-year-old cellars. They are bottled in 99.8% black glass and shipped and sold in vacuum-sealed light-free bags. [...]
Where to eat… In Canary Wharf April 30, 2021 Once, the daily commute to Canary Wharf seemed to encapsulate the very idea of the daily grind, a long and uncomfortable journey to a land of grey buildings filled with grey suits. But Canary Wharf has transformed in recent years and lockdown has only made our hearts grow fonder. Now we can’t wait to get [...]
ESTA travel to the USA this summer: How likely? April 30, 2021 | Sponsored Only a few months ago, the thought of going on a holiday this summer seemed like a fever dream. Yet with vaccination rollouts ahead of schedule in the USA, the country has already hinted at relaxing the travel ban currently in place, which also applies to visa-exempt ESTA countries. With UK vaccinations also progressing fluidly, [...]
How to celebrate International Viognier Day in style April 30, 2021 It’s the 30 April, which may as well be my birthday, as it’s the international celebration of one of my favourite types of wine – Viognier. And it is a Friday, so let us all raise a glass to this aromatic, romantic grape. It’s like it knew it was the start of the weekend. Viognier [...]