Opinion: Why we need a new certification system to make sure new homes will last for generations to come August 4, 2016 Plans set out by the government to build one million new homes by 2020 has instigated a mad rush to push through as many developments as possible in the coming years. It is vital that we learn from past mistakes of quick-fire developments, built in a hurry that are now obsolete or no longer fit [...]
Exposure review: A cringe-inducing musical so awful it ascends like some horrible bird into a delirious realm of brilliant, unintentional comedy August 4, 2016 Like Chekhov’s prophetic gun above the mantle, any character who proudly shows off an ultrasound of their unborn son guarantees their own near-immediate demise. In this wonderfully terrible musical, a photographer barely has the foetal-snap out of his pocket before he’s bitten to death by snakes. His already grieving, prenatal son then explodes from rear [...]
Property of the week: The Fitzrovia apartment where Friends star Matthew Perry stayed while he performed in the West End is on sale August 3, 2016 Just one of the terraces in this enormous penthouse where Friends star Matthew Perry lived is bigger than the average family home being built in the UK. Measuring in at over 1,000sqft, the eighth floor roof terrace is the jewel in the crown of the apartment complex that Perry, who played sarcastic New Yorker Chandler [...]
Olga Polizzi on creating a suite in Brown’s Hotel inspired by the novels of Rudyard Kipling August 3, 2016 In this summer of botanical wallcoverings and all things tropical, lush and green, one jungle-inspired interior design project in Mayfair is king of the swingers. The sumptuous Kipling Suite at Browns Hotel in Mayfair is where favoured guest Rudyard Kipling stayed and penned, they claim, much of The Jungle Book. And if the best hotel [...]
Suicide Squad movie review: Jared Leto’s strong Joker game can’t save a film that’s too fixated on Margot Robbie’s behind August 2, 2016 There are lots of reasons to dislike Suicide Squad. It shamelessly fetishises guns, for instance, which in the current climate feels pretty distasteful. There are guns emblazoned with “love” and “hate”, guns made out of gold, guns that fly through the air in slow motion. It shamelessly objectifies women, particularly Margot Robbie and more particularly [...]
Working Lunch review: 8 Hoxton Square is what the phrase “I know a great little place” was made for August 2, 2016 8 Hoxton Square 8 Hoxton Square, N1 WHAT? An independent restaurant and bar with a cosy Continental-style outdoor terrace in the midst of Hoxton’s hipster bustle off of Old Street. WHERE? If you need me to tell you again, you’re no longer welcome in the food and drink section. WHO? Still here? Good, it’s executive chef [...]
Mark Hix on the difference between morels, chanterelles and girolles and why you should eat them all the time August 2, 2016 Girolles are one of the first mushrooms to appear on the UK’s culinary calendar. If you’re very lucky, you might find a rare morel or a scarlet elf cup, which grows in freezing conditions in the early part of the year unlike most of themushrooms we pick here. But trust me, the first funghi you’re [...]
St Emilion wine has a chequered reputation but I’m discovering it can be worth a little TLC August 2, 2016 Sometime later this summer, when I have ploughed my way through another 100 pages of paperwork and weaved through a bewildering slalom of French bureaucracy, I will have realised a dream. I am buying a house in Bordeaux, a few miles from St Emilion. It sits in a small hamlet in Entre-Deux-Mers, surrounded by well-tended [...]
Viognier once dwindled to just eight acres of vines; thankfully now this varied wine is getting the props it deserves August 2, 2016 Viognier is one of my favourite summer whites and one that grows on me with every bottle. It has a complexity, a range of floral scents and flavours and even a slight muskiness that demands attention. It’s a sobering thought that we almost lost this harlequin grape completely. Viognier is a pain to grow, prone [...]
Opinion: Why more transparency is needed on letting fees to make sure both landlords and tenants are getting a good deal August 1, 2016 There has been much debate in the press and both Houses of Parliament regarding the subject of letting agents’ fees and whether these are fair or reasonable. Unfortunately as far as I am concerned, they are neither. The all-too-common practice of asking tenants to pay exorbitant administration charges, and a host of other overheads, to [...]