Meet the designers making London restaurants less loud and clattery October 20, 2026 Why do so many restaurants get their acoustics all messed up? Is sound the final frontier of luxury? Adam Bloodworth spoke to the experts attempting to quieten the cacophony A pal’s in town. You’ve booked a trendy new restaurant. It’s been a while and you’re looking forward to catching up. There’s one issue: the place [...]
Forget The Ritz: Inside the Paris hotel loved by Madonna and Charli October 20, 2026 Paris, 2am: the windmill outside the Moulin Rouge slows to a stop. Surely that is the signal the party’s over. However, a two-minute walk away, another neon sign lures Pigalle’s party set. The letters spelling out ‘Bus Palladium’ climb vertically up the side of a 12-storey building on Rue Pierre Fontaine. Paris, 2:30am: in the [...]
Does the Range Rover Sport Electric have the harder job? October 19, 2026 The full-size Range Rover Electric has the ultra-luxury EV market largely to itself. The cheaper, sportier Range Rover Sport Electric faces a far bigger fight, and JLR needs it to win. It has been quite a week for JLR. Jaguar finally revealed its £130,000 Type 01 in New York on Tuesday, but the car that [...]
The challenges facing barley farmers and Scotch distillers October 19, 2026 Global demand for Scotch appears to be holding up reasonably well, but there is clearly no shortage of supply. With bulging warehouses, distillers have cut production, causing real grief to the farmers and maltsters who supply them. Ron Emler investigates … This year’s British summer, the hottest on record, left a scorched trail down the [...]
Is this Europe’s weirdest holiday? Bog swimming in Estonia October 18, 2026 The strange, freeing pursuit of bog swimming in wild Estonia I am a Princess Fiona seeking her Shrek. My best chance of finding my lonely yet loveable ogre and getting our long-overdue Happily Ever After, as every DreamWorks fan knows, is in a swamp. Hackney Marshes and Walthamstow Wetlands have thus far failed to deliver [...]
These are the best literary hotels in Europe October 17, 2026 Poet, playwright and screenwriter Alexandra Pereira on her favourite literary hotels. Where will you check in to pen your tome? If you’re looking for inspiration for isolation, here’s where to book a room of one’s own, just a short train or flight from London, as well as the renowned, and sometimes controversial writers from the [...]
Cloth Cornhill review: A London icon returns – and it’s fabulous October 15, 2026 Standing in the teeny tiny, Netflix-Christmas-film-coded courtyard outside Cloth Cornhill, I feel sad. This opening drills the final nail in the coffin of the former Simpsons Tavern, the capital’s oldest chophouse, which was on this site since 1757. Everyone’s got a story about whose fault it is that that chophouse closed. Rumours range from the [...]
The four best wines to try this Sober October October 15, 2026 If you It is Sober October so whether you are off booze for good, taking a break or just watching your weekly glasses, here are some of the best bottles I have been trying this month. Saicho Sparkling Tea Hojicha (£20, Majestic). The first whiff is earthy green tea opening up to seaweed and smoke. [...]
The Cherry Orchard – Harold Pinter Theatre: Kristin Scott Thomas is luminous October 14, 2026 The Cherry Orchard at the Noel Coward Theatre with Kristin Scott Thomas and Stephen Mangan, review and star rating: ★★★★ Luminous Kristin Scott Thomas is the perfect choice for eccentric, blinkered stateswoman Lyubov Ranevskaya in Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, a mound of gesticulating passion and nostalgic delusion as the broke matriarch being slowly and [...]
Paris Motor Show 2026: BYD, Geely and the 2CV comeback October 14, 2026 From the revival of the Citroën 2CV to bold pushes by Geely, BYD and Omoda, this year’s Paris Motor Show revealed how nostalgia, electrification and Chinese ambition are reshaping the global car market. Ooh la la and welcome to Paris. We are in the beautiful French capital for the 2026 Mondial de l’Auto, otherwise known [...]