Great Portland swoops on two London offices September 12, 2011 GREAT Portland Estates unveiled plans yesterday to expand into London’s West End by buying two properties for more than £250m. The London property developer has agreed to buy a 2.3-acre site near Oxford Street from the Royal Mail Group for £120m in cash – its largest deal to-date. Royal Mail will lease back the site [...]
East meets west with this fresh take on the brasserie May 30, 2011 RIDING HOUSE CAFE 43 Great Titchfield St, London, W1W 7PQ, 020 7927 0840 www.ridinghousecafe.co.uk FOOD **** SERVICE *** ATMOSPHERE **** Cost per person without wine: £32.70 THERE’s a sense of familiarity when you walk in to the Riding House Café. Parquet flooring, tick, exposed brick walls, tick, hospital-style white tiles, tick, communal booth tables, tick [...]
Get the best deal on rent in London May 26, 2011 YOUNG professionals struggling to get on the housing ladder is not news. Renting, particularly in London, is just a fact of life for many of us – at least while we are working on those deposits. The problem with renting, however, is that it is getting more and more expensive. Indeed, research out this week [...]
London shops get wedding fever boost May 15, 2011 TRADING at London’s West End shops during April outperformed both last year’s figures and the rest of the country, as the extended bank holidays and Royal Wedding celebrations boosted footfall at the capital’s retailers. Sales at 600 stores on Oxford Street, Regent Street and Bond Street rose 7.6 per cent year on year, according to [...]
THE M25 OF RAILWAYS GETS BORIS’ THUMBS UP February 28, 2011 THE M25 of railways: not the most illustrious description of a rail link designed to ease commuter congestion, but the one that Mayor of London Boris Johnson chose to use yesterday at the opening of the latest extension of the East London Line. Luckily he was referring to the new line’s aim to be an [...]
The game’s not over for the West, and Dambisa Moyo wants us to win January 25, 2011 IMAGINE if the top Premiership team, instead of honing its football skills, became obsessed by the performance of another, lower-ranking but fast-improving side. Distracted from practice, heads craned over their shoulders to gawp at the new phenomenon, the players’ advantage would dwindle not so much from the growing skill of the newcomers but from their [...]
The City is back but under new management December 21, 2010 BRITAIN’S financial landscape has been transformed since we last shone a light on the City’s most powerful figures two years ago. The City A.M./CityJet Power Hundred 2011 list ranks the most influential figures in UK finance as we head into the new year. It should be no surprise that it is very different from 2009. [...]
Sexier reasons for Soho investment October 7, 2010 SOHO is said to have been home to popular culture’s edgier side for the last 200 years: 18th century communists, beatniks and the swinging side of the sixties. Not exactly the kind of place respectable folk want to call home. Or so you may have thought. The area is undergoing what nostalgists might call “sterilisation”. [...]
GOING OUT July 28, 2010 WITH the summer just about living up to expectations this year, outside space has become the holy grail when picking a great place to drink in London. It’s certainly tricky to find in Mayfair and the West End so when the sun does come out, here are some of the best alfresco spots to seek [...]
Generating cash from caring April 29, 2010 IT’S NOT often that an entrepreneur comes up with a multi-million pound idea while out with his elderly aunts looking at care homes around the south of England. But that is what happened to ex-advertising whiz Mike Parsons. That was back in 1988. The dismal state of the care homes that he visited sparked an [...]