Focus On Wanstead: Families flock to ‘the Twickenham of East London’, where houses near green spaces have sold for seven digits February 15, 2019 There was a time when Wanstead, an unusually leafy spot of east London, was most famous for its Member of Parliament. They don’t come much more recognisable than Sir Winston Churchill, who served Wanstead from 1924 up to 1964 with a patch of absence in the middle for his Wilderness Years. But there’s one other [...]
Luke Johnson will see his reputation recover from Patisserie Valerie’s fraud scandal February 14, 2019 Warren Buffett once said that “bad things aren’t obvious when times are good”. It is a statement that rings painfully true in the case of Luke Johnson, who was riding high last year with a £250m fortune, when the bad things – an alleged long-term fraud of Patisserie Valerie accounts – were apparently far from obvious. [...]
Meet the banker-turned-restaurateur bringing the City’s dining scene to life February 14, 2019 Whatever happened to the liquid lunch? It is a question often asked with nostalgia throughout the Square Mile. Traders in pubs, City executives in boardrooms, journalists and lawyers in wine bars; the sight and smell of booze at noon was at one point in time as much a part of the City’s identity as pin-stripes [...]
The Restaurant Group shares fall as chief executive Andy McCue prepares to step down February 14, 2019 The Restaurant Group (TRG) led the market fallers this morning after chief executive Andy McCue surprised the City by announcing plans to resign "due to extenuating personal circumstances". TRG's share price plunged almost 15 per cent in morning trading following a statement today from McCue, who is set to remain in his position until a new boss is [...]
Focus On the City of London: How much does it cost to live in the shiny new developments in the Square Mile? February 11, 2019 Have you ever thought about living in the Square Mile? Fair enough if you haven’t because you’re certainly in the majority, With an eye-watering average second-hand sale price of £840,053 – for context, the London average is £497,452, according to Savills Research using the Land Registry – and an outmoded reputation for being suits central, [...]
Setting out on a two-day city break in India to see how many temples, tours and thalis I could fit in in a week February 8, 2019 The buzzing financial capital of Maharashtra as well as the heart of the Bollywood film industry, Mumbai is home to 24m people. It’s hard to get your head around but, like any big city worth its salt, Mumbai is a mass of contradictions and conflicting realities, the city of dreams that India’s most wealthy citizens [...]
Food waste startup Too Good To Go gobbles up €6m from investors February 5, 2019 Danish leftover food startup Too Good To Go has grabbed €6m (£5.3m) from some of its existing investors, as it prepares to expand into four new countries in 2019. The firm, which enables users to collect leftover dishes from restaurants and stores at discounted prices, has partnered with 1,500 retailers in London to date, including [...]
Weekly Grill: Launceston Place head chef Ben Murphy on creating simple, no-nonsense food, and vegans who eat butter and cream February 5, 2019 Who are you and what do you do? My name is Ben Murphy and I’m 28 years old. I’m head chef at Launceston Place in Kensington and I’ve been cooking professionally for eight years now. Cooking has always been a personal passion, so being paid to do what I love is a bonus. What’s new [...]
Investors demand environment action from KFC, McDonald’s and Domino’s January 29, 2019 A group of investors representing over $6.5 trillion (£4.9bn) in assets has today demanded more transparency and commitments to tackling emissions from fast food chains Domino’s and McDonald’s. An open letter from investors including BMO Global and Aviva has called on the restaurants to publish plans to tackle the environmental risks from their suppliers by [...]
The Long Weekend: A child-friendly country house just half an hour from central London January 28, 2019 City life can be tough, especially if you have a toddler intent on destroying every moment of peace and quiet in your so-called “spare time”. Frazzled urban parents may be left without the energy to plan a faraway escape – and this is where Stoke Park comes into play. Jump on a fast train from [...]