The Old War Office in London, Winston Churchill’s former HQ, is set to be converted into a luxury hotel June 14, 2017 Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s old office is set to be converted into a luxury hotel and new residences. Raffles Hotels & Resorts, the luxury brand of AccorHotels Group, Indian conglomerate Hinduja Group and Spanish construction company Obrascon Huarte Lain Desarrollos (OHLD) are working together to renovate the iconic Old War Office building in [...]
Focus On Clapham: Commons, good schools and cosy gastropubs means families stay put in SW4 June 2, 2017 Clapham is not a straightforward neighbourhood. Unlike Dalston, it isn’t synonymous with hipsters; it isn’t known for its international wealth like Knightsbridge; and it isn’t the naturalised home of the English gent like Hampstead. It’s best described as a south London suburb that has welcomed wave upon wave of migration from other boroughs. The Georgian [...]
The new space race: Private companies are getting into the business of space travel – and it could produce the world’s first trillionaire May 30, 2017 Five-minutes’ drive from Kennedy Space Center, among the marshes and pine trees of Merritt Island Wildlife Reserve, lies Shuttles Restaurant & Bar. On the back wall is a massive photograph of the Space Shuttle Atlantis, soaring into space on the back of an orange fuel tank. Bolted to its side are two white rockets, spouting [...]
Long Weekend in El Jadida, Morocco: Golf and belly-dancing at Mazagan Beach Resort May 12, 2017 The weekend: Spend a long weekend on the central western Atlantic coast of Morocco, a region that combines the old town charm of El Jadida – formerly named El Mazagan – and the luxury of the five-star Mazagan Beach Resort complex. The micro-climate here offers pleasant weather year-round, but with tourism still in its ascendancy [...]
Brunch in Dubai is luxurious in the extreme. Just be careful not to eat the golden macarons – they’re purely decorative… May 12, 2017 Visiting a destination for the first time is like being on a first date. You want to go to a nice restaurant, you’d like him to be charming, but arriving with six dozen roses and a list of potential baby names is probably overkill. Dubai is like the most try-hard of bunny boiler boyfriends, the [...]
Mercedes GLK 250 review: We travel to Bahrain, the Monaco of the Middle East, to test drive Mercedes’ junior SUV May 3, 2017 It’s appropriate that Bahrain should celebrate high-octane sports; it was here that oil was first discovered in the Gulf, after all. Fireworks explode in a riot of colours overhead as Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari takes the Bahrain Grand Prix’s chequered flag, followed by Lewis Hamilton six seconds later as the sky above the grandstands erupts. The [...]
Victorious private equity consortium wins shareholder approval to take over Shawbrook bank April 10, 2017 The private equity consortium which launched a drawn-out takeover attempt of Shawbrook bank has finally emerged victorious, passing the shareholder acceptance threshold for its offer. BC Partners and Pollen Street Capital have walked away with a total of 75.6 per cent of Shawbrook's shares – well over the 50 per cent they needed to win [...]
Lycamobile’s chairman Subaskaran Allirajah: Meet the philanthropist behind the multi-million pound business April 3, 2017 He cooks for everyone and we stand around the breakfast bar and chat. Some of the most important decisions the company has taken have been over meals he’s made.” This is one of Lycamobile’s leadership team, and he’s talking about his boss, founder and chairman Subaskaran Allirajah. Lycamobile is a mobile virtual network operator, providing [...]
Inside the Luxembourg bid to lure City firms after Brexit: How the Grand Duchy lines up against Frankfurt, Paris, Dublin and other rivals April 3, 2017 Alongside large and threatening Frankfurt, loud and opportunistic Paris and plucky Dublin, Luxembourg has kept a relatively low profile in the scramble to soak up some of London’s financial services power since the UK’s Brexit vote. But make no mistake, Luxembourg will be growing as a result of the UK’s decision. The city’s business area [...]
Embracing Italy’s culinary heritage on a journey from Florence to the stunning Riviera March 17, 2017 As welcomes go, my arrival into Genoa airport will take some beating. In my experience, airport transfers usually involve a 45 minute purgatory of cabs or shuttle buses. However, there I was, driving along dream-like coastal roads with a soundtrack of classic Italian standards. An appropriately bespoke introduction, given I would spend the next week [...]