Lindt: £75m sought for UK home of Swiss chocolatier April 30, 2025 The UK headquarters of Swiss chocolatier Lindt has been put up for sale with an asking price of £75m. The building in Richmond upon Thames is a redevelopment of the former Gosling Department Store. The five-storey, mixed-use development is fully let, with luxury gym operator Third Space and two high-end restaurants occupying the lower floors. DTRE [...]
EU youth mobility scheme is essential for a post-Brexit reset April 30, 2025 An EU youth mobility scheme is a needed concession to repair the UK's post-Brexit relationship with the bloc, writes James Reed.
Kioku by Endo at the Old War Office: OWO might be troubled but this sushi restaurant is the real deal April 29, 2025 The Old War Office, or ‘The OWO’ to insufferable industry types, is the most perplexing London hotel opening in decades. After spending over a billion quid turning Churchill’s wartime Cabinet Office into a hotel, industry bigwigs speak in hushed tones of low occupancy. One exec told me the breakfast room had eleven guests one morning [...]
Maradiva: Mauritius in five-star style April 29, 2025 It is rare that I feel an urge to return to a hotel – part of the joy of travel is to experience a place for the first time, after all. But I’ll make an exception for Maradiva, the five star resort in Mauritius where your dreams of borderline-pornographic beachfront perfection are dragged, startled and [...]
The Ivy owner sheds jobs as potential £1bn sale drags on April 28, 2025 The group behind restaurant chain The Ivy shed 300 jobs as billionaire owner Richard Caring continues to weigh a £1bn sale, it has been revealed. The business has only just published its financial accounts for 2023, seven months after the Companies House deadline. The results show The Ivy’s owner cut its headcount from 5,962 to [...]
Eat, Drink, Sleep, Repeat: Our top food columnist on his favourite New York dining spots April 24, 2025 Restaurants can have a greater purpose than simply offering heightened hospitality; this week I met the CEO’s of the ‘Only a Pavement Away’ charity and ‘Not for sale’ movement, both of which I worked with for the past eight years as CEO of Gaucho and M restaurants. OAPA identifies disadvantaged, vulnerable people often due for [...]
Eat, drink, sleep repeat: From martinis to ceviche – the best London spots past and present April 24, 2025 Studying successful luxury brands is a personal passion of mine; At their best, they inspire the people working within them to achieve what they didn’t think possible, whilst creating a huge following of passionate advocates spreading their brand love and purchasing power. If you have success in both of these areas, the profits will follow; [...]
Allianz Stadium: What could Twickenham rugby arena look like after facelift? April 17, 2025 We’ve all been there, kettled into Twickenham station after a day out at Allianz Stadium watching England Rugby take on top international opposition. The 82,000-seat national stadium is the biggest purpose-built rugby arena in the world and sits behind only Wembley Stadium’s 90,000 in terms of UK capacity. But Allianz Stadium and its surrounding area [...]
‘I used to hand the paper out at 6am every day’: City AM CEO Harry Owen on launching a freesheet 20 years ago April 17, 2025 We dig into the memory bank of the City’s great and good. Today, it’s City AM’s own CEO Harry Owen, who tells us about his career launching restaurants and freesheets.
Why dining alone is the last taboo April 12, 2025 During a recent solo trip to a new wine and oyster bar, I was directed to a dim corner of the restaurant far away from other diners. It was as if the patrons needed to be protected from the sad, friendless clown doing a sudoku and enjoying an alcohol free beer. As the waiter came [...]