Get roped into a climb at The Castle November 21, 2011 You can see The Castle climbing wall at Manor House long before you get anywhere near it. The gigantic Victorian building looks every bit the fortress it is named for – it’s slightly disappointing when you find out it started life as a lowly pump-house (it also makes you realise how much of a sense [...]
High street is hit by plunge in customers November 20, 2011 THE UK’s high streets have suffered the sharpest drop in footfall since last December’s freezing weather, new research reveals, painting a gloomy retail picture ahead of the crucial Christmas trading period. Footfall in stores and shopping centres across the country fell by 2.3 per cent between August and October compared with the same period last [...]
The captain of industry who says the UK needs to be more like Asia November 20, 2011 FROM the CBI’s offices on the second floor of the Centre Point tower, you get a great view of the construction site that will eventually become the Tottenham Court Road Crossrail station. It is fitting that the CBI, which was one of the railway’s biggest supporters, is so close to the action, and a reminder [...]
At table with the quiet star of the gastropub revolution November 16, 2011 Somehow, Eyre Brothers restaurant– David Eyre’s exotic sequel to the Eagle in Clerkenwell – has stayed under the radar. Yes, it’s been in the Time Out guides for every year it’s been open, but for a restaurant of this calibre, you’d be surprised at the amount of noise it hasn’t been getting. The beautiful restaurant, [...]
MADE IN CHELSEA DIAMOND HEIR DIGS DEEP FOR HIS NEXT VENTURE November 15, 2011 HIS FAMILY made their fortune digging for diamonds in the Congo and Sierra Leone, but Made in Chelsea stalwart Francis Boulle is interested in mines of a different kind. Fundmine, to be precise, an online investment platform that allows entrepreneurs to sell their company visions to private investors that has to date attracted £8.7m of [...]
India’s innovation culture is revealing itself at last – and the West faces a dilemma November 14, 2011 CAN India emerge as an innovation powerhouse? Over the past two decades, India has achieved a dominant share of offshore work, giving Western populations angst about the loss of white collar jobs. The traditional concern in the West has been about immigrants coming onshore to compete for local jobs; now it seems that the effects [...]
Hamlet has a brand new Sheen November 10, 2011 Theatre HAMLET YOUNG VIC No play can bore or tire the viewer more if produced unoriginally or acted weakly, and none can engage, emote nor enthral more if done well, than Hamlet. This Hamlet, starring Michael Sheen and directed by Ian Rickson (director of smash hit Jerusalem, playing across town), is the enthralling kind. Every [...]
Tullow hit as Liberia well disappoints November 9, 2011 TULLOW Oil downgraded its production forecasts for 2011 and said a well off the coast of Liberia would not provide oil in commercial quantities, disappointing investors on two fronts. Tullow, which has a reputation for opening up new oil basins, is yet to establish this frontier part of West Africa as a potential new producing [...]
A NIGHT AT THE OPERA FOR LEGAL SOPRANOS November 7, 2011 BETRAYAL, revenge and murder – it was business as usual when the Magic Circle decamped to the dress circle at Sadler’s Wells to watch Allen & Overy’s modern-day reworking of Carmen set in Seville Airport. The opera, which follows last year’s staging of The Magic Flute at Glyndebourne, involved 74 of the firm’s staff past [...]
‘I’ve been physically and mentally abused many times at games in UK’ November 7, 2011 TOPICS of conversation are not hard to come by with Tony Fernandes, the gregarious Malaysian entrepreneur who recently added Premier League football club Queens Park Rangers to an empire that includes AirAsia and Formula One racing team Lotus. In a whirlwind half-hour he explains his recipe for business success, discusses QPR becoming bigger than Liverpool [...]