IT’S BACK: APPRENTICE RETURNS WITH FRESH BAIT FOR LORD SUGAR May 3, 2011 THE STAKES are higher than ever on series seven of The Apprentice with more pressure, more risk and even more difficult challenges for the 16 hard-nosed contestants. Gripping viewing – but no-one will be watching the opening episode of this year’s series (next Tuesday) with more interest than the employees of Scottish & Southern Energy [...]
A monster is dead but risks remain May 3, 2011 IT was the news we had all thought would never happen. At last, Osama bin Laden, the murderer of thousands, the man who ordered 9/11 and the defining symbol of 21st century global terrorism, is dead. It had started to look as if the blood-thirsty monomaniac would always elude the West’s intelligence services. In the [...]
City salaries up 7pc despite a fall in bonuses April 26, 2011 BANKERS are receiving bigger pay increases than the rest of the UK despite being paid less in bonuses, new research yesterday showed. Bumper pay rises offset a fall in year-end bonuses last year, with salaries up an estimated seven per cent in 2010 – far outstripping the two per cent average wage growth across the [...]
Good Friday great for retailers April 25, 2011 The New West End Company, which represents 600 retailers on Bond Street, Oxford Street and Regent Street, reported increased sales figures over Easter, as shoppers took advantage of warm weather and extra holiday time. It said 2m shoppers flocked to the area during the first three days of the Easter weekend – up 4.1 per [...]
THREE NEW WEST END RESTAURANTS April 25, 2011 ST JOHN HOTEL The brand new West End outpost of Smithfield’s most famous restaurant is a smart, bijoux haven of white-washed calm and simple culinary brilliance. Suckling pig for two with watercress and potato is an adventure in itself, snails and bacon are heavenly, while even tripe and onions has been winning fans. 1 Leicester [...]
Ancelotti: Torres will score soon April 19, 2011 CHELSEA manager Carlo Ancelotti insists striker Fernando Torres will break his goalscoring duck before the end of the season, but refused to guarantee the Spaniard would return to the starting line-up for tonight’s match against Birmingham. Torres, who was signed for a British record £50m in January, has gone 12 games without a goal for [...]
FOOD & BOOZE NEWS April 11, 2011 BISTRO DU VIN OPENS… It’s all happening in Clerkenwell. Hot on the heels of last week’s Zetter Townhouse launch – a hotel which happens to include an apothecary-style cocktail bar from the 69 Colebroke Row crew – comes a slick new eatery on St John Street (surely London’s foodiest thoroughfare) in the space vacated by [...]
Austrian firm lists despite lower price April 7, 2011 AUSTRIAN aluminium group AMAG has raised €366m (£320m) in the first Vienna listing since October 2007. The manufacturer sold at €19 per share, at the bottom end of its anticipated price of between €19 and €24. The range was narrowed earlier this week to between €19 and €21, amid tough market conditions for initial public [...]
We need to shout about the best things in London April 3, 2011 WHAT is London? A city, yes, but so much more. It is a global centre of finance, sure. It is by some measures the world’s creative capital, from media to theatre to film; home to the world’s most popular music venue and its most popular modern art gallery. The university capital of the world, with [...]
Cool loft living, thanks to the Victorians March 31, 2011 THE grandly impressive school buildings of the Victorian era tend to present wonderfully idiosyncratic conversion opportunities. This month’s property of the month is a case in point. Thackeray School in Battersea was a typical Victorian development – a towering redbrick affair, if rather more elegant than some examples of the genre. Built between 1876 and [...]