Learn He-Man’s recipe for great guns November 15, 2010 WHATEVER your feelings about the acting skills of Swedish action film star Dolph Lundgren, the man has guns. That is, insanely sculpted arms and a physique that suggests super-human strength. So when an opportunity arose to go and train with him while he was in London to promote his new film the Expendables, I couldn’t [...]
West End sees robust October high street sales November 14, 2010 SALES at London’s West End shops remained robust during October despite the details of the government’s Comprehensive Spending Review acting to unnerve consumers. According to lobby group the New West End Company, which is backed by major retailers and property owners in Bond Street, Oxford Street and Regent Street, West End sales rose 7.7 per [...]
FOCUS ON: BRIGHTON AND HOVE, EAST SUSSEX November 11, 2010 ONE BRIGHTON, NEW ENGLAND ST Price: £280,000 There is one two-bed apartment still for sale in this zero-carbon development in the heart of Brighton. The development has roof-top gardens and allotments. The apartment comes with a fully-fitted kitchen and bathroom while the master bedroom has an en suite. Contact: Fox and Sons on 01273 777000, [...]
Investing in property in the UK Silicon Valley November 11, 2010 HAVE you ever looked at Canary Wharf’s riverside properties and wished you had bought one when Thatcher first hatched her plan to turn it into a business hub? Back when nobody realised how lucrative it would become? Well David Cameron’s call for a British Silicon Valley stretching from Shoreditch to the Olympic Park could be [...]
CITY PAYS ITS DEEPEST RESPECTS TO BRITAIN’S FALLEN WAR HEROES November 11, 2010 SILENCE blanketed the City of London yesterday at 11am, to mark the anniversary of Armistice Day, the end of the First World War. The largest remembrance ceremony took place at Lloyd’s of London, where 5,000 members of the insurance market gathered on the trading floor to watch on as their chairman Lord Levene and Lord [...]
Ruling the theatre roost November 11, 2010 OF all the areas you might expect a canny private equity firm to invest serious bucks, the theatre business – with its reputation for volatile actors and directors, no less volatile audiences, and millions poured into shows that can fold almost immediately – might not be top of the list. However, London firm Exponent has [...]
Upbeat Great Portland sees strong gains November 10, 2010 Great Portland Estates booked a 7.3 per cent half-year gain in its London property portfolio to £1.46bn, buoyed by higher income as tenants seek its more affordable office space. The landlord, known for offering office and retail space at competitive rents in the popular West End business district, yesterday said its adjusted net asset value [...]
Growth in China on the cards at Boots November 7, 2010 HIGH STREET health and beauty retailer Boots hopes to make headway in China when its executive chairman travels to the country as part of David Cameron’s first official visit as Prime Minister. Stefano Pessina has reportedly organised talks with potential partners in Beijing and Shanghai while he is in the country, as part of a [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING November 5, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES NEW HOLE IN CONNAUGHT DEBT The scale of debt at Connaught, the collapsed property services group, will be greater than previously thought after administrators found 50,000 invoices that the company had not accounted for. Management accounts had led administrators from KPMG to believe that the social housing maintenance arm of Connaught owed £46m [...]
The dining scene is hotting up this winter November 3, 2010 AGAINST the odds perhaps, but 2010 has been a cracking year for restaurant openings in London. From the old-fashioned cool of Soho’s Dean Street Townhouse to Pierre Koffmann’s return to glory, the cosy joy that is Polpo to Daniel Boulud’s Knightsbridge bistro, there’s been plenty to love. And if anything, the openings are accelerating. The [...]