How Uber takes over a city in just four days February 19, 2014 Uber’s global expansion has exploded bringing the service to 74 cities since the start of 2011 – the ride-hailing app added 13 new cities in just the first 50 days of 2014 alone – and spearheading this rapid growth are a crack team known as launchers. Described as a blend between US Navy Seals [...]
City Matters: Why opponents of City development ignore our true Victorian heritage February 16, 2014 GUILDHALL is currently playing host to a public inquiry that has major ramifications for planning in the Square Mile and London. The future of the derelict Smithfield General Market and Annex (not the operational meat market next door) – or Smithfield Quarter for shorthand – is under deliberation. The secretary of state for local government [...]
Why transport is the key to unlocking London’s garden suburb renaissance February 13, 2014 THIRTEEN miles east of the Palace of Westminster, a development is taking place that is vital to the future of London’s housing debate. On the site of a former Victorian power station, a town the size of Windsor is being built. Barking Riverside is London’s newest suburb. It is the cousin of Battersea and, while [...]
Creating the height of luxury at The Shard February 13, 2014 Laura Ivill speaks to André Fu about his design plans for the world’s top hotels AS I join André Fu at The Berkeley hotel in Knightsbridge, the sunlight is pouring in and he is surrounded by flowers. It is three weeks before his new suite is launched and he is working on the final details [...]
UK engineer Fandstan sold to New York’s Wabtec for £130m February 12, 2014 FANDSTAN Electric Group, the London-headquartered engineering group whose subsidiaries have provided parts for London’s DLR and the Eurostar, has been sold to New York-listed Wabtec for £130m. The private company was founded by Lord Tanlaw, a former director of his family firm Inchcape, whose grandfather was the final White Rajah of Sarawak, the dynastic monarchy [...]
The boffins have proved it: Commuting makes you miserable February 12, 2014 Who’d be a commuter? Escalating train fares, Tube strikes, people sneezing without covering their noses. My soul’s getting heavy just thinking about it. And now even the boffins at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) are weighing in, performing a complex “regression analysis” – a way of comparing lots of different variables, in this case [...]
TfL to talk more with unions now Tube strike is off February 11, 2014 TRANSPORT unions called off a 48-hour Tube strike hours before it was due to start last night, after last-ditch talks with London Underground officials produced the seeds of a compromise. The two sides agreed to sit down for further “intensive talks” over the next two months, taking the RMT and TSSA representatives station by station [...]
The Docklands legacy can help fix London’s chronic housing crisis February 11, 2014 LONDON’S housing crisis is caused largely by a chronic shortage of new homes, which is pushing the average house price in the capital north of £500,000. Only 18,000 new homes were completed last year, barely a third as many as are needed to match population growth and household formation. There is no silver bullet to [...]
Second Tube walkout set to start tonight February 10, 2014 TRANSPORT unions and London Underground negotiators will today make a last-ditch attempt to avoid a second wave of staff walkouts on the Tube, due to start at 9pm. Talks at resolution service Acas broke up last night without a compromise, but both sides have agreed to meet again at 9am. If they fail to find [...]
First fleet of electric minicabs starts work on London’s streets February 10, 2014 A FLEET of electric minicabs will start operating in London today, two months after the capital got its first fully electric buses. Chinese firm BYD manufactured the 20 vehicles which have been bought by chauffer service Thriev. The new cars – the e6 model – come four years ahead of mayor Boris Johnson’s deadline for [...]