Billionaire businessman Teddy Sagi buys Grade II-listed Holborn building for £300m September 17, 2019 Billionaire businessman Teddy Sagi has bought a Grade II listed building in Holborn for £300m through his co-working investment vehicle Labtech. The 300,000 sq ft Victoria House, a neoclassical building constructed in the 1920s, is Labtech’s largest acquisition to date and brings the total value of its property portfolio to around £3bn. Read more: Belgravia’s [...]
Punching power: F45 is innovating gyms using technology September 16, 2019 Fitness is a cut-throat business. Competition is intense: there are over 7,000 gyms in the UK, and the market is worth about £5bn. Around one in seven people are paying some form of gym fee. Unsurprisingly, new fitness brands are popping up all the time to capitalise on the health and wellbeing trend. To stand [...]
Police release daredevil climber who scaled London’s 95-storey Shard skyscraper July 8, 2019 A man who was filmed climbing the outside of The Shard early this morning was let go by police later today, after reaching the building’s 95th floor. Police said the daredevil had been taken inside Britain’s tallest building with officers, after they were called at 5.15am to reports of a person scaling the tower. The [...]
Flotilla on the Thames: There’s going to be a royal river salute Queen Elizabeth II today with boats including Havengore, Gloriana, and Massey Shaw September 9, 2015 A flotilla of historic vessels will make a royal river salute on the River Thames today to mark Queen Elizabeth II becoming the UK's longest reigning monarch. The flotilla of boats will include the Havengore and Gloriana, which took part in the Queen's Diamond Jubilee River Pageant in 2012, as well as the fireboat, [...]
The City of London’s decade of growth – upwards September 6, 2015 An army of tall buildings that have transformed London’s skyline over the past decade – from the Heron Tower, completed in 2011, to the Shard, which opened in 2012 near the former site of City A.M.’s very first offices, New Bridge House. And there are many more to come in the next few years, [...]
The refugee crisis, the EU referendum and London’s skyline: Here’s what got us talking this week September 4, 2015 There was a fine wine scam. There was a Circle Line travelator (in the making). And somewhere in Japan, people started seeing the world from a cat's perspective. Here's what got us talking this week 1) The refugee crisis Disturbing images of dead toddler Aylan Kurdi galvanised the world into action over the Syrian refugee [...]
The Walkie Talkie is a glorious building and the Carbuncle Cup jury are just architectural snobs September 3, 2015 Most of the critics of Rafael Viñoly's “Walkie Talkie” at 20 Fenchurch Street are other architects or professional moaners. Laypeople, like the City workers milling around the building at lunchtime, are more amenable. As if to prove my point, Sir Simon Jenkins, a vocal and consistent critic of, well, just about anything built since bricks [...]
As the Walkie Talkie is awarded the Carbuncle Cup, is it really the UK’s worst new building? September 2, 2015 James Hughes, conservation adviser at The Victorian Society, says Yes The Walkie Talkie’s “victory” in this year’s Carbuncle Cup is a vindication of our director’s argument in City A.M. in January that it is London’s ugliest building. It was the most nominated entry and its crowning demonstrates that it’s not just conservationists who feel that [...]
Walkie Talkie awarded annual Carbuncle Cup as judges declare it the UK’s ugliest building September 2, 2015 It's divided opinion since its plans were first unveiled – but now judges of the Carbuncle Cup, the annual award for Britain's least aesthetically-pleasing constructions, have declared the Walkie Talkie to be the UK's ugliest building. It had stiff competition, mind: the Rafael Vinoly-designed building, developed by Land Securities and Canary Wharf Group, was up [...]
London mayoral elections: Tower blocks are no place to bring up families – it’s time for Londoners to reclaim their horizon September 2, 2015 "We believe most of the wave of proposed towers now hitting the city will do permanent damage to its public spaces and views, without answering London’s real housing and employment needs. There is a lack of evidence for the benefits of these buildings, of planning that can direct them well, and of genuine public consultation." [...]