City rents jump on supply crunch February 2, 2010 RENTS in the Square Mile will rocket by 19 per cent this year as a slowdown in the rate of new developments creates a supply crisis, property consultant Knight Frank warned yesterday. Rates are predicted to jump to £52.5 per square foot as international companies expand their City headquarters and the availability of space falls. [...]
Rickie’s return just misses the mark April 15, 2010 Film CEMETERY JUNCTION Cert: 15 HAVING proved he can make it in Hollywood, Ricky Gervais has brought a whole load of Tinseltown gloss back with him for this tale of small-town kids in the Seventies. Written and directed by Gervais and old mucker Stephen Merchant, the film is polished, conventional and formulaic to the degree [...]
Guardian sells MEN to old rival Mirror February 9, 2010 Guardian Media Group (GMG) yesterday sold its regional titles, including the iconic Manchester Evening News, to Trinity Mirror for £44.8m. The sale of GMG Regional Media includes just £7.4m in cash, with a further £37.4m to buy it out of a printing deal with Trinity Mirror. The struggling division has been rocked by the advertising [...]
Oh we do like to be beside the (British) seaside February 18, 2010 IF there’s one thing in property that never goes out of fashion, it’s a sea view. Coastal views – wherever you are in Europe – are in fierce demand and often, limited supply. “The National?Trust owns so much of our coastline in?Britain, that there’s always going to be a shortage,” says Jonathan Cunliffe, of Savills [...]
SIX OF THE BEST January 7, 2010 THEATRE – Red Alfred Molina stars as expressionist painter Mark Rothko in John Logan’s two-hander at the Donmar Warehouse. FILM – Tokyo Story Japan’s Yasujiro Ozu is thought by some to be cinema’s greatest director, and his masterpiece is showing at the BFI and Curzon Mayfair MUSICAL – Blood Brothers Former Sporty Spice Melanie Chisholm [...]
Get into the foreign property game at a fraction of the cost February 11, 2010 FOR many people, owning a foreign property would be the ultimate luxury. However, dealing with local authorities, maintaining the place, or renting it out can turn a luxury into a time-consuming, costly hassle. And that assumes you can really afford the place of your dreams, rather than a flat in a high-rise overlooking a crowded [...]
She’s far more than just a (legal) blonde: a star is born February 16, 2010 MEETING Sheridan Smith, the 28-year old star of the smash hit Legally Blonde: The Musical, is rather like a game of hide and seek. Or, as it turns out, a treasure hunt. For the former star of such television gems as Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of?Crisps and Gavin and?Stacey, has gone awol. [...]
City rents up for first time since 2007 January 10, 2010 CITY office rents rose for the first time in three years at the end of 2009, boosting confidence that office rents have bottomed out. A report from Cushman & Wakefield reveals 41 per cent of the year’s total take-up of office space took place in the last quarter of 2009. The take-up of 2.6m sq [...]
The raw and the cooked rock at Roka January 25, 2010 Roka 1st Floor, 4 Park Pavilion, 40 Canada Square, E14 5FW FOOD ***** SERVICE **** ATMOSPHERE **** Cost per person without wine: £55 HAVE you ever been to Roka before?” asked our waiter, poised to take us through the Roka concept, as though this was the posh, pan-Asian equivalent of a Harvester. I regretted to [...]
OUT OF OFFICE December 14, 2009 V&A’S MEDIEVAL GALLERIES The Victoria & Albert museum’s newly-opened rooms of exhibits from the era of 300-1600 are a magnificent triumph, perhaps the finest museum space in London now. Discover why the Dark Ages were anything but, with extraordinary tapestries, clothes, sculptures, paintings, wedding chests, manuscripts, reliquaries and an awful lot more besides. Entry free, [...]