Uber app vs black taxis: Cab war heats up June 11, 2014 Taxi drivers bring central London streets to a standstill over Uber – yet smartphone app says it won the day Thousands of black cabs caused gridlock in London’s west end yesterday as taxi drivers protested over the smartphone app Uber and warned that they could bring more chaos to the streets of the capital with [...]
Great Portland to start £500m building spree November 13, 2014 WEST End developer Great Portland Estates (GPE) said yesterday it would splurge £500m on its development pipeline as it looked to take advantage of London’s booming office market. The FTSE 250 property firm beat analyst expectations as it posted an 11.8 per cent rise in net asset value per share to 636p in the six [...]
TfL does something ahead of schedule for once: Bond Street tube station re-opens for Jubilee line London Underground travellers November 24, 2014 Christmas shoppers can enjoy the relief of easy access to the heart of London’s shopping district, as Bond Street station partially re-opens for business today. However beleaguered secret santas weighed down with stocking-fillers will have to wait until mid-December to use the tube station as an escape route from the busy retail hub. [...]
Focus on Battersea: Home of dogs, cats, families and riverside living March 12, 2015 Battersea’s venerable institutions – from its power station to its Dogs and Cats Home – often overshadow its considerable success as a residential destination. While houses easily soar over the £1m mark in this part of south-west London, UK buyers still account for 76 per cent of the market, 80 per cent of whom use [...]
Restaurant review: Typing Room is a local with verve March 10, 2015 On the ever-spinning carousel that is the London restaurant scene, there are inevitably winners and losers. When Nuno Mendes packed up Viajante to help create London’s most papped eatery, Chiltern Firehouse, it seemed Bethnal Green would be one of the losers. But the space he vacated – the old town hall off Cambridge Heath road, [...]
Investment in central London property hits record high April 8, 2014 Investment in central London commercial property jumped to record levels in the first quarter, driven by big ticket deals in the City & the Docklands and overseas buyers snapping up trophy schemes in the capital. According to Cushman & Wakefield, 32 deals took place across the City and the Docklands in the first three months [...]
Thames Deckway: Could this floating cycle path on the river solve London’s transport problems? October 7, 2014 A group of architects, entrepreneurs and engineers are proposing to build a cycle path that floats on the river Thames to help solve the capital’s congestion problems. The traffic-free Thames Deckway could stretch from Canary Wharf in the east as far as Battersea in the West, offering cyclists and pedestrians a safer route through the [...]
Blame the Green Belt for Britain’s dire housing crisis: Reform is long overdue January 13, 2015 The UK, and particularly London, is in the midst of what should be seen as a housing crisis. According to LSE professor Paul Cheshire, new build houses are about 40 per cent bigger in the Netherlands and 38 per cent bigger in Germany than they are in England. And yet housing goes for 45 per [...]
Central London completions to hit 10,000 next year, says JLL September 17, 2014 HOUSING completions in central London could reach 10,000 in 2015 for the first time in years thanks to a surge in construction activity, even as new housing starts and prices at the centre of the capital start to slow. According to a report released today by property firm JLL, there are now 21,900 units under [...]
Plans for West End revamp unveiled as Crossrail expected to bring in extra 250m visitors January 20, 2014 Trying to move down Oxford Street at the weekend or any day for that matter is getting rather like trying to move down a busy tube carriage during rush hour. No wonder then that with the imminent launch of Crossrail expected to bring 250m extra visitors West End leaders are thinking about how to improve [...]