Covid-19 curbs decimate London’s retail economy January 24, 2022 Onerous restrictions on daily life during the pandemic has decimated London’s retail economy, reveals a fresh study released today. The capital’s retailers lost nearly a year’s worth of sales during the pandemic, underlining the severe blow curbs on economic activity has delivered to London’s shops, pubs and restaurants, research carried out by the Centre for [...]
Hospitality: A quarter of Britain’s pubs and restaurants still to reopen after lockdown May 31, 2021 One in four of Britain’s restaurants, pubs, bars and other licensed premises have yet to reopen despite the return of inside service. Around 25,000 venues across Britain are still shut, according to new hospitality data from CGA and AlixPartners, shared with City A.M. this morning. The data shows similar trading numbers in England (76.6 per cent) and Scotland [...]
Exclusive: Seven Dials Market boss says ‘Brexit means we are short-staffed for every shift, every day’ October 27, 2022 Brexit has “absolutely screwed” the food industry after it “ripped away” its labour source, according to the boss behind the West End’s popular Seven Dials Market. Businesses at the food and drink destination are facing staff shortages “for every single shift, every single day,” Simon Mitchell, who heads the street food market operator Kerb, exclusively [...]
Welcome (back) to Ibiza, as the Balearic prepares for its biggest summer yet June 7, 2022 The pandemic hit every tourism-focused economy hard, but few places felt the effects of Covid more starkly than Ibiza, an island that specialises in squeezing lots of hot and sweaty people into enclosed spaces. Two years of closures and uncertainty took their toll – almost half of the island’s GDP comes from tourism and visitor [...]
Roman ‘hole in the wall’: World’s oldest cash machine found in UK April 1, 2022 A team of archaeologists have unearthed evidence of the world’s first cash machine dating back to the Roman empire, buried for centuries in an unassuming field in Hatfield, England. The ‘noteworthy’ discovery suggests Juno Moneta, the Roman Goddess of Money and Funds, was smiling on the British Isles as early as AD 265. The discovery, [...]
Sun, sea and a whole new me: A fitness retreat in St Lucia October 6, 2021 London life is made up of extremes. Pricey gym classes, sobriety attempts and intermittent fasting experiments alternate with booze binges, tasting menus and frenzied socialising in a cycle of two steps forward three steps back. Even my holidays leave me feeling like I need time off to recover. To tone up and tune in without [...]
I spotted the last wild orangutans in Borneo – you can too April 15, 2024 I spotted the last wild orangutans in Borneo - this is how you can too
Restaurant delivery boxes are here to stay: We review 48 of them June 29, 2021 Before the pandemic, most top chefs would have turned their nose up at home delivery services. There’s the lack of control, the logistical nightmare, not to mention the wafer-thin margins. But necessity being the mother of invention has led to dozens of outstanding delivery services, and even with restaurants back open and looking forward to [...]
House prices are poised to slide in 2023 but straight into the hands of the lucky few February 7, 2023 There’s a pretty wild variety of house price predictions doing the rounds. Capital Economics have forecast they could fall 12 per cent, while experts at property search site Zoopla are a bit more optimistic. The consensus seems to be somewhere around a six per cent fall in 2023. One thing is certain: house prices are [...]
Asda launches new and larger value range and kills off Smart Price in race to kickstart stalling growth March 29, 2022 Supermarket giant Asda, which was bought by the Issa brothers and backers TDR Capital last year, said this afternoon it will axe its Smart Price range and replace it with new Just Essentials by Asda products. In fact, Asda is launching a new and larger value range, amid the cost of living crisis, as the [...]