New Builds: 600 new homes are set to be built on a site the size of three football pitches in south London December 2, 2016 The Quarry, Bexley A quarrying site that hasn’t been used in 40 years is set to be home to 600 new properties. The first new homes – 80 per cent of which will be modern family houses hoping to attract upsizers – will go on sale in the new year. There will also be a [...]
Moana review: Disney’s newest animation is a celebration of another culture rather than a mining of it December 2, 2016 Disney films have taken a perverse turn in recent years. Its live action movies – Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, the Jungle Book – are aping its animations, while its animations are becoming increasingly realistic. Nowhere is this more apparent than Moana, the studio’s latest musical blockbuster, whose CGI characters seem more real than half the [...]
Christmas gift guide: All the luxury clothing and accessories gift ideas you’ll ever need December 2, 2016 We get it. You're busy. You're important. You have things to do, people to see. You don't have time for such fripperies as Christmas shopping. This year, instead of slogging around the shops anxiously trying to figure out what to buy for whom, just take our Christmas gift guide with you. Boom. Christmas shopping sorted. Don't [...]
Working Lunch review: Smokestak in Shoreditch is bringing ‘cue to the masses’ November 29, 2016 Smokestak 35 Sclater Street, E1 WHAT? If you’ve been to a Street Feast in the last three years, there’s a good chance you’ve witnessed a scruff of beards lining up in front of Smokestak’s wood smoker, waiting to get those substantial follicles into some USDA grade brisket. Now, you can enjoy this sight all year round [...]
Focus On Peckham: How it went from Only Fools fame to be the first time buyer capital of London November 25, 2016 Whatever you think about 2016, it’s been a billboard year for Peckham. Two large houses near Peckham Rye station sold £2.5m this year, a record price for the area, firmly cementing SE15’s fast-growing reputation as a desirable place to live. It’s not bad for an area that is embedded in the national psyche as the [...]
Property of the Week: Church Grove in Kingston, an enormous Victorian treasure on the edge of a royal park, is on sale for £2.695m November 25, 2016 If you have a conservatory in your house, you’re considered pretty lucky. But few have one that was built in the 19th century that’s secured with a stable door straight from Hampton Court Palace. Church Grove, a six-bedroom house in Kingston-Upon-Thames, does though. Foxtons has been marketing the unusual feature as a “sun room”, but [...]
New Builds: Homes on sale this week on a new town square in Ealing and Help to Buy in Sydenham November 25, 2016 Dylon Works, Sydenham From £227,997 with Help to Buy London, from £389,995 for private sale apartments Over 200 homes will go on sale tomorrow, with the option to take out a 40 per cent equity loan via the government’s Help to Buy London scheme. Primed for first time buyers, 221 out of 223 one to three bedroom [...]
Architect Daniel Libeskind on returning to Poland to reshape its skyline, NYC’s World Trade Center masterplan, and President-elect Trump November 23, 2016 To Daniel Libeskind, architecture is a political act. Every building he creates is intertwined with a sense of place, culture and national identity. “Every project deserves a sensitivity to history, tradition, to something that isn’t completely visible to the naked eye, in terms of the spirit of the place,” he tells me. “There is no [...]
Soho House has unveiled an online interiors business – we catch up with Jayne Demuro, the brains behind the project November 23, 2016 If you’re one of the 30,000 people currently on a waiting list for membership of Soho House, there may be an easier way to bask in the studied cool of its private members’ clubs. The worldwide hospitality brand launched an online retail business this summer that aims to ‘bring the House home’. Your home, specifically. [...]
Claudio Silvestrin, architect to Kanye West and Calvin Klein, unveils his newest project in Hampstead, north London November 23, 2016 This brand new, ultra-contemporary mansion looks like it belongs in the sunny peaks of the Hollywood Hills. In fact, it’s nestled away in a quiet, exclusive corner of Hampstead, but its starry aesthetic is the creation of an award-winning architect who’s used to bringing the lavish home-stylings of the rich and famous to life. Claudio [...]