House prices slip further to mark a year of decline August 8, 2011 UK house prices slipped further in July – with only London bucking the trend with increased sales figures. According to today’s Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ UK housing market survey, 22 per cent more chartered surveyors reported a fall in prices than a rise in July, an improvement on June’s net balance of -26. Figures [...]
Health on a summery plate August 8, 2011 Francois O’Neill, Brompton Bar & Grill Bressola, Nectarine and Mozzarella Salad with Lemon & Mint Serves 2 Salad • 6 slices of Bressola • 1 nectarine – halved and sliced into 8-10 pieces • 1 ball of mozzarella – torn into pieces • 1 large handful of lambs lettuce • 4 mint leaves – finely [...]
Last-minute beach shape up August 8, 2011 FITNESS & DIET EXPERT LEFT it until the week before your holiday to tackle the Magnum/Magners muffin top? Here’s my three day countdown that will leave you looking and feeling buff in your swimming shorts. DO A DETOX A healthy detox is one of the better ways to drop weight drastically in the 72 hr [...]
Scotland comes to the Wharf August 8, 2011 Boisdale Canary Wharf Cabot Place, Canary Wharf, E14 4QT www.boisdale.co.uk FOOD SERVICE ATMOSPHERE Cost per person without wine: £45 CANARY Wharf is not the easiest place to bring culture to – even at its most alive, it has a certain, well, spartan feeling. Those open precincts, crisp architectural angles and endless escalators scream deal-making and [...]
FOOD & BOOZE NEWS August 8, 2011 MAKING THE CUT ON PARK LANE Time was when about the best a Londoner could expect in terms of steak was the kind of abomination served in an Aberdeen Steak House. No longer. In the last 18 months, London has been sprouting quality steak restaurants in droves, and the latest to the party is Wolfgang [...]
Varde in deal to take Crest Nicholson on August 7, 2011 HOUSING firm Crest Nicholson will be taken over by a US distressed debt specialist within the next few weeks, a source close to the firm confirmed yesterday. Minneapolis-based Varde Partners has been working for months with advisers Lazard and Bingham McCutchen to assess the options for the firm, which became 90 per cent owned by [...]
Living the life of a laird in a private Scottish stronghold August 7, 2011 ACKERGILL Tower is the sort of place that ought to have a permanent backdrop of lighting forks and thunderclaps. An asymmetrical block of granite turrets and chimneys, it’s a brooding, lonely obelisk that pierces the flat coastal landscape at Scotland’s most northerly tip. John O’Groats is just up the road, the next headland over is [...]
TRAVEL ROUND-UP August 7, 2011 CAMPING no longer means leaky tents and rickety gas stoves – options for glamping (“glamorous camping”) are booming. Morning Wire asked Tom Dixon, MD of glamping specialist Sawday’s Canopy & Stars, for his recommendations for August escapes. Visit www.canopyandstars.co.uk for bookings and more information. THE POP UP HOTEL, CORNWALL This is a really cool concept [...]
TRAVEL NOTES August 7, 2011 Cuba’s inside track Travel company Esencia Experiences specialises in bespoke Cuban travel experiences led by its on-the-ground concierge team, and right now it’s offering travellers the company of a cigar sommelier to guide you through the country’s most famous product. Along with that, there are private catamaran rides to the flamingo-populated north coast, salsa dancing [...]
House prices in slim rise August 5, 2011 House prices have gone up for the third month in a row, according to the Halifax mortgage lender. Its latest monthly survey says they rose in July by just 0.3 per cent, leaving them 2.6 per cent lower than a year ago at £163,981. The lender explained that over the last three months prices had [...]