A Very Expensive Poison at the Old Vic review: A rare breed of play from the creator of Enron September 13, 2019 Part love story, part police procedural, part political satire, A Very Expensive Poison gleefully defies categorisation. Recounting the final days of Russian dissident Alexander Litvenenko, it takes a dark and complex subject and turns it into an utterly engrossing, formally experimental romp that wears its close to three hour run-time with surprising alacrity. Loosely based [...]
William Blake at Tate Britain review: A trip into the mind of a true revolutionary artist September 13, 2019 William Blake isn’t just an artist, he’s a figure almost as mythical as those he committed to paper, a part of the pop culture lexicon whose influence extends far beyond the works he left behind. He was famously plagued by phantasms: strange, demonic creatures that inspired his most iconic works. They appeared to him throughout [...]
New builds: Properties on the market in London this week, from Nine Elms penthouses to Spitalfields family homes September 13, 2019 Battalion Court, Woolwich From £343,000 for a one-bed This Saturday, Bellway is launching a new show home at its Battalion Court development in Woolwich. The homes are perfectly placed for buyers looking to take advantage of the Crossrail effect, with nearby Woolwich station set to open in 2020. One, two and three-bed apartments are available [...]
Focus on: Living by the River Thames September 13, 2019 Every September, the River Thames plays host to the Totally Thames festival; a month-long event which sees it taken over by art installations, history tours and performances. It’s a chance for Londoners to reconnect with the body of water that provides the backdrop to our daily lives, and make the most of some of the [...]
Interiors: This on-trend shade could be the next millennial pink September 13, 2019 When Dulux launched its colour of the year 2019 – spiced honey – a sense of weirdness descended. I have yet to see walls painted in this cloying bronzy-tan. Yet with the launches for colour of the year 2020 upon us (from the likes of Dulux, Farrow & Ball, Graham & Brown and Pantone) there [...]
Purezza review: The UK’s first plant-based pizzeria is also its best September 11, 2019 Though it sounds like it might be a hand soap, Purezza is in fact the UK’s first plant-based pizzeria, with a branch in Brighton and a new opening in Camden. To prove it’s not just for vegans, the restaurant handily won top prize at this year’s World Pizza Championship in Italy (it’s a thing), with [...]
Blair Witch game review: Bloober Team over-stretches with this ambitious but flawed tale September 11, 2019 There are moments in Blair Witch that live up to the promise of the source material, recreating the sense of suffocating panic that comes from being lost and alone. It’s an area in which Polish games developer Bloober Team has form: in psychological horror Layers of Fear, doors would flicker out of existence when you [...]
It Chapter 2 film review: Stephen King adaptation limps over the line September 6, 2019 Pennywise the dreadful clown is brilliant as a twisted metaphor for our childhood fears. He is less brilliant as a literal space alien who can only be defeated through some arcane Native American ritual. Alas, that’s where Stephen King’s bulging 1,200-page novel ends up. It proved to be the undoing of the 1990 TV mini-series, [...]
Hansard at the National Theatre play review: Political drama is a blistering debut September 6, 2019 George Osborne was in the audience for this blistering political drama by debut playwright Simon Woods, no doubt taking some credit for lines such as: “It’s so easy to mistake an expensive education for a genuine understanding of the world”. Hansard – the title taken from the verbatim record of everything said in Parliament – [...]
First look: The super-luxe apartments within a former army barracks in Chelsea September 6, 2019 If ever there was a long-awaited London development, then Chelsea Barracks is it. Empty for a decade, and five years under construction, residents will finally start to move in this month. This week, the first show apartment was revealed – and even if we don’t have the £24m required to snap up this four-bedroom 4,000 [...]