The most divisive tower blocks in the country, the Barbican Estate, have reached their half century July 24, 2019 Rising from the literal ashes of World War 2 bombs, the Barbican Estate has always been far more than a housing development. Designed by architects Chamberlin, Powell and Bon, it was envisioned as a utopian blueprint for post-war British living – a tower block that wasn’t just about cramming in as many people as possible, [...]
Trisara hotel review: Foraging needn’t be at the expense of luxury July 24, 2019 Foraging is all the rage but, despite its fashionable foodie status, it does rather bring to mind getting grubby at the bottom of the garden, thrashing around with a set of secateurs, or simply pretending to be a badger. Surely there’s a more glamorous way to liven up lunch? So, off to Trisara in Thailand [...]
Fevertree Drinks shares worth £36 despite sell-off July 24, 2019 | City Talk By Graeme Evans from interactive investor. Slower growth is never good news for highly-rated stocks, but Fevertree still has plenty of fans. Runaway success stories like Fevertree Drinks (LSE:FEVR) don’t come around often, which is why yesterday’s latest slide for the AIM stock should alert investors to a potentially enticing entry point. The sky-high valuation has weakened considerably since early [...]
Could magic mushrooms fix your brain? We try Europe’s first legal psychedelic therapy retreat July 24, 2019 Ten of us sit in a semicircle around a makeshift altar. In front of us lies a small statue of Buddha, various rocks and crystals, some pine cones, a carved mushroom, a small chemists’ weighing scale, and a wooden bowl filled with psychedelic ‘truffles’. We’re in a lodge on the outskirts of Amsterdam overlooking woodland [...]
Office Space: Step into Sessions House, the courthouse HQ of Ennismore, the company behind The Hoxton and Gleneagles July 24, 2019 From the outside, Sessions House is a slightly menacing proposition. Squat and grimly imposing, it looks mistrustfully out onto Clerkenwell Green, seemingly miles removed from the surrounding buildings. If you’re a frequent visitor to central London, you might recognise its austere, almost gothic facade, all dreary grey brick and prison-bar windows. Upon entering the building, [...]
Naked houses: Unfinished homes give buyers a discount price – but are they practical? July 24, 2019 In case you hadn’t noticed, Britain is in the grip of its worst housing crisis since the 1940s. The verdict, delivered in a recent report from the Centre for Policy Studies, will be endorsed by anyone who has endured the vagaries of the London rental market, where a ‘cosy one-bed’ can be a garage with [...]
Phantom islands thought to exist for hundreds of years are being “undiscovered” July 24, 2019 On a voyage from Manila to Mexico in 1528, the Spanish captain Alavaro de Saaverda reported stopping off at a pair of islands a few thousand kilometres north of Papua New Guinea in the Philippine Sea. He named the islands Los Buenos Jardines, and wrote in his diary about the friendly natives he’d met there. [...]
The bigger they come: The amazing story of Wentworth Woodhouse, the largest home in England July 24, 2019 You’ve heard of Chatsworth, and Castle Howard, that Brideshead dream. You’ve heard of Blenheim Palace, the Duke of Marlborough’s monumental home. But what about Wentworth Woodhouse, the biggest house in England? Wentworth Woodhouse, the former seat of the Earls Fitzwilliam, could have been a house lost to history. Five miles from Rotherham, it sits in [...]
London’s Indian summer: How a new generation of restaurants shook up the food scene July 24, 2019 You could spend a year’s worth of Friday nights eating out at London’s upmarket Indian restaurants and still have a few left over to carry into January. The capital is crammed so full of Kashmiri morels and quail naans there’s barely room for kulfi. The last couple of years have seen critical and popular success [...]
Let there be colour: Rado’s range of watches made to Le Corbusier’s famous colour system are deliciously on trend July 24, 2019 Does your house have chic grey walls? Complementary saffron accents? Maybe a statement colour chair and tiled section? Chances are all of these shades have featured in Le Corbusier’s Architectural Polychromy. Because, as well as designing buildings, planning towns and being an all-round polymath, Le Corbusier developed a theory of colour. Corbu, as he was [...]