New homes: Our pick of the new builds going on sale in London this weekend October 19, 2018 New developments on the market this week South Quay Plaza, Isle of Dogs From £999,500 Five skyscraping apartments go on sale today at a landmark tower close to South Dock DLR station. The Midnight Collection comprises five new build apartments ranging from one to three bedrooms on the 64th floor, the highest residences before the [...]
Focus On Maida Vale: Communal gardens are key to understanding this area’s desirability October 19, 2018 Home to a delightful canalside community known as Little Venice, Maida Vale is right up there with Hampstead as one of the most exclusive and visually attractive places to live in west London. Houses on roads close to the canal go for between £20-25m, accounting for three of the top 100 most expensive property sales [...]
Opinion: Why we must remember that Mark Carney’s warnings about house prices are a worst case scenario October 18, 2018 Mark Carney made headlines, and plenty of waves, with his comments on the possible effect of a no-deal Brexit on house prices. He said that they could fall by a third if we failed to strike a deal with the EU. Certainly, you would have to say that the governor of the Bank of England [...]
Property of the Week: King George III’s house in Richmond’s Old Deer Park has a fully functional revolving dome observatory October 18, 2018 Live like royalty next door to Kew Gardens in this extraordinary house built for King George III. King’s Observatory, Richmond, £50,000pcm Owned by the Crown Estate, the house is leased to a businessman who lives between Hong Kong and London, but it’s now available to rent for the first time in its 250-year history. The [...]
New homes: Here are the new developments going on sale in London this week October 17, 2018 New developments on the market this week Weavers Quarter, Barking From £78,750 for a 30 per cent share (fmv £262,500) First time buyers can part-buy, part-rent new homes in east London. A show apartment is open for prospective buyers to view who wish to take advantage of the Shared Ownership scheme, where people buy a [...]
Picture this: Art-enriched offices make us more productive October 17, 2018 Some say a picture is worth a thousand words, but I like to think that art holds the key to unlocking a more productive economy. Recently, Frieze – which is one of the biggest events in the cultural calendar – saw the art world’s elite descend upon the capital. It’s a time of year when [...]
DEBATE: Should the government set guidelines on meat consumption to combat climate change? October 16, 2018 Should the government set guidelines on meat consumption to combat climate change? Ben Glover, a researcher at Demos, says YES. Last week, the UN’s IPCC warned that to avoid disastrous levels of climate change we must make “unprecedented changes in all aspects of society” – including cutting meat consumption. That’s because livestock counts for about [...]
The latest Bentley Continental GT is a comfortable cruiser with the unmistakable soul of a sports car October 15, 2018 Say the word ‘veneer’ and most people think of cheap MDF furniture. Bentley, however, takes veneer very seriously. Its team of expert veneer hunters scours the globe for the finest wood finishes, rejecting up to 70 percent of each chosen tree. Then, the process of testing and treating the veneer takes at least 18 months [...]
The Drinks Master: Why whisky is the big cocktail mixer of 2018 – whatever gin fans might think October 15, 2018 Everyone is talking about gin, but it’s whisky that’s quietly dominating the British spirits market. It reclaimed its top spot this year – from vodka rather than gin – as Britain’s favourite spirit, selling 2.7m more litres than the year before. That’s an extra 54m neat drams, whisky gingers, manhattans, and old fashioneds. But there’s [...]
The unspoilt ski slopes of Gudauri in Georgia are Europe’s best kept secret October 12, 2018 The Georgian Military Highway winds its way from Tbilisi towards the Russian border, passing UNESCO churches, scenic reservoirs, and the somewhat over optimistically named Friendship Monument, a late 1980s celebration of Georgian-Soviet relations. As the road climbs higher, the forests cloaking the slopes grow thinner until you emerge above the treeline and they’re replaced completely [...]