Area guide: Woolwich – why it’s tomorrow’s town April 1, 2016 It’s an unfortunate consequence of over-enthusiastic estate agents that an area described as “up-and-coming” is often, well, getting there but taking its sweet time about it. Woolwich was one such place for a long time, but 2016 is the year SE18 arrives on the property scene. “Woolwich has been touted as up-and-coming for the last [...]
How to blush your way to a brighter home using spring pastels April 1, 2016 The evenings are lighter, and it suddenly feels wrong to be putting on sombre-coloured winter coats and boots. The magnolia trees are in bloom, their distinctive petals a delicate blush of soft pink. And it’s this pretty pastel that stores have heralded as the interiors story of the season. The idea is to keep tones [...]
The Painkiller at Garrick Theatre starring Kenneth Branagh is a predictable but fun slapstick comedy April 1, 2016 The Painkiller | Garrick Theatre Kenneth Branagh and Rob Brydon bring star power to this funny but painfully anachronistic comedy. It tells the tale of a contract killer whose life is thrown into disarray when he is allocated a hotel room adjoining that of a lovelorn, suicidal photographer. It’s adapted from Le Contrat, a French [...]
Eddie the Eagle is a soaring success April 1, 2016 With hindsight, it’s a surprise Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards’ rise to fame wasn’t made into a film sooner. Taron Egerton (Kingsman: The Secret Service) dons thick-rimmed glasses and a permanent gurn as the plucky Eddie, a young man obsessed with being an Olympian. He exploits a loophole in the rules to enter the 1988 Winter [...]
The absurdist brilliance of Franciszka & Stefan Themerson April 1, 2016 Polish husband and wife Franciszka and Stefan Themerson’s output is so varied, spanning so many types of media and so many artistic styles, that making sense of it all in one room is rather overwhelming. Along the first wall is a row of cabinets filled with illustrations, mostly for children’s books – one features a [...]
Les Blancs at National Theatre is a spectacular tour de force April 1, 2016 As you walk into the Lyttelton theatre for Les Blancs, you’re hit by a wall of incense so thick it stings your eyes. It's the first indication that this is a play that refuses to remain anchored to its dusty, sun-baked set, bleeding subtly off the stage, playing on your imagined version of Africa and setting it against the [...]
Property Entrepreneurs: How Pelican Media built an app to sell City apartments off-plan March 30, 2016 When the luxury apartments at Landmark Place in Canada were launched in February, their details were presented on a series of iPad Pros. The new tablet had been launched just three months previously, but Tony Nicol could see the benefits of using the new hardware – and set his team racing to [...]
How the entrepreneurial spirit of the Isles of Scilly produced some pretty amazing food March 30, 2016 Everything about the Isles of Scilly is ever-so-slightly different; not quite English, but not exactly foreign, either. When you walk through the doors of the tiny Land’s End Airport terminal, you’re greeted by a modernist fireplace – giving guests a sample of the islands' comparatively warm climate – hanging artworks and a vista of the [...]
M Victoria review: The new restaurant serving up raw kangaroo March 30, 2016 M on Threadneedle Street is a City staple, a thrumming lunchtime emporium comprising two restaurants: the steaky M Grill and and fishy M Raw. Opened last November, M Victoria matches its older twin beat for beat in SW1, presenting with an eerie familiarity bordering on deja vu. This is unmistakably M: from the steak and [...]
Property of the Week: The Woolwich mansion where Mike Leigh filmed Mr Turner is up for sale for £3m March 29, 2016 The life of a property developer is rarely glamorous. But for 15 weeks in 2014, Gary Halkyard rubbed shoulders with the great and the good of the British film industry and it was all down to a run-down mansion he'd acquired two years previously. Midway through restoring Rush Grove House in Woolwich, Oscar-nominated director Mike [...]