Why John Lewis London homes are the death of design May 28, 2025 I’m worried about what new John Lewis-built homes, soon to be built in Ealing, West London, mean for humanity. Hundreds of flats designed by and decked out like a John Lewis showroom is surely the logical extension of where globalised design is going. The world’s interior decor aesthetic is becoming more and more homogenous, repeated [...]
La Môme at The Berkeley review: a splash of high camp May 28, 2025 The Berkeley’s newest restaurant, La Môme, is best when it leans into eccentricity, but the food needs work, says Adam Bloodworth The Maybourne Group run the very plushest London hotels. Their newest, The Emory – London’s first and only all-suite hotel – charges north of a grand for an entry-level room. It opened last year [...]
The Emory London review: is this £1k per night hotel more fun than Claridge’s? May 28, 2025 INTRODUCING THE EMORYAs the hotel beloved by Princess Victoria and the late Queen and Madonna and just about everyone worthy of admiration, Claridge’s is considered by those lucky enough to go as the pinnacle of London luxury. Even if you visit once a year for their afternoon tea or to stare at the Christmas tree, [...]
Frontline MGA Factory Edition review: Best of British May 28, 2025 Blatting between overgrown hedgerows, past a village green and a country pub, the little MG seems energised by the sunshine that dapples its polished chrome and British Racing Green coachwork. This could easily be a scene from 1955, and the idyllic England that lives in our collective imagination. From the driver’s seat, though, it feels [...]
Aston Martin Vantage Roadster review: An emotional high May 28, 2025 Six-point-eight seconds. No, that isn’t how long the Vantage Roadster takes to reach 62mph (it got there 3.2 seconds ago), but the time needed for its roof to go from open to closed. Aston Martin says this is ‘fastest fully automatic deployable roof mechanism on the market today’. And believe me, when the Alpine weather [...]
Shucked musical: A smash at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre May 27, 2025 Regents Park Open Air Theatre is appropriately dotted with stands serving freshly grilled corn for the arrival of Shucked, a musical obsessed with both corn on the cob and corny jokes. If a rootin’, tootin’, country and western-inflected musical about crop farming sounds like a strange choice to kick off the tenure of Drew McOnie [...]
Lanza-grotty? Hardly! Why Lanzarote is actually rather fabulous May 24, 2025 “David Cameron tucks into five-star hotel buffet in Lanzarote,” read a headline in The Mirror in 2016. Lingering over details like the then Prime Minister’s “all inclusive wrist band” and the resort’s “£230 a night price tag”, the newspaper’s clear implication was that Cameron was luxuriating in a paradise no ordinary Brit could aspire to. [...]
New regions take the whisky world by storm May 22, 2025 Whisky Business: Morning Wire’s monthly look at the world of whisky. World Whisky Day, on 17th May, has taken on a new importance in recent years. Indeed, the most exciting trend in whisky right now is the sudden proliferation of whisky coming from outside the traditional markets. It wasn’t too long ago that drinkers would be [...]
A first timers’ guide to The Chelsea Flower Show May 22, 2025 A mainstay on locals’ social calendars for over a hundred years, The Chelsea Flower Show has built its reputation around exclusivity, and can feel untouchably posh, especially for those born outside the kilometre of real estate surrounding it. Regulars say that, in broad terms, the event hasn’t really changed for years, a narrative bolstered this [...]
Toast the City: How we are celebrating the Square Mile! May 22, 2025 This autumn Morning Wire will launch Toast the City, an awards celebrating all the places that make the Square Mile the vibrant, exciting location it is – and we need YOUR help. Over the 20 years we have served the Square Mile, it’s transformed from somewhere people worked hard to a place they want to [...]