THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS
APRIL 2019 £3.90
ALL ABOUT INTERIORS
Everything you need for a spring revamp
ESCAPE TO THE SUN
CARICE VAN HOUTEN The End Game Cover-V6.indd 2
The magic of the Maldives
HALL MARK Luke Edward Hall’s romantic revival
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Martin Kemp Design is a highly creative studio renowned for producing some of the world’s finest design solutions for interiors, architecture, yachts, private jets, cars, furniture and products. info@martinkempdesign.com +44 (0)20 7183 3885
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CONTENTS A P R I L 2 019
COLUMNS 20 22
THE GOOD LIFE Dinner parties just got sexy, says Alice B-B THE RURBANIST Charity Wakefield
UP FRONT 25 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 41 42
EAST COAST CHIC Cape Cod clothing GONE BUSH Fierce safari style STYLE NOTEBOOK Slogans are back THE GIRL WITH THE PEARL EVERYTHING A fresh catch of jewellery MY STYLE Pandora Skyes reveals her favourite under-the-radar labels LUCIA LOVES Elizabeth Gage’s distinctive jewellery GOLD DIGGER Jewellery news COVER GIRL Recreate Carice van Houten’s fresh-faced beauty look BEAUTY TEST The Russian facial BODY & SOUL Nip work stress in the bud WELL GROOMED Men’s style news
THE GUIDE 47 50 52 54
56 58
THE DIARY What to do this month ARTS AGENDA Four new galleries for your fill of culture WELL READ Books THE OLYMPIAN Sebastian Coe on one of the biggest commercial game changers in the history of sport ROAD TEST The Nissan Qashqai and the Mercedes-AMG G 63 CONVERSATIONS AT SCARFES BAR Lynn Barber talks sackings, scandals and cigarettes with Charlotte Metcalf
FASHION & FEATURES 62
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QUEEN CARICE Nicole Smallwood styles Game of Thrones’ Carice van Houten for our cover story as the Lady in Red answers her Instagram fans’ questions ON LOCATION Behind the scenes at the timeless Dukes Hotel THE LINE OF BEAUTY Rosalyn Wikeley gets into the whimsical, colourful mind of creative polymath Luke Edward Hall LONDON REBOOTED Christopher Silvester reports on the vibrant transformation of some of the capital’s forgotten areas
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W W W.W I L L I A M A N D S O N . C O M
T H E P E R F E C T D E S T I N AT I O N F O R T O W N & C O U N T R Y L I V I N G
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CONTENTS A P R I L 2 019
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MADE IN ENGLAND Thought the British motor industry was slowly rusting away? Think again, says Jeremy Taylor WALLIS REVISITED Anna Pasternak discovers the real Wallis Simpson at the Marbella Club
ON DESIGN 83
Just back from the design shows in Paris, Carole Annett packs these special interiors pages with her pick of the most fabulous fabrics, wallpapers, rugs, and innovative ideas to bring your home bang up to date, plus news of an exclusive collaboration and three case studies to get your creative juices flowing. That spring up date has never been easier
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A MOUNTAIN CALLS Lucy Cleland and Clementina Jackson leave heart and soul in the glorious South Tyrol THE BUCKET LIST Ralph Fiennes’ travel tales THE HOTEL WIZARD How to nail a South American safari PROVENCE WITH ALAIN DUCASSE The chef reveals his secrets for the ultimate gourmand’s getaway OPERATION ATOLL The Maldives are calling. Liz Hurley reports back from Milaidhoo, plus 11 of the best resorts GASTRO GOSSIP Prada and pastries. Need we say more? FORK & FIELD How to break all your Lenten promises CHEF’S NOTES Shaun Rankin kicks off his food column with an ode to spring HAPPY HOUR Alice Lascelles will be drinking English fizz whatever happens
FOOD & TRAVEL
116 118 120
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130 131 132 133
ON THE MOVE
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ON THE COVER Carice van Houten wears leather trousers by Rag & Bone @ Harvey Nichols, jacket by Isabel Marant @ Harrods, silk cami by Stella McCartney, Eternal Love diamond bracelet by Catherine Best. Fashion direction by Nicole Smallwood. Photography by Rachell Smith. Skin prep and make-up by Nathalie Eleni using Temple Spa, Code8, Shiseido and Quantum Botanika. Hair by Dayaruci @ One Represents using L’Oreal Paris
135 136 138 139
PROPERTY OF THE MONTH LET’S MOVE TO... Faversham MY HOUSE Jacqueline O’Mahony FIVE OF THE BEST Overseas investments
REGULARS 12 14 44 134
EDITOR’S LETTER CONTRIBUTORS HIGH SOCIETY STOCKISTS
10 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | April 2019
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EDITOR’S PICK S
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SHOP Louis Vuitton has a shiny new store on Sloane Street. Mine’s the Dauphine bag...
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hen we put out a call on Instagram inviting fans to pose questions to our cover queen, Game of Thrones’ Carice van Houten, we had an overwhelming response and whittling them down to just ten was an editing job in itself. So, if you want to know which character Carice really wanted to play or how she regrets that Melisandre never got to meet Cersei, turn immediately to page 62. No spoilers though I’m afraid. You’ll just have to tune into the series which airs from mid April on Sky Atlantic. You’d think that after eight seasons starring in one of the world’s most successful TV dramas, you’d need a little break. We suggest Carice whisks herself off to the Maldives, rather like Elizabeth
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Hurley did to have some teen time with her son. Elizabeth explains why she fell in love with that Indian Ocean atoll on page 124, plus we visit 11 more Maldivian hotels – some old, some new – all spectacular in their own unique way (p125). Spring has sprung and with it a whole new raft of delicious designs, colours, textures and materials to seduce you into changing a cushion here or updating a wall there. Our On Design section starts on page 83 and no doubt you’ll find something to sate your interiors appetite. Speaking of which, why not let Michelin-starred chef Alain Ducasse get your tastebuds tingling with his guide to Provence (p120)? We also welcome new columnist Shaun Rankin to our fold, who’s most looking forward to cooking new season lamb this month as he prepares to open his restaurant at swish new Yorkshire hotel, Grantley Hall, which will welcome guests from this summer (p132). Bring on the longer, lighter days... @countryandtown /countryandtownhousemagazine /countryandtownhouse
WEAR I love an easy breezy dress for spring and Winser London’s dotty number is right up my street
BOOK AHEAD One of my favourite books, Bel Canto, is coming to the big screen from 26 April
SING I’m off to The Piano Works in Farringdon where musicians will play your favourite requests live... I Will Survive!
PHOTOS: REX FEATURES
EDITOR’S LETTER
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THE BEETLE COLLECTION available from: 1 South Molton Street, W1 41 Cadogan Gardens, SW3 Harrods / Harvey Nichols / Liberty / Selfridges / The Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong 0800 138 1659
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CONTRIBUTORS
LIZ HURLEY
Household gadget you couldn’t live without? My sorbet maker; I make several a week using the zillions of berries I pick and freeze every summer. Whose home would you most like to poke around in? I’d like to look through the Queen’s wardrobes. She must have thousands of unbelievable dresses, coats, bags and hats. What’s the best present to take to your dinner host? I take bottles of Chase Vodka, which is made near me in Herefordshire. They come in great Union Jack gift tins. What’s really missing from your home? My house would be transformed if I owned Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus... Mind you, whose wouldn’t?
SHAUN RANKIN
STELLA 01
savoirbeds.com
London
New York
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Paris
Shanghai
Hong Kong
Household gadget you couldn’t live without? The Wolf blender from Sub-Zero & Wolf. It’s not just a blender but my go-to for everything from smoothies to hot winter soups. Whose home would you most like to poke around in? Any of the royals. What do they eat for a midweek meal, what do they cook at home, do they put their feet up and watch TV? What’s the best present to take to your dinner host? I always bring the wine. That way you know you’re always going to drink something nice. What’s really missing from your home? A sauna. I try and have one at least once a week because I travel a lot and it stops me getting ill.
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CONTRIBUTORS
ALICE LASCELLES
Household gadget you couldn’t live without? An electric blanket – our house is freezing. Whose home would you most like to poke around in? A minimalist’s – how do they do it? I bet their cupboards are actually full of crap. What’s the best present to take to your dinner host? A friend once turned up bearing homemade bagels, smoked salmon, cream cheese and a bottle of Bollinger – I thought that was stylish in the extreme. What’s really missing from your home? A huge garden with a tree-lined river at the bottom of it.
ANNA PASTERNAK
MADE IN ENGLAND | SINCE 1879
Chiltern
in Earth Green suede with our Dainite rubber sole CROCKETTANDJONES.COM
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Household gadget you couldn’t live without? A dishwasher. Life would be misery without it. Whose home would you most like to poke around? The Paris home of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. To see if I could feel their presence lingering there. What’s the best present to take to your dinner host? Dixit. It’s the best board game ever. What’s really missing from your home? A walk-in larder and a big boot room.
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CO U NTRYA N DTOW N H O U S E .CO.U K
EDITOR Lucy Cleland EDITOR-AT-LARGE Alice B-B ASSOCIATE EDITOR Charlotte Metcalf FASHION DIRECTOR Nicole Smallwood BEAUTY DIRECTOR Nathalie Eleni FASHION EDITOR Lucy Bond LUXURY EDITOR Lucia van der Post INTERIORS EDITOR Carole Annett JEWELLERY EDITOR Annabel Davidson RETAIL EDITOR Rosalyn Wikeley PROPERTY EDITOR Anna Tyzack MOTORING EDITOR Jeremy Taylor EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Clementina Jackson ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Maya Monro-Somerville PROPERTY & MARKETING ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR Gemma Cowley DIGITAL MANAGER Adam Dean SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER Felicity Reid JUNIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER Ellie Rix CREATIVE & PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Parm Bhamra JUNIOR PRODUCTION DESIGNER Samuel Thomas ONLINE EDITOR Rebecca Cox DIGITAL ASSISTANT Ellie Smith JUNIOR EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Kerri Stolerman TECHNICAL MANAGER Hannah Johnson TECHNICAL DIRECTOR Mark Pearson DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL STRATEGY Wil Harris ACCOUNTS & CREDIT CONTROLLER Aimi Nicastro SALES & OFFICE MANAGER Daisy Orr-Ewing FINANCE DIRECTOR Jill Newey GROUP PUBLISHING DIRECTOR Tia Graham MANAGING DIRECTOR Jeremy Isaac CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Stephen Bayley, Simon de Burton, Fiona Duncan, Daisy Finer, Lydia Gard, Avril Groom, Richard Hopton, Emma Love, Mary Lussiana, Anna Pasternak, Caroline Phillips, Marcus Scriven THE EDITOR editorial@countryandtownhouse.co.uk FASHION fashion@countryandtownhouse.co.uk ADVERTISING advertising@countryandtownhouse.co.uk PROPERTY ADVERTISING property@countryandtownhouse.co.uk ACCOUNTS accounts@countryandtownhouse.co.uk SUBSCRIPTIONS subscribe@countryandtownhouse.co.uk
Simulated Days Our simulated days are as close as it gets to the real thing. Held at Great Tew or Glympton estate in Oxfordshire.
COUNTRY & TOWN HOUSE is a monthly magazine distributed to AB homes in Barnes, Battersea, Bayswater, Belgravia, Brook Green, Chelsea, Chiswick, Clapham, Coombe, Fulham, Holland Park, Kensington, Knightsbridge, Marylebone, Mayfair, Notting Hill, Pimlico, South Kensington, Wandsworth and Wimbledon, as well as being available from leading country and London estate agents. It is also on sale at selected WHSmith, Waitrose, Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury’s stores and independent newsagents nationwide. It has an estimated readership of 150,000. It is available on subscription in the UK for £29.99 per annum. To subscribe online, iPad, iPhone and android all for only £24.99 visit: exacteditions.com/read/countrytownhouse. For subscription enquiries, please call 020 7384 9011 or email subscribe@countryandtownhouse.co.uk. It is published by Country & Town House Ltd, Studio 2, Chelsea Gate Studios, 115 Harwood Road, London SW6 4QL (tel: 020 7384 9011). Registered number 576850 England and Wales. Printed in the UK by William Gibbons and Sons Ltd, West Midlands. Paper supplied by Gerald Judd. Distribution by Letterbox. Copyright © 2019 Country & Town House Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited. Materials are accepted on the understanding that no liability is incurred for safe custody. The publisher cannot be responsible for unsolicited material. All prices are correct at the time of going to press but are subject to change. Whilst every care is taken to ensure information is correct at time of going to press, it is subject to change, and C&TH Ltd. takes no responsibility for omissions or errors.
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COLUMN
IT’S PANTS The comfiest. stripeand stare.com
SWEETEST DREAMS Meditate don’t medicate. calm.com
THE GOOD LIFE
THIS MONTH I’LL BE
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Nose in a book – right now it’s Normal People by Sally Rooney. faber.co.uk
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Supporting designer Catherine Quin’s Women of Grace campaign for Smart Works Charity. catherine quin.com
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Heading to Liberty for a QMS facial – man, I love this skincare brand. qmsmedi cosmetics.com
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TRUE SPECTACLE Eyes on everything. tdtomdavies.com
COOK WITH CLODAGH Sexy supper. clodaghmckenna.com
NIGHT ALL Icon Night cream. sarahchapman.com
PORTRAIT: JANE MCLEISH-KELSEY
if you can’t make it to a workshop, she’s written a lip-smacking book – Clodagh’s Suppers – which teaches you how to make the magic. However, what she doesn’t mention, is that in 2019, no dinner party guest should ever show up with an orchid. CAN YOU READ THE BOTTOM LINE? No, is the answer – not without very thick glasses. I’m a cousin of the bat: bespectacled since the age of six, grateful for my other heightened senses and desperately reliant on the genius of eyewear guru Tom Davies. Tom makes glasses for Superman. That’s really all you need to know. Plus his attitude is: if he’s making the finest bespoke frames in the world, then he should offer the finest eye-examinations with the most hightech diagnostic equipment (carried out by dream, Finnish optometrist Forget 1999 – (dinner) party like Tuija Kankaanpaa). I basically spent my it’s 2019, says Alice B-B whole life feeling shit about wearing glasses until I met Tom. HE DINNER PARTY. SLEEP ISSUES. Yeah, so I’ve Best china, starched napkins, never really had them. Maybe the champagne flutes, bourgeois odd restless night before a scary awkwardness… No wonder it tripped job. Or a full moon. And there was out of fashion in the 90s when the time I was haunted. But lately… cool Britannia was all hot bars, hip hmmm. Something’s up. I wake at restaurants and going out-out. But 4am with a jolt and then the longest the tide has turned. Friends round for to-do list scrolls manically before supper ticks 2019 aspirations; hygge, my tightly-shut eyes. Magnesium sharing the love, eating delicious baths, lavender pillows and a therapy food knowing where your ingredients top-up: not cutting it. So a trip to Dr are from. My current home-cooking Sohere Roked – a specialist in holistic inspiration is Clodagh McKenna – the integrative medicine and a blood test Irish chef-slash-goddess who knocks reveals my progesterone is sliding you for six – first with her killer smile, down the scale. Groan. (Is this the then with her dynamite food. Dinner beginning of the end? Or simply a at Clo’s is an invitation no one refuses. new beginning?) She prescribes a Nothing’s forced or over fancy, but bio-identical cream that I rub onto my everything’s considered in a low-key arm before bed. And I’ve downloaded way; an eclectic bunch of guests, easybreezy flowers, food that’s ‘Last Supper’ the Calm app; guided meditation for sleep and stress reduction. It’s so worthy and cocktails that encourage good, the minute I hear author and an end-of-the-evening Gaelic singnarrator Tamara Levitt’s voice, the along. But don’t feel FOMO that response is Pavlovian. A week in and you’re not invited, because… Clodagh the new regime’s working a treat… offers one-day workshops from her hideaway artist’s studio in London. And it’s good night from me.
LU XU RY & N ECESSIT Y
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INTERVIEW
THE RURBANIST Charity Wakefield on the joy of surfing and learning to sing in harmony
open necklace piece by SOKO and matching bracelet that I live in at the moment. They are a beautiful sustainable and ethical jewellery company. I am trying to make sure that anything new I buy is responsibly made and transported to market sensibly. We all need to do more to support the people that do the good stuff. What was the last song you listened to that made you dance (and in what circumstances was it)? The new songs for Emilia,
the play I’m rehearsing. They’re written by Luisa Gerstein and they are stunning. The first time I heard them I burst into tears but the beat is so good it made me dance as well. Mixed emotions! We are learning to sing all the harmonies, it’s a beautiful experience.
What is the last book your read and what did you think of it? Humanity by Ai Weiwei. I’m not telling you what I thought of it – please buy a copy and read it.
What’s your favourite game to play? It’s a toss-up between
Where’s home to you? London. It’s so vibrant, full of culture, art, music and you just have to walk the streets to see it all and be invited in. Whenever I can I’ll get up high somewhere like the Tate Modern and take in the ever-changing architectural landscapes that live in harmony with each other.
I have a dog (Honey, a Cavapoo) so I’ll walk in the park pretty much every day, in any weather. I look like a fisherman in all the waterproofs! Honey is without fail ecstatic at the idea of going on a walk or being outside – it reminds me every day that it’s good for the body and soul. Favourite secret place in London for a good night out? Gordon’s Wine
Bar in Embankment. If you can get a table in the ancient underground arches, they have the best cheese selection and you can spend untold hours drinking wine and chatting with friends by candle light. Best thing a cabbie has said to you? It’d be
quicker to walk.
Where do you go to ‘lose’ yourself? Surfing. I’ve always loved swimming in the ocean but learning to surf has opened up a whole new level. It’s exhilarating, exhausting, blissful and scary in equal measure. Bobbing around waiting for a wave is the closest I’ve come to inner peace. But I’m respectful of the sea – it’s so powerful, nature at its most unpredictable, so you have to learn patience.
What never fails to bring a smile to your face? My husband. What item in your wardrobe do you wear the most?
I have a beautiful solid brass front
What are Saturday afternoons made for? Farmers’ markets,
coffee and cryptic crosswords. What would really improve your life? Less screen time. What’s your signature dish and who would you cook it for? Tea and toast. For me. What was the last place you ‘discovered’? Mousehole in
Cornwall. There is a legend about a fisherman and a magical cat defeating a huge storm and every year the locals in the village put up hundreds of individually designed Christmas lights in the tiny harbour. What’s not to love? Emilia runs at the Vaudeville Theatre from March 8 to June 15. Bounty Hunters is back on Sky One and NOW TV from 14 March.
PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES; ALBERTO TANDOI
What’s one of your daily rituals?
Scrabble and basketball. I’m addicted the former, and even have a Scrabble club. Basketball I’m terrible at, but it’s so much fun.
22 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | April 2019
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STYLE BEAUTY JEWELLERY PA RT I E S
UP FRONT
EAST COAST CHIC All American appeal Bold design meets laidback summer style in a colourful collaboration between legendary American interior designer Anthony Baratta and Weekend Max Mara, inspired by easy breezy retreats to Nantucket. weekendmaxmara.com
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UP FRONT Aspinal Portobello bag, £350. aspinaloflondon.com
Finlay London Oswald sunglasses, £140. finlayandco.com
Salvatore Ferragamo
Masscob Trench, £585. masscob.com
Loro Piana Maille dress, £1,795. uk.loropiana.com
TOW N
Giuliva Mary Angel dress, £785. giulivaheritage collection.com
CO U NTRY
Zara Belt, £17.99. zara.com
Me+Em Grosgrain man pant, £149. meandem.com
Hermès Fendi Multipurpose belt, £1,090. fendi.com
JW Anderson Cotton shorts, £330. net-a-porter.com
Bambah Off shoulder jacket, £654. farfetch.com
S T Y L E
GONE BUSH
Ara Vartanian 18k gold, amazonite and black diamond earring, £920. aravartanian.com
Go wild for safari style
Ganni Hat, £75. mytheresa.com
Álvaro Ariana raffia sandals, £300. farfetch.com Ettinger Cotswold bag, £755. ettinger.co.uk
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53 JERMYN STREET, LONDON | 118 HIGH STREET, ETON | 970 LEXINGTON AVENUE, NEW YORK WWW.NEWANDLINGWOOD.COM
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UP FRONT MICRO TREND
FASHION STATEMENT
THE ELEANOR EDIT
British actor of the moment Eleanor Tomlinson has joined Radley to celebrate talented women and their achievements as the first ambassador of the Radley Spirit campaign. Her handbag edit is inspired by ‘women who live life on their own terms with the passion and drive to make things happen’ – as well as a shared love of dogs and the English countryside, of course. radley.co.uk
F A S H I O N TAKE THREE
COW BOY BOOTS
N E W S
STYLE NOTEBOOK Let your clothes do the talking, says Clementina Jackson
HEAD OVER HEELS
PENELOPE CHILVERS £369. penelopechilvers.com
AEYDE Kate, £315. aeyde.com
Who else would assemble the Duchess of Sussex, Joan Collins and Missy Elliott around one table but master milliner Stephen Jones? These and other famous faces are represented by their iconic hats for ‘dinner’ in Brighton’s Royal Pavilion as part of a new exhibition spanning 40 years of Jones’ whimsical creations. A must for design lovers. brightonmuseums.org. uk/royalpavilion
1 Viktor & Rolf SS19. viktor-rolf.com 2 Bella Freud Hot water bottle, £135. bellafreud.com 3 Katharine Hamnett T-shirt, £25. katharinehamnett.teemill.co.uk 4 Itchy Scratchy Patchy Beret, £80. itchyscratchypatchy.com 5 Comme des Garçons Wallet, £450. farfetch.com 6 Isabella Townsley GRLPWR ring, £189. isabellatownsley.com
CHIC & CH A R ITA BL E
ISABEL MARANT Lamsy, £805. net-a-porter.com
Update your wardrobe and do your bit for charity in one fell swoop when you buy a T-shirt from Claudie Pierlot’s new UNESCO capsule collection. For each organic cotton design sold, £5 goes to the charity, plus an extra £1 for photos posted and tagged #RiseUpWithClaudie. Now that’s what we call an incentive to shop! uk.claudiepierlot.com
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UP FRONT SHELL TO SHOP When Coleman Douglas Pearls, the grand dame of the gemstone, heeds the farm-to-fork, shellto-shop movement with baroque spirit, you know it’s time to listen. £595. pearls.co.uk
SILVER SERVICE Giovanni Raspini’s freshwater pearls in his Southern Sea Big Necklace have ditched their shells for silver coral. £620. giovanniraspini.com
BRILLIANT BARNACLES Ruth Tomlinson’s pearl pendant with its detailed granules and diamonds is invariably the catch of the day. £1,480. ruthtomlinson.com
PEARLS OF WISDOM Inspired by Dante, Alighieri’s Passione di Napoli earrings deserve their own soliloquy. £420. alighieri.co.uk
NORTH STAR Everyone knows that Tessa Packard is queen of the fine jewellery quirk (even the pearls didn’t escape). £2,250. tessapackard.com
EAR! EAR! Ancient glamour jousts with contemporary cool. Naturally, Becca’s got every stylish lady’s ear in town. £160. beccajewellery.co.uk PRETTY IN PINK Pearls don’t always have to be white, thank you David Morris. Pink pearl ring with pink pear shape diamond and diamond set white gold band. £POA. davidmorris.com
CHERRY ON TOP Danish wonder brand, Pernille Lauridsen whips up a delicious, creamy white pearl in a 14k gold cone and ‘hygges’ it around your neck. Mmmmm. £1,754. pernillelauridsen.com
J E W E L L E R Y
GIRL WITH THE PEARL EVERYTHING Pearls are back with a baroque vengeance. Rosalyn Wikeley offers up a rugged few pearls of wisdom
FRESH CATCH The milky sheen of the freshwater pearl in Annoushka’s Mythology Beetle pendant beautifully mimics the effervescent back of the creature. £995. annoushka.com
TO DIVE FOR Diamonds are a girl’s (second) best friend with Yoko London’s dazzling South Sea baroque pearl ring. £14,000. yokolondon.com
GO WILD The beauty of the Effervescent ring’s keshi pearl is that it can’t be tamed – even Catherine Best’s diamonds need to tiptoe around it. £4,170. catherinebest.com
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New At C.P. Har t
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UP FRONT
SU MM ER HOLIDAY ESSEN TI A LS
Finishing touches I love little beaded bags by Shrimps and pochettes from Staud, Le Labo’s Another 13 fragrance and earrings by Alighieri. And Loren Stewart is great for affordable, fine gold jewellery.
S T Y L E
PANDORA SYKES
The style maven and podcast queen loves blazers and printed dresses When are you next dressing up?
I am going to Morocco and I’ll be wearing an elegant dress from Three Graces London. Event dressing stress?
Power dressing?
I actually really enjoy dressing up because it’s a rarity for me these days. It’s an excuse to road-test things that don’t get to go to casual kitchen suppers! Under the radar labels?
I love Brinker & Eliza for affordable costume jewellery, 16Arlington, Harmur and De La Vali for partywear, Eleven Six for cashmere jumpers, and Orseund Iris and Nanushka for interesting, everyday pieces. Lounge lizard? Silk pyjamas by Asceno or a pair of Serena Bute’s upscale tracksuit bottoms with a cashmere jumper.
STYLE CRUSH Alexa Chung, Brie Welch and Leandra Medine.
Wardrobe failsafes?
Printed dresses from
I never thought I’d say this, but: a great suit. I have a black one from Admise Paris which is the best cut for me, and on the high street I really like the tailoring at Uterqüe. Country walk? To be extra cosy I’ll wear a big scarf from Burberry and a blanket coat by Mariam Alsibai. Favourite online retailers?
Vintage and antiques platforms. There’s such
a brilliant selection now; Etsy, eBay and Beyond Retro, and for my home, Ceraudo, Chairish, Silence, Vinterior, 1st Dibs, The Peanut Vendor... I could go on! Trend to embrace?
I’m less about trends and more about discovering new combinations. As it’s almost spring, I’ll probably be back in a frilly silk shirt by Magda Butrym, with corduroy dungarees by Reformation – a favourite combo of mine.
1 Le Labo Another 13 EDP, £180 (johnlewis.com). 2 Alighieri Beacon gold plated earrings, £210 (net-a-porter.com). 3 Shrimps Antonia bag, £450 (shrimps.co.uk). 4 Three Graces London Gwendoline dress, £625 (net-a-porter.com). 5 ASCENO Silk pyjama top, £235 and bottom, £210 (asceno.com). 6 Proenza Schouler ankle boots, £410 (farfetch.com). 7 De La Vali Suki dress, £325 (delavali.com). 8 Hunza G Twosret bikini, £135 (net-a-porter. com). 9 She Made Me Maalai dress, $385 (shemademe.com). 10 Superga 2750 Cotu Classic, £50 (superga.co.uk). 11 Simone Rocha earrings, £250 (net-a-porter.com). 12 The Vampire’s Wife Belle dress, £655 (farfetch.com).
Everyday uniform?
Blazers (I love Blazé Milano and Racil), with vintage Levi’s and my new Proenza Schouler ankle boots.
Batsheva, Vampire’s Wife, Rejina Pyo and Rixo as they can work in the day with ankle boots and a trench coat and at night, paired with heels and pearl earrings from Simone Rocha or Alighieri.
Realisation Par dresses, crochet pieces from She Made Me, easy gauzy coverups from small labels like Marysia and Christy Dawn, sawn-off Levi’s shorts, Hermès slides, battered Superga Ecru sneakers, masses and masses of books and swimwear by Hunza G.
ST Y L E CH E AT S Fun tights from Calzedonia – they instantly change an outfit so you can get a good three days out of the same clothes. Vital knowledge with a young baby!
PHOTOS: REX FEATURES
M Y
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A different perspective.
Twenty eight. That’s the number of paint shades in our collection and the only colours you’ll ever need. Each one as timeless as the next. Each one blended by us to complement the others. Paint, made easy.
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UP FRONT
L U X U R Y
treasured as they were when they first bought them. Her Agincourt collection, for instance, is still going strong, and yet the Agincourt ring was one of the first she ever made. Its design, says Gage, Lucia van der Post is in was inspired by her love of Persian carpets, and she has continued to awe of Elizabeth Gage’s use this theme in her rings distinctive jewellery but also in the bracelets she subsequently added to the range. he world of jewellery is filled with Though most young, thrusting creative designers famous for each with a vision and an energy her rings of their own – but in among them, quietly she has a going her own distinctive way just as she wonderful has done for the last 50 years or more, wedding collection is one of the most distinguished designers with such things as pearl of them all, Elizabeth Gage. and gold earrings, molten gold Once you’ve seen a piece of jewellery cufflinks, a particularly lovely by Elizabeth Gage you will recognise her work aquamarine molten gold ring anywhere. She is most famous (£4,560) and lots, lots more. for her rings, having won Most of her pieces, ranging the De Beers Diamonds as they do between International Award about £3,000 and for her Templar £7,000, seem to me ring in 1972. She to be astonishingly is a meticulous FROM TOP: good value as craftswoman, Wire and granulation they don’t cost works mostly in Shiraz earrings, £5,160; the astronomical 18 or 22 carat Lapis necklace with lapis Marguerite cameo, £17,400; sums the gold and her Mandarin garnet Agincourt swankier Bond rings, almost ring, £19,200, all by Elizabeth Gage Street jewellers all featuring command. And historical design it’s worth noting references, are that judging by the utterly distinctive, pieces to be found coming in either plain on eBay, that there is gold with sculpted motifs a continuing flourishing or, more usually, encircled second-hand market with raised gem stones in her jewellery. or diamonds. She was won innumerable Her jewellery has an utterly timeless awards, among them an MBE in air. Those who first bought her pieces 2017. A retrospective exhibition when she was a young designer whose of her work at the New Britain work was Museum of America in Connecticut being a couple of years ago, was a huge success, championed by and perhaps most remarkable of all, is the then-young that Dover Street Market in London’s Annabel Jones Haymarket, that epitome of all that (now Lady Astor of OKA fame) in is cool, innovative and exciting, loves her work and continues to her Beauchamp sell it with great success. Place shop, find them as elizabeth-gage.com wearable and
LUCIA LOVES
T
LIFE’S LIT TLE LU XURIES VINTAGE CHARM A brilliant new discovery is Ceraudo, which sells an eclectic and charming mix of vintage and antique pieces. As I write, for instance, there’s a pair of vintage 20th century French corner armchairs for £850, a delightful Regency bamboo washstand for £475 (which would make a lovely side table) and a set of six rush and beech dining chairs for £480 (try to find something half as nice at that sort of price in a conventional store). The sisters behind it are just about to launch a modern range they’ve designed themselves called Pome. ceraudo.com
LOVE IT AGAIN I’ve always loved Re-found which deals in old, discarded objects and materials which it refashions into something new and lovely. Recently though it has expanded into coming up with new and interesting products, usually with a strong ethnic tinge. Latest offerings are some brilliantly colourful terracotta vases from Bangladesh. They’re made of natural and local materials and are hand-painted by rural women artisans. The designs are inspired by traditional rickshaw art. There are two shapes, each is £29. re-foundobjects.com CIRCULAR ECONOMY The only handbag I want for spring is Rosantica’s red Billie clutch. It certainly isn’t practical but it wins on account of its charm and beauty. For just £560 (the ‘just’, you understand, being relative) you get a perfect spherical clutch which has a ‘gold’ metal frame encased in red beads and finished off with a dashing tassle. It’s obviously not your average working bag – it’s for high days and holidays, evenings at the opera and extremely chic dinner parties. matchesfashion.com
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© Sébastien Coindre
www.baobabcollection.com
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UP FRONT Rings from Harry Winston’s bridal couture range
CHANTILLY LACE AND A PRETTY FACE
J E W E L L E R Y
THE GOLD DIGGER
The latest jewellery news and trends. By Annabel Davidson PUTTING DOWN ROOTS
Be-ribboned corsets and Chantilly lace, satin bows and embroidered silks – all of these are long-adored wedding dress references, but at Harry Winston, they’re also references for a sublime new roster of six couture-level wedding rings. A large pear-cut stone is tied up with a double, ribbon-like diamond-set band, mimicking the nipped-in waist of a corset, while a large oval-shaped diamond is flanked by delicate diamond bows. Chantilly lace is referenced via pear and marquiseshaped stones branching out haphazardly from a large emeraldcut stone, while more modern brides might like to pay homage to their gown’s asymmetrical hem with a ring pitching two marquise-cut diamonds facing each other at either end. harrywinston.com
One ring, five trees – that’s the promise made by Lark & Berry, the fine jewellery brand that only uses ‘cultured’ (aka lab-grown) stones. Partnering with US charity One Tree Planted, the brand promises that for every single purchase made, five trees will be planted in areas where they’re needed most, including where traditional diamond mining has all but eradicated native forests. larkandberry.com
Dark halo sapphire drop earrings, £825 and Dune slim diamond band, £565. Both Lark & Berry
SIM PLY SPA R K LING
GYPSY QUEEN One of Egypt’s most revered luxury brands, Azza Fahmy creates fine jewellery from her own atelier in Cairo, but with inspiration sourced from around the globe. Her latest collection, Gypsy, is a celebration of cultural nomads, and these Ajour Crescent and Star earrings in 18kt gold and sterling silver, rubies and champagne diamonds are a tribute to the traditional symbols of the Ottoman Empire. £4,035. azzafahmy.com
I’VE GOT A CRUSH The quilted motif of Chanel’s Coco Crush collection of fine jewellery is instantly recognisable, but some of the new pieces from the collection are a first for the maison. Take the new ear huggies in beige and white gold, tiny hoops to cling to the outer rim of the ear, no piercings required! chanel.com
THREE OF THE BEST
JEWELLERY WITH FACES The Louise D’Or Coin pendant from Anissa Kermiche is inscribed with the French for Freedom, Equality, Femininity. £1,195. matchesfashion.com
Sophie Bille Brahe’s Camelia diamant pendant is a modern take on the classic cameo, £2,860. dover streetmarket. com Italian brand Dubini has an artful way with ancient coins. This Artemis medallion is a prime example. £4,680. dubini.co.uk
WHAT A MESH The new Boléro timepiece collection from Chaumet riffs on the supple gold mesh bracelet of the watch in actual jewellery items – slinky rings and bracelets with a scattering of diamonds in some cases. They look beautiful on their own, but best when piled up with the matching timepiece. chaumet.com
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Creators of the world’s most luxurious freestanding and fitted furniture Designed and hand crafted in Britain to the highest calibre
DESIGN CENTER, CHELSEA HARBOUR +44 (0)207 751 5537
D AV I D S O N L O N D O N . C O M
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UP FRONT
B E A U T Y
COVER GIRL
Nathalie Eleni shows us how to recreate Carice van Houten’s Game of Thrones glow
W
e wanted to enhance the natural, fresh-faced radiance of our beautiful cover girl, Game of Thrones actor Carice van Houten, who shares heavenly glossy skin with her on-screen counterpart. Keeping her complexion bare and breathable, the main focus was to create the perfect canvas by deep cleansing her face, followed by massaging in fine layers of hydration. To finish the look we accentuated Carice’s rosebud pout, fluttering lashes and almond eyes. Game of Thrones Season 8 will air from 14 April on Sky Atlantic
TEAM Make-up: Nathalie Eleni Hair: Dayaruci at One Represents Stylist: Nicole Smallwood Photo: Rachell Smith
GET THE LOOK
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Start with a luxurious, deep and hydrating cleanse with Quantum Botanika’s Cleansing Balm, a super rich balm that perfectly prepares skin for make-up while leaving a protective layer of oils to nourish and nurture. Use the Gua Sha massage tool which comes with the balm to help boost circulation and aid lymphatic drainage. £65. nataliyarobinson.co.uk
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Apply Shiseido Benefiance Wrinkle Resist 24 Express Smoothing Eye Mask to revitalise and refresh,
for eyes that are bright and camera ready. £60 for 12 packets. houseoffraser.co.uk
in Classic Black from new and exciting beauty brand Code8 for a long-lasting, eye opening effect. £25. codeeight.com
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Apply Temple Spa’s Trufflelixir Super Luxe Serum over your skin. The light texture glides easily over your complexion, plumping and revitalising with a potent blend of impressive actives for instant radiance. £75. templespa.com For a fluttering of ultra-black, long and luscious lashes apply Lash Sophisticate High Definition Mascara
Apply a soft floral pink lipstick to your lips to enhance their natural colour, such as The Met Colour Brilliance Lipstick from Code8, which melts into lips for a shiny and rich colour. £25. codeeight.com
Apply Temple Spa Body Truffle Total Body Radiance over limbs for perfectly glossy, filter-finished skin. £60. templespa.com
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Make it personal.
The Moisturiser
The Hydrator
Your skin’s needs are unique and always changing. The world-renowned beauty trailblazer, Dr Jean-Louis Sebagh pioneered the concept of mixing different, powerful serums to create a personalised daily ritual that perfectly meets your skin’s needs. Potent and award-winning, Dr Sebagh’s iconic serums—including the trio of super-serums featured here—can all be used alone or combined, for agelessly radiant results. Moisturising is essential to restore the skin barrier, protect against environmental aggressors, seal in hydration and keep skin plump. Deeply moisturise and soothe your skin using Rose de Vie Serum, with antioxidant and nourishing rosehip oil, blended with the hydrating, hyaluronic acid-rich Serum Repair, which instantly leaves skin looking and feeling plumped, firmer and tighter.
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The Anti-Ager
The Brightener
Add a trouble-shooting, ‘Ageing-Maintenance’ hero to the mix with a few drops of Supreme Maintenance Youth Serum. It boasts 95% active ingredients, more than any other skin care product, including the ‘youth molecule’ Resveratrol, three anti-aging peptides, a mineral radiance booster and an anti-pollution film. Power-up your serum blend even more with a little Pure Vitamin C Powder Cream. This patented, highly concentrated and stabilised powder-to-cream formula can be mixed with any serum to brighten the skin, prevent pigmentation and bring back its glow. Available in-store and at drsebagh.com
28/02/2019 15:43
UP FRONT
T ECH NO BE AU T Y T R E ATS Let technology do the talking this spring
SmoothSkin Muse This sleek IPL hair removal system will wow you with its amazing hair reduction results within 12 weekly home sessions. £399. smoothskin.com
Assome! Ultrasonic Massager Combining ultrasonic for deep cellulite treatment, radio frequency for toning and LED for skin softening, that’s your beach bum sorted. £159. assome.co.uk
B E A U T Y
Nathalie Eleni feels a foot taller after a Classic Russian Facial with Nataliya Robinson
H
aving heard many wonderful things about Nataliya Robinson and her holistic approach to skincare and anti-ageing, I was really excited when I was invited to try her Classic Russian Facial, which includes a traditional Russian facial massage technique created by cosmetologists in the Soviet Union for women who had no access to skincare, but wanted something to make their skin look dramatically rejuvenated and more radiant. I arrived at Nataliya’s beautiful Chelsea clinic, and after a warm welcome I hopped excitedly on to a deliciously soft and cosy treatment bed. Nataliya analysed my skin before whipping up some magical skin preparations (she developed her own skincare range, Quantum Botanika, after high demand from clients). I cannot even begin to explain how incredible her products feel and how
beautiful the natural scents are that seemed to burst from each precious purple pot. After a deep cleanse and bespoke peel, Nataliya began the massage which consisted of working on the deep tissue to stimulate facial muscles, followed by gentle skin pinching and thorough, flowing lymphatic drainage, seeing me deep into a drooling beauty coma. I didn’t realise how much tension I had in my face and head – afterwards I felt about six inches taller and when I looked in the mirror, my skin was glowing. I had a lovely youthful flush of colour to my cheeks and my face looked lifted, refreshed and my cheekbones more contoured. This treatment is highly addictive, and Nataliya is so knowledgable about ingredients, supplements and skin that I could have stayed and chatted to her for hours. £320 for 45 mins. nataliyarobinson.co.uk
BeGlow Tia All-In-One Sonic Skincare System A one stop shop for perfectly cleansed, plumped and toned skin. Described as a HIIT workout for your facial muscles, a ‘lifting’ mode targets double chins and sagging jawlines. £229. lookfantastic.com
Iris Iluminating Eye Massager Revives tired eyes with an alternating T-sonic technology to efficiently massage the delicate eye area. £119. spacenk.com
MZ Skin LED Mask A light-therapy golden facial treatment device that boosts radiance, reduces pigmentation, diminishes breakouts and calms inflammation. £385. mzskin.com
PHOTO: VISIBLEBYHANNAH.COM
BEAUTY TEST
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UP FRONT
HEALTH HOT LIST
W E L L N E S S
BODY & SOUL
Reduce stress at work, says Camilla Hewitt
Pack’d Frozen smoothie kits put real, targeted nutrition at your fingertips Wobble – Jules Von Hep & Sarah Powell A podcast series all about happiness and body confidence
WELLBEING IN THE WORKPLACE
Poor mental health is costing the economy billions per annum with 300,000 workers leaving their jobs every year. Follow POINT3 Wellbeing’s two favourite workplace hacks to help manage the everyday life: Moving Meetings: Take meetings out of the office and on the move; this will support physical and mental health while also unlocking the creative part of your brain. Boil + Breathe: The average kettle takes around two minutes to boil. Use this time to bring your attention inwards and simply count your breaths. Allowing yourself a moment to be mindful will help to calm and re-focus your mind. point3wellbeing.com
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E SC APE TH E CO U NTRY
Macakizi, Turkey Set against the sparkling Aegean, Macakizi is a stylish hangout perfect for an early summer escape. Spend the morning reclining on the canopied deck, then cool off from the midday sun in the beautiful bay of Türkbükü. After, retreat to the Nuxe Spa, home to a magnificent marbled hammam, or book in with Bodyism for a tailor-made training programme. The hotel has its own fine dining restaurant, serving the most delicious seafood. macakizi.com
Kate Freemantle Acupuncture & Herbal Medicine Specialising in fertility, stress, insomnia and dermatology
BL ACK BER RY PIZZ A S A RECIPE FOR WELLNESS
INGR EDIENTS
METHOD
TO MAKE THE BLACKBERRY COMPOTE » 150g blackberries » 1 tbsp maple syrup » Squeeze lemon juice » Add everything to a pan and heat until the berries have broken down a little
In a large bowl, add the flour, baking powder and salt. Stir to combine. Now add the wet ingredients, mix thoroughly and transfer to a floured board. Knead for a few minutes until you get a rough but springy dough. Pop it back in the bowl for 10-15 minutes.
TO MAKE THE FLATBREAD » 200g spelt flour or flour of choice » 1 tsp baking powder » Pinch sea salt flakes » 75ml water » 100g coconut or plant-based yogurt TO SERVE » Top with coconut yoghurt, blackberry compote, fresh mint & thyme
Heat a large griddle pan or frying pan to medium. Divide the dough into four then roll out the first flatbread. Pop it on the griddle pan and allow to char a little on that side then flip to cook the other side. Repeat. Recipe from rebelrecipes.com
Move Your Frame Pilates Gym Ball Adds a whole new dimension to ab, butt and inner thigh workouts
AVEDA Stress-Fix Soaking Salts Transform your bath into a sanctuary from stress
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UP FRONT LET IT RAIN!
Trench experts Corneliani have brought out a ‘Beyond the Rain’ capsule collection with four great styles that have us willing on those April showers. This checklook, technical silk beauty comes in brick/beige or blue/green. £2,604. corneliani.com
JUDO TIME
Hublot takes its longstanding sports association into the disciplined world of judo. Teaming up with top German judoka Alexander Wieczerzak they have created a sporty watch with a striking titanium case, which comes complete with an autographed card and black judo belt. Hublot Big Bang Unico Judo watch, £17,300. hublot.com
M E N ’ S
SNEAKY PEEK Church’s has introduced a retro-inspired but thoroughly ‘now’ range of CH873 sneakers. Expect tech fabrics, plus suede, contoured stitching and super comfort. £450. churchfootwear.com
S T Y L E
WELL GROOMED
Rainy days and sharp sneakers. By Matt Thomas SOMETHING FOR THE WEEKEND?
Turnbull & Asser has introduced a relaxed range of shirts and accompanying products designed with the weekend getaway in mind, ranging from Norfolk button-downs to a Brando-inspired Western shirt. Shirts from £215. turnbullandasser.co.uk
ONE FOR ALL John Smedley’s Singular collection is a pioneering gender-neutral line, with a collection of nine styles designed to fit and flatter everybody and a tactile, honeycomb texture. Singular Collection Sweater, £165. johnsmedley.com
SMASH THE STIGMA
Hims took the US by storm – a website dedicated to issues and products that men might previously have thought of as embarrassing, from hair loss to erectile dysfunction. Now it’s launching in the UK, and you can shop a variety of products from hair kits to vitamins, as well as easily organising online assessment for prescription-only products. forhims.co.uk
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MINIMALIST DESIGN DEMANDS MA XIMUM PRECISION
Timeless design for timeless architecture, built by SieMatic W W W. S IE M ATIC.COM /S HOWROOM S
Competent kitchen consulting and professional planning: SieMatic UK www.siematic.co.uk | info@siematic.co.uk | 0161 660 6895
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UP FRONT
S O C I A L
S C E N E
HIGH SOCIETY People, parties, places
Emilia Wickstead
Levison Wood
Shaun Rankin Lucia van der Post
Trevor Pickett
Jeremy Isaac, Lucy Cleland and Maninder Gosal Robert and Johnny Sandelson
BEST OF BRITISH
Over 300 guests filled the cavernous spaces of Thomas Goode on South Audley Street, filled with beautiful Pulbrook & Gould flower displays, to celebrate C&TH’s fourth edition of Great British Brands. Not even a china thimble was broken as guests sipped crisp Hattingley Valley English fizz and No1 Botanicals and Bombay Sapphire cocktails (Dry Jan devotees were on Hildon water), and picked at Paxton and Whitfield’s British cheeses and mountains of chocolate brownies, curated by chef Shaun Rankin. A truly great British affair.
Roja Dove
Stephen Quinn
Elizabeth Gage, Maya Monro-Somerville, Joanne Rees and Deborah Gage
Jenny Halpern Lady Carole Coe
Poppy Jamie and Sebastian de Souza
Kate Driver and Dougray Scott
POETS WHO KNOW IT
Laura Bailey
Gala Gordon and Denise Gough
Tobias Menzies
Whoever said poetry was dead obviously missed the invite to non-profit theatre company Platform Presents’ third annual Poetry Gala, where stars of the stage and screen performed their favourite compositions. With so much emotion on display, guests were quick to head to J Sheekey Atlantic Bar for an after party fuelled by copious amounts of Ruinart champagne and fresh seafood. Tuna tataki and shrimp burgers were the perfect accompaniment to nuggets of insider TV and film gossip. Our lips are sealed...
Greg Milne, Laura McMonagle and Jack Guinness
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PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES; DARREN GERRISH
Grace Savage, Harry Treadaway and Jade Anouka
PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES AND REX FEATURES
Mika Simmons
Cyrille Vigneron and Tinie Tempah
Sophia Hadjipanteli
Matthew Zorpas
Noah Samassa and Idina Moncreiffe Henry Golding and Liv Lo
Paul Sculfor, Alistair Guy and Toby Huntington-Whiteley
Charlotte Wiggins Liam Payne
Lauren Cuthbertson
Will Poulter Emma Mackey
Zhang Zilin Eve Delf and Lara Mullen
PAINT THE TOWN RED
Security was tight at Cartier’s New Bond Street boutique reopening, where the likes of Tinie Tempah and Zhang Zilin turned out dripping in diamonds. DJ Louise Chen and an electric violinist ensured the party was suitably sparkly.
DJ Louise Chen
Marc Forne
Karen Ruimy
Carlo Sestini Leah Wood Joe and Tamara Alvarez
Jana Sascha and Tigerlily Taylor
PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES; DARREN GERRISH
PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES AND REX FEATURES
Victoria Grant
Mei Hui Liu
The star-studded guest list of Maryam Eisler’s private exhibition view is testament alone to her reputation as a BNA (Big Name in the Arts, obvs). The great and good of London society brought flamboyant flashes of colour to Tristan Hoare gallery where Eisler’s photographs are now on show.
TAKE ME TO CHURCH
Maryam Eisler and Leila Maleki
ART ATTACK
Geoff Cooper
Philip Colbert
Fru Tholstrup and Tristan Hoare
Bradley Stainton and Charlie Siddick
Ain’t no party like a fashion party – especially when it’s to launch Church’s new CH873 sneaker range (as seen on the feet of every fabulous attendee). The brand showed its cooler side by hosting the event at Soho’s Vinyl Factory and enlisting Gary Powell of The Libertines for a live DJ set. Vibey AF.
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L O N D O N | L O S A N G E L E S | S E O U L | H O N G KO N G
58 BROOK STREET LONDON UK W1K5DT
www.barakatgallery.com
ART CU LT U R E BOOKS PEOPLE
THE GUIDE
BACK TO BACK BALLET
PHOTO: HUGO GLENDINNING
An innovative double bill sees the award-winning dance troupe BalletBoyz performing ‘Them’ – the work of the company’s in-house talent – ingeniously balanced by ‘Us’, as choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon and cult singer Keaton Henson. Touring the UK, including Exeter, Chester, Guildford and Glasgow, the production questions how we perceive ourselves in relation to the ‘other’. Until 28 April. balletboyz.com
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THE GUIDE
HORTICULTURE
FLOWER FEST
A record number of over 60,000 tulips, curated by Kew Guild Medal recipient and renowned gardener Martin Duncan, are stirring in the soil as we speak. These punctual bulbs are set to burst out of the earth mid-April, just in time for the Annual Tulip Festival at Arundel Castle, West Sussex. Spot the playful petals of the striped ‘Marilyn’ and the mandarin-scented ‘Ballerina’ among a spectacular array of 130 other varieties. Mid-April until midMay. arundelcastle.org
DON’T MISS
E V E N T S
COUNTRY LIFE
Spring explodes into Arundel Castle’s gardens
Brighten your soul with blues and blooms. By Jenny Rowe
FESTIVAL
GET YOUR KICKS OUT OF THIS
Bristol’s International Jazz and Blues Festival is back for one weekend only. The line-up includes The Classical Ellington, whose album was chosen as one of The Sunday Times’ albums of the year, and China Moses, performing Billy Holiday’s album Lady in Satin to mark its 60th anniversary. 22-24 March. bristoljazzandbluesfest.com
American blues guitarist Kirck Fletcher
Regret and redemption go hand in hand in Out of Joint’s co-production of Kazuo Ishiguro’s literary masterpiece, The Remains of the Day. Set in a Second World War-torn England, the play scratches the veneer from the face of polite society and exhorts judgement on its depravity and distress. Catch it in Southampton, Guildford, Oxford and Derby in April. Until 25 May. outofjoint.co.uk. MUSICAL
Little dancer aged 14, by Edgar Degas (1880-81)
A Ghanaian ritual doll from the late 19th – early 20th century, maker unknown
Winner of the 2013 UK Theatre Award for Best Musical, This is my Family, written by Tim Firth (whose hits include Calendar Girls), is a musical comedy about the disappointing reality of the holiday of your dreams. Revelling in the highly relatable twists and turns of familial love, James Nesbitt from Cold Feet makes his Chichester Festival debut at Minerva Theatre. 20-29 April. cft.org.uk
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PHOTOS: THOMAS GARNIER; NOBBY CLARK
A VISUAL VERNACULAR
PHOTOS: RICK GOULD; DAVE MCHUGH ; JAMES AUSTIN
FAMILY FURORE
EXHIBITION
Highly sought-after and esteemed, more than 50 of Magdalene Odundo OBE’s ceramic works will be brought together at The Hepworth Wakefield in Yorkshire alongside the objects that inspired her most. The Journey of Things will showcase the global melting pot of ideas, forms and crafts that have sculpted Odundo’s own artistic language and question the role they play in intercultural relationships. Until 2 June. hepworthwakefield.org
THEATRE
TIME FLIES
SOMETHING DIFFERENT
PUPPY LOVE
The inaugural London Dog Week hits the capital this month in an effort to make London more dog-friendly and honour their therapeutic effect on the human mind and body. Paw-rify yours by getting involved with anything from fashion shows to grooming spas, doggy dinner parties, cuddle clubs and charity night walks – dogs are ideal but non-essential. 25-31 March. londondogweek.com
DON’T MISS
E V E N T S
TOWN LIFE
Palatial restoration and physical education
WELLNESS Who let the ribbon-clad dogs out?
Buy wine to help restore the Palace of Versailles
AUCTION
AN ENTREATY FROM VERSAILLES
Crafted in partnership with the Palace of Versailles, Sotheby’s is welcoming bids for 75 limited-edition cases of Château Mouton Rothschild vintages, with labels created by five famous artists including Bernar Venet and Jeff Koons. The full proceeds will finance the restoration of the palace and successful bidders will be invited to a gala dinner in Versailles and private vineyard visit. 17 April. sothebys.com
COME BACK TO BITE
PHOTOS: THOMAS GARNIER; NOBBY CLARK
PHOTOS: RICK GOULD; DAVE MCHUGH ; JAMES AUSTIN
THEATRE
After a sell-out run in Bath last summer, Jonathon Church’s comic rendition of The Price hits the West End, starring David Suchet as the elderly, eccentric antiques appraiser, Gregory Solomon. The volatile set is apt as two brothers swap guilty secrets for inherited furniture under the wise go-between’s watchful gaze. Until 27 April. delfontmackintosh.co.uk
David Suchet steals the show as an old furniture dealer in this twist on an Arthur Miller classic
GET UP TO SPEED Pullman Hotels & Resorts and Track Life LDN have launched a technical running club in St Pancras for those struggling to get their fitness to toe the line and keep up with the relentless tempo of modern life. Train, run and snack (healthily) with Technogym Global Master Trainer, Rory Knight, and Omar Mansour, a former GB junior 800m runner on 19 March, 9 April, 7 May and 25 June. pullman londonstpancras.com PHOTOGRAPHY
BRAVE FACES Internationallyacclaimed photographer Juergen Teller tells the stories of the children cared for by Demelza Hospice in his latest portrait series on display at Bonhams. Teller got to know each of the children and their families first, allowing him to transcend pity and convey the precious nature and vibrancy of their lives, rather than their terminal illnesses. 10-16 April. demelza.org.uk
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THE GUIDE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF SCOTLAND Edinburgh Scotland’s major museum has finally finished its 15-year, £80m project to restore grandeur to the 19thcentury cultural centrepiece. The last stage reveals three new galleries: for Ancient Egypt, Ceramics and East Asia, which includes an 18thcentury Chinese headdress made from kingfisher feathers. nms.ac.uk
Milton Keynes’ MK Gallery
MK GALLERY Milton Keynes Milton Keynes’ modernist buildings are based on the work of visionary architect Mies van der Rohe. At MK Gallery, architects 6a have added high tech elements like neon and exposed pipework, with a colour palette based on a ’70s Habitat catalogue. All enhanced by artists Gareth Jones and Nils Norman, whose outdoor sculpture park welcomes child climbers. Opens 16 March. mkgallery.org
FIVE MINUTES W ITH...
A R T S
ARTS AGENDA
WINDERMERE JETTY MUSEUM OF BOATS, STEAM AND STORIES Windermere A new £20m museum by Carmody Groarke honours the Lake District’s historic boatbuilding industry. Set on the lake’s shore, the cluster of Windermere Jetty seven buildings houses Branksome, a 50ft Victorian steam launch, Margaret, a 1780 yacht and Beatrix Potter’s tarn boat. Its oxidised copper roof will weather into murky green over time to blend with the forested mountain behind. A 1902 steam launch, Osprey, will ferry visitors to the Museum jetty. Opens 23 March. windermerejetty.org
It’s a rare example of collective authorship across disciplines, resulting in a total work of art, where art, architecture and design are interchangeable. In consultations, many people said that they find contemporary art quite difficult. Our programme will be far more diverse and include exhibitions of historical art alongside the contemporary. Schools, families and community are central to what we do. We will finally have a dedicated Learning Studio and we’re going to build on the work we do with people with complex needs.
THE WESTON Yorkshire Sculpture Park Home to majestic Moore and Hepworth bronzes, this sculpture park is the jewel in Yorkshire’s cultural crown. Architects Feilden Fowles’ new building uses pioneering low energy technology and its low-slung design with crossbow roof melds unobtrusively into the landscape. Artist duo Thukral and Tagra will inaugurate the space with Bread, Circuses & TBD, exploring the struggles farmers face in India. Opens 30 March. ysp.org.uk
The collaboration between 6a architects, artists Gareth Jones and Nils Norman and graphic designer Mark El-khatib has been remarkable.
The new Weston gallery in Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Our first exhibition, The Lie of the Land, is a playful assembly of works related to landscape design and leisure – we have Turner, Canaletto and Gainsborough but also the first ever lawnmower and Ruskin’s collection of rocks.
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PHOTOS: YOSHIKAZU INOUE; ©THE FITZWILLIAM MUSEUM
THE POWER OF ARCHITECTURE Design is an essential ingredient in culture. It affects how we consume knowledge, play with ideas, interact with art and with one another. Four new galleries reveal their artistry this season. Exciting times.
National Museum of Scotland’s impressive Grand Gallery
PHOTOS: IWAN BAAN COURTESY OF 6A ARCHITECTS; PHOTO © MIKE DINSDALE, COURTESY WILLIAM BIRCH & SONS LTD
Your cultural diary for the month ahead, by Caiti Grove
ANTHONY SPIRA Director of MK Gallery
PREVIEW
DAMIEN JALET & KOHEI NAWA: VESSEL
Sadler’s Wells, London EC1 More than half the human body is water. To recognise the close relationship between nature and humans, Olivier Award-winning choreographer Damien Jalet and Japanese experimental sculptor Kohei Nawa place their almost-naked dancers on a flooded stage. Set to an electronic score by Marihiko Hara and Ryuichi Sakamoto, seven dancers will perform rituals, reflected back to them in the mirrored surface of the watery space. Say a prayer for the producer of this groundbreaking and daring aquatic piece of art. 16 & 17 April. sadlerswells.com
Vessel: dancing on water
REVIEW
The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge After an exhibition in London in 1877, Whistler waited patiently for the reviews. When they came, devastation struck. John Ruskin described his haunting Nocturne in Black and Gold – The Falling Rocket as ‘flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face’. Incensed, Whistler sued him for libel and won a farthing. He was bankrupt. He retaliated in The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, where he railed against Ruskin’s lack of qualification to pass such judgment. The book is a work of art, the lithographs of which can be seen in The Print Room. Until 12 May. fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk
James McNeill Whistler’s Reading by Lamplight, 1859
BOOKS: FIVE PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAYS PHOTOS: YOSHIKAZU INOUE; ©THE FITZWILLIAM MUSEUM
PHOTOS: IWAN BAAN COURTESY OF 6A ARCHITECTS; PHOTO © MIKE DINSDALE, COURTESY WILLIAM BIRCH & SONS LTD
THE GENTLE ART: FRIENDS AND STRANGERS IN WHISTLER’S PRINTS
JOEL MEYEROWITZ: CEZANNE’S OBJECTS Cezanne’s still life paintings lie flat and contemplative on their glossy canvases. Visiting the artist’s Provence studio, Meyerowitz’s photos capture objects that demonstrate Cezanne’s methods, using his camera like a time machine to spy on the master’s technique and outlook. 25 April
ERWIN OLAF: I AM Royal portraitist and photographer for Levi’s and Microsoft adverts, global galleries have decided a celebratory 60th birthday Olaf retrospective is in order. An exhibition will tour Amsterdam, Shanghai and the US, and this accompanying book has the artist’s own wry commentary about his work. 16 April
SCOOTER BOYS: THE LOST TRIBE (TWO FINGER SALUTE) First feared, then mocked and lastly loved, '80s teenagers customised Vespa and Lambretta scooters to tour seaside resorts. Martin ‘Sticky’ Round’s fascinating record of youthful adventure during a time of shifting social change. 28 April
HIROSHI SUGIMOTO: SEASCAPES A 30-year project, these paintings of calm seas reveal that the overlapping waters on all horizons are similar but distinctively unique. ‘Every time I view the sea, I feel a calming sense of security, as if visiting my ancestral home,’ he says. A tranquil meditation on paper. 25 April
CODEX NEW YORK A love letter to the Big Apple and its idiosyncrasies from infrastructure expert and lifelong New Yorker, Stanley Greenberg, this book explores each block of Manhattan and asks what objects make a city and what bridges, alleys and streets say about the time they were created. Fascinating. 23 April
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THE GUIDE B O O K S
GOOD READS
Like your crime writing? Richard Hopton reviews four widely-differing whodunnits THE HUNTING PARTY LUCY FOLEY
This taut, enjoyable thriller is set on a huge, isolated estate in the wilds of western Scotland over New Year 2019. A group of well-heeled Oxford graduates, now thirtysomethings, gather at the estate’s lodge to celebrate New Year but soon the petty jealousies, deeply buried resentments and new alignments which exist in any long-standing group of friends start to surface with fatal results. The story is told through the eyes of three members of the party, Miranda, Katie and Emma, and the two resident members of staff; Heather, the administrator, and Doug, the ghillie, who have come to this cut-off region of the Highlands to escape their pasts. From the outset, the novel has the ring of the British upper-middle classes at play: the accents, the behaviour, the observations and the language. In this, Foley is almost, but not quite, pitchperfect: at one point she has Miranda saying ‘toilet’ and elsewhere ‘pardon’, words which, one feels, would never
THE SILVER ROAD Stina Jackson (trans. Susan Beard) Stina Jackson’s first novel, voted the best Swedish crime novel of 2018, tells the story of one man’s obsessive search for his teenage daughter who disappeared three years previously. Set in northern Sweden, the action takes place against a backdrop of forests, lakes and endless roads, dilapidated, abandoned houses and isolated communities of simple folk living off the land, roughnecks and drifters. The novel is pervaded by a strong sense of isolation, insecurity and loneliness. Jackson’s prose glides unobtrusively along, shorn of descriptive flourish yet conjuring up a powerful sense of the unforgiving part of subarctic Sweden in which it is set. Corvus, £12.99
NEVER TELL Lisa Gardner Never Tell is the latest crime thriller by Lisa Gardner, the best-selling American writer. The novel begins with an apparently open-and-shut case of murder in a Boston suburb: the pregnant Evie shoots her husband, Conrad. Evie’s past is both privileged and troubled: aged 16, she accidentally shot her father, a renowned Harvard mathematics don. D.D., the detective assigned to the case, harbours doubts about Evie’s story and it becomes apparent that all is not as it seems. This is a gripping story with many a twist and turn, equipped with all the apparatus of forensic investigation, convincingly rendered. Century, £12.99
pass the lips of someone who owns a gold, crested lighter. Foley evokes the wonder and the occasional terror which the isolation and the beauty of the estate, its loch, its forests and its Munro, inspire. She is astute, too, on the ties that bind groups of old friends: ‘It is,’ she writes, ‘a favourite hobby, raking over our shared history together.’ Over the years, loyalties shift as the bonds weaken before being tested to destruction. The whodunnit set in a closed group is a well-worn device in crime fiction but Foley handles it convincingly. Her use of time shifts – the action goes from New Year’s Eve to 2 January, then back to the early hours of New Year’s Day and so on – is a clever way of gradually ratcheting up the tension by supplying the reader with some clues and hints but no answers, keeping him guessing almost until the end. The setting of the story at New Year 2019 confers an arresting immediacy – almost a sense of newsworthiness – reading it, as it were, few weeks later. HarperCollins, £12.99
PERFECT LIARS Rebecca Reid Rebecca Reid’s debut novel tells the story of a tight-knit group of three women who have been friends since their schooldays. The action takes place in a large and comfortably appointed house in Notting Hill (where else?) when the three women and their menfolk meet for dinner. Gradually, by way of flashbacks to the women’s schooldays, their guilty secret is pieced together and as the evening begins to fall apart it rises to the surface. This is chick lit – there is a good deal of brand name-checking – with a dark edge, although I wasn’t wholly convinced by the idea on which the novel is predicated. Corgi, £7.99
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C&TH ONLINE
SPRING INTO THE NEW SEASON WITH THE BEST CULTURE, FOOD AND TRAVEL OFFERINGS IN LONDON AND THE COUNTRY…
SEE DO
From affordable art fairs and special film screenings in London to headline art shows and literary festivals in the country, you’ll find a month’s worth of interesting events to fill your diary with in our events section at countryandtownhouse.co.uk/whats-on.
Spring is in the air, so get out and explore our beautiful country with our round-up of the best spring walks in the UK and our ultimate guide to glamping.
THIS MONTH
by COUNTRY & TOWN HOUSE
EAT
Forget about clean eating – 2019 is all about green eating, so read our guide to the zero-waste food movement and check out the restaurants leading the way. We’ve also got a guide to the best boat restaurants in the UK so you can enjoy the warmer weather.
GO
There’s still time to book in the ultimate Easter escape, so check out our holiday guide. And from micro trips to the rise of the UK motel scene, check out our travel trends round-up to ensure you don’t suffer from FOMOT (fear of missing out on travel).
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THE GUIDE
S P O R T S
THE OLYMPIAN
Sebastian Coe remembers the most powerful man in sport of his time: founder of IMG, Mark McCormack
W
hen a young, Yale-trained lawyer and a fledgling local golfer shook hands, a commercial gamechanger was born and the most dominant sports marketing agency in the world came into being. Modest varsity golfer Mark McCormack agreed to help out Arnold Palmer with a little legal advice about a sponsorship contract he was about to sign. In not much more than three years, McCormack increased Palmer’s income sixfold – and turned his client into golf’s first TV celebrity. With an appetite for more, McCormack founded the International Management Group (IMG). Soon Jack Nicklaus and South Africa’s Gary Player joined. All three bestrode the golfing world becoming some of the most globally recognised sports stars of their generation. McCormack understood that not only could he professionalise the relatively nascent
commercial worlds of sporting talent, but with them under contract he could control and influence the events they were involved with. His representation of athletes soon spread to sponsors, the ownership of tournaments and the promotion of sports TV and sports’ TV rights. I should declare an interest here. I became an IMG client in 1980 after the Moscow Olympic Games at a time when the strict amateur code in athletics and – more broadly – the Olympic Games winter and summer, was being challenged. In fact I was the first track and field athlete to join IMG’s ranks. Athletics never proved as easy as some of the other sports to choreograph commercially. My first agent was from the golfing arm of the group which included Nick Faldo and Bernhard Langer. On the few occasions I met McCormack (he parcelled his day
into 15-minute slots) it was clear that he personified the word driven. He was also low tech, always clutching a yellow legal pad and observing that he had any number of screens monitoring the growing empire but could really only master switching the TV on or off. If sport was the founding pillar of IMG it was by no means the only sphere of its activity. He set up Trans World International (TWI) in the late Sixties, which became the biggest producer of televised sport landing the rights for iconic properties like Wimbledon and the British Open. He also diversified into music, modelling and publishing and, alongside pretty much every sporting A-lister, he also looked after the Pope, Stephen Hawking and Plácido Domingo. It is for his seismic impact on all things commercial in sport that he will be remembered; not simply changing the face of sports marketing but building the industry from a standing start. I’ll leave the last word to the American bible of Sport – Sports Illustrated, who described him as the ‘most powerful man in sport’. McCormack died in 2003 and IMG is no longer the dominant market leader it once was but he was without doubt a game changer.
PHOTO: REX FEATURES
Mark McCormack founded IMG in 1960
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Visit our showroom: 634-636 Kings Road, London SW6 2DU 020 7736 4141 ijlbrown.com
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C A R S
ROAD TEST
VITA L STATS Nissan Qashqai Tekna 1.3 140 PRICE £26,895 ENGINE 1.3-litre turbo petrol POWER 138bhp 0-62MPH 10.5 seconds ECONOMY 49.4mpg (combined)
TOWN
COUNTRY
The Nissan Qashqai virtually invented the market for ‘crossover’ vehicles when it debuted in 2006. A multi-purpose runabout that is neither an outsize SUV nor a supermini, it neatly bridged the gap between the two. British buyers on a budget have snapped up more than three million since – although these days there is plenty of premium brand opposition from the likes of the Mercedes A-Class and the Mini Countryman. The Qashqai – that’s pronounced Cash-Kai – isn’t going to win a beauty contest even after its 2019 facelift. But the latest model can be specced with a 1.3-litre turbocharged petrol engine, offering improved fuel consumption and much better performance. As a city car on stilts, the raised stance of the Qashqai makes it very simple to drive around town. Better all-round visibility and easier parking are key selling points. There are plenty of trim levels but the entry point Visia at £19,995 lacks alloy wheels and satellite navigation. The Acenta Premium version has both, while our Tekna test car was fully loaded. RATING: 3/5 HANDBAGS
The Qashqai might look like it has go-anywhere ability but only the 1.7 model offers four-wheel drive – and that is the unloved diesel version. Still, the extra ground clearance will certainly help progress across the notoriously muddy Cheltenham car park. None of the engines pump out startling performance but the 1.3 copes well with a motorway cruise and remains quiet in the cabin. The automatic versions are incredibly easy to live with too. These days the Qashqai’s interior is starting to look a tad old tech but the navigation system and Bluetooth phone connection are simple to operate. Nissan has made sure there are plenty of storage spaces too, with deep door bins. And what’s good to know is that this Nissan is built in Sunderland, unlike the X-Trail SUV which caused all the fuss in the papers. So, ignore that badge on the bonnet – and the fact you are driving a car named after a nomadic tribe famous for making rugs – and you are the owner of a British car. RATING: 3/5 WELLIES
PHOTOS: COTSWOLDS TOURISM
It might not be the sexiest car on the road, but the Nissan Qashqai does the job, says Jeremy Taylor
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THE GUIDE C A R S
THE DRIVE
The Mercedes-AMG G 63 is a firm favourite for a day at the races. Jeremy Taylor drives to the Cheltenham Festival...
T
VITA L STATS MercedesAMG G 63
he Mercedes G-Class is the perfect antidote to the staid Range Rovers and ubiquitous SUVs found at every horse racing event. Hand-built in Austria, its rugged, no-nonsense looks have remained pretty much untouched for decades. The sensible choice if you don’t need to be first past the post is the G350 diesel. However, Mercedes does offer another high-performance engine that, like a fiery race horse, has become the stuff of legends. The G 63’s V8 petrol really belongs in a sports car, rather than an off-roader with all the aerodynamics of a brick. Yet with such a large dose of firepower under the bonnet, this particular Mercedes is as popular with car aficionados as footballers. The Cotswolds descend into organised chaos this time of year during Cheltenham
PHOTOS: COTSWOLDS TOURISM
PRICE £143,305 ENGINE 4.0-litre bi-turbo V8 petrol POWER 585bhp 0-62MPH 4.5 seconds ECONOMY 21.4mpg
ABOVE & RIGHT: The Cheltenham Festival kicks off the British Sporting Season and there’s no better way to get there than the Mercedes G-Class
Festival week. Guinness and oysters are consumed in vast quantities – every pub and hotel has been booked out for months beforehand. Seasoned spectators have their own ‘secret’ route to the March meeting to avoid the traffic – mine starts in Stow-onthe-Wold. Sandwiched between Bourton-on-the-Water and Moreton-in-Marsh, Stow is one of the prettiest towns in the Cotswolds. Every available room has been snapped up in Bourtonon-the-Water, with the Old Stocks Inn and The Unicorn stuffed with race-goers. There’s just time for an early morning latte at the New England Coffee House before setting off west along the B4077, over the quaint bridge at Upper Swell. The G 63 might have been designed especially for roads like this. Fast, sweeping bends and short straights, it powers along with a soundtrack pumped through exhaust pipes that spit fire and pops directly beneath the passenger doors. Mercedes has given a raw urgency to the power on tap and there’s certainly plenty of it. From high up in a leather-clad cabin I can see over the trimmed Cotswold hedges. And finally I can see over most of the traffic queuing for the racecourse car park. The field is like a Land Rover showroom and makes the Mercedes stand out even more. It’s big, brash and very expensive at £143,000 but I can’t think of many manufacturers that do 4x4 quite this well. thefestival.co.uk
M UST H AV E ACCESSORIES...
BINOCULARS A day at the races wouldn’t be half as much fun without a pair of Leica’s Noctivid 10x42s, the Rolls-Royce of lenses. £2,300. uk.leica-camera.com
COAT Look the part by the racecourse but keep snug too in Farlows’ quilted paddock coat. £174.95. farlows.co.uk
CAMERA Leica’s SL DSLR fitted with the multipurpose 24-90mm lenses is perfect for shooting around the winners’ enclosure. Camera £4,955; 2490mm lense £3,900. uk.leica-camera.com
TRILBY Lock & Co’s trilby will keep follically challenged heads and ears toasty, even when you want to wind the windows down. £395. lockhatters.co.uk
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THE GUIDE
Charlotte Metcalf turns the tables on arch interviewer Lynn Barber Portrait by ALEXANDRA DAO
W
hat on earth am I going to ask the notoriously fierce, awardwinning interviewer, Lynn – ‘the Demon’ – Barber? After all, a decade ago she was interviewed extensively, following her book and the film of An Education, about her teenage affair with an older, married conman. Everything’s been picked over and said already. Plus I admire her work enormously. Who am I to interview her? I wonder what Lynn would do in the same situation. I don’t know. I needn’t have worried. Before I’ve even turned on a tape recorder, Lynn starts chatting openly and humbly about being sacked last summer, aged 74, from The Sunday Times Magazine. It was a baffling decision because the exquisite aplomb with which Lynn punctures the self-inflated egos of the pompous has earned her an enormous, devoted following and an international reputation as a formidable star interviewer. Lynn is sanguine, however. She admits to having been depressed for two weeks, but tweeting about being unemployed resulted in multiple offers of work – including from this magazine. ‘People want me to write travel pieces but there’s no evidence I’m any good at them,’ she Country cottage says modestly. ‘I’m not great at description and my or penthouse? visual memory’s so bad that I have to ask people Penthouse – I’m completely I interview to describe what they’re wearing. London-based I forget faces more as I age and I’m likely to cut Dog or cat? people dead.’ Then with a chuckle she admits A cat called she’s more likely to forget the face of someone Tyger who she’s slept with than someone she’s interviewed. hates me Lynn memorably told an apparently scandalised Green tea Kirsty Young on BBC Radio Four’s Desert Island or wine? Wine, of course Discs that she’d slept with about 50 men over a couple of terms while at Oxford University. Pub lunch or There’s zero point in probing for hidden Michelin star? I’m not crazy truths because Lynn is utterly, gloriously about either, but transparent. She admits to drinking at least a Michelin stars I suppose bottle of wine a day and being a hard-core smoker – she even smoked during labour – and it’s not Country long before we’re standing outside in the bitter brogues or designer heels? cold so she can light up. What do her daughters, I have to go for 40 and 42, think of her habits? Both live in comfort now I’m old but I used to Brighton and Hove, having fallen in love with the be a real shoe place after being at Sussex University, and are fetishist married with two children each. ‘They’re a bit prissy and don’t let me smoke in their
IN BRIEF
houses,’ Lynn says, ‘but if they complain about me smoking in my own house, I just tell them not come.’ Lynn still lives in the Highgate home where she and her husband, David Cardiff, raised their girls. David, a teacher and artist, died in 2003 at 59 from a leukaemia-like illness, myelofibrosis. ‘Afterwards there was an awful period when people were trying to introduce me to men,’ Lynn grimaces, ‘but the men on offer in their 60s and 70s are not a good scene.’ For all the experimental promiscuity of her youth, Lynn was very happily married. She knew David was the man she wanted to spend her life with the first time she met him at Oxford. ‘David was such a good person that over 30 years he made me “gooder” and less selfish,’ she says, ‘but after he died I thought I’d revert to my natural selfish state.’ She seems pleased when I say I don’t find her selfish – indeed she seems as interested in me as I am in her. ‘My friend from Yorkshire says I’m selfish because I’ll eat the last potato in the dish. But I’m a nice person and only rude about people who deserve it,’ she says. ‘Occasionally I upset people by mistake, like Helena Bonham Carter. In an interview about how beautiful she was, I mentioned how much I liked her sweet little moustache and that’s all she remembered.’ In fact selfishness is one of the traits Lynn most deplores: ‘I hate it when people talk about the importance of self-worth and self-love. Or when people react badly to me pointing out they seem very pleased with themselves. It’s this ghastly modern syndrome of “Me! Me! Me!” If you’re so busy looking after yourself, how can you ever have a relationship or look after children?’ Lynn will go after the self-absorbed with a hunter’s zeal – as she did with Marianne Faithfull, whom she found to be rude, arrogant and self-centred beneath an unconvincing veneer of professional charm. Otherwise she’s capable of admiring and even befriending interviewees, like Jarvis Cocker and Tracey Emin. ‘I certainly can’t do the Demon Barber to order,’ she says. ‘Everyone expected me to be rude about Nigel Farage but I found him really interesting to talk to. Overall, I’m not judgemental and I’m never prudish and I’m also very tolerant of sexual waywardness.’ The latter she partly puts down to working at Penthouse for several years after university. ‘I really love interviewing people and on the whole they don’t mind me being tough as they trust me to get at the truth and readers expect me to reach some kind of conclusion. Interviewing the dispossessed or survivors of war or hardship is not my thing because what I like really doing is digging under the polish of success, fame and power.’ I ask her whom she’d most like to dig at next. ‘Rupert Murdoch,’ she says decisively. I can’t think of an interview I’d rather read. With that we break for another fag.
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Lynn Barber was unceremoniously sacked by The Sunday Times after nine years but she’s certainly not short of work
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QUEEN With the final series of Game of Thrones coming to the small screen soon, we asked our legion of Instagram followers to put their best questions to the Red Witch, Carice van Houten Fashion director NICOLE SMALLWOOD Photographer RACHELL SMITH
Dress, Zimmermann at Matches Fashion. Leather jacket, Belstaff
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CARICE
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LEFT: Black jacket, Acne Studios at Matches Fashion. Dress, Alexandre Vauthier at Boutique1 BELOW: Dress, Victoria Beckham
QUICK FIRE If you could star in one movie, what would it be? A film about Greta Garbo. I’m totally fascinated by her. Did you get to keep Melisandre’s necklace? No! But I wouldn’t really want to – it’s not very comfortable. What it does is great, but I’d rather have a few more wrinkles and not an itchy neck. Will you make another album? See You on The Ice was probably the thing that’s made me happiest (apart from my child, obviously). I’m pretty sure I’ll attempt another album at some point. Stroopwafels. Yes or no? A big yes! But only one – one is wonderful, but two is gross. Dany or Sansa’s hair colour? Dany’s – because I’m the opposite. Brunettes always want to be blonde.
I
t’s the moment all Game of Thrones fans have been dreading: the end is nigh. After seven years of magic, battles and a whole lot of slaughter, Carice van Houten, who plays Melisandre, reflects on the series that captured the world’s imagination – though sadly no spoilers. Trust us, we tried...
1
You’ve filmed in some amazing locations with Game of Thrones. Which was your favourite?
Northern Ireland. I absolutely loved the countryside – it’s always raining and miserable but that makes it beautiful and green. The people are lovely, too, with a great sense of humor and a cute accent. I’ll definitely be going back there on holiday at some point.
2
Which traits do you love and hate in your character? It’s a shame that we’ve seen so little of
her sense of humour in the series, but I suppose there’s not that much to smile about in her life. In the end, she wants to save the world and that’s something I really admire, though her way of getting there isn’t very nice. She also has a sense of absolute confidence that I wish I had more often… Though I’m not sure we have much else in common, really.
3
If you were given the chance to play another Game of Thrones character, who would it be?
I always come back to one of my favourite characters, Samwell Tarly. He has comedy notes, he has a strong inner sense, he’s good hearted… It’s fun to play the baddie, but also exciting to play a more flesh and blood character.
4
What has been the most challenging role and how did you prepare for it? There are challenges
in every role, whether it’s trying to perfect an accent, getting along with co-actors, being away from home, or
trying to make a character sympathetic and interesting. But I’d say the hardest was probably playing Carmen in [the Dutch film] A Woman Goes to the Doctor. I played a woman dying of breast cancer who undergoes euthanasia, and there’s a scene where I have to say goodbye to my child. It was very emotional, and a challenge to think about how I was going to do it as I don’t know what it’s like and I didn’t even have children at the time. It was really important not to make it melodramatic in any way, but I’m proud that I managed to do it well (I think!) and make it interesting.
5
Melisandre and Cersei are women who wield great power but also suffer very human pain. Do you wish you had any scenes with her? I would
have absolutely loved to! It’s a really shame there aren’t any scenes between them, but the storylines just didn’t come together. It was a missed opportunity I think – it would have been really interesting to see that they got on as women as opposed to just fighting, because they’re not that different, they’re both loners.
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Top, Isabel Marant at Boutique1. Pearl ear cuff and rings, Annoushka
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Jumper, Helmut Lang at Harrods. Black tulle skirt, Moschino at Harvey Nichols. Boots, Dr Martens
Who do you back for the Iron Throne? Samwell Tarly but zero chance there. Which actor did you enjoy working with the most? Liam Cunningham. He’s a goofball and I have to tell him to shut up sometimes but he’s made being on set easier – the circumstances aren’t always glamorous, so his sense of humour was a godsend. Where’s your favourite place on earth? Wherever my boy is.
6
Was it hard letting go of your character after all these years? It was really hard. I cried a lot.
I didn’t think I was going to – you know it’s going to come to an end and you prepare for that, but it’s still always a shock. The crew gave a big speech when we finished filming – I was surprised at how emotional I got. It’s not just a role, but seven years of your life that are coming to an end.
7
Do the characters’ clothes foreshadow their future in any way? I think the costume
department could answer that better (or is this a new sneaky way of trying to get spoilers out of me?)! It’s great that fans try to make connections even with the outfits – it sparks so much fantasy in people. But in all honesty, after seven years I was just like ‘can I wear another colour now?’. I wore red a lot.
8
How do you imagine you’d fare if the White Walker arrived tomorrow? I would not be fine,
that’s for sure. I would be shivering in the corner –
I don’t have super powers I’m afraid, and I’m no hero. I would be terrified as hell. But Melisandre would definitely have something up her sleeve. She’d try to go back into her religion and strong belief system, and hope for the best. Do you like the ending as it is? It is what it is, and so that’s what it should be. There’s nothing to say about whether I’d change it if I were in charge. In an ideal world we would want Samwell Tarly to be the king and rule the world but unfortunately that’s not the reality. What’s next for you? I’m co-producing a series in Holland with my best friend who I started a company with. She directed me in her first film called Instinct, it’s coming out this year. I’m very proud of it. You’ll also see me in Temple, a series which will be out on Sky Atlantic this autumn – it’s a darkly comic thriller with Mark Strong and Daniel Mays. I hope you all like it! n
9
10
Have you ever made a sacrifice for a career that, looking back, you regret? Not really – I always put family and friends first. But once I had to shoot when my grandmother died and I missed the funeral. It was impossible because of logistics but I still wish I’d been there. If you could only keep three characters alive by the end of GoT, who would they be? Samwell Tarly, Brienne and Arya. Who is your musical guilty pleasure? Billy Joel. I just love him. Fashion? Socks and Birkenstocks – but I mostly wear them to shock people. TV? Programmes about disaster airplane crashes (that’s the sick part of my brain rather than pleasure). I also get totally caught up in Britain’s Got Talent and I love Laurel & Hardy slapstick comedy.
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Jumper, Navy Grey. Dress, Isabel Marant Étoile at Matches Fashion. Boots, Jimmy Choo TEAM Fashion assistant: Kerri Stolerman Photographer’s assistants: James Newlands and Karolina Burlikowska Make up: Nathalie Eleni Hair: Dayaruci at One Represents Location: With thanks to Dukes London (dukeshotel.com) and Chelsea Cars (chelseacars.com) STOCKISTS Page 134
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ON LOCATION The quintessentially British Dukes Hotel in St James’s set a tone of understated elegance, luxury and style as the backdrop for our very special April cover shoot
design, the bedrooms and Duke of Clarence suite in particular add contemporary touches such as black marble bathrooms, modern art and sumptuous cream carpets. FROM ABOVE: Dukes is hidden in its own cul-de-sac; behind the scenes with Carice van Houten; a vintage Jaguar awaits in the courtyard; fine dining at Great British Restaurant; tradition meets modern design details
LOCATION: Secretly tucked away in its own cul-de-sac behind the bustling streets of St James’s, Dukes is a smart, timeless hotel bursting with charm and traditional British luxury. The historic building and its bijou courtyard were the ideal location for our cover photoshoot, starring Game of Thrones’ Carice van Houten and a special prop – a vintage Jaguar, courtesy of Chelsea Cars. INTERIORS: The entrance and lobby combine warm woody tones with lashings of royal blue for an elegant welcome that’s fit for a princess (and indeed, it has been). While the Drawing Room, a vision of class and comfort, is more traditional in
WINING AND DINING: As well as its legendary cocktail bar (the Vesper Martini is a must) and Great British Restaurant serving fine British food, Dukes has collaborated with exclusive cognac house Rémy Martin to create a new look Cognac & Cigar garden. Here, guests can enjoy unique cognac and food pairing experiences. FEMALE FRIENDLY: The Duchess Room Service is one of the hotel’s most unique additions. Thanks to a partnership with Dyson, the slick service has been reinvigorated, allowing solo female travellers to enjoy complimentary blow-dries in their rooms courtesy of a professional hair stylist, using Dyson’s hightech products. This addition is just the cherry on top of an already well-thoughtout service to make lone female travellers feel as safe, welcome and as spoiled as possible. This service – along with its dog-friendly attitude – is one of the many ways Dukes stands out among London’s countless other luxury hotels. BOOK IT: Rooms from £320 B&B. 020 7491 4840; dukeshotel.com
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Beautifully bespoke upholstered furniture. Made in England. Interior design by Joanna Wood
4 St Barnabas Street, London, SW1W 8PE - 0207 259 0422 - enquiries@diningchair.co.uk The Dining Chair Co.indd 1
01/03/2019 09:16
THE LINE OF BEAUTY Luke Edward Hall’s whimsical, romantic aesthetic not only applies to the products he designs but how he lives too, says Rosalyn Wikeley
‘I
’m interested in creating beautiful spaces, curating a beautiful setting.’ The sweeping bay windows flanked by kitsch pink pillars, pear coloured walls adorned with romantic illustrations and a soft classical playlist floating through Luke Edward Hall’s eclectic North London studio strongly attest to this. This designer, illustrator, painter and all-round creative polymath is the king of curation. He has succeeded in reconciling Instagram’s storytelling with a Cecil Beaton-esque quest for beauty. Hall’s artistic ascent has been rapid. His style may have been brewing in the creatively sterile suburbs of Basingstoke during his teens, but there was only a year between finishing at Central Saint Martins and establishing his studio in 2015 to being commissioned by Burberry to illustrate their SS16 campaign. ‘They wrote to me actually, I still don’t know how they found me.’ A string of prestigious hotel commissions followed, as did a project with the
Royal Academy of Arts and fashion designer Saloni’s colourful 10-year anniversary bash in Rajasthan, where his printed tent painted Instagram in vivid hues. It’s the sort of success designers can only dream of. So, why is this Vogue-branded ‘wunderkind’ in such high demand? ‘I became known for taking inspiration from history, particularly the classical era, and pumping it with lots of colour.’ Indeed, it’s this playful, contemporary spin on a romantic yesteryear that makes Luke’s art, design and interior pieces instantly recognisable. His limited-edition collection in Liberty London, from hand-painted tasselled cushions of Hellenic faces to Harlequin trays, sticks out with a quasi-Wes Anderson quirk, while the illustrations adorning the Bloomsbury Hotel’s opulent walls in central London reveal a telling romanticism and melancholic eccentricity. Handwriting scribbled across invitations, pottery and illustrations has fast become another of Hall’s trademarks. ‘I can’t
PHOTOS: THE RUG COMPANY; INSTAGRAM @LUKEEDWARDHALL; BEN FISHER PHOTOGRAPHY AT MASTERPIECE LONDON
Luke and Duncan’s North London flat is a panoply of colour, prints and eclecticism
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PHOTOS: THE RUG COMPANY; INSTAGRAM @LUKEEDWARDHALL; BEN FISHER PHOTOGRAPHY AT MASTERPIECE LONDON
always relate to modern culture or people working now so I often think back to the likes of Cecil Beaton, Piero Fornasetti and Josef Frank. I admire both their work and the way they worked and can relate to their quest for beauty.’ Far from the shallow pursuit of the polished and perfect aesthetic that fuels today’s social media, Luke Edward Hall applies this concept off-screen to ‘simply living well’, satiating the senses with beauty. ‘I think that kind of gets lost now,’ he laments. It’s not about the money, the glory, the bigger turret… but about creating a beautiful house and filling it with friends and flowers just as creatives like Cecil Beaton did. ‘He had a romantic sensibility that I can connect with.’ As befitting a Central Saint Martin’s student graduating in menswear, Hall’s artistic influences instruct his outfit and demeanour. The clash of red cords and burnt orange socks against a floral sofa reveal his admiration for Wes Anderson’s kitsch, while the knitted librarian jumper and round, thinframed spectacles are a nod to the Bloomsbury Set. But behind this eye-catching ensemble, Hall can cut a vulnerable, near-melancholic figure: ‘I usually associate with shy characters, James Sveck in Peter Cameron’s novel Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You is very awkward and likes solitude.’ It’s only when discussing his close creative circle of friends or boyfriend, designer Duncan Campbell, that Hall’s wild eyes soften. ‘I have a really creative, fun group of friends: Haeni [Kim] founded the popular fashion brand KITRI; Fee [Greening] is known for her beautiful Luke’s Liberty illustrations of people, plants, insects and London emporium jewels; my boyfriend and Charlotte [Rey] own their own design company Campbell-Rey; my good friends who are sisters, Daisy and Polly [Stenham] are well-known writers, Rachel [Chudley] is another interior designer and Victoria [Williams] owns The Cob Gallery in Camden... we’ve all helped each other along.’ Hall begins to paint a modern Bloomsbury Set story, one of shared nostalgia for beauty and visual currency, commercial success being a mere bonus rather than the end goal. ‘We met in 2008. East London was really exciting and we Luke’s eccentric dining room vision at Masterpiece London 2018
An illustration from Burberry’s SS16 campaign
Luke’s personal style is a nod to the Bloomsbury Set
all loved dressing up for the wild club nights.’ After Central Saint Martins, Hall interned with Dazed & Confused and worked for a few stylists and interior designers. ‘I really loved the idea that you can create your own identity,’ he muses, suggesting there is more to his design prowess than just interiors pieces. ‘When I go home, I’m just as interested in how my house looks. I can’t separate work from private life, the aesthetic all rolls into one.’ Together he and Duncan have designed their North London flat with daring colours, prints and antique trinkets to construct an eclectic masterpiece, one that would turn globally acclaimed clutter assassin, Marie Kondo, green. And it’s all fodder for Hall’s portfolio – companies such as Berry Bros. & Rudd or Le Sirenuse hotel in Positano buy into his visually curated lifestyle and commission him to design everything from wine labels to bespoke Positano plates. While Hall appreciates the movement to spend less time on social media, he recognises its marketing power. ‘It’s a great tool, I’ve had a lot of commissions through it.’ His next project takes him to Stockholm where he is working on an exhibition in May and a print collaboration with Swedish brand Svenskt Tenn (more foraging-for-berries-in-the-woods fabrics than anything cutting-edge Scandi). As his flamboyantly historical style spreads around the world in various guises, perhaps Luke Edward Hall symbolises a burgeoning nostalgia for a bookish, floppy-haired past amid the forward thrust of tech and tight polo necks. Whatever it is, the creative integrity is refreshing, and for Luke, ‘it’s all part of the same picture’. April 2019 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | 71
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FROM TOP: Coal Drops Yard in King’s Cross was developed from a former railway building and designed by Heatherwick Studio; the view from inside the ‘kissing point’ which will soon contain a Samsung store
LONDON REBOOTED
Enlightened landowners, visionary developers and smart architects have transformed the capital’s forgotten corners. Christopher Silvester reports
T
wo major 20-year regeneration plans for London are now bearing fruit. Argent’s transformation of King’s Cross, begun in 2000, has seen the opening of Coal Drops Yard, the centrepiece and emotional heart of a much wider development project, while London’s biggest landlords are seeking to transform slightly neglected areas through a series of more subtle neighbourhood reboots. When Argent made their bid to become the developer of King’s Cross, they published a book called Principles for a Human City, which outlined their vision for a 20-year regeneration programme that would encompass
67 acres, of land and 50,000 people working in eight million square feet of buildings. ‘This is the equivalent of a town arriving in central London,’ declares Craig White, Argent’s senior project director. No fewer that 24 keynote architects were hired for the King’s Cross master plan. The first phase entailed seven years of investment in infrastructure, most below street level. All the hardware of a smart city is located three storeys underground. Just take St Pancras Square, which will be home to 16,000 workers when the new Google HQ is finished. The buildings don’t have basements. Instead, the entire square has one enormous basement into which lorries bring all the supplies and remove all the waste.
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‘Sustainability is the key to King’s Cross,’ says White, whose previous job, at the Crown Estate, was retail asset manager for Regent Street and St James. Coal Drops Yard, designed by architect Thomas Heatherwick, opened last year. ‘It’s a building that is the length of locomotives,’ says White. ‘It was a three-storey processing plant for coal: the locomotives came in at the top level, dropped coal into hoppers at the mezzanine level, which in turn delivered coal to the carts that were drawn by horses to households and businesses around London. To take two long buildings, very difficult spaces, and convert them into 65 retail spaces – to connect them, make the circulation vertical and lateral, and provide some kind of shelter – that was a very real challenge.’ The result is a thing of beauty. Heatherwick’s sinuous roofs join together like two puckered lips, kissing. The real spirit and ethos of Coal Drops Yard, White explains, is built around the story of the shopkeeper. ‘We created values which have guided us. A lot of London estates have values and they put them on the wall in their office, but our values were threaded through conversations. We were not going to dictate rules.’ Those values are: enrich, delight, unite. This meant they were only going to work with brands that could produce an enriching environment. Delight is about art, creativity, seasonality, visual merchandising and fun, while unite means bringing together the digital and the physical, and bringing communities together using shops. ‘A welcoming attitude,’ emphasises White. ‘No elitism.’ White and his team thought of the retail icons that inspired them and the places they enjoyed visiting, such as Japan, the seaboards of America, Scandinavia, Milan,
St Marks Grade I-listed church in North Mayfair will be a restaurant, retail and community space
and Paris. ‘Then we layered in the sensorial, then we layered in time, we thought about what you want to do through the day, at different times of day. That was our approach to retail. We mashed it all up. We met 1,200 brands in three years. We travelled, went to trade shows. Every single brand was hand-picked, from Nike to the smallest retailer or food outlet.’ White points to Spiritland, which is ten things in one, as the embodiment of Argent’s values. Although a traditional retail space in planning terms, it is also so much more. When you walk in there is a DJ deck station not only telling a story about high-fidelity and vinyl but also a digital platform you can download, there is some retail space for magazines, a stage/event area, a shop for handmade speakers from Nottingham by Living Voice, where you can listen to a professional-grade sound system. Next to that there is a recording studio, a production and broadcast studio, a kitchen, a coffee bar, a cocktail bar, and a retail space with digital and analogue stuff. The Beach Boys launched their remastered album there last year. With London’s population expected to exceed ten million by 2036, Grosvenor Group recognises the need to relieve pressures on certain parts of its prime real estate in London’s West End. ‘This strategy will see our estate in Mayfair and Belgravia in the West End become more active, more popular, more integrated and greener, working harder for the city,’ says Tor Burrows, director of placemaking for Grosvenor Britain & Ireland. ‘In the next ten years, Grosvenor will invest £1bn, to grow and sustain better destinations in the heart of the West End, with new, improved office and retail space and better streets.’ Once the Elizabeth line finally opens, pressure on the West End is likely to grow yet further. ‘A transformed street is a necessary condition for the West End’s success, but it is not sufficient,’ says Burrows. ‘We need a transformed district with better amenities, less traffic, more enterprise, leisure and culture.’ One such district is North Mayfair, the gateway to Grosvenor’s Mayfair estate from Oxford Street, which has the capacity to offer innovative retail and cultural experiences, improved amenities and a convivial atmosphere. Grosvenor has also reclaimed (from the government) the management of historic Grosvenor Square, which happens to be London’s second largest April 2019 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | 73
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garden square, and they see this as a remarkable opportunity to redefine and improve its civic, aesthetic and cultural contribution to the capital. ‘We’ve opened ourselves up to public opinion, polled one thousand Londoners and launched an international call for ideas,’ Burrows explains. ‘The call was warmly received and inspired young and experienced practitioners, across many disciplines, to submit over 160 ideas from over 15 countries. The best ideas, overseen by an independent panel of experts chaired by Yana Peel, CEO of the Serpentine Galleries, will shape our plans next year in preparation for delivering a new square.’ Already, the North Mayfair patch is changing. Barbour, the heritage and lifestyle brand, has expanded its footprint with the renewal of a long-term lease and a significant increase in the size of its store at 56 Duke Street. Independent retailer Penelope Chilvers was delighted to take up residence at 69 Duke Street, ‘as it was where Yoko Ono met John Lennon. So it’s a particularly special space with a very rich history.’ Meanwhile, newly-opened artisan bakery Popina has joined Comptoir Café & Wine and Deliciously Ella, adding to the evolution of North Mayfair as an exciting destination for retail and dining. And Leica Camera’s new flagship store on Duke Street is home to the first Leica Gallery UK, which will provide a more immersive, hands-on, consumer experience. Grosvenor has completed the £5m restoration of Grade I-listed St Mark’s Church, set to become a new home for the popular food market Mercato Metropolitano. St Mark’s reopening to the public, after decades of private usage, is an announcement that has
PHOTOS: © HUFTON+CROW; JOHN STURROCK
Eccleston Yards was developed on unused land near Victoria and is now a hub of creative enterprise, where you can find Barry’s Bootcamp and meditation studio Re:Mind (below)
already begun to change perceptions of Mayfair for Londoners and tourists alike. It will become a retail and dining destination with an inclusive space dedicated to educational and social activities benefiting the local community. At the other end of the Grosvenor Estate is an area of underused land on the boundaries of Victoria and Belgravia, which now houses Eccleston Yards. Previously inaccessible to the public, with the fabric of its buildings in disrepair, this area has been transformed into a hub for creative enterprise and co-working, around a new public square, offering greater diversity of experience to the local community as well as to its daily population of workers and visitors. ‘We launched Eccleston Yards last year,’ says Burrows. ‘Joining Central Working, the shared workspace provider for over 500 entrepreneurs, we welcomed fitness phenomenon Barry’s Bootcamp’s new site; Re:Mind, London’s first drop-in meditation studio; SMUK, a Scandinavian eco-friendly beauty salon; 50M, a world-first affordable retail space for rental by the metre, sponsored by Grosvenor; and Tailor Made, bespoke suits created using 3D body-scanning technology. Alongside these are Jones Family Kitchen, the new restaurant by the team behind Jones Family Project in Shoreditch, and Wild by Tart, which opened a juice and coffee bar ahead of its flagship restaurant, café, event space and photography studio, launching this year.’ Eccleston Yards has also hosted several pop-ups, including Bella Buchanan’s summer sale of pre-loved designer fashion, men’s footwear label Duke & Dexter, and Paradise Now, a free urban outdoor spa created by Bompas & Parr, which claimed to supercharge visitors in 30 minutes. On a smaller scale, Chelsea’s Pavilion Road has also recently undergone a striking transformation, from a neglected service/ storage yard with a handful of mews properties into a thriving ‘village’ just off Sloane Square. Cadogan Estates undertook the project to create a new destination for independent, artisan traders following a consultation with the local community. ‘Despite the rise of online retail, we see a continued demand for bricks and mortar stores,’ says Hugh Seaborn, Cadogan chief executive. ‘Pavilion Road shows how physical retail can still thrive through specialist knowledge and creativity, and strengthen the sense of community – Pavilion Road has become a real village hub in central London.’ A general store and fishmonger are set to join the carefully selected artisan food, beauty and fashion retailers this summer. Regeneration projects like these may be on different scales, but they all demonstrate an ambition to marry a storied past with a Insta dog star Amelia the Cav enjoys a run down bright technological Pavilion Road future. n
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CATCHPOLE & RYE KENT ENGLAND
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From James Bond’s Aston Martin, below, to An Education’s Bristol saloon, bottom, British cars are part of our cultural DNA
MADE IN ENGLAND
PHOTOS: REX FEATURES
Britain has an illustrious history of great motorcar manufacture. Jeremy Taylor urges us to fly the flag, with his pick from the latest lineup…
Thoroughly British: Rosamund Pike and Carey Mulligan ride in a Bristol in An Education
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f you thought the British motor industry died in the 1970s with a flood of Japanese imports, the fuel crisis and the arrival of the mundane Austin Allegro, think again. Despite Brexit woes and confusion over the continuing saga of diesel versus petrol, Britain still builds some of the finest cars on the market. Manufacturing fell by a fifth in the later months of 2018, Jaguar Land Rover laid off thousands and even UK stalwart Dyson announced plans to build its new electric car in Singapore. So what do we have in the showroom to tempt buyers back? Here’s our rundown of some of the best things on four – or two – wheels…
ASTON MARTIN DBS SUPERLEGGERA
Stunning. Is there another grand tourer to rival the sheer beauty of the DBS? Just the badge alone is enough to make you go weak at the knees. And then there’s the coveted James Bond connection too. The Superleggera – Italian for super-light – is the ultimate Aston, with a price tag of £225,000. It looks similar to Bond’s DBS but, unlike beefy Daniel Craig, the Superleggera has been trimmed back by 72kg using carbon bodywork. Equipped with an enormous V12 engine, the 2+2 will hurtle along to 60mph from a standstill in 3.4 seconds. However, I discovered there’s a lot more to driving an Aston than just performance. The DBS makes every journey an occasion. If feels like you are driving a car with real character – British right down to every nut and bolt. Take the DBS on an epic drive across Europe, purr around W1 or just leave it on the drive and coo. astonmartin.com
JAGUAR I-PACE
The all-electric family car is a leap into the unknown for Jaguar. Tesla was the only company offering a battery-powered SUV until last year – fortunately Jaguar has nailed it first time with the brilliant I-Pace. Stylish, roomy and very fast, I-Pace is one of the most sought-after cars in the Jaguar stable. It isn’t cheap at over £64,000 for the entry-level model, although the technology and performance really live up to the hype. I-Pace offers permanent four-wheel drive, 0-60mph in 4.5 seconds and a battery range of up to 298 miles. In the real world that equates to around 230, which is still ample. I loved my weekend in the I-Pace. It’s one of the prettiest SUVs available and the design shows great attention to detail. Just check out the flush door handles and ‘floating’ centre console. Jaguar may be owned by multinational Indian company Tata but the big cat is still a symbol of British motoring prowess. jaguarlandrover.com
MORGAN PLUS 4
The design dates back to 1936 but the latest Plus 4 has been discreetly tweaked to cope with the rigours of modern motoring. A reliable Ford 2-litre engine makes this a classic you can rely on, day in, day out. A Morgan strips back driving to the bare essentials, although my delightful, royal blue test car had a powerful cabin heater and even a heated screen – the former essential with the roof lowered. A burbling exhaust note isn’t too intrusive, although wind noise makes the radio redundant. Unlike a modern Porsche Boxster or Audi TT, the Plus 4 is best kept as a weekend car, a quintessential slice of England still built by artisan tradesmen in the Malvern hills. It thrives on a country drive and has just enough pep to be entertaining. Around £43,000 will get your name on the waiting list but, unlike more conventional rivals, the Morgan will hold its value well. You just have to source your own tweed cap, picnic basket and driving gloves to complete the look. morgan-motor.co.uk
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ON T WO W HEELS
TRIUMPH BONNEVILLE BOBBER The Bobber is the runaway success motorcycle of the last 12 months. Triumph’s fastest-selling machine ever has hit Harley-Davidson where it hurts. It’s not a tourer, commuter or an adventurer but a retro-style statement – perfect for hipsters and Sunday rides out to the country. A 1200cc engine provides modern day thrills – I can assure you there’s currently no cooler bike on the planet for £10,650. And it’s built near Leicester. triumphmotorcycles.co.uk
BENTLEY MULSANNE SPEED
Bentley’s renaissance in recent years has been based around cars like the sensational Continental GT grand tourer and Bentayga SUV. However, if you want your own gentleman’s club on four wheels, the Mulsanne has everything bar a butler. The 530bhp Speed, as the name suggests, is the fastest version and can be yours for a modest £252,000, although a catalogue of ‘must-have’ options usually hikes the price in excess of £300,000. One shouldn’t really drive a huge, four-door saloon like this at great speed but with a 6.75-litre engine and twin turbos, who can resist? Even the cut glass decanter in the rear doesn’t make a sound. Like the Morgan, the Mulsanne feels as British as watching cricket on the village green with a glass of Pimms. A marvellous engine and an imperious sense of style. bentleymotors.com
MCLAREN 570GT
Anyone averse to supercars should try the 570GT. This is the most practical and comfortable model to come out of the McLaren factory in Woking – honestly, it’s an everyday motor so long as you have £160,000 spare. The GT is a little softer-sprung than Italian rivals, more like a tourer than a track-focussed tearaway. My favourite feature is the low-slung rear screen, hinged at the side to drop in a couple of your favourite Globe-Trotter carry-ons. Of course, the V8 GT engine lives up to the visual promise too. 0-60mph in 3.2 seconds and tremendous fun to drive. It’s also very well planted on the road, which inspires confidence if you’re not used to 562 horses under your right foot. See it as a ‘beginner’s supercar’ with some added practicalities and you won’t go far wrong. mclaren.com
GOCYCLE GS Engineer Richard Thorpe was so passionate about building the greatest electric bicycle he quit his job at McLaren and went to work. That was back in 2002, and his new GS model is a joy straight out of the box. It took me 25 minutes to assemble, following instructions on an app, and minutes later I was riding down the lane with battery assist. The GS folds up in a trice and features pit stop-style detachable wheels; some versions have an LED daytime running light too. Thorpe and his team in Surrey have reinvented the wheel. From £2,499. gocycle.com
MUTT FAT SABBATH The trend for customised vintage machines that don’t cost a fortune is what Birmingham-based Mutt is all about. Inspired by the old-style 125cc Suzuki, they create budget bikes that look far more expensive than they really are. The bargain Fat Sabbath starts at less than £3,500, with a bullet-proof engine, black tank and quilted seat. Hang on tight because it brings out the Steve McQueen in every rider. muttmotorcycles.com n
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THIS PICTURE & BELOW: The Marbella Club played host to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor INSET: The Duke and Duchess with Charles Bethell, of the Bahamian Club, who introduced them to Nassau society, 1940
WALLIS REVISITED
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t was the most wonderful synchronicity. I was in the middle of researching a book about Wallis Simpson and desperately needed a restorative break. A friend suggested that I visit the Marbella Club, which I had assumed was a dated outpost of gin-soaked roués and WAGs tottering around the pool in bikinis and wedges. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The current incarnation of this property, bought in 1946 by Bavarian aristocrat Prince Alfonso HohenloheLangenburg, is a restorative Mediterranean hangout with a stylish spa. An Andalusian Bamford. I was walking to dinner one evening, through a candlelit courtyard overhung with bougainvillea and scented jasmine, when I saw an exhibition of photographs of guests through the decades. To my surprise there was a photograph of the Duchess of Windsor, dining in 1964 alongside glamorous
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PHOTOS: REX FEATURES
A chance trip to The Marbella Club in Spain unveiled a whole new side to Anna Pasternak’s subject for her next book, the Duchess of Windsor
Spanish society figures the Marquesa de Toreno and the Duke of Arion. Count Rudolph Von Schönburg, who ran the club with his cousin, Prince Alfonso, is standing behind them in the photograph. Imagine my delight when two days later, this charming octogenarian invited me to lunch and talked exclusively about the Windsors, with whom he and his wife, Princess Maria Luisa of Prussia, became great friends. Count Rudi, as he is affectionately known, and I sat at the legendary beach club restaurant eating freshly grilled gambas, just as the Windsors had done 60 years earlier. In 1954, Prince Alfonso, converted his farmhouse into a 20-room guest house, then turned this former olive grove into an exclusive playground for the crowned heads of Europe, Middle Eastern potentates, tycoons like Aristotle Onassis and Hollywood stars such as Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant. The Windsors came three times in the early sixties. With no entourage, they brought a valet and maid and booked a bungalow as paying guests. Through my research into Wallis Simpson, I discovered that she was greatly misunderstood. The common perception is that she was a cold, sinister schemer desperate to be Queen of England who almost derailed the monarchy when Edward VIII abdicated in 1936 to marry her. Talking to her friends, I discovered that the opposite was true. Wallis was a warm, loyal, intelligent woman written off by cunning, influential establishment men seeking to diminish her and to destroy her reputation. They wanted Edward off the throne, and Wallis became the ideal scapegoat. Count Rudi unequivocally confirmed this: ‘I have always considered her position in history factually incorrect and very unfair,’ he said of Wallis. ‘I was flabbergasted when I first met her. She was so much nicer than we had been led to believe. The story of their marriage was so shocking and we were told that she was this loud, twice-divorced American, yet she was very polite, well-educated, dignified and charming. She always looked amazing with incredible jewellery but never overdid it. I liked her very much.’ One of the reasons that the Duke of Windsor loved the Marbella Club – his daily ritual was to pick a fresh lime to squeeze into his dry martini at exactly seven o’clock – was because here they honoured Wallis. Denied the coveted HRH in England, at the Marbella Club they referred to her as Your Royal Highness or ‘Señora Duquesa’ because ‘it
The gorgeous swimming pool at the Marbella Club
Grace Kelly was a Marbella Club regular
PHOTOS: REX FEATURES
Wallis dines at the Marbella Club in 1964 with Count Rudolph Graf von Schönburg (standing), the Marquesa de Toreno and the Duke of Arion
made the Duke so happy’. I found it incredibly touching that the Windsors always had the same discreet corner table in the restaurant for dinner. When they got up to leave, every single Englishman in the restaurant stood up and bowed to the Duke, then to the Duchess. This was 30 years after the abdication. ‘There was still a huge respect for him,’ explained Count Rudi. ‘And those who respected his decision to marry Wallis were deferential to her. The Duchess was immediately accepted here, whereas in other places, because of her husband’s relations, this was not the case.’ Edward, who was related to Princess Maria Luisa through Queen Victoria, loved to sit and speak German with her for hours. Count Rudi and Princess Maria Luisa were frequently invited to stay with the Windsors in Paris in the seventies. ‘It was elegant and formal but not stiff,’ Count Rudi recalled. ‘Wallis was a wonderful Bright and breezy interiors hostess and the table was beautiful. She was good conversationally but we never discussed politics. Yet the reason that the couple were in exile was all political. The government had such influence over the royal family, which people forget.’ I asked Count Rudi if the Windsors were truly in love. ‘In over 50 years of running a hotel, I have seen thousands of couples together,’ he said, ‘I have seldom seen a couple as integrated as they were. They had a deep confidence in each other and mutual respect. It was an extraordinary love.’ n Untitled; The Real Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor by Anna Pasternak is published by William Collins, £20 April 2019 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | 81
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L O N D O N
- N EW BROCH U R E OU T NOW 0333 011 3333
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ONDESIGN INTERIORS FOCUS | Edited by CAROLE ANNETT
OVER 25 PA PAG AGES OF
INS IN NSP SPI PIR IR ATI TIO TI ION ON
Wallpaper and fabric by Thibaut. thibautdesign.com
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ART, DESIGN, TRENDS AND MUCH MORE... 01/03/2019 11:28
ON DESIGN Geometric tiles by Damla (ottotiles.co.uk)
Contents 86
WHAT’S NEW Highlights from the world of interiors
90
ROLL UP, ROLL UP! Wallpapers coming to a wall near you
92
ON THE FABRIC HUNT Pick of the new designs
94
FLOOR SHOW Rugs: 10 good reasons to look down
96
SLEEPING BEAUTY Bedroom ideas to avoid a snooze fest
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DECORATED SPACES Martin Hulbert Design, Natalia Miyar and Sarah Vanrenen are this issue’s captivating case studies
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EASY LIVING Exteriors are just as important
109
WHEN NINA MET DOMINIC A very special collaboration
110
DESIGN Q&A Timothy Oulton
Martyn Lawrence Bullard for Corbett Lighting (corbettlighting.com)
Les Dames by Zoffany (zoffany.com)
EDITOR ’ S LET TER
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go-to decorator, a celebration to launch his t’s been a busy collaboration with Corbett Lighting, soon to time putting these arrive in the UK. Any gathering with Martyn pages together. is a wonderful suffusion of glamour and gossip Fun too as I hit the and if you want to hear more from him and Eurostar to view the Timothy, do listen to The House Guest podcast new collections in (countryandtownhouse.co.uk/podcast). Paris at the design and It wasn’t all parties. I got the lowdown on what’s decoration fairs. Think new. As far as trends go, it’s still mid-century fashion week but with modern and the 70s are back with colourful fabrics and furniture. exuberance – acrylic tables, accents of brass And parties. Sir Peter and gold, while orange glows brightly as a key Osborne gave a special drinks do at the British shade. The collections offer, as always, a fabulous Ambassador’s residence and Madonna’s interior array of fabrics, rugs and wallpaper. Highlights designer, Timothy Corrigan, hosted a soirée at include an ethereal painterly linen from Zoffany, home. His tassels and trimmings for Samuel Les Dames, Phillip Jeffries’ & Sons decorated the canapé trays kimono-embroidery inspired and a pink flower wall where wallcovering and Mulberry’s everyone had the opportunity for India-stripe linen, already a photo. Obviously I got in there. earmarked by Judy Hutson for the Timothy smiled throughout. interiors of forthcoming Pig That man has exquisite taste hotels. In these pages you’ll and an ocean of stamina. also find three case studies, The other party of note was Leopard fabric differing in style, to inspire dinner with Martyn Lawrence by Parker & Jules (parkerandjules.com) whether you’re renovating for Bullard, the Kardashians’ yourself, or like me, just love seeing how others live, and we have an exclusive story on Nina Campbell’s collaboration with mirror specialist Dominic Schuster. If your bedroom needs an update, you’ll find a host of ideas for a refresh. When you read this, the London design shows will be packing up and I’ll be partied out and ready for a lie down. On a handmade, What happened when Nina organic mattress, natch. Campbell met Dominic Schuster? Adieu for now.
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ON DESIGN | NEWS
WHAT ’ S NEW
The new season’s home offerings promise oodles of colour and so many clever, innovative and beautiful ideas. If you’re in the market for teeny or even major changes, lucky you
RHUBARB AND CUSTARD
Rubelli’s pink and yellow Baba Jaga fabric, £153 p/m, and Ralph fabric, £95 p/m, meet in sweet harmony on Pipe chairs by Moroso. rubelli.com
INCREDIBLE CARPENTRY The Ethereal desk by Marc Fish is made from thin veneers of sycamore, laminated and shaped into curves and held with resin. $130,000 from Todd Merrill gallery. marcfish.com
BLACK BEAUTY According to the team at Ripples, this matt black shower system is proving a big hit with designers. Aio shower system, £816. ripplesbathrooms.com
HEY SWEETIE This huge swirled glass ball is hand blown exclusively for Hector Finch. Eye-popping in a hallway or stairwell. Lollipop pendant, from £990. hectorfinch.com
SOFT TOUCH The Tropic Marine Dea Hots cushion is inspired by the traditional textiles of Sierra Leone, £63. dar-leone.com
AMERICAN SPIRIT Ralph Lauren loves English country style, hence this new tableware from Burleigh pottery. Faded peony octagonal bowl, £150. ralphlaurenhome.com 86 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | April 2019
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JUST LAUNCHED
WELL SPRUNG
BOOK WORMS Get stuck in
Henry by Arlo & Jacob combines Scandinavian design with traditional detailing. Available in over 120 house fabrics, from £890. arloandjacob.com
Apollo combines brass and clear glass with an ivory braided cable, from £774, David Hunt Lighting. davidhuntlighting.co.uk
AB CONCEPT by Ed Ng and Terence Ngan, £150. assouline.com
Nina Campbell’s Elegance and Ease by Giles Kime, £45, Rizzoli. nina campbell.com
The Pentreath & Hall Alphabet book, £30 or £40 with book bag. pentreath -hall.com
HAPPY COMBO A brand new collaboration between Ca’ Pietra tiles and textile designer Neisha Crosland. Fern pattern encaustic tile in smoke sage from the Jigsaw collection, £7.80 per tile. capietra.com
Mid-century modern living, Keith Stephenson and Mark Hampshire, £20. octopus books.co.uk
Farrow & Ball - Recipes for Decorating by Joa Studholme, £30. octopus books.co.uk
HATS ON Ochre Stormont marbled lampshade, from £90 at The Room Service. theroomservice.co STROKE ME Deep red thistle on hide cushion, £795, by Khalique. khaliquelondon.com
Design Thread by Kit Kemp, £30, Hardie Grant. shopkit kemp.com
Winch Design, exclusive examples of work from the Londonbased design studio, £135. assouline.com
NEW ADDITION The Savanna collection – textured braids and borders using mohair, chenille, jute and linen, inspired by the Australian landscape, all by Samuel & Sons, from £26 p/m. samuelandsons.com April 2019 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | 87
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ON DESIGN | NEWS
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
Farrow and Ball always conjures brilliantly evocative paint names. These two are Sulking Room Pink, and De Nimes, which was inspired by everyday workwear cloth made in the French city of Nîmes. From £46.50 for 2.5l. farrow-ball.com
TEENY TREASURE Will Fisher finds quirky and beautiful pieces for Jamb’s Pimlico showroom. This carved alabaster Grand Tour miniature of Pisa depicts the leaning Tower, Baptistery, and Duomo, all under a glazed dome, £8,500. jamb.co.uk
RIVIERA CHIC Dark lines highlight the geometry in Damla’s St Tropez tiles, £6.20 each. ottotiles.co.uk
THE NOSE
Navy and silver is always a smart combination. Wall-mounted mixer in chrome and blue, Nice by Fantini, from £970. cphart.co.uk
HANG LOOSE I like this mix of delicate glass and tough metal. Zig Zag table lamp by Timothy Oulton, £775. timothy oulton.com
PRINTS CHARMING Art makes a room so choose an image you love. Richard Allan’s Elsa print measures 79 x 81cm, framed in black, white, gilt or silver, £990 each. richardallanlondon.co.uk n 88 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | April 2019
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Manufacturers of fine bathrooms.
We first began making fine free-standing baths over 20 years ago using our own special material: Iso-Enamel, keeping your bath hotter for longer, and at only a third of the weight of cast iron. Request your 276 page brochure for our range of 50 beautiful traditional bath tubs.
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+44 (0)1255 831605 | albionbathco.com
01/03/2019 10:46 01/03/2019 11:04
ON DESIGN | SHOPPING
ROLL UP, ROLL UP
New wallpaper designs, starring on a wall near you
1 THE CURIOUS DEPARTMENT Electric lagoon wallpaper in white, either coated matt or mica finish, £100-£120 a roll. thecuriousdepartment.com 2 PHILLIP JEFFRIES Flight is inspired by original kimono embroidery, digitally printed on a textured background, £547.50 p/m. phillipjeffries.com 3 MATTHEW WILLIAMSON AT OSBORNE & LITTLE Valldemossa, £76 a roll, bench upholstered in Calobra, £65 p/m. osborneandlittle.com 4 ZAK + FOX Curiosities wallpaper in antiquity colourway, £756 a roll at George Spencer Designs. georgespencer.com 5 KAROLINA KROON FOR SANDBERG Ginkgo, £76 a roll. sandbergwallpaper.com 6 LITTLE GREENE Carlton House Terrace, blue plume wallpaper from London Wallpapers V collection, £97.50 a roll. littlegreene.com 7 KATIE BOURNE INTERIORS Catch a Star wallpaper in cream and pink, £86 a roll. katiebourneinteriors.com 8 ANTHOLOGY Vitruvius wallcovering, £135 a roll. stylelibrary.com/anthology 9 DESIGNERS GUILD Peonia wallpaper in gold, £75 a roll. designersguild.com 10 ARTE Umbrella squid wallcovering, £99 p/m; console by Moooi. arte-international.com 11 ABIGAIL EDWARDS Secret Garden wallpaper in twilight, £89 a roll. abigailedwards.com
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Breathe Life into your kitchen this Spring Here at Life, we create kitchens to be lived in. So, come and explore our beautiful showroom and tell us how you live yours. Railway Arch 213, Newham Terrace, Hercules Road, Lambeth, London SE1 7DR
www.life-kitchens.co.uk
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ON DESIGN | SHOPPING
ON THE FABRIC HUNT Looking for something new? Here’s what’s caught our attention
1 BLENDWORTH Muse from the Mystical collection, cotton, £37 p/m. blendworth.co.uk 2 PIERRE FREY Ndebeles in Argile colourway, £386.40 p/m. pierrefrey.com 3 GP&J BAKER Ellenby in spice colourway from the Artisan II collection, £129 p/m. gpjbaker.com 4 SOANE Tendril Vine, linen sheer, emerald colourway, £360 p/m. soane.co.uk 5 MIMI PICKARD Bell linen, pink, £98 p/m. mimipickard.com 6 PARKER AND JULES Chair upholstered in Leopard, crimson coral colourway, £120 p/m. parkerandjules.com 7 SAHCO Upholstery fabrics including chenille and boucle – look out for the new showroom at Design Centre Chelsea Harbour. From £113. sahco.com 8 DAVID COLLINS Studio Collection for Baker including satin, linen, wool and silk velvet, from £150 p/m. bakerfurniture.co.uk 9 MANUEL CANOVAS Anna, viscose/cotton in saphir colourway, £65 p/m, at Colefax and Fowler. colefax.com 10 OSBORNE & LITTLE (From left) Tarbouche, £135 p/m, Temara, £155 p/m and Zouina, £135 p/m. osborneandlittle.com 11 JAMES HARE Fuji in natural/
dusky rose colourway, from the Voyager collection, £100 p/m. james-hare.com
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Wallpaper: Kasai. Lauderdale Chairs in Alcanthara. Baxter Ottoman in Mitford. Console H Style in Windward Sisal.
Paramount Collection: Wallpaper, Print and Woven Fabrics www.thibautdesign.com tel: 020 7737 6555
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ON DESIGN | SHOPPING
FLOOR SHOW
Rugs makes a room sing, adding softness and texture as well as colour. Many companies let you take a rug home to try so do ask, it’s the best way of finding out if the design works in a room
WHAT THE DESIGNERS SAY Charu Gandhi at Elicyon Design Studio suggests there is a move away from the formality and tradition of rectangular designs. ‘Rugs with deconstructed edges bring a playful abstraction to a space and are making their way into our projects.’ (elicyon.com). Rug designer Luke Irwin is working on interesting geometric patterns and designs with curves. ‘They have an understated chic about them that just quietly underlines everything else in a room.’ (lukeirwin.com)
1 SOHO HOME Wittenburg rug, from £395. sohohome.com 2 VINTERIOR Vintage Turkish pink/cerise overdyed rug, £625. vinterior.co 3 LUKE IRWIN Cranbourne Geometric collection, from £1,353. lukeirwin.com 4 LOOMAH Jade, bespoke design, £1,120 per sq/m. loomah.com 5 JENNIFER MANNERS Scallop rug for Salvesen Graham, from £345 per sq/m. jennifermanners.co.uk 6 TANIA JOHNSON Smudge rug, from £1,230 per sq/m. taniajohnsondesign.com 7 COLLETT ZARZYCKI Brushstroke for Christopher Farr, from £14,165. christopherfarr.com 8 RIVIERE Trevi Patina from £1,021 at Riviere. riviererugs.com 9 SONYA WINNER After Matisse rug, from £595. sonyawinner.com 10 JAN KATH Volante from the Common Threads collection for Front Rugs, from £2,220 per sq/m. frontrugs.com
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ON DESIGN | BEDROOMS
SLEEPING BEAUTY
We spend more time in a bedroom than anywhere else in the house so make it a cosy haven
MATCHY MATCHY Swedish childrenswear brand Newbie launches Bedtime Stories including wallpaper, bedlinen and nightwear. Children’s bed set from £25, pyjamas from £18. newbiestore.com
TOPPING OFF If you haven’t tried a topper, it’s like a big hug. Sukha luxury mattress topper, £380, Issan feather and down duvet, £140-£170 and Dechen duck-down duvet, £230-£270, all by Coze. cozelinen.com
ORIENTAL INSPIRATION Kiku is the result of Savoir Beds’ collaboration with Fromental featuring delicate handpainted silk wallpaper with embroidered Japanese chrysanthemums. The design is finished with a hand-painted silk cushion. A full bedset (bed, mattress and screen) starts from £27,910. savoirbeds.com
PETALS AFOOT Consider carpet for a bedroom – warmer on your feet than a wooden floor. Timorous Beasties noir ruskin butterfly design for Brintons, from £89.99 per sq/m. brintons.co.uk
DREAM BIG A powerful prehistoric design from House of Hackney – Dinosauria wallpaper, £185 a roll. houseofhackney.com
GET THE LOOK
Amanda Huber of WH Design created this scheme with bespoke bed by R Phillips, handpainted with motifs inspired by Pierre Frey’s Escarpolette, for a country house in Berkshire. wh-designs.com
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EXOTIC GARDEN
AT HOME
Many Yves Delorme bedlinen designs have matching robes such as this one from the Miami collection, pretty printed sateen on cotton, £249. uk.yvesdelorme.com
The Cairo collection from House Babylon, 600-thread Egyptian cotton with a smart double band. From £20. housebabylon.com
TOP TIPS FOR BETTER SLEEP Vispring, whose mattresses adorn many establishments including The Dorchester, take sleep very seriously. Dr Neil Stanley, the company’s sleep expert, shares his top tips on achieving better sleep.
1
Enjoy a warm bed but, ideally, the bedroom should be cold
2
Try to have a fixed wake-up time every day of the week, including weekends
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Avoid caffeine if you are sensitive to it and don’t eat a large meal before you go to sleep
SWEET THING London based designer Juliet Travers joined forces with Lucinda Croft, the creative force behind children’s shop Dragons, to create a magical yet sophisticated wallpaper that works as well for a child’s nursery as for an adult’s room. Sold as four panels, £1,295. dragonsofwaltonstreet.com
GOOD SERVICE British manufacturer Willow & Hall offers free delivery, they will install if required, take away the packaging and remove your old item for £40 per piece. This Widham bed in French blue brushed cotton costs from £847. willowandhall.co.uk
SHE LOVES ME KD Loves is a new venture from interiors specialist Kelling Designs, featuring Bernard Thorp fabrics. Isabella headboard £1,200, cushion £85, Chloe lamp base £250, Georgina shade £180. kdloves.com
LOVELY LINEN Piglet linens get softer with wear (they sell pyjamas too). Everything arrives in a nifty bag. Midnight Stripe basic bundle, from £230. pigletinbed.com
4
Avoid using smartphones and laptops at least 45 minutes before bed
5
Invest in a good mattress, ideally one with natural materials such as horsehair, cotton and cashmere
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Listen to your body and go to bed when you’re tired
AFFORDABLE LUXURY Draper London is the relaxed little brother of luxury bespoke homeware specialist Josephine Home, whose linens grace Mandarin Oriental hotels and numerous smart addresses around the world. From £24.50. draperlondon.com
(vispring.com)
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CASE STUDY | ON DESIGN
DECOR ATED SPACES
Three residences, three different styles, each under the direction of a professional eye. A Welsh hotel reinvigorated with local flair, a masterclass in creating comfort in a one-storey apartment and a family farmhouse brought bang up to date with treasures from around the world
The wood-panelled drawing room features soft blue hues
MODERN FAIRYTALE The Grove of Narberth is a country house hotel as unique as the town that shares its name. In need of a little magic to realise its full potential, the owners invited Martin Hulbert and Jay Grierson to stay
MARTIN HULBERT DESIGN
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arely is there such a perfect fit between client and designer than Martin Hulbert Design and the Grove of Narberth. A shared work ethos, passion for an old mansion and Pembrokeshire’s heritage made this a match made in heaven. The end result is a refreshed and revamped Grove of Narberth, a charming country house hotel which offers guests a cosy, charming and elegant refuge in a beautiful location. It’s a place into which
thought, care and attention have been lavishly poured, from the hundreds of hand-pressed ferns on the wall of the renamed Fernery restaurant to the bespoke love spoons crafted by local skills on a bedroom wall. Originally built for medieval farmers and their livestock, the property comprises four cottages and a long 15th-century house. Opened ten years ago and intended as a B&B for mountain-bikers getting muddy in the spectacular local countryside, the hotel soon soared in popularity, attracting a far wider clientele. The owners, Neil and Zoe Kedward, however, still felt something was missing. Aware of Martin Hulbert Design,
Neil and Zoe invited Martin himself and director Jay Grierson to come and stay to get a feel for the project and to brainstorm ideas for improvement. ‘The locally sourced food and friendly local staff fitted the bill, but the interior design didn’t quite reflect just how special the hotel was, and, crucially, its relationship with the town,’ says Jay. From there, and with no strict brief, the improbably speedy turn-around of an eight-week revamp began. Narberth is a pretty market town in East Pembrokeshire dotted around the walls of a castle. Only its stone ruins remain. Edwardian and Georgian buildings line the high street of fine art, fine food, antiques and vintage shops in
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higgledy-piggledy rows. ‘We were quite moved by the place,’ says Martin. ‘It’s a beautiful building in an interesting, old-fashioned town.’ By embracing the local environment, Martin and Jay were able to augment the hotel’s unique features, weaving local folklore into the design. Where there’s a castle, there are legends and Narbeth castle, dating from Norman times, is no exception. Its exact origins are as opaque as the mists that swirl on the hills but it is believed to have been home to the Prince of Dyfed. ‘Incorporating local handicrafts into the interior helped
to plant the hotel’s roots deeper into its setting. We have instilled a mythical, romantic element,’ explains Jay. As well as artisan crafts, they looked locally for old and new pieces of furniture, pottery and art and blended them with Welsh blankets and vintage lace, the odd Persian carpet and billow of silk or a chair in sumptuous, jewel-coloured velvet. It’s as if the Prince of Dyfed has returned from far-flung isles with a curated mix of treasures from around the globe. The design helps to make the
Grove as warmly welcoming as can be. ‘You really feel when you walk in that you can kick your shoes off and curl up on the sofa,’ observes Jay. The interiors have a natural flow, each space designed with individuality. Take the Drawing Room, for example, which features predominantly blue hues with lashings of natural wood and was ‘probably once a ladies’ drawing room,’ explains Martin. ‘The house is not architecturally brilliant in any way, it just has a cosy feel about it. It’s really important to us to create
WORDS BY KERRI STOLERMAN
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Welsh love spoons decorate a bedroom wall; a clever mix of colour and texture; view into the revamped Fernery restaurant
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CASE STUDY | ON DESIGN
WORDS BY KERRI STOLERMAN
hotels or interiors that have a sense of place.’ The work is now complete and the house has its own personality. Whether guests are enjoying the delicious produce of Pembrokeshire cooked to perfection at The Fernery, walking their dog around the hotel’s beautifully landscaped grounds, or just kicking back and relaxing (perhaps with an in-room spa treatment), Neil and Zoe hope guests feel it too. thegrove-narberth.co.uk; martinhulbertdesign.com April 2019 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | 101
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CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: A bespoke gesso and brass screen delineates the space. A warm colour palette features tobacco, brass, sienna and sand; bedrooms feature fabric-covered walls and headboards; the media room
LATERAL LIVING By introducing interesting materials and textures and cleverly dividing the space, interior designer Natalia Miyar transforms a London apartment into a warm, welcoming residence
NATALIA MIYAR
‘M
illionaires don’t like stairs,’ is the blunt assessment of one estate agent I know in describing the attraction of luxury apartments to high net worth clients. But it takes an astute eye to inject cosiness in a space that could host a cricket match. Natalia Miyar is the name behind some of London’s most sumptuous single storey residences. The apartment was just a shell when the client approached Natalia Miyar Atelier. Space and an abundance of light was the initial draw but when it came to fit-out and furnishings, the clients were daunted. ‘The biggest challenge with a long, open-plan
space is to create hierarchy,’ says Natalia. ‘Forging different areas, breathing life and personality into each one. One of the best devices is a screen – here a bespoke decorative design of bronze and gesso – dividing but not obstructing’. Natalia’s use of texture and colour is her signature, inspired by a peripatetic childhood. Of Cuban provenance, she grew up in Mexico, studied architecture and design in Miami before settling in England. ‘Contrasting natural landscapes resonate very strongly with me. In Mexico I was exposed to incredible earth tones, while in Miami, it was bright shades of sea and sky, the
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CASE STUDY | ON DESIGN
bold, lush green of tropical plants and pale gold sand. When I moved to England, the countryside greens and urban greys influenced me in another way.’ This project is interwoven with a suffusion of all those influences – sienna, ochre and earth tones punctuate the space. Two works by Cuban artists hang in the media room and rich earth tones are grounded with a smattering of urban grey – well it is London after all. There’s even a pop of tropical greenery on the balcony. Fashion strikes another strong influence: ‘I love the way couture combines contrasting materials,’ says Natalia. In the area earmarked as a sitting room,
brass-framed armchairs upholstered with The Silk Gallery fabric create convivial space around a coffee table and opposite a curved sofa with cushions in silk, velvet and wool – Schumacher, Fortuny, Hermès at Dedar and Rubelli. In every room save one, Natalia lavishes walls with Pierre Frey papers or linen. ‘Modern apartments can feel cold so we always add texture,’ she adds. In the centre of the apartment, an awkward box-shaped area had no obvious role. Natalia played to its strength and created a media room with double-sided curtains, linen by Mark Alexander, and the walls a deep forest green. The
addition of two bespoke chaise longues certainly adds the X-factor. Natalia chose the art. ‘I buy when I feel an emotional connection to a painting,’ she explains. Both these pictures are by Cuban artists, Ahmed Gomez (small round painting) and Luis Marin, bought on one of her many trips to Miami. Final touches in place – a knubby throw for the media room and beautifully simple arched lamps, both from The New Craftsmen – she transforms the apartment into a welcoming and comfortable home. Millionaires may not do stairs but they know who to call when they want to get things right. nataliamiyar.com
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French Art de Vivre
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CASE STUDY | ON DESIGN
View from the kitchen to fields beyond
RICH PICKINGS With intelligent planning and an eye for unusual treasures foraged from auctions, markets and souks, an ancient farmhouse is brought bang up to date
SARAH VANRENEN
C
ircumstances often mean you don’t choose the house you call home. And so it was with Sarah Vanrenen of Vanrenen GW Designs Ltd when she married and moved in with her husband. The property, a sprawling 300-yearold farmhouse, belonged to his grandmother, and as Sarah explains, ‘it was a perfect project for an interior designer as it had bags of potential but needed TLC’. The first box to tick was the structural work, the primary objective to open up areas for natural light to enter the low-ceiling property and for a larger kitchen. Planning consent was obtained to connect an adjoining outbuilding to the farmhouse, the only proviso being
that each had to maintain a distinction between the buildings rather than looking seamless. This allowed for a larger kitchen and a run of oak-framed windows which open out to a terrace. ‘We knocked out all the walls of the old kitchen to make the most of the view. There was no way of getting to the garden before,’ she explains. Sarah has worked as in interior designer for more than 20 years and feels English country houses should always look as comfortable and engaging as possible. ‘A home should look as though it has been lived in, and the things in it, accumulated with love and time, while maintaining a sense of togetherness,’ she says. Daughter of interior and textile designer Penny Morrison, whose company Irving and Morrison sells textiles, cushions and lampshades, Sarah learnt her skill, ‘through osmosis,’ she laughs. In her first property, a
flat in South Kensington, she started with a sofa and a mirror, ‘and I have been collecting ever since.’ And so it was with her new home. ‘After the initial building work, we bought little by little on a shoestring, visiting local auctions and interesting markets. I am always on the lookout for original lighting and antique fabrics. In all our projects, it’s important to have an edge. Nowadays with Instagram and Pinterest, everyone can see everything. Our office is full of unique pieces, often a bit whacky, that we use in client’s homes. The last thing I would ever want is for someone to walk in to a client’s property and say: “Oh, did so-and-so do this?”’ Morocco and India feature heavily on Sarah’s sourcing trips. The kitchen floor is inspired by a pattern in a restaurant on one foray. ‘We used Moroccan tiles to make the white boxes against a background of honed stone,’ she says. Rugs are regularly bought
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ON DESIGN | CASE STUDY
abroad. Colour and pattern are important – her farmhouse dining room is chartreuse with shots of purple – and, ‘I don’t like places to look too pristine,’ she adds. Sarah chose dark blue walls for the kitchen extension adding accents of red with reclaimed hanging lights. A piece of fabric from Turkey transforms into cushions, while lampshades were once saris.
In the master bedroom, she asked builders to punch through the ceiling exposing the beams and creating airiness. In the vault hangs an Uzbek tribal coat. ‘Bedrooms are a good place to use pattern and I usually suggest wallpaper but here I decided on pale blue Farrow & Ball paint and antique fabrics.’ A linen valance and fur bedspread complete the
scheme. The bedside tables, from Julian Chichester, were already in the house when she moved in. Penny Morrison’s blue and white Flower Berry wallpaper features in the adjoining bathroom. The kitchen view is worthy of a Constable landscape – uninterrupted bucolic bliss. And now the doors can be opened fully, the terrace is ideal for relaxed entertaining. Flower motif iron-frame chairs that belonged to her husband’s mother add a quirky touch. ‘She designed and made them herself in the Sixties,’ explains Sarah. Spraypainted and with new ticking covers, they sit perfectly with the house’s eclectic style. Having married an interior designer, I wonder how much input Sarah’s husband had in the revamp of his grandmother’s home. ‘Not a lot,’ she laughs, ‘although he now insists I can’t add without taking something away.’ One gets the feeling she doesn’t always adhere to his request. n vanrenengwdesigns.com
PHOTOS: TIM BEDDOW
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: The extended kitchen area with Moroccan-inspired floor; an Uzbek tribal coat hangs in the newly created ceiling space of the master bedroom; the master bathroom features Penny Morrison wallpaper
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PHOTOS: TIM BEDDOW
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ON DESIGN | OUTSIDE
EASY LIVING
Prepare in advance for glorious long summer days to make the most of al fresco dining, family gatherings and time on your own in the sunshine
SITTING PRETTY
Indian Ocean’s Davos armchair is inspired by flower of life petals, the rounded edges offering a comfortable, sociable ambience. Armchair £2,500, table £795. indian-ocean.co.uk
NATURAL LIGHT Curiousa & Curiousa’s new designs for outdoor lighting are inspired by organic shapes in nature. This pendant is made with a polyester fabric, so it’s fine outside in the summer – but bring indoors for heavy showers. Large Ume lantern, £2,000. curiousa.co.uk
LOUNGE LIZARD Pure minimal design and super-comfy day beds. Claud lounge bed by Andrea Parisio for Meridiani, from £3,950. meridiani.it SEAT OF YEARNING The Bergére armchairis by Christopher Pillet for Ethimo is constructed in teak with a metal core for strength. It is available in two colourways; natural teak with light grey rope detail or pickled teak with a taupe rope detail. From €1,300. houseology.com
THE SCIENCE OF THINGS The Bench of Contemplation by David Harber features random strands representing human thought and DNA. From £22,951. Look out for the Savills and David Harber garden at Chelsea Flower Show. davidharber.co.uk
COOK OUT Gaze Burvill’s À la Carte outdoor oak kitchen has individual modules, each with adjustable feet so wonky terraces are no problem. Choose from an array of cupboards, sink, fridge and grill (Sub-Zero & Wolf is standard). Bespoke projects welcome, kitchens start from around £20,000. gazeburvill.com
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COLLABORATION | ON DESIGN
WHEN NINA MET DOMINIC Nina Campbell and Dominic Schuster have collaborated on a range of very special mirrors. Here’s how the story began
Nina and Dominic in his Surrey studio
‘I
have always loved old mirrors. They were made with silver leaf, that’s why they age so beautifully,’ says Nina Campbell standing in Dominic Schuster’s Surrey studio. ‘And it’s much better not to see yourself too clearly,’ she adds. Dominic is an expert in antique mirror and renowned among interior designers for the quality of his work. He was recently commissioned to create a reflective wall in Georgia May Jagger’s bathroom. Although both big players in the creative world, he and Nina hadn’t met before. A serendipitous meeting at Decorex inspired a conversation that ultimately led to collaboration. ‘I use mirror in all sorts of ways, often doing slips in architraves as it looks so lovely in candlelight,’ says Nina, ‘so I was drawn to Dominic’s stand at Decorex, where I saw
a Japanese wallpaper partially revealed through white gold verre églomisé. I think the idea of partially revealing fabrics or wallpaper through glass is so glamorous – when I saw Dominic it sparked an idea for my fabric and wallpaper designs.’ Dominic says: ‘I come from an antiques background and with a multitude of period mirror glass passing through our studio, I know how old mirror should look. I have even been asked to visit homes, advise and help where mercury has dripped out of old mirror and formed balls of metal on the mantelpiece. Blending aged mirror or gilded glass with imagery is something we’ve done for a long time now and I’m always looking for new, interesting designs. Nina’s are timeless, which suits our work perfectly.’ After the initial meeting, the two put their
heads together, rolled their sleeves up and got to work. Nina chose to use her Colbert wallpaper, an arrangement of 1930s stylised leaf formations named after Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV’s finance minister. Dominic fused this with white gold and distressed it to reveal as little or as much as he deemed appropriate. ‘It’s a delicate process and part of the skill is to get the right balance between image and mirror,’ he says. The final design, graceful and subtle, looks like it’s been around for years. ‘I can’t wait to feature the mirrors as cupboard doors in a bedroom or a pair of hallway mirrors,’ smiles Nina. Nina and Dominic’s mirror design is available as panels plus smaller accessories including place mats and coasters. dominic-schuster.com; ninacampbellinteriors.com
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ON DESIGN | Q&A
LITTLE BLACK BOOK
TIMOTHY OULTON
FABRICS de Le Cuona. delecuona.com
Snow domes and Louis Vuitton do it for this designer
Timothy Oulton
Where do you find inspiration?
I follow the Paul Smith adage: ‘you can find inspiration in anything and if you can’t, look again’. What’s the last piece of art you bought? A picture of Chairman What was your most recent find? The space at the Bluebird, King’s Road. I have always coveted this area of Chelsea. It was where I hung out as a teenager and reminds me of that time – Sid Vicious, Vivienne Westwood et al. I’m so pleased to have it as a flagship showroom.
Most extravagant thing you’ve bought for your home? A ten tonne piece
Mao made from Hong Kong stamps with the Queen’s face. I wish I hadn’t though as I can’t do anything with it because of copyright. I am also obsessed with Louis Vuitton flower trunks, little boxes that held flowers as a gift. There are only six leather ones that were ever made, and I have two.
CUSHIONS Timothy Oulton. timothyoulton.com FURNITURE Liaigre. liaigre.com
What gadget could you not live without? My phone. I love
Instagram – I’m a late adopter but I love how you can learn about a brand in seconds. What do you collect? Dunhill lighters. I have 240, all made by one guy. They twinkle.
House warming present?
It has to be something of your own that you give away – that’s a true gift.
What would you never throw away? My snow domes. I have
CANDLES Cire Trudon. trudon.com
about 40. They remind me of trips abroad. Whose home would you most like to have a nose around?
Manolo Blahnik’s house in Bath.
PLATES Spode. spode.co.uk
Which designers do you have your eye on? Philippe Starck – he always pulls it out the
bag. Also industrial designer, Marc Newson. What’s beside your bed? A Timothy Oulton
side table – logs suspended in an acrylic block. How can we live more self-sufficiently?
Buy fewer, buy better. What are you currently working on? Unsung design hero? Martin Waller from Andrew Martin – he dared to be different. And Robert Kime, whose decorating is timeless.
I want to design complete spaces, not just sell furniture. timothyoulton.com
KNICK-KNACKS Bentleys. bentleyslondon.com
PHOTOS: DANIEL GARDINER; COURTESY BENTLEYS LONDON
of amethyst from Uruguay. Don’t ask me why but the more you hang around crystal, the more you feel the energy – they emit a charge.
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EAT DRINK ESCAPE
S O U T H
FOOD & TRAVEL
T Y R O L
A MOUNTAIN CALLS
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
From family frolics to fabulous food with wellbeing underlining it all, Lucy Cleland and Clementina Jackson have fallen hard for the South Tyrol
The hills are alive in the South Tyrol
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Schloss Fiss offers the perfect combination of laidback luxury and outdoor adventure
FAMILY FLING Could there be a better place to be? A cleaner, more wholesome, more beautiful place than these mountains in the South Tyrol, an autonomous region in northern Italy? When the world goes to shit, I’m coming back here and hiding out. Having been a dedicated beach holiday type family, the mountains in summer are giving the Med a run for its money and winning. Far fewer people, still things to do if it rains, lungfuls of fresh air – the mountains are a veritable vernal playground for children. I mean that literally – rustic playgrounds are peppered around the mountains just a lung-enhancing hike or cable car ride away. So I beg you to swap the crowded beaches of southern Europe for the crisp, clean glories of the South Tyrol and, more specifically, the five-star Schlosshotel Fiss, the family-owned icon that surveys the rooftops of Fiss, a quintessential Alpine village of just a thousand residents. In winter, it’s all sheepskins, gluhwein, roaring fires and arnica-infused massages after a day on the slopes, but in summer it’s just as – or even more – seductive. Views of the sun-dappled, pine-clad mountains – is that Heidi skipping through the grass over there? – call you to The Great Outdoors. Walk straight out from the hotel – after a splendid buffet breakfast, complete with hot chocolate and crepes for the kids, organic muesli and omelette for you – and decide whether you’ll hit the Hexenweg (a mountain witch trail
leading you through dark, twisty woods, cauldrons, spellbooks and owls en route), or take the cable car to the Summer Funpark where children can test their mettle on adrenalin-pumping rides (the fisser flitzer is a toboggan that can hurtle on a rail down the mountain at speeds of up to 45km/ ph), or just muck about tubing, cycling, trampolining and eating bratwurst. Should the weather be unkind, you can happily all hole up in the hotel without griping; the inside/outside pool and waterslides are beloved by children and there is a superb all-day kids’ club that organises really fun games and activities, so you can hop to the spa for a massage. Regroup for an excellent supper. Don’t bat an eye when the children load plates with tomato pasta for the fourth night in a row, followed by a visit to the create your own ice cream stand; your children really are in seventh heaven, as are you. LC BOOK IT: Schlosshotel Fiss (schlosshotel-fiss. com/en) is a member of Niche Destinations (nichedestinations.com). Double rooms from €163 pp/ p/n full board. For more information on South Tyrol, visit suedtirol.info
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FOOD & TRAVEL
BELOW & RIGHT: The spectacular spa at San Luis
SPA TREK Thousands of metres above the ‘real’ world, surrounded by trees, flanked by rugged mountain peaks and topped with 300 days of sunshine a year, a simple walk outdoors in the South Tyrol counts as therapy. The air up here is Arctic-level pure and there’s a sense of having discovered that mythical ‘clearing in the woods’ where total peace and serenity await. No wonder the locals look so good; this region has wellbeing at its heart, and a day at the spa is more of an essential than a self-indulgent treat. Even the centre of one of the most important towns, Merano, is taken up by a large spa complex (termemerano.it). No fancy French brands need be imported when the thermal mountain water has medicinal properties and a scrub with local apples can replenish your skin. Admittedly, sometimes only a more rigorous approach will do – and that’s when you must surrender to the firm hands of Francesco Caputo and his top-to-toe physio-med massage at San Luis. The magical Alpine retreat is set in its own silent valley, with charming chalets and tree houses built around a lake. For those who need near-miracles to detach from life’s stresses and strains, just a few hours on the cloud-cushioned chaises by the crackling fire in the San Luis spa will suffice. Make sure you breathe it all in. CJ BOOK IT: San Luis costs from €300 pp per night in a chalet or treehouse on a half board basis. sanluis-hotel.com
Visit Merano for its thermal mountain water spa
St Hubertus is one of the finest restaurants in the world
EAT YOUR HEART OUT Unsurprisingly for Italy, all roads lead to food – but did you know that South Tyrol boasts more Michelin stars than any other part of the country (23 at last count)? It all makes sense when you observe the mix of Teutonic perfectionism, Italian flair and Ladin quirk, resulting in food that manages to escape the stubborn shackles of Italian cuisine’s ‘if it’s not broke don’t fix it’ attitude. Local delicacies include Schlutzkrapfen (spinach and ricotta-filled ravioli), knödel (hearty dumplings) and speck, or for a taste of the high life, join Val Gardena regulars a few hundred metres further up the mountain at Rifugio Comici, which helicopters fresh fish in from Venice each day (rifugiocomici.com). Less glamorous but no less fun is Onkel Taa, famed for its beautifully cooked snails and museum next door packed with 35,000 eccentricities (onkeltaa.com). But the jewel in South Tyrol’s culinary crown is undoubtedly Norbert Niederkofler’s St Hubertus, at the glorious Rosa Alpina hotel. It remains the only three Michelin-starred restaurant in the world which forgoes French produce entirely, instead using only what’s available from the mountains – a testament to why the South Tyrolean way reigns supreme. CJ BOOK IT: Rosa Alpina offers double rooms from €440 on a B&B basis. rosaalpina.it.
The delightfully eccentric Onkel Taa
The glamorous Rifugio Comici is a favourite of George Clooney
For more information on South Tyrol, visit suedtirol.info
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T R A V E L
THE BUCKET LIST
Russia holds a deep fascination for Ralph Fiennes, says Holly Rubenstein
The rugged beauty of the Wild Atlantic Way
What destination most reminds you of childhood holidays? Growing up, holidays were rare and very much a luxury. My family moved for a time near to Cork, on the rugged Irish coast. It’s a region of tremendous beauty, known as the Wild Atlantic Way. It’s somewhere that I would love to return to and explore further.
When you need to unwind, where do you escape to? For years I have returned back to my holiday home in Umbria. It’s nothing grand, but it’s a peaceful, rural setting where all I do is read, eat, walk and sleep.
The historic town of Assisi in Umbria, Italy, near Ralph’s holiday home
PHOTOS: REX FEATURES, GETTY IMAGES, THE WHITE CROW
Ralph dreams of visiting the Antarctic – before it’s too late
WHAT’S AT THE TOP OF YOUR BUCKET LIST? I have a curiosity about Russia and I’d like to visit the Siberian Steppes – though maybe not in the heart of winter. I’d take the Trans-Siberian Express train to Vladivostok, because I love train journeys. The pristine places of the world are diminishing and from the images and documentaries I’ve seen, I’d also love to go far south, to the Antarctic.
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Ancient meets modern at the Roman Forum
Do you have a favourite city? It’s hard, but I’d have to pick Rome. You go to Rome and you’re confronted with its ancient past, everywhere. It has a buzz and energy and it’s also quite village-like, with narrow streets in which you can get a little bit lost. I was playing Marc Antony in a production of Julius Caesar around the time that I visited, and I remember visiting the Largo di Torre Argentina where researchers believe Caesar was murdered. You look down from street level at the ruins below, and there’s a great community of wild cats living there. That’s the thing about Rome – around you are the cars and bustle of the city and then you look down and there is the site of a momentous occasion that changed the course of history. What do you enjoy most about travelling? I like history – going to places and imagining their past. I find the modern world not very attractive, so I like to invest my travelling time thinking of how places got to be where they are and what they were like before.
Women wash clothes on the ghats at Ahilya Fort
Ralph Fiennes directs Oleg Ivenko in The White Crow, in cinemas now
The White Crow was filmed in various countries across Europe. Which of the locations was the most memorable? There is something that keeps bringing me back to Russia, in particular St Petersburg. I first visited the city back in 1997, when I was working on There’s something a film adaptation of Eugene Onegin. The city has about St Petersburg... a very strong northern atmosphere. The sense of huge grey skies and Baltic winds that are blowing through and over these grand palaces has a melancholy feeling at times, which I’m drawn to. It’s imposing, challenging you with its size and its authoritarian feel, but it’s also beautiful. For the first-time visitor, the most picturesque aspect is the canals, and the handsome facades of the buildings that front them. It’s why some call it the Venice of the north.
What is your happiest holiday memory? I had a very happy time
PHOTOS: REX FEATURES, GETTY IMAGES, THE WHITE CROW
What is your favourite hotel? I have particularly fond memories of my stay at Ahilya Fort, in Maheshwar, India. Once a fortress, it’s now a hotel on the sacred river Nardmada. I remember waking up to the sound of wet fabric being slapped by local women washing clothes on the ghats (riverfront steps).
A move to the Suffolk coast is on the cards
in Madhya Pradesh, India. I wanted to get a taste of ordinary travel, so I travelled by train, avoiding first class. There are amazing old fortresses and temples in the region, in particular, the Khajuraho temple in Chhatarpur, known for its erotic carvings.
The spectacular Kandariya Mahadeva Temple in Khajuraho
COUNTRY OR TOWN HOUSE? I LIVED MOST OF ALL OF MY ADULT LIFE IN LONDON, BUT AS TIME PASSES I CAN SEE MYSELF SPENDING MORE TIME IN THE COUNTRY. I’M LOOKING IN EAST ANGLIA – I PARTICULARLY LOVE THE SUFFOLK COAST. April 2019 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | 117
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FOOD & TRAVEL T R A V E L
N E W S
THE HOTEL WIZARD
GREEK ISLAND LIFE
South American safaris and Greek odysseys are on Fiona Duncan’s travel agenda
BRAZIL
THE PANTANAL: JAGUARS AND RACING DRIVERS
Brazilian conservationists have been plunged into consternation by the election of far right Jair Bolsonaro as its President, especially in the light of his talk of exploiting the Amazon. How wonderful if instead he put his mind to protecting the planet. His fellow countryman, former racing driver Mario Haberfeld, would also strike one as an improbable conservationist, but after a successful racing career, including Formula 1, he now dedicates himself to the protection of jaguars in the Pantanal, Brazil’s vast wetland. His jaguar habituation project Onçafari (oncafari.org) is unique in South America and offers visitors an opportunity to track the normally highly elusive and secretive animals on an Africa style jeep safari while staying at luxury ecological refuge Caiman (£150 per day pp). Rooms from £619 per night, full board and activities. steppestravel.com
WHITE KEY VILLAS
THREE SOUTHERN PANTANAL LODGES
1 BARRA MANSA A family-run lodge on the banks of the Rio Negro, hard to reach but great for wildlife and observing the traditional way of life in the region. hotelbarramansa.com.br 2 FAZENDA BARRANCO ALTO Another family-owned and operated eco lodge, surrounded by a vast swathe of wilderness to explore by 4x4, horse, canoe or foot. fazendabarrancoalto.com 3 REFUGIO DA ILHA LODGE With simple but comfortable rooms, this ecolodge, on the banks of the Rio Salobra, offers activities such as boat safaris, piranha fishing and riding. refugiodailha.com.br/novo/en
FOUR WHITE KEY VILLAS TO RENT
1
On Serifos, Villa Selina is a sophisticated, traditional style summer house, located above a secluded sandy beach in a beautiful natural setting.
2
Villa Nefelia on Spetses, beloved holiday island for well-heeled Greek shipping families, is a noble family residence with a large garden and a beautiful swimming pool, right on a little visited beach.
T R AV EL R A DA R IN A NUTSHELL Just opened: ten charming bedrooms in Walnut House, next to the Duncombe Arms, a popular rustic-chic pub in the heart of Derbyshire countryside. Expect fabrics by Mulberry and wallpapers by Colefax & Fowler. From £140. duncombearms.co.uk
For me, the closest thing to paradise is, no competition, a small Greek island, with its blue skies and glorious beaches, rugged character and appealing architecture. Finding the right accommodation can be problematic, but for luxury look no further than White Key Villas, an Athens-based company with the most seductive selection of properties in its portfolio, from modern wonders to neo-classical beauties. As well as obvious destinations such as Mykonos and Paxos, there are villas on tranquil hideaways like Serifos and Tinos as well as hot spots like Paros, Antiparos and Spetses. Delve into White Key’s website and the choice is overwhelming – I have to force myself to stop gorging on the pics and videos. A full concierge service, plus chefs if you want them, is included. whitekeyvillas.com
3 CHECKS AND BALANCES Wellness retreats continue to grow in numbers and popularity and Balance Holidays, founded by Livia Manca di Villahermosa, is a new curated collection of the best of them, where you are bound to find just the right place for you. balanceholidays.com
On Tinos, Villa Dryope is a brand new five-bedroom house just above the sandy beach of Agios Romanos, perfect for aficionados of minimal design and Cycladic beauty. Chic, European-style living spaces combine with stunning views.
4
Luxurious Villa Inoe stands at the western end of ever-popular Paxos, with dramatic sea and sunset views yet just 15 minutes from pretty Gaios town.
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01/03/2019 15:51
F R A N C E
PROVENCE WITH ALAIN DUCASSE
One of the world's most decorated chefs shares his Provençal secrets
I
t may be the most popular tourist destination in France, but there are still some quiet corners of Provence waiting to be discovered in relative peace. Sidestep Aix, Grasse and Marseille to embark on a pilgrimage of rustic country cuisine, rolling vineyards, charming hilltop villages, and that typically Provençal ‘art de vivre’ that seeps into your bones with every ray of sun. Chef Alain Ducasse takes us on a journey to uncover the secret side of Provence…
‘I was 21 when I started working for Roger Vergé at Le Moulin de Mougins, and I was immediately seduced by the region. Even while working in Juan les Pins and later Monaco, I would go on long motorcycle rides to discover hidden corners of Provence – and I’ve been doing so ever since.’ As if running some of the best restaurants in the world, most famously the extravagant Louis XV in Monaco, wasn’t enough, it was during one of these road trips that Alain decided to add another two jewels to his already (Michelin) star-studded crown – he decided to become an innkeeper. His two properties – the only ones in his vast empire – are an extension of the hospitality
PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES. WORDS: CLEMENTINA JACKSON
CHEZ ALAIN for which he is renowned; L'Hostellerie de l’Abbaye de la Celle is a laidback countryside inn in Var (abbaye-celle.com) and La Bastide de Moustiers is a chic home from home perched on the Alps of Haute Provence (bastide-moustiers.com). Each with their own Michelin-starred kitchen, authentic style, distinctive Alain Ducasse spirit and wafts of deliciousness at every turn, they’re the perfect base for the ultimate gourmand getaway.
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FOOD & TRAVEL
FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD A huge part of the Provençal joie de vivre is enjoying a meal of excellent, local and seasonal produce accompanied by local wines. At both of my inns produce from the gardens takes centre stage – it’s nature brought to the table, with an absolute respect for taste, textures and tradition. All of my chefs train at Le Louis XV, so this is countryside cuisine with the savoir faire of a Michelin star kitchen – they are the keepers of my legacy. The menu is dictated by our trusted producers and the seasons, but you can look forward to dishes including bouillabaisse (we make it fresh every day), anchovy dips and pâtés, duck and foie gras pie, vast cheese boards and just-baked chocolate tartines, slightly melted by the sun. FILL YOUR SACS You’ll need a big bag! Take home some Provençal honey (it’s some of the best in the world), lavender products from the markets and, of course, lots of local wine. The Côteaux Varois de Provence property is close to the Hostellerie, and a great place to start – they represent all regional cellars and domains – or you can go straight to Château Peyrassol for some of the best rosé around (the grounds are worth a visit too). MoustiersSainte-Marie is a Faïence hub, and the exquisite handmade varnished earthenware makes a lovely gift.
HAUTE CULTURE
THE GREAT OUTDOORS Spend as much time as possible outdoors. The Candelon mountain is perfect for a hike, and the Cascade de Sillans waterfall is one of the most beautiful in France. For a day trip, go to the Verdon Natural Regional Park for a dip in the emerald green Sainte-Croix lake, kayaking on the river and challenging climbs – or head up by private car with a Michelin-starred picnic, butler and plenty of wine in tow for the ultimate picnic with a view (La Bastide will happily oblige).
Hostellerie de l’Abbaye de la Celle is named after the 12th- century Benedictine Roman abbey which adjoins the hotel. It’s quite unique to be able to explore the ruins just a few steps from your hotel bedroom. And the Venet Foundation is a must for design lovers. Bernar Venet is a brilliant minimalist conceptual artist from the region who recently opened up his Le Muy property to visitors between June and September. Book in advance to see his studio and sculptures in the glorious park setting as well as temporary exhibitions and installations by artists he admires. venetfoundation.org
PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES. WORDS: CLEMENTINA JACKSON
AND BREATHE No need for spas when you’re surrounded by nature – time spent in Provence is innately relaxing. To really detach, I like to hike to a quiet spot (everyone has their own secret hideaway) with a picnic and take a nap on a blanket in the shade, surrounded by the serene sounds of cicadas and crickets.
I try to discover a new village each time I visit. Moustiers-SainteMarie is one of the prettiest and buzzes like a mini St Tropez come summer, while Cotignac is typically Provençal with its fountains and picturesque historic quarter.
BOOK IT La Bastide de Moustiers offers superior double rooms from €270 per night based on two sharing. bastide-moustiers.com L’Hostellerie de l’Abbaye de la Celle offers superior double rooms from €239 per night based on two sharing. abbaye-celle.com
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01/03/2019 15:47
FOOD & TRAVEL
THE MALDIVES
OPERATION ATOLL
MILAIDHOO ISLAND IN THE MALDIVES
Elizabeth Hurley gets in some quality Mummy/Teen time on Milaidhoo; plus 11 top Maldivian resorts for everyone from action addicts to spa bunnies
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around in the background, while keeping a sharp lookout for any sign that you want them. They’re not in your face the whole time, bothering you. This is the first resort I’ve visited that has a Maldivian general manager, a major difference between this and other resorts, and it has yielded excellent results. My son and I spent a blissful week at Milaidhoo; we swam, snorkelled and kayaked by day, went for cruises at sunset and barefoot walks by moonlight. I didn’t once put on a pair of shoes. We loved our thatch-roofed villa, which nestled behind a huge pink PARENT door. It was as luxurious outdoors PARADISE as in, with a large freshwater pool, a hanging Maldivian swing and a massive daybed with billowing muslin curtains. We only left it for delicious meals and gleeful visits to the Serenity Spa, where we had daily yoga classes and spoiling massages and treatments. Now I'm back home in gloomy England, thinking about communication with my own parents, I realise that I never had the luxury of really getting to know them as people; I knew them as beloved parents, but not deeply enough. It makes me very thankful that Elizabeth I’ve had the chance to get to Hurley know my son in more depth. Thank you Milaidhoo, for allowing us Mummy/Teen time in the most ravishing den yet. BOOK IT: From $1,625 (approx £1,245) per night in a Water Pool Villa on a half board basis, based on two sharing. milaidhoo.com
SINGLE
MILAIDHOO As a single mother of an only child, getting the balance right of what to do in the school holidays is important. I was one of three children and can barely remember any time alone with either of my parents; we were always a noisy, squabbling gang. It’s mind-boggling trying to picture what it would have been like to travel extensively throughout my youth with, say, just my father. My life with my son is very different and we’ve always managed to carve out time to spend à deux. When he was little we used to call it Mummy/Baby time and we’d sneak off to one of his dens and catch up. But the times we’ve spent travelling together have really been when we’ve got to know each other best. Our latest trip landed us at Milaidhoo in the Maldives. Since my first trip to these jewel-like islands in the Indian Ocean, I have been an addict. There’s nowhere I’d rather go. I crave tranquility, freedom from everyday problems and time to recharge my batteries. I appreciate that technically many things could be achieved by switching off my phone and laptop and taking time out in my bedroom at home, but that doesn’t hit the spot half as much as lying under a palm tree in a bikini, slurping a silly cocktail. Milaidhoo is a gem: an emerald drop of paradise, fringed in soft, white sands, surrounded by a vibrant coral reef and lapped by turquoise waters. It's small and perfectly formed, an instant antidote to the real-life battles of balancing family, career, friends and business. The resort is startlingly efficient but in an unobtrusive way. They don’t feel the need to show you how hard they’re working. The staff glide 124 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | April 2019
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FOOD & TRAVEL
ONE AND ONLY REETHI RAH Welcome to extreme luxury, a pleasure zone beyond. This is one of the most polished hotels in the world, let alone the Maldives. Forget barefoot, it's like landing in a Net-a-Porter advert, so pack your best resort wear. Beach Villas are palatial and private: lots of mahogany and teal, his and her wardrobes, a mini-fridge for your make-up (seriously), and a private pool. It's just a short amble to a perfect white-sand beach with translucent sea. What a show stealer. If you can bear to leave the confines of your villa there’s an overwater, enchantingly-lit Japanese restaurant with black cod and buttery sashimi to die for, a smoothie bar on the sands and a beach club restaurant with epic calamari. Plus watersports galore, obviously, a giant lap pool and an Espa spa offering properly holistic and delicious treatments in cabanas overlooking the sea. A honeymoon dream for those who like things flash. BOOK IT: Villas from $1,700 (£1,303) B&B plus taxes. oneandonlyresorts.com
BEST FOR GLAMOUR
JOALI MALDIVES The Maldives is formed of 20 mesmerising natural atolls which have, over the years, become home to more envy-inducing resorts than an Instagram star could shake a selfie stick at. With big hitter Soneva Fushi and its Six Senses Spa still flying the flag for the larger, more established resorts, it’s this smaller, boutique addition to the pack which promises ultimate solace and serenity in bucketloads. Muravandhoo Island is home to a 73-strong pack of villas, split across the beach front and wooden jetty, each with private steps down to the crystal clear water’s edge. A fantastic kids’ club, hosting daily storytelling and treasure hunts, keeps little ones entertained while adults get to grips with the wealth of activities on offer, from snorkelling to unearthing the many mosaic art installations dotted across white sands. The wellbeing centre, meticulously brought to life by ESPA, provides respite from the often sweltering temperatures. BOOK IT: Beach villa from £1,456 B&B. joali.com
BEST-KEPT
SECRET
BOUTIQUE
KANDIMA Kandima brings a full-blown resort concept to the Maldives at an accessible price point. It's a three kilometre-long private island, with acres of space and activities on tap. One of only a handful of hotels in the Dhaalu atoll chain, there are over 40 near-private dive sites and all manner of watersports in the vast turquoise lagoon. There’s tennis, badminton, five-a-side, volleyball, gym and art classes and an excellent kids' club complete with mini water park, as well as gravitydefying aerial yoga, a first for the Maldives. The style is more like a contemporary Ibiza hotel, with a bold, shiny colour scheme. With 11 different bars and restaurants, a beach club and pool at the southern tip and another 100m pool by the watersports HQ, you can do something different every day. At this price point it’s easy to see why it won best newcomer in the Maldives travel awards last year. BOOK IT: Seven nights half board from £455pp (family of four sharing a room), excluding transfers. kandima.com
BEST FOR
ACTIVE
FAMILIES
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THE WESTIN MALDIVES MIRIANDHOO The Westin Maldives Miriandhoo is a classy, contemporary alternative to the castaway-chic resorts typically found in the archipelago. Japanese developers and Italian architects have infused the resort with a clean aesthetic, piazza-inspired entrance and modern suites complete with Toto electronic toilets. There are six room categories but no short straws to be drawn as all include Westin’s Heavenly beds (quite possibly the most comfortable sleep you’ll ever have) and are located along the fringes of the island, offering spectacular sea views. Overwater villas include decks which span the full length of the open-plan suites, with a private pool, outdoor shower and steps leading straight to the sea. Overlooking a pristine turquoise lagoon in the Baa Atoll, Maldives’ only UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve, the island’s tropical landscape is home to a rich mix of marine life, from reef sharks to manta rays. The resort offers three culinary experiences: Island Kitchen for breakfast through to dinner with a fusion of Chinese, Indian and Maldivian cuisine, overwater dining at The Pearl for elegantly plated, authentic Japanese fare, and Thai street food-inspired Hawker for casual, toes-in-the-sand lunches. Solo travellers needn’t worry, a photographic studio with onhand professionals will help you capture Insta-worthy holiday snaps. BOOK IT: Doubles from £593 B&B. marriott.co.uk/hotels/travel/mlewi-thewestin-maldives-miriandhoo-resort
BEST FOR
SOLO INSTA-
GRAMMERS
SONEVA JANI The latest outpost from Sonu and Eva Shivdasani, the couple who brought us one of the best and longest-standing hotels in the Maldives, Soneva Fushi. When Fushi first opened in 1995 there were few hotels to rival it, and it swiftly became a blueprint for sustainable eco tourism. While Fushi is still going strong, Jani is its younger, rather snazzier sibling. All rooms are in bells and whistles water villas: a kitchenette, a rooftop dining area, a private pool, a sitting room, a bed with a retractable roof – yes, you read that right – so you can sleep under the stars. You can also shower under the stars, or bathe in the sea itself. Most villas come with their own waterslide into the sea, and if they don’t you can pay to add one. Meantime the incredible Peruvian restaurant serves zing-fresh ceviche and offers an overwater cinema where you can loll with popcorn after your meal and watch a movie outside. There are watersports aplenty, ice cream, cheese and chocolate ‘rooms’, private beaches and lagoons. The new Crab Shack restaurant does just what it says. Everything is designed to nudge you into enjoying yourself; it would be absurdly hard not to succumb. BOOK IT: Doubles from $2,989 (£2,292) B&B. soneva.com
BEST FOR
WATER SLIDES
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FOOD & TRAVEL
KANUHURA MALDIVES Set on a long, fish-shaped island, Kanuhura feels wild and pristine enough to have those Crusoe-style moments but small enough to nip back for a forgotten book. Cycle to breakfast beneath a forest of coconut and papaya trees and explore vast empty beaches where hammocks sway between palm trees (a result, surely, of the private pools where many guests loll away their days). The 80 rooms are detached wooden cabins, including 20 built on stilts over the azure shallows, all minimalist whites and pale wood decorated with bright abstract artwork, woven cotton furnishings and big airy bathrooms with showers open to the jungle overhead. Situated in the Lhaviyani Atoll, known for its marine life, a 30-minute boat ride takes guests to swim over shoals of bright blue and yellow surgeon fish and four-metre manta rays. The Kokaa Spa’s therapists from Thailand, Bali and India offer body masks infused with crushed pearl and Himalayan crystal salt or warm mud blended with fresh seaweed, ginger and orange. At the kids' club, 4-11 year olds go on treasure hunts or dress up as pirates and sail to Jehunuhura, the hotel’s island where there’s also a tiny restaurant. Another island, Masleggihura, is unoccupied but used for private ‘picnics’ – lobster and steaks barbecued by a private chef. At sunset, cocktails are shaken in tipis on the beach and guests choose between Italian, Asian fusion or local Maldivian fare for dinner. There's nothing more magical than meandering home by moonlight on two wheels, with crabs scuttling across the path into the undergrowth. BOOK IT: Cabins from $690 (£530) B&B. kanuhura.com
BEST FOR
SOLO WOMEN
IN NEED OF
ESCAPE
CONSTANCE MOOFUSHI
BEST
VALUE ALL INCLUSIVE
Gliding over the glistening Indian Ocean down to the South Ari Atoll is a wondrous experience in itself – step off the seaplane onto the ivory shores of Constance Moofushi and your breath is well and truly taken. Verdant pathways give way to pristine beaches, while winding jetties lead to stilted ‘thatch and rope’ villas – each with steps down to the transparent waters below. Dotted with airy bars, oceanside eateries and an overwater spa, this paradise isle is tiny – you can stroll its palm-fringed perimeter in less than 15 minutes. While the vibe is horizontal by day, the island vivifies at dusk with DJs spinning chilled tunes and chefs rustling up candlelit grills on the beach. Head to the Totem Bar for oceanside sundowners and hypnotic views, or to the Manta eatery for moreish Maldivian fish curries. One of the few luxury all-inclusive resorts in the Maldives, you'll find that drinks, colourful culinary offerings, most watersports and an offshore excursion are part and parcel here. Don’t miss the Snorkelling Experience to the reef: spot turtles, reef sharks, rays and tropical fish parading every colour of the rainbow. Wind down the day at the U Spa by Constance, with a Balinese massage in one of the open air treatment suites, followed by a glass of fizz on the relaxation deck. BOOK IT: Seven nights from £3,469pp all-inclusive, including economy flights and seaplane transfers. inspiringtravelcompany.co.uk April 2019 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | 127
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MIRIHI Kick off your shoes the moment you arrive, you won’t need them again. True barefoot luxury, this is Robinson Crusoe meets Wallpaper chic, perfect for design-savvy divers wanting easy access to the famed southern atolls where whale sharks and mantas lurk. One of the smallest Maldivian resorts, Mirihi weighs in at only 40 rooms, spread between overwater bungalows – book rooms 25 through 39 for the best snorkelling access – and BEST FOR DESIGN SAVVY beach villas hidden away in the coconut palms. Refurbished in 2014, the look is pared-back Maldivian wood and thatch, tadelakt showers and towering 15ft-apex ceilings. New for this winter is a two-bed, two-storey beach house. Food is excellent, particularly the curries and sushi selection, with lavish themed buffets every night in the main restaurant. You can eat à la carte at Moraca, the restaurant on the water, and watch turtles, sharks and giant parrotfish swim beneath the underlit pontoon. Freshly raked carpets of sand run through the bar and main restaurant, with pails of water to rinse your feet roomside. It's low-key, laid-back luxury, with no TVs in the rooms and not much to do on land apart from indulge in exquisite massages at the spa and relax into the paradise of tropical island life. Which is exactly the point. BOOK IT: Seven nights B&B from £1,920pp, incl. taxes. mirihi.com
DIVERS
SIRRU FEN FUSHI FAIRMONT Flying in by seaplane, the first thing you notice about this year’s hottest new opening is the 200m swimming pool. It bisects the aptly named Sirru Fen Fushi or ‘secret water’ island. With only 120 villas – all of which come with private pool and butler service – spread over one of the Maldives’ largest resort islands, everything here is allowed to breathe. The design oozes understated style and bohemian rustic chic. Beach villas feel like private riads with limewashed courtyard walls, ornate turquoise doors and large gardens, and the spacious overwater villas share the same vaulted ceilings and hand-etched cabinetry. A huge beaten copper bath takes centre stage. In a first for the Maldives they also offer lush safari-style tented jungle villas. Families are exceptionally well catered for, with a wonderfully imaginative kids’ club poolside. Teens will love the graffiti-covered shipping containers of Majaa. The final surprise is the Coralarium, the world’s first semi-submerged art installation by British underwater sculptor Jason DeCaires Taylor. You snorkel out from the beach to a 6 x 6m laser-cut steel cube with fascinating hybrid sculptures above, semi-submerged and below the water, designed to be a living coral garden. Simply delightful. BOOK IT: Seven nights B&B from £2,415pp, excl taxes and transfers. fairmont.com/maldives
BEST FOR BOHO RUSTIC
CHIC
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FOOD & TRAVEL
NIYAMA One of the most breathtaking islands in the Dhaalu Atoll. Scarlet and lemony umbrellas pop out against pristine ivory beaches, aqua infinity pools melt into the ocean and jungle-flanked pathways lead to stylish abodes. Two islands combine to create the resort – ‘Chill’ is the hub, playing host to lavish lagoon villas and a spa, while ‘Play’ boasts chic beach villas, a super-cool surf club and Nest, an Asian-fusion eatery where you can chomp on teppanyaki among the treetops. A fashionable crowd of loved-up couples and families explore the islands on personalised bikes. When the kids are settled into their Explorer's club, grown-ups can choose to while away the days on jet skis and catamarans, hop on a dhoni to spot bottlenose dolphins or ride the waves at Vodi surf point. Niyama is the only luxury resort in the Maldives where the surf breaks directly on its own shore. For a memorable lunch, the island's ‘boat bus’ will whisk you across to Subsix - an offshore, underwater eatery with a backdrop of swaying corals and tropical fish. Guests flock to experience the Subaquatic Lunch – the punchy menu includes lobster salad, crab ravioli and seabass (with a glass of wine thrown in) – and it’s totally worth the splurge. Dusk sees islanders converging at the rum shack for lazy sundowners before heading to one of four Michelin-worthy restaurants. If you’re in need of a preen before you head home, a trip to the Drift Spa is mandatory – with offerings including IV boosters, oxygen facials and a keratin blow dry, it’s one of the best in the Maldives. BOOK IT: Seven nights from £2,929pp half board, including flights and seaplane transfers. inspiringtravelcompany.co.uk
BEST FOR
SURFING FAMILIES
THE NAUTILUS
BEST FOR FREE-SPIRITED TRENDSETTERS
What you want, when you want, is the overriding vibe on this tiny speck of sand in the Baa Atoll – a 30-minute flight from the capital, Malé. It doesn’t matter if you crave a 1.3kg Wagyu steak for breakfast or have a thirst for champagne cocktails at 4am, this is a private and exclusive bolthole where world-class cuisine and the finest wines collide, 24 hours a day. Such is the hedonistic commitment to unscripted living, you’re positively encouraged to put the resort’s team of talented international chefs and Maldivian housemasters (butlers) to work. There are three restaurants and two bars, but why not dream up a bespoke breakfast on an isolated sandbank, coupled with a remote beachside spa treatment? Or imagine a sunset barbecue on a nearby virgin island, followed by a dusk-lit search for dolphins. The Nautilus is so new that you might be the very first guests to stay in one of its 26 beachside and overwater houses. Calling them ‘rooms’ would be a disservice – they’re ginormous homes, flanked by lofty coconut palms and surrounded by wooden decking, boasting large pools, easy access to the house reef and views of the horizon-gobbling Indian Ocean. So slow down, adapt, and be creative – the world (or at the very least this 242 x 249m island) is very much your oyster. BOOK IT: Doubles from £1,909, including breakfast. thenautilusmaldives.com n April 2019 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | 129
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FOOD & TRAVEL GOURMET GREATS Every season is food season, obvs. But the British Library’s ‘official’ Food Season is back, and it’s a big’un. Greats including Heston Blumenthal, Nigella Lawson, Yotam Ottolenghi, Grace Dent and Jay Rayner will take part in talks, workshops and one-off events. Any foodie who’s worth their salt will be there, but is it true what they say about too many chefs? We can’t wait to see. 2 April to 30 May. bl.uk
MEETING OF MINDS
When the ‘World’s Best Chef’ collaborates with one of the finest whisky houses, you know something special is brewing. Massimo Bottura and The Dalmore have created L’Anima, a oneof-a-kind whisky which will be auctioned at Sotheby’s alongside dinner for two at Osteria Francescana. Bids at the ready to be the most envied person in the drinks world... sothebys.com
THIS MON TH
EAT Organic mini date and walnut hot cross buns. Naughty but (almost) guilt-free. £3.75 for six. abelandcole.co.uk
N E W S
GASTRO GOSSIP
BUY Haven’t you heard? Oat milk is over. We’ve moved on to Tiger Nut, and it’s even creamier. £2.99. rudehealth.com
Join the hunt for happiness, says Clementina Jackson COCKTAIL REVOLUTION
ALLA MODA Prada pastries? Yes please. Prada Group is bringing the fashionable Milanese pasticceria Marchesi 1824 to Mayfair’s Mount Street, and we can already hear those designer heels clicking. Pop in for world-famous panettone and punchy Italian coffee – it’s set to be the most stylish spot in town. pasticceriamarchesi.com
HOT ON THE TRAIL
London Gin truffle egg, £17.50 prestat.co.uk
Chocolate asparagus, £16.95. fortnumandmason.com
There’s nothing like finding chocolate treats in your garden to distract you from impending Beekeeper’s egg, £80. daylesford.com Brexit doom. The Easter egg hunt is back – but now it’s for grown-ups. We need it more. Go all out on the eggs, the more outrageous and kitsch the better.
DRINK Four Fox Saké. Say it aloud – much hilarity ensues. £38.95. 31dover.com
CELEBRATE Marylebone’s culinary charm, from its Michelin starred restaurants to quirky cafés. 24-28 April. marylebonefoodfestival.com
PHOTOS: COURTESY MARCHESI 1824
As pleasing on the tongue as on the eye (and Instagram, of course), GONG Bar’s new cocktail menu is an ode to the inventions that have shaped everyday life. Sip on creative interpretations of everyting from penicillin to the guitar. Genius. shangri-la.com
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FOOD & TRAVEL COUNTRY
R E S T A U R A N T
R E V I E W S
FORK & FIELD
Replace Lenten restraint with shameless indulgence, says Clementina Jackson
THE CORN STORES Reading
Reading might not be the first place you think of when it comes to gastronomic delights, but Berkshire is actually brimming with culinary talent. A stone’s throw from Thames Lido, where Freddie Bird has injected some pizzazz into a burgeoning foodie scene, is The Corn Stores – a beautiful three-storey, Grade II listed building which has been transformed into a cocktail bar, steak restaurant and members’ lounge. Locally sourced British ingredients are at the heart of the menu, whether it’s the meat prepared and aged in the on-site butchery or the salmon smoked in the smokery. The steaks are the hero of The Corn Stores’ offering, with beef fat chips and macaroni cheese sides making for a real glutton’s delight. Mains from £15. thecornstoresreading.co.uk
CHE AT DAY WHERE LENTEN PROMISES GO TO BE BROKEN
BIBENDUM OYSTER BAR, SW3 Hidden behind the flower-filled foyer of the iconic Michelin building, Bibendum Oyster Bar is the laidback younger sibling of Claude Bosi’s restaurant upstairs and an absolute delight. The finest oysters and caviar all feature, but the biggest treat is the gigantic portion of moules frites. Lap up the garlicky juices with reckless abandon. bibendum.co.uk
TOWN
ST LEONARDS Shoreditch
A trip to the latest ‘hot new restaurant’ in Shoreditch can be enough to bring even the most ardent foodie out in hives, conjuring up images of too-coolfor-school hipsters dining on food so edgy no one knows what it is (though they daren’t admit it). Jackson Boxer and Andrew Clarke’s St Leonards certainly looks the slick Shoreditch part, but its distance from the buzzing epicentre lends a more subdued, grown-up vibe. The food’s grown up too: Viking-esque slabs of meat cooked over the wood-burning hearth, oysters flamed in pork fat and delicately smoked eel. Veggies are taken seriously, and blackened leeks served with almond cream and truffle, and a side of broccoli with ham knuckle stay etched in your memory long after you’ve left. Mains from £18. stleonards.london
ONIMA, W1 With its deep red evening lighting and a menu packed with extravagant dishes singing out to be chosen, this Mayfair newbie may as well be the devil’s lair. The food is a fabulous fusion of Greek and Italian, two diets predisposed to overindulgence – think beautifully marinated Sicilian red prawns, souped up Spanakopita and Josper grilled fish with Japanese accents. onimarestaurant.com
T H I S MON T H I’M ...
1 Putting my knowledge to the test with the return of London’s favourite food-themed pub quiz (thecoachclerkenwell.co.uk). 2 Excited to see what Spanish storm José Pizarro cooks up at his new Esher pub (josepizarro.com). 3 Having my sushi with a side of DNA testing... Apparently food personalisation is the future (yosushi.com).
DUDDELL’S, SE1 It takes over 48 hours to prepare the signature Duddell’s Peking duck, air-dried for the crispiest skin and served with a rainbow of condiments. All other attempts are put to shame. Get creative with flavour and texture combinations, and make sure to dip the melt-in-the-mouth slices of skin in fennel sugar for the naughtiest snack this side of Hong Kong. duddells.co
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FOOD & TRAVEL
C H E F ’ S
N O T E S
SHAUN RANKIN At last, spring has arrived – bringing with it a rich bounty of fabulous ingredients
Having worked all over the world, the Yorkshire-born chef, Shaun Rankin, gained his first Michelin star in 2005 at Bohemia in the Channel Islands. After nine years at the helm he opened his own restaurant, Ormer in 2014, and again gained Michelinstarred status just four months after opening. He is delighted to be returning to his Yorkshire roots to oversee the fine dining restaurant at the new luxury hotel and wellness retreat, Grantley Hall, scheduled to open in summer 2019.
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Shaun Rankin; spring roast lamb; buttery Jersey Royals; asparagus; Grantley Hall
S
pring is my favourite season. Fresh starts, new life, longer days, warmer temperatures, a season when everyone seems to have a little sparkle in their eye with the glimmer of hope that a glorious summer and some much needed sunshine is on its way. Like nature, we are emerging from a dark tunnel of hibernation and the season of plenty will soon be upon us. There is so much fantastic natural produce to choose from at this time of year it’s hard to know where to start. As I’m moving back to my native county of Yorkshire, I’m feeling doubly blessed this year with a whole new larder of great quality products and handpicked suppliers to work with. One of the best parts of being a chef is the opportunity to start anew with each and every season, to identify the best ingredients available and to create fresh, exciting, new taste combinations or revisit old favourites which never fail to impress – and of course we can’t really mention spring without talking about succulent new season lamb. For a hearty Sunday lunch, I serve
up roast leg of lamb studded with garlic, rosemary and thyme, served with those fabulous nuggets of gold – buttered Jersey Royals sprinkled with fresh mint, and asparagus straight from the vegetable garden… it makes your mouth water just to think about it! Served with a Pinot Noir and followed by a bracing country walk in the Yorkshire Dales, it’s what Sundays are made for. On the subject of gardens I’m delighted to say that my new kitchen garden in the grounds of Grantley Hall has been taking shape and lively discussions are taking place with the estate gardens team about which salads, edible flowers, fruits and herbs we want to plant and when. What better way to celebrate the arrival of spring than with the sewing of seeds and planting of fresh shoots that I can watch grow over coming months?
Dish I’m cooking: It’s an exciting time with a fantastic new restaurant so I’m cooking and tasting cooking and tasting everything on the new menus. Where I’m eating: At the Blue Lion in East Witton, north Yorkshire with its fabulous, well-cooked food using local ingredients and great service too. What I’m drinking: Depends on the meal, I like a bold deep red with a good steak, or a crisp white with salmon or a fish dish. Secret I’m sharing: Grantley Hall – it will be an amazing hotel. It was all kept under wraps for months and now the secret’s out. What I’m buying: It’s a very exciting time now as I am in the middle of sourcing and buying everything for the restaurant at Grantley, from the best crockery and glasswear to the finest silver made in the UK. Producer I’m loving: I have started working with a company called R & J based in Kirkby Malzeard, around four miles from Grantley Hall. They have a fabulous business and knowing that they look after their cattle all the way through makes me have confidence in their product. Treat I’m looking forward to: A break when Grantley Hall is open and running smoothly, somewhere warm and chilled.
PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES
W H AT’S ON THE M EN U
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FOOD & DRINK D R I N K
HAPPY HOUR
Whatever happens on 29 March, Alice Lascelles couldn’t recommend English fizz highly enough
I
write this just a few weeks before the Brexit deadline. However it pans out, the whole thing has been pretty bad news for wine-lovers – the average bottle price is up 30p since the referendum, and expat sommeliers are leaving for the continent in droves. On the upside, though, English fizz is tasting better than ever. So stop worrying about that Champagne shipment that’s languishing in an over-heated lorry jam in Dover, and open one of these local sparklers instead.
GUSBOURNE ROSÉ 2015
English vineyards are producing some really excellent sparkling rosés at the moment and this rhubarb-coloured, vintage rosé from Gusbourne in Kent is one of the best. Made from a blend of pinot noir, chardonnay and pinot meunier, it’s crisp and pure, with a sophisticated touch of creaminess on the finish. Like biting into a shiny red apple. £40. gusbourne.com
A DR IN K W ITH...
HATTINGLEY VALLEY CLASSIC RESERVE NV
The family-owned Hattingley Valley winery in Hampshire ferments some of its wines in Burgundy oak barrels, to help soften the often rather jangly acidity that can afflict English wines. The result is a smashing fizz (at a great price), with lots of vibrant Bramley apple zing and golden notes of toasted oats and brown sugar. Just the ticket for a party. £30. ocado.com
NYETIMBER 1086 BRUT 2009
Cherie Spriggs made history last year when she became the first non-champenois to win IWC Sparkling Winemaker of the Year. And when you taste this ultra-luxe vintage cuvée, which launched last year to mark Nyetimber’s 30th birthday, it’s easy to see why – the maturity of the wines in the blend give it all the toasty, honeyed richness of serious champagne. English fizz at Cristal prices. £150. fortnumandmason.com
KIRSTY WARK BROADCASTER & WRITER
1 2 3 4 5
What are you drinking? Sancerre. Who are you drinking it with? My friend Tanya and my godson George. Martini: shaken or stirred? Shaken – lots of ice. Current favourite gin? Isle of Harris Gin – the bottle is beautiful.
Signature recipe? My vodka tomatoes are sensational – you soak four dozen cherry tomatoes in vodka for eight hours, strain and then use the infused vodka for Bloody Marys. Serve the tomatoes alongside, with a bowl of salt and pepper.
6 STAYING IN
AQUAVIT & TONIC
@ ALICELASCELLES
GOING OUT
CUB
An avant-garde bar/restaurant with an eco message, brought to you by World’s Best Bartender Ryan Cheti and zero-waste warrior, chef Doug McMaster. Sip Krug with micro-herbs and Resin Negronis scented with pine, sitting in a mustard-coloured booth. Sustainability has never been so sexy. lyancub.com 153 Hoxton Street, London N1
50ml Nordic Akevitt Blanc + 150ml tonic water + ice + lemon slice + cucumber ribbon. Nordic Akevitt Blank £27.95 from thewhisky exchange.com
If you could buy a drink for one person, alive or dead, who would it be? I would have a glass of ‘Angels’ Share’ 10-year-old malt from our Isle of Arran distillery with my late father – he would have loved it.
7
Most memorable drink? A glass of Guy de Chasse champagne at what is now the Corney and Barrow cellars in Ayr, established in 1766.
8 9
Favourite bar? The Drift Inn on The Isle of Arran.
Any pet peeves? Bars have to stock up on orange as well as lemon. I prefer orange rind in my G&T.
10
The wine is corked – do you tell your host? No... you hope it dawns on them too. Kirsty Wark’s novel The House By The Loch is published by Two Roads on June 13 (£16.99)
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have you seen the light? decorative lighting from pooky.com
STOCKISTS ACNE STUDIOS @ matchesfashion.com ALEXANDRE VAUTHIER @ boutique1.com
JIMMY CHOO jimmychoo.com
ANNOUSHKA annoushka.com
MOSCHINO @ harveynichols.com
BELSTAFF belstaff.com
NAVY GREY navygrey.com
CATHERINE BEST catherinebest.com
RAG & BONE @ harveynichols.com
DR MARTENS drmartens.com HELMUT LANG @ harrods.com ISABEL MARANT @ boutique1.com
Design Centre Chelsea Harbour samuel-heath.com Made in England
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ISABEL MARANT ÉTOILE @ matchesfashion.com
STELLA MCCARTNEY stellamccartney.com VICTORIA BECKHAM victoriabeckham.com ZIMMERMANN @ matchesfashion.com
ISABEL MARANT @ harrods.com
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EDITED BY A N NA T Y Z ACK
HOUSE OF THE MONTH Sell it to us in a sentence… Georgian Cambridgeshire classic, redesigned to combine period elegance with a contemporary twist. Describe its design: The carefully restored Georgian features bravely contrast the super modern glass extension in perfect juxtaposition. Best room in the house? The fully glazed family room – it links the house with the garden with a suspended wood burning stove. The roof is a copper canopy with a bio-diverse green roof, successfully softening the impact of the new addition.
PROPERTY
Kimbolton, Cambridgeshire Price: £2.65m 6 bedrooms 6 bathrooms 4,788 sq/ft and 3.5 acres
What will keep us entertained? The allweather tennis court, perfect for summer weekends with friends and Pimm’s in tow. What makes this property so special? It’s no ordinary Grade II listed home – the glass extension gives it a new lease of life. Who would like living here? This is perfect for a London family who wants their own slice of the country, still within easy reach of London King’s Cross in 53 minutes. What is the garden like? The gardens are beautifully landscaped, studded with a selection of mature evergreen and deciduous trees. To the south is a generous area of meadow adjoining a newly planted orchard. Perks of the location? There is an excellent choice of schools , most notably Kimbolton School, an independent, co-ed day and boarding school for ages 4 to 18. Oundle and Bedford schools are nearby, too. The current owner says… ‘When we bought the house it was in need of modernisation. Now it is a fabulous space to be with your family with the glass room providing year-round use.’ 020 7629 7282; struttandparker.com
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From Faversham you can walk straight out into glorious countryside
WHEN IN FAVERSHAM A beach day Take the train to Whitstable (eight minutes) and dine at the Lobster Shack. Just watch out for all the Londoners. thelobster shack.co.uk
M O V E
A new skill Take a course at the School of Upholstery in Faversham’s Creek Creative and come away with a re-upholstered chair. schoolof upholstery.com
T O
FAVERSHAM
A better lifestyle is all but guaranteed in this Garden of England town, says Anna Tyzack
S
Bob Geldof is a local
urrounded by fruit farms and hop gardens, it would be hard to find a more authentic market town than Faversham in Kent. There are numerous independent shops, medieval streets and a market square occupied three times a week by stallholders selling produce from local farms. This, according to Amicia de Moubray, founder of local magazine, Faversham Life (favershamlife.org), is why it appeals to London leavers seeking a genuine country lifestyle. ‘It’s not at all gentrified – it’s the opposite of town such as Tetbury in the Cotswolds,’ she explains. For those working in London on a daily basis, Faversham, 48 miles from the capital, is just about commutable: the high speed train HS2 reaches St Pancras in just over an hour, and trains to Victoria and Cannon Street take an hour and a quarter. Those who move here, however, tend to be working from home for a couple of days a week, and eager to put down roots in the town. Locals – Bob Geldof lives here – enjoy the fact the town is too far away to be considered a London satellite or suburb. ‘It’s completely self-sufficient with a lot going on,’ de Moubray explains. ‘It attracts arty and culture-loving people who appreciate the fact they can go to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden in the evening, then get the last train home.’ Faversham’s town centre is architecturally significant, with cobbled streets lined with a mismatch of pretty 15th-century, Georgian and Victorian buildings. ‘Much of this ancient town is medieval, with a fantastic range of historic
Colourful beach huts in nearby Herne Bay
architecture that buyers love,’ says Ed Church of Strutt & Parker in Canterbury. Locals are proud of the range of shops, cafés and restaurants: MacKnade Fine Foods is a vast food hall with a café; Creek Creative, in a late-Victorian brewery bottling plant, is a studio space shared by almost 50 artists and artisans; The Yard is an award-winning wholefood café and bakehouse. ‘There’s a guildhall in the market square and a good antiques shop, Pete Barrows,’ de Moubray continues. ‘And crucially there is no main road going through it or roundabout system, which has saved its intrinsic character.’ Fortunately Faversham was bypassed by the Romans when they built Watling Street, now the nearby A2. From the centre it is an easy walk via blackberry-fringed lanes to the creek, which de Moubray compares to a Dutch Old Master painting. ‘There is spectacular birdlife and views across the estuary,’ she says. The most prestigious addresses, according to Paul Jordan of Wards estate agents in Faversham, are found on Abbey Street, the country’s bestpreserved medieval street, with an eclectic range of terraces and town houses. The Mall is also
A proper cup of coffee The awardwinning Gallery Kitchen Cafe at Creek Creative serves some of the best coffee and cakes in town. creekcreative.org A day out with the kids Faversham Open Gardens and the Garden Market Day is on Sunday 30 June 2019. A posh dinner Read’s is a restaurant with rooms in a Georgian manor house, serving local game and fresh fish from the quayside at Whitstable, plus seasonal vegetables from the manor’s own walled kitchen garden. reads.com A pub lunch Walk from Faversham along the creek to the Shipwright’s Arms. theship wrightsathollow shore.co.uk
PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES; REX FEATURES
L E T ’ S
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PROPERTY
FOR SA L E
Whitstable is just ten minutes’ drive
PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES; REX FEATURES
highly sought after, as is Upper St Ann’s Road, a short walk from the station. A four-bedroom house in one of these prime locations will cost between £500,000 and £850,000, which is less than the equivalent size in well-heeled towns in Hampshire or Gloucestershire. ‘One of the great things about Faversham is you don’t have to get in the car; the shops and the countryside are both within walking distance,’ de Moubray says. That said, many buyers, particularly those with children, choose to base themselves in one of the pretty villages a few miles from the town, where there are oast houses with large gardens and small farms with space for horses. Boughton is popular, according to estate agent Michelle Tennet of Connells in Faversham, as is Selling, which has a station, and Oare, two miles from Faversham on the estuary. Purchasers, she says, can expect to pay upwards of £750,000 for a fivebedroom edge of village house and more than £2m for a large rectory or oast house. Along with a relaxed, rural lifestyle, it is the grammar schools that draw many buyers. The town punches above its weight when it comes to education, according to Jordan, with good primary schools including Ofsted ‘outstanding’ Ethelbert Road Primary School and two highlyregarded secondary schools, Queen Elizabeth’s
A Kentish oast house
grammar and Abbey School. There is also Lorenden, a top-graded prep school with access to 40 acres of woodland, just outside the town, while King’s Canterbury, a co-ed day and boarding school, is a ten-minute drive away. For those with children, Faversham comes into its own at weekends, says Church. ‘The town is just three miles from the beach at Seasalter,’ he notes. Whitstable, the fashionable seaside town, is only ten minutes away, and Herne Bay is 12 miles. There is excellent shopping in Canterbury, several good pubs such as the Sportsman at Seasalter and the Three Mariners at Oare, plus the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale, which hosts regular events for families. ‘Faversham is one of England’s most historic and charming residential towns, nestling between the rural delights of the Kent Downs and the beauty of its coastal wetlands,’ explains Tennet. Such is the demand from local and London buyers that prices in Faversham have held up during the Brexit crisis. ‘The market is still moving and there haven’t been significant price drops,’ Tennet continues. ‘It’s such a lovely town to be in that sellers are prepared to sit on their hands rather than lower the price and buyers are eager to put down roots.’ Plans are afoot for considerable expansion within Faversham over the coming years, including a ‘garden village’ on Duchy of Cornwall land outside the town, that could accommodate more than 2,000 houses. Estate agents see the proposed development as yet another sign that Faversham is on the crest of a wave. ‘With lifestyle such a popular reason for moving, what more could a family want?’ asks Church. ‘People like to find somewhere different, and Faversham is a true hidden gem.’
PAINTERS FORSTAL, £1.25M Bell Tower House is a Georgian-style family house flooded with natural light. There are sash windows, elegant entertaining spaces and five bedrooms, including a master bedroom with two dressing rooms. The gardens surrounding the house contain a summerhouse. Faversham is two miles away. 07739 262738. struttandparker.com
UPPER RODMERSHAM, £750,000 Pine Tree House is a former Wealden hall house dating back to the 15th century, lovingly restored with a bespoke oak kitchen with Lacanche range cooker and three impressive bedrooms with oak flooring and vaulted ceilings. Outside there is a sweeping gravel drive leading to a large garden with a sizeable outbuilding. 01795 533544. connells.co.uk
FAVERSHAM, £600,000 The Old Buttery is a small country house on the outskirts of Faversham, in the village of Goodnestone. It’s approached via a gravelled driveway and set within a private garden. Accommodation includes kitchen, dining room, sitting room and cellar, plus four bedrooms upstairs, one with an ensuite. There is also a large garage. 01795 533544. connells.co.uk
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PROPERTY
HOM ES SW EET HOM ES
Where was the first home you owned? A garden flat in a mews in Notting Hill with my then boyfriend, now husband. It had a lovely garden and a conservatory but it was tiny. As soon as we had our son, we had to move.
THE STARTER HOME
H O U S E
Holland Park, £1.625m A beautifully re-imagined mews house from Nest Designers, with two floors of living and entertaining space, and a top floor with two en-suite bedrooms. The open spaces of Holland Park are a short walk away, as is Westfield shopping centre. 020 7602 2352. johnwilcox.co.uk
S E C R E T S
JACQUELINE O’MAHONY
THE FOREVER HOME
The author is ready to make the move from Notting Hill to the country Where do you live now? Still in Notting Hill,
If you could buy a second home where and what would it be? An old house near the sea in Italy. I spent years living there and I love the lifestyle and the language.
Where do you see yourself living in the future? The time has come for us to leave
What do you look for when you’re house hunting? A place that we can move straight into.
London for the country. I yearn for space and change. I’d like a big old country house with land, lots of trees and a river. That’s my dream. What’s your interior aesthetic? Clean looking, with touches of colour such as Eau de Nil and pale pinks. I don’t like anything to be too fussy or ostentatious – I prefer simple pieces in wood, glass and stone that bring in a sense of the outdoors.
I have three small children and don’t relish the thought of a big restoration project.
Whose house would you most like to see inside? I’d like to see inside E-1027, the house
What has been your most extravagant interiors purchase? For our tenth wedding anniversary we bought a Savoir bed. Holidays have been ruined for us now, because no hotel has a bed as comfortable.
West Sussex, £1m This dreamy country house dates from the 16th century and has a lake fed by a small weir – the current owners host fishing parties. Accommodation includes versatile reception rooms, a former dairy for renovation, and four bedrooms. The grounds extend to 3.6 acres. 01403 888172. knightfrank.com THE DREAM HOME
that the Irish architect Eileen Gray designed while living in the south of France in 1926. What advice would you give to a firsttime buyer? Prioritise good
transport links and if you like the furniture in a property, make an offer on it. A River in the Trees by Jacqueline O’Mahony is published by riverrun, £16.99
Italy, £20.7m Built in the 18th century by the Countess Mona von Bismarck on the ruins of a Roman Palace, Villa Bismarck is one of the most beautiful homes on Capri. There are sumptuous bedroom suites, vast reception rooms and a private dock and Jacuzzi set into the rocks plus a garden with pool and views over the Bay of Naples. +39 (0)67 925 8888. sothebysrealty.com
PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES
but in a five-storey townhouse. We have three children now and a very large Labrador, and both my husband and I work from home, so we need all that space. Why did you choose Notting Hill? Our children can walk to their wonderful school from our house in ten minutes and we like being close to Hyde Park for the dog. You can be anybody here: our road is full of colourful characters and we love that. Favourite room? The drawing room, where I write and think. It has lovely big windows and high ceilings.
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PROPERTY F I V E
O F
T H E
B E S T
OVERSEAS INVESTMENTS
The joy of owning property abroad is that you can enjoy a rental return as well as holidays in your own home. Here’s where Anna Tyzack would put her money SPAIN
On a rocky promontory only ten minutes from Gaucín in Andalusia, this charming and completely unique country home used to be one of the world’s leading private hotels. It enjoys outstanding views towards the Mediterranean sea, Gibraltar and as far as North Africa’s Rif mountains. The house is set over three floors, with vast entertaining spaces including a leisure room and a covered patio plus five bedrooms. Outside are a swimming pool and tennis court. €1.9m. chestertons-international.com
MOROCCO
Fairmont’s new branded residences at Royal Palm Marrakech provide a unique opportunity to buy property on this well-established five-star resort. The residences will include three to five-bedroom Berberstyle homes with shaded terraces and swimming pools. Spanning 222 hectares, the resort lies just 15 minutes from Marrakech Airport and the Medina, and is overlooked by the Atlas Mountains. Owners can also enter their property into the Fairmont hotel rental program. From €6 5 0 , 0 0 0 . royalpalmmarrakech.com
PORTUGAL The Rebello in Porto is a luxury hotel and apartments in a series of historic 18thcentury warehouses. Each apartment has spectacular views over the Douro River and the old port of Vila Nova de Gaia, a balcony or terrace plus parking. The development has large gardens and is a short walk from the vintage port houses and restaurants of Gaia, while the airport is 20 minutes away. Rebello has a guaranteed rental return of four per cent for three years and expected price growth is around five per cent per annum. €500,000. cluttons.com
ESTONIA This 13th-century Estonian manor, 50km from the capital city of Tallinn, is one of the oldest estates in the country. It is the embodiment of comfort and luxury with ancient beams, high ceilings and 20 bedrooms with glorious views of the 37 acres of landscaped gardens and forest. It also has an indoor pool, stables, a library and granary. The country’s property market is on the up, fuelled by good economic growth and low interest rates. The area around Tallinn is known as the Silicon Valley of Europe and is, according to GoCompare, one of the top five locations for millennials to start a business. €3.8m. christiesrealestate.com
AUSTRIA A truly magnificent five-bedroom penthouse in the exclusive Gerlos Alpine Estate with access to 143km of piste in the beautiful Zillertal Ski Arena. The penthouse has spacious terraces, large windows, a modern interior design and traditional Austrian architecture plus the all-important hot tub. The building has a garage, ski room and pool and is just on the edge of the village with views over the surrounding mountains. Based on last year’s income, the annual rental return is 5.04 per cent. €1.19m. alpinepropertyfinders.com
April 2019 | COUNTRYANDTOWNHOUSE.CO.UK | 139
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An immaculate family home.
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Lonsdale Road, Notting Hill W11 Lonsdale Road is located just off the world renowned Portobello Road and the ever fashionable Westbourne Grove with its designer shops, exclusive restaurants and cafe culture. • • • •
Caroline Foord looks forward to helping you. caroline.foord@knightfrank.com 020 8166 5451
Benefits from a garage, garden and a lift There is a pool, gym, sauna, shower and cloakroom Equipped with a media room Approximately 6,010 sq ft (572 sq m)
Guide price
£14,950,000
Freehold knightfrank.co.uk Connecting people & property, perfectly.
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A period townhouse with original features.
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Marlborough Place, NW8 Located on the West Side of St John's Wood, only a short walk from the shops and transport links of St John's Wood High Street and Station.
Josh Marks looks forward to helping you. Josh.Marks@knightfrank.com 0208 022 0229
• High ceilings and period features • Excellent entertaining space • Walking distance to Little Venice
Guide price
£6,950,000 knightfrank.co.uk Connecting people & property, perfectly.
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Exceptionally unique, within a sought-after mansion block.
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Upper Montagu Street, Marylebone W1 Benefiting from all the originality of a beautiful period building, the apartment also encompasses all the benefits of modern, open-plan living. • • • •
Craig Draper looks forward to helping you. craig.draper@knightfrank.com 020 3435 6447
Magnificent high ceilings and wonderfully large windows Finished to exacting standards having been fully refurbished in 2014 New video entry phone and ADT alarm system Approximately 2,264 sq ft (210.3 sq m)
Guide price
£3,950,000
Share of freehold knightfrank.co.uk Connecting people & property, perfectly.
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A beautifully refurbished house in the heart of Chelsea.
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Coleherne Mews, Chelsea SW10 A wonderful Chelsea mews house that has been extended and refurbished to exacting standards throughout. The house is wider than a standard frame and so offers spacious and flexible accommodation. • • • •
Robert French looks forward to helping you. robert.french@knightfrank.com 020 3641 6172
Contains a spacious roof terrace Benefits from private parking Bespoke fixtures and fittings throughout Approximately 2,000 sq ft (185.8 sq m)
Guide price
£3,500,000
Freehold knightfrank.co.uk Connecting people & property, perfectly.
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Grantchester Road, Cambridge – Station 2 Miles £700,000 A well-proportioned bay fronted semi-detached residence offering scope for sympathetic improvement and updating in the ever popular Newnham district of the city together with driveway, front and rear garden with views to the rear over the Newnham Lake. Accommodation comprising: Living room, dining room, family room, kitchen/breakfast room, cloakroom. First floor: 3 bedrooms, 4th bedroom/nursery, bathroom with separate toilet. Outside: front and rear gardens, driveway parking. EER:D. Contact: Richard Freshwater | Cambridge Office: 01223 214214 | richard.freshwater@cheffins.co.uk
Whitelocks Drive, Cambridge – Station 2.5 Miles £900,000 A spacious and recently extended modern 3 storey residence with well-proportioned accommodation and a range of fine architectural features including tall ceilings, open plan south facing kitchen/dining/living room as well as private terrace off the master bedroom suite. The property is situated within this eagerly sought after development just off Long Road, conveniently placed for access to a number of good schools, Addenbrookes Campus and local amenities. Accommodation comprising: Kitchen/dining/living room, cloakroom. First floor: sitting room, 2 bedrooms (1 with en suite shower room), family bathroom. Second floor: 2 bedrooms with en suite bathroom and terrace to master. Outside: garage, enclosed garden. EER:B. Contact: Richard Freshwater | Cambridge Office: 01223 214214 | richard.freshwater@cheffins.co.uk
cheffins.co.uk 01223 214214
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Cambridge | Saffron Walden | Newmarket | Ely | Haverhill | London
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Kelshall – Station 3 Miles £1,350,000 A most wonderful and substantial detached Grade II Listed country residence of approximately 3,875 sq. ft., consisting of an attractive renovated cottage and converted and renovated barn, offering a wealth of period features including Inglenook fireplaces, exposed beams and timbers and stunning reception hall with vaulted ceilings. The property is in a most enviable position with far reaching views over undulating countryside, sitting within its own plot of about 1.2 acres with stable block. Accommodation comprising: Kitchen/breakfast room with scullery, dining room, living room, snug/office, cloak/utility room, sitting room with mezzanine over, orangery, 2 bedrooms (1 with en suite bathroom). First floor: 3 bedrooms (1 with en suite shower room). Outside: surrounding gardens, driveway parking. Contact: Richard Freshwater | Cambridge Office: 01223 214214 | richard.freshwater@cheffins.co.uk
Radwinter – Station 6 Miles £1,250,000 A stunning Grade II Listed former hall house of 16th Century origin, that has been sympathetically extended and finished to a particularly high standard with characterful and well-proportioned accommodation, creating a most comfortable home, with all modern facilities whilst retaining great period character, set in a plot of approximately 2.04 acres. Accommodation comprising: Drawing room, dining room, cloakroom, study, utility room, kitchen/ breakfast room, family room, garden room. First floor: 5 bedrooms (1 with en suite shower room). Outside: driveway parking, garages, surrounding gardens. Contact: Bruce King | Saffron Walden Office: 01799 523656 | bruce.king@cheffins.co.uk
Cambridge | Saffron Walden | Newmarket | Ely | Haverhill | London
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ESCAPE THE CITY IN MINUTES A PA R T M E N T S R E A D Y T O M O V E I N T O N O W
Award winning 1, 2 and 3 bedroom apartments and penthouses Minutes from Haymarket station | Tranquil courtyard garden Secure underground car parking included
£252,500 TO £1,695,000 0131 341 1602 | cityandcountry.co.uk | Open daily 10am to 5pm
WEST COATES EDINBURGH EH12 5JQ Prices correct at time of publication and are subject to change
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Fryerning Essex Felsted, Dunmow CM6 Fryerning Essex
Guide Price £3,850,000 Guide Price £3,850,000 Guide price: £635,000 striking five double bedroom, reception Grade II AAstriking five double bedroom, fourfour reception Grade II A deceptively spacious four bedroom Grade II listed listed property thought date back 500The years. property tucked away on athought quiettocountry lane. listedperiod period property to date back 500 years. This residence is originally thought to beto 3 be 3 property benefits from a well fitted country kitchen, Thischarming charming residence is originally thought cottages, providing a fantastic flow of interesting lounge with now gas fi reproviding and three reception rooms. cottages, now a further fantastic flow of interesting Outside there is family ample driveway parking, veryfloors. large and living space overover twoatwo floors. The The andextensive extensive family living space barn/garage and mature private gardens. EPC Exempt. 7.5 plot comprises formal grounds mixed 7.5acre acre plot comprises formal grounds mixed sympathetically with paddocks (benefitting fromfrom a sympathetically with paddocks (benefitting a second separate access), ponds and a substantial lake. second separate access), ponds and a substantial lake. Numerous outbuildings, tennis court, double garage Numerous outbuildings, tennis court, double garage and detached one bedroom annexe. Equestrian and detached one bedroom annexe. Equestrian potential. EPC Exempt potential. EPC Exempt Country && Village ce 01245 Country VillageOffi Office 01245397475 397475
Country & Village Office 01245 397475
Fryerning EssexCM6 Dunmow, Essex Guide Price £3,850,000
Guide price: £700,000 Fryerning Essex A striking five double bedroom, four reception Grade II This beautifully presented Grade II listed property Guide Price £3,850,000 listed period property thought to date back 500 years. sits on the periphery of the renowned country
This charming residence is originally thought to be 3
townfive of Great Dunmow. Offering three bedrooms A striking double bedroom, four reception Grade II cottages, now providing a fantastic flow of interesting and three reception roomsto this detached period listedand period property thought date back 500 years. extensive family living of space over twocharacter floors. The property offers a wealth charm and This charming residence is originally thought to be 7.5 acre plot comprises formal grounds mixed 3 features including exposed timbers. Externally the cottages, now providing apaddocks fantastic(benefitting flow of interesting sympathetically withwell-manicured from a property provides gardens backing and extensive family living space over two floors. Thelake. second separate access), ponds and a substantial onto conservation greenland. EPC Exempt. 7.5 acre plot comprises formal grounds Numerous outbuildings, tennis court,mixed double garage sympathetically with paddocks from a and detached one bedroom(benefitting annexe. Equestrian potential. EPCaccess), Exemptponds and a substantial lake. second separate Numerous outbuildings, tennis court, double garage and detached one bedroom annexe. Equestrian Country &&Village Country VillageOffice Office01245 01245397475 397475 potential. EPC Exempt
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jonathancunliffe.co.uk
Near St.Agnes, Cornwall A spectacular conversion of a former corn mill between Mithian and the north coast beaches of Perranporth and St Agnes. 5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, open plan kitchen dining room, first floor sitting room, separate guest accommodation, garage/workshop. In all about 2.5 acres. EPC - A/B Guide price ÂŁ1.5m
office@jonathancunliffe.co.uk 01326 617447
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THE SMART WAY TO STAY IN THE CITY
Cheval Residences is a collection of eight luxury all-apartment Residences available to book for any length of stay, from just one night to extended stays of three months or more. With more than 500 apartments in central London locations, Cheval has over 35 years’ experience in delivering exceptional, personalised service to our guests.
BOOKINGS reservations@chevalresidences.com T: +44 (0) 20 7341 7052 WhatsApp: +44 (0)7702 551923 Our team is available from 8am to 8pm daily
www.chevalresidences.com
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hamptons.co.uk
Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire
A stunning six bedroom and six bathroom, modern family home with breathtaking views over Misbourne Valley and rolling Chilterns countryside. EPC: B
£2,295,000 Freehold •
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Recently transformed into a contemporary home with state-of-the- art materials 33 miles to Central London Under a mile to Great Missenden station Fabulous open spaces, ideal for entertaining Bifold doors to a large balcony overlooking the lawns and verdant countryside beyond
Hamptons Great Missenden Sales. 01494 355 549 | greatmissenden@hamptons-int.com
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THINKING OF WALKING AWAY FROM LONDON? Discover life outside of the capital at The Roadshow Saturday 23rd March | 10am - 2pm Whether you’re considering moving out of town, or have already started your search, The Roadshow has everything you need to make the move. Hosted at four branch locations across London, there’s no better way to explore life out of London. Contact your most local branch listed below for more information.
Follow us: @hamptonsInt
Battersea | battersea@hamptons-int.com | 020 3151 2428 Chelsea | chelsea@hamptons-int.com | 020 3151 3274 Muswell Hill | muswellhill@hamptons-int.com | 020 3369 3281 Richmond | richmond@hamptons-int.com | 020 3369 3348
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