December 2019/January 2020 Volume 15/06 FREE
108 Marylebone Lane, London W1U 2QE +44 207 969 3900 info@108marylebonelane.com 108Brasserie.com
01. Contents Cover: Christmas spirit 40. Whisky galore
04. 26. FORWARD THINKING YOUR GUIDE TO DECEMBER AND JANUARY IN MARYLEBONE
18.
34.
RAMBLING MAN HOW PETER ELIA’S TRAVELS TURNED HIM INTO A SOCIAL MEDIA STAR
26.
18-45. Features 18. Musical youth 26. Rambling man 34. The king of Marylebone Plains 40. Whisky galore
40.
WHISKY GALORE MARYLEBONE’S EXPERTS ON THE GROWING QUALITY AND DIVERSITY OF WHISKIES FROM BOTH NEAR AND FAR
18. 34. 52. MUSICAL YOUTH SOME OF THE FUTURE STARS OF THE WEST END STAGE TELL THEIR STORIES
mj_2019_volume15_06_UpFront_01.indd 1
THE KING OF MARYLEBONE PLAINS THE VIOLENT TALE OF JAMES FIGG, GEORGIAN LONDON’S GREATEST FIGHTER
04-19. Up front 04. Forward thinking 12. Local lives 16. My perfect day
THE TEMPLETONS THE FOUR COUSINS BEHIND CAROUSEL ON FIVE YEARS OF GUEST CHEFS AND LOYAL LOCALS
46-51. Culture 46. Q&A: Valeria Carullo & Pete Collard, RIBA curators 50. Book reviews 52-59. Food 52. Q&A: The Templeton cousins, founders of Carousel 58. Food philosophy 60-65. Style 60. Q&A: Monica Vinader of Monica Vinader 64. The look 65. Inside knowledge 66-73. Life 66. Q&A: Dr Adrian Whiteson of Teenage Cancer Trust 70. Gift guide 74-79. Health 74. Q&A: Dr John Goldstone of The London Clinic 78. Screen time 80-83. Space 80. Ask the experts 82. Q&A: Sukey Brecher of Druce Marylebone
21/11/2019 09:09
02. Editor’s letter
TO ‘E’ OR NOT TO ‘E’ MARK RIDDAWAY
Marylebone Journal Web: marylebonejournal.com Twitter: @MaryleboneJrnl Instagram: marylebonejrnl Facebook: Marylebone Journal
For this issue of the magazine, I’ve spent an unhealthy amount of time worrying about the spelling of ‘whisky’. Scotch whisky has no ‘e’. Irish or American whiskey has an ‘e’. I’m okay with that rule—I don’t understand its genesis, but I appreciate its obtuseness. The problem is that one of our features is about the entire genre. Are they generically whiskies or whiskeys? Should I painstakingly differentiate based on geography? What if the drink is Japanese? And what kind of syntactical jumble might result from all that? In the end, for the sake of consistency and ease, I’ve gone with no ‘e’ throughout. Anyone who takes issue with my choice should contact the press regulator.
Editor Mark Riddaway mark@lscpublishing.com Deputy editors Viel Richardson viel@lscpublishing.com Clare Finney clare@lscpublishing.com Managing editor Ellie Costigan ellie@lscpublishing.com Editorial desk 020 7401 7297
Far too much of my brain is taken up by this nonsense. Capitalisation is the real killer. Capital letters hinder legibility and seem a bit shouty (Trump loves to pepper them randomly through his tweets), so I avoid using them as much as possible, but the grey areas are a constant source of stress. Are those tasty little potatoes Jersey Royals, Jersey royals or jersey royals? Should we capitalise Chianti, because it’s a place, but not capitalise barolo, because it’s not? These are the choices I have to make. While the reality is that very few readers will care—or even notice—if we refer to the 80s or the eighties, and which spelling of hummus we decide to use, being vexed about the small stuff is part of my job. I genuinely did wake up at 4am stressing about the whisky / whiskey thing, though, and that’s just sad. Or, as Trump would have it, Sad. mj_2019_volume15_06_UpFront_01.indd 2
Advertising sales Donna Earrey 020 7401 2772 donna@lscpublishing.com Publisher LSC Publishing 13.2.1 The Leathermarket Weston Street London SE1 3ER lscpublishing.com Contributers Jean-Paul Aubin-Parvu, Sasha Garwood, Orlando Gili, Matthew Hancock, Emily Jupp, Jackie Modlinger, Christopher L Proctor Design and art direction Em-Project Limited mike@em-project.com Distribution Letterbox Printing Warwick
C M a
Owned and supported by The Howard de Walden Estate 27 Baker Street, W1U 8EQ 020 7580 3163 hdwe.co.uk jenny.hancock@hdwe.co.uk The Portman Estate 40 Portman Square, W1H 6LT 020 7563 1400 portmanestate.co.uk rebecca.eckles@portmanestate.co.uk
21/11/2019 11:40
Celebrating 10 years in Marylebone with a move around the corner to
. ) mj_2019_volume15_06_UpFront_01.indd 3
Admin@HopeMontessoriSchool.com +44 (0) 7919 84 48 53 Hope Montessori School.com 21/11/2019 09:09
04. Up front
FORWARD THINKING YOUR GUIDE TO DECEMBER AND JANUARY IN MARYLEBONE
WALK 4th DECEMBER CHRISTMAS LIGHTS WALK The Baker Street Quarter Partnership leads a free walk around its impressive new Christmas lights, revealing the stories behind the displays. The tour, which sets off from 55 Baker Street at 6pm, includes: 55 Baker Street This was once home to the Baker Street Bazaar, which in its 19th century prime featured as many as 400 stalls, including Marie Tussaud’s waxworks collection. The trees in front of the building are lit with decorations showcasing some of the eccentric items available at the bazaar: a bird, a horse, a cog (suggestive of Victorian automata), a crown (for the casts of royalty created by Madame Tussaud) and ice skates (an ice rink was constructed here in 1845). Baker Street / Marylebone Road junction Here, a quirky installation alludes to the area’s most Portman Square Garden
mj_2019_volume15_06_UpFront_01.indd 4
famous name, Sherlock Holmes. Four clusters of lamp columns are topped with illuminated geese, inspired by Arthur Conan Doyle’s Christmas story, The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle. Portman Square Garden The blue and gold decorations behind the garden’s arched gates and the uplighters on the larger trees offer a subtle nod to the 18th century ‘blue stocking parties’ held in Montagu House on Portman Square by the philanthropist, writer and literary critic Lady Montagu, to which the most prominent intellectuals of the era were invited. Manchester Square Garden To highlight the beauty of Manchester Square and provide an echo of the candle-lit elegance of an 18th century pleasure garden, the five most prominent trees feature 4,000 LED lights. Baker Street Quarter Partnership bakerstreetq.co.uk
EVENT 5th DECEMBER MARYLEBONE LANE CHRISTMAS SHOPPING EVENING For one special evening, the retailers of one of Marylebone’s most atmospheric streets are coming together to make the act of Christmas Shopping as enjoyable as possible. From 5-8pm, accompanied by live music from the Marylebone Music Festival, many of the lane’s shops, including Dinny Hall, Theory, Tracey Neuls, KJ’s Laundry, Papouelli and John Bell & Croyden will be offering special discounts, while its bars and restaurants will be providing a variety of offers and festive menus. The Golden Eagle’s much-loved resident piano player, Tony Pearson, will be tinkling his way through some festive classics, and the evening will feature a programme of free activities and workshops. Marylebone Lane Christmas Shopping Evening marylebonevillage.com
21/11/2019 09:09
05. Up front
TALK 5th DECEMBER THE ULTIMATE CHRISTMAS CRACKER: ARTEMIS COOPER WITH ANTONY BEEVOR In 1969, popular historian John Julius Norwich gathered together his favourite observations and anecdotes of the previous 12 months and compiled them in his first Christmas Cracker, which he shared with family and friends. Such was his natural wit and eye for a story, it rapidly turned into a huge word-of-mouth success and an annual tradition. When Lord Norwich died in 2018, he had almost finished his 50th Cracker. The work has now been completed with the input of his daughter, the writer Artemis Cooper, and to mark its launch, she will be appearing at Daunt Books with Antony Beevor to talk about her father’s contribution to Christmas merriment.
EXHIBITION UNTIL 7th DECEMBER MARCUS HARRIS: RESPONSES London-based stone carver and sculptor Marcus Harris returns to the A&D Gallery for his second solo exhibition, which examines our personal and collective responses to the external landscape. The viewer is encouraged to touch Harris’s work as a way of reconnecting with the self. A&D Gallery 51 Chiltern Street, W1U 6LY aanddgallery.com
THEATRE 6th—7th DECEMBER THE F WORD Dorcas, Rachel and Louise are all broken. Dorcas is a survivor of sex-trafficking, Rachel a victim of a 10-year abusive marriage, and Louise a mother of a son who is the most recent victim of the rampant knife crime crisis threatening to devour London’s youths. What happens when each of them comes face to face with their wrongdoers? The F Word is a showcase of three thematicallyconnected short plays, devised by YiA theatre company, all of which explore the concept of forgiveness—the word in question—within seemingly unforgiveable situations. On both nights, the production will be followed by a post-show discussion. The Cockpit Gateforth Street, NW8 8EH thecockpit.org.uk
MUSIC 9th DECEMBER CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS AT ST MARYLEBONE PARISH CHURCH As part of its Sponsor a Veteran appeal, King Edward VII’s Hospital is hosting an evening of carols, readings and music in the beautiful St Marylebone Parish Church. Among the many celebrity contributors will be Sir Derek Jacobi and Jermain Jackman, winner of The Voice. Tickets cost £25, including mulled wine and mince pies, with all proceeds going towards the provision of life-changing medical treatments for the men and women who have served in the country’s military. St Marylebone Parish Church 17 Marylebone Road, NW1 5LT kingedwardvii.co.uk/ the-charity/events
Daunt Books 83 Marylebone High Street, W1U 4QW dauntbooks.co.uk The F Word
mj_2019_volume15_06_UpFront_01.indd 5
21/11/2019 09:09
06. Up front
FILM 12th DECEMBER THE STREET Photographer Zed Nelson makes his first foray into feature-length directing with this documentary focussing on a single street in East London. Filmed over four years, Nelson examines the lives of Hoxton Street’s most impoverished and dispossessed inhabitants as they weather gentrification, austerity, the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower tragedy and the chaos of Brexit. The viewing will be followed by a Q&A session with the director. The Regent Street Cinema 307 Regent Street, W1B 2HW regentstreetcinema.com
The Street
mj_2019_volume15_06_UpFront_01.indd 6
EXHIBITION 11th—24th DECEMBER SMALL WONDER This new group exhibition, perfectly timed for Christmas gift buying, features many of Thompson’s Gallery’s most popular painters and sculptors, all of whom have reacted to a prompt to make a ‘small wonder’, limited in size to under 16 square inches. Thompson’s Gallery 3 Seymour Place, W1H 5AZ thompsonsgallery.co.uk
MUSIC 3rd DECEMBER —11th JANUARY STEPHEN HOUGH RESIDENCY Across five different dates in December and January, the British-born pianist and composer Stephen Hough will perform his own work and that of a wide range of composers, of which Brahms is a staple feature, accompanied by a variety of highly accomplished musicians. Ahead of the third concert, on 6th January, Hough— a remarkable polymath who paints and writes literature as well as performing and creating music—will discuss the inspiration behind his programme in an on-stage interview. Wigmore Hall 36 Wigmore Street, W1U 2BP wigmore-hall.org.uk
MUSIC 19th JANUARY BACH AND POLITICS The Royal Academy of Music kicks off its 2020 series of Bach The European midday concerts with an afternoon focussed on Bach and his political connections. The performance, directed by Masaaki Suzuki and performed on historical instruments, showcases two pieces associated with the Saxon royal family in Dresden. Both were commissioned by the University of Leipzig and demonstrate Bach’s unwavering ability to outshine his Dresden contemporaries even in their own musical style. Royal Academy of Music Marylebone Road, NW1 1HT ram.ac.uk
Stephen Hough
21/11/2019 11:40
07. Up front
CHRISTMAS POP UPS
Marylebone’s already generous shopping options will be inflated still further in the run-up to Christmas and beyond with the presence of several pop up boutiques.
Loquet London Founded by Sheherazade Goldsmith and Laura Bailey, Loquet London offers a modern approach to the era-spanning idea of a keepsake locket.
Budd Bespoke luxury brand Budd comes to the menswear haven of Chiltern Street, offering a selection of high quality shirts, suits and woollens.
19 Chiltern Street, W1U 7PH loquetlondon.com
16 Chiltern Street, W1U 7PZ buddshirts.co.uk Freight Freight presents unique, durable, stylish items, all sourced or produced in the UK, perfect for your home, wardrobe and Christmas list. 48 Dorset Street, W1U 7NE freightstore.co.uk Freight
Viu Viu, here for a six-month residency, boasts frames for every personality and style, showcasing prescription lenses and sunglasses that fuse timeless aesthetics with innovative technology. 70-72 Marylebone Lane, W1U 2PL shopviu.com Platform Designer Stacy Chan showcases her bags and accessories in a pop-up store that, as the name suggests, also gives a platform to like-minded independent designers. 51 Marylebone High Street, W1U 5HW platform-store.com
TALK 23rd JANUARY ALASTAIR ADAMS: 2020 ARTS, SOCIETY AND MEDICINE LECTURE For this annual fixture in the Royal Society of Medicine’s calendar, portrait painter Alastair Adams will explore his interest in portraiture as a medium for capturing a likeness but also for nurturing a deeper understanding of a subject. With reference to his past and current work he will discuss his techniques and working process and offer insights into how the artist’s relationship with the sitter can bring the personality of a painting to life. Royal Society of Medicine 1 Wimpole Street, W1G 0AE rsm.ac.uk
The Hour Nana Rasoeva’s Londonbased brand The Hour respects silhouette, confidence and identity, with a dedication to creating contemporary plus-size pieces that drape, frame and flatter the fuller figure. 63-65 Marylebone Lane, W1U 2PA thehourlondon.com
mj_2019_volume15_06_UpFront_01.indd 7
21/11/2019 11:40
08. Up front Rachael Nee
EXHIBITION UNTIL 31st JANUARY HIROE SAEKI: COSMOGENESIS Born in Osaka, Japan, but now living and working in Berlin, Hiroe Saeki produces monochromatic explorations of the subject of beauty in nature. For this exhibition, her first in the UK, she has created a body of work based on one of her signature techniques: using capillaries of water to propel powdered graphite onto Japanese paper, allowing the pigment to settle where and when the water evaporates. The resulting drawings, which she embellishes with pencil lines, resemble biological or mineral forms, such as geological sediments or water-carved planetary landscapes. The Daiwa AngloJapanese Foundation 13-14 Cornwall Terrace, NW1 4QP dajf.org.uk
EXHIBITION UNTIL 1st FEBRUARY BEYOND BAUHAUS: MODERNISM IN BRITAIN 1933 TO 1966 Marking the centenary of the creation of the Bauhaus, the German design school that would become an extraordinary crucible of modernist design, this exhibition looks afresh at its influence on Britain, particularly the impact of three notable Bauhaus émigrés, Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer and László Moholy-Nagy, all of whom were uprooted to the UK after the Nazis came to power. Drawing on RIBA’s world-class collections, rarely shown works by the three exBauhaus tutors will be displayed alongside those of the young British architects they inspired. See pp46 for an interview with the exhibition’s curators. RIBA 66 Portland Place, W1B 1AD architecture.com
EXHIBITION UNTIL 1st FEBRUARY LIFE Following its relaunch in 1936 under the ownership of Henry Luce, Life magazine would become a repository for some of the greatest photography of the 20th century. Over several decades, the likes of Andreas Feininger, Joe Rosenthal, Margaret Bourke-White and Alfred Eisenstaedt, among many others, documented some of the most important events and memorable lives of the recent past, creating a canon of photojournalism unmatched by any other publication. This exhibition commemorates the magazine’s golden age, including portraits of the Kennedy brothers, the Beatles and Frank Sinatra, as well as iconic images from the 1945 VJ Day celebration and the 1968 Olympics. Atlas Gallery 49 Dorset Street, W1U 7NF atlasgallery.com
Hiroe Saeki
Alfred Eisenstaedt
mj_2019_volume15_06_UpFront_01.indd 8
21/11/2019 09:09
09. Up front
EXHIBITION 23rd JANUARY —8th FEBRUARY CUT, FOLD, BURN This group exhibition, which features a trio of Cube Gallery’s regular artists, Peter Monaghan, Tony Blackmore and Rachael Nee, is named after the three highly distinctive creative techniques used by each of the three contributors to produce their respective works. Cube Gallery 16 Crawford Street, W1H 1BS cube-gallery.co.uk
mj_2019_volume15_06_UpFront_01.indd 9
21/11/2019 09:09
10. Up front
EXHIBITION UNTIL 29th FEBRUARY TONY CRAGG: STACKS For his 15th Lisson Gallery show, Tony Cragg presents a selection of complex polymorphic sculptures, rendered in bronze, wood and steel, many of which offer insights into the sculptor’s repeated and ever-evolving use of ‘stacking’ methods—the creation of solid, cohesive forms out of small, disparate parts. Across five decades of work, starting in the 1970s, Cragg has variously stacked, gathered and layered a variety of materials, deploying various acts of stratification, compilation, accrual and accumulation and drawing upon his fascination with geology, archaeology, biology, chemistry, natural history, psychology and anthropology. Lisson Gallery 27 Bell Street, NW1 5BY lissongallery.com
mj_2019_volume15_06_UpFront_01.indd 10
EXHIBITION 4th DECEMBER —19th APRIL FORGOTTEN MASTERS: INDIAN PAINTING FOR THE EAST INDIA COMPANY Guest curated by writer and historian William Dalrymple, whose recent book The Anarchy traces the remarkable rise of the East India Company, this exhibition brings together works by Indian master painters, commissioned in the late 18th and 19th centuries by officials of the trading company whose pursuit of profits became an engine of British colonialism. “Forgotten Masters showcases the work of a series of extraordinary Indian artists, each with their own style and tastes and agency, whose brilliance has been frequently overlooked until now,” promises Dalrymple. The Wallace Collection Manchester Square, W1U 3BN wallacecollection.org
Vishnupersaud
21/11/2019 09:09
Happy New Year! From your local print centre
Bespoke Photo Albums & Posters Encapsulate your memories of a recent holiday or party into a hardback book or poster. shop@wimpole.prontaprint.com • Tel: (020) 7493 3377 • wimpole.prontaprint.com New Year Flyer.indd 1 mj_2019_volume15_06_UpFront_01.indd 11
13/11/2019 10:45 21/11/2019 09:09
12. Up front
mj_2019_volume15_06_UpFront_01.indd 12
21/11/2019 09:09
13. Up front
LOCAL LIVES
HELEN PLUMMER Helen is a volunteer at Oxfam on Marylebone High Street. A flying ace during her teens, the now retired finance lawyer lives on York Street and is at least the fourth generation of her family to reside in the Marylebone area INTERVIEW: JEAN PAUL AUBIN-PARVU PORTRAIT: ORLANDO GILI
My father, his parents and grandparents all lived in Marylebone, up by what is now the flyover on Marylebone Road. There were lots of cousins, aunts and uncles also living in the area, with many of the family working on the railways in some capacity. My father and his parents actually got bombed out during the war. The bomb didn’t hit their house, but it took out the surrounding area and so they had to move out to the suburbs to live with relatives. I was born in Edgware—famous for the terminus of the 113 bus—and spent my first few years up in Harrow. My family then moved back to this area for a few years, just off Sussex Gardens, but when I was 11 years old we moved to Guernsey
mj_2019_volume15_06_UpFront_01.indd 13
in the Channel Islands. I love Guernsey. A lot of my family are still there and I go home whenever I can. I have a foot in two camps. Guernsey is home and London is home, I couldn’t really put one over the other. Flying became my hobby growing up and I was the youngest person ever to get their private pilot’s license in the UK. But that was really as a result of a quirk of law or a loophole. At the time you could take your flying test in the UK at 16 but you couldn’t fly solo until you were 17 and you need some solo hours to get your license. In the US you could go solo at 16, but you couldn’t take your flying test until you were 17. So, I did my solo hours over in America and then had my pilot’s license forward
dated to my 17th birthday. I read a couple of months ago that somebody may have broken that record, but I’m not quite sure how, unless they’ve changed the law. I flew a lot both to the UK and France. Sometimes we’d fly from Guernsey to Cherbourg, have lunch, then fly back. I also did a short aerobatics course in a Pitts Special plane, doing hammerhead turns, loop the loops and inverted flat spins where you just fall out of the sky like a stone—it’s quite impressive. Having studied for a degree in economic history at Liverpool University I decided to switch to law and spent two years at the law college in Guildford. After my Law Society finals, I moved to London, did my articles and stayed at the same firm. Clifford Chance is one of those big international law firms, a factory farm of lawyers. I did finance law and was there for around 15 years until I was lucky enough to take early retirement. One day I walked past Oxfam on Marylebone High Street and noticed a sign outside asking for volunteers, so I went in and signed up. I could tell you that I have a highly developed social conscience and want to give back to the community, but what keeps me here is it’s just so much fun. I do two afternoons a week and get to work with smart, funny, interesting people from every walk of life. Everybody has a story to tell and we have a lot of fun, with plenty of friendly banter. Getting to play shop
for two days a week is like a childhood dream come true. I deal only with books, which is great because I could never pass a bookshop without going inside. We have a specialist who goes through our book donations to pick out any that are collectable, so anything valuable will usually have been taken out by the time I get to them. I divide my time between sorting the donations according to genre, down in the stockroom, and filling the shelves upstairs in the shop. Every few weeks we try to refresh the books on the shelves. Sometimes I get to curate specific collections, which we put up when there’s room. In recent months I’ve been gathering books and memorabilia that could be termed ‘nostalgic’, including old Blue Peter annuals, Asterix and Tintin books, old comics and a great collection of model railway magazines from the 1970s. At this shop customers seem to be particularly hungry for designer clothing, but within reason we’ll basically take anything that we can make money on. One thing I should say about donations is that Oxfam does the gift aid scheme, so if people can donate something that can be gift aided then obviously, we get more out of the donation. At the moment, our focus is on Christmas and we have advent calendars, cards, decorations and Christmas books, and upcycled items such as shopping bags made out of saris, which make ideal presents. We also have
21/11/2019 09:09
14. Up front
the Oxfam Unwrapped scheme which is great: you can buy gift vouchers, worth as much or as little as you want, for a specific purpose. For example, buying bikes for children so they can get to school, or equipment or animals for farmers, that sort of thing. If you are looking for an unusual Christmas present, I think a pig or a goat really fits the bill. One of the most unusual items donated to the shop was a rare, beautiful and quite large framed historical map of Peking. We knew it was valuable and that we might not be able to sell it in the shop and so we sold it at auction for £1,500. We also had a big sculpture of a brain that was knocking around for a while. Last Christmas, a lady came in with a bag full of
mj_2019_volume15_06_UpFront_01.indd 14
One of the most unusual items donated to the shop was a rare, beautiful and quite large framed historical map of Peking. We sold it at auction for £1,500. We also had a big sculpture of a brain that was knocking around for a while
jumbled up bits of wood that she thought made up two children’s toys. That was all the information we had to go on. It turned into an episode of the Krypton Factor with three of us scratching our heads. There was me with my law degree, a colleague with a PhD in quantum mechanics and another chap with at least two masters degrees trying desperately to work out which bits of wood went where. Given the amount of brain power, we took entirely too long to establish that it was in fact a doll’s crib and high chair. Many people think of Oxfam as a charity that only deals with disaster relief and emergency response. I think it can get quite depressing in that respect, because the world is continually lurching
from one disaster to the next and we’re continually asking for money for a specific disaster or humanitarian crisis. That’s a very important part of what we do: bringing hope to people in dire need. But Oxfam is a really optimistic organisation, because at its core it’s an anti-poverty charity. If you look on the website, you get deluged with really upbeat stories of people who, with Oxfam funding, have managed to bring themselves out of whatever troubles they were in. I came back to Marylebone 30 years ago because my father kept telling me it was an up and coming area. I suppose it has finally up and come. I sometimes think it’s a bit too chic for me these days and I’m expecting the locals to tell me that I don’t really fit in anymore. But although Marylebone has changed a lot over the years, some things have stayed the same. And I really like that. The same guy has cut my hair for 30 years and some of the businesses have been here for as long as I have. I like to while away an afternoon at the Wallace Collection and also spend a lot of time in Paddington Street Gardens. Those are the places where you’ll find me the most. Or else I’ll be busy gardening. I am a keen gardener but have very limited space. My courtyard doesn’t get any sun, so I have to grow all my plants on my doorstep, which is south-facing. I also grow a few food crops, but they are only good for summertime, because you can’t really grow cabbages and potatoes on your doorstep.
21/11/2019 09:09
39 Welbeck Street, London W1G 8DR E-mail: enquiries@artsurveyors.co.uk
Tel: 020 7486 1681
Website: www.artsurveyors.co.uk
YOUR LOCAL COMMERCIAL PROPERTY EXPERTS
DIARY DATES, NEWS, REVIEWS, PHOTO GALLERIES, VIDEOS, RECIPES, ARCHIVED ARTICLES marylebonejournal.com @MaryleboneJrnl
Medical Retail Restaurants Offices • Sales & Lettings
• Dilapidations
• Lease Renewals & Rent Reviews
• Valuations
• Commercial Property Management
• Acquisitions & Investments
• Development & Town Planning Advice
• Business Rates Appeals
Alexander Reece Thomson LLP Providing property expertise for over 40 years in the Marylebone / Harley Street area. For a no obligation chat, feel free to call or email us.
Support our Veterans at Christmas An evening of Carols, Readings & Music Monday 9th December 2019, 6.30pm St Marylebone Parish Church Help raise funds for our Sponsor a Veteran appeal Tickets priced at £25 include mulled wine and mince pies and are available either on the door or online through www.tickettailor.com/events/kingedwardviishospital/255071
KEVii Xmas Ad 173x54.4mm.indd 1
“The greatest gift you can give an injured veteran suffering chronic pain, is a place on the Hospital’s Pain Management Programme. ‘Sponsor a Veteran’ this Christmas and give joy and happiness to a veteran and their family.” Hugh Northam, MBE – Pain Management Programme attendee
13/11/2019 15:48
Fast postal & international
packing & shipping services Important note: For two colour printing of both the logo and block logo, the logotype drop shadow is printed as 40% PW blue overprinted on PW red, to give a ‘dark red’ shadow effect, as with the CMYK version.
19-21 Crawford Street, London, W1H 1PJ | 020 7224 2666
mj_2019_volume15_06_UpFront_01.indd 15
21/11/2019 09:09
16. Up front Orrery Epicerie
shop here. At the weekend, I live in France, in Lyon, so when I am here I am always working. My days are really packed. Drinks I would go to Chiltern Firehouse, probably for a manhattan or an old fashioned—or maybe I’d have a glass or two of wine at my place, Blandford Comptoir. We have about 50 or 60 wines by the glass now. My sommelier, Roma, is in charge of everything, and there is always something new and interesting.
MY PERFECT DAY XAVIER ROUSSET The restaurateur behind Blandford Comptoir and the reopened Gunmakers pub describes his perfect Marylebone day INTERVIEW: CLARE FINNEY
mj_2019_volume15_06_UpFront_01.indd 16
Breakfast I have six restaurants now, so I am very busy. I usually do breakfast at home, but if I am here, I go to the Orrery Epicerie: just a croissant and jam, or a piece of toast with jam, something very simple. Coffee A single espresso at Monocle. I stopped drinking lattes years ago—I just have espressos now. About five a day.
I love Fairuz, the Lebanese restaurant on Blandford Street. It’s not fancy, but you feel welcome, you have a good time, you get good food. I love those guys
Shopping I love Rococo chocolates. I picked up a box the other day, and they were just amazing. I love Conran for window shopping. It is beautiful.
Fresh air Regent’s Park is the best park in London, no doubt at all. I would have a walk around there, see the squirrels, the swans— when you are there you can hardly hear anything at all. It’s perfect.
Culture It has to be the Wallace Collection. A beautiful place.
Outfit I wouldn’t know! Food any time, drinks any time, but I rarely get the chance to
Eating out I love Fairuz, the Lebanese restaurant on Blandford Street. It’s not a fashionable place, but when you talk about hospitality, this is what it is all about. It’s not a fancy restaurant, but you feel welcome, you have a good time, you get good food. I love those guys. Eating in I would head to La Fromagerie for a cheeky plate of cheese—they have been a good supplier for Blandford Comptoir for many years and they will be supplying The Gunmakers too. I think the Natural Kitchen has some very good produce as well, and then there’s my friend Laurent at Le Vieux Comptoir for really good French wine. You can have a great time in Marylebone. You can eat really well. Anything else If I could have one thing, it would be to get rid of the cars! It would be so nice to pedestrianise Marylebone. The traffic is terrible.
21/11/2019 09:09
The Ultimate Party Space
mj_2019_volume15_06_UpFront_01.indd 17
21/11/2019 09:09
18. Musical youth
I was studying conducting in Germany when I ran out of money. They needed a conductor for a German production of Cats—I don’t think I even knew what the hell that was—so I went along for an audition and found myself being hired Daniel Bowling
MUSICAL YOUTH
This year, the Royal Academy of Music is marking the 25th anniversary of its musical theatre programme with a museum exhibition devoted to the genre. The Journal meets some of the people involved in the prestigious postgraduate course and the exhibition INTERVIEWS: JEAN-PAUL AUBIN-PARVU IMAGES: ORLANDO GILI
mj_2019_volume15_06_Features_01.indd 18
Daniel Bowling, head of musical theatre at the Royal Academy of Music I am originally from Portland, Oregon, but grew up mainly in the southwestern part of the United States. My father worked for the Indian health service and his job required us to move to anywhere there was an Indian reservation. I was very lucky to be surrounded by music. My mum is a brilliant musician and my aunt was a piano professor and composer, and some of my earliest memories are of hanging out underneath our grand piano, just listening. At my Catholic grade school in Arizona, a retired couple had offered to head up the school band. They
21/11/2019 09:05
19. Musical youth Daniel Bowling
mj_2019_volume15_06_Features_01.indd 19
21/11/2019 09:05
20. Musical youth were both brilliant musicians. The husband had been the principal clarinettist for John Philip Sousa, and his wife had been a trumpet player on the vaudevillian circuit in America— back then it was most unusual for a woman to play the trumpet. Together, they developed the school band into something incredible. My brother was a member and I was desperate to be part of it. I was around six or seven and wanted to play trombone, but they told me my arm was too short and handed me a cornet. I later switched to trumpet and by the age of about 14 was at a level that was quite unusual. I ended up studying trumpet at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, got my degree and then went down the classical music road. I was a professional trumpet player for a while, but became a bit unhappy in that world. I had always been interested in conducting, so decided to see if I could turn that into a career. I was studying conducting in Germany when I ran out of money. They needed a conductor for a German production of Cats—I don’t think I even knew what the hell that was—so I went along for an audition and found myself being hired. If the boot had been on the other foot, I wouldn’t have given me a second look: I didn’t have a clue. But the one thing I could do was stand up in front of an orchestra and get them from A to Z, which luckily was what they asked me to do at the audition. Back in 1993, that was my introduction to musical theatre, a world I barely even knew existed. And I loved it. From there, things just snowballed. Again I was just very lucky. For example, on that first production I met Gillian Lynne, an incredible human being and artist, and the first woman to have a theatre named after her in the West End. And I started having some interactions with the offices of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh. When Cameron brought the first production of Miss Saigon to Germany I was hired to be the associate music director. I landed on my feet. I don’t know how or why, but straight away I was working with the world’s biggest producer of musicals. The gods were smiling on me. And
mj_2019_volume15_06_Features_01.indd 20
once I was working for Cameron, that then led to doing a huge number of his productions as music supervisor. I became head of musical theatre at the Royal Academy of Music in 2016. Mary Hammond, an old friend and colleague, founded this course 25 years ago. We’d had a couple of conversations in the past about teaching. My career had got to the stage where everything began to feel like a repetition, so I told Mary that if the right situation ever presented itself, I’d certainly think about it. I was in New York when she phoned to tell me that this was coming up. And I kind of just did it on a whim. Our musical theatre postgraduate programme is a performance course rather than an academic one—I’m not an academic in any way, shape or form. Our aim is to hone the students into top notch musical theatre artists. We try to do everything at the highest possible level. For example, we put on productions across the year and I tell our students that my goal isn’t for us to do something as good as a West End production—my goal is for us to do it a hell of a lot better. To have a sustained career in musical theatre takes, first and foremost, desire. One thing I’ve seen time and time again in this profession is that it’s not necessarily the most talented people who succeed. When I audition each student, I sit and talk to them about that, and just try to get a sense of how
badly they want it. You have to be absolutely singular in your focus. Seeing students becoming successful in the industry is an incredible feeling. And it’s gratifying in a way that working in the professional world never could be. Here our students are like sponges and they want it so badly. Their desire to learn and to enter into the profession is really inspirational. There have been so many success stories. We have been very, very lucky. Gabrielle Gale, Royal Academy of Music museum curator What a Song and Dance: Celebrating Musical Theatre is a free exhibition marking the 25th anniversary of our musical theatre programme. The exhibition is in two parts. Act one is all of the historical archive material, moving through a potted history of musical theatre. Act two displays items that help pick apart the different elements that go together to make a show, including set design, lighting, costume, choreography and the roles of the director and producer. People always think that musical theatre is the poor man’s version of opera, but in actual fact the origins are the other way around—opera stems from early musical theatre, which goes right back to Greek and Roman times. The tipping point came in the golden age of Broadway musicals, where Americans really
To have a sustained career in musical theatre takes, first and foremost, desire. One thing I’ve seen time and time again in this profession is that it’s not necessarily the most talented people who succeed Daniel Bowling
21/11/2019 09:05
21. Musical youth Gabrielle Gale
Stephanie Lindo
mj_2019_volume15_06_Features_01.indd 21
Rafal Supinski
21/11/2019 09:06
22. Musical youth Tom Stephens
Khadija Sallet
mj_2019_volume15_06_Features_01.indd 22
21/11/2019 09:06
23. Musical youth took the genre and made it their own. That became the template for all musical theatre. The exhibition includes items from our collection, which I supplemented with loans from the Cameron Macintosh archive to really flesh out the narrative. The star piece from our collection is Arthur Sullivan’s composing piano. He was the father of English operetta and had been a student at the Royal Academy of Music. My favourite exhibit is the red flag from Les Miserables, which was used in the West End production from 2010 to 2015. It reminds me of the most dramatic moment in the show, when the character Enjolras dies on the barricade and the red flag drapes dramatically from the top. It is slightly tatty and really makes me think how many times it must have lived through that evocative moment. There are all sorts of innovations happening in musical theatre these days, which I think makes it a hugely exciting genre. The performers have to be able to sing, dance and act, which is both really exciting for the audience and very challenging for the performers. So I’m in awe of them, basically. We hear our students practising in the rehearsal studios downstairs. They really are incredibly talented. Stephanie Lindo, student I have always loved musical theatre. At the age of four I saw Beauty and
mj_2019_volume15_06_Features_01.indd 23
the Beast and my eyes just lit up. I’ve probably seen Wicked 10 times. My parents wanted me to do something academic, so I went to university to study social policy with crime. I absolutely loved university but hated my course, so after six months I returned home to Surrey and told my parents that I was either switching to drama or dropping out. The following September, I started my drama degree at Birmingham. After graduating, everybody started applying for drama school, but I didn’t think I stood a chance and decided to get a job instead. I spent last year working for a radio and television content creation company, but sitting behind a desk just wasn’t for me. When I started thinking about what I really wanted to do, the answer was musical theatre. I came to the open day here and saw a performance by Paige, a former graduate who’s now on The Lion King tour. She is a black girl like me and has been really successful, so I decided to apply. And here we are. It feels incredible to be a member of the musical theatre company. The other students are the most amazing people in the world. We’ve only been here a few months and are already like a family—we call ourselves the RAM Fam. The talent here, it’s crazy. You walk down the hallway and hear people belting out the Wicked classics—you’ve got legit singers in here. It got to the point at the end of
the first week where I felt like I just shouldn’t be here. But everyone is so supportive and because you can see yourself improve week on week, you realise that you can do this. You know you’re just going to get better because you’re in such great hands. I have always acted, sung and danced, but never to a standard that you’d see in the West End or on Broadway. And that’s the standard I want to be able to hit and sustain, not just for one performance, but to last an entire run. One of my ambitions is to be Nala in The Lion King. That’s been my dream for a very long time, like my whole life.
The performers have to be able to sing, dance and act, which is both really exciting for the audience and very challenging for the performers. So I’m in awe of them, basically
The other students are the most amazing people in the world. We’ve only been here a few months and are already like a family—we call ourselves the RAM Fam
Gabrielle Gale
Stephanie Lindo
Rafal Supinski, student Back home in Poland, I was working at the opera house in Bialystok as an actor, singer and assistant director. But it wasn’t enough for me because I’d been dreaming about the Royal Academy of Music ever since I was a drama school student in Krakow. I believed that this would be the best place in the world to develop my musical theatre skills. It’s an incredible feeling to be able to share your ideas and the emotions of your character with the audience. I also believe that theatre can be a type of therapy for people, because everyone has problems. When they come to the theatre, they can feel a connection with the artists, which is why they feel relief after the show. Theatre is cathartic.
21/11/2019 09:06
24. Musical youth The teachers are amazing. They are trying to push our limits more and more. The programme covers absolutely everything, from singing, acting, spoken word, dancing and movement through to voice tutorials. I have my strengths and weaknesses. Tap is definitely one of my weaknesses, and as my English is still weak, I can find it hard to express myself. You just have to focus and overcome each obstacle. We need to be focussed on every single lesson. I am enjoying being in London, though it’s a very hectic city. Everything is so fast. I do miss Poland. There’s still a part of my soul that feels I could be back in my comfort zone, working as an actor at my opera house, and nothing’s changed. But it was my decision to make a switch and go further. I have only just opened my dream book, so I don’t know what will happen in the future. Maybe I will go back to Poland and share my knowledge with my colleagues there, or perhaps I will stay here. But right now I just want to be part of the company. Khadija Sallet, student I’m from New York City, born and raised. In 1996, I saw the musical Beauty and the Beast with Toni Braxton as Belle. That was groundbreaking for my little sixyear-old self and it made me want to do what she was doing. That’s where
The process is almost my favourite part. I like being on stage, don’t get me wrong, but figuring out what the character wants, why they walked over there, why they picked up that cup—I love that part Khadija Sallet
WHAT A SONG AND DANCE: CELEBRATING MUSICAL THEATRE FREE UNTIL 22nd FEBRUARY Royal Academy of Music Museum Marylebone Road, NW1 5HT ram.ac.uk/museum
it started. After graduating college I started performing in community theatre and regional theatre in Florida and have been working ever since. Two years ago I came to Europe for the first time and met an American actor who was really good, but in ways that I couldn’t quite put my finger on—he had real nuances in his acting. He told me that he’d been to grad school in London. I found out about this course at the Royal Academy of Music and came to London to meet the company manager, Katie Blumenblatt. When she asked why I’d want to come to the programme, being that I was already a working actor, I told her that I
wanted to be the best that I could be. I think singing is my strength, because it’s where I’m most comfortable. But the dancing has always been my achilles heel. I’ve never been able to maintain choreography beyond a certain point—I can keep about five counts of eight in mind, but then I’m just completely confused. I’m trying to get to a place where I’m only minimally confused! My ambition is to be on Broadway. That’s been my dream since I was a kid. But I also want to open a rep theatre company where you spit out shows quickly—a new show every week or fortnight. That sounds amazing to me, because the process is almost my favourite part of theatre. I like being on stage, don’t get me wrong, but the process of figuring out what the character wants, why they walked over there, why they picked up that cup—I love that part. Tom Stephens, student I studied materials engineering at Imperial College and then did a masters in science journalism, and I spent the past year freelancing in science radio for the BBC. So why the switch to musical theatre? Music has always been a massive part of my life. I’ve been playing violin since I was five and just fell in love with music more and more—and not just classical music. I remember the first time my parents put on Sweet Child o’ Mine by Guns and Roses. Something in my brain just went: “Boof! What is this?” So I took up the guitar. Since then, I’ve been dreaming about making music the main fixture in my life. I was so overcome with emotion when I found out I’d been accepted onto this course. It feels incredible to be part of this company and I’m so grateful to be taught by world experts. They see something in me that I’m trying to find. The course is full-on, for sure, and by the end of the day you’re exhausted, but because you are doing something you love it just zips by. ROYAL ACADEMY OF MUSIC Marylebone Road, NW1 5HT ram.ac.uk
mj_2019_volume15_06_Features_01.indd 24
21/11/2019 09:06
THE PORTMAN ESTATE WISHES YOU A VERY
MERRY CHRISTMAS
WWW.PORTMANESTATE.CO.UK
mj_2019_volume15_06_Features_01.indd 25
21/11/2019 09:06
26. Rambling man
mj_2019_volume15_06_Features_01.indd 26
21/11/2019 09:06
27. Rambling man
By day, Peter Elia works as an information officer at The Wallace Collection. In a parallel life, he’s a social media star with an Instagram account that documents his hiking adventures. He talks to the Journal about travel, solitude and the joy of meeting strangers WORDS: CLARE FINNEY
Rambling man
mj_2019_volume15_06_Features_01.indd 27
21/11/2019 11:40
28. Rambling man A mathematician who works in a museum; a city boy who spends all his leave in the countryside; a selfdescribed people-person who takes himself off hiking for days on end, despite having “a terrible sense of direction”. Labelling someone a ‘mass of contradictions’ seemed lazy and glib until I met Peter Elia: worker at The Wallace Collection by day, and by holiday a cult Instagram sensation. Entitled The Man Who Hiked the World, his dazzlingly colourful chronicle of photography and scribblings from the globe’s “great walking routes” has garnered 91,000 followers at the time of writing—I hope, by the time you have finished this, it will at least be 91,001—making it one of the largest hiking Instagram accounts on the internet. “I set up this Instagram page in 2016 mainly because I liked the David Bowie song, The Man Who Sold the World,” he recalls. “I did like hiking, but in a kind of Cotswolds, spot of afternoon tea, nice hotel kind of way.” Though he’d hiked in Nepal, Peru and India on his gap year, at 44 years old it was a slightly spontaneous trip to Greenland that launched Peter’s parallel life. “I first thought, when my friend asked me to come, that’s a bit too next-level for me,” he laughs. “But I fancied a change, so I went with it. I didn’t even take a camera, just took my mobile.” On the way he made a video diary and uploaded it to YouTube, “for myself as much as anyone. It’s not every day you hike round Greenland.” Nor is it every day a fair-weather hiker’s video diary is picked up by the editor of a Danish magazine, who finds it entertaining enough to ask for an article: but fortune favours the brave— especially when they come with a self-deprecating sense of humour and an eye for epic landscape shots. The rest is social media history. “This editor asked me to write about the experience for an article, and supply some photos, and I said yes, not really thinking about it. I didn’t realise his Greenland Facebook page had 250,000 followers.” Fast forward to the hours immediately following the article’s publication and his phone was “going mad with notifications. I thought it had a virus,” he laughs—but
mj_2019_volume15_06_Features_01.indd 28
Kok Kiya Valley, Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan was definitely the most isolationist hiking I’ve done. I was part of a small group—walking on your own is not permitted by law, it’s too dangerous because of bears and so on —but we were the first westerners to hike this trail. It opened in September 2018, and we were the guinea pigs. We were walking with nomads, who showed us how they lived without a permeant home or electricity. As you can see, there is no infrastructure, no pylons: there is nothing. The nearest hospital is a 10-hour drive away. This certainly appeals to a certain type of follower, though increasingly, people do like to feel like pioneers. Everyone likes to be the first to discover a ‘hidden treasure’.
it was Peter himself who was going viral, as hundreds of largely Danish readers flocked towards his Instagram page. He put two and two together quickly—he is a maths graduate, after all—and “got the idea of this being a good formula: contacting magazine editors, offering photos, getting publicity, and building a platform” to follow his hiking endeavours. “I’d love to say I’d been found organically, but after the initial rush it’s been quite hard work to get to 91,000 followers,” he says openly. “You don’t get to that level without work unless you’ve managed to get tea with Kate and Will or something like that.” That he walks great distances carrying his camera and camping equipment gives him, he says, “a unique perspective”. “It’s easy to park the car and get a snap of a nice view from the road,” he explains when we meet, over coffee in Souli Foods, the Marylebone cafe that is currently exhibiting some of his work. “But I will hike for 100 miles to get pictures not seen before, and that makes me stand
Cinque Terre, Italy The Cinque Terre is a string of five old seaside villages perched on five rocky outcrops of the Italian coastline. I went there in December 2018, and I would encourage everyone to do these hikes in the winter, because it’s so much cheaper, and it’s not too hot—about 15C, which is perfect hiking weather for a Brit! There are so many lovely restaurants and cafes along the way, where you can sit and watch the world go by. Not all of them are open out of season, of course, but those that are will be full of locals, so you have a really good regional food rather than tourist fare, and you get to eat with them. This is a nice weekend walk, too; it’s not too technical, and it’s all on the coast.
out.” He doesn’t need to elaborate: an image above my head of the echoing mountains and wind-whistling plains of southern Kyrgyzstan, where he hiked with nomads last year, is all the convincing I need. Endearing and epic, awe-inspiring yet conversational, Peter’s Instagram account is a mirror of the man. Heartstopping photos of cobalt lakes and snowy peaks are captioned with song lyrics like ‘Cold as Ice’ or ‘Get It On’, complete with musical note emojis. Landscapes from Svalbard, the Norwegian wilderness where there are more polar bears than people, are indiscriminately interspersed with shots of the South Downs, where I was walking only last weekend. The resulting impression is—fittingly for an information assistant at The Wallace Collection—exactly that of a knowledgeable attendant guiding you through a gallery; someone friendly and engaging, who assumes neither ignorance nor expertise. It is accessible in every sense of the word. “Anyone of decent fitness can do the hikes I do. I don’t use ropes, there’s nothing
21/11/2019 09:06
29. Rambling man Kok Kiya Valley, Kyrgyzstan
Cinque Terre, Italy
mj_2019_volume15_06_Features_01.indd 29
21/11/2019 09:06
30. Rambling man Oxnadal, Iceland
Wadi Rum, Jordan
mj_2019_volume15_06_Features_01.indd 30
21/11/2019 09:06
31. Rambling man Oxnadal, Iceland Though the navigation app I use, Maps.me, is about 95 per cent accurate, I do still get lost occasionally. It’s worrying of course, but sometimes it’s a blessing in disguise. This was one of those times. While we were trying to find our way, I saw this beautiful shot with the white house, and I put it on Instagram with the caption “Please tell me where I am!” I got so many responses from all these Icelanders arguing as to where I was. Then this lady contacted me: she’d been brought up in the white house, she said, and could tell me exactly where I was standing.
Wadi Rum, Jordan The big appeal of Wadi Rum is that you can get an EasyJet flight to Aqaba, nearby—so although it looks remote and exotic, it is actually very accessible. That said, it is the desert, so it’s one of the ones where you do really need a guide. I was there for four nights, in the Wadi Rum camp, and caught this beautiful sunset.
Laghi Di Fuisine, Italy It was local knowledge that brought me here. I arrived in Italy early in the morning and didn’t need to catch my connecting flight until late afternoon, so I decided to go for a walk. A local told me, you’ve got to check out this lake, so I set off, and I’d only walked two kilometres from the bus stop when I found this extraordinary place. I loved the greenery, palatial lake, and the fact that it’s two countries in one: those mountains in the background are in Slovenia.
Laghi Di Fuisine, Italy
mj_2019_volume15_06_Features_01.indd 31
21/11/2019 09:06
32. Rambling man La Palma, Tenerife On the opposite end of the spectrum to Kyrgyzstan is this, near La Palma in Tenerife. This hiking trail is just 30 minutes from the resort. It’s the tree that’s the star here: this is El Drago, the oldest and largest living specimen of the dragon tree. It is said to be a thousand years old. I really liked it: it’s like a fairy tale, but it is so easily reached.
technical, and it’s not expensive.” On the contrary, enabling his followers to circumvent overpriced tour companies is a key part of his mission. Whether you’re scrolling through his Instagram, or venturing into The Wallace Collection, Peter’s happy confidence makes everyone feel at ease. Which is why, to a monophobic city mouse like me, his decision to spend hours alone, without signal or streaming services, can seem baffling. Peter is personable. He grew up in London, with parents who both hailed from large cities. How has he learnt to love hiking solo? “At first, it was very difficult—because you’re on your own, with no excuses. It’s just you and your thoughts, and you have to start confronting yourself about things—because what else are you going to do?” If the job’s not right, you have to address it. If the relationship’s not working, you have to think about it, he explains. “In London, it’s easy to distract yourself with friends and work and so on, but out there, you have to
mj_2019_volume15_06_Features_01.indd 32
sit comfortably with yourself if you’re to hike comfortably with yourself.” If hiking has made Peter a better person—and he insists it has—it’s because he has spent so much time outside, moving. “There’s a reason that, when people are upset or angry, they say they are going for a walk to ‘clear their head’.” Besides, he smiles, you are rarely alone for long. “In most places I hike, I have a conversation with every person I bump into.” In that respect, it is the opposite of London, where “even if you see someone you know on the tube, you tend to keep your head down because you’re busy. Walking in the countryside on your own is actually the vehicle that allows you to speak to everyone freely, without distractions,” he continues. “People have shared their food with me. I’ve even shared mine, on occasion.” He prefers to steer clear of social media while hiking, in order to fully engage with the experience. He uses his phone for Maps.me, a navigation app you can use offline, but his Instagram page can wait until he gets home.
Though the idea of drawing a line between The Wallace Collection’s galleries and Peter’s Instagram page feels glib, it’s hard not to broach the subject. After all, Peter has spent the past seven years surrounded by some of the greatest paintings of the 18th and 19th centuries. “I don’t have an arts background, but I’ve been there a long time. I’ve given a few talks. If you take an interest, you get to know the pieces pretty well,” he says modestly. “My favourite area is the 19th century gallery, which covers the Romantic period. It’s all about being apprehensive about modern technology and looking back at simpler times—toward nature, and pastoral scenes.” Though Peter happily acknowledges that his success, and indeed his sense of direction, depends on his iPhone, “this is the art that has influenced my photography most”. We’re still in this cycle, he continues. “Donald Trump, Brexit, the climate crisis—it’s all making us all nostalgic for the simplicity and beauty of nature. That’s the sort of relief I hope to offer in my photography.”
21/11/2019 09:06
mj_2019_volume15_06_Features_01.indd 33
21/11/2019 09:06
34. The king of Marylebone Plains
THE KING OF MARYLEBONE PLAINS The colourful, violent tale of James Figg, a fighter without equal in early Georgian London, who from his Marylebone amphitheatre punched, cudgelled and hacked his way to national celebrity WORDS: MARK RIDDAWAY ILLUSTRATIONS: MATTHEW HANCOCK
mj_2019_volume15_06_Features_01.indd 34
21/11/2019 09:06
mj_2019_volume15_06_Features_01.indd 35
21/11/2019 09:06
36. The king of Marylebone Plains Nobody really knows exactly when James Figg was born. Being from a poor, illiterate agricultural family in the small Oxfordshire town of Thame, his birth wasn’t notable enough to be properly recorded. It was probably 1695, maybe earlier. But by the time of his death in 1734, and his burial in the grounds of the St Marylebone parish church, Figg had managed to batter his way firmly into the national consciousness as the most brutal and successful prize fighter in Britain. Details of his early life are scarce, but it seems that Figg initially made a living fighting for money at local fairs, before his growing reputation and the diminishing ranks of local lads stupid enough to share a ring with him forced the young bruiser to head for London. The first mention of his exploits in the capital comes from an advert in the Daily Courant from June 1714, which suggests that he was a pupil of one Timothy Buck of Clare Market, off The Strand. Around the same time, he appeared, muscles rippling, in a sketch by the portrait artist Jonathan Richardson. Figg soon caught the eye of the Earl of Peterborough, under whose patronage he was able to open an arena in Marylebone Fields, just north of Oxford Street. The arena, known as either Figg’s Amphitheatre or the Boarded House, became home to an academy at which Figg taught other young fighters. In the centre was a ring—demarcated with wooden boards rather than ropes—in which Figg fought regular bouts in front of large, noisy, blood-thirsty, drunken crowds. During the 1720s Figg became a celebrity of huge public standing. This was the result partly of the savage beatings he handed out to most of his opponents, and partly of his publicity material being produced by the great painter, engraver and satirist William Hogarth. Hogarth not only designed Figg’s flyers (“James Figg—Master of the Noble Science of Defence”) but also managed to sneak Figg’s likeness into some of his most famous works of art. There he is in the second plate of A Rake’s Progress, holding a pair of quarterstaffs and looking
mj_2019_volume15_06_Features_01.indd 36
distinctly menacing. And there he is again in Southwark Fair—a depiction of the annual festival in Borough at which Figg would earn easy money by offering to fight any member of the public cocky enough and drunk enough to want to take him on. In Hogarth’s painting Figg can be seen wielding a sword while sitting on a horse, waiting patiently for a challenge. Figg was a big man with a shaven head and an imposingly muscular physique. Pierce Egan, one of the first historians of pugilism, described the fighter in his 1812 Boxiana as being “more indebted to strength and courage for his success in the battlefield than to the effects of genius”. At a time when prize fights often consisted of a round of sword fighting, a round of cudgels and a round of boxing, Figg was far more technically accomplished with weaponry than he was with his fists. Captain John Godfrey, who was taught to fight by Figg and was himself a talented swordsman, wrote of his mentor: “Figg was the Atlas of the sword, and may he remain the gladiating statue! In him, strength, resolution and unparalleled judgement conspired to form a matchless master.” He heaped praise upon Figg’s use of “time and measure” and described his way with a sword as “charming”. According to Egan, Figg’s way with his fists was far less elegant: “If his methods of fighting were subject to the criticism of the present day, he would be denominated more of a slaughterer than a neat and finished pugilist.” But early 18th century boxing wasn’t the subtle chess match of gloved fists and tight defences that characterise the modern sport. Instead it was a brutal bare-knuckle brawl in which fighters were expected to use their elbows and fingers, throw their opponents to the floor and land punches and kicks even after their opponents were down and out. This was a form of boxing in which blood and broken bones were accepted, even demanded. Godfrey, in his book A Treatise Upon the Useful Science of Defence,
recommended that boxers aim their punches between the eyebrows as this causes the eyelids to swell, obstructing the sight. “The man thus indecently treated and artfully hoodwinked,” he wrote, “is then beat about at his adversary’s discretion.” He also advised that blows to the stomach “may be attended with a vomiting of blood”. Queensbury Rules this wasn’t. Back-sword fighting was a brutal pursuit which made bare knuckle brawling look like a bit of a picnic. The back-sword was a small onesided blade designed for slashing and cutting, far removed from the elegant movements associated with fencing. Fighters wore no protective clothing, with the result that Figg’s body was a web of scar tissue. Godfrey recounts a back-sword bout between William Gill—one of Figg’s pupils— and an Irishman named Butler. Gill was renowned for aiming at his opponents’ legs, and on this occasion he wounded the Irishman with a cut “more severe and deep” than Godfrey had ever seen before. “His leg was laid quite open, his calf falling down to his ankle.” Butler was stitched up but surgeons who operated on lowly brawlers weren’t up to much. The wound became infected and after a botched amputation the Irishman “soon expired”. In such circumstances, the fact that Figg retired with all his limbs in place was proof of his considerable skill. The most famous of Figg’s hundreds of fights were with Ned Sutton, a pipe maker from Gravesend—“a resolute, pushing, awkward swordsman,” according to Godfrey. Figg vs Sutton was the Ali vs Frazier of its day. The first time they fought, Sutton won—the only recorded instance of Figg ever losing a fight. A rematch was arranged in which Figg exacted his revenge, setting up a third bout in 1725, to be held at the Boarded House. The fight was attended by John Byrom, a well-known poet whose works were often published in the Spectator. According to Byrom, in a poem published soon afterwards and reprinted in the London Journal in 1727 to mark yet another epic rematch, the bout started with a
21/11/2019 09:06
37. The king of Marylebone Plains have fought on, but Jove would not permit him; / ‘Twas his fate, not his fault, that constrain’d him to yield, / And thus the great Figg became lord of the field.” Figg retired from fighting in 1730, after which he devoted his time to passing on some of his skills to the students who flooded to his academy. Godfrey rated him as the best teacher around: “I chose to go mostly to Figg partly as I knew him to be the ablest master and partly as he was of a rugged temper and would spare no man, high or low, who took up stick against him.” It was a painful experience: “I purchased my knowledge with many a broken head and bruise in every part of me.”
round of the back-sword, during which Figg—after breaking his own sword with a stroke so brutal it would have “discarded” Sutton’s head had it not been deflected—soon found himself wounded in the side, an injury he treated with “sullen disdain” and some smart-mouthed banter with the crowd. After breaking for a quick dram of strong booze, the fighters resumed, with Sutton taking a cut on the arm. Following a further break, they returned with cudgels. Finally, after a punishing exchange of blows, Figg made the breakthrough: “So Jove told the gods he had made a decree, / That Figg should hit Sutton a stroke on the knee. / Tho’ Sutton, disabled as soon as he hit him, / Would still
mj_2019_volume15_06_Features_01.indd 37
Today, a pub debate would result in a few spilled pints and an agreement to disagree. In 18th century London it led instead to the procuring of a panther (god knows where from), the hiring of an arena and the collection of a £300 purse
As well as being a fighter, teacher and national celebrity, Figg was also a bit of a promoter—an early Don King, but with far less hair. One of the most famous fights of the era was arranged by Figg in 1725—an epic scrap between a boxer from Venice known imaginatively as Gondolier and a grazier named Bob Whitaker. The fight came about through a wager made at Slaughter’s coffee house between a foreigner, who was talking up the Venetian, and an English gentleman who thought this a slight on Blighty. The Englishman “sent for Figg to procure a proper man for him”. On arriving at the coffee shop, Figg was warned that the Venetian was a “man of extraordinary strength and famous for breaking the jaw-bone in boxing”. His response was almost King-like in its sass: “I do not know, master, but he may break one of his own countrymen’s jawbones with his fist; but I will bring him a man and he shall not break his jaw-bone with a sledge-hammer in his hand.” Figg chose Whitaker—“a hardy fellow and would bear a deal of beating”. According to the London Journal, Whitaker was “entertained at Mr Figg’s house for instruction and proper diet till the day of battle”. The fight caught the public imagination, and thousands of pounds were wagered: “In a word, the public daily enter into this affair with so much passion for the event,
21/11/2019 09:06
38. The king of Marylebone Plains
Figg’s fighters weren’t always men. Fights between women were a huge draw, with the most famous female brawler being Mrs Stokes, the self-proclaimed ‘Invincible City Championess’
and gentlemen are so warm on both sides, that it looks like a national concern.” On the night of the fight, Figg’s Amphitheatre was filled to the brim with what Godfrey called “a splendid company, the politest house of that kind I ever saw”. The high class of the crowd at first worked painfully to Whitaker’s disadvantage. Early in the fight the muscular Italian struck the Englishman so hard that he was knocked off the stage. “Whitaker’s misfortune,” wrote Godfrey, “was then the grandeur of the company, on which account they suffered no common people in, that usually sit on the ground and line the stage round. It was then all clear and Whitaker had nothing to stop him but the bottom.” After scrambling back into the ring the Englishman soon twigged that Gondolier’s superior reach was causing him trouble, so he moved inside to fight up close. “He, with a little stoop, ran boldly in beyond the heavy mallet, and with one English peg in the stomach (quite a new thing to foreigners) brought him on his breech.” The Italian decided that “the blow carried too much of the English rudeness for him to bear”, and the yellow-bellied foreigner threw in the towel. Figg’s fighters weren’t always men. Fights between women were a huge draw, with the most famous female brawler being Mrs Stokes,
mj_2019_volume15_06_Features_01.indd 38
the self-proclaimed ‘Invincible City Championess’. In 1725, Figg hosted a battle between Mrs Stokes and an Irish boxer. An advertisement in Mist’s Journal ramped up the excitement: “The gentlemen of Ireland have been long picking out an Hibernian heroine to match Mrs Stokes; there is now one arrived here, who, by her make and stature, seems mighty enough to eat her up.” It was expected to be a well-attended fight: “This being like to prove a notable and diverting engagement, it’s not doubted but abundance of gentlemen will crowd to Mr Figg’s Amphitheatre.” Boxing wasn’t the only show on the bill at Figg’s place. Paying customers were also entertained by extraordinary displays of barbarity against animals. An advertisement in a 1721 edition of the Weekly News—a journal specialising in foreign affairs coverage—promises a mind boggling spectacle: “At the Boarded House in Marybone-Fields on Monday 24 of this infant July will be a match fought between the wild and savage panther and 12 English dogs.” The ad goes on to explain that this bout resulted from the boasts of an unnamed foreigner who had been putting it about around London that a panther could easily take on any number of British dogs. Stung by this insult to his country’s canine stock, an English gentleman strongly
objected. Today, this kind of pub debate would result in a few spilled pints and an agreement to disagree. In 18th century London it led instead to the procuring of a panther (god knows where from), the hiring of an arena and the collection of a £300 purse. The advertisement then spirals off into a tragicomic list of the other entertainments on offer in the arena on the same evening. “NB, also a bear to be baited and a mad green bull to be turn’d loose in the gaming place with fireworks all over him and bull dogs after him, a dog to be drawn up with fireworks in the middle of the yard and an ass to be baited on the same stage.” Let me run that by you again: after watching a panther fight 12 dogs, the crowd would be entertained by a bear being attacked, a bull being killed by dogs, and then a dog being blown apart with fireworks. And finally, for a nice gentle coda, a donkey would be slaughtered. Happy days. All this violence did have its critics and there were frequent bouts of moral panic played out in London’s burgeoning new journals and newspapers. In 1724 the Daily Journal attacked the boxing arenas “for calling raw tradesmen out of their shops, students from their books, apprentices and hired servants, and even his Majesty’s soldiers from their duty, to attend at the rude and savage diversions, where prophaneness reigns triumphantly, vollies of the most dreadful oaths being pour’d out incessantly, and picking of pockets practic’d openly with impunity”. The Journal’s solution to this growing social problem was a novel one, and one that was never likely to succeed: “Mr Jones, the famous High-Constable of Holborn, in whose division this nuisance chiefly lies, will speedily be commission’d to take one single bout at staff with this terrible Mr Figg, he being as well vers’d in the true exercise of that weapon as Mr Figg, or any of his fraternity.” But Mr Jones and his moral crusaders had about as much chance of success in Mr Figg’s notorious arena as that poor donkey.
21/11/2019 09:06
CHRISTMAS CONCERT IN ASSOCIATION WITH
Concert starts at 7pm Thursday 12th December 2019 St Marylebone Parish Church, London
Join us for an evening of festivities in the stunning setting of St Marylebone Parish Church Along with the opportunity to join in and sing some well-known carols, the programme will also feature special readings from renowned Hollywood actors and Prince’s Trust Ambassadors, Jeremy Irons and Joely Richardson and an exclusive performance from Award-Winning Classical Soprano, Katie Marshall.
Special Marylebone Journal Readers Offer: £20 for a standard seated ticket using code MARYLEBONE19
BOOK YOUR TICKETS NOW! www.princestrust.org.uk/christmasconcert • events@princes-trust.org.uk • 020 7543 1389 DSN 4345 © The Prince’s Trust 2019 – all rights reserved. The Prince’s Trust is a registered charity, incorporated by Royal Charter (RC000772). Principal office: Prince’s Trust House, 9 Eldon Street, London, England EC2M 7LS. Registered charity number in England and Wales (1079675) and Scotland (SC041198).
mj_2019_volume15_06_Features_01.indd 39
21/11/2019 09:06
40. Whisky galore
WHISKY GALORE In recent years, the quality and diversity of whiskies being produced around the world, both in its traditional heartlands and far beyond, has been growing at pace. With the help of some local experts, the Journal explores the current state of this most evocative of drinks WORDS: VIEL RICHARDSON
mj_2019_volume15_06_Features_01.indd 40
“What really fascinated me was the kind of people who were asking for whisky,” says Sukinder Singh, cofounder of the Whisky Exchange, recalling his days growing up in his parents’ shop. “They seemed a bit more interesting, more considered. There was less of the ‘I just want a drink’ that I would hear from some of the people who were buying other spirits. I would find myself wondering about what kind of lives they led once they left the shop.” It is rather apt that the spirit that captured his imagination is also known as the ‘water of life’—‘uisgebeatha’—in the Gaelic speaking lands from which it emerged, a birth that is itself shrouded in mystery and myth. Nobody knows exactly when or where the first whiskies were made. The earliest references to its production come from Scotland. Some think the art of distilling came across from mainland Europe, others that it arrived with monks from Ireland, and there is nothing to suggest the Scots didn’t figure out the process all by themselves on some shrouded highland glen. The earliest documentary evidence of whisky being produced dates from 1494 when an entry in the Scottish royal exchequer rolls of James IV stated: “To Friar John Cor, by order of the King, to make aqua vitae VIII bolls of malt.” A ‘boll’ was an old Scottish measure, and while conversion into modern units can be difficult, historians generally agree that this quantity of malt would have made around 1,500 70cl bottles today. Whisky was clearly very popular at court. The drink became so popular that the Scottish government imposed its first ‘whisky tax’ in 1664. While reliable taxation of alcohol producers has proved challenging in the subsequent three centuries, tax records remain the best source for estimating whisky production. In recent years, demand for scotch whisky—a name that can only be used to describe whisky made in Scotland—has been soaring, from every corner of the globe. According to HM Revenue and Customs, exports of scotch reached a record
£4.7 billion in 2018, with the United States becoming the first country to import over £1 billion-worth. “I can understand this growth in popularity. One of the wonderful things about whisky is that there are now thousands of different options out there,” Sukinder explains. “It means that the phrase ‘whisky is not for me’ is not quite as sustainable as it used to be. One can be very elegant, another more peaty and robust, some have heavy sherry notes from being matured in sherry casks. There is just so much variety, people almost always find something they like.” Scotch whisky has maintained its place at the top table, but the growth of ‘world whisky’—the industry term for spirits made outside of the drink’s traditional heartlands—is one of the stories of the moment. Every year, the Whisky Exchange organises a trade show that showcases the work of distillers from all over the world, and the list of exhibitors has been growing. “In the last show there was whisky from Israel, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, France, Taiwan, India, as well as established countries like America and Japan,” Sukinder says. Of these, one in particular has had a notable impact, he explains: “There is no doubt that Japan has had a significant role to play in the way that world whisky has evolved.” The story began with Masataka Taketsuru, a chemist and businessman, who became the first Japanese master whisky distiller. His family had been brewing sake in Hiroshima since 1733, so the drinks business was not new to him. After studying organic chemistry in Glasgow, he joined Longmorn distillery in Strathspey in 1919, then moved to the Bo’ness distillery and finally the Hazelburn distillery before returning to Japan. There, he became master distiller for Kotobukiya, later renamed Suntory, and produced Japan’s first ever Scottish style whisky. In 1934, he left to found his own distillery, Dai Nippon Kaju KK, in Hokkaido, which he identified as the area of Japan that was most like Scotland. He later renamed the company
21/11/2019 11:40
41. Whisky galore
mj_2019_volume15_06_Features_01.indd 41
21/11/2019 09:06
42. Whisky galore
For Cadenhead’s, it’s not about being a ‘disruptor’ in the market or ‘getting ahead of the curve’. We try to stay true to the philosophies we have always had. But what that cannot mean is stagnation Steve Worrall, Cadenhead’s
mj_2019_volume15_06_Features_01.indd 42
21/11/2019 12:30:28
43. Whisky galore
Nikka. Today, it is Japan’s second largest distillery. “Japanese whisky opened people’s minds to the possibility of great whisky coming from new places,” says Sukinder. “I guarantee if India or Israel had launched whiskies before the Japanese, it would not have been received in the same way as it is today. World whisky has a great deal to thank the Japanese for.” And it has started to thank them profusely. In 2003, a bottle of Yamazaki 12-year-old single malt, produced by Suntory, became the first Japanese whisky to win the gold medal at the International Spirits Challenge, the world’s most prestigious drinks competition. The year before, Hibiki, another Suntory label, had won the World’s Best Blended Whisky prize at the World Whiskies Awards for the fourth time. It took nearly 70 years of hard work, but Japanese whisky has very much arrived. “The Japanese were very clever in the way they went about developing their whisky,” Sukinder continues. “While they were learning, they didn’t publicise or export anything they made. They also created whiskies aimed at the Japanese consumer. They developed a whisky to be drunk with food, the way the Japanese have traditionally drunk sake. Japanese food is very delicate—things like sushi, yakitori and tempura, all of which are light and flavoursome. In developing their whisky this way, they
mj_2019_volume15_06_Features_01.indd 43
created a drink that was very fruity and elegant and which crucially had its own distinct character.” So, how has the old country responded to this wave of newcomers, with their fresh ideas and perspectives? Scotland has been the undisputed epicentre of the whisky world for centuries, but that position is now being challenged. According to Steve Worrall from Cadenhead’s, Scotland’s oldest independent bottler, whose shop and tasting room can be found on Chiltern Street, the Scottish distilleries cannot afford to be sitting on their laurels. “I would definitely say that we are at the more traditional end of the whisky spectrum,” Steve explains. “For us, it’s not about being a ‘disruptor’ in the market or ‘getting ahead of the curve’. We try to stay true to the philosophies we have always had. But what that cannot mean is stagnation.” Cadenhead’s continues to innovate, but according to Steve that means “looking at the things we do well and finding ways to do them even better”. Anyone who has been on a tour of a whisky distillery will know that the process is essentially a simple one, but like most simple processes it is extremely difficult to do well. There are a million small things that need to go right, and while improving these can have an impact on the final drink. “We need to get a better understanding of what we have done in the past, why it works, and see if
we can make use of new knowledge, processes and materials to do it better.” The aim, Steve says, is to produce whiskies that are complex, balanced and have new nuances, but which still retain the old spirit of Cadenhead’s. There is one area in particular in which innovative thinking can pay dividends: barrel management. When whisky first comes out of the still, it is a colourless liquid devoid of the complex array of flavours we know and love. It is then aged in barrels that have been used to store other drinks. As it matures, the whisky reacts with the wood, drawing out the flavours embedded within it. “Whisky makers have become so much better at understanding and managing their barrels in recent years and this is having a great effect on the whisky we are producing,” Steve explains. “The main thing is not allowing the barrels to become exhausted. You might do this by re-charring them—literally setting the inside alight to char the inner surface and then washing out the soot with water—or you might send the barrels away to have something like a rum stored in them again for a while.” Drinks like cachaça, cognac, calvados and a wide variety of different rums are all stored in barrels, and Steve believes the industry should be looking at these as a resource, experimenting with them, seeing what they can bring to the new whiskies. Barrel management is a change that can be managed in a systematic way, making it easy to control, assess and then replicate the results—the only problem being that it takes upward of a decade for the results to be known. “We have one whisky that is being matured in mescal casks. We are going to bottle it in Mexico to keep its provenance,” Steve reveals. “For me, this is a really exciting area and is only going to get more so. For example, we currently have some whisky that is being aged for 10 years in casks that held some exquisite cachaça—we’ll be finding out the results in the next five years.” While Steve and his colleagues do have a space in which they can innovate, they must do so within the stringent guidelines that govern
21/11/2019 12:31:34
44. Whisky galore that reflects their own culture and environment. “Countries like India, Australia and Sweden are producing fine whiskies that you cannot get anywhere else. We get an international clientele here and they are beginning to ask for whiskies they have come across on their travels,” Musa explains.
There is an honesty and purity in scotch whisky. There are very strict rules controlling the ingredients, process and storage. They are there to protect the integrity of the product and I believe they are doing a very good job
the production of scotch. “There is an honesty and purity in scotch whisky,” says Sukinder. “There are very strict rules controlling the ingredients, process and storage. They are there to protect the integrity of the product and I believe they are doing a very good job.” That same stringent control is not always applied elsewhere in the whisky world. “With American whisky, the rules are a bit more open and people are allowed to add flavourings, like cinnamon or sugar,” he explains. “I must stress I’m not talking about bourbon, which is produced under very strict rules, but the rules around American whisky are generally less stringent, so it has developed into a very different beast to classic scotch. India is the same, with rules that are very open.” Among traditionalists, there is a belief that some of the more inventive drinks coming from other parts of the world should not even be called whisky. They maintain that part of the reason that scotch whisky was able to recover from the doldrums of the 1970s, when consumption and quality were both at a painful low, was that the positive changes that took place did so within a set of rules that producers understood and people could trust. It was this revival that created a marketplace in which newcomers could thrive, but straying too far into gimmicky ideas and artificial flavourings risks undermining the drink’s hard-won reputation.
mj_2019_volume15_06_Features_01.indd 44
The general outlook, though, is positive. “I would definitely consider myself in the traditionalist camp,” Sukinder tells me, “but new people coming into the field do bring a real energy. Every week I find something new and I think that is great.” He believes that the standard of 10-yearold to 12-year-old single malt whisky is at an all-time high. A decade ago it could be a bit inconsistent, or in some cases downright poor, a result, he says, of distilleries being caught out by the sudden surge in demand and using ingredients of lesser quality than those they would previously have sourced. Another reason for the increase in quality has been the consumer. As their taste for whisky has grown, so too has their level of knowledge. Drinkers are demanding consistently high quality and the producers are having to respond. “You have to have a wide range of top quality whiskies in a good bar these days,” says Musa Ozgul, bar manager at 108 Bar on Marylebone Lane. “Of course, there has to be scotch and Irish whisky. But you need some Japanese and American, too, because people are now coming in and asking for them specifically.” Drinks like American bourbon and rye are increasingly popular among British drinkers, as are world whiskies. The key has been that many of the new producers, like those Japanese pioneers, are not trying to copy the characteristics of the other producers but instead producing something
One unforeseen beneficiary of this innovation and diversification has been the whisky cocktail. For years, names like manhattan, old fashioned, mint julep, highball and whisky sour would have had bartenders reaching for the cheaper whiskies—but not anymore. “Of course, there are some premium whiskies that I would not recommend for cocktails, because their particular qualities would be lost when mixed,” says Musa. “But you can now really tailor the cocktail to the guest’s tastes because the variety you have to choose from is so much greater than it used to be.” No longer is whisky a drink enjoyed purely by the older generations. “When I look at the average age of people buying our whisky, it is getting younger,” says Sukinder. “The lovely thing is that for them it is not getting blind drunk, it’s about appreciating the quality of what we produce. Seeing this responsible whisky drinking in younger people is a great sign for the future of the industry.” Steve also sees a bright future. “You are selling a product that you have to mature for years, so you have to plan ahead. We know which whiskies are due to be released in 2023 or 2027, and we are already very excited about them,” he says with real pride. “The foundations of Cadenhead’s were laid with the skills and integrity of past generations. It is our job to build on those, to ensure that the next generation can take over something that allows them to continue creating wonderful whiskies.” CADENHEAD’S WHISKY SHOP & TASTING ROOM 26 Chiltern Street, W1U 7QF whiskytastingroom.com 108 BAR 108 Marylebone Lane, W1U 2QE 108brasserie.com THE WHISKY EXCHANGE 90-92 Great Portland Street, W1W 7NT thewhiskyexchange.com
21/11/2019 09:06
ORGANIC BEEF BOXES FROM BURTLEY FARM
OUR 10KG ORGANIC BEEF BOXES COST £120 AND CAN BE COLLECTED DIRECTLY FROM THE FARM Inside the box you will find each fresh cut clearly labelled and vacuum packed in convenient portion sized packs for ease of use or ready to fit in the freezer.
EACH 10KG BOX WILL CONTAIN A SELECTION OF:
1 KG
4 KG
STEAK
JOINTS
(rump, sirloin)
(topside, top, rump, brisket, silverside)
3 KG
2 KG
MINCE
STEWING OR BRAISING STEAK
(in 0.5kg bags)
(in 0.5kg bags)
TO FIND OUT MORE, VISIT PORTMANFARMS.COM/SALES
mj_2019_volume15_06_Features_01.indd 45
21/11/2019 09:06
46. Culture
QA VALERIA CARULLO & PETE COLLARD The curators of the Beyond Bauhaus exhibition at RIBA on the lasting impact of the Bauhaus school’s visionary teachers INTERVIEW: VIEL RICHARDSON IMAGES: EDMUND SUMNER, RIBA COLLECTIONS
The Bauhaus is one of the most iconic names in the worlds of architecture and design. Set up initially as an art school in Berlin in 1919, it was part of the modernist movement that swept Europe in the early 20th century, as people looked for ways to reshape the physical and social structures ravaged by the first world war. The interwar years were a crucial time for new ideas in British architecture, as young architects battled to make headway against the classical norms. Their cause was given a boost when several key members of the legendary art school arrived in the early 1930s, making Britain, for a short moment, the epicentre of the modernist world. Tell us about the exhibition. Pete Collard: The exhibition has three central figures. There is Walter Gropius, who was the founder of the Bauhaus school, and two of the school’s tutors: furniture designer and architect Marcel Breuer, a furniture designer and architect, and László Moholy-Nagy, who was an artist, photographer, graphic designer and interior designer—he covered all the creative disciplines. The exhibition has been split into two locations. The first floor gallery is solely focused on the work of Moholy-Nagy. In the architectural gallery on the ground floor, the focus is more on Gropius and Breuer, looking at the projects they undertook while in this country. You chose an architecture and art practice to design
mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 46
the exhibition in RIBA’s architectural gallery. Why? PC: The idea was to try to connect with some of the beliefs of the Bauhaus regarding the crosspollination of art and architecture. Also, we are not just keen to talk about architecture, but to experiment and even challenge the way that it is presented and displayed. Pezo Von Ellrichshausen is a young practice that works across both fields and they offered a fresh approach. They wanted to create more of an installation than a series of displays. For example, they used the colours the Bauhaus was primarily associated with— red, yellow and blue—but diffused them with other colours. The idea is that it reflects the fact that when those colours came to Britain, they were mixed with the British tones of the time and a secondary layer of colours emerged. The exhibition shows the Bauhaus through the lens of this transformational engagement with British culture. Why did Gropius start the Bauhaus? Valeria Carullo: When the school was founded in 1919, it was not envisioned as a school of architecture. In fact, in the first few years architecture was not taught at all. Gropius attracted an incredible range of remarkably avant-garde teachers: people like the artist Paul Klee, who created cubist and surrealist work, the painter Wassily Kandinsky, as well as László MoholyNagy. The intention of the school was to unite art and industry. The idea
was that they didn’t have to be separated anymore and work one against the other. Gropius wanted to gather together people who believed in technology and what it could do for humanity; people who were socially engaged and thought that together they could create a new type of design for the modern world. They believed that the marriage of art and industry could be transformative. The end product Gropius imagined was a new approach to and style of building, but you did not go to the Bauhaus and learn to be ‘a Bauhaus architect’. His message was “come here to develop a new philosophy”. What was the Bauhaus approach to teaching? PC: I think it was probably different for each teacher because they came from different fields. Before teaching, Breuer was actually a student at the school, mainly worked on furniture design. László Moholy-Nagy was what we would now call a mixedmedia artist. He taught the foundation course, where the key aim was to stimulate the students’ creativity. It was about visual communication and Moholy-Nagy was a genius in terms of understanding how people engaged with materials. He was a brilliant and innovative educator who believed everyone had the ability to be an artist. VC: Moholy-Nagy was very much in favour of students working across disciplines. Collaboration was very important to him. In terms of creating a final product, it was less about having a superstar leader and far more about
21/11/2019 09:13
47. Culture
The idea was to connect with some of the beliefs of the Bauhaus regarding the cross-pollination of art and architecture. We are not just keen to talk about architecture, but to challenge the way that it is presented and displayed
mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 47
21/11/2019 09:13
48. Culture the collaborative process of creating something extraordinary. In a way, Moholy-Nagy was the embodiment of the spirit of the school—he genuinely did not distinguish between the disciplines. He was constantly looking around him and looking ahead, trying to develop new ideas for representing space. I think that may be one of the reasons that he remained so closely connected with architects throughout his life. He was interested in looking at the same problem from different perspectives. Why have you dedicated a section of the exhibition to his photography? VC: He was one of the pioneers of modern photography. He was an iconoclast, but his photographs could be seen as part of the New Vision movement in photography. When he came to the UK, you can see there were changes in the way he worked. It was not the case of just keeping his head down and chasing a singular vision, so I wanted to show some of the work he did here in Britain. How would you describe the Bauhaus aesthetic and how is it now understood? PC: From an architectural perspective, it is clearly tied with modernism and the modernist movement. Modernism encompasses such a broad portfolio of influences and ideas, though, that it is really hard to undertake a single thread. I don’t think it is possible to say there is a specific Bauhaus visual aesthetic because of the nature of what Gropius and
mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 48
his teachers were trying to do. I would say it is much more accurate to say there was a Bauhaus attitude and philosophy. This involved engaging with new materials, engaging with new forms of technology. It was a multimedia approach to the creative arts, of which architectural design was one. VC: If one was to simplify it, people would probably think of flat roofs, symmetrical buildings, metal windows, roof terraces, glass. The design tends towards the abstract, but the functional values of the building are very important. It was about creating an architecture of the time, which would evolve as new materials and needs developed. It was also modular—the idea that parts of a building could be made in a factory and assembled on-site. It is to do with efficiency and very much to do with the now. Why did so many Bauhaus teachers come to Britain? VC: The school was closed by the Nazis in 1933, who hated its progressive agenda. Before that, it had had to move several times due to state harassment. It started at Weimar then moved to Dessau, where Gropius built the famous Bauhaus campus, and ended its life in Berlin. How were they received here? VC: They were received with open arms by the modernist community here, who were trying to build and push things in that direction. Of course, any avant-garde movement will draw some negative responses
Gropius wanted to gather together people who believed in technology and what it could do for humanity; people who were socially engaged and thought that together they could create a new type of design for the modern world
BEYOND BAUHAUS: MODERNISM IN BRITAIN 1933–66 UNTIL 1st FEBRUARY RIBA 66 Portland Place W1B 1AD architecture.com
and while modernism was happening, it was struggling to make an impact especially in terms of finding clients. The modernists were definitely hoping at the time that their ideas could contribute to a shift in the direction of the architecture in Britain, because the debate about the direction in which architecture was going was in full flow. There was not a great deal of modernist building going on. Of course, any emigre will find getting work difficult, but modernists on the whole were struggling to get commissions. Do you think their ideas disseminated into wider British culture? PC: Moholy-Nagy’s graphic design had a significant impact. If you look at the work he did,
21/11/2019 09:13
49. Culture Clockwise from top right: Designs for a house, for M P Horsley Esq by Leslie Martin & Sadie Speight (1935) 66 Old Church Street, Chelsea, by Gropius & Fry (1936) Electricity showrooms, Regent Street, by Gropius & Fry (1938) Flat in Highpoint One, Highgate, by Lubetkin & Tecton, with furniture by Marcel Breuer (1937) PE Gane pavilion at the Bristol Royal Show by Breuer & Yorke (1936)
mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 49
21/11/2019 09:13
50. Culture in terms of magazine layout and photography, you can see his influence in publications beyond the architectural world. However it is important to remember that the dissemination of ideas was a two-way process. VC: Yes it was, some of the traditions of British architecture certainly influenced their thinking. The ideas Gropius, Breuer, Mies Van der Rohe and others took to America, where they had a real impact, definitely carried influences of their time in Britain. What was their impact, looking back? PC: Their arrival did spark a wider in interest in modernism. Gropius was a star of the movement even then, so their mere arrival here was important. It is difficult, however, to judge the specific impact of each person in the long term. Maxwell Fry, a leading architect who was prominent in the British modernist movement, formed a partnership with Gropius, completing several projects here. He wrote a wonderful text recalling the first time he saw Gropius lecture here at RIBA in 1934. He was struck by the real clarity of message, one that Fry as an architect wanted to follow, not simply as a task for the “here and now” but a “mission that would last a lifetime”. The Bauhaus emigres brought with them the idea that architecture could be a force for helping wider society. For the younger generation of architects this message was an awakening, giving them the confidence to pursue these
mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 50
ideals in their work. VC: You don’t see a sudden shift in the direction or pace of the movement with their arrival. I think that it was more about the inspiration they offered to existing and new architects. One biography of Marcel Breuer says that their physical presence in the country mattered much more that any building they personally worked on while living here. Would a person who considers themself a child of the Bauhaus today design a different building to someone who considered themself so 30 years ago? VC: I believe so. There have been so many technological advances and also, the understanding of what we want from a building has evolved. The winner of this year’s Stirling Prize has used technology to create extremely environmentally friendly buildings. This isn’t necessarily something the Bauhaus would have thought of, but it is undoubtably something they would have embraced. These are modern concerns and followers of their philosophy are using modern technology to meet them. I like to think that more than anything else, that is the legacy of the Bauhaus school. BEYOND BAUHAUS: MODERNISM IN BRITAIN 1933 TO 1966 Until 1st February RIBA 66 Portland Place, W1B 1AD architecture.com
56
Anthony Schepper The ‘frommelier’ at Orrery on his stewardship of one of London’s most famous cheese trolleys
BOOK REVIEWS WORDS: SASHA GARWOOD
LIE WITH ME PHILIPPE BESSON Penguin, £8.99
Lie With Me is an aching, quiet, shattering novel about desire, young love, and the conflicts of age and experience. I have a weakness for queer love stories at the best of times, but Lie with Me is pared down to the bones, eloquent and agonising. It is narrated by ‘Philippe’, a famous writer, and dedicated to a Thomas Andrieu, who died in 2016 just as his fictional counterpart did. Even without the press articles elucidating the fact, which are several, Besson is inviting us to read Lie with Me autobiograpically. It is sometimes hard to disentangle the neat, tidy constructs of fiction from the potential messiness of Besson’s presumably real emotional history. How did the present-day bits of this novel play out? I won’t spoil the (deeply moving) ending, but this tension between a readerly desire for narrative resolution, and awareness of the ways in which real life rarely provides neat and tidy answers, adds another layer to what is already an involving and affecting story. Besson, via Molly Ringwald’s spare and simple translation, captures the breathless intensity of adolescence and its sense of time as elongated and utterly absorbing. The early1980s social context—homophobia, secrecy, less geographical mobility, no mobile phones—adds to the poignancy of this essentially beautiful but tragic story. Philippe is a bookish misfit who “moves like a girl sometimes”—anathema to his schoolmates—and knew from an early age that he “prefers boys”. “Out of instinct”, he tells us, of his sexuality but also his life choices, “I despised packs. That has never changed.” Comfortable with his queerness, he nevertheless “sticks to who I am... in silence”. That silence is redoubled when his unspoken obsession with slender, serious-faced Thomas
21/11/2019 09:13
51. Culture is unexpectedly rewarded, first with an assignation and then with an ultimately tender, overwhelming sexual relationship. “Why me?” Philippe asks, early on. Thomas replies that it is his very difference: “Because you will leave and we will stay.” Thomas, who is bound to inherit his father’s farm in rural Bordeaux and support his family and his disabled sister, makes absolute secrecy the condition for their relationship. Another tragedy is expressed here, besides separation and loss: Philippe describes Thomas’s fear and panic not just of being caught, but “of himself, and what he is”. Psychologically, it’s very acute, and perhaps captures a different moment in queer history, an intervening point between illegality and whatever it is we have now. This said, Lie With Me’s yearning, its intimacy and its narrative of compelling, obsessive desire and loss and restitution are as accessible to those with other experiences of love as anything so profoundly sexual can be. As a love story, a coming-of-age story, and also a story of aging and change and memory, Lie With Me is pretty close to many metaphorical knuckles.
INSIDE OUT DEMI MOORE Fourth Estate, £20
Inside Out is Demi Moore’s no-holdsbarred account of her life and her years in Hollywood, and honestly it’s a hell of a ride. Everything is here—an abusive childhood, kidney disease, her Hollywood marriages, her acting career, drug addiction and eating disorders and emotional trauma. It’s also a fascinating insight into—or, alternatively, searing indictment of— the inner workings of Hollywood. What it makes up for in drama, it perhaps lacks in detail. Simply written, to the point of sparseness, big developments and relationships are skipped over in a couple of pages, or disappear before abruptly resurfacing at a crisis point. Which is absolutely fine—Moore hardly owes us detail—but can feel unsatisfying, particularly when the developments she describes are interesting and emotional ones, as many are.
mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 51
younger Ashton Kutcher. It’s hard not to sympathise with Moore finally building the family she’d always wanted, but also with Kutcher, suddenly swept up in a world of private jets and multiple houses and coparenting with Hollywood royalty. If you’re interested in Moore’s career, or even in Hollywood developments over the last 40 years, Inside Out is a fascinating document. It’s also pretty good if you’re just in it for the gossip and the glamour.
ABC OF TYPOGRAPHY DAVID RAULT ET AL Self Made Hero, £14.99
There is a lot of trauma here. From a mother who used her as “bait” in bars and literally sold “permission” to rape her for $500, to her own troubled relationship with her daughters, Moore shares a lot. Her father committed suicide; she reacted to this with an unsuitable marriage and a coke addiction, before getting sober, shifting “all her anxieties onto food”, and developing a serious eating disorder (prompted, of course, by some Hollywood executive telling her she needs to lose weight. His size goes unrecorded). Alongside Hollywood misogyny, fatphobia and body dysmorphia, the thing that bothered me most about the environment Moore describes is the shameless sexual interest in and abuse of teenagers by young adults. Moore moves in with a 28-year-old boyfriend at 16 and ditches him for her first husband Freddy less than a year later; this ex promptly hooks up with a 14-year-old; Moore herself describes her adult friends as attracted to her 16-year-old brother. For those of a different generation, this is pretty difficult stuff, especially when allied with the sexual double standard that still prevails in mainstream Hollywood representations of relationships. In this context, it’s particularly interesting to have the emotional inside scoop on her most famous recent relationship, with the much
Despite being a shameless book nerd, I have never really learned much about (or, to be honest, been particularly interested in) the history of typography, despite it being fundamental to the medium I adore. Fortunately, Marylebone’s own comic publishers Self-Made Hero have stepped into the breach with David Rault’s ABC of Typography, a collaboration with some excellent comic artists that takes the curious reader from Mesopotamia 3,500 years ago via ancient Egypt and Phoenician traders to theinternet and beyond. Each section is drawn by a different artist, accompanied by typologist (typographist?) Rault’s brief analysis. My personal favourites are Seyan Argun’s section on the Gutenberg bible, all sepia colours and grey shading, or Olivier Deloye’s spare, spacious, immersive images, with fonts floating in the background, but a lot of the art here is intelligent and arresting. For this newbie, ABC of Typography is informative and interesting without being didactic, pushy, or patronising. It’s pretty accessible, too—terms and important figures are explained, and the typefaces under discussion are literally visually available on the page. There are funny moments, some more intentional than others, and I admit that some of the typefaces used for the explanatory text (particularly Delphine Panique’s cursive) could be difficult to read, which seems pretty ironic in context. But that’s a minor complaint about a pleasingly engaging, instructive, eclectic work.
21/11/2019 09:13
52. Food
QA THE TEMPLETONS The four cousins behind Carousel— Ed, Ollie, Will and Anna—reflect on five years of guest chefs, loyal locals and one exploded appendix INTERVIEW: ELLIE COSTIGAN IMAGES: CAROLINE CICCOTTI, HANNAH INDIA, JOE OKPAKO
Carousel began by hosting immersive pop ups, then evolved into an all-singing, all-dancing restaurant, gallery and event space. How did that happen? Ollie: This site was shown to us and we were like, oh my god. The opportunity was insane: five years, central London. It needed a lot of work, but we thought it was worth it. Previous to this we’d done a few pop ups where we’d invited different chefs to do cooking battles, a thing called Rumble in the Deli, and it was really fun collaborating with different people, so we riffed on that. Opening a site was new territory for us and even though I’d worked in restaurants, I was only 22 so I didn’t really feel like I could do my own restaurant with my own food. We developed the idea of collaborating with chefs into a model that worked as a restaurant, constantly inviting different chefs from all over the world. It was an opportunity for us to learn; to bring unique experiences into the city, make connections and eventually be able to travel ourselves. You’ve had some amazing chefs here. How do you go about getting them in? Ed: At the beginning it was pretty challenging. The whole idea of a chef doing a residency was new—there are a lot more people doing that now, so people understand what it is, but back then, both from the chef’s perspective and the customer’s, people didn’t really understand
mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 52
what it was we were doing. We started with the network we had. The first chef who came was an Argentinian guy called Javier Rodriguez, who was a friend of a friend of Anna’s. Then we had a chef from Paris who we had some connection with. Eventually we ran out of people we knew—we didn’t have the biggest pool to draw on—so it meant approaching people we were excited about and inviting them in. The more who came, the more of a reputation we built. Will: There’s definitely been a shift. People were familiar with pop ups, but what we’re doing is very different—more manicured and controlled and there’s a level of excellence that we stand by. Now you see the idea of a chef residency everywhere. Ed: There’s a massive distinction. People would often say, “Oh, so and so is doing a takeover at Carousel”—I was always frustrated by that, because it didn’t tell the full story, which is what we bring to the table not only in the kitchen, in that the guest chefs are cooking with our team, but the whole front of house, the experience, the atmosphere, the setting. That stuff doesn’t change, week in, week out. The menus are also very collaborative. Our chefs work with the guest chef to source ingredients, advise what’s in season in the UK, make tweaks and suggestions based on what we know people want to eat here. I think that’s a part of the story that gets lost a bit. Over time, that’s become clearer and now chefs are just as excited to be here.
You’ve managed to create a space with the slickness of a restaurant, but the intimacy of a supperclub. Was that deliberate? Ed: From the very first, we wanted to create a sense of shared experience, with everyone sitting at a long table. One of the most rewarding things that we’ve found is all these little connections that happen just by bringing people together. Ollie: We wanted it to feel like you were going into someone’s house. We had a base in Spain where we’d all go on holiday together, it’s where I grew up, and we’d always be in the kitchen around this big table. The long tables were actually born out of wanting to recreate that feeling. Anna: We also realised the service had to be on-point because if you’re asking people to get to know a new chef every two weeks, you need everything else to be completely consistent: really friendly, well trained staff and also the quality of food needs to always be of a high level. I don’t think ‘slick’ is a word that comes to mind when you think of the Templetons, but it was definitely the case that we wanted to make everyone feel welcome, comfortable and looked after. You offer a really high quality of food, from some of the world’s best chefs, at a relatively accessible price point. Can that be challenging? Ed: It was always our intention that it would be a place that we would choose to go to ourselves. It’s paid off; we get a real mix of people here. We get so many locals who come
21/11/2019 09:13
53. Food
It can be complicated behind the scenes, but ultimately we want to make something simple. I like to cook things that are very natural and very focused on one ingredient
mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 53
21/11/2019 09:13
54. Food
Right (left to right): Ed, Ollie, Anna, Will
in a lot, but we might also get a younger crowd for a particular chef or it might be people who are passing through London and have read about us. Accessibility is really important, but it does also throw up challenges. Ollie: There have been weeks where we’ve been serving arguably some of the best sushi in London, for 40 quid! Anna: Carousel is a creative hub, it’s not just a restaurant or event space or art gallery and if we didn’t have all those elements, it just wouldn’t work. There’s no way a central London restaurant with just one sitting and 46 covers, offering five courses at 35 pounds a head at first, would still be open five years later otherwise. None of it would work if it stood alone.
mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 54
The opportunity you provide for chefs shouldn’t be underestimated. You’ve helped shape or indeed make the careers of some. That must be rewarding. Ed: Massively. It is also hugely rewarding to know that we provided a platform for chefs like Romy Gill, Selin Kiazim and Tom Brown. It adds to that sense of community— and our credibility, too. It doesn’t do any harm to give people the feeling that this is a place where they might find the next big thing. You mentioned the number of locals you get here. How do you think you’ve gone about creating a place that’s at once a ‘destination’ and a neighbourhood
We wanted this to feel like you were going to someone’s house. We had a base in Spain where we’d all go on holiday together, and we’d always be in the kitchen around this big table. The long tables here were born out of wanting to recreate that feeling
restaurant? Ollie: You’re eating in the same setting, the same people are serving you, you have your favourite drinks. We really get to know people. There are people who book in the whole time because they just trust us—they don’t look into it that much, they’re going to come regardless. When we do two-weekers, we often have regulars who
come in the first week and then rebook with different friends the second week. That’s the mark of a really good residency. Ed: We get to know what people like and don’t like. Our best customer, who lives locally, is a French lady and she doesn’t eat a particular ingredient, so whenever she’s coming in, we make a note and the chefs will cook something different just for her. Little things like that—that’s what keeps people coming back. Anna: I think the price point also comes into it. We didn’t want a restaurant full of really rich people, we wanted a restaurant with lots of different people. You know when you go to a wedding and there are people of completely different ages and with different lives
21/11/2019 09:13
55. Food sitting together, but what you have in common is you love these people who are getting married and you just have a really jolly time? I think we wanted to bring that to it. We didn’t want price to get in the way. We wanted people to come because they love the food. Whenever I eat at Carousel, I feel so proud of the buzz in the room. There’s an energy. Carousel also does its own lunch, and now a Christmas menu. How would you describe your cooking style? Ed: Predominantly the ingredients are from UK suppliers—the guys are working with a farm now in London who grow stuff just for us. There’s a lot of foraging. Also, a lot of things even respected kitchens will buy in, the team will make ourselves: crème fraiche, cheese, charcuterie, bread, pasta. Ollie: It can be very complicated behind the scenes but ultimately we want to make something that’s simple to look at, that’s delicious—it could be cabbage that’s had 10 things done to it to make it into a dish that tastes amazing. I like to cook things that are very natural and very focused on one specific ingredient at a time. Do you think the fact you’re in Marylebone has helped make it the success that it is? Anna: We feel extremely lucky to be in Marylebone, we all love it. It’s central, without being way too busy. It’s cool and there’s lots of interesting stuff going on, but without the showmanship of east London. I think
mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 55
It’s a rocky road running your own business, so having people beside you who you love and really care about makes you stronger
Marylebone is a really special place. Will: It gives it a legitimacy that you perhaps wouldn’t get in other postcodes. We work with international brands, and they need to be in the middle of town, they need to be in a respectable neighbourhood and they need to be in touching distance of the media. Ed: Marylebone is a neighbourhood. That’s why it’s cool; it feels like a little community but it’s slap bang in the middle of London. We don’t ever want to leave. There’s something about what we’re doing that just kind of clicks. Does the fact you’re a family have its advantages—or disadvantages?! Anna: Luckily, it’s mainly
advantages. We’ve had our moments of childish arguments—that was one of the biggest learning curves when we started employing people; we’d talk to each other like family and we realised that’s not always appropriate. But it’s a rocky road running your own business, so having people beside you who you love and really care about makes you stronger. Equally, having a four is great because if someone is thinking, god, I can’t cope, there’s always at least one other who’s on the other end of the spectrum to say, “What are you on about? This is amazing we can make this work.” It also meant our values were unwritten and I feel like that made us grow such a strong culture. People really bought into it and to being part of our family. Ed: The good thing is, we do say what we think to each other and if we do fall out, everything is forgiven really quickly. You’ve just celebrated your five-year anniversary. What have you learned in that time? Anna: One of our definite strengths is that we’re always looking at what we can do better and what we can do to add to the experience—what can we do to make it even more extraordinary? It’s a hard market, London, so we should be and are proud of the fact we’ve made it five years. There is a lot of appreciation for how fantastic our team is. We’ve also learnt that it’s okay if it doesn’t work; to not be afraid to try something and then if it’s not working, do it differently or do
something else. It can feel like failure but it’s just part of the process. What have been the highlights? Any disasters? Ed: We had a chef whose appendix exploded two days into his residency. He went to hospital, we had to cancel the reservations for that night and miraculously, he was back in the next night, clutching his side. Anna: Even though it was a collaboration, he wouldn’t let any of the guys he was working with deliver his food—so he came in. Ollie: We once set the curtains on fire. Anna: Turns out halogen lights shouldn’t sit under a curtain. Ed: A friend of mine came in and the chair collapsed underneath him. I just thought, thank god that was you! Anna: The highlights in terms of chefs are the ones who’ve really become part of the family. There are some who you idolise because they do amazing things in their restaurants, like Niklas Ekstedt, who’s just inspiring in terms of what he brought to Swedish cooking and the world, but others have become really good friends. One chef came with his mum and then took everyone out afterwards for drinks and karaoke. Ed: We’ve hosted loads of weddings here too, for locals and people who’ve been customers in the restaurant. There’s something lovely about that. CAROUSEL 71 Blandford Street, W1U 8AB carousel-london.com
21/11/2019 09:13
56. Food
TROLLEY DOLLY
Anthony Schepper, Orrery’s ‘frommelier’, on his stewardship of one of London’s most famous cheese trolleys INTERVIEW: CLARE FINNEY
mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 56
A ‘frommelier’ isn’t really an official profession— my job is that of a cheesemonger, or cheese specialist. I work with suppliers, prepare the cheese trolley, guide the customers through their cheese course and organise our monthly cheese tastings here at Orrery. I’ve been working in the cheese business for 15 years now: I attended a specialist school in France for a time, but most of what I’ve learnt I have learnt from scratch at various restaurants in London, France and Spain. For French people, cheese is often the best part of the meal: they have it before, they have it during, they have it after, they have it just on its own with wine—they have it any time. When I first came to this country I worked at the Savoy hotel, and I started to learn about British cheese. Stinking Bishop was one of the first British cheeses I learned about, but there are more and more all the time: people used to just buy French cheese in this country, but there are more varieties of cheese in the UK than there are in France these days. Only last week, a supplier came in to do a small tasting with me and the chef, and we discovered a new cheese, Lancashire Bomber. It’s a creamy cheese, wrapped in black wax and it looks like a bomb. I’d never seen anything like it before. Working in Barcelona, I discovered a new culture of food: partly rustic, partly innovative, and I worked with both types of chef during my time there. I worked at Restaurant Gaig, a very old, Michelin-starred restaurant which didn’t just have a cheese trolley, but an
olive oil and sweet trolley too—and it was there that I learned about manchego, cabrales and other Spanish cheeses. I returned to London in 2010, and since then have got into cheese more and more, visiting producers, suppliers and cheesemongers all over the country. To work across the road from what I believe is the best cheese shop in all of London, La Fromagerie,
is a dream come true for me. Just like some people can spend hours in a shoe shop, I can spend hours in La Fromagerie looking at cheese. At Orrery, we work with Fromagerie Beillevaire: one of the oldest cheese companies in France, located in the Loire valley. They source the classics— comté, roquefort, brie and so on—but they get trendy
21/11/2019 09:13
57. Food
It can take a good five minutes for guests to choose from the cheese trolley. It’s a really fun, interactive experience— like choosing wine, but with cheese you can see it and try it
cheeses too, like BrillatSavarin, which we like to serve with truffle inside as a special treat. We try to keep it interesting for people— especially our French customers—by having cheese from eight different countries, and changing our selection from season to season. The stilton is really good at the moment: we scoop it out of the wheel with a spoon. We have
mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 57
cheeses from Italy, Spain, Wales, Ireland, England, Switzerland, France, of course, and I am looking to get some cheese from Belgium. Funnily enough, red wine is not always the best partner to cheese. If I got cheese from Belgium, I’d be tempted to pair it with beer. The best with comté is champagne, or a buttery Burgundy white. Blue cheeses go beautifully with white port, and last year we did a pairing of whisky, chocolate and cheese, which was very interesting. A good guide is to choose alcohol from the same region the cheese is from. It can take a good five minutes for guests to choose from the cheese trolley. It’s a really fun, interactive experience—like choosing wine, but with cheese you can see it and try it. We ask the guests if they are drawn to anything visually, and what their favourite cheeses are. Then we describe the cheeses, and offer them a taste, and allow them to say what they like—or don’t like—about it, so we can help them find a selection they will really enjoy. We encourage our guests to be open-minded: we’ve 30 cheeses in total, and there is a range in each ‘family’: blue, soft, hard, and so on. Sometimes, if a group is having the tasting menu, when it comes to the cheese course we ask them to choose the first plate, and allow us to choose a second, so they can compare their selection with ours. Some of our guests regularly come in just for the cheese—some of them know more about cheese than me! ORRERY 55 Marylebone High Street, W1U 5RB orrery-restaurant.co.uk
FOUR
FESTIVE DRINKS 1. Christmas pudding vodka The Grazing Goat has come up with the ideal after-dinner drink—vodka steeped in cinnamon, nutmeg, citrus and a blend of dried fruits. All the tastiness of a boozy Christmas pudding, but without the hassle of setting it alight.
60
Monica Vinader The jewellery designer on cutting gemstones, collaborating with Caroline Issa and working with her sister
2. Moscow yule Keep the sniffles at bay with The Wigmore’s perfect combination of hot toddy and classic cocktail flavours: crisp Finlandia vodka, angostura bitters, lime, honey and ginger brewed together and served warm. 3. Hot chocolate mulled wine Les 110 du Taillevant has somehow combined two winter classics to create the perfect festive warmer: Valrhone Guanaja hot chocolate and cinammon, muddled with sangria jelly, orange zest and a secret blend of Christmas spices. 4. Chocolate orange negroni Negroni staples Belsazar red vermouth and Campari combine with Sipsmith orange and cacao gin are the basis of The Ivy Café’s cosy twist on a classic, finished off with chocolate bitters, chocolate flakes and a fresh orange twist. 21/11/2019 09:13
58. Food
FOOD PHILOSOPHY
as much as they can about each product: not just where it comes from and how it was fished, but also what to do with it. Though I would say the menu is mainly influenced by Japan and France, I also like my staff to share their own recipes. One of the women who works for us is Brazilian, so the Brazilian coley dish is her inspiration. Today we are cooking coley with cabbages and potatoes, which our Irish member of staff loves.
NIC RASECLE The owner of La Petite Poissonnerie on his relationship with food INTERVIEW: CLARE FINNEY IMAGES: CHRISTOPHER L PROCTOR
80 per cent of our fish comes from British shores, and we encourage day boat fishing—small, familyowned boats which only go out for a day and bring in what they catch that day— as much as we can. There is nothing worse than waste: our wastage is less than two per cent, which is very good for a fishmonger. One Christmas a few years ago, I over-ordered, and I really suffered because of it. It ruined my wasteage figures for the whole year. I hated it. From that day, I was even more determined to buy just the right amount, and sell or use everything. We do cod cheeks and smoked cod’s liver, we give the bones away if people ask for them, and the rest is collected for the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. I try to keep my prices as low as I can without compromising on quality, which generally means buying fish in season, and not buying it if stocks are low. We are very blessed in England, though: the stocks are very well controlled, and the water quality is good.
mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 58
We are what I call a ‘fishmonger plus’. From the beginning, the idea was that customers could buy fish here to prepare themselves, but could also buy it in a pre-marinated or pre-cooked way. Now we have developed into a seafood tapas bar as well, where you can eat in—but the menu is still quite simple, focused on quality. We don’t have a proper restaurant kitchen, we have to be creative and cook the sort of food that doesn’t need cooking, or can be cooked using household equipment— humble, but delicious. Sharing is caring. I have a little boy, so I say that a lot at the moment, but it is true of tapas. It makes for a very friendly atmosphere, having so many sharing dishes. We even see
customers sharing those dishes that don’t seem to lend themselves to sharing, like fish soup. We can offer to put a portion in two bowls to make it easier, but some couples find it romantic to share a bowl. We try to stock more sustainable fish, like coley, which has a very bad reputation here in the UK. People tell me they give their cat coley, and I say, well in that case your cat does very well. It is a great fish—and, because it’s cheaper, you get a bigger portion. I have it on the menu at least once a week, served Brazilian style with coconut, tomato and coriander, or in a stew. I encourage my staff to try everything, to eat everything, and to know
Though France and Japan have very different cuisines and techniques, they are both passionate about food, and seafood in particular. I am French, but I wanted to be the best fishmonger in London and for me the most logical way to do that was to serve sashimi-quality produce. And if I was going to do that, then I may as well have nigiri, uramaki and so on. After 20 years in the business, I have very good relationships with the fisheries. These days I buy at least half of my fish directly from fishermen in Dorset, Devon, Cornwall and the Shetland Islands, five days a week. The quality of water in those areas is exceptional. The rest I buy from Billingsgate—I have to for certain items. I like people to feel like they are at home here. But also like they are on the seaside, on the Mediterranean coast of France, where I am from. LA PETITE POISSONNERIE 19 New Quebec Street, W1H 7RY lapetitepoissonnerie.com
21/11/2019 09:13
4416 TL
H O S P I TA L FOOD REIMAGINED
AWARD-WINNING CHEF PAUL O’BRIEN
Head Chef “When a patient tells me my food made a positive difference to their stay, that
The London Clinic is the UK’s largest independent private hospital, with some of the best medical experts, facilities and services available. That includes an acclaimed head chef and kitchen team who are redefining hospital food, creating mouth-watering dishes with all the nutrients needed to aid recovery.
surpasses all the accolades in the world.”
To find out how we can help you, call 0208 108 9622, email enquiries@thelondonclinic.co.uk or visit thelondonclinic.co.uk
4416 TLC Le Cordon Bleu Ad Resize_AW.indd 59 1 mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd
13/11/2019 21/11/2019 15:30 09:13
60. Style
mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 60
21/11/2019 09:13
61. Style
QA MONICA VINADER The jewellery designer and founder of the eponymous brand on cutting gemstones, collaborating with Caroline Issa and working with her sister INTERVIEW: JACKIE MODLINGER PORTRAIT: MARK LUSCOMBEWHYTE
Suitably, in the heart of Marylebone Village, the initials MV slot seamlessly into one another, denoting the monogram of jewellery designer Monica Vinader, whose eponymous boutique opened on Marylebone High Street in August—the newest of a select portfolio of London stores. MV aficionados include the likes of the Duchess of Cambridge, actors Kate Winslet, Emma Watson and Naomi Watts, and supermodel Bella Hadid, but this is not a jewellery brand whose appeal is limited to those with the means of a royal or a Hollywood doyenne. Think not much inyour-face bling, rather affordable, delicate collectables. A visit to the boutique is a fun, playful experience. Monica’s signature pieces include
mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 61
friendship bracelets, whose coloured cords have different meanings: red represents luck; gold, generosity; silver, strength; rose gold, harmony. Stacking rings are set with vibrant gemstones, while medallion pendants dangle from adjustable chain link bracelets and necklaces. Ethically sourced adjustable diamond rings twinkle from chains of sterling silver, 18 carat gold or rose gold vermeil. There are, too, alphabet letters, ID tags and charms— take your pick from over 300 designs, the newest addition being Ronnie the Rat, symbolising the Chinese year of the rat. The defining qualities that underpin the collection—an eye for design and a ceaseless drive to create—were embedded in Monica during her childhood in San Sebastián, in Spain’s Basque region. “Both my parents were a very strong influence on me growing up,” she says. “They had a huge work ethic and ran an antique and auction house business specialising in British pieces to sell back in Spain. I got their entrepreneurial gene.” So too did her younger sister Gabriela, who has taken on the role of chief operating officer of the business. “We had an amazing childhood, very loving parents who encouraged us to be ourselves, which I think gave us huge confidence to do anything we set our mind to,” says Monica. “They also gave us incredible opportunities to travel and open our horizons. I think our partnership has worked because we are both very
entrepreneurial and very dynamic, with strong, shared values. We are also very different, with different interests and complementary skills.” Initially schooled at the Lycée Français de Madrid, the Vinader sisters then moved to the UK, continuing their education in Oxfordshire. In 2002, while working in South America with husband Nick Zoll, Monica started making bespoke pieces for private clients. In 2000, the couple had bought a home in Norfolk, and Monica began selling jewellery at the annual Burnham Market craft fair. The couple moved back there permanently in 2006 after their daughter Scarlett, now 13, was born. “She loves jewellery, and has her very own style, but no interest in my business,” says Monica. Despite her own daughter’s indifference, there is no shortage of people who are extremely interested in Monica Vinader’s jewellery. So, over to her. Where did your penchant for jewellery come from? Growing up, my mother had a very bold collection of Art Deco and 1940s jewellery; she was very generous, letting me wear them at an early age and sharing her appreciation and enthusiasm for design and craftsmanship. Mum was never too precious about them herself. She encouraged me to enjoy and engage with them normally, and this generous attitude has had a profound effect on my outlook, shaping my brand vision of designing and creating accessible, instantly wearable jewellery.
She also sold and collected antique objects in gold vermeil, a form of goldon-silver craftsmanship made popular in the 19th century. She introduced me to it when I started making jewellery. How did you adjust to the move from Spain to the UK? It was a pretty organic transition. We had a very international education, attending the French Lycée —French was my second language after Spanish—and we spent lots of time in London, where my father lectured at the London Business School and my mother was buying antiques for her business. I spent summers with an English family to learn the language and did my A-levels here. I moved here when I was 16 and I’m a British national. I have a company in the UK and my daughter is British. When did you begin designing jewellery? I have always had a passion for art and jewellery, but at art school I focused on sculpture, drawing and decorative arts, so I only started designing jewellery with my first job. After studying decorative and fine arts at the City & Guilds art school for four years, I went to work in an art gallery, because I thought I wanted to be in the art world. By chance, I then got a job with a jewellery company, which is when I really started learning how to produce and market jewellery. That job also took me to Birmingham’s jewellerymaking district to learn about casting and cutting. Afterwards, I continued
21/11/2019 09:13
62. Style Below: Alta Capture large link bracelet with Marie pendant, £375
Right: Riva hoop cocktail necklace, £375 Matching earrings, £475
Travel, art and architecture are my sources of inspiration. They all feed the creative process. I carry a sketchbook with me everywhere I go
making my own pieces, selling them privately, before I opened a small studio in Norfolk. Can you remember the first piece you designed? In the beginning, I was making mostly bespoke pieces for friends and family; I had so many women come through our doors looking through my drawers of gemstones, and we would create pieces together. I think that this really gave me a flavour of what women wanted and how they wished to shop for jewellery. Our first designs were the friendship bracelets—the idea of the cord was inspired by holiday finds in the streets of Mallorca, when you come back with armloads of corded bracelets. I wanted to incorporate that look into something a little
mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 62
bit more put-together, but still fun. The whole premise of my brand is about everyday luxury, wearing jewellery every day. What inspires you? Travel, art and architecture are my sources of inspiration. They all feed the creative process. I carry a sketchbook with me everywhere I go, so when I travel locally or go to exhibitions and museums, that’s when I often get to sketch rough ideas or concepts. I have travelled quite extensively, exploring landscapes, colours, architecture and sculpture unique to India, Mexico, Argentina or Italy. What are you favourite gemstones to work with? It’s so hard to choose! We have been cutting our own stones since the beginning;
it was always part of the plan, so over the years we have become much better at getting the right quality of rough gems, from the right mines and the right sources. We work with the same artisan cutters that we did 10 years ago, so they understand our cut and signature, but the rough aquamarine and lemon quartz nugget pendants from our Caroline Issa collaboration are truly special. Do you have any personal favourites in the new collection? It is hard to pick favourites, as nothing is launching that I do not absolutely love and want to wear, but I am slightly obsessed by the rough-cut gemstones of our Caroline Issa collaboration, and our new Alta earrings, as I can add
and take away links and charms, so can really adapt them to lots of occasions. Also my new Riva diamond adjustable chain ring, as I can wear it on all my fingers depending on what else I want to style it with. Tell us about your collaboration with Caroline Issa—how did this come about? The collaboration is rooted in our shared love for colour, self-expression and joyous style. We’ve been friends for a long time, and have a mutual admiration for each other’s work and aesthetic. I’ve worked with Caroline’s creative agency, Tank, for years now on brand campaigns, because I trust her eye and her understanding of my brand implicitly. As my team were playing around with the idea of doing a
21/11/2019 09:13
63. Style
collaboration for the first time, it felt natural for me to work with Caroline, as I knew we could create something really special together that was different from anything I would have designed on my own but still felt connected to the brand’s identity, and I think that really comes across in the collection. The vision for the collaboration was for it to be a vibrant celebration of the raw beauty and colour of natural gemstones. From ametrine to aquamarine, each stone is rough-cut by hand meaning that every piece is completely unique and full of personality. We drew inspiration from playing with a variety of raw gemstones; there is something very mesmerising, calming and energising all at once when in contact with gemstones.
mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 63
We had an amazing childhood, very loving parents who encouraged us to be ourselves, which I think gave us huge confidence to do anything we set our mind to
Do you intend to do further collaborations? Yes, we have a very exciting one which we will announce in a couple of months. What are your bestsellers? The Fiji and the Linear friendship bracelets are right up there, as is our Alta collection with clasping links which you can customize. The Riva diamond kite ring is a constant favourite. Where do you see the brand in the jewellery market? When we launched our brand, our aim was to fill a gap between fashion and fine jewellery for women to self-purchase jewellery they could wear every day. I think that demi-fine jewellery space is now much
bigger, and consumers have really embraced it. Are there other designers you particularly admire? Line Vautrin—I love the power of her sculptural pieces. Why did you choose Marylebone as the location for your newest store? To be honest, Marylebone was top of my list from day one. It has taken me 10 years to be able to open here, so this is a special location for me. I love the village atmosphere of the area and the curation of stores. Also, Marylebone High Street is home to one of my all-time favourite shops in the world: Daunt Books. MONICA VINADER 15 Marylebone High Street, W1U4NU monicavinader.com
21/11/2019 09:13
64. Style
THE LOOK
SUNSPEL David Telfer, head of design at Sunspel, on the brand’s winter essentials I’ve selected this outfit because the entire production chain for our lambswool knits is based in Britain—something I find particularly pleasing. Sunspel is known for the softness and comfort of its core cotton jersey and underwear range: a comfort that comes from 160 years of fabric development. For winter, especially for our knitwear collection, we look for the same luxurious finish and expertise. The crew neck is spun and manufactured in northern Scotland by a supplier that specialises in finishing the lambswool in natural Scottish water for extra softness. It is paired with our Italian-spun merino wool mock neck, knitted on traditional British Bentley Cotton machines, which date back over 70 years. The layering of the mock neck with the lambswool crew neck is a contemporary way to style traditional knitwear. For me, this is the ultimate seasonal look—but Sunspel design is about being timeless, and creating garments that customers can style in a way that works for them. SUNSPEL 13-15 Chiltern Street, W1U 7PG sunspel.com
mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 64
21/11/2019 09:13
65. Style
70
providing creche and early education facilities so that women who have a family can remain in work. The cashmere itself is sustainably sourced from Mongolia, also in the Himalayas. There are other suppliers where good cashmere can be found, particularly China, but we spoke to the ateliers and trusted their judgement. We wanted to guarantee traceability.
Gift guide Christmas gift ideas from some of Marylebone’s exceptional retailers
INSIDE KNOWLEDGE
SUSTAINABLE CASHMERE Maicke and Miguel Garguz on Zuggar London’s quality, sustainable cashmere There is no substitute for touching the product. You could give all the reasons in the world why a material is of the highest quality, but until you have the wow factor of something so soft in your hands, you cannot understand it. That said, there is a UK Cashmere Institute, to which we send a sample of our cashmere off every other year for certification. They look at the quality of the fibre, the length, the thickness and a number of other criteria. By the time we get the sample back it is full of holes! The collection is designed in London and woven in Nepal, in two women-led ateliers just outside Kathmandu. They are small scale, with an emphasis on supporting social and educational facilities.
The fabric is dyed in the ateliers, by hand, using all-natural dyes. There are no big chemical vats or anything like that. We try to provide a balance of bright, contemporary colours, and more muted natural shades that are versatile too. It is a humbling place to visit. We go there, sit down with them, and go through the files to find ancient techniques we could put a contemporary twist on, to make them suitable for the British market. For example, there is a simple herringbone weave in our current collection. The weave itself is ancient, but the threads have been dyed separately before being woven together, and the colour combination is modern. We have multifunctional shrugs, with pockets or suede patches. We have a lovely example in next year’s spring summer collection, inspired by the writings of Toni Morrison. She spoke a lot about women having a voice—or not, as is the case in so many places in the world. On this particular scarf, we’ve developed the profile of a woman’s face. “I have a voice” will be embroidered on the bottom. It is subtle, but powerful. GARGUZ STUDIO 2 Hinde Street, W1U 2AZ zuggar.com
Nepal has the third highest rate of childhood marriage in Asia. These ateliers help keep women employed and supported and away from early marriages, while at the same time
mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 65
21/11/2019 09:13
66. Life
QA DR ADRIAN WHITESON The Marylebone doctor and cofounder of Teenage Cancer Trust on his charity’s efforts to make the treatment of young people with cancer more attuned to their needs INTERVIEW: EMILY JUPP IMAGES: LLOYD STURDY, KRIS PIOTROWSKI
Dr Adrian Whiteson is the co-founder and president of Teenage Cancer Trust (TCT), The Howard de Walden Estate’s chosen charity for this year’s Christmas light switch on, which took place on 13th November. Deeply interwoven with the community in Marylebone, Adrian’s office for his private practice has for many years been on Welbeck Street. Next year will mark the 20th anniversary of the TCT Royal Albert Hall gigs and 30 years of the Teenage Cancer Trust. Where did you grow up? I was born in Cricklewood. During the war, I was evacuated to a tiny little village called Pilton with my twin sister and my mum, I spent many of my early years living next to Worthy Farm, where the Glastonbury festival is held, but I’ve never actually been. I was a skinny little rat and I got in everybody’s way, but I had a great time down there. A wonderful time. After the war I came back to London. You founded TCT with your wife Myrna. How did the pair of you meet? I was invited at the age of 17 to a party, which I went to with my twin sister, and there was a gorgeous young lady on the other side of the room. I tried to chat her up and she told me where to go, so I persuaded my sister to go over to her and tell her we were having a party and would she like to come? And she got her number. There was no party. I rang her up later and over the course of three hours I managed to persuade her to come on one date with me. Just one. I thought, I’m
mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 66
going to marry that young lady. When I turned 23, in 1958, 51 years ago, we got married. I managed to qualify as a doctor in the April of the next year. You do a lot of treks to raise money and awareness for TCT. Yes. We’ve been to South America, North America, India and Outer Mongolia. It’s a challenge, it’s not a
holiday. We camped near Machu Picchu and the last night of the trek we were tenting in a field of llama dung. Every time you rolled over you’d feel the dung squelch underneath you. I have always been prepared to put my fitness on the line. If I am going to ask someone to climb a mountain then I have to join them. Call me obstinate, but there we are.
Tough love Adrian Whiteson, with his frequent treks up mountains, isn’t the only denizen of Marylebone prepared to push himself for a cause. In September, The Portman Estate persuaded a remarkable array of its contacts—in total, 26 teams of either three or nine competitors—to participate in a punishing triathlon, involving swimming in the Serpentine, running in Hyde Park, then cycling on exercise bikes in Portman Square. The dozens of contestants who braved the rain, geese and aching muscles raised an impressive £63,000 for Carers Network, the Estate’s charity partner for the past three years, which supports the many
unpaid carers whose work is of such vital importance to some of society’s most vulnerable people. Also in September, The Howard de Walden Estate completed a community fundraising mission that, if anything, sounds even more gruelling. Over three long days, a team consisting of 10 of the Estate’s staff and 33 of its customers and partners tested their lungs and legs to the limits by cycling the 330km from Marylebone to Paris. Thanks to their efforts, over £50,000 has been raised for the West London Mission, a local Marylebone charitythat works to empower people affected by homelessness, poverty and trauma to live more fulfilling lives.
21/11/2019 09:13
67. Life To what extent is Teenage Cancer Trust at the heart of everything you do? I work as a GP here in Marylebone, and I have always wanted to be a good and sympathetic doctor, but it’s true that my driving passion is to ensure that young people with malignancies get every advantage. I want them to come through a journey I would never wish to go
through, and come out the other side unscarred. I spend two hours a day networking. This evening I have Roger Daltrey from The Who coming in. We will talk about the concerts we have planned for next year because, it will be a very important year. It’s the 30th anniversary of when the Teenage Cancer Trust started and the 20th anniversary of the concerts.
What were the origins of Teenage Cancer Trust? There was a charity called the Sportsman’s Aid Society and they asked me to be their medical officer. They were good people, but they didn’t really have a specific direction. Our wives decided rather than just waiting about, they would set up a ladies committee as well. One of the ladies’ group had
a son with jaw cancer. He was being treated at the Middlesex hospital alongside babies, and he really didn’t like that because he was a fish out of water, so they then transferred him into the adult ward, where many of them were my age, which is 84, and they were dying of cancer. His mother had a word with his doctor and the ladies committee
The Howa rd de Walden Estate’s Marylebone Christmas Lights event, which raised money for Teenage Cancer Trust
mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 67
21/11/2019 09:13
68. Life Myrna and Adrian Whiteson
decided to work with him to raise funds to build a ward for teenagers at the Middlesex. The men’s group became interested and the unit was opened 30 years ago. It cost £250,000 to create. We now have 28 cancer units around the UK and they cost upward of £3.5 million for each ward. What barriers did you have to overcome in those early days? When my wife Myrna and I set up the Teenage Cancer Trust, along with the ladies, there was no real understanding. If you were aged 17 or under, you were in paediatrics; if you were 18 or over, you were with geriatrics. There was no place for young people. These young people were being totally defined out of existence. So we upset the apple cart.
mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 68
were enough teenagers to justify these units being built. We had to do a lot of persuading. Fortunately, the first unit was opened by Sarah, the Duchess of York, which gave us some publicity, and she has been there for the opening of most of our units. In fact, Princess Beatrice’s 18th birthday was spent in one of the units.
It’s no good if we are treating young people but taking away their identity. You need to help them get that identity back. It’s about getting to know them as individuals
The parents were delighted and we got a lot of support from them. The attitude in the medical profession was that they are being treated anyway, why do they need somewhere different to be treated? And what do teenagers do? They just sit on street corners drinking too much and they aren’t very nice. Others in the profession definitely didn’t think there
What kind of considerations do you need to give young people with cancer? Myrna always tells the story of when a young man with cancer told her that the worst thing to happen to him was that he lost his hair. “I’m a punk and I had green hair. I’ve lost my identity,” he said. It’s incredibly important to consider those things. It’s no good if we are treating young people but taking away their identity. You need to help them get that identity back. It’s about getting to know them as individuals. We have occupational therapists and education experts alongside the doctors and nurses to help and support the young people through their journey and to really listen to them. How much of a problem is late diagnosis? Young people will not go to the doctor unless they really have to. Basically they go to the GP because they are not well. It is important that as a doctor you take time to find out why. The difficulty is that 10 minutes per patient is roughly the amount of time a GP in the NHS will have with a patient, but if a GP isn’t sure, they should refer the patient on, because late diagnosis of cancer
is the biggest problem we have, not just with young people but with everyone. If we can get them at an early enough stage into our units, we can get them successfully treated. Describe one of your units. The young people design our units alongside top architects. If you see the one at University College Hospital, it’s amazing. It’s divided into a treatment area and another area. In the other area, the young people can study, hang out or make their own meals. The most important thing is to give them the right to be themselves. If you have that philosophy, they are going to do better. They support each other as well; it’s a buddy thing, where they hold each other’s hands. Someone who has been through it and is at the end stages of their treatment will support someone who is just about to go through what they went through. The young people came up with an idea for a residential weekend away with other young people who have or have had cancer, called Find Your Sense of Tumour, and they support each other there. When we have our famous concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, we have 20 young people each night come on stage during the concert, so they are an integral part of it. We have an international conference that Myrna started too. She is more of a hero than I am. She and the ladies started something amazing. It was pioneering work. TEENAGE CANCER TRUST teenagecancertrust.org
21/11/2019 09:13
MARYLEBONE LANE CHRI STMAS SHOPPI NG EVENI NG 5 Decemb er 20 19 5-8PM 20 independent shops and restaurants will offer one-off promotions including; personal gift buying advice, in-store activities, discounts and exclusive gifts with purchase. Visit marylebonevillage.com to see the full list of participating stores. M A RYLE B O N E VILL AG E .C O M
Marylebonevillage
#MA RYLE B O N E L A N EC H R I STM AS
Marylebonevillage
Marylebonevllge
This event is organised and funded by The Howard de Walden Estate
mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 69
21/11/2019 09:13
70. Life
GIFT GUIDE A selection of Christmas gifts from Marylebone
Style Clockwise from top left: Classic spiral ring Cox and Power, £850 Mendoza hat La Portegna, £115
Cashmere colour block wristwarmers Brora, £55 Classic spiral drop earrings Cox and Power, £1,025
K19 17002 Nu, £ 435 Kaye Blegvad jacquard jumper Sunspel, £195 Flying saucer jacquard cotton-blend scarf Paul Smith, £110
mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 70
21/11/2019 11:41
71. Life Home Clockwise from top left: Figue 15 candle Le Labo, £52 Zalto Mystique magnum decanter Around Wine, £99 Flip clock The Conran Shop, £35 Lined notebook Trunk, £30 Red lobster cracker David Mellor, £8 Zoysia platter Anthropologie, £48
mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 71
21/11/2019 11:41
72. Life Kids Clockwise from top left: Fleece pyjamas Petit Bateau, £49 London bus Little White Company, £50
The Inner Child by Henry Blackshaw Daunt Books, £6.95 Soldier v-neck sweater Rachel Riley, £99
Moulin Roty Jojo The Donkey Cologne and Cotton, £45 Argenta lace-up Papouelli, £75
mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 72
21/11/2019 09:13
73. Life Food Clockwise from top left: Norlan whisky glass Cadenhead’s Whisky and Tasting Room, £42 Billecart-Salmon Brut Rosé NV Philglas and Swiggot, £74.95 Raspberry preserve with amaretto Paul Rothe and Son, £4.50 Ginger Pig Meat Book Ginger Pig, £16.50 Port & stilton box La Fromagerie, £60 Christmas pudding spice bar Rococo Chocolates, £6.50
mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 73
21/11/2019 09:13
74. Health
The team of consultants and nurses in the unit are all experienced in acute medicine. The unit itself is simply a room with monitoring equipment— the key thing is the personnel
mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 74
21/11/2019 09:13
75. Health
QA DR JOHN GOLDSTONE The consultant intensivist at The London Clinic talks about the development of this new speciality and how it has changed the way patients are treated beyond the intensive care unit INTERVIEW: VIEL RICHARDSON PORTRAIT: ALICE MANN
Many people will be unfamiliar with the term ‘intensivist’. Can you explain what it is? Intensivists are specialists who, through our intensive care work, have become expert in dealing with the acute sides of general medicine. This could, for example, mean supporting somebody who is having breathing difficulties, using drugs and fluids as opposed to a mechanical support, or treating a patient who is not passing enough urine and is now at serious risk of developing kidney complications. The speciality has arisen because of a change in the role of intensive care in recent years and developments in the way hospitals operate. There is now a greater need for us to provide acute care to patients who would never have been in intensive care 20 or 30 years ago. This could include patients who have had very complex and invasive procedures and require extra observation and support. Or it could be patients who are desperately ill and require multiple levels of support for various failing organ systems—people who several decades ago we could have done very little for. What is the core specialty? It developed out of the specialty of anaesthesia, which some may find a little surprising. However, the skills that you acquire in anaesthesia are about keeping people alive for hours in the operating theatre or in casualty. It is about managing their levels of consciousness and dealing with levels of
mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 75
pain, and these are directly translatable into intensive care. How did that progression come about? Anaesthetists were really good at keeping people’s respiratory systems supported, but patients who require that level of support may also need rehabilitation following their illness. They need to rebuild their muscle strength and psychological strength. Their rehabilitation needs to be mapped out and it needs to begin while they are in the intensive care unit (ICU), so that when they leave they are in the best possible condition. Some anaesthetists saw this and began training to improve their acute medicine skills. Do you have a specific intensivist unit at The London Clinic? Yes, it is called the medical admissions unit (MAU)—it is an area with the facilities for patients who need high dependency care. The team of consultants and nurses in the unit are all experienced in acute medicine. The unit itself is simply a room with monitoring equipment— the key thing is the personnel. Where does this sit in the patient pathway? It is there from the moment the patient enters the hospital. What makes the MAU here so effective is that the staff are highly trained and most of their days are focused on acute medicine. Right from the outset, they are assessing whether ward-level care is
appropriate or whether the patient’s situation is more serious. Occasionally, someone comes in with a serious illness and they are deteriorating quickly. The fact that the initial triage is being done by staff who are very experienced in acute medicine is extremely reassuring for the referring doctor, as it allows these patients to be stabilised in the MAU and then moved straight to the ICU. This means time is not lost by sending them to the ward and then having to move them to the ICU later once the seriousness of the patient’s condition has been recognised. Is that the end of the MAU involvement? Not necessarily. When they get to the ward, they will be looked after by a team of specialists who are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. All of the consultants involved are experts in acute medicine, so they see a wide range of diagnoses. There are specialists in infectious disease, cardiology, gastroenterology, hepatology and so on. There’s a broad group of consultants who are going to be looking after these patients on the ward. Treatment and investigations will naturally be happening at the same time as the patients are being looked after, in the MAU initially but eventually on the ward. Once a diagnosis has been made and a treatment plan designed, the patient will be discharged back to the care of their GP after they begin responding well to the treatment.
21/11/2019 09:13
76. Health How do you train as an intensivist? In their foundation year, all medical students are exposed to several different areas of medicine. Then they do another two years of general medicine. At that stage they can apply for a specialisation. If they choose the intensive care stream, it has two paths: there’s an accreditation either in intensive care and anaesthesia or intensive care medicine only. Some people go for the dual accreditation, involving an extended period of anaesthetic training. At the end of your training, you are accredited in intensive care medicine. Is this a speciality that you can see growing? Definitely. I think there will be an expansion in this area because there’s a population of patients who are ageing. This means acute medicine is going to be very much part of any chronic disease management regime. Most patients are going to be looked after at home with occasional visits to hospital and occasional admissions. So, I think that there’s a need for it. I think our particular style of acute medicine is advantageous because the triage at the start of your journey is done by experts in acute medicine. This whole area of medicine has grown considerably— some other hospitals have medical admissions units that are extremely busy and are supported by general medicine, but they don’t have the broader intensive care element to them that we have at The London Clinic.
mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 76
Throughout the whole process, we are very keen to maintain the link between the patient and their GP. This is a really key point for us. The patient will be at The London Clinic for a short period of time and will be discharged to the GP
Is this changing the practice of intensive care medicine? The main difference in the practice of intensive care nowadays is that the skills you learn there are no longer contained solely within the ICU. It used to be seen as very separate and specialised, but the skills gained looking after somebody who is terribly sick are translatable into looking after patients on other wards. Our MAU has a team of outreach nurses who take the skills that they’ve learned in intensive care and apply them to patients who are not making the medical progress expected or have deteriorated, but whose condition is not serious enough for them to be moved to intensive care. What kind of things do they do? They use medication to adjust things like a patient’s kidney function, liver function, breathing or cardio-vascular system. These procedures are second nature to a lot of intensive care doctors and nurses, but they will not be so familiar to those working on non-acute wards. Our outreach teams liaise with consultants to take these skills to patients
in other parts of the hospital. Can a patient come into the MAU themselves? No, they have to be referred by a GP or healthcare specialist who has decided that they need specialist input and need to be admitted to hospital either for treatment, diagnostics or both. For example if a patient has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which covers conditions that are characterised by increasing breathlessness, such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis, they may have a fever, they may have low oxygen levels and their breathing may be disordered. At this point their GP might decide that they don’t think this can be managed at home, so they call our MAU. We can immediately facilitate a bed and the transfer into hospital, where the patient would then be assessed within the admissions unit and moved to ward care if necessary. How does the referral process work? The process is very simple. The GP has a number that is put straight through to the senior nurse on duty for the hospital. The senior nurse establishes that they’re suitable to be admitted, which is a very quick process. The GP is then put directly in touch with the person on call for medical admissions that day and can pretty much immediately speak to the consultant on duty, who might be myself or one of my colleagues such as David Simcock, who runs the MAU, and the patient can be brought straight
into hospital. Throughout the whole process, we are very keen to maintain the link between the patient and their GP. This is a really key point for us. The patient will be at The London Clinic for a short period of time and will be discharged to their GP. There may be the need to see a London Clinic clinician subsequently but that will be guided and directed by the patient’s GP, so the more they are in touch with what’s happening in the hospital, the better for the patient. How is this different from an NHS accident and emergency unit? A&E is an area where you self-refer—you’ve had an accident or are feeling very unwell and you’ve either made your way to hospital, been brought in by someone else who isn’t a clinician or you’ve been picked up by an ambulance. The MAU here is only for people who have had a medical referral. What drew you to this speciality? For me, the most exciting parts of medicine are in intensive care. It is a sharp, rapidly changing area of medicine and I think that was why I was drawn to it. It is often very technically and mentally challenging to keep a person alive when their illness is very severe. We all get a huge sense of satisfaction when you discharge someone who was very seriously ill, possibly near death, and see them heading home to resume their life with their loved ones. THE LONDON CLINIC 22 Devonshire Place, W1G 6JA thelondonclinic.co.uk
21/11/2019 09:13
Ear Wax Removal & Health Check Appointment
£15 OFF
ENDI NG SOON
Book before 30th December 2019 Microsuction ear wax removal appointment includes a full outer and middle ear health check with expert ear health advice. Only £70 0207 935 5511 customerservice@cubex.co.uk www.cubex.co.uk
Est.1964 mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 77
21/11/2019 09:13
78. Health
SCREEN TIME Lisa Das, consultant gastroenterologist at OneWelbeck Digestive Health, on the importance of bowel cancer screening and how youth does not make you immune INTERVIEW: VIEL RICHARDSON
Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the UK and the second biggest cancer killer. By the age of 50, the risk of getting it is one in 18 for men and one in 22 for women. This does sound scary, but the most important thing to remember is that unlike some other cancers, bowel cancer is largely preventable. This is because of the long lead time between the first appearance of polyps and their mutation into cancerous lesions. Most polyps do not become cancerous, and they take many years to grow and develop. Even polyps in a precancerous state can take years before they become a serious problem. This gives us an opportunity to do something about them. There are two presentations of bowel
mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 78
cancer: cancer of the colon, which is the large intestine, and cancer of the rectum, which is the lower part of the colon and has a different biology. Though different, they are treated as related diseases under the banner of colorectal cancer. Symptoms are difficult to distinguish—the obvious ones are abdominal pain, unexplained and sustained weight loss, some rectal bleeding or a distended tummy, but all of these can also be caused by a wide variety of other conditions, such as irritable bowel syndrome or coeliac disease. By the time confirmed symptoms appear, the cancer is already late-stage and the five year survival rate is less than 10 per cent. That is why screening is so important. With screening, you are not investigating because of symptoms that have already appeared; instead, you are testing asymptomatic people of a certain age to ensure they don’t develop bowel cancer. Of all the people in the bowel cancer screening programme, about 40 per cent will have polyps. If you have multiple polyps or if they are of a certain type, we can then stratify how often the patient needs a colonoscopy to keep on top of it and prevent bowel cancer developing. Age is a big factor with bowel cancer risk. Over the age of 50, the risk increases exponentially, which is why we have been focusing over the past two decades on screening people aged 50 and upwards. However, there is now real concern about young people between the ages of 20 and 49, where we are seeing an increase in colorectal
By the time confirmed symptoms appear, the cancer is already latestage and the five year survival rate is less than 10 per cent. That is why screening is so important
cancer in many parts of the world. We don’t understand the reasons, but they are very complex and some can probably be traced back to childhood exposures. People need to be aware—clinicians as well as the public—that this is not just a ‘disease of the elderly’. There are different methods of screening. A colonoscopy, where we use an endoscope to visually examine all five feet of the bowel, is what we call the gold standard treatment, because this gives you the best chance of spotting any problems. If you were to ask 100 gastroenterologists, we would all have a colonoscopy by the age of 45. There is a new test called the fecal immunochemical test (FIT), which is used to test the patient’s stool
for blood. There is also sigmoidoscopy, which looks at the lower part of the bowel and has been shown to reduce your mortality risk by 30 per cent. You can also have a bowelspecific CT scan or CT colonography. If your scan is clear, you can still develop polyps later, so you should continue to be screened every two years on the bowel cancer screening programme. If the screening finds a probable cancer, you will very quickly be referred to a cancer multidisciplinary team, which usually contains gastroenterologists, oncologists, surgeons and radiologists. They would run further tests and then decide upon the best treatment option, be it surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Spotting bowel cancer early is key. Even if we find a stage one cancer, the five year survival is over 90 per cent with the right treatment. If we find a stage four cancer, it is less than 10 per cent. The message is clear: get screened. Make sure you take up the invitation you get from the national screening programme. If you are younger and the symptoms of haemorrhoids or IBS do not improve with treatment, ask for a referral. Caught early and with the right treatment, bowel cancer can be managed or even cured altogether. Caught late, it is an altogether more worrying prospect. ONEWELBECK DIGESTIVE HEALTH 1 Welbeck Street, W1G 0AR onewelbeck.com
21/11/2019 09:14
Maryleb
Urgent Care Centre for Children The Portland Hospital 205-209 Great Portland St, London W1W 5AH 8.00am-8.00pm, 365 days a year Initial consultation ÂŁ150. Patients must be aged between 0-17 years old.
Just walk in or call 020 3993 5642 www.urgentcarecentre.co.uk
mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 79 1 Marylebone Journal Portland - 15th November.indd
21/11/2019 30/10/2019 09:14 13:09
80. Space 19 Bolsover Street Below: Regent’s Crescent
I really would love to live in a new development. People have to understand that new developments do generally trade at a premium, because of all the reasons that we’ve gone through, but buying an old property is a bit like buying an old car: great if you have a beautiful classic car, but if you are driving it in and out of work every day you’ll probably get a bit cold and uncomfortable and it can end up being quite expensive. The clients who ‘get it’ often are those who don’t want the headaches that come with living in a wonderful heritage building, lovely as they are. A new build works; it’s efficient and does what it says on the tin.
ASK THE EXPERTS Christian LockNecrews, partner at Knight Frank, on the ins and outs of Marylebone’s new developments INTERVIEW: ELLIE COSTIGAN
What new developments have there been more recently in Marylebone? Do they differ much? They are all quite different: different in scale, different in architecture. Chiltern Place is a terracotta-clad building, so it doesn’t look like some of the other new builds, which are often glass or Portland stone. That’s very popular with the domestic market and totally different to Regent’s Crescent, for example, or Park Crescent, which both have been Grade I listed Nash façades. Then there’s The Bryanston, which is a more modern construction: glass surrounds, 18 stories, views of Hyde Park better than any you’ve seen. In addition, there are some smaller boutique schemes, such as 1 Seymour Street,
mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 80
which was built by The Portman Estate. That has smaller units: one bedroom, two bedrooms. There’s a high demand for those and none of the other products that were being built supplied this mix. A lot of these other developments have been at the larger end of the scale. The W1, a conversion of the old BBC building, is great because it’s right on the high street. They are all genuinely mindblowing, but there is a reason someone may prefer one to the other. They’ve got different qualities. What are the advantages of buying a new build property? They offer some add-ons that are hard to find in a Victorian mansion block, a Georgian conversion or
a post-war construction. They have things like porters, underground parking, a gym—those sorts of facilities, which are increasingly popular for modern day living. They also often have outside space, a balcony or a terrace, which is rare as hen’s teeth around here. Have you noticed any similarities in the sorts of buyers they appeal to? Because they’re quite different, they attract a variety of people. If you’re just talking about a brand new apartment block, clearly someone who wants heritage and period features and old London wouldn’t be attracted to them. That said, I really love that heritage—I live in a Victorian home—but now I do often think, wow,
Did the construction of these new builds affect the Marylebone market? Knight Frank’s research has shown Marylebone to outperform prime central London to a great degree over the past five years. Part of the story is that The Portman Estate and The Howard de Walden Estate have continued to invest in the public realm—they’ve done a good job of that, I think that would be undisputed. But actually, a major element of it is these new developments, which have brought new buyers into the area and have achieved outstanding figures. That’s kept everywhere else in the area supported. It’s softened a blow that other downward pressures on the market like stamp duty and Brexit have had on a lot of homeowners across other parts of London.
C
M
Y
CM
MY
CY
CMY
K
KNIGHT FRANK 55 Baker Street, W1U 8EW knightfrank.co.uk
21/11/2019 09:14
Preside MJ Proof 02 18_03_14.pdf
1
18/03/2014
11:36
You can tell our buildings from those managed by our competitors
C
M
Y
CM
MY
CY
CMY
K
Preside Residential block & estate management
Celebrating 30 years experience & local knowledge acquired from operating in West One
Preside, One Hinde Street, Marylebone, London W1U 2AY
www.preside.co.uk T: 020 7224 0011 E: info@preside.co.uk
mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 81
21/11/2019 09:14
82. Space
QA SUKEY BRECHER Sales negotiator at Druce Marylebone on off-market transactions, typical buyers and the appeal of Marylebone INTERVIEW: ELLIE COSTIGAN PORTRAIT: ORLANDO GILI
How did you come to work at Druce? I worked in banking for 10 years, but I found it rather dull. I’ve always loved property, so when I was introduced to Simon Hedley, the owner of Druce, he asked me to come in for a threemonth trial. Roll the clock forward 18 years and I’m still here. I think he’s still trialling me out! Was it a learning curve coming from banking to property? You need a certain skillset to sell, which I didn’t have a problem with—what I didn’t have a clue about was the area. I would go on viewings and instead of turning right out of the building I would turn left; I would just get lost all the time. That’s no longer the case, of course! Being an agent is really peoplefocused, and once you know your stock and understand the area, you can advise with real confidence and build trust. Over the years, I’ve got involved in all aspects of sales: going on valuations and dealing with clients, from the low end to the high end. Having built up a huge contacts base, I’m now responsible for bringing in a large proportion of new business to the office. The area and the market must have changed considerably during your time here. What have been the most noticeable shifts? For a number of years, it was a rapidly rising market, which was exciting to work in: really fast paced and it was very easy to place people in properties within days of being instructed. In fact, in its heyday we would often agree sales before the
mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 82
property had even come to the market. Prices have definitely come off since the peak of 2014 and 2015. It’s much harder now than it has been. This is central London, there are always people who are looking to buy, but because of the current uncertain political landscape, purchasers are generally very cautious and if they don’t have to buy, they won’t. It’s now much more dependent on the skill of the agent to get deals done, which is where our experience of the area comes in. We have an extensive client list, so we are able to do off-market transactions. People love to buy things before they come to the market and sellers are often happy to work on that discrete basis. It’s thinking outside the box and knowing when a person matches a property. That’s how we transact much of the time. Marylebone itself has also massively changed— for the better. There is an increasing number of restaurants, bars and cafes. The high street has hugely improved. It’s now a really popular place to be, whereas when I started almost 20 years ago it didn’t have the same vibe or cachet it now possesses. It was very much regarded then as the poor relation of Mayfair. But it has its own clear identity now. Has your client based changed much because of that? Not necessarily. Because I’ve worked here for so many years, I have got to know a lot of our clients on a person level. In terms of buyers, for a long time they were very heavily foreign based, whereas now we have many
more English purchasers. People automatically think that because we’re in the West End, we’re selling to people from overseas. That’s not the case. A typical buyer is somebody who’s looking for a pied a terre; who might live in the UK but outside London and comes into town maybe two or three days a week to work. Before, those sorts of buyers were after studios or one-bedroom flats, but they are now investing much larger sums of money for more substantial properties. Often, they’re buying with a view to this being a base for their children, who might be coming here for university or have just started working in London. People have invested in the Marylebone market because they’ve seen incredible capital growth over the years, they know it is a safe place to put their money—and of course they have the benefits that come with living here. What sorts of properties do you deal with? All across the board: from fairly small flats all the way up to larger houses, as well as new developments. We cover the full spectrum; nothing is too small, nothing is too big. We find that the new developments mainly appeal to two types of buyer: the foreign market, because they like to have full facilities, the 24-hour concierge, very much like a hotel, and so when they leave the country for several months they know their homes are safe. The others are what we call downsizers, who are coming from their large suburban homes and wanting lateral space in town. Period properties
21/11/2019 09:14
83. Space
People have invested in the Marylebone market because they’ve seen incredible capital growth over the years, they know it is a safe place to put their money—and of course they have the benefits that come with living here
are always popular: high ceilings, ornate features. People are prepared to pay over the odds for those, even at times like this. We also do really well with mews houses. Again, they’re really sought after. When people know the area, they can be very specific as to where they want to be. But that’s the great thing about Marylebone: you have the whole cross
section of different types of properties, which suit varying tastes. Have you had any particular stand-out properties on your books recently? We had a first and second floor duplex in Montagu Square, which is highly sought after. We managed to achieve a very favourable price for our clients, and it went under offer very quickly. That standard and type of property is few and far between. We’ve also recently had a really fabulous apartment in the W1, which is a boutique apartment block on Marylebone High Street— it was the former offices of the BBC. It’s a fifth floor, 2,500 square foot lateral apartment with floor to ceiling sliding glass doors, great outside space. That was really ‘wow’. What appeals to people most about Marylebone? Some people are absolutely sure that they want to be in Marylebone, while others are considering three or four different areas as well—but once they’ve spent some time walking around, they pick up very quickly that it’s like a charming little village. The whole vibe is very different in Marylebone to elsewhere in central London. There is something that’s more sophisticated about the area. It feels a bit more genteel. There are some really beautiful buildings and very pretty streets, which are well maintained and looked after. It’s smart, without being stuffy. DRUCE 61 Weymouth Street, W1G 8NR druce.com
mj_2019_volume15_06_Compendium_01.indd 83
21/11/2019 09:14
Michelle Sharma Head of Lettings michelle.sharma@sandfords.com
213-215 Gloucester Place Regent’s Park London NW1 6BU T: 020 7223 9988 E: lettings@sandfords.com
MONTAGU MEWS WEST LONDON, W1
£3,250 PW FURNISHED/UNFURNISHED
An exceptional, newly refurbished, three story, four bedroom Mews House with a roof terrace and garage in Marylebone W1. Montagu Mews West is quietly located between Montagu Square and Bryanston Square. This property offers luxurious living accommodation which has been redeveloped to create a sophisticated contemporary family home. The property offers a fully equipped kitchen benefiting from a dishwasher, oven and a central breakfast bar, wine fridge, excellent storage, Miele appliances and a separate laundry room. Each of the three bedrooms are double in size and have ample built-in wardrobe space and en suite bathrooms. The master bedroom has a walk-in wardrobe which leads on to the master en suite bathroom offering underfloor heating, a double basin, bath and separate walk in rain shower. The property also benefits from a roof terrace and a separate guest bathroom. Ideally located a short walk away are the shops and cafés of Bond Street and Marble Arch, as well as Baker Street Underground Station (Bakerloo, Jubilee, Circle, Hammersmith & City and Central Lines).
MJ Dec 19 p84&85 Sandfords.indd 1
18/11/2019 17:39:07
sandfords.com
Mark Nash Associate Director mark.nash@sandfords.com
213-215 Gloucester Place Regent’s Park London NW1 6BU T: 020 7723 9988 E: sales@sandfords.com
CUMBERLAND TERRACE REGENT’S PARK, NW1
£3,750,000 LEASEHOLD
We are delighted to offer for sale a stunning three bedroom apartment situated in one of the Crown Estate’s most picturesque and sought after white stucco terraces, designed by John Nash and completed in 1826. This elegant apartment comprises an entrance hall, a spectacular dual aspect reception room with breathtaking views across the communal gardens and over Regent’s Park, a separate dining room, a master bedroom with an en suite bathroom, two further bedrooms (one of which is used as a study), a family bathroom and a kitchen. The property benefits from a garage, off street parking, a 24-hour porter and a store room. Cumberland Terrace is located on the eastern side of Regent’s Park’s outer circle, between St. Katharine’s Precinct and Chester Terrace and is within walking distance of Marylebone High Street and Primrose Hill. There are excellent transport facilities with both Great Portland Street and Regent’s Park underground stations close by. There is also easy access to the A40M.
MJ Dec 19 p84&85 Sandfords.indd 2
18/11/2019 17:39:07
Computer Generated Image, Indicative Only. Image by Faction in collaboration with Simon Bowden Architecture.
Marylebone. We make it home. Marylebone Square is an exclusive new destination in the heart of Marylebone Village, comprising of prime residential, retail units, and a new double-height community hall – a space the popular Farmers’ Market can continue to call home. Visit the Marylebone Square Marketing Suite for further information: 79 Marylebone Lane, London W1U 2PX +44
(0)20 3598 8888 | info@concord-london.com
LO N D O N The Listed Hall, 50 Bolsover Street, London, W1W 5NG | T +44 (0) 20 7307 1820 | E info@concord-london.com | concord-london.com
MJ Dec 19 p86&87 Concord & Mcglashans.indd 1
18/11/2019 17:44:44
Executive Property Specialists 020 7486 6711
sales@mcglashans.co.uk / lettings @mcglashans.co.uk
Beverston Mews, Marylebone W1 £1,375pw / £5,958pm Bryanston Mews West, Marylebone W1 £1,295pw / £5,612pm A charming newly refurbished mews house. Living/dining room, kitchen, A beautiful newly refurbished mews house. Open plan living room/ 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms (1 en suite), private gated mews, EPC rating - D dining/kitchen, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, garage, EPC rating - E
Marylebone Lane, Marylebone W1 £625 pw / £2,708pm Harrowby Street, Marylebone W1 £2,500pw / £10,833pm A bright modern and contemporary second floor loft-style apartment with A stylish, completely refurbished south facing period house. Double reception wood flooring. Living room, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, EPC rating - D room, dining room, eat in kitchen, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, utility room, patio, EPC rating – C
Marylebone High Street, Marylebone W1 £775pw / £3,358pm Clarges Street, Mayfair W1 £1,250pw / £5,417pm A super recently refurbished light and bright apartment. Living room, dining An elegant first floor apartment in a portered block. Living/dining room, hall, kitchen, 2 bedrooms, bathroom, lift, daytime porter, EPC rating - E kitchen, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, excellent storage, guest cloakroom, porter, underground parking, EPC rating – C
107 Crawford Street, London W1H 2JA
MJ Dec 19 p86&87 Concord & Mcglashans.indd 2
For Tenancy Info please refer to the website
www.mcglashans.co.uk
18/11/2019 17:45:46
Rent a property in Marylebone directly from The Howard de Walden Estate
MEDICAL +44 (0) 20 7290 0970 medical@hdwe.co.uk
OFFICE +44 (0) 20 7290 0970 offices@hdwe.co.uk
RETAIL & LEISURE +44 (0) 20 7580 3163 retail@hdwe.co.uk
RESIDENTIAL +44 (0) 20 7290 0912 resi@hdwe.co.uk
EDUCATION +44 (0) 20 7290 0970 education@hdwe.co.uk
The Howard de Walden Estate owns, manages and leases one of the largest property portfolios within Marylebone
hdwe.co.uk MJ Dec 19 p88&89 HdeW & Druce.indd 1
20/11/2019 12:29:03
MARBLE ARCH, W1 An Excellent Three Double Bedroom, Three Bathroom Lateral Apartment
A three double bedroom, three bathroom lateral apartment on the 2nd floor of this contemporary purpose built apartment block, with the benefit of an underground secure parking space, porterage and Share of Freehold. The property is presented in very good condition, boasting a soft neutral palette and has a large reception room with double doors opening on to a good sized balcony offering views over the communal gardens. The layout of the flat works very well and is a perfect choice for someone wanting a secure and spacious London home close to Selfridges and Marble Arch. Internal viewing highly recommended. ACCOMMODATION & AMENITIES Entrance Hall * Reception Room/Dining Room * Kitchen * Master Bedroom with Ensuite Dressing Room & Bathroom * 2nd Double Bedroom with Ensuite Bathroom * 3rd Double Bedroom * Bathroom * Guest WC * Balcony * Porterage * Passenger Lift * Secure Underground Parking Space * EPC Rating B
SHARE OF FREEHOLD RESIDENTIAL SALES, LETTINGS AND PROPERTY MANAGEMENT MJ Dec 19 p88&89 HdeW & Druce.indd 2
£2,595,000 STC
DRUCE
PRIME RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY
w1lettings@druce.com druce.com 020 7935 6535 20/11/2019 12:29:36
Exceptional townhouse with connecting mews home.
1 3
9
7
5
4
2
Upper Wimpole Street, Marylebone Ideally located in the heart of Marylebone Village just moments away from the wonderful boutique shops and cafes of Marylebone High Street. The wide open space of Regent's Park are to the north and the vibrant hustle and bustle of Oxford Street to the south. • • •
Christian Lock-Necrews would be delighted to help you christian.lock-necrews@knightfrank.com 020 3544 0655
6 Bedroom Georgian townhouse set across five floors Charming 3 bedroom mews house and garage connected to the main house via the ground floor Combined area of approximately 9053 sq ft (841 sqm)
Guide price
£14,750,000 knightfrank.co.uk Connecting people & property, perfectly.
MJ Dec 19 p90-95 Knight Frank.indd 1
18/11/2019 17:46:23
Contemporary luxury in the heart of Marylebone.
1 5
5
1
2
3
Welbeck Street, Marylebone W1 Perfectly positioned in Marylebone bordering Mayfair, Welbeck House is ideally located for the boutique shops and restaurants the areas have to offer as well as the world-renowned Oxford Street. • • • •
Christian Lock-Necrews would be delighted to help you. christian.lock-necrews@knightfrank.com 020 3544 0655
Situated on the fourth floor of a sought-after, classical mansion block. Modern, open-plan layout featuring leading edge technology Excellent 24 hour concierge service in the building Approximately 3,143 sq ft (292 sqm)
Guide price
£7,950,000 knightfrank.co.uk Connecting people & property, perfectly.
MJ Dec 19 p90-95 Knight Frank.indd 2
18/11/2019 17:46:24
The ultimate in modern city living.
1 2
3
1
3
2
Bickenhall Street, Marylebone, W1 Located in the heart Marylebone with the boutique shops and restaurants of the High Street to the east, the green open spaces of Regent's Park to the North and the world renowned shopping of Mayfair and Oxford Street to the south. • • • •
Ali Mathews looks forward to helping you. ali.mathews@knightfrank.com 020 3544 0655
Sleek and contemporary interiors Superb natural light Spacious open plan reception area Approximately 1434 sq ft
Guide price
£3,195,000 knightfrank.co.uk Connecting people & property, perfectly.
MJ Dec 19 p90-95 Knight Frank.indd 3
18/11/2019 17:46:25
Stylish living in the heart of Marylebone Village.
1 2
1
1
3
2
Cecil House, Marylebone, W1 Conveniently located amongst the boutique shops and restaurants provided on the popular Marylebone High Street. The green, open spaces of Regent's Park are close by as is the world-renowned shopping of Oxford Street and the entertainment of the West End. • • • •
Ali Mathews would be delighted to help you. ali.mathews@knightfrank.com 020 3544 0655
Cleverly designed to maximise light & spaciousness throughout Benefiting from high ceilings & large windows Finished to an excellent standard Approximately 913 sq ft (84.8 sqm)
Guide price
£1,995,000 knightfrank.co.uk Connecting people & property, perfectly.
MJ Dec 19 p90-95 Knight Frank.indd 4
18/11/2019 17:46:25
South facing apartment in a sought-after garden square.
1 3
2
2
1
1
2
Bryanston Square, Marylebone W1 Situated in a beautiful Georgian garden square in the heart of Marylebone, this apartment is perfectly located for the amenities of the nearby High Street as well as Hyde Park and Regent's Park. Residents of the square also have access to the private garden (available for a small annual fee). • • • •
Ali Mathews would be delighted to help you. ali.mathews@knightfrank.com 020 3544 0655
Newly refurbished Large windows allowing an abundance of natural light Situated on the third floor of a beautiful period building Approximately 1167 sq ft (108.4 sqm)
Guide price
£2,075,000 knightfrank.co.uk Connecting people & property, perfectly.
MJ Dec 19 p90-95 Knight Frank.indd 5
18/11/2019 17:46:26
RESID
Make the right choice. No other Agent sold more properties than Knight Frank in 2019 in Marylebone & Mayfair.*
knightfrank.com *Source: Lonres sales statistics. Properties listed as sold on LonRes between 1st January and 31st October 2019. Correct at time of going to press: 13th November 2019. Postcodes used: W1
MJ Dec 19 p90-95 Knight Frank.indd 6 RESID2-31 Marylebone Journal Advert_200x250mm_AW.indd 1
18/11/2019 17:46:27 05/11/2019 16:35
30 Years Experience in Marylebone Village
JJ&Co Jeremy James and Company Jeremy James and Company HARLEY STREET, MARYLEBONE VILLAGE, LONDON W1
Jeremy James and Company are delighted to offer this apartment for sale. The apartment is situated on the first floor of this listed building located in the heart of Marylebone Village. The apartment comprises of an entrance hall, reception room, kitchen, two double bedrooms and bathroom. The apartment benefits from an abundance of natural light through floor to ceiling windows. This grade II listed building is located on the east side of Harley Street at the junction with New Cavendish Street. Both Oxford Circus and Bond Street underground stations are within close proximity with the open spaces of Regent Park also nearby. Please see website for full details SHARE OF FREEHOLD: ÂŁ2,640,000
WIMPOLE MEWS, MARYLEBONE VILLAGE, LONDON W1 This lovely two bedroom Mews House is situated in the heart of Marylebone Village, within easy walking distance to Marylebone High Street. The house is arranged over three floors and recently redecorated. The first floor comprises of two double bedrooms one with en suite bathroom, second bathroom. The second floor offers ample living space, boasting wooden floors with access to the kitchen and balcony. Part Secondary Glazed. It has the added benefit of a secure courtyard and a storage cupboard. Garage available under separate negotiation. Please see website for full details ÂŁ895 PER WEEK
+44 (0) 20 7486 4111 MJ Dec 19 p96 Jeremy james.indd 1
www.jeremy-james.co.uk
jjandco@jeremy-james.co.uk 18/11/2019 17:54:15
carterjonas.co.uk
MONTAGU SQUARE Marylebone W1H
Rare opportunity to rent a totally renovated property with its own private entrance on the sought-after Montagu Square. Reception room • 2 bedrooms • 2 bathrooms • Balcony • EPC rating D
£1,950 pw/£8,459 pcm
Marylebone & Regent’s Park 020 7299 2447 david.ornsby@carterjonas.co.uk