MAGAZINE
February 2020 £7.00
DESIGN
ESPEN ØINO On board with the superman of superyachts INTERIORS
FIONA BARRATTCAMPBELL Storytelling through space with the influential tastemaker ART
PABLO PICASSO Uncovering the muses behind the painter’s pre-eminent portraits
CAPTURING THE SPIRIT OF STYLE
EN POIN TE When the discipline of dance meets the freedom of fashion
HARRYWINSTON.COM
©2019 Harry Winston, Inc. CLASSIC WINSTON™ RINGS
LONDON, 171 NEW BOND STREET 0207 907 8800 LONDON, FINE JEWELLERY ROOM HARRODS 0207 907 8899
#BrilliantlyInLove
fope.com
AD DPS Luxury London Magazine.indd Tutte le pagine
NEW FLAGSHIP STORE NOW OPEN IN OLD BOND STREET, LONDON
13/11/19 09:29
the
RICH LIST 50 luxury holidays that will enrich your life Out now Order your free book now carrier.co.uk/richlist
CONTENTS
28 UP FRONT
72 54 44 PRIZE LOTS
66 MISE EN PLACE
An art enthusiast’s collection
Where to eat in 2020
goes under the hammer
10 EDITOR’S LETTER 13 THE BRIEFING
46 THE RIGHT ANGLE
The best shots from the
Inside Dukes London, the hotel
Architectural Photography
that inspired Ian Fleming
superman of superyachts
High Street
C U LT U R E 40 THE AGENDA David Hockney makes a splash at The National Portrait Gallery
The Franklin Restaurant
INTERIORS
54 LOVING PABLO
72 UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS
Uncovering the women
34 STREET SMART The revival of St John’s Wood
Awards 2019
28 MAN OF STEEL Meet Espen Øino, the
68 RESTAURANT REVIEW
The designers stepping
behind Picasso’s most
up to the challenge of
famous portraits
statement staircases
CONNOISSEUR
78 CABINET MINISTERS
The home bars serving storage
solutions with a twist
62 DUCK, DUCK, GO
80 A FORCE OF NATURE
Two The Fat Duck alumni unveil
Interior designer Fiona Barratt-
their first independent venture
Campbell on taking inspiration
in Bermondsey
from the Romans
90
62
COUTURE
ESCAPE
88 COAT TALES
112 WELLNESS RETREATS
How the traditional trench coat
has been reinvented for SS20
116 THE RECTORY
Where to relax this season
90 MOTION PICTURE
A converted church makes for
Couture meets choreography
a bucolic Cotswold escape
in a new coffee table book
120 O NE CITY, MANY VISIONS
by Rizzoli
How Doha became the UAE’s
cultural capital
100 T HE BEST OF LONDON FASHION WEEK MEN’S
128 PALATIAL PARADISE
The lowdown on the capital’s
An Ottoman-inspired escape on
bi-annual menswear showcase
Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah Island
104 BY ROYAL APPOINTMENT
Gieves & Hawkes’ creative
director on taking the tailor in
a new direction
116
PROPERTY 131 T HE FINEST HOMES IN PRIME CENTRAL LONDON
COV E R Jacqueline Green wears J. Mendel in The Style of Movement: Fashion & Dance by Deborah Ory and Ken Browar, published by Rizzoli (p.90)
FROM THE EDITOR February 2020 Issue 21
Can horses fly? In 1994 Tony Cicoria was struck by lightning in a New York park. The bolt passed through Cicoria’s brain but rather than kill him, it left the orthopaedic surgeon with an irresistible desire to play piano. Cicoria began by playing other people’s music, but soon was writing melodies of his own. Today, he is a celebrated composer. In the late 80s, a stroke left chiropractor Jon Sarkin with the inexplicable ability to paint elaborate drawings filled with words and images. Today, they sell for tens of thousands of pounds. In 2002, college dropout Jason Padgett lost consciousness when he was mugged outside a bar in Washington state. He woke to a world overlaid with geometric shapes. Padgett became obsessed with mathematics and is now renowned for his complex drawings of geometric patterns. From where does genius derive? The Ancient Greeks believed that it came from the gods. Freud thought ingenuity rose from the sublimation of sexual desires. Eureka moments, said Tchaikovsky, were the results of perfect technical knowledge. Kant insisted original thoughts were the mark of true genius. “We of the craft are all crazy,” wrote Lord Byron. “Some are affected by gaiety, others by melancholy, but all are more or less touched.” Plato, too, believed that genius was the result of what he called “divine madness”. Mounting evidence suggests he may have been on to something. People suffering with autism, and various other mental illnesses, are more sensitive to perceived subconscious threats, say psychologists. The sounding of an internal panic alarm is thought to connect typically separate parts of the brain, which begin bouncing ideas off each other (the notion that you are either a left-brain thinker or a right-brain thinker is a myth). LSD is thought to have a similar effect. It’s been speculated that Einstein, Newton, Mozart, Darwin, Tolstoy and Michelangelo were all ‘on the spectrum.’ Beethoven was bipolar. Hemingway, Woolf, Plath and van Gogh all took their own lives. Picasso had strabismus, an abnormal alignment of the eyes, meaning he couldn’t perceive depth, a disorder that apparently helped him produce his groundbreaking two-dimensional representations. Picasso’s splintered perspectives earned him a reputation as a creative genius, yet his personality traits fuelled debate on whether an artist’s personal conduct should affect our perception of their art. Reading about the relationship he shared with his muses might help inform your own opinion (p.54). Back to Cicoria. When the brain is injured – such as when it is struck by lightning – dying cells leak serotonin, another cause for autonomous parts of our brain to become connected. This may explain why bookseller Eadweard Muybridge, after cracking his head on a boulder, invented what he called the zoopraxiscope in 1879 in order to prove that horses fly. By projecting several photographic images in quick succession, Muybridge was able to mimic motion, and show that all of a horse’s hooves momentarily leave the ground when they gallop.
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Richard Brown DEPUTY EDITOR Ellen Millard SENIOR ASSISTANT EDITOR Anna Prendergast EDITOR-AT-LARGE Annabel Harrison CONTENT DIRECTOR Dawn Alford ONLINE EDITOR Mhairi Graham CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Rob Crossan Josh Sims HEAD OF DESIGN Laddawan Juhong SENIOR DESIGNER Ismail Vedat GENERAL MANAGER Fiona Smith PRODUCTION MANAGER Alice Ford COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR Rachel Gilfillan BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTORS Samantha Lathan Danielle Thirsk BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT EXECUTIVE Madelyn Curnyn BRAND EXECUTIVE Dom Jeffares MANAGING DIRECTOR Eren Ellwood PUBLISHED BY
What science can’t explain, is why after making the world’s first movie, Muybridge used his earth-shattering invention to film himself swinging a pickaxe naked. RICH ARD BROWN Ed itor
ONE CANADA SQUARE, CANARY WHARF, LONDON, E14 5AX T: 020 7537 6565
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
WWW.LUXURYLONDONMEDIA.CO.UK
Our typical customer is not typical. And that’s exactly how we treat them.
43–44 New Bond Street, London W1S 2SA london�wempe.com +44(0)20 7493 2299
T H E B R I E F I NG T H E L AT E S T N E W S F R O M T H E W O R L D O F L U X U R Y P.14 THE SUPERYACHT The world’s largest vessel for charter
P.18 THE HOTEL Drinking martinis in Dukes Hotel
P.20 THE CAR A retro racer from a motorbike enthusiast
P.22 THE PROPERTY An architect’s home hits the market
P.24 THE HOTEL Inside the Negev Desert’s new opening
P.26 THE RESTAURANT Sri Lankan eats by way of Soho
The recentlyopened Zaha Hadid Architectsdesigned Leeza Soho skyscraper in Beijing contains the world’s tallest atrium, which coils through the core of the 45-storey building.
01 T H E S U P E R YA C H T
THE WORLD’S LARGEST CHARTER YACHT COMPLETED IN 2019 AND READY TO SET SAIL THIS YEAR, LÜRSSEN’S FLYING FOX BECOMES THE LARGEST SUPERYACHT AVAILABLE FOR CHARTER
LUXURY LONDON
THE BRIEFING
Currently the world’s 18th largest superyacht, and now the largest available to charter, Lürssen’s Flying Fox spans a whopping 136m and has space for up to 25 guests. With an interior designed by Mark Berryman and an exterior by Espen Øino (read our interview with the superyacht maestro on page 28), the vessel boasts some truly outstanding features. The palatial 400 sqm spa is the standout; spread across two floors, it comes complete with a hammam, sauna, massage area and gym, as well as the first cryosauna ever installed on a ship. Just three minutes inside this frozen chamber is said to aid muscle mending and pain relief. Once you’ve defrosted, a dip in the Jacuzzi or 12m outdoor swimming pool awaits. Guests are given access to the yacht’s substantial collection of water toys, including jet skis, Sea Bobs and hoverboards. The entertainment continues below deck, where the resident cinema is fitted with D-Box seating, which vibrates to mimic the action on screen. Eleven cabins – one master and 10 VIP – all have sea terraces and en-suite bathrooms, while crew accommodation has space for 54 staff. The cherry on the cake is a pair of helipads, one on the sundeck and one on the bridge deck, that allow visitors to board via the largest helicopters on the market – which gives you an idea of the sort of people they expect to be dropping by. EM For the definitive list of the Top 101 largest yachts in the world, see the latest issue of BOAT International magazine, or visit boatinternational.com
I n addition to a plethora of water toys, Flying Fox boasts its own Professional Dive Centre, complete with instructors
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
15
The boat is available to charter exclusively through Imperial Yachts, from ¤3.2m per week, imperial-yachts.com
02 THE HOTEL
DUKES LONDON HISTORY SEEPS THROUGH THE WALLS OF DUKES LONDON, WHERE IAN FLEMING ONCE DOWNED MARTINIS AND EDGAR ELGAR COMPOSED SYMPHONIES. BUT MORE THAN 200 YEARS SINCE IT OPENED, THE HOTEL REMAINS A REFRESHING KEYPLAYER IN THE CAPITAL’S SATURATED MARKET
D
Words: Rob Crossan
usk in St James’s Place and the sound of ancient doors being gently eased shut echoes around the courtyard. A Union Jack hangs above the porch that leads to the Dukes London hotel. We’re in central London but the hush is almost absolute. St James’s is a neighbourhood so totally dedicated to discretion that even Mayfair seems somewhat vulgar in comparison. I don’t plan to step back from this bijou courtyard onto the main thoroughfare of St James’s Street tonight but it’s reassuring to know that, in an area of such fabulous wealth, I’m just the discreet hurl of a tournedos Rossini away from the master vintner Berry Bros. and Rudd, the cigar merchant James J. Fox and the milliner Lock and Co. All these stalwarts are old enough to have been familiar to Beau Brummell, the ultimate Regency dandy, who considered this street to be almost his personal domain. Come nightfall and Brummell had the gentleman’s club White’s to retreat to for claret and, according to legend, betting binges which would include placing wagers on which raindrop would run down the club’s front window the fastest. Now, just as in Brummell’s time, White’s does not admit women and, even with my gender advantage, any potential new member needs to be vouched for by some 35 signatories. In short, I’m in need of a more open-minded welcome. Welcoming people is what Dukes has been doing since 1908 – though if you’ve spent the majority of your adult life being processed through the corporate blandishments of luxury chain hotels then you may find the Dukes welcome somewhat startling at first. This is not because it’s particularly quirky or overly obsequious. Rather, it’s because, more than that of any other hotel I know in London, it is absolutely, bona fide genuine – unless the staff are some of the greatest actors currently performing in the English language. Dukes is small; just 90 rooms and suites. And if your idea of luxury is multi-room apartments with flat-screens the size of
Welcoming people is what Dukes London has been doing since 1908
LUXURY LONDON
THE BRIEFING
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
17
LUXURY LONDON
F E AT U R E
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
18
LUXURY LONDON
THE BRIEFING
The menu, unusually, allows diners to eat any dish in either starter or main course size. This allows for both restraint and excess within the same meal; the former exemplified by an impeccably constructed risotto with charred leeks and chestnut mushroom broth; the latter by an outrageously sybaritic rose veal tomahawk with French fries for two. There’s a bar counter in GBR but it’s as superfluous as a hairbrush gift set for Bruce Willis. Everything you need to know about this hotel’s dedication to drinks is downstairs, just to the right of the front door. Dukes Bar is, of course, where Ian Fleming, James Bond’s creator, is supposed to have decided upon 007’s favoured tipple. There is a strict no-music policy (frankly, tinkling jazz would render the entire experience overly ersatz) and the rituals to drinking a martini here are as much about the visuals as the taste. Let one of the white-jacketed barmen, who mostly look old enough to have served Fleming himself, wheel the rosewood trolley to your table and give your V-shaped glass a rinse with some dry vermouth from the Sacred distillery in north London. Then comes the gin, so cold it’s almost as viscous as treacle. Then a twist of peel from a large Amalfi lemon and the five, yes five, shots of gin (the hotel favourite is City of London). Nobody in their right mind actually asks for their martini to be shaken, not stirred. And nobody, with cocktails these strong, orders more than two. Try to purchase a third and you’ll be refused. It’s about the only time you’ll hear the word ‘no’ in Dukes. The rest of the time, from the unusually high tolerance of dogs to a willingness to deliver a plate of H. Forman Scottish smoked salmon and a bottle of champagne to your room at 3am, the answer to almost every question seems to be “with pleasure”. Freedom isn’t a word often associated with hotels these days; a culture of hidden add-ons, ruthlessly applied checkout times and breakfast buffet queues see to that. Dukes is a glorious exception – and perhaps one of the last. Just like its martini, this is a hotel that gently stirs the senses without shaking the historic ground it sits on.
football pitches and corridors long and winding enough to require a trail of brioche crumbs in order to navigate your way back to the bathroom, then Dukes will displease you. Rooms are cosy – even the Duke of Clarence penthouse is no larger than the ground floor of a mews house in Belgravia. The balcony, with a direct view across to the butterscotch edifice of Clarence House (home of Prince Charles and formerly the Queen Mother) could comfortably hold two adults, though a Duchy Originals biscuit barrel or a Windsorfamily-sized G&T on top of this would prove a tight fit. My superior room has mustard-coloured bed runners, a marble bathroom with water pressure powerful enough to fell an otter, dark chocolate oak wardrobe doors and duvets with a thread count so high that it could only be calculated by NASA. These are rooms designed not just to be slept in through the nocturnal hours, but to be lived in for entire afternoons of cold champagne and hot showers. Pad through the corridors and you’ll stumble upon the elevator (dating back to opening day) which still has a cushioned bench in it in case the idea of standing up for the entire 20 seconds it takes to travel from the top floor to the bottom is too exerting. There’s a drawing room filled with wingback chairs, a tiny cigar garden, oil paintings of the Duke of Sussex, gently ticking clocks and an atmosphere redolent of an age where the first alcoholic drink of the day should be taken at around 11am; ideally with a copy of the Illustrated London News and a waiter who will discreetly inform you of the odds for the afternoon’s racing. St James’s Place itself can be traced back to 1532, when Henry VIII built St James’s Palace on the site of a former leper hospital. The palace was among his preferred locations for clandestine trysts with his soon-to-be second wife Anne Boleyn. Home to a small inn until 1885, the current Dukes building was first used as the London chambers for the sons of British aristocracy before finally becoming the hotel we know today. In the Georgian and Victorian townhouses that surround Dukes are rooms where Lord Byron and Oscar Wilde wrote and Chopin performed. Edward Elgar was a regular guest at Dukes in its early years and the hotel seems to have taken the composer’s Variations on an Original Theme as inspiration when it comes to the recent restaurant makeover. Chef Nigel Mendham’s previous incarnation here, a deep carpeted, reverential hush of foams, drizzles and reductions called Thirty Six, has been stripped back to create GBR – Great British Restaurant, still helmed by Mendham. Parquet floors, glass cabinets full of barolo and chablis, chrome and granite surfaces, mirrors galore, lengthy padded banquettes and framed photos of cigarette and Scotch-fuelled mid 20th-century aristocratic dinner parties all contribute to a look that discreetly squeezes the elbow of Art Deco. This room is like The Wolseley but without the daily crush of PR client meetings.
Rooms from £350 inclusive of VAT and breakfast, dukeshotel.com
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
19
LUXURY LONDON
THE BRIEFING
03 THE CAR
THE CUSTOM CAR FROM A WORLD CHAMPION MOTORCYCLE DESIGNER A FORMER RALLY DRIVER-TURNED-MOTORCYCLE ENTHUSIAST LENDS HIS DESIGN EXPERTISE TO A FOUR-WHEELED PROJECT
To be a world champion of bespoke bike building is a niche but impressive accolade. Fred Krugger’s hand-built custom motorcycles have scored him no less than two titles at the annual World Custom Bike Building Championship’s (no, we didnt know it was a thing either). From two wheels to four, Krugger’s latest commission is three years in the making. The FD, named after clients François Fornieri and André Dupont, isn’t the craftsman’s first foray into cars, but it is certainly his most impressive. Challenged to build something truly unique and resolutely Belgian in Krugger’s
signature style, the designer merged Art Deco features with 1930s-style streamlining, harking back to early 20thcentury racers with an undulating body, wooden trims and royal blue paintwork. Harbouring a six-litre Bentley Continental GT engine which has been tuned to produce 750hp, the open-top car has substantial power behind its wheels, considering it weighs just 1,250kg. The radical racer was unveiled at the Zoute Concours d’Elegance in Belgium last year, and was more recently on show as part of the Dream Car Exhibition at the Brussels Motor Show 2020 in January. EM
PHOTOGRAPHY ©THIERRY DRICOT
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
21
T he team intend to take the motor to the four Concours d’Elegance in France, Britain, Italy and the USA
For more information on Fred Krugger and the project, visit projetfd. krugger.be
04
THE PROPERTY
THE ARCHITECT WHO EXPERIMENTED WITH HIS OWN HOME ARCHITECT CHRIS DYSON’S SPITALFIELDS HOUSE BECAME A PLACE FOR EXPERIMENTATION WHEN HE MOVED IN IN 2006 – AND IT’S NOW UP FOR SALE
Chris Dyson is no stranger to restoring listed buildings. Having worked on around 30 houses in the streets that surround his own home in Spitalfields, the architect is well-versed on the complications that come with homes typical of the area. Dubbed Huguenot houses after a group of French weavers who settled here in the 1700s, many of the buildings are designed to fit around their lifestyle, with tall ceilings to allow space for looms. “You can’t bring in the big machines to bish-bash-bosh something together when you’re working with these houses,” Dyson said in an interview with design-led estate agency The Modern House. “You have to take your time and really listen to
what the building has to offer.” The first step in renovating the property was building a kitchen and dining room on top of the flat roof. Two terraces on either side of the kitchen make the most of the light. Inside, glass and modern fittings add contemporary touches to an otherwise heritage space, while downstairs the first-floor drawing room and study has been panelled in the building’s original style. “Once we had rebuilt the front of the house, including the windows, it was a logical step to restore the interior in a respectful way.” EM To read Chris Dyson’s interview with The Modern House, visit themodernhouse.co.uk
D yson’s other projects include the Museum of Africa in Stellenbosch and an open air café and kiosk on Hyde Park Corner
For more information on the sale of the property, contact The Modern House on 020 3795 5920
LUXURY LONDON
F E AT U R E
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
23
LUXURY LONDON
THE BRIEFING
05
THE HOTEL
ISRAEL’S BIG-NAME NEWCOMER STARGAZERS AND DESERT DREAMERS, THERE’S PLENTY OF SPACE FOR BLUE-SKY THINKING IN THE NEGEV DESERT’S SUN-BAKED NEW OPENING
Amangiri in Utah and Cova d’en Xoroi in Menorca set the precedent for restaurants carved into rock and hotels hanging off cliffs, and Six Senses’ latest outpost in Israel will be hewn from the desert landscape of the Negev’s Arava Valley when it opens in May this year. The on-site camel stables will house trusty steeds that guests can take out for desert treks and nights
camping under the stars. In keeping with the group’s peerless high standards when it comes to environmentalism, the resort will be filled with crafts by local artisans, with green-fingered therapists in the spa and fresh ingredients harvested in the kitchen garden or by local farmers at the nearby kibbutzim. Don’t forget the SPF. AP sixsenses.com
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
24
D ine Bedouinstyle around a fire pit in the desert, with food prepared using centuries-old sand cooking techniques
Check out the Earth Lab, which demonstrates Six Senses’ sustainable practises and helps guests to adopt their own
Scott Kelly Rocio Gonzalez Torres Luke Bannister
CA2104_Aviation Avenger 45 Blue Steel_217x280_London Luxury Magazine_R129.indd 1
AVENGER
The Aviation Pioneers Squad
05/11/2019 10:19
LUXURY LONDON
F E AT U R E
COLOMBO’S BISTRO-COOL COMES TO SOHO CAN THIS POP-UP TURNED PERMA-FAVOURITE TAKE THE HEAT AS IT FILLS THE ALMIGHTY
06
GAP LEFT BY SPUNTINO WHEN IT CLOSED LAST SUMMER?
Last year, BBC Food named Sri Lankan cuisine as the hottest trend of 2019. On Rupert Street in Soho, Paradise plans on cranking up the heat for 2020. Headed up by chef Charith Priyadarshana (above, left), who grew up in a village near the Sri Lankan capital Colombo, Paradise began as a supper club in Balham, later evolving into a Soho pop-up and now calling home a space designed by the team behind Kiln, Brat and Smoking Goat. The menu has been updated, with Jaffna spiced lamb chops and charred pineapple salad, but staples such as mutton rolls and Arrack cocktails remain firmly on the menu. Priyadarshana combines British ingredients with Portguese, Dutch, Malay and South Indian influences to produce fiery flavours that are setting London’s restaurant scene alight. AP 61 Rupert Street, W1D, paradisesoho.com
THE R E S TA U R A N T
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
26
©YVAN GRUBSKI
MAN OF S T E E L
D U B B E D T H E ‘ S U P E R M A N O F S U P E RYAC H TS ,’ E S P E N Ø I N O I S TO B OATS W H AT I A N C A L LU M I S TO C A R S . H E R E , T H E N AVA L A R C H I T E C T A N D O F F S H O R E E N G I N E E R O F F E R S A G R E E N E R F U T U R E FO R T H E LU X U RY YAC H T I N D U ST RY
Words: Rachel Neville
O
cean Victory, Octopus, Flying Fox, Dilbar, Silver Fast, Kismet – list some of the world’s most celebrated superyachts and there’s every chance that Espen Øino was involved in the process of their design, such is the influence and reputation of the Norwegian naval architect. Having worked with almost all of the world’s most prestigious boat builders – Fincantieri, Lürssen, Oceanco and SilverYachts included – Øino’s portfolio includes everything from revolutionary explorer yachts and record-breaking mega
vessels to eco-friendly catamarans. 2019 was a defining year for Øino. In September, he unveiled the 183m REV Ocean, a ground-breaking hybrid explorer which dethroned the 180m Azzam as the world’s largest yacht. Then, in December, Øino announced that he was working with Ocean Residences on an even bigger project, Njord. Named after the Norse god of wind and sea, and featuring 118 luxury residences, this mammoth 282m floating home has been dubbed ‘the next generation of superyacht’. “The Njord project represents a significant
Øino is hoping that his latest project, REV Ocean, will be a catalyst for change
departure from what we normally do, but it has been an interesting journey so far,” says Øino. “Working on a project of this scale is not only breathtaking, it is also very interesting and rewarding. High-end floating apartments combined with all the amenities one can only find in top of the range hotels is an attractive proposition.” When I meet Øino at Yacht Club de Monaco, a stone’s throw from his office at the end of the Port Hercule pier, I’m surprised at how inconspicuous he is. Here’s a man who’s been heralded as ‘the superman of superyachts’ and yet he’s humble, polite and reserved. I would have forgiven him for having an ego the size of the superyachts he designs, but perhaps that’s why the Norwegian is so successful – his refined nature comes across in his elegant designs. We meet as he is unveiling designs for the yacht club’s new zero-emissions committee yacht – a forward-thinking step for a club that counts many of the world’s richest superyacht owners among its members. But Øino is known for pushing boundaries, not just in terms of size but with efficiency, too. One of his most famous boats, Silver Fast, is one of the most advanced ecofuel-efficient vessels in the world, capable of sailing from Australia to Europe in 21 days with just one fuel stop. Øino is now at the forefront of an industry-wide campaign to make yachting greener – a mission he admits took a long time for people to wake up to. “A couple of years ago, the only people who were interested in sustainability were journalists such as yourself,” says Øino. “But there’ve been some quite radical storms in many parts of the world that are being explained by climate change and a large amount of people have been affected. In the last couple of years, you could feel a change brewing. It’s like a tidal wave coming in from all the fronts. We are trying to do our utmost to make sure we do our part.” Just as Tesla’s first electric cars set in motion a transformation within the motoring industry, Øino is hoping that his latest project, REV Ocean, will also be a catalyst for change. Ordered by Norwegian billionaire
Kjell Inge Røkke’s ocean research company Rosellinis Four-10, the hybrid diesel, electric and battery-powered vessel is being created at Vard shipyard primarily for the purpose of scientific discovery. It won’t float between the harbours of the French Riviera, instead it will travel the oceans on research missions. “The REV project is all about sustainability and fighting pollution in the oceans,” explains Øino. “The very reason for it being built is the owner’s concern over threats to the oceans. It’s a very complex ship in many respects with more advanced facilities for research and exploration than anyone’s ever done before. The commitment is absolutely amazing.” Øino’s job is to ensure the yacht is as eco-friendly as possible. He’s taking a fresh look at everything from materials and waste reduction and disposal to alternative propulsion methods and fuels. Above all, he explains, efficiency is key: “I have been fighting for more energy efficient hull forms for a long time. Many owners don’t realise that when, on a regular displacement type of vessel, you increase your speed from, say, 14 to 17 knots, which is a speed increase of just over 20 per cent, you increase your energy consumption and your fuel consumption by a factor of two and a half.” The naval architect had been working on ways to improve efficiency long before sustainability became a buzzword. He persuaded one client, Australian yacht builder SilverYachts, to build yachts entirely from aluminium. “Aluminium is a very easily recyclable material – it’s also lightweight. One of the enemies when it comes to moving big objects through the water is weight, the other is the beam or the breadth of the vessel, so a material like aluminium is good for efficiency.” Øino also works with clients to use volume and volume distribution to their advantage. “I try to show the importance of wave resistance and distributing your volumes differently,” he says. “In the case of SilverYachts, we try to distribute the volume longitudinally rather than vertically, resulting in a longer waterline and a reduced beam or breadth. This
©GUILLAUME PLISSON
decreases the wave resistance tremendously and hence the energy required to overcome it. If you take this concept to the extreme, you create two very slender hulls and combine them into one craft which is commonly known as a catamaran, or in the case of three hulls a trimaran. You end up with the most efficient means of shifting a large object through the water.” Multihulls might fly across the water more efficiently, but it seems that Øino is yet to get the public fully on board. “A catamaran looks different from a monohull and may, in certain people’s perceptions, be considered less elegant. It’s a different animal. If you make a comparison with the motor industry, three decades ago an SUV wasn’t a viable proposition. Everyone made sedans. When Land Rover came out with its first Range Rover, the company set the pace for a lot of other people to
follow suit. “Multihulls haven’t gained acceptance among the general public yet, although I must say that perhaps this year for the first time you could sense a change. At the yacht show in Cannes there were more catamarans being displayed than ever before. We had some here in Monaco, too.” Øino has already designed his first multihull series, the 35.5m SpaceCat for SilverYachts, but for the designer of some of the world’s largest yachts, it’s important to show that a boat doesn’t necessarily have to be small and green in order to give back to the environment. Even the gigantic 282m Njord was built with both
ABOVE SPACECAT BELOW REV OCEAN
LUXURY LONDON
INTERVIEW
RIGHT NJORD, WHICH WILL BECOME THE WORLD’S LARGEST SUPERYACHT AT 282 METRES BELOW RIGHT OCTOPUS, © ELIZABETH WHITE
pleasure and purpose in mind. When it launches in 2024, Njord will not only depart with its residents on board but also with teams tasked with undertaking scientific and oceanographic research during its annual circumnavigation of the planet. Last year, Øino and his team celebrated the delivery of their 50th yacht, leading to a moment of reflection for the revered designer on his company’s 25th anniversary. “The industry has grown tremendously in 25 years. The size has grown, the number of yachts has grown, and the number of designers has grown as well,” he says. “The complexity has also grown. The whole process of designing has gone from being something fairly straightforward, using two-dimensional illustrations and engineering drawings, to now being almost fully immersive virtual reality experiences. Everything is modelled in 3D and then rendered in photorealistic renders so that the clients really have a very good impression of what they’re getting. This has been a very interesting journey because today, most things are rendered to such a level of detail that you can hardly distinguish between the real thing and the model. With these tools, the gap of uncertainty is reduced tremendously. Yet the whole design process has become more expensive.” The other big change Øino has witnessed in the past quarter of a century is related to
design. “Twenty-five years ago, the majority of yachts had very traditional interiors and exteriors,” he says. “Today, yachts are much more contemporary in their architectural design, inside and outside. There may be many reasons for that, but one of the important ones is the fact that there are more yacht owners, many of whom are not necessarily experienced yacht owners – they’re new to yachting and they’re not bound by tradition.” Scandinavia is at the forefront of many initiatives seeking to address today’s environmental crises. Just as Greta Thunberg is inspiring the world’s youth, Øino is making his case for change and awareness in the superyacht industry. The Norwegian is working with a new generation of clients to achieve his goals of efficiency and sustainability. The tides of change, even in the world of superyachts it seems, are well and truly turning.
STREET SMART H AV I N G T R A N S F O R M E D M AY FA I R ’ S A L B E M A R L E S T R E E T F R O M A S L E E P Y B A C K S T R E E T T O A D E S T I N AT I O N I N I T S O W N R I G H T, T R O P H A E U M A S S E T M A N AG E M E N T T U R N S I T S AT T E N T I O N TO S T J O H N ’ S W O O D, W H E R E I T ’ S C U R AT I N G A U N I Q U E R E TA I L
A
OFFERING IN CENTRAL LONDON’S LAST URBAN VILLAGE
Words: Rob Crossan
Beatle’s bare feet and Bath Spa-inspired architecture; St John’s Wood is only known for having a connection to one of these things. But this leafy London enclave could have been so different had Bonaparte and the Fab Four made some slightly different career choices. Elegant and understated, St John’s Wood is the affluent north-west corner of the capital that, perhaps more successfully than anywhere else in central London, has managed to retain the feeling of a genuine community neighbourhood, despite its proximity to the hurly burly of the West End. St John’s Wood High Street is currently
going through a subtle yet distinctive transformation under the guise of Trophaeum Asset Management, the company behind the transformation of Mayfair’s Albermarle Street from a trafficclogged side street to a chic boulevard boasting new stores, restaurants and cafés. “St John’s Wood High Street is definitely not your normal high street,” says Matt Farrell, managing director at the firm, who earned his spurs in London property by working for the Grosvenor Group. “This is a huge residential area, as opposed to Albermarle Street, which had almost no residential population at all,” Farrell continues. “So it’s absolutely vital that we take everyone on the journey with us for what we’re doing.” The history of St John’s Wood is a journey all of its own and contains more than a few unexpected twists. In 1732, the estate was sold by the Earl of Chesterfield to a wine merchant called Henry Samuel Eyre, and the vintner had plans to build grand houses on the rural land for wealthy gentlemen to use as their country seat. Poor connecting roads stymied his efforts, however, and a secondary plan to
“We have a huge passion for retaining just what it is that makes this part of St John’s Wood so special”
replicate the Georgian curved terraces of Bath Spa was abandoned due to the recession that resulted from the Napoleonic Wars. In its own, more gradual and organic way, St John’s Wood evolved into a neighbourhood, not for the gentry, but for the booming Victorian entrepreneurial class of doctors, scientists, writers and artists. Novelist George Eliot (the pen name of Mary Anne Evans) moved here in 1863 and would regularly entertain at her residence. Nearly a century later, a certain Sir Paul McCartney took his shoes off on a baking-hot August day in 1969 to walk across the zebra crossing for a photo that would feature on the sleeve of The Beatles’ Abbey Road album, recorded at the neighbourhood’s legendary studio. Now among the most expensive postcodes in the United Kingdom, NW8 has kept the bohemian feel of the 60s; indeed, McCartney still keeps a property just a few minutes’ walk from the high street. “We have a huge passion for retaining just what it is that makes this part of St John’s Wood so special in the first place,” insists Farrell. There are further plans to open a wine bar – “It won’t be too chichi, it’s going to be a place very much for locals,” Farrell says – and, on the day we meet, plans for the replacement of the former Coral bookmakers are gathering pace. The challenge, according to Farrell, is to ensure that the footfall of the high street keeps pace with an increasingly demanding consumer audience who want a more personal engagement with the shops, stores and cafes they visit. “It’s really important that we build up lifestyle options: reasons for people to come to the high street,” says Farrell. Starting just over three years ago, Trophaeum began buying properties on St John’s Wood High Street. It initially purchased 25 in one go and now owns 37 properties, making up around 60 per cent of the street. “Obviously the street never lost hope,” says Farrell. “But it was becoming tired and was at the start of a decline.” Trophaeum moved quickly: restaurant chains Carluccio’s and Café Rouge have left the area (Carluccio’s being paid £840,000 to vacate the premises) as have the frozen yoghurt shops and estate agents, to be replaced by younger retailers and restaurants. Notable recent arrivals include The Good Life Eatery, with its emphasis on locally sourced
produce; Face Gym, the UK’s only studio for the face, which offers non-invasive facial workouts; boutique fitness studio Core Collective; and Soutine, the new venture from Chris Corbin and Jeremy King, the duo behind The Wolseley, The Delaunay and Fischer’s. But with a much greater residential population to keep onside in NW8 than in the Mayfair Albermarle Street project, how can change take place without causing upset among residents who like things just the way they are? “It’s been very immersive,” says Farrell. “We’ve been meeting regularly with everyone from the St John’s Wood Society to the NW8 Mums group. The local community absolutely has to be on board – stakeholder engagement is key.” When it comes to that elusive combination of modernisation without loss of character, Farrell is convinced that the key element is attention to detail. “There’s a special feel to the place and we can help maintain that in so many ways, all the way down to making sure that the shop fronts, the windows and the decorations are in keeping with the historic buildings in which stores are housed. A brand new, totally independent deli operator is about to open on the street which isn’t going to be ‘pseudotraditional’ – it’s going to be the real deal. It will be run by a French-Sicilian couple who are utterly authentic in their vision for what they want to provide to the community.” All this change doesn’t mean a revolution, however. Many of the street’s most famous names are still in rude health, such as the venerable Jewish deli Harry Morgan, in business on the high street for more than 70 years. Panzer’s delicatessen, family butcher Kent & Sons and exclusive optician Schuller are also stalwarts that, Farrell insists, have a big part to play in the future of what is one of London’s last remaining true ‘urban villages’. “We’ve created a vision for the street. Before 2016 it didn’t really have one,” concludes Farrell, finishing his flat white outside The Good Life Eatery as it begins to fill up for the lunchtime rush. “Leases would just be bought and sold without the landlord’s involvement. Now we’re here and we can curate this street so it can be sustainable. It all takes time because this is a process – but it’s a hugely exciting one.”
LUXURY LONDON
F E AT U R E
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT PANZER’S DELICATESSEN; THE GOOD LIFE EATERY; THE IVY CAFE; SPACE NK; THE DUKE OF YORK; TARA JARMON OPPOSITE PAGE MATT FARRELL, DIRECTOR OF TROPHAEUM ASSET MANAGEMENT PREVIOUS PAGE 3D ZEBRA CROSSING ON ST JOHN’S WOOD HIGH STREET, ©CLAIRE DOHERTY/ALAMY LIVE NEWS
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
37
TO READ TO MORE READ TO ARTICLES READ MORE TO MORE ARTICLES READ LIKE ARTICLES MORE THIS LIKE ARTICLES VISIT THIS LIKEVISIT THIS LIKE VISIT THIS READ MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS VISIT TOTO READ MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS VISIT LIKE THIS LIKE VISIT THIS LIKEVISIT THIS LIKE VISIT THIS TO READ TO MORE READ TOwww.luxurylondon.co.uk ARTICLES READ MORE TO MORE ARTICLES READ ARTICLES MORE ARTICLES www.luxurylondon.co.uk www.luxurylondon.co.uk www.luxurylondon.co.uk LIKE THIS VISIT READ MORE ARTICLES www.luxurylondon.co.uk LIKE THIS VISIT TOTO READ MORE ARTICLES www.luxurylondon.co.uk www.luxurylondon.co.uk www.luxurylondon.co.uk www.luxurylondon.co.uk www.luxurylondon.co.uk www.luxurylondon.co.uk www.luxurylondon.co.uk TO READ TO MORE READ TO ARTICLES READ MORE TO MORE ARTICLES READ LIKE ARTICLES MORE THIS LIKE ARTICLES VISIT THIS LIKEVISIT THIS LIKE VISIT THIS READ MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS VISIT TOTO READ MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS VISIT www.luxurylondon.co.uk www.luxurylondon.co.uk www.luxurylondon.co.uk www.luxurylondon.co.uk www.luxurylondon.co.uk www.luxurylondon.co.uk
@luxurylondonofficial @luxurylondonofficial @luxurylondonofficial @luxurylondonofficial @luxurylondonofficial @luxurylondonofficial @luxurylondonofficial @theofficialll @luxurylondonofficial @theofficialll @theofficiall @ @luxurylondonofficial @luxurylondonofficial @theofficialll @luxurylondonofficial @luxurylondonofficial @theofficialll @luxurylondonofficial @luxurylondonofficial @luxurylondonofficial @luxurylondonofficial @luxurylondonofficial @luxurylondonofficial @luxurylondonofficial @theofficialll @luxurylondonofficial @theofficialll @theofficiall @ @luxurylondonofficial @luxurylondonofficial @theofficialll @luxurylondonofficial @luxurylondonofficial @theofficialll
C U LT U R E MUSIC,
MUSEUMS AND
MASTERPIECES
P.44 HAMMER TIME The best lots to bid on this February
P.46 OH SNAP The Architectural Photography Awards
P.54 THE WEEPING WOMEN Uncovering Pablo
MARION ADNAMS, THE DISTRAUGHT INFANTA, 1944
Picasso’s muses
A new exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery explores the British creatives that played a moumental role in establishing the Surrealist movement (p.40)
MILLBANK THE UK’S FIRST EXHIBITION TO FOCUS ON BAROQUE ART IN BRITAIN Typically associated with the pomp and glory of European courts, Baroque’s influence on Britain is often overlooked — and yet the most extravagant of art periods didn’t slip past our shores unnoticed. From paintings by leading artists of the day to opulent altarpieces that depict the visual differences between Protestant and Catholic worship, this showcase will include a number of works exhibited in public for the very first time. £16, 4 February — 19 April, Millbank, SW1P, tate.org.uk THIS PAGE, FROM LEFT BARBARA PALMER DUCHESS OF CLEVELAND WITH HER SON, PETER LELY, C.1664; JOHN CHURCHILL, 1ST DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH, SIR GODFREY KNELLER, C.1706, BOTH COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
T H E A G E N DA YOUR CURATED GUIDE TO CULTURE IN THE CAPITAL Words: Ellen Millard
LUXURY LONDON
C U LT U R E
FROM LEFT CLEARING WINTER STORM, ANSEL ADAMS, 1940, ©THE ANSEL ADAMS PUBLISHING RIGHTS TRUST; LISA FONSSAGRIVES-PENN IN HARLEQUIN DRESS BY JERRY PARNIS WITH A LILLY, IRVING PENN, 1950, VOGUE ©CONDÉ NAST, COURTESY OF MICHAEL SHAPIRO
WA LT H A M S T O W
M AY F A I R
OBAMA’S PORTRAITIST DEBUTS IN THE UK
A NEW EXHIBITION SHOWCASES THE MASTERS OF 2OTH-CENTURY PHOTOGRAPHY
Artist Kehinde Wiley found international fame in 2018 when Barack Obama asked him to create his official portrait for Washington’s Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. The artist’s hyper-realistic portraits typically feature black men and women depicted in the style of European Old Master paintings. His fondness for floral backgrounds makes the setting for his inaugural UK exhibition particularly fitting: the William Morris Gallery is currently hosting a series of Wiley’s portraits, which star an all-female cast of models he met on the streets of Dalston. 22 February — 25 May, Forest Road, E17, wmgallery.org.uk
One of the largest collections of photographs taken between the 1920s and 1960s is set to become the subject of a new exhibition at the Richard Nagy Gallery. Curated by Richard Nagy himself and photography specialist Michael Shapiro, Breaking Away; Modernism In Photography Since World War I will include work from some of the best photographers from the 20th century. Look out for images by the likes of Ansel Adams and Irving Penn, along with an extremely rare portrait of Lee Miller taken by Man Ray.
PORTRAIT OF A LADY, KEHINDE WILEY, 2013, COURTESY OF STEPHEN FRIEDMAN GALLERY
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
41
6 February — 27 March, 22 Old Bond Street, W1S, richardnagy.com
CHARING CROSS
FROM TOP KAMPALA SUBURB, MICHAEL ARMITAGE, 2014; IMAGINE YOU AND ME, DANA SCHUTZ, 2018, ©DANA SCHUTZ. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST, PETZEL GALLERY, NY AND THOMAS DANE
DAVID HOCKNEY CREATES AN EVEN BIGGER SPLASH AT THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
WHITECHAPEL
David Hockney: Drawing From Life is the first major showcase of the artist’s drawings in more than 20 years. Spanning five decades, the exhibition will feature 150 works depicting Hockney and sitters close to him, such as his muse Celia Birtwell. Look out for a series of self-portraits produced in the 1980s, when the artist created an image of himself every day during a two-month period of intense self-scrutiny. £22, 27 February — 28 June, National Portrait Gallery, St Martin’s Place, WC2H, npg.org.uk
CLOCKWISE, FROM TOP SELF PORTRAIT (IPAD DRAWING PRINTED ON PAPER), DAVID HOCKNEY, 2012; MAURICE 1998, DAVID HOCKNEY, 1998; MOTHER, BRADFORD, 19 FEB 1979, DAVID HOCKNEY, 1979; ALL ©DAVID HOCKNEY, PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF RICHARD SCHMIDT COLLECTION AND THE DAVID HOCKNEY FOUNDATION
THE 21ST-CENTURY PAINTERS USING ART AS A FORCE FOR CHANGE From Michael Armitage’s Paul Gauguin-inspired depictions of politics and violence in East Africa, to Daniel Richter’s visual interpretations of current events, Radical Figures at Whitechapel Gallery unites a new generation of artists who explore social and political issues through figurativism. £9.50, 6 February — 10 May, 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, E1, whitechapelgallery.org
LUXURY LONDON
C U LT U R E
D U LW I C H DULWICH PICTURE GALLERY MARKS 100 YEARS OF SURREALISM Forget Dalí; the fathers of Surrealism were in fact British. So says Dulwich Picture Gallery, which, in celebration of a century of Surrealism, presents a new exhibition exploring Britain’s role in establishing the movement. With works that pre-date Surrealism’s official beginnings in the 1920s, the show will include more than 70 paintings, sculptures, etchings and prints that span the years 1783 to 1952 — from Francis Bacon to Henry Moore to Paul Nash. From £13.50, 26 February — 17 May, Gallery Road, SE21, dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk
FROM TOP FAMILY TREE, EDITH RIMMINGTON, 1938, THE MURRAY FAMILY COLLECTION (UK & USA) ©ESTATE OF EDITH RIMMINGTON; THE OLD MAIDS, LEONORA CARRINGTON, 1947, ©ESTATE OF LEONORA CARRINGTON/ARS, NY AND DACS, LONDON 2019, UEA 27. SAINSBURY CENTRE FOR VISUAL ARTS, UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA, PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMES AUSTIN
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
43
UPCOMING ESTIMATE: £ 2. 5M – £ 3. 5M
Nature morte, Fernand Légar, 1923 Fernand Léger’s figurative paintings were deeply influenced by modern industrial technology and Cubism, and often featured objects of consumer society
– so much so, that today he is regarded as a progenitor of the pop art movement. This oil on canvas, Nature Morte, is one of a number of still life paintings he produced during the 1920s, and is being offered as part of Sothebys’ Impressionist, Modern & Surrealist Art sale. 4 February, sothebys.com
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP NATURE MORTE, FERNAND LEGAR, 1923, COURTESY OF SOTHEBYS; AN EMERALD AND DIAMOND PENDANT, CIRCA.1900, COURTESY OF BONHAMS; BODIES, DAMIEN HIRST, 1989, COURTESY OF PHILLIPS
PRIZE LOTS UPCOMING ESTIMATE: £4,0 0 0 – £6 ,0 0 0
UPCOMING
Emerald and diamond pendant
E ST I M ATE: £1 .2M – £1 .8 M
Bodies, Damien Hirst, 1989
Renowned for her technical skills, Charlotte Isabella Newman was one of the first female figureheads in the jewellery industry during the 19th century. This emerald and diamond pendant, circa. 1900, is one of her creations. Featuring a cushion-shaped emerald centrepiece and rose-cut and brilliant-cut diamonds mounted on silver and gold, this ornate piece is offered as part of Bonhams’ Knightsbridge Jewels sale. 5 February, bonhams.com
A former bond salesman in the Square Mile, collector Robert Tibbles secured this Damien Hirst artwork in 1989 for just £600. At the time, his friends thought it was rubbish – but it seems Tibbles has had the last laugh. Bodies will go under the hammer at Phillips this February, along with 30 of the collectors’ other prized pieces – including seminal works by Gilbert & George and Michael Craig-Martin. 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale, 13 February, phillips.com LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
44
M addox Galle r y is de d icate d to s up p o r t ing an d showca s ing th e wo rk of blue chip, e st abli sh e d an d emerging ar t i st s f ro m across the globe.
M addoxGalle r y w w w. m addoxgaller y.com
C
o oc
D
รก
z ve
,F
r id
2 a,
01
9
LONDON
|
LOS ANGELES
|
GSTAAD
THE RIGHT ANGLE P I C T U R E P E R F E C T R E P R E S E N TAT I O N S O F S O M E OF THE WORLD’S MOST IMPRESSIVE BUILDINGS A R E C E L E B R AT E D I N T H E A R C H I T E C T U R A L P H OTO G R A P H Y AWA R D S 2 0 1 9
Words: Natasha Afxentiou
VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM, LONDON THOMAS KNOWLES Shortlisted in the ‘Interior’ category
Using the reflection of a glass case, Thomas Knowles creates an optical illusion with this image of the Victoria & Albert Museum’s main hall, turning the historic interior into a mind-bending, futuristic space. As the diverse cultures of the UK’s metropolitan areas are common sources of inspiration for Knowles, it is entirely appropriate that the capital’s art and design hub is the subject of this monochromatic image.
GENERALI TOWER, MILAN MARCO TAGLIARINO Shortlisted in the ‘Exterior’ category Following his win in the Sense of Place category at the Architectural Photography Awards 2018, Marco Tagliarino was shortlisted this year for his shot of Generali Tower, the 170m Italian skyscraper which has loomed over Milan since 2017. The 44-storey building was designed by Zaha Hadid Architects.
LUXURY LONDON
F E AT U R E
THE TWIST MUSEUM, N O R W AY L A U R I A N G H I N I T O I U Overall winner and winner of the ‘Exterior’ category As well as being the winner of the Social Housing, Exterior and Buildings in Use categories, Romanian architectural photographer Laurian Ghinitoiu is the overall winner of the 2019 competition. Ghinitoiu has described his photograph of The Twist Museum, which won him his first-place title, as being simultaneously abstract and descriptive. The Bjarke Ingels-designed structure, which is a multi-functioning bridge and exhibition space, is built from glass and aluminium panels and appears to be spiralling across Norway’s Randselva river.
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
50
LUXURY LONDON
F E AT U R E
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
51
LUXURY LONDON
F E AT U R E
GRUNDTVIG’S CHURCH, CO P E N H AG E N JORIS HOOGSTEDE Shortlisted in the ‘Interior’ category Joris Hoogstede is an architect by trade with a passion for photography. This shot of Peder Jensen-Klint’s Grundtvig’s Church earned him a place on the ‘Interior’ category shortlist. Often referred to as a gothic cathedral, the church was captured by Hoogstede during a summer trip to Copenhagen with his partner. LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
52
LUXURY LONDON
C U LT U R E
CHINA RESOURCES HQ, SHENZHEN S U Z H E W E I Shortlisted in the ‘Exterior’ category The top of China Resources HQ is the focus of this photograph by Su Zhewei. Reaching heights of almost 400m, the building, designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox, is the third tallest in Shenzhen and was completed in 2019. Focusing on the steel columns which intersect diagonally to form a diagrid pattern at the top of the tower, the image acknowledges the pointed shape of the building, which was inspired by winter bamboo shoots.
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
53
PABLO PICASSO DRAWING IN ANTIBES, SUMMER 1946, PHOTOGRAPHY ©MICHEL SIMA /BRIDGEMAN IMAGES, ©SUCCESSION PICASSO/DACS 2019
Loving
Pa bl o B E H I N D E V E R Y G R E AT M A N A R E S I X G R E AT W O M E N – O R AT L E A S T T H E R E W E R E FO R PA B LO P I C AS S O. AS A N E W B O O K C E L E B R AT E S T H E FAC E S B E H I N D T H E A R T I S T ’ S M O S T FA M O U S P O R T R A I T S , LUXURY LONDON EXPLORES HOW THE PROLIFIC WOMANISER TOOK HIS FA S C I N AT I O N W I T H T H E F E M A L E F O R M FA R B E YO N D T H E C A N VA S
Words: Ellen Millard
THIS PAGE, FROM TOP WOMEN AT THEIR TOILETTE, PABLO PICASSO, WINTER 1937–38, FROM PICASSO AND PAPER AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS, PHOTOGRAPHY ©RMNGRAND PALAIS (MUSÉE NATIONAL PICASSO-PARIS)/ADRIEN DIDIERJEAN, ©SUCCESSION PICASSO/DACS 2019; NU COUCHE (RECLINING NUDE), PABLO PICASSO, 1932, FROM BELOVED BY PICASSO AT ARKEN MUSEUM FOR MODERN ART; OPPOSITE LE SCULPTEUR, PABLO PICASSO, 1931, FROM BELOVED BY PICASSO AT ARKEN MUSEUM FOR MODERN ART
“F
or me, there are only two types of women: goddesses and doormats,” Pablo Picasso told his mistress Françoise Gilot in 1943, as the couple began their 10-year affair. It was a warning and it wasn’t Gilot’s first – a friend had already told her she was heading down a straight path to catastrophe. “I told her she was probably right, but I felt it was the kind of catastrophe I didn’t want to avoid,” the painter wrote in her 1964 memoir Life With Picasso. A decade was enough. In 1953, she left him – the only one of ‘his’ women who ever did. A serial philanderer, Picasso’s creativity seems tied to his adultery. While his affairs were innumerable, six women in particular are credited as catalysts for his artistic development, each providing inspiration for a different period of his life. Their influence came at great personal cost; of these six women, two killed themselves and two suffered severe mental illness. “He submitted them to his animal sexuality, tamed them, bewitched them, ingested them, and crushed them onto his canvas,” the artist’s granddaughter, Marina Picasso, wrote in her 2001 memoir Picasso: My Grandfather. “After he had spent many nights extracting their essence, once they were bled dry, he would dispose of them.” Venerated today as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century, Picasso’s turbulent relationships are woven into his works. Subjects once painted with tenderness later appear torn apart, rehashed as cubist creations and, in some cases, melded with other women as they overlapped in real life. “It must be painful, Picasso would say with more pride than guilt, for a woman to watch herself transformed into a monster, or fade from his work, while a new favourite
materializes in all her glory,” wrote the artist’s friend, the late Sir John Richardson in A Life of Picasso. Based on this biography, the new book Picasso’s Women: Fernande to Jacqueline (£77, gagosianshop.com) reproduces 36 artworks that depict the six muses who played a prominent role in both the artist’s life and work – intertwined as they were. First was Fernande Olivier. They met in 1904 when she was a model and he a burgeoning artist yet to find fame. Jealousy ripped through the relationship, and he forbade her from sitting for other artists. She posed for more than 60 of Picasso’s portraits and inspired several of his early Cubist works. Mutual infidelity saw the relationship come to an end in 1912, although bad blood remained between them. At the peak of Picasso’s success, Olivier sold a tell-all, serialised story to the Belgian newspaper Le Soir, which the artist’s lawyers halted six issues in. The full version wasn’t published until 1988, after both parties had died. In 1917, Picasso married the Russian ballet dancer Olga Khokhlova, his first wife and the mother of his eldest child, Paulo Picasso. She provided inspiration for a new wave of experimentation, for which the artist merged Cubist shapes with more classic approaches. When his son was born in 1921, the artist began to explore the idea of motherhood, painting Khokhlova as a maternal muse. Picasso’s picture of married bliss, however, was far from his reality. Pathologically jealous thanks to her husband’s infidelity, Khokhlova suffered from a nervous disorder that would affect her for the rest of her life. In 1921, Khokhlova’s troubles escalated further when Picasso spotted the 17-year-old Marie-Thérèse Walter in a Parisian department store. He wooed her with the lines: “You have an interesting face. I would like to create a portrait of you. I feel we are going to do great things together. I am Picasso.” They began a secret relationship, although the artist couldn’t help but reference his personal life in his work. Walter’s influence was subtle at first, but in 1932, as part of the artist’s first full-scale retrospective at the Galerie Georges
LUXURY LONDON
C U LT U R E
“For me, there are only two types of women: goddesses and doormats” LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
57
P ORTRAITS OF A L ADY WHERE TO SEE PICASSO’S WOMEN P I C A S S O A N D PA P E R This February, a major exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts will delve into Picasso’s lesser-explored medium: paper. Look out for portraits of Françoise Olivier and Dora Maar. From £18, until 13 April, Burlington House, Piccadilly, W1J, royalacademy.org.uk B E LOV E D BY P I C ASS O – THE POWER OF THE MODEL Picasso’s muses are thrown into the light at the Arken Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, where 51 sculptures, paintings, drawings and prints track Picasso’s artistic progression and the relationships that inspired him. Approx. £17, until 23 February, Skovvej 100, 2635 Ishøj, uk.arken.dk
THIS PAGE, FROM TOP LUNCHEON ON THE GRASS, AFTER MANET, I, PABLO PICASSO, 1962, COURTESY OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS, PHOTOGRAPHY ©RMN-GRAND PALAIS (MUSÉE NATIONAL PICASSO-PARIS)/ MARINE BECK-COPPOLA, ©SUCCESSION PICASSO/DACS 2019; PORTRAIT OF DORA MAAR, PABLO PICASSO, 1937, COURTESY OF THE ARKEN MUSEUM OF MODERN ART
LUXURY LONDON
C U LT U R E
Petit, he unveiled three erotic portraits of her: Nude Woman in a Red Armchair, Le Rêve and Nude, Green Leaves and Bust. For Khokhlova, it was a clear sign another woman commanded her husband’s attention, which did little to help her mental state. By 1934, her rage over the artist’s adultery had become so violent that doctors moved her out of their apartment and into a hotel. When Walter gave birth to a daughter, Maya Widmaier-Picasso, in 1935, Khokhlova filed for divorce. Picasso refused, unwilling to part with any of his money or property. She died of cancer in 1955, still married to him. Just two months after Maya was born, the artist’s attention was again redirected, this time by Dora Maar. The Surrealist photographer, who is currently the subject of a retrospective at the Tate Modern, was introduced to the artist at a Parisian café. They were together for 11 years, with Picasso expecting Maar to be at his beck and call. She was, sitting at home all day in case he needed her – despite his refusal to end his affair with Walter. Maar and Picasso’s relationship coincided with the beginning of the Spanish civil war and the portraits he painted of her reflect the political climate as much as they do his lover’s anguish. While he continued to paint Walter in bright colours, Maar was immortalised as an emotional wreck, most famously in The Weeping Woman. When they separated in 1944, Maar suffered a nervous breakdown and was moved to a private clinic at the intervention of her psychiatrist. “As an artist you may be extraordinary,” she told Picasso when he visited her, “but morally speaking you’re worthless.” Next came Gilot. Despite Picasso being 40 years her senior, the 21-year-old law student left her studies for him when they met in 1943. They moved in together after three years, the first time one of his partners had done so since his marriage. She was headstrong and left him after 10 years, taking their two children, Claude and Paloma Picasso, with her. “If I didn’t leave Picasso, he would devour me,” she said. In 1964, she released her memoir, which Picasso failed to block from publication. Furious, he refused to see their children ever again and convinced their mutual dealer to drop Gilot as a client. “Picasso was waging war on me,” she recalled, “a very dirty war, because he had all the power.” It
THIS PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT PORTRAIT OF JACQUELINE ROQUE WITH HER HANDS CROSSED, PABLO PICASSO, 1954, COURTESY OF THE ARKEN MUSEUM OF MODERN ART; BUST OF WOMAN OR SAILOR (STUDY FOR ‘LES DEMOISELLES D’AVIGNON’), PABLO PICASSO, 1907; SEATED WOMAN (DORA), PABLO PICASSO, 1938, BOTH COURTESY OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS, PHOTOGRAPHY ©RMN-GRAND PALAIS (MUSÉE NATIONAL PICASSO-PARIS)/ADRIEN DIDIERJEAN; ©SUCCESSION PICASSO/DACS 2019
was ultimately unsuccessful, and today, aged 98, she still paints. Picasso met his last love, Jacqueline Roque, in 1953. He was 71 and she 26. He won her over by drawing a dove on her house in chalk, and giving her a rose every day until she agreed to go out with him. They married, and during their 20-year relationship she provided inspiration for more than 400 of his paintings, more than any of his other partners. The portraits from this period depict a domesticity and marital tenderness unseen in previous works. In Roque, it seemed, he found stability. When Picasso died in 1973, aged 91, he left behind a destructive legacy. At the request of her husband, Roque banned most of his family from the funeral. With no will and an estate rumoured to include 45,000 paintings, £3.5m in cash and £1m in gold, a battle between his heirs ensued. “No one in my family ever managed to escape the stranglehold of his genius,” Marina Picasso wrote. Indeed, following the artist’s death, Roque spiralled into a state of depression and would eventually fatally shoot herself 13 years later. Walter hanged herself four years after his death; Picasso’s grandson Pablito died after drinking a bottle of bleach; his son, Paulo, died of alcoholism born of depression. In documenting Picasso’s life, his muses have proved invaluable. Along with Gilot and Olivier’s memoirs, Khokhlova and Walter kept extensive archives of photographs and letters, while Maar’s own works provided a visual picture. “After Picasso, there is only God,” Maar famously said, having found solace in Roman Catholicism in later life. But just as Picasso’s lovers obsessed over him, so too was he dependent on them. Each relationship represented a new era of work, and a further development in his style. In remembering the greatest artist of the 20th century, it pays to consider not just the man, but the women who made him.
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
59
CONNOISSEUR TA ST I N G N OT E S FO R T H E U R B A N E E P I C U R E A N
P.62 QUACK ON A new venture from two The Fat Duck alumni
P.66 BON VIVEUR Where to book a table in 2020
P.68 RESTAURANT REVIEW Taste testing The Franklin Restaurant
From Mexico to Marylebone, Santiago Lastra is the René Redzepi-approved chef bringing seasonal locavore-inspired dishes to Seymour Place this May (p.66)
DUCK, DUCK, GO
AT T H E I R N E W B E R M O N D S E Y V E N T U R E T R I V E T, T H E FAT D U C K A L U M N I J O N N Y L A K E A N D I S A B A L S T E P AWAY F R O M T H E I N F L U E N C E O F M E N T O R H E S TO N B L U M E N T H A L W I T H A N I D I O S Y N C R AT I C , I N V E N T I V E M E N U A N D I N G E N I O U S W I N E L I S T T H AT E A R N T H E M A P L A C E A M O N G L O N D O N ’ S TO P TA B L E S
Words: Chris Allsop
I
’m sitting in the airy, golden-hued surrounds of Trivet in Bermondsey’s Snowsfields, while owners Jonny Lake and Isa Bal – both previously of Berkshire’s award-winning The Fat Duck – resist my efforts to pigeonhole their new restaurant. “How would we describe the cuisine?” Lake muses behind thick-rimmed spectacles, not entirely unlike those of Heston Blumenthal’s, his old former boss. “When you look at restaurant guides, there’s always that category with generally meaningless titles like ‘Modern British’ or ‘Contemporary European’…. I guess we could just say that, and then people would be okay.” They laugh. Next I ask about their interest in biodynamic and natural wines, to which master sommelier Bal smiles beneath his souffle of curly greyblack hair. “I actually like the wine to be good more than anything else.” So it’s quickly established that these are not men overly concerned with fitting in. “Why ‘Trivet’?” In a city of Sexy Fish, push-forchampagne buttons, and 12ft samurai warriors the name – for a common three-legged cooking utensil once used to keep pots away from open coals – seems refreshingly down-to-earth. This observation seems to please them, as did the discovery, while they were researching trivets on Wikipedia, that its ‘arrangement of three legs is the most stable apparatus over uneven ground’. “We were like, oh, yeah, okay,” Lake laughs. “Opening our own restaurant in London right now – that’s about the most uneven ground you can probably get.” It’s an an observation that makes their gimmickfree launch all the more surprising. But then, that ignores their cachet – Bal was group head sommelier and Lake executive head chef when The Fat Duck was named number one on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. Their low-key approach chimes with the sense that these are pros not pursuing celebrity, but excellence. In fact, so respected are they that within the first month of opening, a stream of chefs – including Pierre Koffmann, Simon Rogan and Tom
Bal was head sommelier and Lake executive head chef when The Fat Duck was named the world’s best restaurant
Kerridge – all popped in to check Trivet out. Later, as I peruse Trivet’s heavyweight bar menu, which offers everything from wagyu tongue to Ligurian braised rabbit, Bal (a former Best Sommelier in Europe title holder) pours me a champagne aperitif. I ask him if he has any nerves about striking out on his own. “I don’t do nerves,” he smiles, sounding a little like an assassin. Following the opposites-law of partnerships, it may be that Lake is the more anxious one, but after producing precise, world-leading cuisine day-in, day-out for more than a decade, probably not. Trivet’s menu is an expression of their teamwork – the pair worked on each dish together, their relationship now such, according to Lake, that they can say anything to one another without worrying how the other might take it. I consider the significance of that while exploring the relatively short à la carte list of five starters and five mains. Perhaps they don’t agree too often. An à la carte is also a surprise from such doyens of tasting menus. But wanting a change of pace is understandable at 47 – they’re the same age – and they claim to have never wanted to open a “once-in-a-lifetime restaurant”. Just as well, as the enticing menu is resisting my attempts to whittle it down. My starter, when it arrives, is an architectural marvel – a rose of truffle slices rising out of an upturned artichoke heart, encircled by a moat of sourdough broth. It’s autumn on a plate – homey and warming – with tangy notes from the tiny fermented radishes. For all its loveliness, it does leave me wanting a little more – and that little more is the puffini across the table.
LUXURY LONDON
CONNOISSEUR
Within, Bal, in an effort to make a less “transactional wine list”, has arranged the wines (ranging from £28 to around £1,000 a bottle) as a way of illustrating the history of wine-making, so we get Armenian and Turkish wines early on, with a playful ‘Mars wines’ section at the end (sadly empty). Beyond Mars, is the currently 20-strong sake section, to which Bal seems particularly dedicated. I discover, at Bal’s recommendation, that the Kimoto Junmai Daiginjo ‘Tuxedo’ is dynamite as a digestif. If you’d prefer a more gateway sake experience, summon the Hokkaido Potato dessert with its sake gelato and white chocolate and sake mousse. While the slightly charred mohawk of potato crowning the intricate mille-feuille didn’t bowl me over visually, it’s a heavenly dish of strange and subtle charms. For all the menu’s brevity, you’ll want to come back and try everything (reserve a table in the room with the open kitchen, for the better ambiance). It’s like a tasting menu masquerading as an à la carte. Seasonality will affect the menu’s components, but Lake’s in no rush to switch out dishes. He shakes his head at the thought of chefs with daily changing menus, lamenting that “dishes never have a chance to become better”. As to how to pigeonhole the cuisine, well, there are influences from everywhere, but they belong to only one place. Happily for us, that place is in Bermondsey.
There’s been a lot of social media hoo-ha over Trivet’s Hokkaido potato and its roast pigeon – we’ll come to those shortly – but, for my money, the puffini is where it’s at. Its origin is in the panini machine Lake and Bal inherited from the excellent Londrino – the previous inhabitant of the space. Head chef Michele Stanco (also previously of The Fat Duck) shoved some puff pastry in the machine, and – with the addition of onion-infused sour cream, pea mousse, caviar, and a mirin sabayon dip – the puffini toasted sandwich was born. Its richness is beautifully balanced by a wild bitter salad comprised of whatever the restaurant’s forager brings in that week. Just as we’re considering cancelling the mains for extra puffini, along comes the pigeon on our server’s gleaming copper tray. It’s one of the most fragrant mains I’ve eaten, the meat seasoned with Malagasy white pepper and the dish infused with three different preparations of persimmon. The melting tenderness of the pigeon is chiefly achieved by marinating the bird in yoghurt and milk. It’s good enough to make me forget the puffini for several minutes, and it pairs very nicely with the spicy, plummy bottle of Turkish büyülüba shah 2012, which is a good time to talk about the wine list. Of course, with Bal presiding, this is no ordinary wine list. Diners of a certain wealthy Orange Countytourist ilk will ask if they can buy a copy, I’m sure. Produced like a coffee table tome, its two-inch-thick yellow spine is embossed with the word ‘cellar’.
36 Snowsfields, SE1, trivetrestaurant.co.uk
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
65
MISE EN PLACE I N T R O D U C I N G T H E C H E F S A N D R E S TA U R AT E U R S B E H I N D T H E M O S T H O T LY A N T I C I P AT E D O P E N I N G S O F 2 0 2 0
Words: Nick Savage
T
he end of 2019 saw some of the world’s top culinary talent launch fine-dining projects across the capital. Eleven Madison Park’s Daniel Humm created an instant classic with the Davies and Brook restaurant at Claridge’s; The Fat Duck’s star chef Jonny Lake and sommelier Isa Bal upped sticks from Bray to open their own restaurant, Trivet, at London Bridge; and Tom Aikens, who became the youngest British chef to be awarded two Michelin stars in 1996, opened his second location in Chelsea with Muse. And, London being London, 2020 is already looking just as promising for the capital’s epicureans.
KOLRHABI CEVICHE AT KOL, COURTESY OF LAURA LAJH
LUXURY LONDON
CONNOISSEUR
MANZI’S, W1 When it comes to restaurants, Chris Corbin and Jeremy King have repeatedly proved they have the Midas touch, from Le Caprice and The Wolseley to recent openings such as Soutine. Manzi’s is set to be one of their largest projects to date. Opening in spring 2020 on Bateman Street, Soho, the 240-cover restaurant will span two floors and be flooded with natural light, serving as an homage to Old Soho. The menu is devoted to seafood and the interiors will evoke timeless nautical scenes. As with any Corbin and King opening, expect the critics to gush and the punters to book in advance.
LOUIE, WC2 Louie has all the hallmarks of an epochal opening. Guillaume Glipa (Chiltern Firehouse, Coya, Zuma) has partnered with top French hospitality group Paris Society for a joint venture that will launch Slade Rushing’s first site outside of the US. Famous for Brennan’s in New Orleans, Rushing has been showered with accolades for his cooking, which splices trad Creole cooking with French techniques and New York attitude. Louie will launch in the multi-floor townhouse that formerly housed L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon on West Street, Covent Garden, with a design executed by French duo Dion et Arles, who are leaning into The Great Gatsby and Coco Chanel for inspiration.
F A L L O W, W 1 Regarded as the premier site for highconcept pop-ups, 10 Heddon Street has earned a massive following, with chefs Chris Leach and David Carter dishing up superlative Italian food during their residency. Shaun Presland was next to take over, offering Japanese just so with his Pacific residency. The next chapter for the venue in 2020 will be Fallow, due to open in March, captained by Jack Croft and William Murray, who worked together at Dinner By Heston. Sustainability will be the lifeblood of the restaurant, which looks to elevate humble produce to lofty new heights.
NOBLE ROT SOHO, W1 Noble Rot co-founders Dan Keeling and Mark Andrews excel at launching new projects, from the industry-beating Noble Rot alt wine mag to their Bloomsbury wine bar, which has become a mustvisit destination for gastronomes and oenophiles alike. For their sophomore Rot venue, they’ve taken over the historic site of the Gay Hussar on Soho’s Greek Street, which infamously served as the hotbed for many a political plot. For anyone unversed in what Noble Rot offers, it pairs one of the most enviable wine lists on the planet with exceptional modern British cuisine.
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
67
Man-about-town, Innerplace’s Nick Savage, gives you the insider lowdown on London’s most hedonistic haunts Innerplace is London’s personal lifestyle concierge. Membership provides complimentary access to the finest nightclubs, the best restaurants and top private members’ clubs. Innerplace also offers priority bookings, updates on the latest openings and hosts its own regular parties. Membership starts from £100 a month, innerplace.co.uk
KO L , W 1 Santiago Lastra had firmly cemented his reputation as a world-class chef long before creating his first permanent restaurant. Picked by René Redzepi to helm the Noma Mexico pop-up in 2017, he foraged ingredients and created meals in 27 countries over two years, wowed critics with a weekly supper club at his Acton residence and garnered a cult following with a varied array of pop-ups. My mind was blown when I sampled his lamb asador tacos during a barbecue at the Slobodné Vinárstvo vineyard in Slovakia. Using local foraged ingredients, Lastra shines a light on Mexican cuisine as both a deeply delicious and deeply dynamic platform for seasonal locavore-inspired cooking. If his bricks-and-mortar opening at Marylebone’s Seymour Place is in the same league as his other endeavours, which it almost surely will be, London is in for a treat. Stay tuned for May 2020.
LUXURY LONDON
CONNOISSEUR
REVIEW
THE FRANKLIN R E S TA U R A N T by Alfredo Russo A S E C R E T H O T E L - R E S TA U R A N T I N S O U T H K E N S I N GTO N M I G H T J U ST S E RV E T H E M O ST S O P H I S T I C AT E D I TA L I A N I N L O N D O N
Words: Richard Brown
Q
uintessentially English on the outside, voluptuously Italian on the inside, The Franklin Hotel is Colin Firth from the street and Gina Lollobrigida from reception. Opened by family-run, Florence-headquartered Starhotels in 2016, the 35-bedroom property is four Victorian townhouses knocked into one on Knightsbridge’s elegant Egerton Crescent (a five minute-stroll from South Kensington tube station). There’s little from the hotel’s rigid, red brick facade to point towards the elaborate glamour within, save for a small navy flag with an ‘F’ printed in the middle. Blink and you’ll miss it. Forty years ago, when actress-turnedhotelier Anouska Hempel opened
Blakes Hotel (also in South Ken) in 1978, the zeitgeisty guesthouse was touted as the world’s first bona fide five-star boutique hotel. Four decades later, Hempel returned to SW3 to inject her signature style, and meticulous eye for detail, into The Franklin. The result is a small, hyper-stylish space of different levels, dark corridors, filigree furniture, heavy stone floors, deep velvet armchairs and a moody, monochrome colour palette that’s as cosy and comforting as it is sultry and seductive. The Franklin’s la dolce vita credentials are helped by the fact that its bar is headed by Italian compatriots Filippo Tacchi and Luca Milesi, both of whom left Chiltern Firehouse to helm what must surely be one of London’s chicest – and under-the-radar – drinking dens. Within a classicallyattuned cocktail list, Messrs Tacchi and Milesi have devised an Old Fashioned that blends rye whisky with bourbon and mixes the result with chocolateflavoured water – it’s really rather magic. The Italian theme continues into The Franklin Restaurant, which is overseen by Michelin-star chef Alfredo Russo. Named Italy’s ‘Best Young Chef’ by the L’Espresso Guide in 2004, then aged just 22, Russo has subsequently built up a reputation for inventive Italian cooking via stints at some of
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
68
Europe’s most illustrious Michelinstarred restaurants. The space itself is glitzy, Gatsbyesque and lined with oversized gildedmirrors – best to choose a window seat if you don’t like eating while staring at your own reflection. There are only 30 covers, so it’s intimate – ideal for a date. Russo’s signature dishes – which include slow-cooked octopus with Piedmont potato foam, and a vegetable soup made with more than 18 vegetables – were recently bolstered by a new selection of seasonal plates. A four-cheese bronze, silver and goldgilded potato gnocchi might have been the best thing I ate in 2019. The hen tortelli with Parmigiano fondue and lime zest wasn’t far behind. The chestnut cake with mascarpone cream is a wonderfully warm and wintery way to finish. Unlike its surroundings, the menu at The Franklin Restaurant keeps things simple. Honest dishes have minimal ingredients. Flavour does the talking. It may not have the star pull of London’s better-known Italians but make no mistake, The Franklin serves some of the finest Italian in the capital. Ciao. The Franklin Restaurant by Alfredo Russo, 24 Egerton Gardens, SW3, starhotelscollezione.com
Create Memories at
This winter, take a seat in our contemporary dining room for a Michelin-starred experience like no other. Build your own dining experience with our a la carte offering, or let our chefs guide you with our seasonal tasting menus. Whether a business lunch, birthday or anniversary, we’ll make sure every visit is as special as can be. With two distinct private dining spaces available, including our intimate chef’s table, celebrating with your nearest and dearest over lunch or dinner couldn’t be easier. OPEN SEVEN DAYS A WEEK, LUNCH AND DINNER
The Berkeley Wilton Place London SW1X 7RL www.marcusrestaurant.com 020 7235 1200
Luxury London-January 2019 edition-Maxlight.indd 1
12/12/2018 3:57 pm
INTERIORS I T ’ S W H AT ’ S I N S I D E T H AT CO U N T S
P.78 BAR NONE The decadent drinks cabinents in which to keep your best tipple
P.80 THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK Meet the interior designer inspired by the Romans
From twisting marble steps to statement steel centrepieces, discover why decorative staircases are on the up (p.72)
U P S T A I R S DOWNSTAIRS FORM OR FUNCTION? THESE SURREAL S TAT E M E N T S TA I R C A S E S B R I D G E T H E G A P – L I T E R A L LY A N D F I G U R A T I V E LY
Words: Anna Prendergast
©CHAO ZHANG
N
ew York’s latest tourist attraction, thanks to its appearance in The Joker, isn’t a heritage building, or a skyscraper with a view, or a cultural pit-stop. It’s a staircase. Since the film’s release in October 2019, a flurry of Joaquin Phoenix impersonators have danced down the stairway that connects Shakespeare and Anderson Avenues in the Bronx. Meanwhile, over in Manhattan, Thomas Heatherwick’s award-winning art installationVessel in Hudson Yards was completed in the style of subterranean Indian stepwells (and features 2,500 steps itself). As well as the obvious motifs stairways allow cinematographers and artists to explore (think Alfred Hitchcock’s tension-building in Vertigo or James Cameron’s blurring of class and power boundaries in Titanic), our fascination with staircases is practical, too. They pose a challenge for architects, who must consider functionality within the restraints of space, structure, safety and design. That said, it’s the most impractical that have been garnering attention lately. The Other Place hotel in Guilin Litopia, China, has flipped convention on its head, taking inspiration from Penrose’s ‘impossible steps’ (as immortalised in M.C. Escher’s illusory Ascending and Descending print). With steps
©RORY GARDINER, TASOU ASSOCIATES
LUXURY LONDON
INTERIORS
THE RUMA (left) In Kuala Lumpur, MQ Studio took design cues from Malaysia’s mining history at The RuMa Hotel and Residences, with two symmetrical drill-like structures powering down through the lobby ceiling. CREIGHTON & SON (below and right) The North West London metal specialist created the dramatic sweeps of steel at both 9 Jeffrey’s Place in Camden and De Beauvoir House in Hackney, where creamy interiors and blonde wood treads create a striking contrast.
The sinuous Dalí-esque design at London restaurant Hide became just as much of a talking point as Ollie Dabbous’ food ©RORY GARDINER, TASOU ASSOCIATES
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
75
©CHAO ZHANG
THE OTHER PLACE (above) Studio 10 designed four out of the 10 guest rooms at The Other Place, including Dream (above) and Maze (page 72). With double-height ceilings and mezzanines, the angular stairlike features add texture and bend perspective in the uncluttered spaces. theotherplace-guilinlitopia.com EDITION BARCELONA (above right) As guests descend the sculptural staircase from the Punch Room at Edition Barcelona, they’re greeted by a reproduction of Savlador Dalí’s Leda chair. editionhotels.com ALEX MACARTHUR (right) A beautifully patinated iron spiral staircase from France (circa 1890) in antique dealer Alex MacArthur’s showroom. Based in Rye, MacArthur specialises in conversationstarting, eyebrow-raising statement pieces. £6,950, appointment only, alexmacarthur.co.uk HIDE RESTAURANT (opposite) The vine-like stairwell by Atmos Studios coils around the bar on the basement floor of Hide. Ask to be taken to the trap door, which connects to sister-company Hedonism Wine. hide.co.uk
LUXURY LONDON
INTERIORS
appearing upside-down, leading to nowhere, and casting zigzagging shadows, the angular 10-bedroom hotel has a surreal quality at odds with Yangshuo County’s traditional nature. Like Ricardo Bofill’s 70s housing project La Muralla Roja in Spain, it’s got more in common with the casbahs of North Africa, with their crenellated walls and corregated stairwells. A century after the Surrealism movement peaked in Europe, it’s being slowly built back into homes and hotels across the world by architects such as Studio 10, which created The Other Place, and Atmos Studios, whose sinuous Dalí-esque design at London restaurant Hide became just as much of a talking point as Ollie Dabbous’ food in 2018. While popular styles have moved away from the grandeur of imperial staircases or the romance of a spiral, cutting edge architects have stamped their own identity using boxy geometrics and industrial shapes in oxidised metallics, dark oak and matte palettes, without an intricate banister or an Art Deco carpet in sight. Feature staircases play a key part in the visuals at Studio 54-founder Ian Schrager’s hotel groups Edition and Public, which have developed their own cosmopolitan brand of cool, and no one can resist a holiday snap of the lobbies and landings through which they twist and turn. Residential properties, too, are centering their design around staircases that are solid and perennial, rather than rococo. Dramatic folds of unpolished metal or unfurling
ribbons of patinated steel, such as bespoke creations by Creighton & Son, create contrast and fluidity between levels. “An architect will usually approach us with an impossible idea,” says Charlie Creighton. “It’s our job to physically make it and keep it functional without losing the original idea. The best part of building staircases like these is returning to the site once the space around them is finished – sometimes when you focus on one really challenging part of a building, you can forget how it will all come together in the end.”
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
77
LUXURY LONDON
F E AT U R E
CABINET MEMBERS W E C AST O U R VOT E FO R T H E R E A L PA R T Y L E A D E R S O F 2 0 2 0 : H O M E B A R S
Words: Anna Prendergast
Rockstar bar, £5,000; busterandpunch.com
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
78
1
3 4
2
Dry January is over, and it’s time to find a proper home for that Château Lafite 1990 that you generously gifted yourself this Christmas. As we enter the Twenties 2.0, a century after Prohibition drove drinkers indoors and caused clandestine bars to crop up all over the United States, home bars are an increasingly stylish storage solution for the sort of bottles that don’t deserve to be hidden away. For the ultimate power move, install one in your private office, such as Buster & Punch’s Rockstar console. The company’s commitment to craftsmanship in everything from motorcycles to lighting fixtures is echoed in the console’s construction – in American walnut and quilted silk, it’s a sexy bit of kit for decanting whiskey and wine. Designers are also getting ahead of the curve with circular bars, from Green Apple’s jet-black Sahara Noir marble orb to PIB’s spherical centrepiece. Whether you opt for lacquered wood or burnished brass, the most important part is the contents: make sure it’s well stocked with ice, garnishes, accessories and, of course, that 1990 Lafite.
9
7
5
6
1. Stainless steel corkscrew, £40, georgjensen.com 2. 1 960s Mauro Manetti pineapple ice bucket, £1,065, 1stdibs.co.uk 3. Sterling silver cocktail shaker, £9,250, asprey.com 4. B ar globe with brushed metallic finish, £1,700, pib-home.co.uk 5. S ahara Noir marble bar, POA, greenapple.pt 6. Sycamore bar cabinet by Michael Ryan Architects, £5,618, 1stdibs.co.uk 7. Kara drinks trolley, £375, grahamandgreen.co.uk 8. B 126 Bluemoon bar cabinet, £10,420, 1stdibs.co.uk 9. M irrored bar cabinet, POA, northern.no
8
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
79
FORCE O F N AT U R E F R O M R O M A N A R C H A E O L O G Y A N D T H E N AT U R A L W O R L D T O A G E - O L D P R O D U C T I O N T E C H N I Q U E S A N D T H E C A P I TA L ’ S I D I O S Y N C R AT I C ARCHITECTURE, I N T E R I O R D E S I G N E R F I O N A B A R R AT T- C A M P B E L L R E V E A L S T H E I N S P I R AT I O N B E H I N D H E R T I M E L E S S S T Y L E
Words: Annabel Harrison
I
’m unlikely to be relieving the FBC London showroom of my favourite piece anytime soon, not just because I’d be unable to accommodate the £16,950 Hadrian console in the confines of my home but also because it weighs about 300kg. Fiona Barratt-Campbell smiles. “Needs about six men to lift it – it’s a bad boy!” The console’s “strong and solid” design was inspired by Hadrian’s Wall – the defensive Roman fortification in Northumberland, the county where BarrattCampbell grew up – and scored detailing on its solid cast bronze legs reflects that of pottery found on a local archaeological dig. A classics enthusiast myself, I enjoy speaking to Barratt-Campbell about her love of all things Roman and the inspiration she draws from its rich history, architecture and production methods. Direct, passionate and professional, she was listed as one of three tastemakers on Walpole’s British luxury Power List 2019. Floris’s head of marketing Alex Oprey and the Corinthia Hotel London’s MD Thomas Kochs completed the trio of “influencers with a great network who others look to for advice and inspiration”. Barratt-Campbell founded her eponymous architecture and interior design studio 14 years ago. She also creates custom-made furniture, lighting and accessories through her own FBC London collection, launched in 2014, with 98 per cent of its pieces produced in the UK. Projects in the pipeline include the Chelsea Power Station atrium, a luxury hotel in Hong Kong and a country house in North Yorkshire. Her book, Fiona Barratt-Campbell: Elemental was published by Rizzoli in October and sets out to showcase interiors that “marry a sense of opulence with bold, material simplicity”. The designer tells us more about how she blends contemporary textures and bursts of colour with natural materials, 20th-century antiques and millennia-old production techniques.
How would you sum up the Fiona Barratt Interiors design approach? It’s luxurious in terms of excellent space planning and the use of textures, which is what we’re known for – it’s kind of our USP. Every piece of furniture is considered and beautiful in its own right, but as a package they work together. It’s a comfortable, understated textural experience, and liveable – virtually all of our clients have children, and I have three under eight. My home looks beautiful and it’s still practical. Interiors are expensive so things have to last for at least 10 years and wear well. Where does your inspiration come from? It was really interesting to revisit projects I did 10 years ago, while doing my book for Rizzoli, because they still look current. My style is timeless. I don’t follow trends. I do what is right for the client, the building and the location. I’m inspired by nature and cultures, and Roman history and architecture; I grew up around all these Roman heritage sites. The Romans were so far advanced as a group of people and I’m just fascinated by their use of textures and materials. I like to weave that in. Nature is always evolving – constantly changing forms and colours and patterns – so that gives you a good grounding. You can’t go wrong if you stay true to your inspiration. How different do you find designing hospitality spaces and residential projects? For hospitality spaces, you’re designing for a broad demographic, so you really have to know your market, whereas when you’re designing residential it’s very particular and personal because it’s for a client. It’s nice to have a balance of both within the studio. We get to be involved in different cultures, different environments, different climates, and different types of building: beach, ski, city, country.
LUXURY LONDON
INTERIORS
GRADE II LISTED APARTMENT IN KENSINGTON GARDENS, LONDON
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
83
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT FAMILY HOME IN HARROGATE, YORKSHIRE; DEVELOPMENT IN MOSCOW, RUSSIA; A GEORGIAN HOUSE IN SOMERSET
LUXURY LONDON
INTERIORS
“You wouldn’t come to us if you were looking for a repro of Louis XIV’s Palace of Versailles” The Hadrian console is a standout piece in the FBC London collection. What makes it so special? There’s a huge value just in the raw metal costs. It’s amazing to watch the production – bullions of bronze are melted down then the liquid is poured into the mould. It’s a fascinating process and this is one thing I love about having my own furniture line. We are working with artisans who are using 3,000-year-old techniques, i.e. bronze casting, right through to laser-cutting machines and high-pressure air guns that can spray a metal patina onto furniture, which we didn’t have 30 years ago – super-old heritage techniques working with very modern technology. How much has social media influenced your work in recent years? All our clients come with their own Pinterest boards. It actually makes our job very hard. When I started in the industry 16 years ago, the internet was up and running, but not everyone had a website. Back in the day, if this wasn’t your industry, you didn’t have access to all of the furniture because it was kept for the trade. Now everyone has access to everything. It makes it hard for clients to define their vision for a project because they are so overwhelmed. So often we have people come in and say, ‘we’ve tried to do the project ourselves but don’t know where to start’ because there is too much choice. It’s about refining that choice and understanding what is your vision for the project.
Is there a unifying thread among your London clients in terms of the look they want? People have seen the brand and they like it. You wouldn’t come to us if you were looking for a repro of Louis XIV’s Palace of Versailles because we’re not the people who would do that for you. The most common feedback from new clients is that they like our level of detail and that’s what draws them in. The design integrity throughout a space is extremely considered, in terms of the finishes, the layout, the lighting, the textures, and how everything is pulled together, but it still feels calm; it’s not in your face. How do you ensure your own furniture stands the test of time? What we’re looking at is creating antiques for the future; well made, timeless in their design and which can be passed on through generations. They work in modern environments – new builds – and also in listed Georgian properties, so it’s about creating things that are going to last. I like quality and I like producing quality items that will be around for a long time. You get what you pay for at the end of the day.
What do you think makes London’s architecture unique? I love the modern mix sitting against very old listed properties. I think that diversity of architecture is what makes London quite unique – not only the shapes and styles but also the materiality of buildings. The Studio, 12 Francis Street, SW1P, fionabarrattinteriors.com; The Showroom, 66 Pimlico Road, SW1W, fbc-london.com
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
85
COUTURE CUT FROM A DIFFERENT CLOTH
P.88 GET YOUR COAT The designers reinventing the trench
P.100 CAPITAL GAINS The best of London Fashion Week Men’s
P.104 MEASURE OF A MAN Meet Gieves & Hawkes’ creative director
Former principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company, Masha Dashkina Maddux swaps her leotard for a Dior dress in a new book by Rizzoli (p.90)
C OAT TA L E S THE EVOLUTION OF A WARDROBE STAPLE: Introducing the trench coat 2.0 Words: Ellen Millard
F
rom war-time symbol to modern day staple, the timeless trench has a storied past. Its origins are hazy – both Aquascutum and Burberry claim to have created the coat – but it was Thomas Burberry who introduced the United Kingdom War Office to the practicalities of the trench in 1901, having invented the weatherproof fabric gabardine in 1879. Burberry’s design would go on to shroud the shoulders of British soldiers for two world wars, before infiltrating itself into the wardrobes of civilians back home. For SS20, the seasonal staple
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP MICHAEL KORS COLLECTION SPRING 2020 CAMPAIGN; SIMONE ROCHA SS20; £750, MSGM, MATCHESFASHION.COM; £223, THEFRANKIESHOP.COM
LUXURY LONDON
COUTURE
has been rebranded. Belt and doublebreast intact, the trench coat 2.0 takes the best of its original design and mixes it with contemporary cuts, fabrics and embellishments. See Simone Rocha for ruffled hems, Michael Kors Collection for power shoulders, and Gabriela Hearst for concertina pleats. At Fendi and The Frankie Shop, gabardine made way for buttery leather in shades of khaki and terracota, merging two trends in one. Even at Burberry, rules were broken: creative director Riccardo Tisci embellished signature cuts with gold chain and silk scarf trims, putting a new spin on a heritage design.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT £2,370, BOTTEGAVENETA.COM; £1,810, MATCHESFASHION.COM; TORY BURCH SS20; MICHAEL KORS COLLECTION SPRING 2020; JW ANDERSON SS20
CLOCKWISE FROM RIGHT SS20 PORTS 1961; £5,900, FENDI, NET-A-PORTER.COM; £625, PALMER/HARDING, MATCHESFASHION.COM; £3,250, GABRIELA HEARST, MATCHESFASHION.COM; BURBERRY SS20
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
89
A N E W B O O K B Y R I Z Z O L I E X P L O R E S W H Y D A N C E A N D FA S H I O N M A K E F O R T H E P E R F E C T PA S D E D E U X
Words: Ellen Millard
Dancers Laurel Dalley Smith, Leslie Williams, So Young An, Anne O’Donnell, Anne Souder, and Charlotte Landreau wear costumes created by dancer Martha Graham for the Night Journey performance as part of the Martha Graham Dance Company.
When Maria Grazia Chiuri, artistic director of Dior, was asked to design a series of clothes for the Martha Graham Dance Company, she “took great inspiration from the work of a number of artists, including Loïe Fuller, Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham and Pina Bausch, who used dance as a way of breaking free.” Just as her creations work for the stage, so do her predeccessors’; here, Calvin Royal III, soloist at the American Ballet Theatre, wears a dramatic vintage Dior cape, sourced by New York Vintage.
LUXURY LONDON
COUTURE
hen Coco Chanel was tasked with creating costumes for the progressive travelling dance group the Ballets Russes in 1924, she made a crucial error in her design. Selecting knitted bathing suits from her spring collection, the designer favoured form over function. Beautiful though the suits were, they were entirely impractical; when the male dancers held their female companions, the silky fabric would slip through their fingers, and they risked dropping them mid-step. It wasn’t an easy partnership, but Chanel’s collaboration with Ballets Russes at the very least began a new era for costume design – one that incorporated high fashion into the discipline of dance, steered by skilled costume departments that had a better grasp, as it were, of the considerations of choreography. On modern stages, courtiers continue to have influence. At the New York City Ballet’s annual Fall Fashion Gala, young choreographers and fashion designers work together to create exciting new productions, in a scheme that has seen the likes of Valentino, Virgil Abloh and Gareth Pugh participate. Similarly, Erdem created 21 ethereal costumes for a Royal Opera House production in 2018, while the Royal Ballet has worked with designers Jasper Conran and Gareth Pugh, and Sadler’s Wells enlisted the expertise of Alexander McQueen in 2009, Hussein Chalayan in 2015 and Dries Van Noten in 2017. “No one can move or bring to life to an item of clothing quite like a dancer,” says photographer Deborah Ory. “Once you put the clothing on a professional dancer, it takes on a new life, adds expression, feeling and shape. Fashion naturally becomes intertwined with dance.”
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
93
Principal dancer at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Jacqueline Green (pictured), says she loves dancing in flowing clothes because they “make you feel and look like you’re floating or flying”. But for Gilles Mendel, creative director of J. Mendel, “the true alchemy comes down to the dancers themselves. Their grace and athleticism bring the clothes, quite literally, to new heights.”
“Wearing clothing creates an exciting and imperative form of self-expression,” says fashion designer Iris Van Herpen, who dressed American Ballet Theatre principal Christine Shevchenko (pictured) in the book. “I find that form complements and changes perception of the body, and thus, the inherent emotion. Movement, so essential to and in the body, is just as important in how I approach my work. By bringing form, structure, and materials together, I try to suggest and realise optimal tension and movement.”
LUXURY LONDON
COUTURE
Together with her husband Ken Browar, Ory has produced a collection of photographs capturing some of the world’s leading dancers in clothing by the most celebrated couturiers, both past and present. Published in a new book, The Style of Movement: Fashion & Dance, the project aimed to capture the relationship between the two disciplines, dressing the likes of American Ballet Theatre principal Misty Copeland, New York City Ballet principal Tiler Peck and Mariinsky Ballet principal Xander Parish in costumes by Valentino, Versace and Dior. “Dancers have unique ways of movement,” Ory says, “and it’s a movement that allows the clothing to take on a life of its own and become another element in the photograph. The clothing is like a partner for the dancer, allowing for unique and interesting shapes to be created, while also adding emphasis to the emotion and mood of the image.” In preparation for the shoot, the couple spent hours watching runway shows and picking the pieces they dreamed of using, before approaching fashion houses to ask for permission. Some were archive designs, borrowed from museums and sourced by vintage experts, while others were leant from the designers themselves. “I was drawn to designers who have been inspired by dance,” Ory explains. “Issey Miyake, Valentino, Dior and Iris Van Herpen were some of the first designers I gravitated towards. We were looking for pieces that would not look like fashion from a particular time period, but rather were classic. And, of course, it was important to find pieces that moved well with the dancers.” In the case of Valentino, the designer personally picked out two vintage pieces for Tiler Peck to wear – one of which appears on the cover of the book. “I have always designed thinking about the movement of the woman wearing the dress – where she would wear it, how she would move in it and what it means to her,” the designer writes in the book’s foreword. “A dress should never be designed just to be viewed from just one angle; movement must be considered in an entire 360-degree point of view. Wearing clothing is about expressing emotion – just the way dance is.”
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
97
The Style of Movement: Fashion & Dance by Ken Browar and Deborah Ory, approx. £77, rizzoliusa.com
DISCOVER THE
BEAUTY
HEALTHCARE . PHARMACY . SKINCARE . WELLBEING
LUXURY LONDON
PROMOTION
THE CITY EDIT
THE ROYAL EXCHANGE, EC3V THEROYALEXCHANGE.CO.UK
F O R G I F T S T O G O U R M E T E X P E R I E N C E S , T H E R O YA L E X C H A N G E H A S G O T Y O U C O V E R E D T H I S VA L E N T I N E ’ S D AY
CASTLE FINE ART They say a picture paints a thousand words, so those confessing their love this Valentine’s Day should consider doing so with a limited-edition print. Passioniate by Brazilian pop artist Romero Britto is the perfect piece. £1,650, 35 Royal Exchange
JO MALONE LONDON Jo Malone London’s travel candle set makes for the ultimate gift for your flame, old or new. Monochrome packaging decorated with a dainty heart-motif seals the deal. £69, 24 Royal Exchange
SPARKLING TEA, £16.95, FORTNUM & MASON, CENTRAL COURTYARD
RAISE A GLASS TO VALENTINE’S DAY AT FORTNUM & MASON’S SPEED-DATING EVENT If your Tinder swipes have been more left than right recently, why not try dating of the more traditional kind? For
Valentine’s Day, Fortnum & Mason at The Royal Exchange is hosting a series of speeddating events, during which guests will have 15 fourminute mini dates. If you’re partner isn’t to your taste, the accompanying Fortnum’s dishes and drinks surely will
be, with each night centered around a different theme. Expect Cheese and Wine, Fortnum’s Favourites and Plant-Based delights. 11, 12 and 13 February, for more information visit fortnumandmason.com/events
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
99
PRETTY BALLERINAS Part of supermodel Alessandra Ambrosio’s debut collection for Pretty Ballerinas, this cherry red clutch bag features a kitsch ballet pump embellishment in a nod to the brand’s name. £199, 30 Royal Exchange
THE BEST OF LONDON FASHION WEEK MEN’S MOVE OVER PARIS AND MILAN, THE AW20 EDITION OF LFWM PROVED THAT NO ONE DOES DYNAMISM QUITE LIKE THE BRANDS THAT SHOWCASE AT THE CAPITAL’S BI-ANNUAL FASHION WEEKEND. MAKE SOME SPACE IN YOUR WARDROBE
Words: Shane C. Kurup
Lou Dalton Lou Dalton’s forte is always the story on which her collections are built. AW20 referenced her father’s Teddy Boy wardrobe of his youth and felt like a love-letter to the British Isles – from tartan coats to fair isle knits, it was patriotic to the last stitch. Unsurprising, seeing as Dalton chose to join forces with two of Britain’s greatest style exports: Derbyshire knitwear label John Smedley – which has been in the woollens game since 1784 – and Gloverall, the creator of the iconic duffle coat, favoured by Second World War Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. Dalton’s fresh take on raglan-sleeve overcoats with reversible hoods married style with function. Ombre mohair, jacquard lambswool and fine-gauge merino knits rounded off the collection with a visually appealing and winter-appropriate note. loudalton.com
Chalayan Throughout his career, Turkish-Cypriotborn Brit Hussein Chalayan has looked to indigenous cultures for inspiration. For AW20, he turned his creative eye towards Australia and the Orient, utilising patterns of Aboriginal folk songs in fabrics, while drop-shouldered felted-wool coats and capacious trousers took their form from ceremonial and agricultural apparel of the Far East. The collection’s structured tailoring owed more to sculptural architecture than to traditional draping – which Chalayan refers to as ‘framing’ – a technique that has won the designer industry-wide acclaim since the early ‘90s. Exaggerated-pleat trousers and oversized blazers imparted a sense of comfort and fluidity. Men sick of squeezing themselves into their slim-cut two-pieces on weekdays are sure to heave a sigh of relief. chalayan.com
Band of Outsiders Designer Scott Sternberg has the rare gift of crafting attire that is eclectic yet entirely wearable. Sternberg’s AW20 offering referenced his love of the great outdoors, and, specifically, memories of childhood trips to the forest with friends. The message seemed clear: in the age of climate change, appreciate what you have around you and make the most of it. Cagoules, shirts and chinos – in bold shades which the brand describes as ‘campfire red’ and ‘canoe yellow’ – were given a tongue-in-cheek touch with map sketches and typographic slogans like ‘follow the path that leads astray’. Rugged, lumberjack check overshirts had a tailored polish while neckerchiefs were tied in a Baden-Powell Scout-like fashion. Given that Britain is the most nostalgic nation in the world, it seems apt that the Californian-founded label chose to make London its creative hub. bandofoutsiders.com
LUXURY LONDON
COUTURE
Qasimi Khalid Qasimi, who passed away in July 2019, was a designer of great promise. This collection, his last before his twin sister took the reins, felt particularly poignant for fans of his artful, forward-thinking reworks of tried and tested classics. For his swansong, he referenced the land of his birth, the United Arab Emirates, with the Qasimi man envisioned as an urban nomad. But make no mistake, there wasn’t a dishdasha in sight. His homeland was evident in the colour palette, which ranged from rich turmeric and myrrh, to arabica and Scarab-beetle black – a homage to the nomadic tribes and desert landscape. Louche, velvet suiting was cut with flair and had more in common with ’70s Mick Jagger than traditional Emirate garb. Handicraft accessories, homespun knits and abstract camouflage prints also maintained a subtle balance between the old Middle East and the 21st century. qasimi.com
E. Tautz Back when designers were still cutting their (skinny) suits close to the bone, it’s fair to say that E. Tautz’s Patrick Grant did much to bring oversized pattern cutting back to the British design table. As a tall, broad guy himself, he appreciates that a skintight fit isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. The oversized, double-breasted blazers he’s long championed were reinterpreted in aubergine and British heritage checks and were a considerable upgrade from the starchy pinstriped numbers of old. As were the voluminous pleated trousers which were a modern take on the slacks favoured by dandies and students of the ’20s. And there was a strong message: 50 per cent of the collection was crafted from repurposed fabrics deposited in recycling banks, with the rest sourced from British mills to support home-grown manufacturers. Grant’s mantra is “buy less, buy well, make do and mend” – a tune we can all hum along to. etautz.com
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
103
B Y
R O YA L
A P P O I N T M E N T
F O L LO W I N G T H E R E I N T R O D U C T I O N O F G I E V E S & H AW K E S ’ M A D E -TO - M E A S U R E S E R V I C E , T H E B R A N D ’ S C R E AT I V E D I R E C TO R J O H N H A R R I S O N D I S C U S S E S S T E E R I N G T H E S TO R I E D TA I LO R I N A N E W D I R E C T I O N
Words: Josh Sims
“I
t wasn’t cool then for sure,” chuckles John Harrison. “Savile Row was still quite an ‘olde worlde’ place. Abercrombie & Fitch was still a bank [the clothing company’s Savile Row flagship once housed a branch of the Bank of England]. And we still had to go there each week to get the wages. But it was absolutely the best place to get an education in menswear and getting a job there was far more important to me than getting one with, say, Dries Van Noten or Paul Smith. You know, although I wasn’t ever going to be hitting the party scene on the back of it, it was cool in its own way.” Harrison is reminiscing about his first job straight out of fashion school, with Savile Row’s Norton & Sons, some 25 years ago. Tailoring was still strong, traditions respected. It’s a different place now, as he’s a different man, albeit back on the Row – serving as the creative director
of Gieves & Hawkes since 2017. “I’ve moved from job to job gaining different experience,” Harrison explains. “After Norton I worked with a high-street supplier, fine-tuning the costings of huge quantities of fabric, the real nitty-gritty of making clothes. At Norton I’d got used to people coming in with three Hermès scarves they’d just bought and telling us to use them as a lining for their bespoke suit.” Harrison also counts five years as a designer at Reiss, where he learned how to design collections that went straight into the brand’s own shops – “where it either sold or it didn’t, and you got applauded for it, or had your nose rubbed in it.” There was also a spell as design manager of the Autograph line at Marks & Spencer. “That was a case of being involved in millions and millions of decisions taken on, say, one shirt, and then ending up with the same white shirt we’d had season after season,” he recalls, clearly happy to have put that behind him. “It was very hard to take a new idea forward. I remember them holding up a Next garment and laughing, ‘Who’s going to wear this?’. And me thinking, ‘I know who – the new customer that they’re bringing in, which you are not’. Anyway, I got made redundant from Marks & Spencer – I wonder why?” Following his departure from M&S, Harrison started his own menswear design consultancy, working with the likes of Duchamp, Kent & Curwen, Purdey and Lutwyche, doing so much with Gieves & Hawkes that it made sense to bring him into the fold. It was a kind of homecoming, and not just being back on Savile Row. Harrison had a spell at the company in the early 2000s, launching its Gieves sub-brand. This time, he concedes, the wider brand needed some spring-cleaning, not least because of the interim period’s radical shift in the standing of such formal, very English, bulletproof tailoring in a marketplace where so many men now seem happy to dress in sweatpants. “This time the question has been how to maintain a tailoring position in the world of Nike,” he laughs. “Casualwear just wasn’t such a big thing the last time I was at Gieves. And the fact is that tailoring has to change. But there’s no reason why it can’t. If I look at Gieves’ archives, at the suits they were making in the 1970s, they look like 1970s suits, with big lapels and flares. Its suits of the 1980s look like they belong in the 1980s. So there’s no reason why even a historic
LUXURY LONDON
F E AT U R E
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
107
tailor like Gieves can’t make a tailoring piece that’s relevant to today’s idea of a suit. If that’s more fluid, or looser, or lighter, we can do that, and we should.” He adds, however, that there’s always a market for more traditional tailoring, which is one reason why last summer he reintroduced Gieves & Hawkes’ made-to-measure service, not just for suiting, but also for outerwear and shirts, with redeveloped, more contemporary silhouettes and a larger choice of fabrics, nearly all of which are made in the UK. “There are a lot of groups of men out there who are really into their own specific kind of product, much as there used to be men into a more mod look, others into that terrace casual style, and so on. And there’s a group out there that still really loves tailoring.” Harrison admits that he feels the weight of history on his shoulders. Situated at 1 Savile Row, Gieves & Hawkes is not only Savile Row’s most prominent tailor, but also among those that are something close to a household name. This is a tailor not far off celebrating its 250th anniversary, one that has counted the likes of the Duke of Wellington, Admiral Lord Nelson, Churchill, Chaplin, Ian Fleming and even Michael Jackson among its customers, and which holds all three main royal warrants, to Her Majesty The Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and the Prince of Wales.
It’s a tailoring institution that’s British through and through – notwithstanding the fact that it’s been owned by the Hong Kong-based Trinity Group for the past seven years, during which time Gieves & Hawkes has expanded to encompass some 68 stores across 39 cities around the world. “Designing for such a well-known name is limiting in some ways – it has this great history that you can’t ignore, but you don’t want that to result in stuffiness either,” says Harrison. “There are things one might want to do at an intellectual level, things that would make me look like a ‘better’ designer, but which wouldn’t be right for Gieves & Hawkes. And the real skill is in just keeping it ticking along, not in making a big noise, but keeping its appeal relevant to the broad spectrum of men. You’re aiming to give it all sense of continuity, at least for a few years – too much continuity for too long and it all gets boring. To keep moving the Gieves & Hawkes customer on is a challenge, and you can’t go too fast with the pace. But you do need to keep moving forward, albeit with small steps.” The trick is to look back while also looking forward, which is why recent seasons – under Harrison’s stewardship – have seen a more relaxed, more wearable and, yes, more contemporary approach to tailoring at Gieves & Hawkes. The detailing, however
LUXURY LONDON
COUTURE
– rope, anchor and crown motifs, for example, on buttons, in jacquard knitwear, even in the stripe of a pinstripe fabric – nods to the company’s heritage as, first and foremost, a naval tailor. The right to use the crown motif was a gift to the company from the Royal Navy. Under Harrison, Gieves & Hawkes suit jackets may not be as stiff, but there’s still a stiff-upper-lip quality to it all. “When I came back, personally I felt that Gieves & Hawkes had lost its way with its Englishness,” says Harrison. “I think it really needed a collection that was distinguishable as Gieves & Hawkes, not as an anonymous tailor. An English style still has wide appeal, as long as it’s relevant, because otherwise it can end up rather too Downton Abbey. It’s subtle – the palette, the fit, the little details. Besides, Englishness is integral to Gieves & Hawkes’ DNA – and it’s by keeping true to that, and flexing it gently, that any great clothing brand, from Stone Island to Armani, sticks around. What’s more, Englishness isn’t just something for foreigners or tourists. It appeals as much to our British customers, to anyone anglicized in their references.” Harrison believes there is still a gap in the market for an upscale, decidedly British brand, especially since recent years have seen complexities of manufacturing and supply push the names that once occupied the space in other directions. He’d like to see the quality keep improving season after season, not least because designing and making products that are still worn in five or 10 years’ time is a more sustainable approach to clothing consumption. “I think Savile Row is, generally, moving forward now after a long time of resisting change, and that includes even the old guard – even they’re getting much more progressive in terms of cut, or of image,” says Harrison. “They’re all moving forward in different ways and at different paces – the smaller companies especially can be lighter on their feet than a big retail operation like us. But this is a good time for the Row, with some great companies, old and new, doing some things I really admire.” Harrison has always been more interested in developing total looks for a brand, rather than being some kind of star designer. “In a sense, anyone can design anything. But designing something that has integrity and actually sells is very hard to do. I’ve never set out to be some kind of uber-creative designer – but I do make money for people.” 1 Savile Row, W1S, gievesandhawkes.com
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
109
The
GREAT BIG 2020 SALE *
Take advantage of our biggest ever sale, with savings of up to 40%* on more than 120 voyages in 2020 & 2021. Combine these incredible savings with our ‘Book with Confidence Guarantee’ to enjoy the flexibility to change your voyage once free of charge, should you need to. For the first time, all three of our ships are spending the summer in Europe, so you’ve got more choice than ever for where to sail. With more sailings from Southampton than ever, you can venture to the north cape of Norway or discover the captivating scenery of Iceland without having to take a single flight. Let us take you as an insider to the hidden gems of the Mediterranean, where we’ll stay late in port so you can experience first-hand how the cities come to life after the sun goes down. Voyages are selling fast, with Suites already nearing sell-out on most sailings and limited availability across all other categories – so don’t miss your chance to secure your stateroom before it’s too late.
More included with Azamara®
For more information and to book: Call: 0344 481 7690† | Visit: Azamara.co.uk/2020Sale *Cruise must be booked between 9th December 2019 and 31st March 2020 (“Offer Period”). 40% discount applies to select sailings departing on or after 14th April 2020 until 21st November 2021. Prices are subject to availability and change without notice, capacity controlled, and may be withdrawn at any time. Refer to Azamara.co.uk/2020Sale for complete terms and conditions. ©2019 RCL Cruises Ltd t/a Azamara. =Calls cost the same as calls to geographic numbers (01 or 02) and are included in your landline or mobile free call package.
Customer Rating based on independent verified reviews.
ESCAPE TO STRIVE, TO SEEK, TO FIND...
P.112 RISING SPAS Where to unwind in 2020
P.116 TAKE ME TO CHURCH A converted rectory in the Cotswolds
P.120 COOL QATAR How Doha became UAE’s cultural capital
P.128 SCHEIK SHACK An Ottoman-inspired escape in Dubai
A century after it was completed, The Crown Building in New York will welcome new resident Aman in 2020, when the hotel opens its first outpost in the city. aman.com
ARCTIC BATH, SWEDISH LAPLAND
New (and improved)
WELLNESS R E T R E A T S
FORGET NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS – FEBRUARY ( W H O S E N A M E C O M E S F R O M T H E L AT I N F O R ‘ P U R I F I C AT I O N ’ ) O F F E R S A S E C O N D C H A N C E AT S E L F - C A R E . H E R E A R E 2 0 2 0 ’ S TO P T R E AT M E N T S
Words: Anna Prendergast
A gradual move away from ruthless exercise routines and calorie-counting has seen space open up in the wellness world. From crystal therapy at Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok opening this month (top of its game is the Quartz Massage, based on channelling the earth’s energy to ground the body and mind) to the highly personalised healing programmes at Shou Sugi Ban House in the Hamptons and Borgo Egnazia’s Blue Zones programme (inspired by five regions around the world where people live long, full lives), a holistic approach is taking over. In Paris, two big names are opening on the Seine – The Dior Spa at Cheval Blanc lands
SHOU SUGI BAN HOUSE, NEW YORK
CHIVA-SOM, BALI
Ballet bra, approx £55, and yoga pants, approx £110, theupside.com
LUXURY LONDON
ESCAPE
GRAYSHOTT SPA, SURREY
AIRELLES CHÂTEAU DE VERSAILLES, FRANCE
Home turf later this spring, and Bulgari’s first crashpad in the French capital arrives nearby in the Triangle d’Or (where, surely, it will include its 24-carat gold facial). South of the city, get the royal treatment at Airelles Château de Versailles, which gives guests the chance to stay on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles for the first time, with a spa by Valmont that harnesses the natural power of Swiss glaciers. The most talked about opening this year, though, is the giant floating ice bath at Arctic Bath in Swedish Lapland, where certified therapists help guests connect with nature on a truly elemental level, and everything down to the locavore menu is designed to instill an instinctive sense of health. In warmer climes, book into the Oberoi Marrakech for its signature Ayurveda dhara treatment – it opened last December, and just in time, too, as the iconic La Mamounia will close between May and September for its own revival. Bali’s biggest news is Chiva-Som’s £20million renovation, which has seen regulars returning for pioneering wellness treatments devised by the industry’s most revered experts. fourseasons.com; borgoegnazia.it; airelles.com; arcticbath.se; oberoihotels.com; chivasom.com; chevalblanc.com
BORGO EGNAZIA, ITALY
Last year’s big UK opening, Monkey Island Estate, is a country-house-turned-riversideinn-turned-private-hotel in Bray, a village with seven Michelin stars on the Thames. A pretty blue barge rests under the willow trees by the water, with The Floating Spa in its hull and an apothecary inspired by 12th Century Augustinian monks. In London, Lanserhof’s medically-driven, tailored service arrived at The Arts Club in Mayfair, the cutting-edge concept’s first opening in the UK, and the Zedwell opens this month in Piccadilly, the city’s first ever sleep-centred hotel with sound-proofed, mood-lit, Egyptian-cotton-clad ‘cocoons’ that are calm-inducing and clutter-free. Grayshott Spa in Surrey has also introduced the Mayr method (an intensive fasting plan not for the faint-hearted); head there around May, when the redbrick country retreat is cloaked in wisteria. theartsclub.co.uk; grayshottspa.com; zedwellhotels.com; monkeyislandestate.com
MONKEY ISLAND, BERKSHIRE
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
113
BAWAH RESERVE, INDONESIA
Eco spas
The pros at Aman have developed their own skincare range, such as this purifying marine face wash. £50.00, shop.aman.com
There’s no excuse for single-use, and this year guests will continue to drive the demand for alternatives to disposable slippers and plastic bottles. Hotel bedrooms have been fairly quick to adapt, adopting muslin cloths in place of cotton pads, biodegradable bamboo toothbrushes and solid bars of shampoo and conditioner, and now leading industry names are setting the standard for spas, too. Look for lotions and potions by brands like Kerstin Florian and Bamford, who use natural
ingredients and take an ethical approach to skincare, and check out credentials like LEED certification and Green Key awards. The idea of wellness should extend to the environment in which it’s practised, an ethos upheld by eco-pioneer Six Senses, which opens two new hotels in Manhattan and Israel later this year. The latter, set in the Negev desert, has a signature Alchemy Bar where guests can create bespoke treatments using local ingredients. Also drawing on its natural surroundings, Islas Secas opened in December on Panama’s Pacific Coast with open-air treatment tents in the jungle and organic, native remedies such as ylang ylang and jasmine (the tents are designed for couples, so surprise your better half on the 14th with a trip). There’s something romantic about being castaway on an island retreat, too, at Bawah Reserve’s new sister property Bawah Elang. On an untouched scrap of the same Indonesian archipelago, treatments go above and beyond with life-coaching sessions, jade stone facials, one-to-one training and an implicit immersion in nature. The irony, of course, is that these places are only accessible by air – offset your flights with a donation to Tree Sisters, whose mission is tropical reforestation. sixsenses.com; islassecas.com; bawahreserve.com; treesisters.org
CREDIT XXXXXX XXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXX
A planet-friendly manifesto for business and travel by Patagonia’s founder Yvon Chouinard. £20, patagonia.com
ISLAS SECAS, PANAMA
ISLAS SECAS, PANAMA
LUXURY LONDON
F E AT U R E
KISAWA SANCTUARY, MOZAMBIQUE
Trends and tech
JACK’S CAMP, BOTSWANA
With a new decade comes the chance to both reflect on age-old rituals and look forward to new ones, including those that incorporate staggering technology such as Brain Photobiomodulation Therapy (phew), available at SHA Wellness Clinic in Spain. Developed with NASA & Harvard University and overseen by neurologist Dr Bruno Ribeiro, it uses an infrared technique to improve cognitive performance. If you want to switch off, rather than on, Esqapes in LA uses virtual reality paired with a leisurely massage to transport users to a courtyard filled with cherry blossoms or a palm tree-trimmed sandy beach, offering a sense of seclusion in the middle of the city. In Botswana, traditional but Tesla-powered safari lodge Jack’s Camp is expanding with a new wellness tent; meanwhile in Mozambique, Kisawa Sanctuary opens this summer on Benguerra Island as the first hotel to patent 3D sandprinting technology,
SHA WEL LNESS CENTRE, SPAIN
used to create the components of the wellness centre. The spa itself will specialise in Chinese medicine, but you can also meditate upon the surrounding wildlife such as humpback whales and sea turtles. Kisawa’s not the only one inspired by the East: Tibetan sound bowls are a key offering for 2020, and will be available at Hacienda de San Rafael in Andalucia, Royal Mansour in Marrakech, Marbella Club in Spain and Mandarin Oriental in Miami. The ancient healing method is thought to restore harmony through generating healing energy and tuning into the frequency of our brainwaves, allowing for a deepened meditation and the restoration of balance. In a sleepy corner of Seville, Malabar Retreats also incorporates Tibetan Healing Yoga into their four-day Lu Jong retreats, a practice developed by monks over 8,000 years ago. shawellnessclinic.com; myesqape.com; naturalselection. travel; kisawasanctuary.com; haciendadesanrafael.com; royalmansour.com; marbellaclub.com; malabar-retreats.com Track your skin’s UV exposure with La Roche-Posay’s discreet sensor. £54.95, apple.com L’Oreal’s Perso tech personalises your skincare using artificial intelligence – but the results are very real. Launching 2021, loreal.com
A W E E K E N D AWAY
THE RECTORY SET ON THE EDGE OF THE COTSWOLDS, THIS COUNTRY HOTEL BLENDS ELEGANCE AND ECCENTRICITY
Words: Anna Prendergast
LUXURY LONDON
ESCAPE
I
f it weren’t for glimpsing a Norman church at the end of Flisteridge Road (which, during spring, sees the adjacent forest floor become a sea of bluebells), I may not have found The Rectory. There’s just one sign, easily missed, and the only indication that there’s something out of the ordinary beyond the gravel driveway is a discreet sceptre-like symbol either side of the entrance. It used to be an ‘R’, but I prefer it this way – guests feel like one of the lucky few in the know, and nod conspiratorially to each other in the corridors. Despite a feeling of exclusivity, The Rectory has retained a feeling of home – albeit that of your poshest aunt. It was originally built to accommodate Crudwell’s rector and his 14 children (no wonder he turned to God), and owner and first-time hotelier Alex Payne has also instilled a sense of domesticity in the digs. Families with young kids are welcome, as are dogs, and on a high-capacity evening you get the sense that everyone treats the place like their own. There’s an honesty bar on the second floor, where you can enjoy the adult version of a midnight feast or collect fresh milk for a morning brew in bed. Regulars plan visits around the availability of their favourite rooms; dogs curl up by the fireplaces. It’s not all tweed sofas and black labs, though. The Rectory’s art collection, in particular, prevents it from sinking into stuffy-country-sober. A print in the conservatory entitled The Tems by Bob and Roberta Smith is a favourite of art dealer Angus Maguire. “The brief Alex gave me was for a private country house. We wanted it to look like the art had been cobbled together over generations,” Maguire explains. “I loved the bright colours of The Tems, the wry phonetic misspelling that winks at Estuary English, and the fact that the hotel is about seven miles from the Thames headwater. It’s one of those pieces that throws out a question, but doesn’t provide an answer.” You’ll
also spot a Tracey Emin in the bar and a Chapman brothers pen-and-ink piece in the restaurant. “It’s quite a disturbing image, juxtaposed in such a polite space. I think that kind of sums up British contemporary art, though – contradictory, playful, with a dark side.” Hung in an 18th century silver gilt frame, it is a piece you’d be forgiven for missing, especially while distracted by the menu. It’s meat-heavy (partridge with hasselback potatoes; venison; braised ox cheek) but we went off-menu and were pleasantly surprised by a chicory salad with knobs of roquefort and sashimi-thin slices of pear, plus a velvety celeriac soup with Welsh rarebit (a great improvement on the standard crouton that should be universally adopted), and ribbons of hand-rolled pappardelle with mushroom, walnut and gouda topped with crispy tarragon. Breakfast is served in the conservatory, with bubbles on ice and DIY Bloody Marys balanced with homemade granola and farm-fresh yoghurt. Those in search of hearty rural fare will also like sister restaurant the Potting Shed, a few minutes’ walk away.
HOW TO GET HERE The train from Paddington to Kemble takes 1 hour 12 minutes W H AT T O B R I N G Aspirin to wash down with your Bloody Marys – the bar can get raucous at weekends W H AT T O W E A R Your polo club’s hoodie and knee-high boots WHERE TO GO Tetbury nearby is brilliant for antiques. Kids will love the town’s Blue Zucchini brasserie for its scribbled-on walls and Nepalese prayer flags
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
117
Retiring upstairs, you realise how busy the hotel can be – non-guests come for supper and stay for cocktails, and there’s a constant stream of music in every communal space. The bedrooms, by contrast, are deliciously quiet – the faint sound of footsteps (or the odd Mercedes G-Class) on the gravel outside is the only noise to slip through. Traditionalists won’t like the baths in bedrooms, but romantics will find the roll-top tubs hard to resist. There’s no information in the bedrooms, no phone, no written rules or regulations – distancing The Rectory further from the hotel template. The WiFi password drily tells you to ‘goforawalkinstead’, but we preferred sitting in the lobby and people watching, peeping out over the top of a glossy, the latest of which are spread out for perusal. That said, it’s worth a wander round the property, particularly in the evening light when the oolitic limestone is at its best. From £130 for a double room, including breakfast; therectoryhotel.com
LUXURY LONDON
PROMOTION
WORLD CLASS FOR MORE THAN THREE DECADES, CARRIER HAS BEEN TA K I N G T H E A D M I N O U T O F ADVENTURE WITH ITS BESPOKE LUXURY EXPERIENCES
I
t’s hard to envision the perfect holiday. Sunbathing on the Balearic Islands might seem like paradise to some, while others may prefer a sojourn of the more adventurous sort – perhaps tracking bears in Canada, holing up in a hotel made of ice or hiking Oman’s Al Hajar mountain. At Carrier, ask and you shall receive. The luxury tour operator has been tailoring travel experiences for 37 years, offering a heightened level of customisation thanks to the company’s network of contacts from across the globe. With its little black book, Carrier can arrange for you to stay in the most prestigious suites in the world’s best hotels, help you charter a yacht complete with private chef, or organise a safari in South Africa for you and your family. No two trips are the same, with each crafted to meet your needs. Every journey begins with a discussion with your personal advisor, who will then curate an itinerary based on your wishes –
whether you’re looking to celebrate a landmark occasion with an extra special holiday, or want to tick off a one-of-akind adventure from your bucket list. To help you narrow down your destination of choice, Carrier has curated two handy guides: The Rich List (for adults) and The Play List (for families). Each is divided into five categories that tap into a different travel trend, whether that’s a digital
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
118
detox or an ecological escape. There’s no need to settle for one destination either; combined trips allow you to explore myriad locations, cultures and experiences. Finding that perfect holiday just got a whole lot easier. For more information about Carrier, or to order copies of The Rich List and The Play List, please call 0161 826 1914 or visit carrier.co.uk/brochure-request/
O N E C I T Y, MANY VISIONS FROM CONTROVERSIAL FOETUS SCULPTURES BY DAMIEN HIRST TO MUSEUMS DESIGNED BY I.M. PEI, DARING ARTWORK AND ARCHITECTURE HAS TRANSFORMED D O H A I N T O A C I T Y B R I M M I N G W I T H C U LT U R E – I F YO U K N O W W H E R E T O L O O K
Words: Hannah Lemon
T
he Middle East offers vividly diverse holiday experiences. There are the friendly community vibes of Oman, with its demure palaces and ancient mosques, while across the desert, the UAE sits in brash splendour, tempting the Western world with its fancy hotels, experiential dining and allure of a tax-free lifestyle. Qatar’s capital Doha falls somewhere between these. It does not exude the sophistication of its older relative Muscat in Oman, nor does it replicate so boldly the glitz and glamour of Dubai. The city is a buzzing metropolis
that emerged out of the desert in a relatively short space of time and today about 80 per cent of Qatar’s population lives there. Doha’s first luxury hotel, a Sheraton, opened in 1982. The oil boom of the 90s and noughties subsequently saw more than 110 hotels open. The shiny modern skyline owes much to the Qatari royal family, the House of Al Thani (which, it is said, owns more property in London than The Queen). Spearheading investment in Doha, this powerful group has invited some of the world’s best architects and creatives to sculpt a city unlike any other. Landmarks range from Doha Tower, which lights up at night like a
colossal 30ft spider sculpture Maman. While a medical centre and a conference hall might not usually appear on a holiday bucket list, in this case they should. Another must-visit is the Museum of Islamic Art. This masterpiece was designed by the late world-renowned architect I.M. Pei – the man behind the Louvre Pyramid in Paris and the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong. He was persuaded to come out of retirement for this project, which was completed when he was 91. After travelling for six months to look at mosques for inspiration, Pei decided on a design that required more space than he was originally allocated, so new land was reclaimed from the sea.
Architect I. M. Pei was persuaded to come out of retirement for the Museum of Islamic Art
TOP LOUISE BOURGEOIS’S MAMAN BOTTOM DAMIEN HIRST’S THE MIRACULOUS JOURNEY
neon gherkin, to Marina Twin Towers, stacked wonkily like piles of enormous Lego. World-renowned artists, under the patronage of the royal family, have also been invited to leave their mark. Keen to observe the results, I start my visit to the city with an art exploration. First up is Damien Hirst’s The Miraculous Journey outside the Sidra Medical and Research Center, a destination focused on world-class women’s healthcare. As I drive towards the hospital, the 14-piece, 216-tonne bronze installation comes into view, each sculpture graphically marking the journey of the gestation period from giant round egg and sperm to a 14-metre newborn baby. Next door, in the Qatar National Convention Centre, I walk under Louise Bourgeois’s
Budget is rarely a barrier in Doha. At the top of the building, two windows are reminiscent of eyes looking out from above a veil – hence the museum is sometimes referred to as the eyes of Doha. Once inside, I am overcome by the spectacle of symmetry. A monumental atrium is crafted with geometric shapes, circles and tiles that you could gaze up at for hours – and that’s before I’ve seen any of the artefacts. The museum is dedicated to showcasing the rich cultural heritage of the Islamic world from across 1,400 years and three continents. I make a pit stop at Alain Ducasse’s restaurant La Patisserie d’Idam for a coffee and rich chocolate dessert, and pick an outdoor table
LUXURY LONDON
F E AT U R E
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
123
THIS PAGE INSIDE THE MUSEUM OF ISLAMIC ART, DESIGNED BY THE LATE ARCHITECT I. M. PEI OPPOSITE THE SHERATON HOTEL
LUXURY LONDON
ESCAPE
on the balcony for stunning views of West Bay’s skyscrapers. Before I leave the museum, I head down to the courtyard, decorated by rows of pristine arches and water fountains. As chairperson of Qatar Museums, Sheikha Al-Mayassa, sister of the Emir of Qatar, is leading the artistic ambitions of the country, with the aim that Doha will become the cultural capital of the Middle East. Her latest project is the National Museum of Qatar, which opened in March 2019 and which tells the country’s story. The building spans 1.5km and resembles a pile of delicately placed wafers, taking inspiration from desert roses, the rose-like formations of crystal clusters found in the sandy wilds of Qatar. The architecture alone is reason enough to visit. My next port of call is Katara Cultural Village, home to one of Lorenzo Quinn’s famous Force of Nature II sculptures (there’s another in London) and to Gandhi’s Three Monkeys by Subodh Gupta, as well as an impressive marble amphitheatre and the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra. I fall in love with the bright azure and turquoise tiles of the mosque here, and the traditional red patterns and gold detailing. I’m a bit confused to see three spiky clay towers pricked with holes – these, I’m told, are pigeon towers, built as a sanctuary for local birds. Before I recoil in horror, I notice that Qatari pigeons are far more graceful and demure-looking than the flying rats I’m accustomed to in London. When it comes to places to stay, Doha boasts a wealth of five-star options. Both the Marsa Malaz Kempinski and Anantara’s Banana
Island Resort are located on their own private islands (the Anantara even has its own wave machine). I opt for the pyramid-shaped Sheraton, the city’s original hotel, and discover that it serves the most incredible buffet. For lunch, I’m greeted by piles of lobster, mezze, salads, pizzas and meats from every corner of the world.
Gulf that meets the desert. I go with a guide who lays out a rug and drinks so that we can enjoy a magical sunset in complete wilderness. Bolstered by some of the world’s best architects, artists and chefs, Qatar is beginning to outshine its Middle Eastern neighbours. Doha has become a city brimming with
As for dining out, Doha has enticed some of the planet’s most famous chefs. There’s Market by Jean-Georges at W Doha; Opal by Gordon Ramsay at the St Regis Hotel; Hakkasan, also at the St Regis; and Nobu at the Four Seasons (the largest Nobu in the world), where I discovered the finest slices of wagyu beef I have ever tasted. I spend my final few days outdoors, for as much as Doha has to offer so, too, does the desert from which it sprang. Camel riding and dune bashing (racing over sand dunes in four-wheel drives) have me grinning from ear to ear, so does a dip in the Inland Sea – an inlet of the Persian
bright city skyscrapers and the most delectable food. Everywhere you look there is an example of artistic excellence. West of Doha, in the Brouq Nature Reserve on the Zekreet Peninsula, is the striking East-West/West-East sculpture by American artist Richard Serra. The series of gargantuan pillars forms a stark contrast to the desert surroundings and the installation represents a perfect symbiosis of sand and skyscraper.
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
125
Qatar Airways return flights from London Heathrow to Doha start at £677, qatarairways.com
5.8 - THE WORLD´S MOST BEAUTIFUL ALL-GLASS UNDERSEA RESTAURANT
Hurawalhi Island Resort . Tel +960 662 2000 . reservations@hurawalhi.com . hurawalhi.com
HUR_KUD_LuxuryLondonMagazine_DPS_Jan_2020 .indd 2
2020-01-07 19:20
MALDIVES´ NO 1 PRIVATE ISLAND RESORT THE ONLY ALL-INCLUSIVE: ANYTHING, ANYTIME, ANYWHERE
Kudadoo Private Island . Tel +960 662 2000 . reservations@kudadoo.com . kudadoo.com
HUR_KUD_LuxuryLondonMagazine_DPS_Jan_2020 .indd 3
2020-01-07 19:22
LUXURY LONDON
F E AT U R E
P A L A T I A L L O C AT E D O N D U B A I ’ S PA L M J U M E I R A H I S L A N D , T H E O T T O M A N - I N S P I R E D J U M E I R A H Z A B E E L S A R AY
Words: Natasha Afxentiouw LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
128
S
LUXURY LONDON
F E AT U R E
ynonymous with wealth and opulence, Dubai is home to some of the finest hotels in the world. The Jumeirah Group, owned by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai, set the blueprint for luxury accommodation in the city when it opened its flagship Burj Al Arab hotel in 1999. Famous for its sail-inspired shape and often referred to as the world’s first seven-star hotel, the Burj Al Arab also made headlines as the tallest all-suite hotel in the world and for its staff-to-suite ratio of 8:1. A polar opposite in terms of architecture, the Jumeirah Group’s Jumeirah Zabeel Saray brought a touch of Ottomaninspired glamour to the island’s West Crescent when it opened in 2011. The walls of the hotel are adorned with hand-painted murals and spaces are accented with opulent gold fixtures, both characteristic of Ottoman palaces. Despite the resort’s location on the world’s largest man-made island, the hotel manages to feel authentic rather than artificial.
P A R A D I S E O F F E R S A N A U T H E N T I C , I N T I M AT E AT M O S P H E R E A N D B R E AT H TA K I N G S U R R O U N D I N G S
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
129
An impressive 30,000 sq m of natural marble features throughout the resort, while chandeliers are finished with red and turquoise crystals – a colour combination that was also commonly found in Ottoman palaces. The palatial resort might be vast, but friendly staff help create a sense of intimacy. Pool attendants appear as if from nowhere, offering towels before you’ve even asked for them. The hotel boasts 405 rooms and suites, alongside 38 royal residences, all of which overlook either the palm-shaped island, the Arabian Gulf or Dubai Marina. Rooms are a harmonious blend of European and Arabic styles. Bed covers are made from traditional Ottoman kemha fabrics and velvet-topped furniture features intricate Arabic latticework. Bathrooms include both rain showers and separate marble Turkish baths. In a city lined with skyscrapers, modern life can be difficult to escape – a fact the Jumeirah Zabeel Saray has based its whole mantra around, with the tagline ‘The world can wait’. Guests are encouraged to live in the moment, whether they’re taking a stroll along the hotel’s private beach or swimming in its stylish outdoor infinity pool. The hotel’s Talise Ottoman Spa was awarded Favourite Spa Retreat at the 2019 Condé Nast Traveller Middle East Readers’ Choice Awards. The space is decorated with dark wood, elaborate mosaics and colourful murals. Turkish hammams form the heart of the spa, surrounded by steam rooms, saunas and snow rooms. There’s also a gym, complete with performance-tracking Technogym equipment that’s programmed with virtual coaches. With 10 restaurants and bars to choose from, picking a dinner spot might be the hardest part of your stay at the Jumeirah Zabeel Saray. The Rib Room offers steaks and premium cuts of meat, including Irish wagyu beef, while the beachside Plaj offers relaxed Mediterranean dining. The Ottoman Empire is renowned for its longevity and a grand yet harmonious aesthetic that elevated existing architectural traditions. With its blend of European and Arabic styles, traditional design and cutting-edge facilities, the Jumeirah Zabeel Saray celebrates this heritage and is sure to offer visitors the most memorable of luxury experiences.
In a city lined with skyscrapers, modern life can be difficult to escape, a fact the hotel has based its whole mantra around
Prices start from £160 for a Superior King Room, jumeirah.com
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
130
P.132
P R O P E R T Y T H E F I N E S T H O M E S I N T H E C A P I TA L
SMALL BUT MIGHTY How tiny homes became big business
P.134 LONDON’S LANDLORDS The discerning homeowners renting out their properties
P.138 SUSTAINABLE LIVING The Canary Wharf development with an eco-first design
Floor-to-ceiling windows make way for a garden view at this verdant property in Fitzroy Park (p.140)
SMALL WONDERS
LITTLE HOMES ARE BIG BUSINESS. AS THE WORLD SEEKS M O R E S U S TA I N A B L E A N D A F F O R D A B L E WAY S T O L I V E , P R E FA B R I C AT E D P R O P E R T I E S A R E E X P E R I E N C I N G A R E S U R G E N C E . D I S C O V E R T H E I N N O VAT I V E A R C H I T E C T S F I N D I N G B I G G E R A N D B E T T E R WAY S T O B U I L D S M A L L S PA C E S AT A T I N Y C O S T
Words: Ellen Millard
LUXURY LONDON
PROPERTY
Y
ou really can buy anything on Amazon. From batteries to bestsellers, the e-tailer has everything you could ever need for your home – including the house itself. Tapping into the tiny home trend, a downsizing movement that sees residents eschewing chunky mortgages for prefabricated homes, Amazon is now selling a range of DIY dwellings. Once seen as an inferior alternative to bricks and mortar, prefab homes are experiencing a resurgence as a solution to rising house prices and increasing space restrictions. Delivered part or fully assembled, the buildings dramatically cut construction time and costs and, in some cases, allow owners to move their entire home from one location to another. Flat pack properties sound about as exciting as flat pack furniture, but a new generation of designers are injecting a fresh wave of ideas into the modular market. Should you wish to avoid parting cash with a corporate overlord (lest we forget the pitiful £220m Amazon paid in UK tax in 2018, despite its £10.9bn revenue – but that’s a different story for a different day...), there are a number of innovative architectural firms and start-ups driving the prefab movement – and their motives are decidedly more ethical and their designs decidedly more desirable. Brandishing eco-friendly credentials, Birch Le Collaboration by Michigan design company Hygge Supply is a Scandi-style home made almost entirely from sustainable
OPPOSITE PAGE BERT BY PRECHT; THIS PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP BIRCH LE COLLABORATION BY HYGGE SUPPLY, PHOTOGRAPHY BY WILL JOHNSON (@THIS_SIMPLE_LIFE); BERT BY PRECHT; ÖÖD
insulated glass and wood, and taking fewer than eight hours to build, the tiny home is clad in mirrored glass to allow it to blend into the surrounding landscape. It comes complete with LED lighting, adjustable heating, custom-designed furniture and a BOSE sound system. All new owners need to do is hook it up to water, internet and sewage systems. It is currently only available in Estonia, but the company is considering exporting overseas. More striking still is Bert, a truncated treehouse created by architecture studio Precht for Baumbau, a start-up company that plans to expand its offering of tiny homes. Its first foray into the market is a tree trunk-shaped modular home with an eco twist; designed to work off-grid, the building features solar panels on the roof and composting toilets at ground level. Dark interiors have been designed to allow the spherical windows to do the talking. Not just a means for sustainability, modular homes are increasingly being used as forces for social change. In London and Greater Manchester, the charity Centrepoint is building 300 modular homes for residents of the company’s temporary homelessness accommodation, who are ready to move out but don’t have the funds to do so. Rent will be capped at a third of the tenants' incomes for the first five years, with the first wave of properties expected in 2020. In Japan, meanwhile, Muji has unveiled a prefab property designed for the country’s ageing population. Dubbed Yō no Ie House, the one-bedroom, one-bathroom home is spread across a single storey (no stairs to tackle in later life) and features an open-plan design, passive solar principles and customisable finishes. Whether for fun or future proofing, each tiny home builds on the idea of a more diverse, climate-sensitive era of architecture – which these designers intend to champion, one flat-pack property at a time.
materials – think responsibly-sourced wood panelling and recycled kitchen countertops. It cuts a pretty picture, too, with a minimalist design, black timber panelling and floorto-ceiling windows. Hygge Supply kits start from $53,000, but you can also stay in the original model currently based in Lake Leelenau, which is listed on AirBnB for £151 a night. In Estonia, brothers Andreas and Jaak Tiik have created ÖÖD. Merging hotel suite aesthetics with bold design, this two-person prefab spans just 18 sqm in total. Made from steel,
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
133
THROUGH THE KEYHOLE WOUL D YO U O P EN YO U R HO U S E
T H E F R E Q U E N T F LY E R S
TO THE REST OF THE WORLD? FROM
A chief scientific officer for a drug development company, Kent Gaspari spends much of his time travelling the world. He lives with his partner, Kevin, in Seattle, but frequently returns to the UK to visit family. While they’re away, onefinestay takes care of their townhouse on Portobello Road
T I M E - P O O R T YC O O N S T O G A L L I VA N T I N G GLOBETROTTERS, A HOST OF BUSY HOMEOWNERS ARE CHOOSING TO RENT OUT THEIR PROPERTIES WHILE THEY’RE A W AY. O F F E R I N G A N U N R I VA L L E D S E R V I C E , O N E F I N E S TAY I S L E A D I N G T H E HOME SHARING CHARGE. HERE, THREE H O M E O W N E R S E X P L A I N W H Y O N E F I N E S TAY WORKS FOR THEM
Tell us about your home... Our home is a Victorian terraced house on Portobello Road in the heart of Notting Hill. We instantly fell in love with it because of the preserved Victorian exterior and the fresh and modern interior. Why did you choose to rent your home with onefinestay? We were told about onefinestay by a friend who had many positive experiences renting homes from them. I looked at the selection of homes that onefinestay represented and thought our home would be a good match. Currently we aren’t able to live in London full time, so renting out the home while we are out of the country helps to offset the costs of maintaining it. We’ve been extremely happy with the care and service onefinestay has provided to us and we’re thrilled it has had such strong bookings. What inspired the design of your home? The living wall was our starting point for all our colour choices. We wanted to enhance the cool aesthetic yet still keep a warm and inviting feeling, so we mixed antique furnishings with some new pieces and tried to keep everything simple and approachable. Where do you like to eat and drink on Portobello Road? We love dining at Gold and meeting up with friends at Beach Blanket Babylon for drinks. Chucs on Westbourne Grove is a staple for us during the week, too.
LUXURY LONDON
PROMOTION
T H E F A M I LY
Catherine Hollier’s home in Kensington Park Mews is her permanent residence. During the school holidays, when her family like to escape to the sunshine, she lists her home with onefinestay
THE GLOBETROTTERS
Interior designer Declan O’Quigley lives in the south of France with his partner Neal and their 12-year-old border terrier Dottie. The couple split their time between their homes in St Tropez, Courchevel and London, where their Berners Street apartment is listed with onefinestay Tell us about your home... We bought this apartment in 2015, directly from the developer who had converted an office building into seven luxury flats. We are no strangers to renovation projects ourselves but for once were happy to buy a finished product because the quality of the interior finish was so good. Why did you choose to rent your home with onefinestay? I read about onefinestay in an article. The first thing that attracted me was the name; it made me smile. I felt our home would be in safe and caring hands and that onefinestay’s client base was ideal. My home is well maintained and the team are very responsive. Your home is one of onefinestay’s most popular, what makes it stand out? Location. It is extremely central but very peaceful considering where it is. One can walk to virtually all of London’s major attractions, which is great for sightseeing and evenings out at the theatre. The fact that we have air conditioning is also one of the major appeals of the property during the summer months. What should every visitor to London make sure they do? During the summer, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre is a truly magical experience.
Tell us about your home... We bought our mews house 18 years ago, when it was originally two storeys. We’ve recently finished a huge refurbishment, which means the house is now four storeys with both a fullsize basement and a sunny balcony on the top floor. It has a contemporary and luxury feel to it which includes marble bathrooms, underfloor heating and air conditioning in the master bedroom. Why did you choose to rent your home with onefinestay? As we go on holiday a lot, it seemed an interesting way of making the house work for us while we were away, and we even liked the idea of the house being used rather than vacant; it felt safer. The onefinestay team have always been very thorough in all aspects, from vetting the guests, to cleaning and looking after the house. I also like the online calendar, which I can update according to our changing plans. What do you love most about your home? Ultimately the location. I’ve lived in W11 for more than 25 years and I still love it. I especially like our exact location as it’s quiet and secure but a stone’s throw from the buzz of Notting Hill. For more information on becoming a onefinestay homeowner, call +44 20 3871 8650 or visit onefinestay.com/join/luxury
L I V E P O S I T I V E AT B AT T E R S E A P O W E R S TAT I O N
Battersea_ad_Luxury_London_Magazine_v02.indd 1
Discover a place like no other, now open, with exclusive spots to dine al fresco and endless views of the River Thames. Unique and luxurious homes designed by world renowned architects with a selection of apartments from studios to penthouses. • Studios 1, 2, 3 & 4 bedroom apartments and penthouses available • Zone 1 tube station opening in 2021 • Direct River access to the City and West End by MBNA Thames Clippers River Bus • Residents’ club including bar, business centre and lounge • Gym, pool and spa • Investment guarantee available • Leasehold 999 years • Prices start from £510,000
Limited availability Call +44 (0) 20 3797 1883 or email sales@batterseapowerstation.co.uk to make an appointment. Search Battersea Power Station
14/08/2019 17:45
SECOND N AT U R E E C O W O R L D B A L LY M O R E ’ S N E W WA R D I A N LO N D O N D E V E LO P M E N T I N C A N A R Y W H A R F F E AT U R E S A N E N V I R O N M E N T- F I R S T D E S I G N INSPIRED BY A LOCAL LEGEND
I
n the first half of the 19th century, in the smoky, industrial dockland area of east London, a green-fingered GP changed gardening forever. An amateur naturalist and entomologist, Dr Nathanial Bagshaw Ward invented the Wardian Case, an early example of a terrarium that revolutionised the transportation of exotic plants across the globe. So successful was the case that, in the 15 years after its invention, botanist Sir William Hooker imported six times as many plants to Kew Gardens as were imported the previous century. It’s to Ward that Ecoworld Ballymore looked when creating its new eco-conscious development in Canary Wharf. Wardian London, which is due to complete in 2020, pays tribute to the doctor not just in name, but design, too. Created in collaboration with Glenn Howells Architects, Wardian London marries nature and human innovation by combining bold architecture with equally bold landscape design. International plant experts have been heavily involved in the design process, crafting beautiful green spaces both indoors and out by sourcing more than 100 different species of exotic plants and flowers, each inspired by those first transported to London using Wardian Cases. They will be used throughout the development, championing biodiversity and creating a space akin to Kew Gardens’ botanic palm houses.
LUXURY LONDON
PROMOTION
In keeping with its environmental ethos, the development’s interiors have been crafted using natural, organic materials in an earthy colour palette. Residents are also given access to The Gardener, an indoor and outdoor landscaping service that offers seasonal plant packages and garden maintenance. Comprising two residential towers of 55- and 50-storeys, Wardian London offers 766 homes in total, ranging from suites to penthouses. Designed to integrate with the local community, Wardian London will boast two restaurants by Alan Yau, due to open in summer 2020, as well as a publicallyaccessible Western Garden that extends around the East Tower, lobby entrance and retail spaces – bringing a muchwelcome slice of nature to an urban setting. Wardian London residences are available now, from £761,000 for a one bedroom apartment. For more information contact sales@wardianlondon.com or call 0203 944 4752, wardianlondon.com
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
139
STREETS AHEAD DISTINCTIVE HOMES ON THE PROPERTY MARKET THIS MONTH
F I T Z R OY PA R K , N 6
So green is this Stanton Williams-designed house that it’s hard to believe it’s in London. Sunken into the hillside of Fitzroy Park, the six-bedroom property is accessible via a footbridge suspended above an artificial stream. Inside, large glass windows and an open-plan design make the most of the garden view, where a rear terrace and swimming pool sit poised for summer. £9.95m, themodernhouse.com
LUXURY LONDON
PROPERTY
MERTON LANE, N6
As impressive on the outside as it is on the inside, this bespoke family home in Highgate houses no less than 10 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms. Spread over three floors – which are all accessible via the glass lift in the entrance hall – this contemporary mansion benefits from a gymnasium, swimming pool, spa facilities, billiards room and self-contained staff lodge. £40m, 020 3535 6447, knightfrank.com
C R E SSW E L L P L AC E , SW10
This Chelsea townhouse has been meticulously restored by its current owners. Comprising four bedrooms, five bathrooms and four reception rooms, the house offers superb entertaining
LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK
141
space, including a south west facing terrace complete with hot tub and bar area. Located on a quiet cobbled street, the property is within walking distance of Chelsea’s major shopping destinations. £6.95m, 020 7244 1274, struttandparker.com
Redburn Street, Chelsea SW3 £2,750 per week
Unfurnished
Hyde Park Place, Bayswater W2 £1,950 per week
Furnished
An absolutely stunning and immaculately presented four-bedroom house with a south-facing garden, terrace and a balcony.
An exceptionally finished apartment boasting generous lateral living space and views over Hyde Park (with lift access).
2,158 sq ft (200.5 sq m) Entrance hall | Drawing room | Kitchen/dining room | Two en suite bedrooms | Further bedroom | Further bathroom | Cloakroom | Study/ bedroom four | Utility | Balcony | Terrace | Garden | EPC rating F
1,985 sq ft (184.4 sq m) Reception room | Kitchen/dining room | Master suite | Two double bedrooms | Bathroom | Separate guest WC | Utility room | Lift | EPC rating C
Chelsea 020 3504 5588 | chelsea.lettings@struttandparker.com
Notting Hill 020 3773 4114 | nottinghilllettings@struttandparker.com
Stafford Terrace, Kensington W8 £2,700 per week
Wilton Row, Belgravia SW1X £3,400 per week
Furnished
Furnished
Interior designed and finished to an excellent standard, a stunning maisonette on one of Kensington’s most desirable streets.
An immaculately presented mews house available on a fully furnished basis.
1,855 sq ft (172 sq m) Drawing room | Kitchen/breakfast room | Two double bedrooms with en suites | Third bedroom/media room | Shower room | Study | Roof terrace | EPC rating D
2,366 sq ft (219.80 sq m) Three bedrooms | Two reception rooms | Three bathrooms | Kitchen | Study | Cloakroom | Off-street parking | EPC rating E
Kensington 020 3813 9477 | kensington.lettings@struttandparker.com
Knightsbridge 020 3504 8796 | knightsbridgelettings@struttandparker.com
*After an offer is accepted by the Landlord, which is subject to contract and acceptable references, the following charges and fees will be payable before the commencement of the tenancy: Preparation of Tenancy Agreement £222 (Inc VAT),
/struttandparker
@struttandparker
struttandparker.com
60 Offices across England and Scotland, including prime Central London. ZA530_S&P_LuxuryLondon_DPS 1 Lettings_Feb_10.01.20.indd 1
10/01/2020 10:29
Bramber Road, Fulham W14 £1,195 per week
Unfurnished
Cranley Gardens, South Kensington SW7 £1,615 per week Unfurnished
An excellently presented five double bedroom, three-bathroom family house offering contemporary and practical accommodation.
A beautifully bright three double bedroom maisonette with a large terrace off the kitchen and a large private roof terrace.
1,899 sq ft (176 sq m) Reception room | Kitchen | Five bedrooms | Three bathrooms | Garden | EPC rating D
1,457 sq ft (135.39 sq m) Reception room | Three double bedrooms | Two bathrooms | Kitchen | Patio | Roof terrace | Lift | Residents parking | EPC exempt
Fulham 020 8023 6671 | fulham.lettings@struttandparker.com
Chelsea SW10 020 3813 9185 | chelseaSW10lettings@struttandparker.com
Petersham Place, South Kensington SW7 £2,350 per week Furnished
Milner Street, Chelsea SW3 £3,000 per week
A beautifully light and lateral south-facing double fronted four-bedroom house with private garage.
A fantastic six-bedroom family house with over 1,000 square feet of outside space, situated in the heart of Chelsea.
2,550 sq ft (236.9 sq m) Two reception rooms | Kitchen | Four bedrooms | Three bathrooms | Balcony | EPC rating D
4,171 sq ft (387.5 sq m) Three reception rooms | Kitchen | Two bedroom suites | Three further bedrooms | Dressing room | Further bathroom | Cloakroom | Staff apartment | Terrace | Roof terrace | Ample storage | EPC rating E
South Ken 020 3504 5901 | southkensingtonlettings@struttandparker.com
Chelsea 020 3504 5588 | chelsea.lettings@struttandparker.com
Furnished
References per Tenant £54 (Inc VAT), a deposit – usually between 6-10 weeks of the agreed rent. Any rent advertised is pure rent and does not include any additional services such as council tax, water or utility charges.
Strutt & Parker is a trading style of BNP Paribas Real Estate Advisory & Property Management UK Limited, which provides a full range of services across the residential, commercial and the rural property sectors.
ZA530_S&P_LuxuryLondon_DPS 1 Lettings_Feb_10.01.20.indd 2
10/01/2020 10:30
Regency Street, Pimlico SW1P £850,000
Share of Freehold
Clarendon Road, Notting Hill W11 £6,500,000
Freehold
A charming fourth floor apartment with lift, set in this highly desirable building in Westminster.
A wide, low-built modern house with off-street parking and a fabulous west-facing garden.
614 sq ft (57 sq m) Entrance hall | Reception room | Kitchen | Two double bedrooms | Family bathroom | Utility room | Porter | Gym | Communal gardens | EPC rating C
3,018 sq ft (280 sq m) Entrance hall | Kitchen | Dining/sitting room | Further reception room | Four bedrooms | Three bath/shower rooms | Gym | Utility room | Plant room | Three cloakrooms | Patio | Terrace | Off-street parking | Garden | EPC rating D
Chelsea 020 3504 5588 | chelsea@struttandparker.com
Notting Hill 020 3773 4114 | nottinghill@struttandparker.com
Campden Hill Court, Kensington W8 £2,850,000 Share of Freehold
Chester Street, Belgravia SW1X £6,950,000
An outstanding four-bedroom flat with the benefit of a porter and far reaching views.
A rare opportunity to acquire an unmodernised Grade II Listed freehold house with planning permission in the heart of Belgravia.
1,555 sq ft (144.5 sq m) Entrance hall | Reception room | Kitchen | Four bedrooms | En suite bathroom | Two en suite shower rooms | Lift | Porter | EPC rating E
Existing 3,778 sq ft (350.9 sq m) / Proposed 4,248 sq ft (395 sq m) Five bedrooms | Three reception rooms | Garden | Balcony | Unmodernised decoration | EPC rating D
Kensington 020 3813 9477 | kensington@struttandparker.com
Knightsbridge 020 3504 8796 | knightsbridge@struttandparker.com
/struttandparker
@struttandparker
Freehold
struttandparker.com
60 Offices across England and Scotland, including prime Central London. ZA531_S&P_LuxuryLondon_DPS 2 Sales_Feb_10.01.20.indd 1
10/01/2020 14:22
Old St James Vicarage, Fulham SW6 £7,500,000
Freehold
Tite Street, Chelsea SW3 £3,650,000
Leasehold
A unique Gothic Revival house boasting stunning architectural details.
A bright 1,759 sq ft second floor (with lift) apartment with three double bedrooms and a study.
7,667 sq ft (712 sq m) Drawing room | Two sitting rooms | Snug | Office | Games room | Dining room | Kitchen | Utility | Three cloakrooms | Six bedrooms | Four bathrooms | Two shower rooms | Studio | Plant room | Triple garage | Gardens | EPC rating C
1,759 sq ft (163 sq m) Entrance hall | Drawing room | Kitchen/dining room | Master bedroom with en suite | Two further bedrooms | Shower room | TV room/study | Utility room | Balcony | Two storage vaults | Lift | Porter | Residents parking | EPC rating D
Fulham 020 8023 6671 | fulham@struttandparker.com
Chelsea 020 3504 5588 | chelsea@struttandparker.com
Gloucester Road, South Kensington SW7 £995,000 Leasehold
Cresswell Place, Chelsea SW10 £6,950,000
A superb two-bedroom second floor flat perfectly located in the heart of South Kensington.
A stunning house that has been beautifully refurbished by the current owners to an exacting standard.
634 sq ft (59 sq m) Reception room | Open-plan kitchen | Master bedroom suite | Second bedroom suite | Utility room | Second floor | EPC rating D
3,141 sq ft (291.82 sq m) Four reception rooms | Four bedrooms | Five bathrooms | Kitchen | Roof terrace | Garage | Sauna | Hot tub | EPC rating C
South Ken 020 3504 5901 | southkensington@struttandparker.com
Chelsea SW10 020 3813 9185 | chelseaSW10@struttandparker.com
Freehold
Strutt & Parker is a trading style of BNP Paribas Real Estate Advisory & Property Management UK Limited, which provides a full range of services across the residential, commercial and the rural property sectors.
ZA531_S&P_LuxuryLondon_DPS 2 Sales_Feb_10.01.20.indd 2
10/01/2020 14:23
Chesham Place, Belgravia SW1X
ÂŁ17,500,000 Share of Freehold
A lateral apartment with private swimming pool, 24-hour security and parking. 6,268 sq ft (582.3 sq m) Reception room | Kitchen/breakfast room | Four bedroom suites | Swimming pool | 24-hour concierge | Air-conditioning | Two gardens | Underground parking | EPC rating C
Knightsbridge 020 3504 8796 | Knightsbridge@struttandparker.com *After an offer is accepted by the Landlord, which is subject to contract and acceptable references, the following charges and fees will be payable before the commencement of the tenancy: Preparation of Tenancy Agreement ÂŁ222 (Inc VAT),
/struttandparker
@struttandparker
struttandparker.com
60 Offices across England and Scotland, including prime Central London. ZA529_S&P_LuxuryLondon_DPS IBC_Feb_10.01.20.indd 1
10/01/2020 09:52
Seymour Walk, Chelsea SW10
£1,450 per week Unfurnished
Charming family home with three bedrooms, study and garden on a pretty residential street. 1,711 sq ft (211.97 sq m) Three reception rooms | Kitchen | Three double bedrooms | Three bathrooms | Garden/patio | Residents parking | EPC rating E
Chelsea SW10 020 3813 9185 | chelseaSW10@struttandparker.com References per Tenant £54 (Inc VAT), a deposit – usually between 6-10 weeks of the agreed rent. Any rent advertised is pure rent and does not include any additional services such as council tax, water or utility charges.
Strutt & Parker is a trading style of BNP Paribas Real Estate Advisory & Property Management UK Limited, which provides a full range of services across the residential, commercial and the rural property sectors.
ZA529_S&P_LuxuryLondon_DPS IBC_Feb_10.01.20.indd 2
10/01/2020 09:53
C ANARY WHARF · COVENT GARDEN · JERMYN STREET O L D B ROA D S T R E E T · O N E N E W C H A N G E · R E G E N T S T R E E T S L OA N E S T R E E T · W E S T F I E L D W H I T E C I T Y
H A C K E T T. C O M