Luxury London Magazine October 2019

MAGAZINE

October 2019 £7.00

T H E

R A C E

T O

S AV E

O U R

PLANET SPECIAL ISSUE

FIFTY YEARS AFTER THE FIRST MOON LANDING, MAN’S GREATEST MISSION IS NOW THE PRESERVATION OF LIFE ON EARTH

54274 Luxury London Mansion_470X333.indd 1

05/09/2019 14:48

LENNY KRAVITZ

PERFECTING

NORTH

PIAZZA,

ROYAL

TUMI_SS19_065_434x280_LUXURY_LONDON_MIXTE.indd 1

OPERA

ARCADE

COVENT

GARDEN

•

REGENT

STREET

JOURNEY

ZOË KRAVITZ

THE

WESTFIELD

SHEPHERDS

BUSH

•

LONDON

CITY

AIRPORT

•

TUMI.COM 13/05/2019 12:39

CONTENTS

26 UP FRONT

28 40 TIME FOR CHANGE

36

DRIVE

The haute horologers 10 EDITOR’S LETTER 13 THE BRIEFING

A world record-breaking

championing conservationism

C U LT U R E

expedition and an innovative solar-powered building 26 A BRAVE NEW WORLD The past, present and future of ecological campaigning 28 BEHIND THE LENS Meet Conor McDonnell, the

62 ELECTRIC AVENUES Putting Volvo’s latest hybrid, Polestar 2, to the test 7 1 DOWN TO THE WIRE

44 THE AGENDA First look at Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2019 48 WALKER ON THE

The future of battery-powered motorcycles

INTERIORS

WILD SIDE The Victoria & Albert Museum

celebrity photographer-turned-

unveils its first major Tim

environmental activist

Walker retrospective

36 ADVENTURE CAPITAL

56 WAR IS PEACE

Banking heir David de

How London in the 1940s

Rothschild on his mission to

informed George Orwell’s

save the planet

Nineteen Eighty-Four

78 FRINGE BENEFITS The rising popularity of fringe furniture – and how best to incorporate it into your home 84 LIVING FOR THE CITY Interior architect Blainey North on crafting her urban utopias

62 COUTURE

48 108 GOOD TO GO

The best eco-retreats from

92 SET THE TONE

around the world

The fashion labels combining

114 SEAS OF CHANGE

style with social responsibility

How one man is tackling

94 JEANS GO GREEN

Seychelles’ climate crisis

Discover the dark side of the

122 T HE CALL OF THE WILD

denim industry

Breakfast with a side of safari at

Nairobi’s Giraffe Manor

100 GLOBAL WARMING Sartorial solutions with a sustainable twist

24

MAGAZINE

October 2019 £7.00

T H E

PROPERTY

R A C E

T O

S AV E

O U R

PLANET SPECIAL ISSUE

LOREM IPSUM DOLOR SIT AMET, CONSECTETUR ADIPISCING ELIT, SED DO EIUSMOD POR INCIDIDUNT UT LABORE ET DOLORE MAGNA ALIQUA. UT ENIM AD MINIM VENIAM, QUIS

ESCAPE

132 INSIDER KNOWLEDGE Property news from prime central London

106 THE PIG AT

BRIDGE PLACE

140 STREETS AHEAD

A bucolic bolthole on the

The hottest homes hitting the

outskirts of Canterbury

market this month

COV E R Conor McDonnell captured this image of a humpback whale as part of his ongoing work with the Arctic Whale project. Read our interview with the photographer on page 28.

FROM THE EDITOR October 2019 Issue 17

Once upon a time, there was a farmer who inherited a goose that laid golden eggs. Every morning the goose would oblige the farmer one glistening, ovoid gift and every afternoon the farmer would take his ellipsoid bounty to the village market.

It didn’t take long for the farmer to become one of the richest men in the village. He bought a big house and a fast car, but still he wanted more. ‘If only I had more eggs,’ the farmer thought, ‘I could live in an even bigger house and drive an even faster car.’ He demanded that the goose lay more eggs. The goose duly obliged, offering two golden eggs a day – then three, then four.

As the farmer grew increasingly wealthy, he quickly developed a taste for 28-day dry-aged steak, Bluefin tuna, six-litre V12 engines, Pima cotton pyjamas, Egyptian cotton bed sheets, coffee crunched from small plastic capsules and water sold in bottles with little blue caps. Before he knew it, the farmer was having four holidays a year.

For some time the farmer had noticed that the goose was growing gaunt, its beak brittle, it’s feet gnarled and sore. But still the farmer demanded more. Still the goose obliged. Then, one morning, just as he was checking that day’s gold-price index, the farmer walked into the goose’s pen to find the bird frozen stiff, its feathers all but fallen out, its eyes glazed over, its pathetic body all pink and bony and bald. The farmer tried to nurse the goose back to health. But it was too late. The goose was fucked. ...

I’ll spare you the sermon, suffice to say that after researching this sustainability-themed issue everyone at this magazine is now a fully-fledged, tree-hugging, hemp-wearing, chiaseed-chomping member of the tofu brigade. Personally, I now kite-buggy to work.

Of all the scary statistics we came across, perhaps the takeaway fact is this: since 2014 our environmental footprint has been outstripping global biocapacity – that’s the area of land and sea required to sustain our current consumption levels – by more than 50 per cent. That means it takes the planet a year-and-a-half to grow what we are consuming in less than 12 months. Or, to put it another way, we’re currently gobbling more than one-and-a-half golden eggs a day. (That’s globally: you and I are more likely scoffing somewhere between five and six).

There’s a photograph on page 26 of Earth taken from the command module of Apollo 11 on the day of the moon landing. It was the first time we’d looked back at our planet from the perspective of another celestial body. Fifty years later, the image still makes you think.

We hope this issue does, too.

EDITOR Richard Brown DEPUTY EDITOR Ellen Millard SENIOR ASSISTANT EDITOR Anna Prendergast EDITOR-AT-LARGE Annabel Harrison CONTENT DIRECTOR Dawn Alford ONLINE EDITOR Mhairi Graham 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

Now, someone pass the buckwheat.

RICH ARD B ROWN Ed itor

ONE CANADA SQUARE, CANARY WHARF, LONDON, E14 5AX T: 020 7537 6565

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

WWW.LUXURYLONDONMEDIA.CO.UK

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

The Breitling Surfer Squad Sally Fitzgibbons Kelly Slater Stephanie Gilmore

LAND

SUPEROCEAN

AIR

SEA

#SQUADONAMISSION

BREITLING BOUTIQUE 130 NEW BOND STREET

LONDON

CA2101_Surfer Superocean 44 Blue Steel_217x280_London Luxury Magazine.indd 1

25/07/2019 09:21

THE BRIEFING 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 E C O L U X U R Y

P.14 THE EXPEDITION Marine explorer Laurent Ballesta on his record-breaking dive

P.16 THE CAR Audi unveils its first electric motor

P.18 THE YACHT The hydrogen vessel on a six-year mission for energy autonomy

P.20 THE AEROPLANE The first solar-powered flight around the world

P.22 THE BUILDING A Norwegian office setting the sustainable bar high

Nimmo Bay Wilderness Resort in British Columbia is just one of a number of hotels supported by sustainable travel operator Impact Travel (p.24)

LUXURY LONDON

THE BRIEFING

THE EXPEDITION

LAURENT BALLESTA’S MONTH-LONG DIVE TO THE DEPTHS OF THE MED THE FRENCH MARINE BIOLOGIST CRAFTED AN INNOVATIVE SYSTEM TO ALLOW FOR MORE TIME BELOW THE SURFACE OF THE SEA

A free diver for 33 years, Laurent Ballesta has been to the depths of the Mediterranean Sea on more occasions than he can probably count. At 100m, the pressure is 13 times greater than that of the surface, meaning on each dive he’s only been able to spend a few minutes at the base, before making the gruelling five hour ascent to avoid the bends.

But for his latest expedition, Gombessa V, Ballesta and three others were able to spend a total of 28 days underwater thanks to an innovative pressure chamber.

Combining the saturation diving techniques used in the oil industry with those of modern scuba divers, Ballesta and his team crafted a series of pressurised capsules, which sat on the surface of the water and were kept at the same pressure as the ocean.

Connected to a surface platform that takes the divers down to the depths of 100m, the capsules removed the need for slow ascent, allowing them to spend hours diving, rather than minutes.

“The problem with deep diving is never going down; it’s going up,” Ballesta explains. “During this expedition, we continued to go up and down, but at the same pressure, so our bodies still thought we were at the bottom of the ocean.”

Thanks to this ground-breaking technology, the team was able to spend a total of 400 hours outside of the chamber, allowing them to study and photograph species of fish that have never been seen

inside their ecosystems before.

“One of the fish we focused on was the moray eel; it’s a very common fish in the Mediterranean, but I have never heard about someone who has reported their mating and reproduction,” says Ballesta.

“It was really a privilege to be able to admire their behaviour, and we were lucky to see it and photograph it.”

Ballesta was accompanied by marine biologist Antonin Guilbert, instructor Thibault Rauby and cameraman Yannick Gentil. Their findings will be recorded in a documentary, exhibition and book, which are expected to be unveiled next year. Through his discoveries and photography, Ballesta hopes to educate the world on the beauty of the Mediterranean Sea and provide hope, rather than fear, for the future of our oceans.

“I don’t want to be the voice that says ‘my god, this is catastrophic’. We know that,” he states. “I want to prove to people that the ocean is not dead yet. There are still some places where the sea is pristine, full of life, full of colours, and it can look unbelievable.

“This expedition was quite painful; four people living in just five square metres, breathing freezing air – there were a lot of uncomfortable moments. But all four of us are ready to do it again next summer, and we wouldn’t if we had spent time in polluted places – so that’s the proof.” EM.

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

15

B L A N C PA I N Swiss watchmaker Blancpain’s connection with diving goes back to 1953, when it unveiled the Fifty Fathoms watch, the first modern diver’s watch created by former CEO JeanJacques Fiechter. Current CEO Marc Hayek has continued the tradition of championing the underwater world by sponsoring all five of Ballesta’s Gombessa expeditions. blancpain.com

The name might sound like that of a Transformers autobot, but Audi’s first fully-electrical model is radical, in that it isn’t. The e-tron makes little attempt to look like an electric car, even though it certainly feels and drives like one; it’s designed to bridge the gap between conventional and cutting edge, rivalling Jaguar’s I-PACE, Tesla’s Model X and the Mercedes-Benz EQC. Powered by two electric motors that are locally CO2neutral, it’s a virtually silent driving experience, with the battery located low and central on an adapted MLB Evo platform. This makes it a little heavier to handle than you’d expect of an electric car, but a low centre of gravity means it still has excellent control.

In the e-tron, Audi has taken digitised driving to the next level – not only does

it contain the unrivalled Virtual Cockpit (with a minimum of three screens at your fingertips), but it’s the first mass-production car to employ ‘virtual’ wing mirrors, which are, in reality, cameras delivering a live stream to screens inside the vehicle.

They also shave 150mm off the overall width, reducing drag and noise.

With plans to debut an e-tron Sportback at the LA Auto Show in November, plus a PB18 supercar and two selfdriving Aicon models in the pipeline, Audi is responding fast to the growing demand for energy-efficient motors. The German manufacturer is also working with Porsche (which released its first electric car, the Taycan, last month) on a Premium Platform Electric model, with release estimated for spring 2022. AP.

THE CAR

AUDI UNVEILS ITS FIRST ALL-ELECTRIC CAR BUILT IN THE MARQUE’S CO 2-NEUTRAL PLANT IN BRUSSELS, CAN AUDI’S E-TRON 55 QUATTRO TAKE ON THE LIKES OF TESLA?

LUXURY LONDON

F E AT U R E

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

17

T H E YA C H T

THE FLOATING LABORATORY ON A SIXYEAR MISSION FOR ENERGY AUTONOMY ENERGY OBSERVER IS TESTING AND OPTIMISING TECHNOLOGIES IN 50 DIFFERENT COUNTRIES

In 2017, hydrogen vessel Energy Observer set sail on a six-year mission around the world. Created to test the possibilities of energy autonomy, the vessel is travelling to 50 different countries, many of which have extreme climates, in order to test technologies that could be used as renewable energy networks in the future.

The boat itself is electrically propelled through a mix of renewable energies and a system

that uses seawater to produce carbon-free hydrogen.

Founder and captain Victorien Erussard, and France’s chief ambassador for the United Nation’s 17 sustainable development goals, is leading the tour, alongside Jérôme Delafosse, head of the expedition and director of the documentary series that will follow.

Along the way, the team will be stopping at 101 different ports, in order to bring their story to the public and raise awareness about the importance of renewable energies. This October, Energy Observer will moor in London, and an accompanying exhibition will be open to the public at St Katharine’s Dock. EM. 11-13 October, St Katharine’s Dock, E1W, energy-observer.org

THE PLANE

THE FIRST SUCCESSFUL SOLAR FLIGHT AROUND THE WORLD EXPLORER AND BALLOONIST BERTRAND PICCARD IS BEHIND THE GROUND-BREAKING AIRCRAFT

Balloonist Bertrand Piccard has crafted a career from floating around the world in a giant hot air balloon. But following a roundthe-world expedition in The Breitling Orbiter 3, which burned 3.7 tons of fuel, the explorer realised his was not the most environmentallyfriendly of callings. His solution? The Solar Impulse, a solar-powered, long-range aircraft that has a wingspan larger than a Boeing 747 yet the weight of a Range Rover – the first prototype of which was unveiled in 2003.

The plane’s second iteration was tested in 2015, with a 16-month flight that took off from Abu Dhabi and stopped over in India, Myanmar, China, Japan, Hawaii, California and Phoenix. Equipped with 17,248 solar cells on its wings, fuselage and tail, the plane was charged with four lithium batteries that drive its propellers, and was the first solar-powered plane capable of flying through the night.

Having caught the world’s attention, Piccard launched the World Alliance for Efficient Solutions shortly after, which unites the key players developing and financing products, services and businesses intended to protect the environment. The explorer has pledged to travel the world again in 2024 – but this time with a portfolio of sustainable solutions to inspire us all. EM.

THE BUILDING

AN OFFICE IN NORWAY HAS SET THE BAR FOR ECO ARCHITECTURE THIS INNOVATIVE BUILDING PRODUCES TWICE THE AMOUNT OF ENERGY IT USES

To reduce energy used for lighting, the building employs a ‘liquid light’ concept, which allows artificial light to dim up and down according to movement in the building.

A solar-panelled office seems like a great idea in, say, the Sahara, where there is guaranteed round-the-clock sunshine.

In the Norwegian city of Trondheim, however, where the seasons are sporadic – think four hours of sunlight in the winter, and 20 in the summer – an architecture firm has produced an immense energy efficient building that could change the face of sustainable architecture.

Powerhouse Brattørkaia, created by Snøhetta, has been built to be as energy efficient as possible, with heavy insulation, heat recovery solutions for ventilating air and recycled seawater for heating and cooling. But the biggest impact of all comes from the polygonal roof, which is decorated with more than 32,000 sq ft of black solar panels that soak up the sunlight. The building produces twice as much energy as it requires – enough, even, to offset the hidden energy costs from the building’s construction. The spare energy will be supplied to neighbouring buildings, electric buses, cars and boats through a local microgrid. EM.

The giant skylight in the roof projects natural light into the atrium, which also limits the need for artificial lighting in the building.

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

22

LUXURY LONDON

THE BRIEFING

T H E T R AV E L C O M P A N Y

THE TOUR OPERATOR CHAMPIONING ECO-APPROVED DESTINATIONS IMPACT TRAVEL CATERS TO MINDFUL GLOBETROTTERS WITH A SERIES OF AUTHENTIC AND SUSTAINABLE EXPERIENCES

From glamping in Patagonia to scuba diving in Cyprus, Impact Travel has curated the best sustainable travel companies from across the globe into one handy list.

A sort of eco search engine, the company champions hotels, restaurants and experience-based businesses that work to limit their carbon footprint.

Divided into five categories – Do, See, Stay, Eat and Move – the website lists a series of hosts, all of which are expected to adhere to at least one of its 12 principles, which range from environmentally-friendly initiatives to social values. Each host is then given a star rating that reflects the number of principles it observes. As a social enterprise, all of Impact Travel’s profits go to selected foundations, as well as environmental and social causes. EM. positive.travel

Impact Travel boasts hosts in France, Indonesia, Italy, Sri Lanka, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and USA

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

24

The company’s 12 core principles are based on the three Ps: People, Planet and Potential

PHOTOGRAPH OF EARTH TAKEN BY COMMAND MODULE PILOT MICHAEL COLLINS DURING THE APOLLO 11 MOON LANDING, 21 JULY 1969

LUXURY LONDON

F E AT U R E

A W

B

R

A

N

E

W

O

R

L

V D

E ?

T H E G R E TA T H U N B E R G G E N E R AT I O N M I G H T B E D I R E C T I N G T H E C U R R E N T C L I M AT E C H A N G E C O N V E R S AT I O N B U T AWA R E N E S S O F T H E I M P E N D I N G E N V I R O N M E N TA L I S S U E S S E T TO P L AG U E O U R P L A N E T I S N OT H I N G N E W

I

Words: Rob Crossan

f ever contemporary environmentalists feel they’re not being listened to, perhaps they should consider the life and work of Thomas Malthus.

Barely known today, and ignored for much of his own career in the first half of the 19th century, this English cleric and economist wrote, in a paper called An Essay on the Principle of Population in 1798, that an increase in human population beyond sustainable limits would result in a disastrous collapse in the human population due to disease and famine.

In short, the notion of the eco-movement as being the brain child of 1960s idealists with long hair and tie-dye shirts is woefully inaccurate. The problems that Greta Thunberg, David Attenborough and the Green Party are wrestling with were diagnosed rather a long time ago.

Earlier this year the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report stated that we have to make major cuts in carbon emissions (at least 40 per cent) by 2030 to avoid catastrophic climate change.

Finally, it seems that the warnings of human and planetary catastrophe Malthus wrote about more than a century earlier are being absorbed, if not necessarily always acted upon.

And while the Victorian era scholar remains shrouded in obscurity, it was through the unlikely voice of an American marine biologist that the thoughts and ideals behind the current eco-movement finally gained something approaching mainstream recognition.

Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring book, published back in 1962, made a compelling argument against pesticide use and its impact on mammals and insects. Hardly an issue at the top of many American’s agendas at the time, this was an era of rapid industrialisation with atomic testing and polluting factories

running all but unopposed. Yet, against the odds, Carson’s book became a smash hit, reminding readers worldwide of the fragility of the planet and just what a future without a functioning eco-system could look like.

The Apollo landings, and the first photos of our planet taken from the moon also contributed to a new awareness, acted upon by President Richard Nixon who, as an unlikely early champion of the green movement, signed the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, which required environmental impact assessments for all largescale federal projects.

The first Earth Day marches and protests took place in 1970 which prompted a range of landmark legislations in the US such as the Clean Water and Clean Air Acts. But the pushback was swift from industries and major political players in western countries. Protests from the business community on the impact on profits resulting from restrictions on deforestation, fishing and polluting industries such as coal meant that many of the Acts were diluted or neutered to the point of almost complete ineffectualness.

Entering the 21st century, and the arguments from the green movement have become bigger than addressing polluted rivers. Global warming and climate change, species extinction and worldwide over-fishing are issues being tackled by increasingly prioritising science rather than ethics or morals as the focus of eco-conscious arguments.

With a Swedish schoolgirl, in the form of Greta Thunberg, becoming just the most recent cause celebre in terms of green protestors, it’s interesting to wonder what Malthus would have thought of her most incendiary line: “I am here to say, our house is on fire... I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if our house is on fire. Because it is.”

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

27

BEHIND THE LENS

VOTED ONE OF FORBES MAGAZINE’S 30 UNDER 30 LIST AND AN AMBASSADOR FOR WWF UK, CONOR MCDONNELL WA S T H E O F F I C I A L P H OTO G R A P H E R AT K I M K A R DA S H I A N ’ S W E D D I N G T O K A N Y E W E S T. H AV I N G A C T E D A S P E R S O N A L P H OTO G R A P H E R TO T H E P L A N E T ’ S B I G G E S T P O P S TA R S , T H E 2 7-Y E A R - O L D L I V E R P U D L I A N M E E T S LU X U R Y LO N D O N A S H E T U R N S H I S L E N S TO WA R D S T H E M O S T P R E S S I N G E N V I R O N M E N TA L I S S U E S O F O U R AG E

Words: Hugh Francis Anderson

I

THIS PAGE CONOR MCDONNELL; OPPOSITE FROM, FROM TOP DAVID ATTENBOROUGH; ELLIE GOULDING PERFORMING AT WEMBLEY STADIUM

first came to hear about Conor McDonnell while sailing across the North Atlantic. Earlier this year, I joined adventurer, sailor and marine biologist Andreas B. Heide to sail from the Faroe Islands to Iceland as part of the Arctic Whale project, an initiative intended to raise awareness of the impact of plastic pollution on the sub-Arctic.

As we crossed the ocean, Heide told me about this young photographer who was flying out to join the project. “He shot Kim and Kanye’s wedding,” he said. “He’s also worked with David Attenborough.” Rather a varied portfolio, I thought.

The day before McDonnell joined us on-board Heide’s expedition yacht Barba – anchored at Akureyri, a small city on the southern shore of Eyjafjörður, northern Iceland – he’d been shooting with Calvin Harris at Wembley in front of a crowd of 80,000 people. I was determined to find out more.

Born and raised in Liverpool, McDonnell had an unlikely migration into photography. “I used to go to loads of music concerts when I was younger,” he says. “There was this one Subways concert that I really wanted to go to, but it was sold out. I tried every angle to get a ticket, and then remembered I had just got a camera for Christmas to help with my GCSE art at school, and thought, ‘I wonder if I could try to get a photo pass?’” McDonnell contacted the band members directly through their MySpace profiles and managed to get a photographic press pass to shoot the concert. He was just 16.

“I thought it was wicked; I had free tickets to the show and wasn’t even bothered about the photography side of things. I had a very basic knowledge of photography and assumed automatic mode would do,” he laughs. “Halfway through the first song I had a quick flick through the pictures and was like, ‘Oh, this isn’t good.’ So, I popped the camera into manual mode, and that began my obsession with photography.”

At 27, that obsession has already turned into quite the career. Following The Subways’ gig, McDonnell reached out to more and more artists, sending up to 100 emails a day to PR teams, record labels and management companies for photo passes. Most failed to reply but McDonnell made an immediate impression on those that did. “They’d say, ‘Oh, we really liked you, do you want to shoot the whole show for us?

We can chuck in a bit of cash.’”

McDonnell started touring with artists across Europe – “it spiralled quite quickly” – and today counts Calvin Harris, Ellie Goulding, Rita Ora and One Direction’s Niall Horan among his “regular” clients. (His first tattoo was scrawled by a drunken Dave Grohl while backstage at a concert.)

McDonnell’s big break came in 2014, when Annie Leibovitz pulled out as Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s official wedding photographer, and the then 22-year-old received a rather unexpected call. “It was pretty crazy,” he laughs. “I’m not a wedding photographer at all, and I was asked the day before the wedding. I didn’t even know what

LUXURY LONDON

INTERVIEW

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

32

I was doing until I arrived and found out it was the wedding itself.” One of his photos ended up becoming the most liked photo on Instagram at the time, with 2.4m likes, a title it held for more than a year. “I mean, that was pretty cool,” says McDonnell. “That definitely helped boost my career quite a lot.”

In 2016, McDonnell was named in Forbes magazine’s 30 Under 30 list of artists. “When I got the email, I thought it was spam,” he laughs. “And then I looked into it, and it was the same day the list came out. It was crazy. It’s definitely impacted me because I think it’s quite a big accolade; a boy from Liverpool associated with the Forbes list is something I never expected.”

McDonnell’s career then took an unexpected sidestep into a different type of photography. “I’ve always been obsessed with adventure,” he says. “As a kid, my mum and dad would read me stories about explorers like Shackleton, and then when touring I’d end up in places I’d never expected to be in – I’d explore them on my off days.”

His first big expedition was in 2017 as part of the Arctic Mission led by British explorer Pen Hadow.

The purpose of the expedition was to try to be the first team to sail by yacht to the North Pole to conduct scientific research. The team was looking for a young photographer with an interest in adventure and a dedicated following, so McDonnell was put forward. “It was on two sailboats and we basically tried to go as far north as possible and see if we could reach the North Pole. We didn’t get there, but we were at sea for more than a month, and it was the first time I’d ever stepped foot on a yacht. It was a very quick crash course.”

Conditions must have been tough? “I didn’t mind it. Because of my years of touring and being on buses with 15 other smelly artists, I thought it was really comfortable, like a tour bus but at sea.” McDonnell has continued to explore the environmental side of photography, becoming an ambassador for WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) – for whom he’s photographed the Maasai Mara in Kenya – and worked closely with Sir David Attenborough on the documentary series Our Planet.

“He’s my absolute hero and idol,” says McDonnell of the naturalist and broadcaster. “It was cool enough being in the same room as him, let alone getting to travel around the world with him.” They have since travelled extensively together. “Probably the coolest experience I’ve had so far is walking around the Smithsonian Museum with him. He’s an absolute legend, and the fact that he steps in front of my camera every once in a while is an honour.”

McDonnell’s other heroes are National Geographic photographers Paul Nicklen and Jimmy Chin. “I’ve

THIS PAGE, FROM TOP CALVIN HARRIS AND SAM SMITH; MAREN MORRIS AND NIALL HORAN; DAVID BECKHAM; KIM KARDASHIAN AND KANYE WEST OPPOSITE PAGE CALVIN HARRIS AND SAM SMITH

read Nat Geo for as long as I can remember. It’s always the best photography in the world, so it’s definitely a dream [to work with them].”

Over the next 10 days of our expedition, McDonnell will dive with humpback whales, photograph puffins and blue whales, and live the rudimentary existence that is life at sea.

And then? Las Vegas to photograph Calvin Harris. And then? LA, London, Ibiza… It’s a bit of a counterintuitive career, no? “Yes, so I’ve been offsetting my carbon emissions for the past few years now,” McDonnell explains. “I basically got to a point where I just started feeling really guilty about flying and travelling so much. Of course, with my job, there is an awful lot of travel, so I decided to do something about it.” For McDonnell, that means pledging £5,000 to carbon offsetting schemes each year. “It’s just got to be done. It gives me peace of mind.”

ARCTIC WHALE Conceived by Norwegian marine biologist, adventurer and sailor Andreas B. Heide, and impact manager Sandra C. Ness, the Arctic Whale project sets out to investigate the impact that plastic is having on our whale population and wider marine life.

Some eight million metric tons of plastic waste are poured into our oceans each year, of which almost 240,000 tons are microplastics. According to a report published by GESAMP, a group of independent scientific experts that advises the UN, microplastics have been found in more than 100 species of marine life. Such plastics can lead to changes in gene expression and promote tumours. Larger plastics result in the death of an estimated 100,000 marine mammals and turtles each year, alongside more than one million seabirds. arcticwhale.no

LUXURY LONDON

INTERVIEW

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

35

E X P L O R E R D AV I D D E R O T H S C H I L D H A S S A I L E D 8 , 0 0 0 M I L E S O N A B OAT M A D E O F P L A S T I C , C R O S S E D A N TA R C T I C A O N S K I S A N D PA D D L E D DOWN THE XINGU RIVER, ALL IN THE NAME O F E N V I R O N M E N TA L I S M . A S H E PA R T N E R S W I T H B R E I T L I N G O N A M A R I N E C O N S E R VAT I O N P R O J E C T, T H E B R I T I S H E C O L O G I S T D I S C U S S E S C L I M AT E C H A N G E D E N I E R S , DA N C I N G TO WHAM WITH INDIGENOUS TRIBES AND HIS M I S S I O N T O S AV E T H E W O R L D

Words: Ellen Millard

ADVENTURE CAPITAL ‘WHERE DO YOU LIVE?’ is perhaps the wrong question to ask a man whose life has centred around nomadic pursuits.

From a car in LA, explorer David de Rothschild’s laugh trickles down the phone as he explains how he is “of no fixed address. I try not to stay very still”.

To be fair to him, not staying still has served him well.

To date, he’s the youngest person ever to reach both geographical poles, and, along with a group of fellow nomads, is the world record holder for the fastest crossing of the Greenland ice cap. At the age of 26, he joined a team of 14 people crossing the continent of Antarctica on skis, dragging sledges of cargo for 2,000 miles. He’s sailed from San Francisco to Sydney on a 60ft vessel made of 12,500 plastic bottles (dubbed Plastiki) and taught Amazonian tribes people how to move to 1980s pop classics (more on that later).

A scion of the Rothschild banking family, the explorer, environmentalist and naturopath sought conservationism over capitalism from an early age. Obsessed with horse riding, he became a top-ranked show jumper in Britain’s junior event team as a teenager, before studying Political Science and Information Systems at Oxford Brookes. His interest in ecology was sparked while earning an advanced diploma in Natural Medicine from London’s College of Naturopathic Medicine, but it was on his trip to Antarctica that he realised travelling could be used as a tool for

environmental education. Since then, his mission has been informing the world on the importance of conservationism, travelling to remote and fragile regions to highlight the need for sustainable living.

This has involved, among other things, founding Sculpt the Freedom Foundation in 2006, a charity dedicated to environmental education, as well as the launch of his sustainablefirst lifestyle brand The Lost Explorer in 2015. More recently, Rothschild joined the Breitling Explorer Squad,

a team of environmentalists including Bertrand Piccard and Inge Solheim, with whom the horologer has launched a limited-edition timepiece.

The Breitling Superocean Heritage Chronograph 44 Ocean Conservancy sports a strap crafted from ECONYL yarn, a nylon alternative made from recycled fishing nets. A portion of the sales of the watch are donated to Ocean Conservancy and its global fight against ocean pollution.

Why did you choose to dedicate your life to environmentalism? I’ve always just loved nature and being outside.

I look at it as a very selfish, indulgent pursuit. If you think about it, who wouldn’t want to spend time in nature, trying to figure out ways with which to protect that incredible ecosystem?

It’s the greatest gift of all to be able to contribute to that, and to be part of what is now a much more robust network of incredible people, working towards a remedy for a much more sustainable way of living.

Why do you think the sustainability movement has become more dominant in recent years? I think the awareness has always been there for all of us, but it’s becoming a lot

more prevalent because crazy weather systems are hammering us on a daily basis. Every single narrative and every event that has been presented by the scientific community since the first big wave of environmentalism back in the 1960s is now coming to fruition.

That’s the fundamental shift. But the problem is that winning slowly is still losing. We need to realise that there isn’t a bailout plan for nature. We have all of the solutions to the problems today; the pieces that are missing from the equation now are the moral compass and the leadership.

LUXURY LONDON

INTERVIEW

Why do you think climate change is still a taboo topic for so many?

One of the problems is that the predominant narrative has always been presented as very black and white.

You’re either part of the problem or you’re part of the solution; you either agree with climate change or you’re a denier. That’s a really dangerous game to play. There are many iterations of that conversation, and I think a lot of people feel very overwhelmed by the enormity of that change and what they have to do personally. I don’t think fear is a good motivator. We have to create stories that are inspiring, we have to lead by example and remove the myths that to be sustainable is a step backwards, not a step forwards.

Will Plastiki sail again? Since 2004, I’ve been creating stories that hopefully elevate and celebrate nature. I try to take issues that are out of sight, out of mind and make the unseen seen. Plastiki was one medium around plastics and it was a great way to kickstart what became a global conversation – but still today, for all the consciousness we have about plastic, there’s still a lot to be learned and sadly we’re still producing more plastic than ever. For me, Plastiki was the starting point. Adventure is an incredible medium because it allows for discovery and allows for story-telling, and all of those things create a potent mix to grab people’s attention.

What’s been your most unusual travel experience? I remember being in the Amazon with the chief from the Atara community, which is based on the border of Equador and Peru. After quite a bit of moonshine, he pulled out a ghetto blaster and a copy of Now That’s What I Call Music Volume I, which had Wham and Kajagoogoo tracks, and said ‘Show me how to dance to this music’. It was a f**king amazing moment, one because I got to practise my sh*t dance moves, and two because I thought in years to come some anthropologist is going to wonder how this indigenous tribe ended up moving in this way. Somebody might say ‘And

then the Atara learned how to do the rope-a-dope’.

How important is it that brands such as Breitling are working to create more sustainable products? It’s super important. We’re living in a time when people trust brands more than they trust politicians – so if you have a brand that is willing to stand by values that will be bigger than just consumerism, such as conservationism, then that’s an incredibly powerful tool. If someone’s wearing a watch that is grounded in ocean conservation and someone asks them about that watch, they then become an ambassador for the ocean through that experience. You’ve created an army of advocates for causes that matter, and that’s the power of the brand. sculptthefuturefoundation.org; thelostexplorer.com

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

39

S U P E R O C E A N H E R I TA G E CHRONOGRAPH 44 O C E A N C O N S E R VA N C Y

Created in partnership with Ocean Conservancy, this Breitling timepiece features an ECONYL yarn strap, an innovative material made from re-purposed nylon waste. £4,880, breitling.com

TIME FOR CHANGE

FROM THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA TO THE BOARDROOM, T H E S E D I V E WATC H E S S I G N A L A T I M E O F I N C R E A S I N G E C O AWA R E N E S S . A F T E R A L L , W I T H O U T T H E O C E A N T H E S E W A T C H E S W O U L D N ’ T H AV E A P L A C E T O P L AY. . .

Words: Dom Jeffares

MARK HEALEY, AMBASSADOR FOR BREMONT, ON A SHARKTAGGING EXPEDITION

LUXURY LONDON

F E AT U R E

F I F T Y FAT H O M S O C E A N COMMITMENT III

SUBMERSIBLE MIKE HORN EDITION

P AT R AV I S C U B AT E C B L A C K M A N TA E D I T I O N

£13,120, Blancpain

£34,800, Panerai

£5,500, Carl F. Bucherer

When Blancpain launched the Fifty Fathoms in 1953, the horologer created, arguably, the blueprint for the modern dive watch. Paying tribute to the watch’s natural habitat, a percentage of Commitment III’s proceeds will go to Blancpain’s Ocean Commitment programme, which supports marine expeditions and conservation efforts. blancpain.com

Created with explorer Mike Horn, this Panerai watch is limited to just 19 pieces. The timepiece features a case made from EcoTitanium™ (recycled titanium championed by Panerai) and a recycled PET rubber strap. Owners are invited to participate in intensive training with Horn among the ice floes of the Arctic. panerai.com

Carl F. Bucherer has joined forces with Manta Trust, a UK-based charity with the mission to protect the habitats of endangered manta rays. With an automatic helium release valve, depth rating of 500m, and a menacing DLCcoated titanium case and ceramic bezel, this horological predator of the ocean is a goodie in disguise. carl-f-bucherer.com

S U P E R M A R I N E WAT E R M A N

BIG BANG UNICO SORAI

FREAK X IN CARBONIUM

£4,395, Bremont

£19,900, Hublot

£21,800, Ulysse Nardin

A portion of the sales of Bremont’s Supermarine Waterman, which was tested by free diver Mark Healey, will benefit Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii.

The S500 watch architecture, upon which the watch is based, is chosen by multiple military units and explorers all over the world. Limited to 300 pieces. bremont.com

You can’t fault Hublot on making a big bang of an entrance – pun intended.

In partnership with SORAI (Save Our Rhinos Africa and India), Hublot has created this desert-inspired timepiece to highlight the endangered status of the horned beast. It’s time to buckle up folks. hublot.com

Carbonium® is space-grade stuff. A highperformance composite material only used by aeronautical engineers until now, its exceptional resistance-to-lightness ratio makes it the perfect candidate to employ in watchmaking. Ninety-five per cent of its composition is eco-sourced from carbon by-products in the aeronautical cycle. ulysse-nardin.com

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

41

Some people travel just to see the rest of the world.

Carrier clients travel to experience the best of the world.

Discover travel through our eyes and you’ll never see the world in the same way again Established since 1980 and with royalty and celebrities amongst our clients, Carrier’s discreet, attentive and bespoke service is held in the highest regard.

Your every need, every preference and every whim is catered for, no request is too small and no challenge too big.

Search Carrier Holidays

Visit: carrier.co.uk Call: 0161 826 1914

P.44 DIARY DATES The events to mark in your calendar

KIKI WILLEMS BY TIM WALKER FOR IRIS VAN HERPEN, NEW YORK, 2018

this month

P.56 BIG BROTHER Celebrating 70 years of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four

C U LT U R E MUSIC,

MUSEUMS AND

MASTERPIECES

In his first major retrospective, fashion photographer Tim Walker unveils the most arresting photographs from his career (p.48).

T H E A G E N DA YOUR CURATED GUIDE TO CULTURE IN THE CAPITAL Words: Anna Prendergast & Ellen Millard

SOUTH KENSINGTON THE SHORTLIST IS ANNOUNCED FOR WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR 2019 The Natural History Museum’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition returns this October, and with it comes a plethora of images capturing the best that nature and photojournalism have to offer. From the adorable to the disturbing, this year’s 100-strong shortlist is both breathtaking and thought-provoking in equal measure.

“Photography has a unique ability to spark conversation, debate, and even action,” said the museum’s director of science, Dr Tim Littlewood. “We hope this year’s exhibition will empower people to think differently about our planet and our critical role in its future.”

The overall winners for each category will be announced on 15 October.

18 October – Summer 2020, £15.50, Cromwell Road, SW7, nhm.ac.uk

THIS PAGE, FROM TOP CANOPY HANGOUT, CARLOS PÉREZ NAVAL, SPAIN; LUCKY BREAK, JASON BANTLE, CANADA; BIG CAT AND DOG SPAT, PETER HAYGARTH, UK OPPOSITE PAGE CIRCLE OF LIFE, ALEX MUSTARD, UK

BLOOMSBURY THE OTHER ART FAIR CELEBRATES EMERGING ARTISTS So named because it runs during the same week as Frieze, The Other Art Fair was launched in 2011 to provide a platform for emerging artists often overlooked by industry stalwarts.

Now with annual shows across the US and Australia, The Other Art Fair’s London edition returns to Bloomsbury this October, bringing with it a series of guest exhibitions, site-specific installations, engaging workshops and curated projects addressing the fair’s 2019 Greener Future theme.

3-6 October, £11, Victoria House, Southampton Row, WC1A, theotherartfair.com

FROM TOP ACORAZADAS, ROCIO ROMERO; INTO THE BLUE, ANNA MCNEIL

LUXURY LONDON

C U LT U R E

CHARING CROSS LONDON’S FIRST ECO-FRIENDLY PRIVATE MEMBERS’ CLUB HOSTS ECO-AGE Ethical fashion consultancy Eco-Age will present an evening of networking opportunities for women in the sustainability sector at London’s first eco-friendly members club, Arboretum. In the context of the climate emergency, a panel of speakers including strategist Dorothee D’Herde will discuss female leadership and workplace culture, plus how we can work together to bring about change at every level.

BELOW DELI AT ARBORETUM

KNIGHTSBRIDGE FARM-TO-FORK GOES GRANULAR IN AN EXPLORATION OF THE CONCEPTS CHANGING THE WAY WE GROW, COOK AND CONSUME. It’s your last chance to catch the V&A’s Food: Bigger Than the Plate exhibition. It’s a real-time experiment, research project and creative outlet rolled into one, in which artists, chefs, farmers and scientists challenge the future of food. Find designer Caroline Niebling’s alternative answers to meat (insect pâté, anyone?); cheese made from human bacteria and GroCycle’s Urban Mushroom Farm, which uses discarded coffee grounds from the V&A café.

Until 20 October, £17, Cromwell Road, SW7, vam.ac.uk

FROM TOP FOOD RULES TOMORROW, 2019, FILM STILL ©HONEY & BUNNY SEBASTIAN ARLAMOVSKY; SYMMETRY BREAKFAST SERIES, ©MICHAEL ZEE

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

47

3 October, from £15, 2A Charing Cross Road, WC2H, arbor-etum.com

WALKER ON THE

Words: Kari Colmans

WILD

SIDE

A H E A D O F T H E V& A’ S L AT E S T FA S H I O N - C R O W D P L E AS E R , T I M WA L K E R : WO N D E R F U L T H I N G S , LUXURY LONDON GETS THE BIG PICTURE WITH E X H I B I T I O N C U R ATO R S U S A N N A B R O W N

XIAO WEN JU, HARLETH KUUSIK, YUMI LAMBERT, & NASTYA STEN (TWICE), WEARING ALEXANDER MCQUEEN’S ‘THE GIRL WHO LIVED IN THE TREE’ COLLECTION, A/W 2008, LONDON, 2014

MARION COTILLARD WEARING VALENTINO HAUTE COUTURE, PARIS, 2012

LUXURY LONDON

C U LT U R E

TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET, LOS ANGELES, 2018

It’s hard to

imagine

of Walker’s distinctive pictures, hailing his exceptional contribution to photography over the past quarter century (an accompanying book, Shoot for the Moon, is being published by Thames and Hudson).

The exhibition will also celebrate the pivotal role that the V&A has played in his creative process, with a large part directly influenced by the gallery’s compendium of curiosities.

Together with Susanna Brown, curator of photographs at the V&A, Walker first started exploring the project five years ago. But the two have known one another far longer: when she first joined the museum in 2008, one of the first acquisitions she made was a collection of Walker’s pictures.

“Tim’s influence is huge, not just in the UK but across the world,” she says. “He sees beauty everywhere and he’s fascinated by the broad spectrum of humanity. By making

spending your adolescence burying through the archives at Condé Nast, surrounded by some of the greatest photographs ever taken, and not being compelled to follow suit. And so it was then that one of the industry’s top photographers Tim Walker first realised his calling, and moved to New York to work as a full-time assistant to the renowned American photographer, Richard Avedon. Upon his return, Walker shot his first fashion-story for Vogue at the age of 25, and has been a firm style-bible fixture ever since.

His surreal, storybook-fantasy flair is wholly unique and instantly recognisable, while his incredible sets are often populated by some of the biggest names in fashion.

Tim Walker: Wonderful Things will be the largest ever exhibition

pictures that celebrate diversity, difference, and individuality, he encourages the fashion industry to be more inclusive.”

Brown has produced numerous international touring exhibitions, including Horst: Photographer of Style (2014) and Queen Elizabeth II by Cecil Beaton (2012), and accompanying publications, as well as the collection displays for the museum’s permanent galleries.

But this, she says, is one of the most ambitious photography exhibitions ever staged at the museum. “Tim has a wildly inquisitive mind and a boundless energy,” she says. “He never stops innovating and these new pictures are some of the most spectacular he has ever made.”

Working with leading creative director Shona Heath – a longterm collaborator – the sure-to-be sell-out exhibition will showcase more than 300 of Walker’s pieces, spanning photographs, short films,

WILSON ORYEMA, NIKO RIAM, EMMANUEL ADJAYE & KING OWUSU, WEARING REI KAWAKUBO FOR COMME DES GARÇONS, LONDON, 2016

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

51

“I’m interested in breaking down the boundaries that society has created, to enable more varied types of beauty”

JENNIFER LAWRENCE WITH WHITE PEACOCK. COPPED HALL, EPPING, 2012

LUXURY LONDON

F E AT U R E

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

53

KAREN ELSON WITH ATLAS THE LION, WEARING DOLCE & GABBANA ALTA MODA, HEADPIECE BY JULIEN D’YS, SHOTOVER HOUSE, OXFORDSHIRE, 2013

props, scrapbooks and sketches.

Having scoured the galleries and archives (and even scaled the roof, apparently), Walker was met with a veritable treasure trove of inspiring objects. “It’s like going on a journey through someone else’s dreams,” says Brown.

From brilliant stained-glass windows to bejewelled snuffboxes, erotic illustrations to historic tapestries, Walker was entranced at every turn. “To me, the V&A has always been a palace of dreams – it’s the most inspiring place in the world,” he says. “The museum’s collection is so wide and eclectic, and I think that’s why it resonates with me so much.”

We are first introduced to the subject through a collection of 100 pictures, taken from previous projects, as well as snippets from Walker’s Super 8 films and first-hand anecdotes. Sir David Attenborough, David Hockney, and Cate Blanchett are just some of the famous faces that peer out from the portrait collection. One

wall is devoted entirely to his muses, with Tilda Swinton, Kate Moss and Grayson Perry among them. The all-encompassing experience nods to the many collaborators needed to help conjure his visions. “For me, beauty is everything,” he says. “I’m interested in breaking down the boundaries that society has created, to enable more varied types of beauty and the wonderful diversity of humanity to be celebrated.”

The main exhibition space is heavier on the senses, rich with texture and sound, while playing with space and light. Ten separate rooms hold a series of tableaus chronicling the series directly inspired by the V&A. Illuminations invokes the interior of a burnedout cathedral, displaying various Renaissance treasures, while Handle with Care draws inspiration from the gallery’s fashion and textiles collection and features a dress from Alexander McQueen’s 2009 The Horn of Plenty collection.

“I’ve rarely met anyone with an imagination as powerful as

Tim’s,” says Brown. “He has the extraordinary ability to weave together disparate threads – memories, visual references, fragments of fairy tales, current cultural debates – to create tapestries that are unmistakably his own.

With every shoot he challenges himself to try something new; this fearless approach means his work is constantly evolving.”

I ask Brown to choose a standout favourite piece, but she struggles. “He has created so many extraordinary pictures for the exhibition. However, the shoot titled Lil’ Dragon is one that I particularly love. Shona created an amazing set, which glowed under the UV lights, and Zoe Bedeaux selected the most stunning range of garments and accessories, including many pieces made by students from the London art colleges.”

Following the huge success of his previous exhibitions, both at the Design Museum in 2008 and the stunning Story Teller at Somerset House in 2012, his latest showcase is unlikely to disappoint.

“Many of the objects that I saw during my research at the museum made my heart swell and I wanted to try to create a photograph that would relate not only to the physical presence and beauty of that object, but also to my emotional reaction to it,” says Walker. “Each new shoot is a love letter to an object from the V&A collection, and an attempt to capture my encounter with the sublime.”

Tim Walker: Wonderful Things, £15, 21 September – 8 March 2020, vam.ac.uk

SHOOT FOR THE MOON BY TIM WALKER, £85, PUBLISHED

BY THAMES AND HUDSON, THAMESANDHUDSON.COM

LUXURY LONDON

C U LT U R E

BJÖRK WEARING MARLOU BREULS, REYKJAVIK, 2017 ALL IMAGES ©TIM WALKER STUDIO/SHOOT FOR THE MOON BY TIM WALKER

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

55

GEORGE ORWELL AT HIS TYPEWRITER, PHOTO

BY ULLSTEIN BILD

WA R I S P E A C E S E V E N T Y Y E A R S A F T E R T H E W O R L D WA S I N T R O D U C E D TO R O O M 1 0 1 , THE THOUGHT POLICE AND BIG BROTHER IN GEORGE ORWELL’S NOVEL N I N E T E E N E I G H T Y- F O U R , W E R E V I S I T T H E AU T H O R ’ S T E R R I F Y I N G V I S I O N O F LO N D O N A S T H E C A P I TA L O F A I R S T R I P O N E

Words: Rob Crossan

B

ombed out clearings where citizens live ‘in wooden dwellings like chicken houses’. Grim, filthy canteens where workers are fed morning cups of gin that taste like nitric acid and deliver a ‘sensation of being hit on the back of the head with a rubber club’. Monolithic concrete tower blocks with boarded-up windows, casting shadows over slums, and ‘old bent creatures shuffling along on splayed feet’.

This is London. No longer the capital of England but the capital of Airstrip One, part of Oceania, a vast political entity in a state of war that, as George Orwell (the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair) describes, is ‘not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous’.

Of all the dystopian visions of the future that authors, screen writers and even politicians have imagined for London, none come close to Orwell’s in terms of pure, unmitigated horror.

In Nineteen Eighty-Four, published exactly seven decades ago, the chief city of Airstrip One is home to central character Winston Smith, an apparatchik at the Ministry of Truth whose job is to alter back issues of The Times, falsifying history and thus ensuring that the policies of the omnipresent Party and Big Brother can never be disputed.

Through the bombings and dereliction, Orwell’s description of a numbingly routine part of daily life in the capital of Airstrip One bore comparison with a very real London; a city in both physical and psychological ruin that he knew first-hand both during and after the Second World War. London’s ravaged state, combined with Orwell’s failing health, played a part in his decision to move to the remote Scottish island of Jura, where he wrote the novel in a remote farmhouse while suffering from tuberculosis. Orwell died from the disease, aged just 50, barely a year after the novel’s release.

But there are still traces in existence of the London that Orwell knew and which figured in his imaginings for the future of the city should a totalitarian system ever manifest itself.

Looking like one of Moscow’s Stalin-era skyscrapers, the imposing high-rise Senate House, which stands in the heart of Bloomsbury, was described by Evelyn Waugh in Put Out More Flags as ‘the vast bulk of London University insulting the autumnal sky’. Still the administrative centre of the University of London, the building was commandeered during the Second World War by the government as the HQ of the Ministry of Information.

Orwell worked for the BBC between 1941 and 1943, and his regular broadcasts of war reports and opinions to listeners in India had to be approved by the Ministry before transmission. Although the physical immensity

FILM POSTER FOR 1984, PUBLISHED IN 1956

Orwell’s description of a numbingly routine part of daily life bore comparison with a very real London of the building is perfectly captured by Orwell in his fictionalised Ministry of Truth version, there is little to suggest that the writer found his dealings with the real life Senate House as tedious and manipulative as Smith did with its fictional counterpart.

Writing in 1945, Orwell concluded that, ‘any fairminded person with journalistic experience will admit that during this war official censorship has not been particularly irksome. On the whole the government has behaved well and has been surprisingly tolerant of minority opinions.’

For a more surprising real-life London location we need to peer into Smith’s equally dour domestic life.

Dingy, with no heating, plumbing that rarely works and a constant smell of boiled cabbage and old rags, Victory Mansions, Smith’s home, is a dilapidated apartment building where there are telescreens in every room and the imposing presence of the Ministry of Truth building can be seen through the windows.

It’s believed that Orwell based this depressing residence on the somewhat more salubrious environs of a seventh-floor flat in Langford Court, an apartment building on Abbey Road in St John’s Wood, where he and his wife Eileen Blair lived for a few months from March 1941.

While the East End of London had been flattened in

the Blitz, Orwell was amazed to find how unscathed NW8 was. Looking out of the windows of his apartment, which offered a panoramic view of the city, he noticed that the only noticeable signs of damage in this leafy neighbourhood appeared to be the odd church with its spire snapped off in the middle.

The London of Nineteen Eighty-Four that Orwell created may be stripped of many of its most famous landmarks, but some of the locations in his dystopian vision are survivors from a time prior to the iron rule of Big Brother.

Reimagined as a place for public hangings, Victory Square is still recognisable (to readers at least, if not Smith himself) as Trafalgar Square. A statue of Big Brother stands on top of what was, in the dim and distant past, known as Nelson’s column, and the statue of Oliver Cromwell on horseback still stands. Perhaps this society based on terror and discipline still venerates a man whose insatiable thirst for power resulted in the slaughter of so many who stood against him.

There are other, more humble ghosts of an older London that crop up in the novel. Entering a pub in the ‘prole’ quarters, Smith speaks to an old man,

in languages such as Sinhalese and Ewe (spoken in Ghana) with the storylines modified to suit each region as part of attempts to stop the post-war spread of communism worldwide.

Special Branch was also interested in Orwell, though for very different reasons. Whereas the Information Research Department was exploring how his work could be used to benefit British interests, Special Branch was concerned that Orwell could be a communist himself.

His resignation from the Imperial Police service in India as a young man, and from the BBC in 1943, alongside his writings for left-wing periodicals and his friendship circle of Islington-based intellectuals, led to personal details of his mannerisms being put on file.

Clandestine reports describe Orwell as dressing in a ‘bohemian fashion’ though one paper concluded that, although he has ‘strong left-wing views’, he was ‘a long way from orthodox communism’.

Orwell died long before the true impact of Nineteen Eighty-Four was felt. Despite his weekly radio broadcasts for the BBC, there is not believed to be a single surviving scrap of audio tape. Therefore we can have

Smith and Orwell himself did have one thing in common.

Both were being watched without their knowledge aiming to get closer to the truth of what the world was like before Big Brother. Smith is frustrated, however.

The old man remembers the House of Lords and ‘flunkeys’ in top hats, but, pressed for details and context, the pensioner’s memory is, Smith concludes, ‘nothing but a rubbish heap of details’.

Smith and Orwell himself did have one thing in common, however. Both were being watched without their knowledge. Smith was monitored throughout the novel by the Thought Police, who eventually would teach him to crush his rebelliousness and love Big Brother. Orwell himself was being watched by members of the Information Research Department, a department of the Foreign Office responsible for counter Soviet propaganda.

Orwell was already a major literary figure, thanks to the publication of his satirical novel Animal Farm, and there was a file on him long before the release of Nineteen Eighty-Four that remained open even after his death in 1950. These papers show that there was a belief that Animal Farm should be published abroad as ‘a very effective piece of political satire’ and that this book, along with Nineteen Eighty-Four should be published

no clear idea of what his voice sounded like. His words and a scant collection of photographs are all that remains.

The London Orwell knew has all but vanished, too.

What the man himself would have made of surveillance cameras, social media and the re-casting of the terms Big Brother and Room 101 for TV entertainment shows is a topic of inexhaustible curiosity to academics and op-ed writers. But what courses through the veins of Nineteen Eighty-Four and its vision of London is the theme of memory; and whether the most important changes and evolutions the capital goes through are those of physical construction, growth and retraction or the way the human eye perceives it.

‘He tried to squeeze out some childhood memory that should tell him whether London had always been quite like this,’ Orwell wrote in the novel, referring to Smith. ‘Were there always these vistas of rotting 19th-century houses, their sides shored up with baulks of timber, their windows patched with cardboard and their roofs with corrugated iron, their crazy garden walls sagging in all directions? But it was no use, he could not remember.’

LUXURY LONDON

C U LT U R E

A FICTIONAL FUTURE

Three other literary visions of the future of London

BRAVE NEW WORLD BY ALDOUS HUXLEY, 1932 Set in the London of AF (After Ford) 632, the book follows Bernard Marx, a sleep-learning specialist at the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, as he slowly awakens to the fact that he is unlike the other Alphas, the top of the five castes of people that make up the World State.

THE CHILDREN OF MEN BY PD JAMES, 1992 Centred around events that took place in Year Omega, or 1995, this is a London where humans can no longer reproduce and where the very last people to be born are treated as celebrities. We follow professor Dr Theo Faron as he is approached by underground movement Five Fishes, who want to destroy the totalitarian state and return it to democracy before the last generation of humans dies.

THE WALL BY JOHN LANCHESTER, 2019 Published in January, The Wall envisages a future Britain as a fortress surrounded by concrete walls, patrolled by conscripts in a nation of endless austerity characterised by a diet of turnips. We follow Kavanagh, a conscript who plots to escape by becoming a Breeder, exempt from national service to produce children. Look out for a politician described as the blond baby, who turns up to give speeches to the conscripts on the wall. Remind you of anyone?

CLOCKWISE FROM RIGHT BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING POSTER IN THE FILM 1984, RELEASED 1956; RICHARD BURTON AND JOHN HURT IN NINETEEN EIGHT-FOUR, RELEASED 1984; MOVIE POSTER FOR 1984, RELEASED 1956; THE BROADWAY VERSION OF 1984; GEORGE ORWELL, 1943; JOHN HURT IN NINETEEN EIGHTFOUR, RELEASED 1984; JOHN HURT & SUZANNA HAMILTON IN NINETEEN EIGHT-FOUR, RELEASED 1984; STILL FROM 1984, RELEASED 1956; GEORGE ORWELL AT THE BBC, 1940

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

59

ORIGINAL, LIMITED-EDITION ART DECO POSTERS

Limited to editions of 280, our newly-commissioned Art Deco posters feature glamorous holiday destinations around the world, ski resorts in the Austrian, French and Swiss Alps, and the world’s greatest historic automobiles. Over 100 designs to choose from, all printed on 100% cotton fine art paper, measuring 97 x 65 cms.

Priced at £395 each.

Private commissions are also welcome.

Pullman Editions Ltd 94 Pimlico Road Chelsea London SW1W 8PL www.pullmaneditions.com Tel: +44 (0)20 7730 0547 Email: georgina@pullmaneditions.com

Our central London gallery

All images and text copyright © Pullman Editions Ltd. 2019

View and buy online at w w w.pullmaneditions.com Pullman Ed Luxury London.indd 1

09/07/2019 12:13

D R I V E

H Y P E R C A R S , H O T H AT C H E S & S U P E R S U V S

P.62 HIGHLY CHARGED Testing Volvo’s Polestar 2, the marque’s new EV

P.71 ON YOUR BIKE Why your next motorcycle should be electric

The Polestar 1, the first electric vehicle produced by the Volvo brand of the same name. The marque has just unveiled its second iteration of the landmark motor, the Polestar 2 (p.62)

E L E C T R I C

THE FUTURE OF MOTORING IS LOOKING D E C I D E D LY G R E E N E R A N D V O LV O ’ S P O L E S TA R 2 , T H E S E C O N D I T E R AT I O N OF THE MARQUE’S INAUGURAL ELECTRIC VEHICLE, IS LEADING THE CHARGE

Words: Chris Hall

A

V

E

N

U

E

S

LUXURY LONDON

DRIVE

I

t is the year of the electric car. Of course, you might feel that it was a more significant year in 2004, when Tesla launched its Roadster, or in 2000 when Toyota marketed the Prius worldwide – a car that although merely a hybrid, would become a symbol for virtue-signalling eco-motoring. Smart alecs may like to point out that electric cars were invented long before the internal combustion engine in the 1830s, and that along the way we’ve had plenty of electric vehicles, from the humble milk float to the Lunar Rover.

But no, 2019 is the year that EVs went mainstream. The majority of big carmakers now have at least one fully-electric car in their fleet (Mercedes-Benz’s EQC and Audi’s e-tron kept us waiting, but they’re here now) and it’s the year that Tesla’s ‘electric car for the people’, the Model 3, went on sale.

London now has an electric taxi (and doesn’t it look great?) and at the performance end of the market, companies are falling over themselves to launch phenomenal all-electric hypercars such as the recently-announced Lotus Evija. By the end of the year we’ll have a battery-powered Porsche, and even that bastion of fossil fuel consumption Ferrari has announced its first series-production hybrid, the SF90.

According to data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) in the UK, EV registrations went up tenfold between 2014 and 2018, and there are now around 250,000 plug-in vehicles on Britain’s roads. Within that, fully electric vehicles are growing fastest, up 70 per cent yearon-year, and to meet that demand, the number of public charging points has risen to 24,000 (although there are still issues over standardisation, the number of high-speed chargers and lacklustre government investment).

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT AUDI E-TRON; TESLA MODEL 3; AUDI E-TRON IN PRODUCTION; LOTUS EVIJA; VOLVO’S POLESTAR 2; FERRARI SF90

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

65

It’s entirely possible that you have missed this widespread electrification, however, mostly because the majority of brands have focussed on packaging up their EVs in existing models. With a few exceptions – the Jaguar I-Pace and BMW i3 spring to mind – the mainstream car brands have shied away from establishing a new design language that speaks to the biggest change in their business in a century. As the insurgent, and as the only company making exclusively electric cars at any kind of scale, Tesla has been able to define what an electric car looks like, and although its models aren’t exactly radically shaped, the lack of front grille, flush-fitting door handles and (in the Model X) ‘falcon wing’ doors have all become recognisable traits. This is where Polestar comes in: the most serious attempt from the established car industry to take the fight to Tesla.

Polestar wasn’t always a green initiative; it used to be the name given to Volvo’s racing team and applied to its more performance-oriented models. Two years ago, however, it was spun out as a new brand, owned by Volvo but possessed of its own clear identity with a brief to develop market-leading electric cars as well as functioning as an innovation lab for the wider Volvo group. In 2018 it launched the Polestar 1, a petrol-electric hybrid super-GT in the vein of a BMW 8-series or Bentley Continental GT, to critical acclaim. But it is the follow-up that really matters; the Polestar 2 is where the brand will start to fulfil its mission. A five-seater, four-wheel drive saloon-cum-hatchback (“fastback” is the preferred lingo) with a 311-mile range that will also do 0-62 in under five seconds. It’s almost identically-specced to the Tesla Model 3 (338 mile range, 0-62 in 5.1s) and almost identically priced too, at €59,900 to the Tesla’s €58,800 (for the all-wheel drive, long-range Model 3).

There’s little chance you’ll confuse them on the road,

This Polestar is the most serious attempt from the established car industry to take the fight to Tesla though. Polestar has set out its stall when it comes to design, creating something that’s more overtly futuristic (and more luxurious) than the Tesla. It seems odd to speak of Swedish minimalism when the first word to cross your mind is ‘big’; better to say that the Polestar 2 is an emphatic car, with no extraneous detail for detail’s sake. The full-width rear lights and frame-less wing mirrors are nice touches, while the high stance (made to look higher by the contrast paint job on the launch model), aggressive alloy wheels and muscular front end (especially those T-shaped bars of light, a recurring motif across the car) let you know that it’s capable of high performance. The launch model is the raciest, with gold seatbelts and valve caps to remind you that you’re in ‘the fast one’, and Brembo brakes inside those 20-inch wheels.

The 2 is more virtuous than that would make it seem, however. Most buyers will be more drawn to some of the other, more on-trend options, such as the all-vegan interior, free from any animal products. They’ll be relieved to discover this is the first car to run Google’s new automotive interface, meaning that Google maps is the standard (hooray!) and all adjustable settings will sync automatically with your phone when you get behind the wheel. Your phone can also act as the key – and what could be more 2019 than that?

LUXURY LONDON

F E AT U R E

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

67

LUXURY LONDON

DRIVE

BEST OF THE REST Three premium electric motors putting the Polestar 2 to the test TESLA MODEL X The Polestar may be benchmarked against the Model 3, but if you need more space (and really want show-off doors) the Model X seats seven in comfort with space for baggage. You can add a tow bar and bicycle mounts, and, even with a 1,000kg load behind it, the 100D will retain 70 per cent of its 295 mile range. Assuming, that is, you ignore the fact that this family wagon will still out-drag most sports cars to 60mph.

J AG U A R I - PAC E From £85,700, tesla.com Picking up Best Car, Best Design and Best Green Car at the World Car Awards 2019 rather tells its own story; the I-Pace’s unprecedented clean sweep is proof that the traditional car industry may have been slow to wake up to EVs but now it is firing on all, er, cylinders. Capable of 292 miles on a full charge, the all-wheel drive I-Pace derives its technology from Jaguar’s experience in Formula E racing.

From £63,925, jaguar.co.uk

P O R S C H E T AY C A N Porsche’s first fully-electric production car made its full debut at the Frankfurt motor show in September and will be on sale by the end of the year. Its big pitch is to combine a long range (311 miles) with proper Porsche performance (0-62 in 3.5 seconds; 590 horsepower) and crucially, the ability to use the performance repeatedly without running out of power. A huge claim, but if anyone can pull it off, Porsche can. A proprietary charging system is also said to be capable of recharging the batteries to 80 per cent inside just 15 minutes.

From £116,000, porsche.com

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

68

Pride Rock by

David Yarrow

Exclusively at Maddox Gallery, Westbourne Grove 4th - 23rd October 2019 MaddoxGallery

MaddoxGallery.com

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

LUXURY LONDON

F E AT U R E

DOWN TO THE WIRE W I T H T H E U K C U R R E N T LY S E T T O B A N T H E S A L E O F F O S S I L - F U E L L E D V E H I C L E S B Y 2 0 4 0 , W H AT D O E S THE FUTURE OF LIFE ON TWO WHEELS LOOK LIKE?

Words: Hugh Francis Anderson

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

71

HARLEY-DAVIDSON LIVEWIRE

LEFT BMW MOTORRAD VISION DC ROADSTAR RIGHT & BELOW HARLEY-DAVIDSON LIVEWIRE

W

Performance values have increased at a staggering rate

hile the exact moment the electric motorcycle was first conceived is contested, a patent filed in December 1895 accounts H. W. Libbey, of Boston, Massachusetts, as the first person to imagine an electric bicycle. As he wrote when his patent was accepted in 1897, “the object of my invention is to produce a bicycle to be propelled by electricity generated by primary batteries and in motors therefor.”

The efforts of most motorcycle companies in the 20th century might have centred around the four-stroke combustion-engine, but, more than 120 years after Libbey’s invention, the industry’s biggest players are today revisiting the primary principle laid out in his patent. Following innovations made by independent, small-scale companies such as California-based Zero Motorcycles, and the Italian EV racing pioneers Energica Motor Company, HarleyDavidson, BMW Motorrad, Triumph, and even Ducati, have all announced their electric dreams.

Historically, it has been issues surrounding cost, performance and battery longevity that has prevented electric motorcycles developing at the same pace as electric cars.

Lithium batteries in fully-electric and hybrid cars can weigh more than 500kgs – getting the same technology into a machine that weighs just 200kgs had been an uphill struggle.

Over the past decade, however, the cost of lithium batteries has dropped by as much as 80 per cent, and with batteries now weighing far less, performance values have increased at a staggering rate – as have sales figures.

A report by market research company Technavio predicts that the global high-performance electric motorcycle market – that’s everything above electric motorcycles

LUXURY LONDON

DRIVE

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

73

SIX OF THE BEST

and scooters – will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 42 per cent until 2021. In Europe, registrations of electric motorcycles in Q1 of this year were up 19.2 per cent compared to the same period last year. So which brands have been leading the charge?

Zero Motorcycles was founded in 2006 in Santa Cruz, California, by Neal Saiki, a former NASA engineer, and began shipping in volume in 2010. The company’s chief technology officer, Abe Askenazi, notes that in just a few years battery optimisation has seen the range of its motorcycles increase from 40 miles to 200 miles, effectively eliminating the fear of running out of power between charges. Today, Zero Motorcycles boasts five models in its range, with the new Zero SR/F producing a whopping 190Nm of torque and 110 horsepower. It distributes to more than 30 countries and has 13 dealerships in the UK alone. But while Zero has not released figures, it is estimated that global sales last year still came in at under 3,000 units.

Alongside Zero is Energica Motor Company, founded in 2014 in Modena, Italy. Like its nearby performancefocused automotive cousins Ferrari, Pagani, Lamborghini and Maserati, Energica has honed its product towards sheer eye-watering power and speed. Using the all-electric eCRP 1.4 racing motorcycle as its basis, it unveiled its first production motorcycle, the Ego, back in 2014. Today, the Ego hurls out a staggering 200Nm torque and 145 horsepower, allowing it to accelerate from 0 to 60mph in three seconds, and reach a limited top speed of 150mph. Those numbers are blindingly impressive, and its sister model, the Eva, takes all of the above and adds 100 miles of range. The best bit? It’ll fast charge from 0-85 per cent in just 30 minutes. There are other boutique companies too; British-born Arc, Austrian Super SOCO, Sweden’s CAKE, Belgium’s Saroléa, and then there’s American Lightning Motorcycles – makers of the 218mph LS-218, the world’s fastest production motorcycle.

Despite the best efforts of these independent brands, sales remain low. The sheer cost of R&D and production for these small companies, coupled with material costs, means that

prices remain high. Thankfully, for environment-conscious motorcyclists, the price of going electric looks set to come down, as an increasing number of industry heavyweights enter the battery-powered market.

In July, Harley-Davidson launched its much-anticipated LiveWire. The figures? It goes from 0-60mph in three seconds, has up to 146 miles of range, and a full charge in just an hour.

It’s been years in the planning, almost a decade, in fact, but it’s here, it’s gone into production, and it’s a total gamechanger for gnarly Harley. Granted it’s on the road price is close to £30k, but Harley states this is the flagship model in a whole range of new electric motorcycles. Exciting times.

Elsewhere, BMW Motorrad has just unveiled its first EV concept, the Vision DC Roadster. “The Vision Bike shows how we’re able to retain the identity and iconic appearance of BMW Motorrad in distinctive form while at the same time presenting an exciting new type of riding pleasure,” says Edgar Heinrich, the company’s head of design. In addition, Triumph has partnered with Williams Advanced Engineering on Project Triumph TE-1, a two-year scheme to develop the most advanced electric motorcycle system to date. As Triumph’s CEO, Nick Bloor, states, “Project Triumph TE-1 is one part of our electric motorcycle strategy, focused on delivering what riders want and expect from their Triumph, which is the perfect balance of handling, performance and usability.” And even Claudio Domenicali, Ducati’s CEO, has nodded to the electric future of the brand. He told Motor Cycle News: “We are already drawing what the perfect electric bike is.” A bold statement in the first instance, and demonstrative of the fighting talk behind the future of EV motorcycles.

The reality is that every motorcycle manufacturer will have to, by law, adopt an electric approach to continue trading in the future, and, right now, we’re just scratching the surface of possibility. Prices will inevitably start to fall, ranges will increase, charge times will get shorter. As it stands, for those with the capital, the capacity for charging, and the desire to stick to short road trips, the right bike is already out there. The rest of us wait with bated breath – but the wait won’t be long.

2020 ZERO SR/F

E N E R G I C A E VA

LIVEWIRE

Zero Motorcycle’s first new model since

The first 100 per cent electric

Harley-Davidson’s first foray into electric

2016, the 2020 Zero SR/F is powered by

streetfighter made in Italy, Energica Eva

motorcycles packs just as much of a

a new ZF75-10 IPM motor and ZF14.4

has a range up to 125 miles (200 km)

punch as you’d expect from the industry

lithium-ion battery, delivering 140 lb-ft of

(ECO mode) and can reach a top speed

stalwart: 0-60 in three seconds, 104bhp

torque and 110 horsepower.

of 125 mph (200 km/h) in Sport mode.

and 86lb ft of torque.

LUXURY LONDON

DRIVE

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP ZERO MOTORCYCLES ZERO SR/F DASH; ZERO MOTORCYCLES ZERO SR/F CHARGING POINT; ZERO MOTORCYCLES ZERO SR/F; BMW MOTORRAD VISION DC ROADSTAR

LIGHTENING LS-218

B M W V I S I O N D C R OA DST E R

L I TA S O R A

The debut of American start-up

BMW’s EV concept is based on its

One of the most luxurious hybrid

Lightening Motorcycle, the Lightening

existing line of BMW Motorrad bikes

motorcycles on the market, the Lita Sora

LS-218 claims to be the fastest electric

– retaining the identity and feel of its

boasts a slick old-school style design

motorcycle on the market – so much so it

signature two-wheeler but with the core

along with mod-cons such as

was named after its top speed, 218mph.

of an electric vehicle.

a touchscreen navigation system.

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

75

INTERIORS I T ’ S W H AT ’ S I N S I D E T H AT CO U N T S

P.78 ON THE FRINGE How to incorporate flirty fringing into your home

P.84 BLAINEY NORTH The interior architect on designing for the city

A nod to the Neo-Memphis movement, Jonathan Adler’s Globo cabinet is decorated with icy blue acrylic cabochons that add an alluring glow to a room. jonathanadler.com

FRINGE BENEFITS F R O M LO N G , L U X E TA S S E L S TO TAC T I L E T R I M M I N G S , C O N T E M P O R A R Y PA S S E M E N T E R I E I S T H E N AT T Y I N T E R I O R S T R E N D S H I M M Y I N G I T S WAY I N T O O U R H O M E S T H I S A U T U M N – F R O M S I L K Y FRINGED FURNITURE TO OPULENT LIGHTING SOLUTIONS

Words: Julia Zaltzman

I

n a revival that Jay Gatsby would be proud of, fringing is no longer on the periphery of design. The desire to accessorise our homes with the gusto of a flapper girl has crossed over from our wardrobes to our homes for the new season, and with it comes a plethora of zany, Art Deco-inspired homeware. From cushions and sofas to lighting and mirrors, fringing is back in all its retro glory – and there are a number of ways to tap into the trend.

S O FA , S O G O O D

In a step that is refreshingly at odds with straight-edged minimalism, fringing brings movement into the home. For a bold introduction, key investment pieces such as sofas and armchairs set the tone and instantly add a sense of vintage glamour to a room. The new Malawi sofa from Roberto Cavalli Home’s Glam

Extravaganza collection combines a fringed bottom with a dusky pink palette for the ultimate statement. Alternatively, pair your sofa with a fringed pouffe for an instant touch of 1930s glamour. When it comes to colours, team soft, delicate pinks with ivory white or grey, or go all out with bold yellows and vibrant emerald greens. Either way, the end result will be a dynamic ambiance.

MIRROR, MIRROR

Combining form with function, a mirror with all the trimmings brings a fun twist to an otherwise simple piece.

Ideal for a more compact home, Dooq’s Souk mirror throws light and appeal to all four corners of a room and instantly draws the eye with its multi-coloured tassels. It beautifully exemplifies how fringing can add wonderful textural detail to even the most minimalist of homes.

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT SOUK RED MIRROR, POA, DOOQDETAILS.COM; FREYA CUSHION COVERS WITH FRINGING, £24 EACH, HARRINGTON TEAL VELVET COCKTAIL CHAIR £368, AUDENZA.COM; VELVET CUSHION COVER, £59, OUTTHEREINTERIORS.COM; COCO CUSHION, £135, MARISKAMEIJERS.COM; LEOPARD FRINGE CUSHION, £40, FRENCHBEDROOMCOMPANY.CO.UK OPPOSITE PAGE COUTURE CUSHIONS, POA, BEAUMONTANDFLETCHER.COM

P I L L O W TA L K

Why have one row of fringing when you can have two? Few trends lend themselves to layering as well as fringing, and cushions are the ultimate canvas. Adding texture and comfort to a room, not to mention accents and pops of colour, cushions give homeowners a license to be experimental with interior design. Bivain’s Santa Maria Rosso silk twill and velvet red fringed cushion brings Renaissance drama to a modern home, while the hand-designed luxury cushion by Mariska Meijers pairs multicoloured fringes with a black velvet ribbon, offering a jazzy addition to the home.

Habitat’s Eyes cushion elegantly illustrates that not all tassels need be long and swishy – the black and white bolster features a luxurious ‘eyelash’ border for understated perfection.

LUXURY LONDON

INTERIORS

Cushions give

homeowners

a license

to be experimental with

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

81

interior design

SHADOW CABINET LIGHT IT UP

From floor lamps to wall lights to hanging shades, creative lighting is one of the easiest ways to quickly transform the feel of a room, both in terms of aesthetics and evening glow.

Audenza’s Wink pendant light, which comes with detachable fringing for easy washing, is available in both aqua and pink and is made from iron bathed in 24-carat gold. Pimp it up further with a vintage-style LED naked Edison bulb for the ultimate wow effect. When it comes to warm-hued metal, our love of gold, brass and copper is

certainly not abating. A perfect partner for the bedroom, the emerald green table light from The French Bedroom Company maximises this trend. Few can resist the tactile nature of fringing, and this number, with its silky smooth tassels, certainly fits the bill. And if you’ve noticed a fringe or two on the latest Oliver Bonas lampshades, you’ll be pleased to know it’s no coincidence the brand’s latest range is named Nappa – the Italian word for tassel.

For those who want to fully embrace the entire trend, try experimenting with a fringed drinks cabinet or side table – such as Bianca Lorenne’s Alpaga piece. Not only is it the perfect example of Gatsby decadence, it also conveniently serves as a handy storage unit. For the minimalists among you, there are more understated ways to add a flirty edge to home interiors. The first lounge rug created by The Rug Society, Kleopatra blends sky blue tones and pale mustard with barely there tassels, while Audenza’s hand-woven grey rug with mustard fringing has a lustrous quality to its finish that exudes glamour. Giving pleasure underfoot and to the eye, it’s complementary decor at its best.

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT ERO VELVET FLOOR LAMP, £150, OLIVERBONAS.COM; BLOOMINGVILLE GOLD TABLE LAMP, £70, HURNANDHURN.COM; BIGPASCHA PENDANT LIGHT, APPROX. £703, NEDGIS.COM; WINK FRINGED PENDANT LIGHT, £475, AUDENZA.COM; ALPAGA DRINKS CABINET, APPROX. £5,614, BIANCALORENNE.CO.NZ

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

82

Luxury London-January 2019 edition-Maxlight.indd 1

12/12/2018 3:57 pm

LIVING FOR THE

CITY

EDGES, LINES AND MAN-MADE REPETITION REIGN SUPREME FOR BLAINEY NORTH, BECAUSE THE CITY IS HER “HAPPY PLACE”.

LU X U R Y LO N D O N M E E T S T H E A R C H I T E C T A N D H I G H - E N D I N T E R I O R D E S I G N E R T O TA L K U R B A N LUXURY INSPIRED BY GLOBAL METROPOLISES

Words: Annabel Harrison

“MOST PEOPLE LOVE the beach, or the mountains, or the snow, but I feel happiest when I get into a city.”

Her compatriots may be known for their love of the great outdoors but for this Australian, nothing beats the bright lights and skyscrapers, corners and curves of sprawling, ever-metamorphosing cities. Sydney is where Blainey North launched her global design firm, known for its luxe-urban style, nearly two decades ago, and she is “obsessed” with London. “My dream is to move here permanently – I [already] go back and forth a lot, and we’re building up a catalogue of projects. I lived here for a while with my family and went to school here; it feels like home, and happily it seems this is where everyone wants to buy our furniture.”

To see this furniture for myself, I meet North in her show apartment above Alice Temperley’s boutique on Bruton Street. Their work together involved “looking for a new brand direction in terms of interior aesthetic” for Temperley stores worldwide. That North gravitates towards urban environments far more than anything else is given concrete expression in the current Blainey North Collection, with which the apartment space is kitted out.

Man & the Machine has been five years in the making. It is a “deep, introspective analysis” of all the things North loves about cities, and the interaction within them between “soft bodies moving through this repetitive hardness”. She shows me the Suspension series, comprising a table lamp, coffee table, dining table, armchair and dining chair, which incorporate, to varying degrees, solid brushed bronze, with electroplated finish and rope detailing that’s actually metal tubing coated in carbon fibre. “So it has the feel of rope but at the same time is almost like a suspension bridge,” North explains, “or a bit of S&M bondage, or things that tie things together, like [the inner workings of] a lift. Things that make the city work.”

As we move around the room, North points out practical design elements – such as cutting off corners (a safety measure implemented surely because of having a five-year-old daughter) and using glass tops, which don’t mark – and more novel ones. The Suspension Dining Table, for example, “is a bit naughty because the two hosts sit at each end and their knees are covered, but everyone else has their knees exposed!”

North shows me a photo on her iPhone of Hong Kong’s arterial roads, lit up by blurred streaks of red and white light, as vehicles stream down a broad grid of streets. This is the shot that originally inspired the Suspension Table Lamp, and thus the Blainey North ethos is encapsulated. “The firm prides itself on its storytelling and level of detail. All of our projects have a very strong conceptual basis, which is what I’m known for in Australia, and an inherent sense of luxury.

THIS PAGE, FROM TOP ROSE BAY RESIDENCE, SYDNEY, AUSTRLIA; VITA LOUNGE OPPOSITE PAGE ROSE BAY RESIDENCE, SYDNEY, AUSTRLIA

Clients also love that they know all our projects are so different.” North and her team pride themselves on an “intelligent, researched approach, with energy and a ‘wow’ factor – something that shocks you”. This wow factor certainly applies to several of the other pieces I see from Man & the Machine, in particular the Strobe Chandelier and Chasm Coffee Table. Each piece is designed to create light and shadow effects that are quite different at night, and I can appreciate how striking these would be, even on a sunny day in this show space.

How did this come to be North’s career? “When I was 10 or 11, my art teacher asked if I had ever thought of doing architecture because, for years, I’d been drawing buildings while everyone else was drawing people! Then I realised my whole life had been about seeing buildings. It’s just how I see the world – whenever we moved, I did floorplans of my room. And so the penny dropped.”

This realisation shaped North’s future studies in architecture – “I was really interested in Zaha [Hadid], Rem Koolhaas and Enric Miralles” – and she continues to find London inspiring, in particular the Lloyd’s building in the City, designed by Richard Rogers. “All of the lifts are on the outside, and I’ve always thought that’s the most wonderful thing, that you can actually see the inner workings on the outside of the building.

I also love this area of Mayfair – Mount Street is one

LUXURY LONDON

INTERIORS

of my favourites, with all the beautiful old terracotta buildings. This is where I stay when I’m in London.”

Our capital city is, for North, at the forefront of the design world. She praises London’s “incredible community of artists and artisans… Just this morning I met a lady who does hand-woven leather to stitch into furniture. We do a lot of work with English artisans and send the stuff back to Sydney. It’s a game-changer for me in terms of what ideas we can execute.”

A relatively new technology has also had a big impact on what the Blainey North team can deliver. “Using VR [virtual reality] headsets saves a lot of time. They allow my team and clients to see a project in 3D. It’s revolutionary because we’re ‘building’ these spaces in 3D and working out all the details of the job. This does take an enormous amount of work but it means that when we get on site, we think it will cut down on the variation costs. You can see what you’re going to get before you get it, which takes all of the risk out of your build.”

North pauses after I pose my final question. What does she consider true luxury? Her words have been tumbling out as she has enthused about her work, and it’s easy to tell that this is someone who found her calling early in life, and has reaped the rewards. She finds her answer.

“It’s not about something, or the process; it’s about a feeling… There’s something about sitting down and thinking”, with a satisfied exhale, “this is luxury”.

Our capital city is, for North, at the forefront of the design world

THIS PAGE 57 BULKARA ROAD, SYDNEY, AUSTRLIA; OPPOSITE PAGE ROSE BAY BEACH HOUSE, SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

blaineynorth.com

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

89

DISCOVER THE

BEAUTY

HEALTHCARE . PHARMACY . SKINCARE . WELLBEING

COUTURE CUT FROM A DIFFERENT CLOTH

P.92 COTTON ON The fashion brands tapping into sustainable style

P.94 JEAN GENIES Investigating the dark side of the denim industry

P.100 GREEN SLEEVES Eco-friendly fashion from Burberry and Stella McCartney

Just as its name suggests, Londonbased fashion label Ninety Per Cent donates 90 per cent of its profits to environmental and humanitarian causes (p.92)

SET THE TONE FA S H I O N I S T U R N I N G OV E R A N E W L E A F J U S T I N T I M E F O R A U T U M N , W I T H A S C O R E O F S U S TA I N A B L E B R A N D S B AC K I N G T H E M OV E M E N T

Words: Anna Prendergast

I

n September, Reformation opened a store in Notting Hill, Dôen landed on Net-a-Porter – saving us from import tax anxiety – and Matches Fashion snapped up British label Ssōne’s ethically-driven collection. The uptake? Going green has never been easier, especially for Londoners.

These brands are leaders in their field, bringing together high-end design with social and environmental sustainability.

Reformation shot its latest campaign at Tulum’s most eco-friendly hotel, Olas.

Read more on p.108

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT Hannes sunglasses, £173, neubau-eyewear.com; Cosmic print dress, £125, peopletree.co.uk; Dandridge sandals, £378, brothervellies.com; Cable knit jumper, £165, peopletree.co.uk; Jumpsuit, £1,225, stellamccartney.com; Metallic green and white sneakers, £112, veja-store.com

LUXURY LONDON

COUTURE

NEUTRAL TERRITORY Lime green and citrus orange were summer’s last-minute palette players. Give them an autumnal spin with warmer shades of burnt orange, soft khaki and tonal separates; unlike their acid counterparts, these can actually be worn together, too.

Ninety Per Cent donates 90 per cent of its profits to environmental and humanitarian charities and organisations

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT Tailored jacket, £1,365, stellamccartney.com; Floral dress, £420, Mara Hoffman, matchesfashion.com; Bucket bag, £726, brothervellies.com; Suede boots, £242, shopdoen.com; Lester coat, £795, motherofpearl.co.uk; Off-white trousers, £177, shopdoen.com

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

93

JEANS

G O

G R E E N

LU X U R Y LO N D O N I N V E S T I G AT E S T H E DA R K S I D E O F D E N I M , A N D D I S C OV E R S T H E B R A N D S A D D R E S S I N G A D E M A N D F O R E T H I C A L LY - P R O D U C E D J E A N S T H A T D O N ’ T S AC R I F I C E S T Y L E F O R S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y

Words: Anna Prendergast

LUXURY LONDON

COUTURE

I

n 2015, India’s National Crime Records Bureau reported that in the previous two decades, more than 300,000 Indian farmers had committed suicide. That’s not a typo. An unpredictable combination of climate change, difficult trade relations, economic uncertainty, the introduction of expensive geneticallymodified crops and the prevalence of loan sharks has led, and still leads, thousands of desperate farmers to take their own lives. It’s such a national epidemic that governmentfunded programmes have been set up to support the families left behind.

Many of those Indian farmers produce cotton, which makes up around 21 per cent of all fibre in use globally, according to the Common Objective fashion business network.

Of that, around 60 per cent is destined for the fashion industry – spun into yarns and woven into textiles such as denim. Culturally, we think of denim as democratising – its everyman appeal has long since transcended the boundaries of class, age, gender and geography. Jeans are a sartorial staple, but the cotton they’re made with comes at a serious cost to the planet.

Growing cotton demands enormous quantities of pesticides, which expose farm workers to dangerous chemicals, and it takes around 10,000 litres of water to produce 1kg of cotton fabric, according to the Water Footprint Network. Transporting the fibre from source to manufacturer to retailer produces high levels of carbon emissions, while mass production, the fast fashion phenomenon and competitive pricing rely on the exploitation of factory workers, particularly in under-developed countries. When it comes to turning cotton

OPPOSITE PAGE, FROM LEFT BOLTS OF DENIM AT BLACKHORSE LANE ATELIER; HIUT’S SUMMER COLLECTION; BLACKHORSE LANE’S SELVEDGE JEANS; BOYISH JEANS ABOVE MUD JEANS’ UPCYCLED PRODUCTS BELOW LEFT COTTON AT CANDIANI’S MILL

FROM TOP DARK WASH MOM JEANS, £100, SALTSPIN.COM; FADED INDIGO JEANS, £136, BOYISH.COM; TWO-TONE STRAIGHT LEG JEANS, £295, E.L.V. DENIM, NET-A-PORTER.COM

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

95

into denim, indigo dyeing, stonewashing and bleaching all demand vast quantities of water, and while sandblasting (which can give workers an incurable lung disease called silicosis) is illegal in the UK, many countries still allow it.

But it’s not all bad news. Denim is resilient and long-wearing, which means when you invest, you can buy for life. As Livia Firth, founder of Eco-Age and the Green Carpet Challenge, explains, “the wonderful thing about denim is that it lasts and in general, it’s a timeless item”. And brands are, at last, addressing the dilemma, committing to using sustainable practices across the board.

Some are sourcing under-utilised lowimpact fibres, some are coming up with technologies that reduce water waste, some are focusing on the social sustainability of the communities whose skills are essential to the industry and several are bringing the craft home to the UK. In London, Blackhorse Lane Ateliers has championed slow fashion by supporting local artisans for more than 50 years, and using heritage construction techniques on its vintagestyle selvedge trousers. All its jeans are made with raw denim (saving water and energy), which then fade and age with each individual wearer.

Similarly, Saltspin has introduced laser washing, which uses zero water and 60 per cent less chemicals than conventional methods. E.L.V. Denim (an acronym for East London Vintage) turns deadstock into one-of-a-kind patchwork designs that save kilos of discarded denim from ending up in landfill.

In Wales, Cardigan Bay’s Hiut employs a

team of ‘Grand Masters’ who produce just 100 pairs of high-quality jeans each week. Many worked at the town’s original jeans factory – when it closed in 2002 and moved production to Morocco to save on costs, their skills went to waste, until David and Clare Hieatt founded Hiut to provide jobs and carry on the craft.

Hiut’s priority is quality, not quantity, with clients such as the Duchess of Sussex buying into their home-grown ethos.

Hiut also sources its denim from Candiani, a game-changing Italian mill leading the charge for ingredient brands. Owner Alberto Candiani explains the drive to innovate: “We literally have to reinvent this fabric, but without changing the surface. Denim is and will always be denim, we just want it to be smarter, a new fabric with an authentic look which doesn’t contaminate the environment. For example, we use Kitotex® technology to apply biodegradable polymers, which fix the dyes, and Refibra™, a lyocell made with cotton waste.”

There aren’t many pockets of the fashion industry in which you can trace the origins of the components that make up an individual item, but premium denim is setting the bar – and setting it high. “Brands want to

communicate where and who they source their denim from. Down to the end consumer, more and more want to know what’s behind the things they buy,” says Candiani. Purchasing power is a very real platform for change – as consumers, we influence the supply and demand cycle. If we start demanding transparency from brands, they’ll have no choice but to supply it.

Candiani has also brought his fabric innovations to the mainstream, working with eco-friendly brands such as Reformation, Nudie and Levi’s. Earlier this year, Levi’s developed a hemp-cotton mix denim with the mill. The US legalised agricultural cultivation of hemp in 2018 and positive publicity has sparked an industry-wide conversation about the plant as a cotton alternative. “Hemp is an incredible fibre.

It requires a lot less water than cotton, has less than half its carbon footprint and requires almost zero pesticides,” says Firth. Candiani describes it as “the natural fibre that can make the biggest impact on the whole industry.” Cottonised hemp might sound like a bad band name from the 1960s but, apart from being more likely to end up on a T-shirt at Glastonbury, it actually signals a future in which consumers won’t have to sacrifice style for sustainability.

Levi’s also offers a bespoke service in London. Ask any Savile Row savant, and they’ll agree that bespoke is the antithesis of fast-fashion: a well-cut, custom-made item, whether it’s jeans, a suit or shoes, lasts forever and outlives seasonal trends. “Consumers are shopping more consciously now and therefore preferring to invest in quality pieces that are built to last,” says Lizzie Radcliffe. Radcliffe has been the master tailor at Levi’s Lot No. 1 since it opened at the Regent Street flagship six years ago. “Jeans are only made when the order is placed, meaning there is no wastage – plus we offer free alterations for the first 18 months and free repairs for the first four years,” she adds.

This encourages a care-and-repair approach that extends a product’s lifespan tenfold. Blackhorse Lane, Hiut and Brighton-based Dawson also offer repair services across their made-to-order collections, an artisanal touch you don’t often find with off-the-peg jeans.

In 2018, online retailer Lyst saw a 47 per cent increase in searches for ‘organic cotton’ ‘vegan leather’ and ‘econyl’, a regenerated nylon. The message? Materials matter, and consumers care. “It’s easy to get lost in the

LUXURY LONDON

COUTURE

jargon,” Firth says, “especially when the term ‘sustainable’ is used as a catch-all.”

But some labels are working to make terms clearer – look for BCI Cotton for a fibre produced using sustainable farming practices; Oeko-Tex for brands that prioritise transparency and high production standards; and Intertek, which provides quality assurance.

Online e-tailers such as Lyst, NetA-Porter and Matches Fashion have also made international brands more accessible, cutting out import tax and championing young designers.

But if you find yourself in the US, Australia or Denmark, you might want to leave space in your suitcase for innovative, ethical pieces. New York brand DL1961, for example, is entirely solar-powered, and the jeans – loved by many clients for never losing their shape – use just 10 gallons of water per pair during manufacture and come in fully biodegradable packaging. Danish company Mud uses a circular economy model to reduce waste – you can lease a pair of jeans for a monthly fee, return them whenever you like, and swap them for a new pair after one year, at which point the old pair will be upcycled rather than put into landfill or burned.

Moving away from a linear economy (in which jeans are made, worn and disposed of) keeps resources in use for as long as possible and means shoppers

still get the thrill of the ‘new’ without the ethical predicament. Down under, one of Firth’s favourite brands Outland Denim employs victims of human trafficking and works to combat poverty. This year, the label was awarded the Eco-Age Brandmark in recognition of the way it has created social change by supporting and training vulnerable women. “The jeans are also beautifully made using GOTS-certified organic cotton denim sourced from Turkey and natural indigo dyes derived from plant sources,” says Firth. (GOTS is the Global Organic Textile Standard, the leading textile processing standard for organic fibres).

A significant problem brands continually grapple with is price point.

Generally speaking, to make any product more sustainable requires innovation, technology, time and work – all of which are costly. So how does one make everyman denim for, well, every man – and woman? “This is an important question and the one I struggle with the most,” Firth admits.

“But buying fewer, better quality jeans is cheaper in the long run.” In a world where politicians and corporations have placed the burden of environmental responsibility on the consumer, it’s down to those who can afford to invest in eco-conscious fashion to do just that, encouraging a trickle-down effect and eventually, a global shift in the industry.

L I V I A F I R TH ’S TO P T I PS F O R G O I N G GREEN Buy from brands that are transparent about their supply chain, from the farms that grow the raw materials to the mills that spin the yarns all the way to the workers who manufacture the clothes. Transparency means accountability.

If the price tag is too low, ask yourself what the human cost of production is. If something is really cheap, that means it’s produced by someone who isn’t being paid fairly.

Don’t buy more jeans unless you really need to. A factory in Bangladesh can produce three million pairs a month, a supply that encourages us to discard jeans at a rate that is beyond unsustainable.

THIS PAGE, FROM LEFT MIA JEANS IN OAT, £139, OUTLANDDENIM.CO.UK; LIGHT WASH MOM JEANS, £100, SALTSPIN.COM; VINTAGE WASH HEPBURN JEANS, £205, DL1961.COM; OCTANE CROPPED JEANS, £165, SALTSPIN.COM; SLIM CUT RANGER JEANS, £128, OUTLANDDENIM. CO.UK OPPOSITE PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT LEVI’S LOT NO. 1 BESPOKE SERVICE; LEVI’S SAMPLES; BESPOKE JEANS; MUD’S RECYCLING FACTORY

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

97

LUXURY LONDON

PROMOTION

THE CITY EDIT

THE ROYAL EXCHANGE, EC3V THEROYALEXCHANGE.CO.UK

A S A U T U M N R E T U R N S , T H E R O YA L E X C H A N G E P R E S E N T S N E W SEASON ACCESSORIES, ZANY FOOTWEAR AND FRUITY FIZZ

TATEOSSIAN Limited to a run of just 40 pieces, Tateossian’s Ammonite cufflinks include a meticulously carved fossil, which dates back to the Jurassic and cretaceous periods embedded within a black rhodium frame. £640, 1-4 Royal Exchange

ASPINAL OF LONDON Aspinal of London’s signature Mayfair tote is reimagined in an autumn palatte. Our pick is this cherry red style, dubbed Bordeaux and featuring patent leather and faux crocodile detailing. £595, 19 Royal Exchange

PRETTY BALLERINAS PUTS ITS BEST FOOT FORWARD FOR AW19 WITH A SPARKLING NEW COLLECTION Wallflowers, look away now.

For AW19, the design team at Pretty Ballerinas HQ hasn’t

held back. Famed for its dainty ballet-style pumps, the cobbler has crafted a statement collection of footwear for the new season.

From slick suede slippers adorned with dazzling glitter bows to velvet tapestrystyle pumps and tiger print

slip-ons, there are plenty of styles to satisfy your inner maximalist. Go forth and be bold. £239 for the Clementime shoes (pictured left), £219 for the Joanna shoes (pictured right), 30 Royal Exchange

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

99

FORTNUM & MASON For those who don’t drink but would still like to raise a toast, Fortnum & Mason’s Sparkling Tea is just the ticket. A blend of eight teas, this fizz has an offdry, medium-bodied palate. £16.95, 4-7 Central Courtyard

G L O B A L WA R M I N G BECAUSE LOOKING GOOD SHOULDN’T COST THE EARTH

Words: Dom Jeffares

ORGANIC COTTON B A C K PA C K Made from robust organic cotton-canvas and trimmed with cognac leather, Want Les Essentiels’ Kastrup backpack is equipped with a removable laptop sleeve for easy work-to-weekend transitions. £370, mrporter.com

R E C YC L E D T R U N K S Swimming in the ocean isn’t quite the same if you’re surrounded by micro-plastics and junk. That’s why Vilebrequin has created these trunks made from 80 per cent recycled textiles and 20 per cent plastics caught by Mediterranean fishermen. £120, matchesfashion.com

STRIPED ORGANIC COTTON SHIRT From Oliver Spencer, the tailor committed to sustainable style, comes a classic shirt with a twist. Wear this and people will immediately rate you 150 per cent more worldly and eco-friendly (or, at least, we will). £160, matchesfashion.com

LUXURY LONDON

COUTURE

E C O N Y L PA R K A We all want to forget about Burberry’s 2018 PR disaster, when the brand was found to be burning its unsold stock. This Jacquard parka is made from a sustainable nylon yarn created using fishing nets, fabric scraps and industrial plastic – a step in the right direction. £1,190, harrods.com V E G E TA R I A N T- S H I R T Stella McCartney’s raison d’être is making beautiful clothing that is better for everyone – animals, people and the environment. Show your support with this vintage typographic print T-shirt. £159, farfetch.com

ORGANIC COTTON TROUSERS Outerknown co-founder and surf-supremo Kelly Slater has absolutely ripped the sustainable wave with these trousers. “I want a few pieces where I can go, literally, from the beach to a nice dinner,” he said. That’s, literally, awesome dude. £105, outerknown.com

L E AT H E R S U E D E SNEAKERS

100% COCONUT OIL So natural, you could eat it – although we wouldn’t recommend it. Made from organic and virgin coconuts sourced from Indonesia, apply this wonder product on your skin, hair and nails for a hydration hit. £12, mrporter.com

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

101

Next time you’re considering purchasing a pair of trainers, look no further than Veja. The label’s French HQ is powered by green electricity, and these sneakers feature waterproof meshed uppers made from recycled plastic bottles. Très bien. £105, veja-store.com

TOWN & COUNTRY H AC K E T T LO N D O N ’ S AW 1 9 C O L L E C T I O N S PROVIDE A SMOOTH SARTORIAL TRANSITION BETWEEN TOWN AND COUNTRY WITH L U X U R I O U S L AY E R S A N D A T O N A L PA L E T T E

S

tarting life as a market stall on Portobello Road in 1979, Jeremy Hackett’s eponymous fashion label was originally a port of call for sharp, second-hand tailoring.

After spotting a gap in the market, Jeremy combined his experience working on Savile Row in the 1960s with his knowledge of vintage attire, merging the two to create his own take on tailoring – traditional styles mixed with modern cuts.

Today, Hackett London is the go-to outfitter for London’s sartorially-inclined gents, offering both classic English-style suiting and casual attire. In addition to a Personal Tailoring service, and a number of collaborative projects with the likes of Aston Martin, Henley Royal Regatta and British Army Polo, the brand offers two core ready-to-wear labels: Hackett London and Hackett Mayfair.

For AW19, Jeremy and the design team looked to the modern gentleman for inspiration, crafting two collections that perfectly mirror the sartorial necessities of every day life – whether you’re selling stocks in the City or stomping around a country estate.

For Hackett London, this means contemporary takes on Hackett staples – traditional overcoats, bold checked suiting and chunky knits themed around the ‘Modern Heritage’ trend.

A muted, autumnal tone is woven into the collection, which includes traditional countryside styles reinterpreted to feed into an urban gentleman’s wardrobe; think soft tweed jackets and lightweight down parkas. A second trend, ‘New Country’, takes a more obviously bucolic approach, with patchwork shawl cardigans and versatile flannel and wax outwear. Tartan holdalls complete the work-to-weekend look.

Hackett Mayfair, meanwhile, favours a more conservative style, with wardrobe essentials that will give an instant lift to business attire. Key pieces include a limited-edition hooded quilt parka jacket – the ultimate winter saviour – a hybrid blouson jacket and cashmere-blend trousers. For off-the-peg tailoring, look no further than the Glencheck suit – double-breasted and crafted from the finest soft-to-touch wool, this two-piece has been cut with wide lapels and pronounced shoulders to mirror the founder’s own preferred style. If it’s good enough for Jeremy… hackett.com

Collect Harrods Rewards points with every holiday booking

LET A&K THROW YOU A PARTY If you’ve something to celebrate in 2020, do it in style at an A&K villa. Book by 1 November 2019 to enjoy one night’s complimentary chef service on selected properties* Visit A&K on Harrods’ Lower Ground Floor for more information

020 7173 6440 akvillas.com *Ts&Cs apply; please see our website or speak to an A&K villa specialist for full details

Luxury London_Full Page_September_Villas.indd 1

09/09/2019 16:54

ESCAPE TO STRIVE, TO SEEK, TO FIND...

P.106 THE WHOLE HOG The Pig’s new home on the outskirts of Canterbury

P.114 ECO ISLAND The Seychelles atoll putting paid to climate change

P.122 TALL ORDER Walking on the wild side at Nairobi’s giraffe manor

Andaz Maui at Wailea Resort is one of Hawaii’s leading sustainable hotels – so much so that it is the first on the island to receive LEED certification (p.108)

A W E E K E N D AWAY

THE PIG AT B R I D G E P L AC E R AC K I N G U P A I R M I L E S I S M O R E O U T DAT E D T H A N T H E Y E L LO W PAG E S . N O W I S T H E T I M E TO B E CO M E A TO U R I ST O N YO U R OW N I S L A N D. E AC H M O N T H , LUXU RY LO N D O N B R I N G S YO U S O M E O F B R I TA I N ’ S G R E AT E S T E S C A P E S F O R L O N G W E E K E N D S AWAY F R O M T H E C A P I TA L

‘F

Words: Anna Prendergast

or ice, please dial 0’. Hand-written on a label looped around the neck of a pocket-sized bottle, I felt like Alice making a discovery better than Wonderland. And it – a shake-to-make espresso martini bottled by Bournemouth-based startup Tail Feather – may as well have said ‘Drink Me’. This is just a flavour of what greets guests at The Pig at Bridge Place in Canterbury, the latest in the sixstrong litter of Pig Hotels scattered across the UK. While my stay started with a caffeinated cocktail, for owners Robin and Judy Hutson, it all began with coffee. Robin launched Hotel du Vin in 1994, offering

fresh milk and quality ground coffee in the minibar – a move considered radical. The pair have since been involved projects like Lime Wood and Soho House.

Robin’s dislike of rules and restrictions means that guests aren’t obliged to be on their best behaviour, and Judy has become a go-to name for uplifting interiors that fill old English country houses with light.

There’s nothing shabby about The Pig’s personal brand of chic, although each hotel has an unaffected charm; at Bridge Place, sunlight is filtered through mismatched glasses stacked in front of the bar window; bespoke patchwork parasols by Sunbeam Jackie provide pools of shade in the courtyard;

LUXURY LONDON

ESCAPE

wildflowers froth at the edge of the entrance path; light fixtures rescued from Battersea Power Station hang in the restaurant. There are rather lovely signs of the building’s age too: undulating walls, smuggler-sized doors, the Gothic portcullis at the entrance with ‘Oliver Malkin’ carved into it. Oliver is the son of previous owner Peter Malkin, an eccentric who kidnapped his own child – twice – and held The Kinks concerts in Bridge Place’s basement. Nowadays, you’re more likely to hear a cool-crowd-pleasing playlist of Phoenix and Simon & Garfunkel streaming through the Sonos, but a low-key sense of hedonism lingers.

Any faint notions I had of getting any work done here soon disappear down the drain of a clawfoot bathtub – there are simply too many ways to relax and corners in which to do so. Snooze fireside in the snug or sip a Bridge G&T (practically medicinal, with a wedge of lemon and ginger) in the meadow – then book in for a Bamford treatment at the spa. Soak in a Bramley bubble bath before supper at your peril – you’re at risk of not wanting to get out, and mealtimes are the main event here.

And eating at The Pig... this is what food is meant to taste like. The kitchen garden is manned by three gardeners and two scarecrows, and the air is filled with bees and the smell of lime basil. Sixty different types of herbs flourish in the garden, where you can amble among six-foot sunflowers and peer into pots of chilli peppers. The chefs work in sync, not just with the seasons but with the days, and the result is an ever-changing menu of flavours fresh enough to elicit squeals of pleasure not unlike those of the hotel’s namesake. Aubergine that melts on the fork; heritage tomatoes plump with juice; garlicky green sauce you smell before you see. Folkestone sourdough so soft you want to use it as a pillow (although you needn’t, the bedding is superb), mushrooms grown on-site lightly fried in crispy shells of batter. No ‘Eat Me’ label necessary here.

Giant jars of pickles – banana shallots, salted orange, boldor beets – line the walls (‘we’re experimenting’, one chef tells me), and potted plants bring the outdoors in. The drinks list, too, gives away the secret of England’s south – that this is wine country, the UK’s answer to Bordeaux. ‘I’m thinking Kentish,’ says the sommelier, producing a Simpson’s Chardonnay made less than four miles away. It’s divine.

From each bedroom you can spot the cast of Beatrix Potter snuffling through the undergrowth, flashes of white tail giving rabbits called Peter (probably) away; there are Rugby Devon cows to coo at and Romney sheep with fluffy bottoms – for children, it’s enchanting. Their sticky fingers and curiosity is welcome here. And for adults, it’s pretty enchanting too – a nourishing balm for the noise and nonstop pace of the city. This is one rabbit hole I didn’t mind falling down.

HOW TO GET HERE: the fast train from St Pancras International to Canterbury takes 59 minutes WHAT TO BRING: an empty belly. Leave the Hunters at home, The Pig has a boot rack WHAT TO WEAR: Mara Hoffman maxi dresses, vintage tailoring WHERE TO GO: Walk through the woodlands to St Peter’s Church in Bridge, where Judy and Robin married. Between Tuesday and Sunday, head to the Goods Shed farmers’ market in Canterbury

From £145 per night (exc. breakfast), thepighotel.com

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

107

GOOD TO GO

A F T E R YO U ’ V E O F F - S E T YO U R F L I G H T S , PA C K E D A R E U S A B L E WAT E R B OT T L E , S L AT H E R E D O N T H E R E E F - SA F E S U N C R E A M A N D B O U G H T A B I K I N I M A D E F R O M R E CYC L E D O C E A N P L AST I C , H E R E A R E S O M E O F T H E B E S T P L A C E S T O S TAY W H I L E K E E P I N G Y O U R C O N S C I E N C E C L E A N

Words: Anna Prendergast

NIHI SUMBA INDONESIA Wellness retreat Nihi Sumba works closely with the philanthropic Sumba Foundation, and is dedicated to making a serious contribution to the local community. The foundation has built more than 60 water wells and 240 water stations and opened primary schools and medical clinics, with the support of the hotel’s owner Chris Burch. He covers the administrative costs of running the foundation, so that 100 per cent of the donations can fund projects that tackle poverty, malaria and water access. Nihi Sumba also runs entirely on biofuel, and grows produce for the restaurant in an on-site organic garden.

From approx. ÂŁ700 for a villa, nihi.com

THE BRANDO F R E N C H P O LY N E S I A The Brando’s goal is to be one of the first carbon-neutral hotels in the world, by using biofuel, solar energy and seawater air conditioning (a highly efficient cooling method which harnesses the cold of the ocean depths). Named after actor and owner Marlon Brando, whose vision was always to rely on renewable energy without compromising on luxury, and located on Tetiaroa, a private island in French Polynesia, the hotel was built using materials of local or certified origin.

The culture of the motu (reef islet) is fundamental to the hotel, as is the biodiversity. As well as thatched-roof, oceanview villas for guests, there’s an Ecostation for scientists and conservation to carry out research on Tetiaroa’s ecology.

From approx. £2,600 for a villa, thebrando.com

S O N G SAA , KO H R O N G CAMBODIA Whether you’re on a sunbed at a signature over-water villa or doing sunrise yoga on a sala, the ocean is at the forefront of Song Saa’s collective mindset. Marine conservation comes first, and owners Melita and Rory Hunter set up Cambodia’s first ever government-recognised private marine reserve, which protects the underwater environments and species such as sea turtles, mangroves and Cambodia’s rare sea grass meadows.

ZURI ZANZIBAR TA N Z A N I A On the northern tip of Unjuga, Zanzibar archipelago’s largest island, Zuri is a village-like complex which weaves nature and heritage from the area into the modern African design. The hotel is the first ever to be awarded EarthCheck’s Sustainable Design Gold Certification. It also offers young locals tourism training in Kendwa and partners with social enterprises such as The Seaweed Co, which provides female seaweed farmers with the chance to support themselves economically. The focus here is on social sustainability, and the hotel has created and supported infrastructures like a local library.

From approx. £815 for a villa, songsaa.com

From £399 for a double room, zurizanzibar.com

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

111

LUXURY LONDON

F E AT U R E

SIX SENSES FIJI Tucked into a secluded bay on Malolo Island, Six Senses takes full advantage of Fiji’s tropical climate, harnessing the year-round sunshine using solar-charged Tesla batteries to sustain the hotel. Programmes are in place to plant coral and reforest the reef, and sustainability officer Jesse Matai takes guests on night-time walks to spot endangered species and native creatures. Close by are some of the world’s top surf spots, such as sufer Kelly Slater’s favourite lefthand barrel, Cloudbreak.

From £615 for a double room, sixsenses.com LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

112

LUXURY LONDON

ESCAPE

OLAS TULUM, MEXICO Formerly known as Casa de las Olas, the ‘house of waves’ is run by a team of barefoot, go-slow staff with voices softer than the white sand on the beach. With aerodynamic architecture, solar panels, strategically placed palapas, a black water waste system, rain water irrigation and a compost heap for food waste, every step has been taken into consideration to reduce guests’ carbon footprints during their stay.

And you’ll want to take home everything you’ve learned – such is the passion with which owner Jimmy talks about sustainability around the communal breakfast table.

From £195 for a double room, casadelasolas.com

A N D A Z M A U I AT WA I L E A R E S O R T, H A W A I I

R O YA L L I V I N G S T O N E V I C T O R I A F A L L S ZAMBIA

Andaz Maui at Wailea Resort is Hawaii’s first LEED-certified hotel. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design system rates buildings for their green credentials, and energy efficiency is a fundamental part of the hotel’s design. There’s an on-site renewable solar thermal system and low-flow plumbing, as well as farm-to-table restaurant Ka’ana Kitchen and spa treatments that make use of locally-grown sunflower oil. Guests are invited to make their own leis and learn how to husk a coconut.

Anantara’s Zambia outpost has launched an initiative to help support local female farmers in a drive to empower the area’s local community. Last year, tourism was Zambia’s fastest-growing national economic sector, and Anantara’s response has been to ensure agricultural smallholders such as the Maramba Women’s Mushroom Farm don’t suffer the inevitable consequences of increased demand, prices and taxes. The hotel has developed training programmes for sustainable agriculture techniques and provided educational resources for finance and marketing, as well as a biweekly Smallholder Farmers’ Market.

From £601 for a double room, hyatt.com

From £112 for a double room, anantara.com

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

113

S

E

A

S

O

F

O N T H E P R I VAT E S E Y C H E L L E S I S L A N D O F F É L I C I T É , H O M E T O S I X S E N S E Z I L PA S Y O N , E C O S Y S T E M S T H AT W E R E O N C E Q U A I L I N G U N D E R T H E P R E S S U R E O F H U M A N I N T E R V E N T I O N A R E B E G I N N I N G T O T H R I V E O N C E M O R E , T H A N K S T O A T E A M O F D E D I C AT E D E N V I R O N M E N TA L I S T S W H O ’ V E M A D E I T THEIR MISSION TO TURN BACK THE CLOCK

Words: Sophie Halse

C

H

A

N

G

E

H

acking down plants to save the planet seems somewhat counter intuitive. But on the private island of Félicité, the fifth largest island in the Seychelles archipelago, this is exactly what is happening.

For 12 years, Steve Hill, the island’s resident ecologist, and his 15-strong team have been lacerating legions of cocoplum, an invasive shrub that’s taken up residence on the atoll in place of several endemic species. By banishing the bully of the plant world, Hill and his team hope to encourage indigenous foliage to flourish.

The fact that Félicité has a resident ecologist

tells you a lot about the island – and the Seychelles. President Danny Faure has made it his purpose to educate the world on ecology, and in doing so has introduced a number of sustainable initiatives. In 2018, Faure and his team protected 210,000 sq km of ocean and have pledged to protect 30 per cent of its surrounding waters by 2020. The government has worked closely with the Marine Conservation Society on coral reef protection projects, and the Marine Spatial Planning initiative enforces bans on fishing activities on 30 per cent of the island’s Exclusive Economic Zones. Not restricted to the oceans,

LUXURY LONDON

ESCAPE

THIS PAGE, FROM TOP POOL VILLA; BATHROOM IN A POOL VILLA OPPOSITE PAGE SWIMMING POOL AT THE SPA

around 50 per cent of the nation has been made a designated natural reserve and plastic bags, cups, plates and cutlery are officially contraband.

On Félicité, the ecological efforts are small but mighty.

Once home to a small lodge and five 1970s-style bungalows, one of which Tony Blair is said to have visited frequently, the private atoll has been occupied by Six Senses since 2016. It opened its sustainable bolthole Zil Pasyon in 2018 with Hill as official conservation manager.

Like Six Senses’ other 16 properties in Asia and Europe, Zil Pasyon has been created to enhance and restore the ecosystem surrounding it. Designed by Richard Hywel Evans of Studio RHE London, the hotel is the embodiment of “stealth architecture” – striking up close, but invisible to the human eye from a distance. Each of its 30 villas peep out from behind a dense canopy of trees, their sustainable timber cladding and thatched roofs allowing them to blend seamlessly into the craggy granite outface, while still affording their inhabitants a view of the cerulean blue waters.

Three private residences, meanwhile, are perched atop the island’s globular boulders, and their granite exterior provides the ultimate camouflage. Up close, the effect is part Tracy Island, part Brutalist masterpiece.

Part of the hotel’s appeal – and the reason it has won a slew of awards, both for its design and its green credentials – is Six Senses’ knack for merging 21st-century mod-

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

117

Zil Pasyon has won a slew of awards, both for its design and its green credentials

cons with ecological initiatives. Zil Pasyon is located in the island’s Marine Protected Area and has introduced a successful coral reforestation project in partnership with the Seychelles National Parks Authority, as well as a turtle monitoring scheme and zero waste and plastic-free initiatives. Along with cocoplum’s arch-enemy Hill, the team is making efforts to eliminate invasive species and propagate rare local flora and wildlife.

Far from being the scaled back retreat typical of ecotourism, Zil Pasyon offers all the trappings of a luxury bolthole, so much so that guests can easily while away their holiday oblivious to the sustainable cogs steering the ship, from the solar generated heating to desalinated water and LED bulbs.

Guests come to Zil Pasyon to relax. From the ocean-front spa, with its sundeck, yoga pavilion and five double treatment rooms, to the beachside cinema, the hotel is geared up to keep you horizontal. Each villa has its own ‘guest experience maker’ to answer to your whims and wishes; whether that’s invilla dining (which is 24-hour) or an excursion to one of the neighbouring islands.

Two restaurants serve food in varying degrees of formality: there’s a café for light bites and a pescetarian eatery proffering

THIS PAGE, FROM TOP POOL VILLA BEDROOM; ‘ROCK’ TREATMENT VILLA AT SIX SENSES SPA ZIL PASYON; OPPOSITE PAGE POOL VILLA BEDROOM

LUXURY LONDON

ESCAPE

the catch of the day. You can also arrange to have a private chef’s table dinner. For drinks, an overwater cocktail bar makes for an ideal spot for sundowners, while the gentleman’s club-style Lakanbiz serves home-infused rum that packs a punch.

For those who don’t wake with cocktail-induced sore heads in the morning, dawn walks with Hill can be arranged to discover the fruits of his labour. He still has a long way to go; he describes his efforts as being 90 per cent clear on one-third of the island, and zero per cent clear on the other two-thirds. But Hill has proved he’s the man for the job. When a German billionaire bought the

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

119

neighbouring Frégate Island, he called on Hill to draw up the blueprint for restoration. His efforts have seen the reintroduction of the Seychelles White-Eye, a tiny bird that was on the brink of extinction. In the 1970s, there were less than 25 of them. Today, thanks to Hill, and to the amazement of scientists, they thrive. In the race to save the planet, this bushwhacking warrior is leading the charge – one pesky cocoplum plant at a time.

From €1,426 (approx. £1,279) per night based on two people sharing a Hideaway Pool Villa, including breakfast, sixsenses.com

G R E E N P L A N E T SINCE ITS INCEPTION IN 1962, ABERCROMBIE & KENT HAS BEEN CHAMPIONING A S U S TA I N A B L E S TAT E O F M I N D . A S T H E R E S T O F T H E T R AV E L I N D U S T R Y W I S E S U P T O E C O -TO U R I S M , D I S C OV E R T H E A & K W I N T E R R E T R E AT S P U T T I N G T H E E N V I R O N M E N T F I R S T

A

ccording to the World Travel & Tourism Council, the travel sector is one of the world’s most powerful industries; it supplies 10 per cent of the world’s jobs, which equates to 313 million worldwide, and positively impacts the planet in more ways than one – from wildlife conservationism to economic and cultural empowerment in local communities. But globetrotting also comes at a price, not least disturbing natural habitats and the environmental impact of the aviation industry.

Since its inception, Abercrombie & Kent has strived to ensure it leaves a positive mark on its destinations.

Founded by Geoffrey Kent in 1962, the luxury travel company specialises in tailor-made holidays to the most inspiring corners of the world, from tracking the Big Five on safari in Tanzania to desert island retreats in the heart of the Maldives. Alongside its awe-inspiring trips, the team works with communities to protect endangered species and ecosystems through its A&K Philantrophy initiative, as well as provide education, health care and enterprise development projects.

Within Abercrombie & Kent’s extensive holiday offering, there are a number of hotels championing the concept of eco tourism. Offering more than just paper straws, these beguiling boltholes are inspiring in their eco ethos and pioneering practices. From resident marine biologists to coral reef transplanting projects, take your pick from a plethora of luxury retreats championing nature’s most precious bounty.

water-based activities, including the Shark and Marine Life Safari and Coral Reefscaping, which begin with presentations on ocean ecology. It is also the headquarters of the Maldivian Sea Turtle Conservation Programme.

BUSHMANS KLOOF

Located at the foothills of the craggy Cederberg mountains, Bushmans Kloof is the official steward to 130 caves painted by the indigenous San people and a gateway to some of South Africa’s most arresting wildlife. The hotel has made it its mission to protect the area’s cultural legacy and unique landscape, including purchasing three Anatolian Shepherd dogs to act as guardians for local livestock, which are hunted by rare Cape Leopards. By introducing the dogs, the hotel has prevented the need for the local community to interfere and potentially harm these most precious of cats.

GILI LANKANFUSHI

Each of Gili Lankanfushi’s villas is propped on stilts above the shallow waters of the aquamarine Indian Ocean.

With the Maldives’ tropical marine wildlife swimming past at every opportunity, it’s hard not to feel a sense of responsibility towards the seas. It’s handy, then, that the hotel is home to Gili Veshi – which translates as Gili Environment – the primary marine research facility on the island and the central hub for all sustainability and conservation issues.

CO B B L E R S COV E

FOUR SEASONS RESORT MALDIVES AT K U D A H U R A A

If you can bear to tear yourself away from the resident spa, which sits on its own private island and is open at night for a full massage-meets-stargazing experience, Four Seasons Kuda Huraa’s Marine Discovery Centre offers a fascinating lesson in ocean conservation. The centre acts as the starting point for many of the hotel’s

Once home to a sugar cane planter, Cobblers Cove’s millennial pink walls, red-and-white striped parasols and strips of powdery sand evoke a Slim Aarons’ photograph. The eco ethos here is to invest in local industries for the good of the island. Produce is sourced from nearby organic farms, fish is caught by the resident fisherman and décor is made and supplied by local artisans.

LUXURY LONDON

PROMOTION

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT CHILDREN OF THE RAINBOW PROJECT IN PERU, AN AKP PROJECT FOUNDED IN 2008; A DHONI AT FOUR SEASONS RESORT MALDIVES AT KUDA HURAA; SUITE AT COBBLERS COVE; CHIPEGO BIKE SHOP, AN AKP PROJECT; CHILDREN AT THE GIJEDABUNG PRIMARY SCHOOL IN TANZANIA, WHICH IS SUPPORTED BY AKP; PRIVATE DINNER AT GILI LANKANFUSHI; TREE PLANTING AT SANCTUARY OLONANA; PRIVATE RESIDENCES AT GILI LANKANFUSHI; DINING AT BUSHMANS KLOOF; RESTAURANT AT FOUR SEASONS RESORT MALDIVES AT KUDA HURAA

BOOK NOW For more information on Abercrombie & Kent’s destinations call 020 7173 6440 or visit Abercrombie and Kent at Harrods, Lower Ground Floor, 87-135 Brompton Road, SW1X, abercrombiekent.co.uk

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

121

THE CALL OF THE

W I LD

O U T O F P O P U L A R I T Y F O R S O M E T I M E , K E N YA H A S R E A S S E R T E D I T S E L F A S O N E O F A F R I C A’ S F O R E M O S T S A FA R I D E S T I N AT I O N S , H E L P E D I N N O S M A L L PA R T BY T H E S A FA R I C O L L E C T I O N , A P O R T F O L I O O F F O U R LUXURY CAMPS AND LODGES, WHICH, BETWEEN THEM, PROVIDE AN E P I C TO U R O F T H E N AT I O N ’ S B E S T W I L D L I F E R E S E R V E S

Words: Lily Devan

O

ne day on safari is not like another.

The wonders of the natural world are not always lying in photographic wait, poised in anticipation of your arrival.

They are busy surviving: stalking prey, hiding from predators, dozing beneath sparse foliage, bathing, bonding.

The presence of humans might be immaterial or, indeed, a hindrance to them. However you encounter the riches of these habitats – no more so than in Kenya, the king of safaris – the ability to witness the daily lives of animals is quite remarkable. The thrill of expecting the unexpected awaits each and every day.

Just as one day is not like another, nor is one safari destination quite like another. The Safari Collection, a company founded in 2009 by Tanya and Mikey Carr-Hartley, a pair of fourth generation Kenyans descended from settler families, offers just that: four dazzlingly varied safari destinations, in absolute luxury and degrees of Kenyan wilderness. The most refined, and arguably most restrained, is the

photogenic Giraffe Manor; a 1930s property on the edge of Nairobi National Park, just south of the city.

Its private land is home to a herd of Rothschild’s giraffe, who guests – there are just 12 rooms – may meet over a dawn breakfast or afternoon tea.

A childlike excitement is in the air as bleary travellers edge in awe towards the manor house windows – or balconies, for a truly premium experience – to feed the giraffe, warthogs scurrying between spindly legs. Open the front door, and

THIS PAGE, FROM TOP GIRAFFES POKE THEIR HEADS THROUGH THE RESTAURANT WINDOW AT GIRAFFE MANOR; ARLENE’S BATHROOM AT GIRAFFE MANOR OPPOSITE PAGE ARLENE’S ROOM AT GIRAFFE MANOR

The opportunity to jump out of a jeep and stand with these atrisk animals is just beyond spectacular

LUXURY LONDON

ESCAPE

a lofty visitor might be waiting.

Dining on pancakes and dishes fit for an aristocrat, you may be joined by birds swooping through windows, and a long powerful neck craning in for a bite. While the environment is controlled, there are reminders that this is far from a zoo. The giraffes’ human custodians look on in delight as in the distance a newborn, hours old, meets the rest of the herd for the first time, protected on still wobbling legs by its mother.

A short flight north, skimming low in a tiny plane over green fields and rolling hills, Solio Lodge lies in a valley between Mount Kenya

and the Aberdare mountains. Its five stone cottages are the sole place to stay within a 45,000-acre private game reserve devoted to breeding rhino. Nearly half of this land is a conservancy: meaning that the chances of seeing other travellers are minimal, and that guides know exactly who – or what – is coming in and out (including the occasional rogue elephant, trampling the conservancy’s border fences that cross a former migration path). This higher altitude spot is a haven for both the critically-endangered black and near-threatened white rhino. The opportunity to jump out of a jeep

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

125

and stand with these at-risk animals is just beyond spectacular.

Solio’s charms are indeed many, not least the floor-to-ceiling glass walls that run along each cottage, presenting views of the grassland beyond from bed, bathroom and lounge. Albeit well spread out, since the property is so intimate, manager Ava ensures a personal touch, making sure to catch up with each guest after private game drives, or sharing the recipe to some of the dining room’s Kenyan fare: tender meats, flavoursome soups and hearty salads. When a lone buffalo – docile in herds, aggressive when alone – is known

A day on safari highlights the cruelty and beauty of nature in equal measure to be roaming nearby, she is on high alert.

The importance of a knowledgeable guide, and the difference that they can make (especially when such a buffalo is still at large), is effortlessly showcased here. There are just a handful at Solio, including Maasai Ole, a keen photographer with infectious spirit and a firm hand on where to drive next.

His encyclopedic knowledge might result in a friendly quiz over sundowners on how to spot black from white rhino; how to distinguish the many colourful bird species flitting through the

trees and the types of monkey scampering below; or even, during a nature walk, how to tell various mammal footprints and dung apart.

Solio is also blessed with varied terrain (marshland, vast open landscape, thickets ideal for hiding kills from vultures), which – again, if you know where to look – might lead to a family of young lions playing on a makeshift bridge, or rounding an unsuspecting corner between bushes to meet a pride of 15 resting in the afternoon sun.

A tower of 28 giraffe might move slowly across the horizon, while you wander between the stragglers;

a baby rhino might scurry to keep up with its parent’s stride; or the sound and smell of lions methodically digging in to a fresh buffalo kill could be the first sign of your next sighting. With the engine switched off, silently sitting within a few metres or less of these animals is a privilege.

Not far from the Tanzanian border, Sala’s Camp is a tented outpost in the Maasai Mara reserve for up to 18 guests, set above a riverbed. Here, the wildlife experience is by contrast less intimate but holds the wonder of the boundless savannah; the exhilaration of the day is, quite

LUXURY LONDON

ESCAPE

(however young), has ransacked her home. Not far away, a hippo wallows in mud and a leopard sleeps sprawled over a branch in the afternoon sun. No two days on safari are quite like another.

Giraffe Manor, from $795 per night; Sala’s Camp, from $800 per night; Solio Lodge from $700 per night, thesafaricollection.com

often, simply trying to find wildlife in these breathtaking open plains.

Private game drives can make all the difference, allowing your guide and spotter – their incredible ability to spot the slightest camouflaged movement is crucial when attempting to track animals in these wilds – to hone in on the elusive hippo, hyena or herd of elephants.

Bush breakfasts, campfire sundowners and communal dining – on rather haute cuisine, considering the remote location – lend this camp a traditional safari air. Maasai warriors are tasked with patrolling the camp and escorting guests in the dark before dawn and in the evening to their tents (luxurious to a tee, and where elephants and giraffe might graze the side as they pass through under midnight moonlight). As much as wildlife rules any safari, these brief human encounters are perhaps the most illuminating. Robert, for instance, tells of Maasai life and traditions in hushed tones before stopping dead in his tracks, spear ready in hand (no guns allowed, in these parts). The imperceptible sound transpires to be a buffalo further ahead.

A day on safari highlights the cruelty and beauty of nature in equal measure. A lioness will shelter a couple of newly born cubs from foe, venturing from a den only to hunt food for them. The next day, the sound of her grief-stricken howls can fill the air as an outcast male, ferocious towards any perceived rival

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

127

THIS PAGE, FROM TOP LARGE WHITE RHINO SPOTTED ON A GAME DRIVE AT SOLIO; BREAKFAST ON THE GO IN THE MAASAI MARA RESERVE, WITH SALA’S CAMP; A LION SPOTTED ON A GAME DRIVE WITH SALA’S CAMP, PHOTOGRAPHY BY LILY DEVAN OPPOSITE PAGE LUXURY COTTAGES AT SOLIO

Sydney, Australia

Sailing

Sydney to Singapore Set sail along the Sunshine Coast of Eastern Australia up to Singapore onboard Azamara Quest®, gaze in awe at the stunning Great Barrier Reef and traverse through the towering peaks of the Kuranda Rainforest with a pre voyage land tour. r le be Sa 0%em n 1 pt O ve Se 0 Sa by 3

ok Bo

th

Pre Cruise Tour

18 Night

4 Night

24th March 2020, Azamara Journey®

Australia & Bali Voyage

Kuranda Rainforest & Great Barrier Reef

• Sydney, Australia

• Cairns, Australia

Ride the Kuranda Scenic Railway passing along steep gorges and tumbling waterfalls. Once in Kuranda, set off on a rainforest expedition. Dive into further adventures on the Great Barrier Reef, one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.

• Brisbane, Australia

• Darwin, Australia

Itinerary:

• Mooloolaba, Queensland

• Benoa, Bali, Indonesia

• Cairns, Australia

• Great Barrier Reef, Australia

• Airlie Beach, Australia

• Singapore

• Kuranda, Australia

• Sydney, Australia

Itinerary:

Suite Prices From

£5,498pp*

Escorted Tour Prices From

£1,960pp*

Why Azamara?

Longer stays. More overnights.

Country-IntensiveSM Itineraries.

Land and Sea packages. Authentic Shore Excursions. Complimentary AzAmazing Evenings®.

Gratuities. Beverages.

Self service laundry.

And more!

For more information and to book: Call 0344 481 7690= | Visit Azamara.co.uk Customer Rating based on independent verified reviews.

*Voyage price shown includes promotional 10% discount, book by 30th September. Prices and itineraries subject to change and availability, price shown based on lead in Suite price only. T&Cs apply. Please see website for category availability and prices. **Provided the minimum participation of guest level is met. †Calls cost the same as calls to geographic numbers (01 or 02) and are included in your landline or mobile free call package.

Boutique Hotel.

Concierge services.

Shuttle services to and from port communities.

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

INSIDER KNOWLEDGE The latest property news from prime central London

P.140 STREETS AHEAD The top properties hitting the market this month

The new Mandarin Oriental Residences development in Mayfair is offering buyers a unique chance to earn a guaranteed return on their investment (p.132)

DI S C OV E R I NG C OV E N T G A R DE N ’ S N EW BEST K EP T SECR ET A dramatic residence, in a secluded address, situated at the heart of London’s most celebrated cultural neighbourhood.

40 contemporary apartments, ready for occupation.

To arrange a viewing of our show flat please contact: sales@londonewcastle.co.uk / residential.sales@cbre.com

CHAPTERHOUSE.LONDON

Surround yourself with

AWA R D - W I N N I N G A PA R T M E N T S I N A N I C O N I C S E T T I N G F R O M ÂŁ 8 2 5 , 0 0 0 * AVA I L A B L E N O W. V I S I T O U R N E W S H OW A PA R T M E N T S

+44 (0)20 7205 2392 | gasholderslondon.co.uk | Gasholders, 1 Lewis Cubitt Square, London N1C 4BY

*Price correct at time of print

INSIDER KNOWLEDGE FROM LONDON’S PRIME CENTRAL PROPERTY MARKET

SUITE LIFE MANDARIN ORIENTAL LAUNCHES EXCLUSIVE OWNER-RENTAL PROGRAMME

London’s second Mandarin Oriental Residences are due to launch in 2021 in Mayfair — the first opened in Hyde Park in 2009 — and with them comes an unusual perk. Homeowners will be presented with the opportunity to earn a guaranteed return on their investment in the form of an exclusive rental programme, allowing them to let their property for up to 90 days of the year.

Part of the deal includes all management and maintenance, which will be taken care of by the Mandarin Oriental Residences team. As part of

the service, all personal items will be removed from the property ahead of the tenants arriving, and will be returned exactly as left once they have vacated the property.

Located on Hanover Square, the Mandarin Oriental Residences Mayfair is offering 80 fully-serviced properties for sale, with prices starting from £1.9m.

Rental costs are expected to start from approximately £900 per night for a studio. All homeowners and prospective tenants have access to the adjoining Mandarin Oriental hotel’s in-room dining and housekeeping, bar and restaurant, 24/7 concierge, a chauffeurdriven car, valet parking, spa, swimming pool and state of the art gym.

LUXURY LONDON

PROPERTY

A N OV E L I D E A FOYLES ENTERS THE HOUSEBUILDING MARKET

MIND THE GAP HOMES NEAR LONDON UNDERGROUND STATIONS SEE STRONGER

Following in the footsteps of luxury booksellers Assouline and Heywood Hill, Foyles has entered the property market with a new library scheme in partnership with developer Elysian Residences.

Targeted at Elysian’s later living residential schemes, which are located in London and across the South East, Foyles’ new libraries will include a curated selection of mixed genre titles, as well as specialist foreign language books, classical and jazz music recordings, and DVDs. Residents will also have the opportunity to order in books from Foyles in order to keep the stock fresh, and will benefit from regular on-site talks by popular authors such as Nigella Lawson and Andrew Marr.

The first Elysian property to elicit this scheme will be The Landsby in Stanmore, which is expected to be operational by the end of the year. Prices start from £490,000 for a one-bedroom apartment.

PRICE GROWTH

House prices near London Underground stations have risen at a faster rate than borough-wide averages over the past 20 years, according to research by CBRE. Properties that are within a five-minute walk of a Tube Station (or 500m) were found to have risen by 10.9 per cent a year since 1998, compared to an average 8.8 per cent annual increase across the surrounding area.

This surge was found to be consistent across all Tube lines, with the Jubilee Line and DLR recording the biggest increase thanks to regeneration projects along their routes – annual inflation rates were recorded as 3.1 per cent above borough-wide levels.

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

133

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

Grade II listed Mayfair townhouse Park Street, W1 Marble Arch Underground Station 0.2 miles, Bond Street Underground Station 0.3 miles Entrance hall, 3 reception rooms, kitchen, dining room, master bedroom with en suite bathroom, 3 further en suite bedrooms, media room, shisha room, utility room, guest cloakroom, EPC = E

Freehold | 2,648 sq ft | Guide ÂŁ8.525 million

Charles Lloyd Savills Mayfair & St James's Residential Sales 020 7578 5111 clloyd@savills.com

Peter Wetherell Wetherell Residential Sales 020 7493 6935 sales@wetherell.co.uk

Impressive Georgian townhouse Wilton Place, Belgravia, SW1X Knightsbridge Underground Station: 0.3 miles A spacious freehold house located in a prime position on Wilton Place, 2 reception rooms, kitchen/breakfast room, dining room, 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, study, 25ft West-facing garden, roof terrace, swimming pool, jacuzzi and sauna, EPC = D

Freehold | 3,892 sq ft | Guide ÂŁ9.85 million

Tom Wilson Savills Sloane Street Residential Sales 020 7730 0822 twilson@savills.com

Impressive house on Chelsea border Rumbold Road, SW6

Fulham Broadway Underground Station: 0.3 miles

2 reception rooms, kitchen/dining room, 4 bedrooms, further bedroom/study, 4 bathrooms, wine cellar, utility room, garden, EPC = B

Freehold | 3,220 sq ft | Guide ÂŁ3.75 million

Emma Stead Savills Fulham Parsons Green Residential Sales 020 7731 9420 estead@savills.com

Newly refurbished apartment Montagu Mansions, W1U

Baker Street Underground Station: 0.3 miles

Open-plan kitchen/reception room, 2 bedrooms (1 en suite bathroom), separate shower room, wine store, second floor, 24hr porterage, lift, EPC = E

Leasehold, approximately 967 years remaining | 1,102 sq ft | Guide ÂŁ2.5 million

Claire Reynolds Savills Marylebone & Fitzrovia Residential Sales 020 3527 0400 creynolds@savills.com

STREETS AHEAD DISTINCTIVE HOMES ON THE PROPERTY MARKET THIS MONTH

M O N TA G U MANSIONS, W1U

This recently-renovated two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment in the heart of Marylebone has been beautifully refurbished with striking design features. From herringbone floorboards to a top-of-therange kitchen and feature wine display, the space has

a clean, minimalist vibe that plays on the apartment’s heritage features. Each room is well-proportioned, with high-ceilings and large windows. The building benefits from 24-hour porterage and the apartment has 967 years remaining on its lease. £2.5m, 020 3527 0400, savills.com

LUXURY LONDON

PROPERTY

T H E D U M O N T, S E 1

The Dumont, part of the third and final phase of the Albert Embankment regeneration project, has unveiled its last properties.

These six, four-bedroom residences boast views across the River Thames and interiors by designer Spinocchia Freund. The homes are located from the 18th - 29th floors and all feature balconies, while a selection benefit from impressive terraces of up to 1,875 sq ft.

From £6.95m, 020 3504 8532, stjames.co.uk

C H E L S E A B A R R AC KS , SW1W

Chelsea Barracks has unveiled its first furnished residence. Designed by Elicyon, the four-bedroom property includes nods to the development’s military heritage with a blue colour

LUXURYLONDON.CO.UK

141

palette, chosen to complement the undress uniforms of the neighbouring Chelsea Pensioners.

Furniture by design stalwart Andrew Martin and rugs by Arteriors and Colbourns decorate the space. £24m, chelseabarracks.com

Halsey Street, Chelsea SW3 £4,450,000

Freehold

Chepstow Crescent, Notting Hill W11 £6,650,000

Freehold

A superb five-bedroom Grade II Listed family house, leading onto a pretty landscaped paved garden.

An outstanding five-bedroom family house with a lovely garden and off-street parking.

2,314 sq ft (215 sq m) Master bedroom with en suite bathroom | Four further bedrooms | Three reception rooms | Two further bathrooms | Guest WC | Study | Garden | Balcony | Terrace | Residents parking | EPC rating exempt

3,004 sq ft (279.1 sq m) Entrance hall | Drawing room | Kitchen | Dining area | Family room | TV/playroom | Five bedrooms | Four bathrooms | Dressing room | Utility room | Cloakroom | Off-street parking | Garden | EPC rating E

Chelsea 020 3504 5588 | chelsea@struttandparker.com

Notting Hill 020 3773 4114 | nottinghill@struttandparker.com

Fairholt Street, Knightsbridge SW7 £11,950,000

Freehold

Old Church Street, Chelsea SW3 £5,950,000

Freehold

A wide and low built brand newly constructed house, presented in exceptional order throughout.

An excellent five-bedroom town house with a pretty west-facing landscaped garden and roof terrace, situated in Old Chelsea.

4,595 sq ft (426.9 sq m) Entrance hall | Reception room | Dining area | Kitchen | Five bedrooms | Three bathrooms | Cinema | Study | Spa | Cloakroom | Utility room | Two terraces | EPC rating D

3,370 sq ft (313.07 sq m) Drawing room | Dining room | Kitchen/breakfast room | Study | Master bedroom with en suite bathroom and dressing room | Three further bedrooms (all with en suite shower rooms) | Bedroom five/ staff suite | Roof terrace | EPC rating B

Knightsbridge 020 3504 8796 | knightsbridge@struttandparker.com

Chelsea SW10 020 3813 9185 | chelseaSW10@struttandparker.com

/struttandparker

@struttandparker

struttandparker.com

60 Offices across England and Scotland, including prime Central London.

ZA232_S&P_LuxuryLondon_DPS1_11.09.19.indd 1

11/09/2019 10:17

ZA2

Holmead Road, Fulham SW6 £2,450,000

Freehold

A fabulous Victorian terraced house, situated in this sought-after location and immaculately refurbished to an exacting standard throughout.

2,313 sq ft (214.88 sq m) Reception/dining room | Kitchen | Drawing room | Master bedroom with bathroom suite | Three further bedrooms (one en suite) | Family bathroom | Gym | Utility room | Garden | EPC rating E

Hornton Street, Kensington W8 £1,700,000 Share of Freehold

A beautifully presented two-bedroom upper maisonette (with lift), excellent entertaining space and two terraces.

1,034 sq ft (96.1 sq m) Entrance hall | Reception room | Kitchen | Two bedrooms | Bathroom | Shower room | Terrace | Roof terrace | Lift | EPC rating D

Fulham 020 8023 6671 | fulham@struttandparker.com

Kensington 020 3813 9477 | kensington@struttandparker.com

Rosary Gardens, South Kensington SW7 £995,000 Share of Freehold

Ebury Street, Belgravia SW1W £7,250,000

A well presented two-bedroom raised ground floor apartment on this quiet red-brick terrace in the heart of South Kensington with the benefit of a private garden.

A superb freehold family house in the heart of Belgravia.

599 sq ft (55.6 sq m) Reception room | Kitchen | Two bedrooms | Bathroom | Garden | Raised Ground floor | Share of freehold 997 years | EPC rating D South Kensington 020 3504 5901 | southken@struttandparker.com

Freehold

3,431 sq ft (318.8 sq m) Entrance hall | Reception room | Dining room | Kitchen | Media room | Drawing room | Study | Two bedroom suites | Two further bedrooms | Two bathrooms | Terrace | Garden | Wine cellar | EPC rating C

Knightsbridge 020 3504 8796 | knightsbridge@struttandparker.com

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.

10:17

ZA232_S&P_LuxuryLondon_DPS1_11.09.19.indd 2

11/09/2019 10:17

Burnsall Street, Chelsea SW3 £1,750 per week

Furnished

Chepstow Place, Notting Hill W2 £2,700 per week

Unfurnished

A wide double-fronted three-bedroom period house situated on an attractive one-way street.

A beautifully presented five-bedroom period house in the heart of Notting Hill.

1,722 sq ft (161 sq m) Reception room | Kitchen/dining room | Three bedroom suites | Cloakroom | Utility room | EPC rating D

2,617 sq ft (243.1 sq m) Kitchen/dining room | Drawing room | Five double bedrooms | Two bathrooms | Study | Utility room | Garden | EPC rating D

Chelsea 020 3504 5588 | Chelsea.lettings@struttandparker.com

Notting Hill 020 3773 4114 | Nottinghilllettings@struttandparker.com

Tregunter Road, Chelsea SW10 £25,000 per week

Hillgate Place, Kensington W8 £1,350 per week

Unfurnished

Unfurnished

An impressive five/six-bedroom semi-detached house with off-street parking, pool and garden.

Contemporary three-bedroom house with a roof terrace in this popular Hillgate Village location.

8,175 sq ft (760 sq m) (Including under 1.5m) Two drawing rooms | Study | Kitchen/breakfast room | Five double bedrooms | Nine bathrooms | Seven en suite bathrooms | Family room | Cinema | Swimming pool | Garden | EPC rating C

1,354 sq ft (125.79 sq m) Reception room | Kitchen | Master bedroom with en suite bathroom | Two further double bedrooms | Bathroom | Utility area | Roof terrace | EPC rating D

Chelsea SW10 020 3813 9185 | ChelseaSW10Lettings@struttandparker.com

Kensington 020 3813 9477 | Kensington.lettings@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.

ZA234_S&P_LuxuryLondon_4PropDPS2_11.09.19.indd 1

10/09/2019 14:54

ZA2

Collingham Gardens, London SW5 £1,550 per week

Unfurnished

A recently refurbished three-bedroom apartment situated on the first floor of this well presented period building.

1,408 sq ft (130.82 sq m) Three bedrooms | Reception room | Two bathrooms | Communal gardens | Balcony | EPC rating D

Tamworth Street, Fulham SW6 £850 per week

Unfurnished

A lovely four-double bedroom end of terrace family house which has been neutrally decorated throughout and benefits from off-street parking.

1,797 sq ft (166.97 sq m) Double reception room | Kitchen | Master bedroom with en suite bathroom | Three further bedrooms | Bathroom | Cloakroom | Cellar | Garden | EPC rating E

South Ken 020 3504 5588 | SouthKensingtonLettings@struttandparker.com

Fulham 020 8023 6671 | Fulham.lettings@struttandparker.com

Redburn Street, Chelsea SW3 £2,750 per week

Chapel Street, Belgravia SW1X £6,750 per week

Unfurnished

Furnished

An absolutely stunning and immaculately presented four-bedroom house with a south-facing garden, terrace and balcony.

A beautifully presented end of terrace house overlooking Belgrave Square.

2,158 sq ft (200.05 sq m) Entrance hall | Drawing room | Kitchen/dining room | Three bedroom suites | Further bedroom/study | Garden | Terrace | Balcony | Laundry/cloakroom | Storage room | EPC rating F

3,859 sq ft (359 sq m) Six bedrooms | En suite bathroom | Four en suite shower rooms | Shower room | Guest WC | Two reception rooms | Dining room | Kitchen | Terrace | Garden | Balcony | Lift | Study | EPC rating D

Chelsea 020 3504 5588 | Chelsea.lettings@struttandparker.com

Knightsbridge 020 3504 8796 | KnightsbridgeLettings@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.

14:54

ZA234_S&P_LuxuryLondon_4PropDPS2_11.09.19.indd 2

10/09/2019 14:54

The Talisman Building, Fulham SW6

ÂŁ5,700 per week Furnished

A spectacular loft style, architecturally designed lateral apartment, overlooking Eel Brook Common with direct lift access.

4,979 sq ft (462.55 sq m) Large open plan reception room | Second reception room/bedroom four | Four bedrooms | Dressing room | Master bathroom with en suite shower | Three further bathrooms with showers | Steam room | Office | Media room | Kitchen | Back-up kitchen | Utility room | Lift | Secure parking for one car | Storage | EPC rating B Fulham 020 8023 6671 | fulham.lettings@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.

ZA235_S&P_LuxuryLondon_ISBCDPS_10.09.19.indd 1

09/09/2019 09:50

ZA2

Argyll Road, Kensington W8

£10,950,000 Freehold

An outstanding and beautifully presented six-bedroom stucco fronted family house with a stunning 54 ft long garden.

4,424 sq ft (411 sq m) Entrance hall | Drawing room | Kitchen/dining room | Family room | Sitting room | Master bedroom with dressing room and en suite bathroom | Five further bedrooms | Two further bathrooms | Three shower rooms | Study | Cloakroom | Store room | Wine cellar | Utility room | Balcony | Garden | EPC rating C Kensington 020 3813 9477 | kensington@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.

09:27

ZA235_S&P_LuxuryLondon_ISBCDPS_10.09.19.indd 2

09/09/2019 09:27