The City Magazine February 2016 by Runwild Media Group

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contents on the cover 29

London Collections Men Say it in hushed tones, but when it comes to menswear, London is leaving Paris and Milan in its wake

40 The Empire Strikes Back The British watch industry is back in business. Richard Brown talks to the brothers spearheading the revival 99 Treasure Island: Maldives Special White sweeping beaches, lush, dense forests; this is Paradise, or, more accurately, the Maldives Includes:

COVER STORY: man of the moment

100 Dreaming of Paradise The sheer amount of activities on offer means you’ll find it hard to relax in your secluded over-water villa 102

Hollywood heart-throb, playboy philanthropist; as The Revenant hits cinema screens, here’s why everyone loves Leo

Maroon me on an Island Live to tell your Maldivian tale with Tiffany Eastland’s handy survival guide

p23

106 A five-star Universe For ‘fly-and-floppers’, or the more adventurous, there’s an island paradise for everyone

REGULARS CITY LIFE: 16 The Edit The commodities and consumables raising our interest rates this month 18 The Social The City Magazine checks out the best Sunday lunches available in London

60 71

STYLE: Bare Necessities The unmentionables worth mentioning in light of Valentine’s Day 60 Spring Awakening Take the first tentative steps towards Spring by donning lightweight pieces – but watch out for rain

80 62

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

COLLECTION: Better Connected Breitling and TAG Heuer are the latest Swiss watchmakers to embrace the smart watch revolution Cap in Hand After years of curating other jewellers’ creations, Susan Caplan has launched her first collection

OUT OF OFFICE: 74 Son of my Father: Sam Smoothy Freeride Skier Sam Smoothy on tracing his father’s footsteps in the Bolivian Andes 88 Travel: Surf & Turf Yacht Maserati and the Quattroporte GTS prove the Italian powerhouse is as good on water as it is on tarmac 94 Arts & Interiors: Dexter Dalwood Welcome to another artist that should appear on your agenda

HOMES AND PROPERTY: 138 The Picture of Paradise UNNA Luxury Resorts & Residences makes a life in Barbados even harder to beat

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Contributors

E d i t o r - in-Chi ef Lesley Ellwood

E d i tor Richard Brown

D EP U T Y Editor tiffany eastland

M o t o r i n g Editor Matthew Carter

S ta f f Writer MELISSA EMERSON

E d i t o r i a l a ss is tant david taylor

Se n i o r Des ign er

Dave Waddell

Dominic Nicholls

Jeremy Taylor

Dave i s a freelance writ er,

D ominic has shot a wealth

Jeremy is a freelance features

copyeditor and journali st,

of fashion , adverti sing and

writer specialising in motoring,

app earing in The W hisky

celebrities – Anthony Hopkins

travel and celebrity inter views,

Maga zine, The S pectator

and Rod St ewart to nam e

and a regular contributor to

and Joshua’s. For The City

drop a couple. Thi s month ,

the Financial Times and Sunday

Maga zine, Dave waxes lyrically

h e shoots stat em ent pieces

Times Magazine. This month ,

on th e sights and sm ell s of

to make your colleagu es and

Jeremy samples the £4 million

th e Maldives, hi s version of

friend s green with envy ( p. 52).

paradi se ( p. 99).

Yacht Maserati and its landloving sister, the Quattroporte GTS in Sydney (p. 88).

LISA WADE

B RAND C ON S ISTEN CY Laddawan Juhong

Ge ne r a l Manag er Fiona Fenwick

P r o duct ion Hugo Wheatley Oscar Viney Alice Ford Jamie Steele

P r opert y D ir ec tor Samantha Ratcliffe

E x ecu ti v e D ir ect or Sophie Roberts

M a n a g i n g D ir ec tor Eren Ellwood

Round-frame striped acetate sunglasses, £395, Thom Browne, mrporter.com

Green Dover moleskin blazer, £280, Boglioli, mrporter.com

Men’s burgundy geometric scarf, £53, Maserati, maseratistore.com

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1738 Accord Royal Cognac, £47.95, Rémy Martin, remymartin.com

Kurt Cobain’s Greenhouse, Saatchi Gallery, saatchigallery.com

Navy wool flannel casual shirt, £62.50, Hardy Amies, hardyamies.com

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issue no.

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FEBRUARY 2016

f r o m t h e E D I TOR

ou’ll be hard-pressed to find a better campfire legend than Hugh Glass. Th e m an brou g ht to li fe by L e onardo D iCaprio in thi s year ’s T h e R ev en a n t w a s a sai lor, a pirat e and an h on orar y Paw n e e In di an b ef ore pi ssin g of f a b ear w hi l e fur trappin g in w hat i s

n ow S outh D ako t a . His body was torn to pieces. His throat ripped nearly clean out. He couldn’t

walk, he couldn’t talk. Fellow fur trappers, John Fitzgerald and Jim Bridger, were asked to stay with Glass until he succumbed. Instead, they stole his rifle, robbed him of his possessions and left him for dead. Glass refused to die. Subsisting on a diet of berries, tree roots and rattlesnakes that he’d beaten to death with a rock, he crawled, walked and swam hundreds of miles of the most unimaginably treacherous conditions hell-bent on exacting his murderous revenge. Appearing like a revenant – a person returned from the dead – Glass found Bridger at a fort at the mouth of the Yellowstone River. Face-to-face, Glass couldn’t do it. Bridger seemed too young to kill. Glass located Fitzgerald 400 miles later at Fort Atkinson, where the backstabbing son-of-a-bitch had enlisted as a soldier. Under the protection of the US Army, Fitzgerald was impossible to kill. Glass took back his rifle, which Fitzgerald still owned, and returned to the wild. A few years later, Glass was ambushed by Arikara Indians. They killed him, scalped him and left him in a river. Luckily, Leo’s film doesn’t end on this uplifting note. Head to page 23 to discover why the cinematic masterpiece is a movie you must see. Enjoy our 100 th issue.

Richard brown, editor

Other titles within the RWMG portfolio

A website. A mindset. A lifest yle. On the cover Leonardo DiCaprio shot by John Russo

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City Life

february 2016

join the gym Distinctive dishes and spectacular design make for an unlikely success It was certainly a punt, opening a 440-cover German restaurant in an area not famed as one of London’s most aspiring culinary quarters. And it’s paid off. King’s Cross’s German Gymnasium is currently the capital’s restaurant du jour. Purpose-built in 1865 for the German Gymnastics Society, the Grade II listed building has been converted into one of the most stylishly appointed restaurants of recent years. Beneath an arch of original wood beams, Conran and Partners’ monochrome masterpiece also comprises two bars, a café and patisserie counter. Central European delicacies – such as Tafelspitz (boiled beef), Schupfnudeln (noodles) and Maultaschen (ravioli) – are the flavour of the day. Wash them down with plenty of Riesling. germangymnasium.com

the look

the wish list

heading north To launch its new collection, Belstaff took over the dilapidated Victorian red-brick arches of Southwark’s Ewer Street during London Collections Men. Inspired by the pioneers of endurance riding, the company’s A/W16 collection takes us on a journey through tough terrain, snowy mountains and icy glaciers. Designed with the demands of cold adventure riding in mind, each look offers protection, mobility and adaptability, incorporating innovative new materials, construction and functionality to guarantee unprecedented warmth and comfort. belstaff.co.uk

8 Quarter Cap No.1, £60, MFG.CO., knickerbockermfg.co

Artica: The Vanishing North, £80, teNeues, teneues.com

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the ARCHITECTURE

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ising

Jensen & Skodvin, 2015, image courtesy of Mir Creative Studio

Take a moment to visualise. You’re not restricted by budget, and there are no constraints on the materials you use. What do you see? If you think your concept’s rather wacky, chances are the team at Mir have seen furtherfetched designs. When it comes to unbuilt architecture, the Norwegian creative studio is the best in the business. Its team of designers can bring even the most ridiculous ideas to life, by producing images that are outside the ‘3D architectural visualisation’ category, like the above adventurous dining concept by architectural firm Jensen & Skodvin. Be blown away by the impossible at mir.no

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

Chronomat 44 Blacksteel, £7,230, Breitling, breitling.com

3 4 5 6 7

Classic bomber jacket, £130, Alpha Industries, farfetch.com

making the impossible possible

‘Post No Bills’ skateboard, £275, Kickerbocker Manufacturing Company, knickerbockermfg.co

Cotton-canvas backpack, £135, A.P.C., mrporter.com

ML2016, £120, New Balance 2016 Tokyo Design Studio, newbalance.co.uk

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| NEWS |

the race

the news

a record for rolls Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has announced that its 2015 sales were the second highest ever recorded in the marque’s 112-year history (behind only 2014). Last year, 3,785 hand-built motor cars were commissioned by customers worldwide, with the enduring success of Wraith and Ghost family motor cars driving sales, while the Phantom reaffirmed its status as the world’s most desirable super-luxury good. In 2015, Rolls-Royce again sold more cars in the +£150,000 net segment than any other manufacturer, a position it’s held over the last decade. Record sales were recorded in Asia Pacific, the Middle East and North America, with particularly promising growth seen from a few emerging markets, including Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Kazakhstan. In September the new Rolls-Royce Dawn drophead coupé broke all previous records for pre-orders. rolls-roycemotorcars.com

The 2016 Dakar Rally provided a mix of new and seasoned winners. Peugeot’s Stéphane Peterhansel claimed his sixth car title, while the Patronelli brothers dominated the quads. Gerard de Rooy won the truck category for a second time, while Toby Price became the first Australian champion, winning his first motorcycle title with a flawless performance. dakar.com

the art the shaving kit

C e l e b ra t e d s p o r t s p h o t o g ra p h e r Wa l t e r Io o s s o n c e c o n f e ss e d : “ I d o n’ t e v e n t h i n k I w a s re a l ly t h a t g o o d a b o x i n g p h o t o g ra p h e r. B u t w h e n y o u’re shooting Ali , he has this my st i q u e .” S u b j e c t s a si d e , t h e man has talent. Sonic Editions a n d Mr Po r t e r b r i n g s t h i s t o l i g h t i n a s e r i e s of p r i n t s s h o w c a s i n g Io o s s’ i l l u st r i o u s c a re e r c a p tu r i n g s o m e of t h e g re a t e st s p o r t i n g l e g e n d s of a l l t i m e , b e t h a t c o u r t si d e , r i n g si d e o r e v e n s e a si d e . Kauai 1975, £199, Ali - W hats My Nam e? £199, S onic Editions X Mr Port er, soniceditions.com

the show

old school Automobiles After the success of last year’s inaugural event, London’s premier Classic Car Show is back – promising to be bigger and better than ever before. The ExCeL centre is being prepared to showcase some of the most iconic cars ever made. A Grand Avenue through the centre will give visitors the chance to see them in action. You can also buy a piece of automotive history, with last year’s record £1.5m Ferrari sale set to be smashed. This year also celebrates the machine Jay Leno calls the “greatest car of the 20th century”, with a unique display of the seminal McLaren F1. Just 64 standard road versions were built, and one was sold last year for £9 million. So unless you’re a multimillionaire – or even if you are – The London Classic Car Show is the best place to see it. 18-21 February, Excel London, thelondonclassiccarshow.co.uk

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from top Wild Watermint Gin Shave Cream, £18, Blind Barber; Shaving Lotion, £25, Lavett & Chin; Shaving Cream, £24, Pankhurst London; No.89 Aftershave Balm, £27, Floris London, all mrporter.com

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

ducks in a row

Thanks to executive chef Tong Chee Hwee, HKK has built a reputation on serving the City’s finest roast cherry wood Peking duck, the restaurant’s signature dish prepared over 48 hours. Now, the Michelinstarred Chinese restaurant has introduced a set tasting menu for £49 per person. For that, you get an outstanding series of dishes, exclusive to this Worship Street wonder. The Duck & Champagne menu is for two people to share and includes a bottle of Louis Roederer Brut Premier Champagne. It is available only on Saturdays. 88 Worship Street, hkklondon.com

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the CRAZES WITH ished r u CULINARY o n nd icure hes a aunc the ep l t s e KEEPING ile’s Lat re m squa

six of the City’s best cocktails

Shi son Fire, £13, City Social: Tequila , wasabi , apple purée, lim e, shi so and black lava salt. For those w ho n eed an e vening pick-m e-up

Pi sco Sour, £8.95, Th e Anthologi st: In Peru , ‘ Pi sco S our Day ’ i s celebrat ed as th e first Saturday of Februar y. A tim ely tipple th en

Japanese Fashion, £12.50, 1 Lombard Street: Hibiki 12-yr -old Japan ese w hi sky puts an East ern twi st on thi s arch etypal Am erican classic

Swedi sh Death Nettle, £8.80, Be At On e: Simple, refreshing breakfast t ea and n ettle cordial with Absolut Elyx. An invigorating mix

bootlegging beauty London’s latest drinking den brings the glamour of the Prohibition era to the heart of the City. The Speakeasy style of The Bootlegger helps bring to life America’s roaring ‘20s, alongside such concoctions as Kahlua-based ‘The Informant’ and Grey Goose ‘Giggle Juice’. Add to this weekly live performances of blues, jazz, Charleston and Motown from undisclosed headliners, and you have yourself one hell of a night. The location given on its website: 51° 30’ 43.1 | 0° 5’ 0.8. But for you, that’s 25-26 Lime Street. Just don’t tell anyone, OK? The Bootlegger, Lime Street, thebootlegger.co.uk

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

Get in the Sea, £12.50, City Social: Fig and samphire infused gin cocktail garni sh ed with ‘caviar’ in a conch . Like sailing a yacht. P robably

El President e, £9.80, Be At On e: Feel like starting a S outh Am erican coup? Begin by smashing back thi s rich rum-based P rohibition classic

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| news |

West End Waiters

Struggling to think of an original angle for your next corporate bash? Incognito Artists might be your answer. The company provides tailor-made entertainment from the latest West End and Broadway stars, who go undercover as waiters, traffic wardens and even feuding lovers, only to burst into song when the guests least expect it. Founder Geoff Sewell says its purpose is “to touch, move and inspire people; to make them present to the magic of being alive”. The City Magazine was recently witness to one of the company’s undercover performances and move us it certainly did. No wonder Incognito Artists counts among its clients the Beckhams, Nelson Mandela, Sir Elton John and HM The Queen. incognitoartists.com

g n i n r o M y a d n u

s– lunche y a d n u nest S on’s fi d n o L y with Sunda y z la t rfec um’s the pe your m s a Enjoy d o t as go almos

S e k i l y Eas

oxbo bankside Hilton London Bankside is now serving traditional Sunday lunch at its OXBO Bankside restaurant. The menu, devised by executive chef Paul Bates, boasts a luxurious roast sirloin of Gloucestershire beef with Yorkshire pudding, duck fat-roasted potatoes with seasonal vegetables, and almond Bakewell tart. If you go with a guest who, heaven forbid, doesn’t like their roast dinners, there are plenty of options, including smoked duck breast with lychee salsa, or smoked salmon with capers and lemon. The restaurant uses supplies from specialist producers and local traders from Borough Market. Lunches run 12-5 every Sunday, with live music each week. Hilton London Bankside, Great Suffolk Street, oxbobankside.co.uk

BEST OF THE REST BLACKLOCK Lauded by restaurant critics, Blacklock became the wildcard hit restaurant of last year. Now, this superb Soho chop house, based in a former basement brothel, is open for Sunday roasts. Affordable, generous, and hugely welcoming, plates are piled high and cocktails cost a fiver. Blacklock, Soho theblacklock.com

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TOM’S KITCHEN As close a restaurant will get to feeling like your family’s dinner table, Tom’s Kitchen is the place for British favourites and high-end comfort. If roast dinners aren’t for you, other weekend highlights include Tom’s full English, seasonal berry pancake, and smoked haddock kedgeree. Tom’s Kitchen, St Katharine Docks, tomskitchen.co.uk

THE FLORENCE An ideal place for a weekend escape, The Florence’s roast menu is substantial, and the pub champions British beer, even brewing its own in the microbrewery on show inside. This little slice of the countryside in the city also boasts a children’s play area. It’s dog-friendly too. The Florence, Herne Hill, florencehernehill.com

PLUM + SPILT MILK Even with no train to catch, a trip to the Great Northern Hotel at St Pancras is well worth a visit. Plum + Spilt Milk serves a choice of three roasts in a dining room resplendent with threemetre-high sash windows and 120 glass pendant lights. Great Northern Hotel, King’s Cross St Pancras, plumandspiltmilk.com

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

A KILIMANJARO & HARVEY GOLDSMITH PRESENTATION

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| LIFESTYLE |

BON VIVEUR

Our man-about-town, Innerplace’s Nick Savage, gives you the insider lowdown on LONDON’S most hedonistic haunts

The Victorian Era

hen Londoners think of sought-after produce, ranging from Ibérico Victoria, it’s not often with bellota-cured ham to Iberian caviar. You’ll fondness. Sandwiched between find the main dining room upstairs, where Westminster, St James’s and Whitehall, it’s Michelin-starred executive chef Nacho Innerplace more of an area that’s passed through Manzano’s menu is served. is London’s personal than a destination. However, the lifestyle concierge. Membership capital being a protean city, things Quilon Sriram Aylur is a brilliant provides complimentary access to the finest nightclubs, the best change, and with developments chef, having garnered a Michelin star restaurants and top private members’ such as the Zig Zag Building and the for his inspired Keralan cooking in clubs. Innerplace also offers priority Nova Food Quarter, everyone from 2008 at the Taj Hotel on Buckingham bookings, VIP invitations and Jason Atherton and Jamie Oliver to Gate. The restaurant continues insider updates on the latest openings. Bone Daddies, Franco Manca and to attract a devoted clientele with innerplace.co.uk D&D London is getting in on the action. its enlightened culinary artistry and There’s a lot to recommend it already. The seductive design: dimly lit with a colour following are Victoria’s strong suits. palette of amber and jade, with dark wooden jali screens and tea lights recessed M Victoria ST Martin Williams made in the walls. For anyone who wants to his mark in the City with the opening of experience the elegance of southern Indian M Threadneedle Street. Whilst his newest cuisine without booking a 12-hour flight, opening shares common DNA, it’s an Quilon is the ideal destination, serving a evolution from its predecessor – beefed raft of delicacies such as mini masala dosas, up, so to speak. The concept remains the ginger and green chilli crabcakes, and the same: there’s M Raw, M Grill and M Den ineffably delicious signature fish curry. (a private members’ club). However, the latter accommodates up to 50 people Kouzu Situated in a converted Grade and includes a six-person private cinema. II listed mansion with a grand columned There’s also a beautiful wine shop attached, entrance, Kouzu is a hidden Japanese in alabaster white, where you can sample gem perched on the corner of Grosvenor everything up to Opus One and Pétrus. Gardens. The mezzanine level offers a great Different dining rooms have unique vantage point from which to view the sushi personalities. M Raw is darkly lit with a bar, where head chef Kyoichi Kai has put lively din, whilst M Grill is pure opulence, together a crack team of sushi itamae. For spread over two levels with grand yet a restaurant with such splendid trappings intimate alcoves perfectly suited for and high quality Japanese fare, the prices tucking into Wagyu. are surprisingly reasonable.

Ibérica Victoria Walk 50 paces south from M along the Zig Zag Building and you’ll find Ibérica Victoria, which is spread across two levels with a striking Moorish-inspired design. The ground floor bar boasts a boisterous ambience. During my last visit it was thronged with locals drinking wine, beer and sherry. There’s also a delicatessen stocked with Spain’s most

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TOP LEFT TO RIGHT Ibérica; Quilon ABOVE FROM TOP Boisdale, M Victoria St, Kouzo

Boisdale Ranald Macdonald’s Caledonian-inspired restaurant doesn’t require an introduction. Since 1988 he has been catering for aficionados of all things Scottish, including its smoked salmon, beef and whisky, not to mention jazz enthusiasts. It’s difficult to place a restaurant that exudes northern hospitality and tradition as much as Boisdale.

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

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The Revenant, ÂŠ Twentieth Century Fox

| interview |

Man of the Moment

Hollywood heart-throb, playboy philanthropist; with a name like his, Leonardo DiCaprio was never destined for a job in IT WORDS: RICHARD BROWN

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THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

With Kate Winslet in Titanic © Twentieth Century Fox As Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street © Paramount Pictures

| interview |

The Wolf of Wall Street, © Paramount Pictures

veryone loves Leo. The world’s had a crush on him since he sank with the Titanic. Almost 20 years later, the planet’s most in-demand movie star is also its most eligible bachelor. For box-office attraction, and pure, carnal appeal, there simply is no one like Leo. Until Avatar knocked it off the top spot, James Cameron’s other cinematic epic, Titanic, starring a then 23-year-old DiCaprio, was the highest grossing movie of all time, making $2.2 billion in theatres and a further $1.2 billion in DVD sales. Leo’s mass market magnetism meant that the three films in which he starred between 2012 and 2013 – Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby and Marthin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street (how’s that for a collection of directors) – reimbursed their respective producers to the collective tune of more than $1.1 billion. In packing out cinemas, Leo is utterly peerless. Yet about the personal life of the planet’s most popular actor we know surprisingly little. While other Hollywood super-studs broadcast their existence in high definition, we view Leo’s vicariously, in indistinct snapshots captured through the long lens of the paparazzi. Leo is the one in the shadows. Leo is the one in the baggy sweats and the baseball cap. Ironically, it’s a look that’s now so conspicuously inconspicuous it’s almost fancy dress. Leo, as it’s been said before, is an enigma. The most salacious of unknowns surrounds his love life. There’s the conjecture – that he once served as patriarch of something called ‘The Pussy Posse’, a self-styled group of lady-chasers made up of aspiring actors and wannabes (including, coincidentally, Tobey Maguire and David Blaine). Or that, in 2014, he was spotted leaving an after-party during Art Basel Miami arm-inarm with 20 women. Then there are the facts –Gisele Bündchen, Bar Refaeli and Blake Lively are all former flames. As are Victoria’s Secret’s models Toni Garrn and Erin Heatherton. Rumours of a fling with Rihanna surfaced last year and re-emerged recently after Leo and model girlfriend Kelly Rohrbach called it quits, which put an end to speculation that he’d proposed to the swimwear star just before Christmas. Then there’s the other thing about Leo. That for all the sun-kissed super-yachts and all the golden-skinned supermodels there’s been no little gold statue. It’s become the biggest monkey on any Hollywood back.

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FROM TOP The Revenant © Twentieth Century Fox; The Beach © Twentieth Century Fox; The Great Gatsby © Warner Bros.

The Revenant – the reason the famous recluse is suddenly on every news feed, gossip website and magazine cover (including ours) – is a cinematic masterpiece. Immersive, visceral and epically intimate, the brutal revenge saga chronicles the true-life story of fur trapper Hugh Glass, a man, who, almost fatally wounded by a bear, crawls, swims and treks across hundreds of miles of America’s most inhospitable wilderness to murder the man who left him for dead. And you thought you held a grudge. The film has two standout scenes. The opening passage sees Glass and his fur trapper chums attacked by Arikara Indians. Shot point-of-view, video-gamestyle, we’re put slap-bang in the action, the camera passed around like a rugby ball. It’s an enthralling, how-have-they-done-that sequence that rivals Gladiator in the best opening scene stakes. The bear attack you’ve already read about. “It’s one of the most incredible cinematic experiences I think audiences will ever have,” said DiCaprio, at a New York press event. “They will see it as if they are a fly buzzing around the attack. They will practically feel the breath of the bear. It’s almost like another sense is awakened – fully immersed in this moment. It really takes your breath away.” The smart money suggests that The Revenant will walk away with the Academy Award for Best Cinematography – for which it can thank Emmanuel Lubezki, the cinematographer behind Birdman, Gravity and The Tree of Life – and Best Director for Alejandro G Iñárritu, who gave us last year’s Oscar-winning Birdman, as well as Babel, Biutiful and 21 Grams. If DiCaprio does win the Oscar for Best Actor it won’t be for the performance of his career. For most people, depending on which Leo you love most – the megalomaniac or the maniacal – that came in either The Wolf of Wall Street or The Aviator. For all of the shivering and all of the snot, The Revenant lacks emotional depth. Which would be a problem, if it wasn’t Leo playing the lead. Glass doesn’t speak for much of the movie, meaning that DiCaprio has to convey his struggle through body language alone. “This was almost like silent film acting,” he says. “I have to articulate by emoting my struggle. Oftentimes there was nobody else to play off... Glass says next to nothing, but I think a lot is

The Revenant, New York Premiere © Twentieth Century Fox

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

The Great Gatsby, © Warner Bros.

conveyed in a performance if the actor embraces or is committed to that.” Leo was certainly committed. After spending up to five hours a day in make-up, he crawled half-naked in snow while temperatures slumped to as low as -40 °C. He risked hypothermia in river rapids, and, having decided that the rubber liver he’d been given looked fake, opted to chew on raw bison liver instead. Captured in one take, the vegetarian’s reaction in the film is real. What more can a man do? It would be fitting for Leo to win his first Oscar for The Revenant. Bringing to life the story of one of America’s most legendary frontiersman, DiCaprio depicts the humble beginnings of the sort of largescale, environmentally-exploitive industry he campaigns so ardently against. “The period in the film saw the first infiltration of

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

the white man into this untouched region,” he says. “The fur trade was before the gold rush, before the oil rush, it was the first bit of nature that could be extracted and exported to Europe. So here you have the French, the English, the early Americans, all instilled in what is the American Amazon of that time.” While he doesn’t think The Revenant carries an overt political message, DiCaprio hopes the movie will make people think more about man’s manipulation of the environment. “Oil companies go into Papua New Guinea or the Amazon or Canada and kick the native indigenous people off their lands or poison their lands and cut down their trees,” he says. “This is an age old story, and to me this film is set at the beginning of that in the history of America. This is the first time that we’ve

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| interview |

Call your son

Leonardo

and you’d better hope he does something

useful with his life

gone to these territories and started to extract things for capitalistic reasons.” DiCaprio’s environmental activism is well documented. He drives a Toyota Prius and has attached solar panels to his house. Since 2014, he’s been a United Nations climate change ambassador. Before that, he donated $1 million to the World Wildlife Fund to help protect tigers in Russia. In 2014, he acted as executive producer on Virunga, a Netflix documentary detailing the struggle to preserve gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Just last month, talking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, DiCaprio used a speech to demand more action on climate change. “We simply cannot afford to allow the corporate greed of the coal, oil and gas industries to determine the future of humanity,” he argued, addressing a room of business leaders and

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heads of state. “Those entities with a financial interest in preserving this destructive system have denied, and even covered up, the evidence of our changing climate. Enough is enough. You know better. The world knows better. History will place the blame for this devastation squarely at their feet.” Call your son Leonardo and you’d better hope he does something useful with his life. DiCaprio is the environmental activist who’s become Hollywood dynamite, the actor that every audience wants to watch, the actor with whom every film-maker wants to work. He’s been nominated for five Academy Awards in the past. So far, no luck. Maybe he’s about to break his duck. Maybe not. Oscar or no Oscar, the year already looks like it belongs to Leo.

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

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| STYLE |

All Dressed Up

In a flurry of pinstripes and male peacockery, the eighth London Collections Men kicked off in the capital last month. If you believe the industry hype, when it comes to menswear, London is leaving Paris and Milan in its wake Words: Stephen Doig

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THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

t’s testament to the work of the British Fashion Council and its chair Caroline Rush and LCM chair GQ editor Dylan Jones that the event has grown beyond all expectations, now featuring 65 brands and ambassadors including Tinie Tempah, David Gandy and Dermot O’Leary. This season, the winds of change were whistling up and down Savile Row. Jason Basmajian has been the driving force behind the reinvigoration of Gieves & Hawkes, respectfully paying homage to the weighty history of the house but lending a modern, sportier edge and developing an international customer base beyond the confines of the Row. So, when it came to his final presentation at Gieves & Hawkes before he heads to Cerruti 1881, it was with a sense of bittersweetness to his swansong that showcased refined weekend wear and an everyday ease instead of sharp formal tailoring, with chunky knits paired with jackets and a sumptuous line up of evening wear, with a foliage-effect silk jacquard dinner jacket a particular highlight. “This guy’s a real man with real clothes, it’s about settling in not settling down,” he said. Change was in the air too a few doors up at Hardy Amies, which unveiled the first collection by Darren Barrowcliff, who steps into former creative director Mehmet Ali’s polished shoes after his departure. What followed was a quietly assured selection of classic pieces, done

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

OPENING PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP Dunhill presentation (photo: Shaun Cox, courtesy of the British Fashion Council); Gieves & Hawkes; Hardy Amies; Burberry Menswear; Kilgour THIS PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM BOTTOM LEFT Burberry Menswear; Hardy Amies; Hardy Amies (photo: Shaun James Cox, courtesy of the British Fashion Council); Alexander McQueen (photo: Shaun James Cox, courtesy of the British Fashion Council)

very well – crisp, sharp coats, neat suiting and nubbly tweeds and checks. There was also a similar sense of classicism at Chester Barrie, which showed impeccable, sharp dinner jackets in burgundy silk jacquard or in double breasted shawl collared velvet – a suitably British sense of refinement and elegance. Similarly, it was home turf that inspired John Ray at Dunhill, who, after experimenting with interpretations of the British aristocracy and Soho artists in previous seasons, returned to the rigour and structure of English tailoring. “This is real English,” he said of the blazers and slick suits that made up his presentation, which was set in the historic Savile Club to create a “gentleman’s private members’ club” feel, and act as the perfect backdrop to his exceptional evening wear. There isn’t a man in Mayfair who wouldn’t covet Dunhill’s plush velvet evening jacket in butterscotch velvet. But while a sense of tradition and classic masculine style dominated, there was a strong thread of renegade experimentalism in some pockets of London Collections Men, which has always supported the more left-of-centre designers (oversized oven mitts on sleeves anyone? That would be Astrid Andersen). At Alexander McQueen, Sarah Burton looked to Charles Darwin. “I was drawn to this idea of a traveller, a collector and the concept of natural history, natural selection and the dawn of something,”

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| STYLE |

she said of the collection which spliced Victoriana with military uniform and a sense of the fantastical – butterfly prints over suits or painted on coats, embroidered on jackets, eruptions of painterly florals and richly decorative sparkling sequinned evening wear. This McQueen man still came with punk accents (see the safety pins through the cheeks) but the impact of those final looks in the imposing Foreign and Commonwealth Office in Whitehall was about grandeur rather than grittiness. At Burberry, too, Christopher Bailey experimented with notions of sportswear to meld solid country tweeds and rugged outerwear with nifty, zippy track tops and trousers. “It was about looking at how people dress now and lots of different worlds merging together,” he said, a reference to the decision to meld the Prorsum, Brit and London lines under one big Burberry banner. That familiar check was reimagined as a grid on fur bombers, nods to the military heritage that’s so engrained in Burberry but it was the sporty pieces that caught the eye in dazzling red sequins. “I love the idea of taking something fairly everyday and turning it into something else,

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CLOCKWISE FROM BOTTOM LEFT Chester Barrie; backstage at Burberry Menswear; David Gandy with models at Chester Barrie presentation (photo: Justin Goff); Kilgour presentation; Burberry Menswear; Gieves & Hawkes presentation

something more dazzling,” said Bailey. So perhaps if anything, the autumn season will be hallmarked by bringing a touch of casual ease to classic pieces – weekend wear with tailoring, sportswear with Donegal tweeds, or, in the case of E. Tautz, neat jackets with relaxed, soft structure trousers. Call it tailoring with the stuffing taken out, if you will.

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

The talented mr Musician and singer, self-made property mogul and ten-pin bowling champion, Jeremy Renner has more than one string to his bow. The City Magazine meets the multitalented, Oscar-nominated ‘everyman’ Words: Josh Sims

eremy Renner makes a big entrance. Flinging his arms open and then pointing to the bottles of Rémy Martin cognac on the table, he gives his opening line: “Hey, you got a drink in ahead of us! What’s going on? You should open that [other bottle]. In fact, I just had a little taster upstairs. You know, half the cognacs I’ve been drinking lately are older than the country I live in. What’s that all about? How did that happen?” It’s a stagy introduction, full of bonhomie – whether practiced or not is hard to tell; Renner is, after all, a twice Oscar-nominated actor, probably best-known for his star turn in Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, playing an intense, possibly suicidal bomb disposal expert, and latterly as Matt Damon’s short-lived, intense, decidedly homicidal replacement in the Bourne series of action movies (though check out Dahmer or Neo Ned to see some real acting chops). Look closely amid the flurry of superheroes in the two Avengers movies, and he’s there too. In the second one, he jokes, he actually gets to speak. He’ll be in hero form again this year, with Captain America: Civil War and in Story of Your Life, with Amy Adams. Not that he seems to mind either way, and not least because he’s estimated to have £23m in the bank, which isn’t bad given he’s rather a late bloomer among Hollywood’s upper ranks. Renner has a straightforward, no-nonsense blokeishness such that, when he says he really doesn’t care about something – and this is something he suggests a lot – it comes across as real rather than bravado. Sparkling or non-sparkling water? “I don’t care,” he says. He’s the kind of guy who, despite his rising star, you might share more than a few beers with at the bar. Indeed, last year, bored at yet another hotel stay, he crashed a wedding reception there, had a few, chatted with some guests and then made off into the night. He’s the guy presenting the Golden Globes with Jennifer Lopez who got Twittered in the neck for making an old-fashioned if un-PC crack about her own globes. Refreshingly, he didn’t rush to apologise for it. He’s the guy who, with

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

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| INTERVIEW |

renner

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THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

co-star Chris Evans, pointed out that Avengers character Black Widow is a bit of a “slut”, given how much she gets around with other superheroes. Again castigated by the judge, jury and executioner that is social media, Renner pointed out that he was talking about the fictional behaviour of a fictional character. Evans apologised. Renner didn’t. “Look, I am who I am no matter who I’m speaking with,” Renner says, with a bit of a shrug. “Maybe the way I appear is one thing and the way I am is another and you may never know. Maybe when I’m sitting down with my grandmother having a cup a coffee it might be different to when I’m speaking with journalists waiting for me to slip up and say something wrong. We have different conversations here like this than we would if we were having dinner together, right? You might call it bullish but it doesn’t really matter to me, I can’t live my life any other way. I am who I am – like it or not.”

“I don’t buy into it. I refuse it. I think we all should” People seem to like Renner being who he is, precisely because Renner doesn’t play the PR game. That makes him an unusual choice in his latest role: as the suave frontman in a global ad campaign for the French cognac, Rémy Martin. He’s no George Clooney, after all. The idea behind it – somewhat late for any trend-watcher – is to tap into the notion of the ‘slash’ career, in which one is not defined by a single job, but also by one’s other interests. Renner at least has his slashes: musician and singer – he fronted a rock band before making it in acting, and still sings – and, more unexpectedly, home renovator. Before his big break, in S.W.A.T., he and a friend bought an LA house, did it up themselves (while living in it, sans electricity or running water), flipped it and then did that many times over, such that now there’s a self-sufficient design/ property company presently with some 20 properties on its books. Back in 2013, he sold a property for $24m that he’d bought for $7m. Clearly opening a tin of Dulux is something the surprisingly contemplative Renner could always go back to if the acting dries up. It will help him overcome what he calls his “murderous resting face”. “This is the face I was born with but I think actually it’s why I have a career,” he says – and, in fact, at rest he looks like someone you wouldn’t cross; someone,

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

indeed, who has spoken about having to “choke a guy out” when he got belligerent with a co-star in a bar. “When I smile I can come across as the most friendly guy you’d want to meet, and when I don’t smile people think I want to kill them. It keeps people confused. It makes me hard to read, gives me a face for drama. I built my life around it. I like it.” So what attracted him to the Rémy Martin work, the money aside of course? Again, there is the disarming directness. “Er, nothing really attracts me to do that,” he says, “but I like the way [it presents] a big version of my life, the things that I express to others – that determination not to be pigeonholed or labelled or come down to any one thing. I like to think I’m a great father but I’m not just that. And it’s not like I don’t want to be an actor anymore. I just enjoy the things I enjoy.” There’s a pause for reflection, a glimpse of that murderous – or, at least, very serious – resting face. “Do you want any one thing chiselled on your tombstone?” asks the man who had a 225 ten-pin bowling average by the time he was 12 and could have been a contender for world champ. “Or do you want to be known as an amazing brother or a wonderful father? Do we have to be defined by any one aspect, especially when it’s [reduced] down to race and creed, the things that people find easier to put a stamp on? That’s where I come from. That’s the principle that was passed on to me by my father and in turn which I’ll pass on to people in my family. It’s very, very important to me. [To define yourself one way] just doesn’t make any sense to me. So I don’t buy into it. I refuse it. I think we all should.” Renner would concede that, while his day job is about seeking to express every side of his personality (and others’ for that matter), both his business – casting agents – and his audience – shaped by the celebrity industry – seek to codify actors like him as much as possible, right down to his sexuality. The internet gossip suggesting that he’s gay? Unsurprisingly, he really couldn’t care less. “I think ultimately to remain curious about the things in life is what drives me,” says Renner, still yet to enjoy a glass of cognac. “If I had any interest in water, for example, I’d be a water connoisseur, but I’m not. We all have those things that make us want to be curious. Often fear gets in the way. Or we’re programmed to think: ‘I’ve got to go to school to study this so I can do that for a living’. Well, that doesn’t mean that only one thing is best for you.” Jeremy Renner is an ambassador for Rémy Martin, remymartin.com

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| INTERVIEW |

Renner with RĂŠmy Martin CEO Eric Vallat

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Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Renner & director James Gray at the premiere of The Immigrant, Cannes, 2013 (Photo: Featureflash)

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

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| COLLECTION |

WATCHES & JEWELLERY Celebrating the delightful and the divine from the world of fine jewellery and haute horology

A FAMILIAR RING If there’s one jeweller that you know you can trust to ensure you pick the perfect engagement ring, it’s De Beers. With unrivalled diamond knowledge that spans more than 125 years, it has always been the company’s mission to source only the finest and most precious diamonds and it hasn’t failed yet. As well as this promise of quality, clients can also expect the pinnacle of design and craftsmanship. As part of its Bridal 2016 collection, De Beers reintroduces the Adonis Rose engagement ring, which sees an iconic symbol of the house brought to life in a solitaire, marquise diamonds and pink gold, along with the Promise Solitaire, the Caress, the Aura Solitaire and the Infinity engagement rings. Prices from £2,350, debeers.co.uk

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THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

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| COLLECTION |

WAtches Better Connected? Breitling and TAG Heuer have become the latest Swiss watchmakers to partner with Silicon Valley to produce smart watches. TAG Heuer’s ‘Connected Watch’ (£1,100) was engineered with Intel Inside and is powered by Android Wear. A 46mm diameter means that the watch at least resembles a time-telling device – unlike many smart watches of the past – with a case, back, buckle and lugs made from titanium, as well as a rubber strap. Three dials are available: a chronograph, a three-hand dial and a GMT dial. Most interestingly, anyone who buys TAG’s Connected watch can exchange it, at the end of the two-year warranty period, for a mechanical Carrera for an additional £1,100 – perhaps that’s TAG telling us something about the shelf life of its creation. Breitling, whose answer to the smart watch question is the Exospace B55 (£6,650), is keen to stress that the chronograph is very much the boss of the watch-phone partnership – the accompanying app, it says, is designed to improve user-friendliness, and little else. Unlike TAG’s effort, Breitling’s watch won’t tell you that you’ve received a text, phone call or email. What it does provide is a 1/100th of a second chronograph, two time zones, a countdown timer, a flight time and lap time chronograph, and a perpetual calendar. It’s powered by the brand-new Caliber B55, a COSC-certified SuperQuartz movement that will remain accurate to within a few seconds per year. The phone, connected via Bluetooth, is used for changing the time, setting alarms, adjusting time zones and storing data captured by the watch. The Exospace B55 is clearly not a counter-attack on the Apple watch – more likely, it is an attempt to get younger people wearing watches again. tagheuer.co.uk / breitling.com

Words: Richard Brown

Raymond Weil’s First Pilot’s Watch Before establishing his eponymous watch company in 1976, Raymond Weil was fond of mountain flights around the Matterhorn. He did so in a Piper aeroplane. Fitting, then, that it is with this small-aircraft manufacturer that his grandson, and the company’s current CEO, Elie Bernheim has partnered to produce Raymond Weil’s first pilot’s watch. The shiny blue minute and hour hands on the selfwinding, 45mm Freelancer Piper Special Edition resemble an aircraft’s rotor blades, while the GMT hand, with its red pointer, references a compass. Freelancer Piper Special Editon, £2,895, Raymond Weil, raymond-weil.com

TOPPING OUT

Schofield has been quietly reinvigorating British watchmaking from a bucolic village in West Sussex since 2011. The brand’s first creation, the Signalman, found favour among many a watch writer, and company founder – Giles Ellis – has received plaudits for his meticulous attention to design ever since. The newest member of the Signalman family, the Silvertop, features a two-tone case of mirror-polished and DLC-coated stainless steel – and it is a thing of beauty. Just 600 pieces will be produced – 300 with a grey dial, 300 with a black. Signalman Silvertop, £4,260, Schofield, schofieldwatchcompany.com

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THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

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| collection |

It has been sleeping for almost a century. Now, spearheaded by aviation specialist Bremont, the British watch industry is in full-scale revival. Richard Brown meets company co-founders Nick and Giles English, the brothers on a mission to do the impossible and manufacture their own movement

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THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

long with professional money laundering, overpriced ski resorts and little red pocket knives, Switzerland has made mechanical watches its ‘thing’. Rude, really, when you consider the disproportionately large contribution Britain has made to horological history. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Thomas Mudge invented the lever escapement; John Harrison’s marine clocks solved the longitude problem; Robert Hooke discovered the science behind springs; and John Arnold pioneered the wearable watch. The greatest watchmaker of the 20th century was also a Brit; George Daniels’ co-axial escapement was the first practical escapement to have been devised for 250 years (it was adopted by Omega in 1999). Meaningful British watchmaking, though – and we’re talking in the large-scale sense here, not about the handful of masterpieces produced each year by Daniels’ heir Roger Smith, which he creates from his humble workshop on the Isle of Man – ceased in the early 1970s when Smiths Industries, which had previously employed more than 400 people and provided watches to Sir Edmund Percival Hillary and his team during their expedition to Everest, diversified away from timepieces.

“Very few manufactures make everything themselves, even in Switzerland” In the ensuing years, Switzerland was allowed to consolidate the watch industry and make mechanical timepieces its own. Salvation came in the unlikely shape of a plane crash. In 1995, Oxfordshire brothers Nick and Giles English lost their father to a flying accident, an incident in which Giles himself broke more than 30 bones and was lucky to survive. The brothers decided to dedicate the rest of their lives to producing something about which they both felt passionate: pilot’s watches. “Our goal was to help reinvigorate and restart the British watch industry,” says younger brother Giles, now 42, who, having spent his adolescence restoring old clocks and his adulthood flying historic aircrafts, was suited to the task in more than just name. Established in 2002, Bremont the brand took its name from Bremont the man – a gracious French farmer and aviation enthusiast in whose field the brothers crash-landed in the late 1990s. (Like the swashbuckling heroes of a 19th century adventure

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

ALT1-Z Zulu Chronograph, £4,295

ALT1-WT/BL World Timer Automatic Chronograph, £4,495

ALT1-C Classic Stainless Steel, £4,695

Bremont-Jaguar MKII, £4,950

S500 Supermarine Automatic, £3,295

novel, the lives of the English brothers are littered with such tales of mishap and escapade, too many to document here but worthy of an autobiography in the future, surely?) Bremont’s first collection, the ALT1-C series, debuted in 2007. What the brand has achieved in less than a decade since is nothing short of extraordinary. A flagship store in Mayfair’s South Audley Street opened in 2012, followed by outposts in Hong Kong, the City’s Royal Exchange and, more recently, New York’s Madison Avenue. The company has acted as the official timekeeper for the Epsom Derby and the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race and runs regular events for its Adventurers’ Club, which boasts such illustrious ambassadors as record-breaking climber Kenton Cool, polar explorer Ben Saunders and Seven Summits mountaineer Jake Myer – the youngest Briton to have successfully climbed the highest mountain on each continent. Graham Bell and Charley Boorman are also Bremont luminaries. Following partnerships with ejection seat specialist Martin-Baker, and both Jaguar and Boeing, last year saw Bremont score its biggest marketing coup yet, becoming the Official Timing Partner to the 35th America’s Cup – ousting one of the world’s most valuable luxury brands, Louis Vuitton, in doing so. More impressive than the sponsorship deals, the celebrity ambassadors and even Nick’s cameo appearance in Kingsman: The Secret Service (directors of the 2014 stylish spy flick chose to decorate its actors in Bremont watches) is the astonishing inroads the company has made towards its original objective of putting Britain back on the watchmaking map. For the first time in nearly 50 years, Britain is designing and assembling a significant number of its own mechanical watches. OK, so the 8,000 pieces Bremont makes each year barely registers against the run of watches produced by its Swiss counterparts – it’s rumoured that Rolex alone annually pumps out more than a million – but for a country that ten years ago was producing practically nothing, it’s quite the achievement. “The British watch industry has some great guys making watches,” says Nick, 45. “By having our own Bremont apprentice schemes, and by investing in our own equipment for our new parts, we are playing our small part in reinvigorating the industry.” Nick is being characteristically humble – Bremont has spearheaded the revival of British watchmaking almost single-handedly. In 2013, the company opened a custom-built headquarters in Henley-on-Thames. As a statement of intent, the brothers recruited 12 watchmakers and four apprentices to work there, bringing the process of finishing movements and final watch assembly ‘in-house’. A year later, the brand went further, announcing the launch of a Silverstone-based facility dedicated to the production of movement components – the holy grail of watchmaking for even the largest of brands. Having invested in state-of-the-art CNC mill-turning, metal-cutting and finishing machinery – some of which is the first of its kind in Britain – Bremont is now able to manufacture its own baseplates and bridges, a significant step in bringing back as much of the watchmaking process to the UK as possible. True verticalisation, though, is, of course, almost

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| collection |

impossible and Giles admits that Bremont still relies on Switzerland for many of its parts. “We do not produce our own hands and dials yet, but each year we look to create more and more in-house components. The investment on each new part that we manufacture costs us millions so it’s often not viable unless you are using a high volume of components. The key is being able to manufacture in the UK without killing your margins or having to increase the price of your watches.” The closest Bremont has come to creating a bona fide calibre of its own is the BWC/01. Launched in the summer of 2014 with the release of the Wright Flyer, the BWC/01 was developed with the help of long-serving movement-making aid La Joux-Perret. La Joux-Perret provided the calibre’s cogs and pins, but, significantly, its base components were manufactured by Bremont. “Investing in Silverstone wasn’t just about having the machinery and training people to use it,” says Giles. “It was also about creating and owning the design rights of every one of the movement components.” The BWC/01 was a major step towards this aim. Step inside one of Switzerland’s many watchmaking facilities and you’ll realise that it’s not white-haired octogenarians huddled over wooden benches with monocles and microscopic screwdrivers that make watches. Timepieces may be finished by hand, but their components are made on a conveyor belt of huge, heavy-duty machines that whizz and whirl

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inside huge, sterile, shiny white factories. It’s the cost of these machines that make most ‘watchmakers’ little more than case-makers, implanting in their creations calibres made by third-party companies of whom you’ve never heard. “Very few manufactures make everything themselves,” explains Giles. “Even in Switzerland, there are always some components that it is hard to justify making for yourselves, unless you are making millions of them.” Steadfast to its ambition of producing a homegrown watch, Bremont, wherever possible, turns to UK companies for parts it can’t personally manufacture. “There is a long way to go, but we’ve made incredible progress towards our end goal,” says Giles. “It’s a very exciting time for the British watch trade.” Trust in Bremont to keep the flag flying. bremont.com

OPENING PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT Sea Fury plane; Image © ACEA 2015 (Photo: Ricardo Pinto); Bremont’s America’s Cup Collection; Nick and Giles English BELOW Bremont is the Official Timekeeper of the 35th America’s Cup

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

| COLLECTION |

jewellery

Words: olivia sharpe

Cap in Hand After years of curating other jewellers’ creations, Susan Caplan has finally set out on her own and launched her first collection: One. Caplan delved into her own jewellery box for inspiration and has designed a range of contemporary wearable pieces that incorporate Scandinavian design, modern art, and ‘70s and ‘80s style jewellery. “One of the reasons why I love Scandinavian design so much is because it’s timeless. I’m hopeful that people will see that in this collection.” We only hope this collection will be one of many. £49-385; susancaplan.co.uk

RING IN THE NEW YEAR Harrods has ensured that February – arguably the jewellery calendar’s most important month – does not go unnoticed in its newly refurbished Luxury Jewellery Room. This month will see five new brands welcomed into its glittering halls, including Spinelli Kilcollin, Sophie Bille Brahe, Fernando Jorge, Cristina Ortiz and Kenza Lee. Among these, LA-based brand Kilcollin and Spanish designer Ortiz will both be UK exclusives, while Copenhagen-based jeweller Bille Brahe will debut exclusive styles within the department store. A graduate of the Royal College of Art, she has been going from strength to strength since she launched her eponymous label in 2011. Available from February 2016 in Harrods’ Luxury Jewellery Room; harrods.com

CUTTING EDGE For their second collection, 20-something sister duo Mariam and Dania Sawedeg have created a range of pieces based on a fish’s anatomy as a symbol of good luck:

“Storytelling is at the heart of Kamushki and for our Wishbone collection, we have paid homage to our Libyan roots. In Libyan tradition, the fish represents goodness and is worn to protect the wearer from the evil eye and bad energy.” – Mariam & Dania Sawedeg Wishbone collection, £785-3,580, Kamushki, available at Browns, 24-27 South Molton Street; brownsfashion.com, kamushki-jewellery.com

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

Seeing Stars Given its founder’s preoccupation with symbolism, it seems only right that Chanel has created a new fine jewellery collection dedicated to the icons most associated with the French house. These include Comète, which was the star of the original 1932 Bijoux de Diamants collection designed by Coco Chanel: “I wanted to cover women in constellations. Stars! Stars of all sizes…” The Plume pieces similarly draw reference to 1932, the curved feather earrings and necklaces mirroring the pieces made in that year. Finally, the Camélia Ajouré necklace, earrings and rings pay tribute to arguably the most famous Chanel symbol: the camellia flower. Presenting a modern interpretation of this wellknown design, the rings mould over the finger, while the necklace naturally adapts to the skin tone or fabric of the wearer. Les Icônes de Chanel, POA; chanel.com

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myla Myla’s rather regal offering will have you feeling as pampered as a princess. The Heritage Silk line includes this silk camisole and French knicker set, along with a babydoll, while the Patchwork Silk line is made up of pretty pink thongs and a beautiful short robe for lounging on your chaise. myla.com

Heritage Silk pyjama set, £145 (camisole), £70 (French knicker), Myla, myla.com

Patchwork Silk set, £110 (padded plunge bra), £55 (thong), Myla, myla.com

Heritage Silk babydoll, £215, Myla, myla.com

Patchwork Silk short robe, £310, Myla, myla.com

bare necessities The unmentionables worth mentioning in light of valentine’s day

Loleta mules, £295, Agent Provocateur, agentprovocateur.com

Caught in Charlotte’s Web set, £295 (bra), £345 (brief with suspender), Charlotte Olympia x Agent Provocateur, agentprovocateur.com

Novah black and pink slip, £295, Agent Provocateur, agentprovocateur.com

Amelea gown, £495, Agent Provocateur, agentprovocateur.com

Julia Restoin Roitfeld (styled by Valentine FillolCordier, shot by Billal Taright)

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

Selena set, £55 (bra), £40 (brief), £55 (suspender) Agent Provocateur, agentprovocateur.com

AGEN T PROVO C ATEUR Agent P rov ocat eur has present ed yet anoth er outstanding lin e of lingerie thi s season . Th e highlight i s its lat est collaboration with long-t erm friend of th e brand , Charlott e O lympia . Th e Briti sh shoe design er, w ho once studied lingerie, made shap e and detail th e focal point, referencing h er fav ourit e lingerie sets in each of h er designs. Th e outcom e of thi s collaboration has b een captured in thi s b eautiful campaign shot by Billal Taright, featuring French art director and model , Julia Restoin Roitfeld .

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| style |

MAISON LEJABY Since 1884, Maison Lejaby has combined technical expertise, comfort and chic French styling to create a celebrated line of lingerie. For well over a century, Maison Lejaby has been an industry pioneer, in fact, at the beginning of the 20th century, it introduced the world’s first line of swimwear. It has remained at the forefront of fashion ever since, seizing every opportunity that’s come its way. At the end of the 1920s, the bra was invented; by 1930, the house had designed its first bra. Then, in 1972, it gained exclusive rights to use Lycra in its bras, putting Lejaby strides ahead of its counterparts. Another breakthrough for the brand came in 1995 when it launched the world’s first seamless bra, the Nuage. Even today, the brand continues to refine its product offering, with a S/S16 collection that’s delicate and feminine, yet highly functional. Our favourite sets include the above, a new line this season from the Elixir range, and the below from the highly coveted Couture collection. Available from Fenwick, fenwick.co.uk; Rigby & Peller, rigbyandpeller.co.uk; House of Fraser, houseoffraser.co.uk

SIMO NE PÉRÈLE Fo r S / S 1 6 , S i m o n e Pé rè l e m a st e r f u l ly c o m b i n e s g u i p u re lace and embroidery w i t h j a c q u a rd s a t i n t o enhance the delicate a n d m e t i c u l o u s n a tu re o f t h e Wi s h l i n e . Av a i l a b l e i n b l a c k , iv o r y a n d b l u s h , a s w e l l a s i n v a r i o u s sty l e s , Wi s h i s a v e r s a t i l e f av o u r i t e o f o u r s . simon e-p erele.com

LA PERLA

It’s hard not to immediately fall in love with this collection, especially when you lay eyes on the stunning S/S16 campaign, shot by Mert & Marcus. This season’s offering from La Perla, Extended Intimacy, gives bras, bustiers, nightdresses and swimsuits a new identity by becoming a focal point of looks that go far beyond the intimate. After all, it seems a huge shame to hide a garment that’s so beautiful. From left: Edenic babydoll, £585; Macrame’Art bodysuit, £756 and Reverie silk trousers, £328; Feline Chic underwired body, £342, La Perla, laperla.com

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THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

| STYLE |

A Gentleman’s Guide: Dita Von Teese on the Unmentionables With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, the Queen of Burlesque offers some advice on selecting the perfect lingerie for your lady

“Black lace lingerie is elegant,

timeless and classic. My Star Lift or Sheer Witchery ranges are functional and beautiful” DITA VON TEESE

What’s the biggest mistake men make when buying lingerie for the lady in their life? Buying lingerie that is totally out of character for her, or buying cheap “sexy” lingerie. Quality is very important when it comes to giving lingerie as a gift. How important is it to know her exact measurements? Very! It’s not hard to find out… just go into her lingerie drawers and look for tags and take snapshots of the tags. Taking photos of things can also help a salesperson choose style that she would love. Thong or brief ? Both! I believe in creating a versatile lingerie wardrobe, with varying shapes. Always buy at least two pairs of underwear for each bra. This also prolongs the life of the set.

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Does too much padding send her the wrong message? Always look to see what she prefers and buys for herself. If she likes push-up bras, buy those. If she likes thin, wispy lace bras, buy those! Are any particular styles in your line bestsellers and perhaps fail-safe for a man that’s a little stuck on where to start? Black lace lingerie is elegant, timeless and classic. My Star Lift or Sheer Witchery ranges are functional and beautiful. What would you say to any men that are perhaps a little embarrassed about entering a lingerie store? Department stores with personal shoppers and knowledgeable lingerie expert salespeople are a great place to go. Take in something that shows your lady’s preferred shapes, like a snapshot or two of pieces

found in her drawer. It also helps for a salesperson to know her fashion style too, so have a few photos of her ready that you might like to show the salesperson. Are there any colours you’d advise men to steer clear of ? I’d probably stick to classic, beautiful lace in ivory, black, navy and skip neon colours. I’d look and see what she has in her drawers already… if you see vibrant colours like red and coral, go for it! Do you have any final words of encouragement for choosing a set she’ll love? Always let her know that you are happy for her to exchange things for a better size or alternative colour, and make the return outing fun! Dita Von Teese Lingerie is available at Harrods, harrods.com

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

| style |

high brow ACCORDING TO the University of Lethbridge, Canada, brows are more important than eyes if you’re looking to make a lasting impression

Effortless Eyebrow Definer, £22.50, Burberry Beauty, uk.burberry.com

Ever ything y ou n eed in on e n eat little kit: tweezers to reshap e, a brush to groom and a tapered applicator for th e clean est of lin es. Le Sourcil de Chan el Perfect Brow s, £ 43, Chanel , chanel .com

Precision tweezers, £20.50, Shavata, shavata.co.uk

Brow Gel, £16.50, NARS, narscosmetics.co.uk

shavata brow studio

Perfectly Defined Long-wear Brow Pencil, £29.50, Bobbi Brown, bobbibrown.co.uk

Having read about this study, I decided that my brows had been neglected for far too long. For months, I’d been struggling to tame what had become my arch enemies, and I eventually abandoned the tweezers, fearing I’d do more harm than good. I’m glad I did, because according to brow guru Shavata Singh, “Over-plucking is the number one mistake people make.” I know, unhelpful if the damage is done, but Shavata’s advice is to “stop and let the hairs grow, don’t try and correct mistakes”. And prepare to be patient; the cycle of hair growth is around eight to 13 weeks. When the time comes, carefully consider the arch: “Face shape is just one of the factors in deciding the arch, the other factors include age, lifestyle and what you are trying to achieve. To find your best brow shape, leave it to the professionals.” I took Shavata’s advice and visited her brow studio at House of Fraser in the City. Her team were able to carefully sculpt my brows using the ancient method of threading, and the application of tint to buy me the time I usually spend pencilling my brows. The result: two lush brows that make a great first impression. 68 King William Street, EC4N, shavata.co.uk

Diorshow Brow Styler Gel, £21.50, Dior Beauty, dior.com

Backstage at Dior Haute Couture AW15/16

Backstage at Burberry Womenswear SS16

THE CITY MAGAZINE | January 2016

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Reset the clock.

Get time on your side with Dr Sebagh’s iconic, glow-restoring serums. Serum Repair

Supreme Maintenance Youth Serum

Dr Sebagh’s award-winning, cult serum with 60% hyaluronic acid intensively hydrates and plumps the skin for instantly glowing results. Perfect for day or night, or as a pre-party radiance boost.

A highly powerful super-serum, Dr Sebagh Supreme Maintenance Youth Serum plumps, hydrates and protects skin whilst boosting its natural glow. Oil-free, for all skin types, this potent concentration of ingredients, including resveratrol, Vitamin C, Hyaluronic Acid and three antiageing peptides, helps kick-start collagen production and visibly reduces fine lines and wrinkles.

Rose de Vie Sérum Délicat More than just a pretty bottle. This powerful, silky, organic rose oilbased serum is an essential treatment to restore the skin’s natural barrier and vitality. Calming, soothing and antioxidant-rich, it reduces redness and protects and smoothes dry, mature or sensitive skin.

Used alone or mixed to create your perfect, personalised blend, find Dr Sebagh serums in stores and online at drsebagh.com.

green envy Hues of military green dominated S/S16 catwalks. Embrace the trend through statement pieces and bold tailoring photography: Dominic Nicholls styling: Hayley Caine

THE CITY MAGAZINE | January 2016

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| art & interiors | Slim-fit dark green wool-twill suit, £995; Pale green cashmere sweater, £315, all Paul Smith, paulsmith.co.uk

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THE CITY MAGAZINE | January 2016

THIS PAGE: Green two-piece suit (made-to-measure), £1,295, Casely-Hayford, casely-hayford.com; Cream linen shirt, £150, Paul Smith, as before OPPOSITE: Mint green woven slim fit jacket, £575; Mint green woven trousers, £255; Cream linen shirt, £150, all Paul Smith, as before; Suede slippers, £455, Louis Leeman, louisleeman.com

| style |

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THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

| STYLE |

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

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THIS PAGE: Green blazer, £745; White shirt with print, £265; White chinos, £275, all Richard James, richardjames.co.uk; OPPOSITE: Green blazer, £675; Tropical shirt, £265, all Richard James, as before; Mint cotton chinos, £95, Brooks Brothers, brooksbrothers.com

| style | Green slim-fit corduroy suit jacket, £995, Burberry Prorsum, mrporter.com; Zack FF shirt in Ananda, £150, Theory, 1 Marylebone High St, London W1U 4LZ Hair and Makeup: Freya Danson Hatcher at S:Management Photographer’s Assistant: Alessia Chinazzo Model: Rob @ Next Shot on location at Belgraves Hotel, 20 Chesham Place, SW1X 8HQ thompsonhotels.com/hotels/belgraves-london

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THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

chelsea boots

Harrys of London A/W16 Preview, harrysoflondon.com

Winter is on the way out and so are your Arctic hiking boots. Swap the cumbersome clodhoppers for some lighter footwear that can still hold its own as the snow turns to rain. Go for the Chelsea boot: Ted Baker has a fine range of the traditional men’s shoes with playful dashes of colour adding a modern feel. For less water protection, but more luxury, Hugo Boss offers the Parcelsio boots in perforated suede. Family brand Goodwin Smith keeps it more traditional, but hints at modernity with sleek lines. From left: Camroon Paisley Panel Chelsea boots, £150, Ted Baker, houseoffraser.co.uk; Parcelsio Chelsea boots, £179, HUGO by Hugo Boss, asos.com; Baldwin Black, £100, Goodwin Smith, goodwinsmith.co.uk

spring awakening Take your first tentative steps into spring – but beware the rain

Tartan golf umbrella, £40, Barbour, houseoffraser.co.uk

Minister black, £49, Fulton, fultonumbrellas.com

It rains here. A lot. We all know this, yet far too few of us seem to prepare accordingly, rushing into the nearest supermarket to buy a bargain brolly when inevitably caught in the third torrent of the morning. Invest in a good umbrella and it can serve you for life. Fulton has a Royal Warrant, and with good reason, creating sturdy, good-looking pieces. Barbour adds a splash of colour, while Alexander McQueen’s handles are certainly a statement of intent.

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

Heritage A5 notebook, £30, Dulwich Designs, johnlewis.com

Travel Smart Work trips are a fact of life. Make sure on your next working weekend – in Milan or Mansfield – that luggage is the least of your problems. Globe-Trotter lives up to its name with secure, stylish travel companions, and its latest collection of Spectre-inspired luggage adds a sniff of the secret agent to your check-in bag. Keep your precious beauty secrets protected in an understated washbag from Danish designer Mismo, while noting down your to-do list for the day in a sturdy leather notebook, like the Dulwich Designs Heritage. For daytrips, Harrys of London has released its first luggage collection, with luxury holdalls and cases for the most discerning professional.

Black clawhandle umbrella, £405, Alexander McQueen, harveynichols.com

umbrellas

M/S washbag, £135, Mismo, mismo.dk

Spectre Navy 30” extra deep suitcase, £1,560, Globe-Trotter, globe-trotter.com

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All items from the Salvatore Ferragamo SS16 collection

| STYLE |

Que st fo r t h e Be st Lo Splendore Della Vita – or th e splendour of life – i s of paramount importance to Salvatore Ferragamo. Inspired by its eponymous founder, th e luxur y Italian fashion house has unveiled its spring/summ er collection , depicting th e tim eless lifestyle of th e sophi sticat ed glob etrott er searching for th e good things in life – at th eir own pace.

2 Classic raincoat, £530, Boss, harrods.com

Kensington midlength Heritage trench coat, £1,195, Burberry, harrods.com

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Royal blue trench coat, £1,199, Burberry, harrods.com

4 Hooded trench coat, £513.03, Jil Sander, farfetch.com

Classic raincoat, £219, Fadeless, farfetch.com

Broadgate Raincoat, £500, Aquascutum, aquascutum.com

return of the mac With the coldest months behind us, early spring is the domain of the raincoat: durable enough to withstand the horizontal showers, but lightweight enough to be comfortable in a warm spell. It helps that they look good over a suit, too. There is a solid collection of highend brands providing the best in rain macs, including the ever-present Aquascutum, which holds its own in the outerwear market. Hugo Boss and Fadeless stick to the classic fit that works in any situation. Jil Sander and Burberry retain formality while offering some character.

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

They say ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’, yet TUMI celebrated 40 years of success last year, and embarked on a new creative direction. When Tiffany Eastland met TUMI’s new creative mastermind, Michael Petry, she realised that the best is yet to come

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

Last July, in its 40th year, American luxury goods retailer TUMI, appointed Michael Petry as its new creative director. Petry joined the team with a wealth of experience, which he gained in his position as senior vice president and creative director at The Frye Company. His success in this role, led him to become regarded as both an industry leader, and one of the most talented young creative directors of recent times. Petry succeeds George Esquivel, who, during his two years with the brand, introduced thoughtful and precise construction with a newfound sense of refreshed youthfulness and beauty, which we’re told will continue to play an important role in the creative direction of the brand.

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| style |

During his recent trip to London, The City Magazine caught up with Petry at the Ham Yard Hotel, who talked about his plans for the brand. You’ve been creative director for six months now. How are you enjoying it so far? It’s been great – I’m having a lot of fun in the role. It’s been everything I thought it would be and more, which is really nice. I love my team; the group of people I work with are fantastic. What’s the greatest challenge you’ve faced to date? The number one challenge has probably been perception of the brand. The first thing people say to us is “ah, TUMI luggage”, but really only 40 per cent of the business is luggage – 60 per cent of what we make is not. I think that’s a fascinating thing, and sometimes it’s a weakness and a challenge, but it’s also a real opportunity for us. Have you implemented any changes and can we expect a shift in direction over the next 12 months? You’ll see a change in the brand, first part of spring 2016, when we change some of the store designs. I wanted to make the store a little bit more residential, more homey in feeling and warmer, so we’ll open four new stores in March or April depending on how construction goes. One of the things we’ve talked a lot about is the great F word. The brand used to be steeped in “functionality”, and that’s the baseline for everything we want to make, but we also want to talk about how we’re more fashionable, and how we can integrate the two. Function and fashion have an intersection point, and that’s what you’ll start to see in late spring with some of the newer products we’ve just designed. We’ve just had a product review, and someone came in and said, “It looks like TUMI, but it’s cooler”, and I think that was a really nice moment for us. You don’t want to change the DNA of a successful brand, you just want to modernise it, make it a little bit more contemporary and kind of broaden your audience. How does TUMI differ from other brands you’ve worked for? Every brand has its own DNA and its own quirks and characteristics. At the same time, it’s similar in that it has a core base of products. One of the reasons I came to TUMI is because people love the brand. Every brand is very unique and has a unique position in everyone’s lives. I think they fulfil different needs. The longer I’ve been here, the more blown away I am by

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how many people love the brand, own the brand and maybe don’t own the brand but want to, and that’s a terrific spot to be. Sum the brand up in three words. We would say, “Perfecting the Journey!” That’s it! You achieved great success in your previous position. What tools can you now apply to your position as the creative director of TUMI? I think the goal is to try and take all the information that I’ve absorbed throughout the years, all the factories I’ve walked in, all the cities I’ve been to, all the creative things I’ve done in my life, and try to apply it in a creative way at TUMI. I’ve worked for some very good brands and won designer of the year a couple of times, but if we were to talk to Jerome about it, our CEO, he’d say the thing that attracted him was the fact that I have a real point of view. I think people take it for granted that Nike’s successful, but that’s really a designdriven brand; Burberry, a design-driven brand; Apple, a design-driven brand and I think that this brand can really lead by example. It’s a brand that’s gotten here on design and I think we will start to really push design even further forward.

“It’s important for the creative director to have final say in the product, store design, visual merchandising and marketing” Creative director at TUMI is very much an all-encompassing role; do you feel this is an important structure in order to ensure consistency in the overall creative direction of the brand? Yes, for sure. Anyone that knows me knows I’m adamant about having a consistent brand message. In order to do that, I feel it’s important for the creative director to have final say in all those elements; product, store design, visual merchandising and marketing. Having said that, it’s impossible for me to do all those things unless you have a great team and everyone is empowered. You want to set what the direction is and what the expectations are and then work within that framework. It’s what we have, a terrific team of people all rowing in the same direction and really working hard at what they do. TUMI London City Airport, E16, uk.tumi.com

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

| STYLE |

best of british It’s boom time for the home-grown, battery-powered watch industry. Here are the quartz timepieces dominating the scene.

FARER

Farer’s watch es are design ed to stand th e t est of tim e. Each piece i s nam ed aft er a famous Briti sh explorer, to defin e Farer’s spirit of adventure and endurance – a watch built to last. (£340 - £ 420)

W. T. AUTHOR

Having released two historical collections - ‘No. 1905‘ and ‘No. 1914’, W.T. Author moves forward with the ‘No. 1929’. Only 125 will be made, in W.T. Author’s signature cushion-case style and four colour ways. (£350-£500)

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

SHORE PROJECTS

Shore Projects is inspired by the ‘ beauty ’ of the British seaside. Its watches are made with stainless steel cases and crystal sapphire glass. Leather straps are from Italy and all pieces are waterproofed to 100m. (£115)

Sekford

Sekford launched in 2015 with a selection of supremely elegant watches. Coming from a fashion background, Sekford researched the history of watchmaking before creating these aesthetically classic pieces. (£695)

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| lifestyle |

The Scent of Success Aftershave says a lot about a man. choose a scent that channels your inner movie star

mr cary grant The strong silent type is all about the subtlety. This lavender-based scent whispers effortless chic for men who don’t have to try too hard. Pour Un Homme de Caron, £68/125ml, Caron, harrods.com

mr clint eastwood

mr jordan belfort

mr james dean

Oud and tar sort the men from the boys. Sentifique says: “Testostérone is the essence of man… spicy, dry, erotic and rugged, yet elegant at the same time.” We’ll take it from them. Testostérone, £124/50ml, Sentifique, roullierwhite.com

Monsieur. contains more than 50 per cent patchouli (which is actually part of the mint family) – the highest percentage in the business. Perfect for barrelchested bankers of Wall Street. Monsieur., £180/100ml, Frédéric Malle, fredericmalle.com

The original Rebel Without A Cause would go for fiery birch tar, which creates a strong, distinct, and downright rebellious scent. Saddle up and hit the road. Bravo, £250/50ml, Ramon Monegal, harrods.com

mr beat poet

mr hot-blooded

mr jfk

Maybe it was the cultural subversion, or maybe they just dressed well. Whatever the reason, this beatnik-inspired scent will give you the same air of indiscernible cool. Junky, £67.50/100ml, Jardins d’Écrivains, roullierwhite.com

Based on Imaginary Authors’ fictitious writer and troublemaker Devante Valéreo, the romantic son of a bullfighter, Bull’s Blood is the pick of a flamboyant and brooding gentleman. Bull’s Blood, £70/50ml, Imaginary Authors, roullierwhite.com

D.S. & Durga has just landed in the UK with the launch of eight fragrances. For the sophisticated man, Sir is an elegantly masculine mix of jasmine and super luxury chypre. Sir, £98/50ml, D.S. & Durga, conranshop.co.uk

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

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Live music at boisdale For a night of live entertainment, head over to the traditional British restaurant Boisdale. Complete with its own cigar terrace and whisky and oyster bar, Boisdale is hosting soul sensation FiL Straughan on Saturday 13th February, making it one of the city’s most romantic destination this Valentine’s Day weekend. The restaurant is offering a special fourcourse Valentine’s menu as well as their usual Sunday Jazz lunch, a popular event with complimentary music and an 18-hour slow roast of Aberdeenshire beef as the centrepiece.

start celebrations usic with live m at Boisdale

great dates The little guide to

Whether Valentine’s Day weekend is spent with friends, family or your other half, there’s a variety of events and restaurants at Canary Wharf to keep everyone entertained

friendzone: in good company

celebrate the single our life with y friends

The Breakfast Club

Embrace a steady flow of food and drinks at Dr Kluger’s Bottomless Brunch from midday at The Breakfast Club this Valentine’s Day weekend. The brunch includes a prosecco, bucks fizz and lager consultation at Dr Kluger’s Olde Towne Tavern where they will also be dishing up classic Breakfast Club brunch dishes. Hangover healing cocktails are also on offer for those who have already been enjoying the weekend.

Tapas at iberica

Spice things up with an exciting, unusual meal this Valentine’s. Contemporary gourmet restaurant Iberica is offering an authetic Spanish take on Sunday roast in a sleek and trendy setting. Their Michelin starred Executive Chef Nacho Manzano enthuses “It’s impossible to imagine Ibérica without our Canary Wharf restaurant. I’m so proud that we’ve grown alongside one of the most exciting areas”.

A date for your

diary

rom-com favourites

Cocktails at Chai KI

Get cosy over a special Valentine’s menu full of traditional flavours and spices at modern Indian restaurant Chai Ki over Valentine’s Day weekend. Get your night started right with a signature Maha Mojito, made from ginger-infused rum, and craft beers at London’s only Toddy Shop Bar.

Catch an evening movie in an unbeatable setting that both of you can enjoy at Everyman Cinema

Sticks ‘n’ SUSHI Sticks‘n’Sushi combines fresh and modern Asian flavours with Scandinavian design. Share the Upgrade Platter for two featuring duck with goma dressing, chicken yakitori.

CHEFS TABLE Check out the newly refurbished Chef’s Table at award winning Japanese restaurant Roka

Big Easy

Famed for their Southernstyle hospitality, Big Easy is a welcoming venue for your Valentine’s Day treat. Enjoy authentic American Bar.B.Q and fresh seafood to a soundtrack of blues music that will keep your foot tapping all evening long. The laid back Rum Bar & Lounge is the perfect place to finish off a fantastic evening with friends.

canarywharf.com

skate date The Ice Rink is open until the end of February, perfect for a romantic late night skate with your Valentine’s date

@yourcanarywharf

Tom Davies Bespoke Opticians offers a truly bespoke service. We design and handcraft spectacles especially for you, using ZEISS lenses from our advanced clinic.

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prize planets Otherworlds: visions of our solar system If your lifelong dream of entering outer space is likely to remain just that, don’t despair, the Natural History Museum’s new photographic exhibition is the next best thing. Coinciding with Tim Peake’s Principia mission to the International Space Station, artist, curator and writer Michael Benson has painstakingly processed data from Nasa and ESA missions to assemble 77 composite images that will allow you to embark on a stunning journey through outer space. Stormy Jupiter, © NASA/JPL/Michael Benson, Kinetikon Pictures, courtesy of Flowers Gallery

Otherworlds: Visions of our Solar System will run until 15 May, giving visitors a rare opportunity to view the very same data that Museum scientists use to understand the 4.5 billion-year history of our planet. The exhibition features a ‘soundscape’ of original music composed by Brian Eno and audio commentary from museum researchers, offering a more in-depth science background to the striking photographs on display. Understanding how landscapes were formed is a major foundation of the Museum’s planetary science research, and this exhibition promises to be truly insightful in terms of understanding the early formation of Earth, how the solar system began and what life is like on other planets. Highlights include a world-first colourised image of Pluto, a nearby dwarf planet uncovered during Nasa’s New Horizon mission in July 2015, and images of Saturn’s sixth largest moon, Enceladus, spraying water into space from its southern polar region during Nasa’s 2009 Cassini mission. Adults, £9.90; children and concessions, £5.40; families, £26.10; free for Members, Patrons and children under four. Includes free audio commentary. Last entry 5.15pm. nhm.ac.uk

Images courtesy of the Natural History Museum/Otherworlds: Visions of our Solar System, curated by Michael Benson Dark side of the rings, © NASA/JPL/Michael Benson, Kinetikon Pictures, courtesy of Flowers Gallery

Crescent Jupiter and Ganymede, © NASA/JPL/Michael Benson, Kinetikon Pictures, courtesy of Flowers Gallery

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

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Late afternoon on Mars, © NASA/JPL/Michael Benson, Kinetikon Pictures, courtesy of Flowers Gallery Typhoon over Bay of Bengal, © Jeff Schmaltz, Lucian Plesea, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team/NASA GSFC/ Michael Benson, Kinetikon Pictures, courtesy of Flowers Gallery

Enceladus vents water into space, © NASA/JPL/Michael Benson, Kinetikon Pictures, courtesy of of Flowers Gallery

Europa, an ice-covered ocean moon, © NASA/JPL/Michael Benson, Kinetikon Pictures, courtesy of Flowers Gallery Moonlight on the Adriatic, © NASA JSC/Michael Benson, Kinetikon Pictures, courtesy of Flowers Gallery

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THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

When professional freeride skier, and The North Face ambassador, Sam Smoothy discovered his father was an accomplished mountaineer who had dedicated much of his life to the Bolivian Andes, he felt compelled to follow in his footsteps. Here, he talks exclusively to The City Magazine about the adventure of a lifetime Words: David Taylor

Son of my 74

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

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LINEAGE “From birth, my sister and I were taken along on our parents’ adventures wherever possible. Multiday kayak camping trips on the lake, to ski touring on the glaciers of New Zealand, going on adventures was a huge part of my life from the outset. I definitely inherited my passion for adventure from my parents.”

JOURNEY “I wanted to do something different, something more personal and genuine. I felt like I was in a position where I finally had the experience to lead an expedition. It was also at a time for me when I needed something more than competition. I needed to get away from crazy schedules and just exist in a place where I had time to fully appreciate where I was... “It wasn’t really the physical challenge… for me it was more that mental side of things, of justifying spending hours and hours climbing in exposed, dangerous places, which is much harder mentally than the two minutes of high-octane adrenaline I need to get down most things... “Johnny Collinson and Fraser McDougall were great; they were into it from the start. Fraser is my regular adventure buddy in NZ, he’s so strong and motivated and has a really good brain on him for risk and logistics. Getting Johnny on board was crucial, too. He was way more experienced in altitude, having done the Seven Summits [climbed the highest peak in each continent] by 17. Having these guys really made the trip.”

Father All photography courtesy of Mickey Ross

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THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

LOCALS

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The locals were an amazing bunch. We would wander the poorer neighbourhoods and they would yell at us to drink a beer in the gutter with them. We were based out of La Paz: it was like nowhere I had ever been before and just thinking about it makes me want to get a plane back there.â&#x20AC;?

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

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REFLECTION “It was a special trip because I knew my father had been there, climbed the same things we were skiing. I understand more of what he was looking for in the mountains, what those adventures with his friends meant to him and why they are such big parts of his life. “It’s made me realise how similar we are in some respects and made me appreciate a different side of skiing in the mountains. You don’t have to win a competition to be successful in the mountains – the experience can make it a success.”

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THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

Fresh Airs The new Range Rover Evoque is open to the elements as the world’s first luxury compact SUV convertible WORDS: Jennifer Mason

ou know how our favourite exTop Gear presenters would take an unsuspecting SUV into their ‘workshop’ and use a rather large saw to lop its head off and call it a convertible? Well, Land Rover has done something similar. Although there were (many) sceptics when the company announced the unveiling of its new Range Rover Evoque Convertible, the result is actually something pretty special indeed. I’ve seen it up close, and let me tell you, it looks like… well, a Range Rover. It handles like one, too – according to the engineering boffins at Jaguar Land Rover. And that’s the whole point. Although they wanted to take the top off, the new convertible had to offer the same hardy, off-roading package as its hard-topped siblings, despite the fact that its future owners are more likely to be seen cruising the level streets of Chelsea or Los Angeles than the rough terrain of the great outdoors. Though I suppose there’s always potholes to watch out for. Another point in its favour is that, as good as they’ve managed to make it look with the roof retracted (not an easy feat given the task at hand) it looks just as cool with the roof up, thanks to the clever Z-fold engineering which allows the roof to maintain its structured shape and the Evoque to keep its famous silhouette. Which is essential if you’re considering one for your garage, as, let’s face it, in London you’re likely to be driving with the hood up, braced against the drizzle, much of the time. Still, for those three or four magical summer days, this will be one heck of a fun car to enjoy them in. From £30,200, available from spring 2016, landrover.co.uk

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

in gear The convertible isn’t just nice to look at. An advanced ZF 9-speed automatic transmission offers smooth acceleration and riders can choose between an automatic transmission – which makes use of the Adaptive Shift Strategy to anticipate your every move – or manual control, through paddles on the steering wheel. First gear is set at a low ratio offering both brisk acceleration on the flat and excellent control at extremes of altitude or gradient. Just as you’d expect from a Range Rover

the power Choose between the powerful 240PS Si4 petrol engine or Land Rover’s new lightweight, four-cylinder 2.0-litre Ingenium diesel engine, offering fuel economy up to 55mpg and CO2 emissions as low as 149g/km

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Tech Talk

The Evoque Convertible comes with Jaguar Land Rover’s new high-resolution, 10.2-inch touchscreen loaded with its swanky new infotainment system InControl Touch Pro, which will basically turn your car into the largest smartphone ever made

Safety First The Evoque Convertible’s RollOver Protection Device deploys two aluminium bars (hidden in the rear bodywork) within 90 milliseconds if you roll it, creating a survival space for passengers

sleek lines

drop top The fully automated roof can be raised in 21 seconds, or stowed in 18 seconds, at speeds of up to 30mph. It doesn’t infringe upon your 251-litre boot space, either

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The roof was designed not only to stow away neatly using a Z-fold mechanism to lie flush with the rear bodywork, but when raised, to maintain the distinctive lines of the Evoque model using the longest and widest fabric panel fitted to any vehicle on sale today

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

F a s t

McLaren says the new 570S is the ‘slow’ car in their range. Jeremy Taylor wonders who they’re kidding…

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

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F u r i o u s T

More clinical than a Porsche 911 Turbo, more brutal than an Aston Martin V12 Vantage

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hey’re a happy bunch at McLaren Automotive these days – even if their F1 counterparts have struggled to capture a world championship since Lewis Hamilton became a national hero back in 2008. That’s because the close-knit team who make McLaren road cars have unveiled one of the most morish cars of recent years. More clinical than a Porsche 911 Turbo, more brutal than an Aston Martin V12 Vantage, more exclusive than an Audi R8. Indeed, the company’s 570S has become the car for any true supercar fan. And the extra good news is that the ‘slowest’ model in the new McLaren range is also the cheapest. In reality, that means a 204mph two-seater that costs £143,000. However, what isn’t quantifiable is the fact the 570S is guaranteed to leave you breathless, panting and wanting more. McLaren aficionados will spot the subtle differences to the 570S design straight away. The rest of us could be forgiven for thinking this is the P1 hypercar, minus the outsize spoiler and

£866,000 price tag. Which is no bad thing because the P1 is already the stuff of legend. Tucked away neatly in the back of the 570S and clearly visible through the rear screen is a turbocharged 3.8-litre V8. It churns out a quite magnificent 562bhp that will flick the speedometer through 60mph from standstill in 3.1 seconds. And remember – this is the ‘slow’ McLaren. The company says the 570S needs to appeal to a wider audience, as a more practical sports car. And that’s not because it is the first ever McLaren equipped with a vanity mirror and glovebox. The electro-hydraulic steering, softer suspension set up and brilliant seven-speed auto gearbox all make it user-friendly. In fact, it’s the first McLaren that’s as ‘everyday’ as a Porsche 911. McLaren’s chief designer, Rob Melville, spoke exclusively to The City Magazine at the 570S launch in Portugal. “The 570S had to have a broader breadth of ability. It’s also part of the new, more affordable Sports Series that’s all about usability

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

mclaren 570s THE VITALS Engine 3.8 litre twin-turbo V8 Power 562 BHP @ 7500rpm Torque 442 lbft @ 5000rpm Transmission 7-speed Graziano SSG dual-clutch Performance 0-60mph in 3.1 sec Max Speed 204mph MPG 25.5 CO2 258g/km Price From £143,250

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

and practicality. “You still need the visual drama of a McLaren because it’s a very fast sports car. But I think it’s perfectly practical as an everyday vehicle. I’m really pleased with the overall proportions of the car. I always say to all designers that proportion is king. If you can get a really well balanced shape, all the details fit nicely around it. “I love the way the rear corners are cambered in and the fact that the wheels are pushed right back into those corners. The 570S has great angles from nose to tail. My favourite panel is the rear fender, it’s so sculptural.” The mountain roads of the Algarve are a perfect place to exploit the potential of the aluminium-panelled 570S. The classic, mid-engined shape benefits from a peach of a gearbox, comfortable seats and the perfect driving position. McLaren has teamed up with audio specialists Bowers & Wilkins to create a thumping sound system too. And in an attempt to make the car even more ‘everyday’, there are cupholders, storage bins and a touchscreen centre console that doesn’t require a technology degree to understand. The lightweight, carbon-fibre chassis of the 570S will flatter your handling skills and encourage you on at an ever greater velocity. The only drawback could be how many points you have on your driving licence and the fact that the low ride height means the underbelly will scuff out on uneven roads. You might find the electric seat adjustment fiddly to operate and the driver’s cupholder tricky to reach. The sun visor doesn’t swing around to cover the side window either but really I’m splitting hairs here. Just five minutes behind the steering wheel should be enough to convince anyone. Every McLaren comes with a heritage of legendary proportions too. McLaren Automotive may have only five years producing road cars but company founder, Bruce McLaren built his first racing car more than 60 years ago. McLaren was killed while testing a new car at Goodwood Circuit in 1970 but his legacy lived on in at McLaren F1 team that nurtured racing superstars, such as James Hunt, Niki Lauda and Ayrton Senna. If that’s not enough to tempt you, later this year McLaren will launch a 570S sister car. The 540C is slightly detuned and around £20,000 cheaper but I can guarantee the low-fat version will be every carbon-fibre inch as entertaining as the 570S. The McLaren is the finest machine I’d piloted for some time. My advice is get your order in now. mclaren.com

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THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

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Chauffeur, so good For most style editors, London Collections Men was all about the front row. for The City Magazine, it was all about the back seat

n one of the most dapper days of the year, it seemed only fitting to be ferried around London Collections Men – the menswear equivalent of ladies fashion week – in the back seat of a Rolls-Royce. After all, in a sea of overaccessorised scenesters, it’s important to standout from the crowd. The Ghost certainly helped with that. It was apt, too, that we should be transported between Soho and Mayfair during a weekend dedicated to the best of British menswear, in a machine that personifies the best of British motoring. As comfortable as your living room, as luxurious as the hotels in which the fashion shows were taking place, the car was, most important of all, about as conspicuous as David Gandy’s cheekbones. We mortals may not be able to turn heads in the same way as models (my missus nearly broke her neck), but from the comfort of a back seat, you can at least pretend to be a movie star. RB

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On one of the most dapper days of the year, it seemed only fitting to be ferried around London Collections Men in a Rolls-Royce

The Details The City Magazine’s Ghost II, along with its driver, was provided by H.R. Owen. The UK’s largest luxury car dealer has recently launched a chauffeur service. ‘Luxury Hire’ is positioned to appeal to international travellers and overseas owners of London residences who want access to the latest luxury motors without the associated ownership costs. hrowen.co.uk

Prices for H.R. Owen Luxury Hire: Maserati Quattroporte Bentley Flying Spur Lamborghini Huracan Rolls-Royce Ghost II

Per Day: £475 Per Day: £800 Per Day: £950 Per Day: £1,500

Weekend: £1,950 Weekend: £2,500 Weekend: £3,500 Weekend: £5,500

Week: £4,500 Week: £5,250 Week: £6,950 Week: £10,750

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

Fight Knight Originally a performance artwork, Chessboxing fighters are now turning professional. David Taylor explores the sport that uses as much brain as it does brawn

Chessboxing: The Rules

oxing is exhausting, I say to myself, perhaps with a couple more choice words included, as I lie splayed on the ground at Islington Boxing Gym. I’ve never boxed properly in my life, but now I’ve found myself at a real-life training session with real-life coaches and real-life pain running like an electrical current through my left hand. How I’m going to move my king out of check is beyond me. The idea of Chessboxing has various roots. The boxing Robinson brothers were said to enjoy a game of chess after sparring in the 1970s; a film chronicling a boy’s kung fu training under a chess master is called The Mystery of Chess Boxing (with the equally outstanding international title Ninja Checkmate); and the Wu-Tang Clan wrote Da Mystery of Chessboxin’ as a tribute. The premise is simple. You play three minutes of chess. Then you box for three. Repeat five times until there’s a winner – through checkmate or knockout. Originally designed by Iepe Rubingh as a performance artwork, word soon spread, and in 2003 the first Chessboxing competition took place, with Rubingh crowned champion chessboxer. Since then, the World Chess Boxing Organisation has been founded and become a registered association under German law. The game is worldwide, with organisations in Europe, America and Asia. London Chessboxing (LCB) was founded in 2008 and enjoys a dedicated following. Its founder, Tim Woolgar, started

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

• 11 three-minute rounds: six chess, five boxing • 60 seconds between rounds • Victory by: knockout/technical knockout (boxing); checkmate, exceeding time limit (chess); disqualification, resignation (both). • If there’s no winner after 11 rounds, the fighter ahead on boxing points wins. If even on the scorecard, the fighter playing with the black chess pieces is the winner.

the club when he was trying to regain some fitness: “I used to box when I was younger, but I’d given it up – boxing is now seen much more as something to do for fitness. You never need to stop boxing. It’s the same with chess. No matter how old or decrepit you get, you can still have a game.” The Saturday morning sessions at Islington Boxing Club cater for all abilities

in the ring and on the board. As soon as I’m handed a skipping rope and told to start, however, I know this won’t be an easy ride. The skipping, already causing copious sweating, is apparently the warm-up. Glancing around, boxing athletes mingle with chessboxers, the respect evident. This, says Sina Krause, LCB’s PR, is because of the similarities between the

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TRAINERS two disciplines: “People think it’s a funny combination, but I don’t get that, because you have to do the most physical exercise, and the most brain exercise. “Terry Marsh, who has been British boxing champion, came out of retirement, stepped back into the ring and was great at both the chess and boxing. That has given it a whole lot of kudos.” The link between the two is well documented. An illustrious group of boxers have professed their love for the mental challenge a game of chess offers: Lennox Lewis plays almost daily; the Klitschkos are avid fans; Manny Pacquiao has played against a Filipino grandmaster. My chess turns out to be atrocious. A combination of intense boxing and lack of practice means that each round ends in disaster. Granted, my opponent is an

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An illustrious group of boxers have professed their love for the mental challenge that a game of chess offers England international, but by this point he could’ve beaten my disgraceful attempts with his eyes closed. The boxing is actually much better – apparently I’m a natural. Krause herself started chessboxing a few years ago, and fought last year. “The Technician”, as she’s known in the ring, emphasises playing to your strengths: “I knew when my fight came up that my opponent was the much better boxer, but I knew I was the better chess player. I thought if I can survive the boxing rounds, I could probably do it on the chessboard.” I leave the gym drenched, knuckles sore, but with only the foolish move to leave my queen exposed in the final chess round on my mind. No matter how good you are at one discipline, the other can destroy you in seconds.

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EARPHONES

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SHIRTS

Knitted nylon-blend running tee, £65, Athletic Propulsion Labs, mrporter.com

Dri-FIT AeroReact, £65, Nike, nike.com GTD t-shirt, £45, The North Face, thenorthface.co.uk

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Adistar wool primeknit tee, £47, Adidas, adidas.co.uk THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

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surf & turf Swapping the helm of Yacht Maserati for the wheel of a Quattroporte GTS, Jeremy Taylor discovers that the Italian powerhouse is as good on the water as it is on the tarmac

ounded by four brothers who opened a small car repair shop in Bologna in 1913, Maserati has a centuryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s worth of stylish and unique machines under its belt. Yet while many people would only associate the Italian brand with fast cars, Maserati has a strong maritime tradition. Consider its three-pronged logo, a copy of the trident of Neptune Goddess of the Sea. Maserati first trialed 16-cylinder sea engines in the 1930s. The company won five world powerboat championships in 1955 and held a stranglehold on the sport until the late 1960s. Image Andrea Francolini

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THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

So, perhaps it should be no surprise that the brand is back making waves in the boating world – except this time, Maserati is relying on wind power rather than a high-performance engine. Yacht Maserati is a £4 million superyacht that has been designed for long-distance offshore racing. A VOR70 class, it measures 70ft from bow to stern and is capable of up to 45mph. Last year, the boat set a new record for crossing the Pacific Ocean. It took just under 22 days to cover the 7,000 miles from San Francisco to Shanghai, following the old tea clipper trade route. It’s a mean machine on the water and every bit as eye-catching as a Maserati car. But how does the carbon fibre boat compare with the fastest Maserati saloon – the Quattroporte GTS? In December, I travelled to Australia to join the eight-strong crew for a day in iconic Sydney Harbour. I then drove the GTS to Australia’s most exclusive eco-lodge – Wolgan Valley in the Blue Mountains. Waiting for me at the quayside was legendary Italian sailor, Giovanni Soldini. The 49-year-old has won the Around Alone global race twice – once famously turning back to save a fellow competitor in the process. “I think there are many similarities between the construction of this boat and a car,” explained Soldini, as we steer a passage under Sydney Harbour Bridge and past the Opera House. “The key to going faster is to reduce weight, just like Formula 1. So we try to use carbon fibre for everything – from the hull to the mast.” And just like a racing car, there are few creature comforts inside Yacht Maserati. The crew sleeps on stretcher-type hammocks slung from the cabin wall – and there’s no toilet. Soldini shows me his ‘office’ towards the rear of the monohull’s dark cabin. It features every type of computer and navigational aid, monitoring the performance of the boat during a passage. “Ultimately, if comes down to the ‘driver’ to steer Maserati on the right course. As I’m the helmsman, I use every piece of equipment on the boat to best effect. If something isn’t used, it’s taken off the boat to save weight.” Soldini has been racing boats for more than 30 years, but is it as glamorous a lifestyle as it sounds? “Everybody thinks you are living the dream but it’s not easy on your family and personal life. I have spent my life at sea, so I’m used to it. I did a normal job in an office once but I didn’t last very long.” In comparison to the boat, there’s nothing minimalist about the Quattroporte GTS. Maserati’s most luxurious motor is

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

Maserati Quattroporte GTS THE VITALS Engine 3.8 litre turbocharged V8 Power 530 BHP Torque 479 lbft Transmission Eight-speed automatic Performance 0-60mph 4.7 secs Max Speed 191mph MPG 16 CO2 250g/km Price from £152,900

Yacht Maserati THE VITALS Length 21.5m Beam 5.7m Draft 5.3m Mainsail 172m2 Headsail 140m2 Spinnaker 500m2 Mast height 31.5m. Weight 12,500 kg Price £4,000,000

loaded with high-quality leather and trim – you can even personalise the sumptuous seats with panels of silk. It’s plush, posh and with the added bonus of rarity value, the Quattroporte stands out from the crowd more than any Jaguar or Mercedes does. Australians are obsessive about observing speed limits, mainly because police and countless speed cameras serve up hefty fines at every opportunity. Keeping the 3.8-litre twin turbo contained on Sydney highways is a frustrating exercise. The £108,000 GTS is a big car but it will fly past 60mph from standstill in 4.7 seconds. It’s capable of 190mph – which is up there with exotica from Bentley and Rolls-Royce. Yacht Maserati will cut through the seas barely making a sound but the rasps and snorts from the Quattroporte’s tailpipes are all part of the experience. Play with the aluminum gearshift paddles on the steering column and that exhaust will cough and spit with every change. Quattroporte’s rousing performance is only tainted by the GTS’s 23.7mpg, plus the fact it sits in the highest tax bracket for CO2 – a whopping 274g/km. Next time you find yourself in Sydney, the Blue Mountains are only a three-hour drive away and boast some of the best driving roads in New South Wales. Tarmac cuts a path through steep-sided valleys and eucalyptus forest, which gave the Maserati a chance to show off its sharp handling. The GTS is equipped with adaptive dampers as standard, providing a surefooted response over some of the more damaged road surfaces. For such a big car, the Quattroporte responds well on the tricky mountain route to Wolgan Valley, aided by electric power steering and that wonderful, eight-speed gearbox. The final 15 miles to Wolgan offer the most demanding driving of the journey. The road has been newly resurfaced, but a succession of hairpin bends and wandering wildlife demands the fullest of attention. The resort itself sits in a huge, natural amphitheatre, with wild kangaroos and wallabies creating an antipodean Jurassic Park – it’s a special landscape and one in which it’s well worth spending a night or two. Cars aren’t allowed in Wolgan Valley so I reluctantly handed over the keys and left the GTS to cool down in the car park. The final few miles were covered aboard a bouncy Land Rover, giving me time to reflect on Maserati’s creations for both road and wave. Not that you’d ever have to choose between the two – if you could afford the yacht’s £4 million price tag, then an extra £108,000 for the GTS is small change. For more information on Wolgan Valley, visit oneandonlyresorts.com.

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Image Andrea Francolini

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THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

TECH TALK

Essential apparatus for keeping ahead of the curve

Throwing Shapes

Who needs a TV when you have an empty wall? For a home cinema, invest in a projector

he remarkable quality of 4K and fantastic brightness of colour provided by Sony’s 4K projector means that the only way you could get closer to experiencing a cinema in your home is if you employ a spotty teenager to

sell overpriced popcorn at your door. The Sony-exclusive Silicon X-tal reflective display ensures super-high resolution, even during action-packed scenes. The only drawback is that this is designed to be a permanent feature, meaning the

49x19x46cm chassis and 14kg weight don’t lend themselves to portability. Then again, if you want the full experience, why take it anywhere else? Sony VPL-VW320ES, from £5,849, Sony, richersounds.com

TRILUMINOS™ Display technology reproduces a much broader range of colours than the standard

SXRD reflective display ensures high resolution in any scene

4K capability creates remarkable projection quality

1,500 lumens brightness means a great picture even in well-lit rooms

checking out the competition Optoma

ViewSonic

HD36

LightStream PJD7830HDL

USP: A quality beamer, designed for use in all levels of light due to its superb brightness capabilities. £799, petertyson.co.uk

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

USP: An in-built speaker and supreme brightness means that this is aimed at the portable end of the market. From £535, amazon.co.uk

Sim2 Superlumis USP: If money is no object, this is pretty much a genuine cinema for the home. And only marginally more expensive than a ticket for a 3D film, once you’ve ordered your Coca-Cola and nachos. £37,000, sim2.co.uk

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clever coffee De’Longhi, well known for its high-end design, has created the world’s first smart coffee machine. The state-of-the-art PrimaDonna Elite lets you produce and personalise your perfect coffee from the comfort of the sofa, through a Bluetooth app on your phone. It isn’t limited to flat whites, either: with our tastes becoming ever more continental, the PrimaDonna creates hundreds of different coffee-based drinks. Apparently, recent research has revealed that 31 per cent of Brits would rather skip a coffee than have a bad cup, and 14 per cent would look down on friends and family if they served instant. Don’t be looked down on. At least not for your coffee choice. PrimaDonna Elite, £1,499.95, De’Longhi, johnlewis.com

Mobile Marshall

Enlightened Lighting

Legendary amp maker Marshall has branched out into phones with the Marshall London. It’s a good phone in its own right, running on the latest Android system, but as expected, sound is the priority. It has two front-facing speakers for optimal non-headphone listening, and two phone jacks to share your music with friends. The Cirrus Logic WM8281 Audio Hub gives your music a separate processor, letting it play at a higher resolution and giving your long-abused ears a treat. Its design follows the classic Marshall look, with a black leather and gold finish. Marshall London, £399, Marshall, marshallheadphones.com

Sole Searching Laundrapp has added to its ondemand laundry service portfolio. The company has developed a shoe repair service, providing a doorto-door option for those who don’t feel like traipsing the streets in broken shoes looking for a solution. Simply download the app, fill in your details and time preferences, and let Laundrapp do the rest. The company expanded to more than 30 towns and cities at the end of last year, and covers the vast majority of London. Free collection and delivery means that the process is hassle-free. It provides resoling, re-heeling and polishing in order to give your shoes the best treatment possible. Shoe Service, from £2, Laundrapp, laundrapp.com

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The Nanoleaf One might be the last bulb you ever buy. The company recently won a 2015 Global Efficiency medal, and it’s easy to see why. Using a series of LEDs in an exquisite design, the ‘bulb’ has an average lifespan of 27.5 years, saving you hundreds of pounds in energy costs. Nanoleaf One, £18, Nanoleaf, nanoleaf.me

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

OUT OF HIS HEAD Mark & Hannah Hayes-Westall have been working in, and writing about, contemporary art on and off for almost 20 years. Each month they introduce an artist that should appear on your agenda

This month: DEXTER DALWOOD

WHAT’S SO INTERESTING? Sharing a thought is an amazingly intimate experience, and when generated by artists, can be a powerful tool in controlling our feelings about events and people; what we call history. It is the ability to skillfully generate a connection between what’s in his head and what’s in that of the viewer that makes British artist Dexter Dalwood’s work so emotionally compelling. Dalwood is a painter who has refined the use of the vocabulary of painting to deploy conscious and subconscious associations in the heads of his viewers for many years. The work that generated wider awareness of his name was a series of paintings of imagined personal spaces belonging to celebrities, where works like Kurt Cobain’s Greenhouse (2000) used our pre-existing understanding of the dead singer’s milieu and mental state to create a narrative around an easy chair, pot plant and view over Seattle’s harbour

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

Find the work

front. Drenched with celebrity news, these imagined landscapes gave us alternative histories, new ways of understanding the way we think about the role of prominent people in our shared experience. In his most recent exhibition, 2015’s London Paintings, Dalwood’s use of viewer associations as a material with which to create narrative evolved further, with segments of works reflecting the style of famous works by other painters, from a clutter of Warhol-style flowers in Too Many Flowers (2015) to a brilliant, Hockney-esque turquoise swimming pool cutting through the murk in The Thames Below Waterloo (2014), a painting which also nods to Monet. Using scraps of experience, memory and narrative is a technique that allows the painter to establish powerful connections with key moments in our history and one that has led to him being labelled as a leading contemporary history painter, alongside the likes of Belgium’s Luc Tuymans, capturing the sense and spirit of our times. Sometimes this is explicitly political,

Simon Lee Gallery 12 Berkeley Street, W1J 8DT simonleegallery.com

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT Kurt Cobain’s Greenhouse, 2000; Half Moon Street, 2014; Too Many Flowers, 2015; Interior at Paddington, 2014

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as in 1989 (2014) – a painting of Trafalgar Square’s statue of George IV seated on his horse shows only the rear of the horse and plinth as if seen from below. The painting’s title, when taken with unusual angle of view and the hazy blue skies capture the sense of being at the heart of that summer’s Poll Tax riot. In other works, the sense of a personal history feels stronger, with glimpses of nights out in Roundhouse (2014) and Marquee (2012) while a series of domestic scenes including Interior at Paddington (2014) and Half Moon Street (2014) hint at the peripatetic life of an artist, with domesticity found in a wide array of London locations. Real or imagined, these quotidian scenes are connected for us by references to other painters, and by our own familiarity with the subject matter. Dexter Dalwood lives and works in London. He received a BA from Central Saint Martins, and an MA from the Royal College of Art. Nominated for the Turner Prize in 2010, he has been the subject of mid-career survey exhibitions at institutions including Tate St Ives, Frac Champagne-Ardenne, CAC Malaga, and the Kunsthaus Centre d’art Centre PasquArt, Biel, Switzerland. He is currently preparing for a show of work in Hong

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Kong, where he will continue to examine a broad range of subjects quoting cultural and historical references, as well as the history of painting itself.

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

SANDERS COLUMN TABLE LAMP Made in Portugal by expert craftsmen, this beautiful table lamp by Villa Lumi features a tall column silhouette and drum shade, but perhaps the most striking feature is the clear structure that reveals a bronze plated stem, offering a slightly industrial edge to the grandeur of this design. £1,090, luxdeco.com

tate cushion Ralph Lauren Home delivers yet another glamorous soft furnishing with the Tate cushion cover. Featuring gold RL detail against navy, this cushion cover has been crafted from 100 per cent cotton, adding a luxurious touch of decadent decor to your bed or sofa. £399, amara.com

Opposites

ATTRACT Navy, gold and mustard meet in an opulent home interior that pairs the grand with the industrial and the old with new words: tiffany eastland

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Authentic models globe table Designed by Authentic Models, this elegant Globe Table is a historically influenced artefact. Crafted from durable wood and featuring decorative brass hardware, the iconic lift Vaugondy Globe reveals secret storage for your most valuable possessions. £1,012, houseology.com

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| OUT OF OFFICE | gentleman’s chair The opulent Gentleman’s Chair by David Linley is both perfectly proportioned and beautifully contrasting. Attention to detail is given in the deep blue tufts and precise silver studwork, while the powder blue linen gives it the timeless appeal of a family heirloom. £4,400, davidlinley.com

CLAUDE ÉTAGÈRE The Claude Collection by Jonathan Adler may be rather retro but it’s also very versatile. A practical storage solution, the etagere is available in walnut with brushes of brass accents or white stained ash wood with polished nickel accents. £2,095, jonathanadler.com

kristel cushion This metallic gold cushion featuring the Missoni M embroidered in an all-over repeated pattern will add a touch of luxury to any living space. Made in Italy, crafted from satin cotton and embroidered in viscose, it is also available in silver. £108, amara.com

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architectural This blueprint wall art from Timothy Oulton commemorates a special London landmark. Originally built 2,000 years ago by the Romans, London Bridge has endured floods, fire, war and disrepair leading to the rebuilding of the bridge several times. from £450, timothyoulton.com

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

Kentisbury Grange, Kentisbury, Barnstaple, North Devon EX31 4NL weddings@kentisburygrange.co.uk | 01271 882 295 www.kentisburygrange.co.uk

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“Close y our eyes. Think: ‘paradi se’. W hat do y ou see? More than likely, and if y ou’re not highly religious, or my friend , for w hom Sweden i s w h ere h e will go to die, or my opically addict ed to th e Caribb ean , it ’s a place called th e Maldives, a countr y consi sting of n early 1,000 i sland s, a string of som e 20 atoll s, a semi-abstract painting of crescent yellow s and shades of blu e and clumps of vegetal green . It ’s in th e Indian O cean . It b egins som ew h ere west of th e tip of India , and stretch es as far south as to end opposit e East Africa .” WO RD S: D AVE WAD D ELL

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DREAMING OF PARADISE

Dreams became a reality for Dave Waddell, when he was assigned the arduous task of experiencing a stay at Shangri-La’s Villingili Resort & Spa

eep those eyes closed, please. You’re in a small plane. You’ve crossed the equator, to the fanfare of a regal-sounding backtrack, and for which you receive a certificate. I am not kidding. The plane banks. You look through the window. You see an island. White sweeping beach, a mirrored sweep of houses on stilts, dense forest, gardens and what looks suspiciously like a golf course. Welcome to Shangri-La’s Villingili Resort & Spa, an otherwise uninhabited idyll composed of 132 variously hidden and hyper-attended luxury villas, several restaurants, an activity roster designed to meet all paradisal needs. I hope you’ve packed your gold-plated beach towel. My part in your daydream is simple. I am you, only in the real world. I had, last year, the wholly undeserved good fortune to spend a few days on Villingili, courtesy of Shangri-La, who as well as flying me in

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via their sister-stay in the Oman, gifted me the run of one of those aforementioned houses on stilts (water villas). Let’s dally here a while: The resort writer Adrian Neville calls the water villa’s introduction in the 1990s a ‘slap-your-forehead’ invention. Back then, no one had thought of placing a hotel room on the sea; these days, no one’s idea of an island getaway is complete without one. Think the sound of lapping water, a bed made for Henry VIII, stand-alone stone baths, hammocks, the opportunity to pad from bed to sea unencumbered by a stitch of clothing. Buck-naked and nothing to think about is the paradise way. I did my best. However, while it’s perfectly possible to remain secluded in one’s overwater villa for the duration, if you’re anything like me, being alone for too long is never a good idea, high-class surrounds or no. Plus, there’s much else to do. I had a bike with which to get about. There was a lesson in how to strike a golf ball, about which the less said the better. I enjoyed a delightful guided turn about the chef ’s garden. I became a gourmet food junkie. I swam. I sunned. I strolled. One morning I had

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a very Hemingway-like deep-sea fishing experience, less the big fish. On another, the only time it rained, I was massaged clad in just regulation see-through blacknetting briefs. Most, I lay about, doing nearly nothing. Evening time, I smoked a hookah and drowned my joys in tipples as fine as a Bowmore 17 or a Pappy 15. The sun set and the sun rose. Even so, ‘paradise’ has many meanings. It’s the obvious, a place of beauty, a state of bliss, a delight in the truest sense of the word. It’s also a concept predicated on point of view and on access. Some of us love tropical islands and some of us love driving a Saab 900 into the Arctic Circle and some of us, for whatever reason, imagine it as a metaphysical space, a lost place, a heaven, the promise of a life after this one. It is even, according to certain readings, a half-way house, a resting place, where the souls of the saved await the final reckoning, the resurrection of the one; as in the Bible or The Matrix, take your pick. Any which way, the very notion presupposes its opposite: a not paradise. The Republic of the Maldives, it pains me to say, is no exception. To begin with the apocalyptic, the Maldives are an environmental disaster in waiting. The lowest and flattest country in the world, its vulnerability to rising sea levels means, worst-case scenario, nearly 80 per cent of it will be under water by 2021. Intermittent plans for a mass exodus of some 400,000 people spread over 1,000 kilometres have been in the pipeline for some time, with the government sounding out India, Sri Lanka and even Australia for possible parcels of land. Source of more than two millennia of tradition, home to near on half a million people, the Maldives is set to disappear in 2085. It’s an unimaginable catastrophe. It’s Genesis come true, only in the case of the Maldivians, there’s no coming back. The Ark’s a one way trip into the unknown. Less seriously, but only in the sense that it’s not so unbelievably final, the Maldives’ much lauded sustainable tourism model, together with the increased democratisation of its political structures, is not, by any stretch of the imagination, everything it’s cracked up to be. While its first democratically elected president languishes in prison, his tenure cut short by an opposition dominated by the old guard, the tourist dollar is something of a mixed blessing. The old-new regime’s Quality Tourism Strategy, designed to protect both the environment and the country’s overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim culture, plays largely into the hands of an elite triumvirate, a select group of Maldivian entrepreneurs, long-term government incumbents and foreign

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investors. Decades worth of very serious money has been made at the expense of a population denied fair investment opportunity in their country’s most significant industry. True paradise does not generally blip wildly and for long periods on Amnesty International’s radar. All of which is not aimed at having you cross the Maldives off your bucket list of dream destinations. Far from it: if you’re not my Sweden-loving pal, and your notion of paradise is indeed the tropical island idyll, then it remains an extraordinary destination. It’s just that there are more than 80 resorts to choose from. Take some advice, do some research. Your hard-earned money needs to do more than line beautifully tailored pockets. Find your Adrian Neville’s Resorts of own fair-minded Maldivian the Maldives is available from paradise. sevenholidays.com. Regina Sheyvens’ paper The Challenge to Sustainable In this respect, and Tourism Development in the to help you on your way, Maldives is available Shangri-La Villingili Resort from researchgate.net & Spa feels like exactly this: fair-minded and a paradise. Shangri-La is the only Asia Pacific hotel group to be listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. It’s a member of the United Nations Global Compact. It’s a habitual sharer of sustainability and progress reports. This isn’t just another piece of strategy bluewash: ShangriLa’s not perfect, nor claims to be. The company’s environment and conservation efforts are well-documented, historically showing an upward curve in all the right places. Villingili itself is gorgeous. Large, efficient and attentive, it’s the sort of paradise designed to appeal to the grandest of tastes. If that’s you, then step right up: your dream island awaits. Dave Waddell’s trip was arranged by Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts. Flights with Oman Air to the Maldives via Muscat are from £587 per person including taxes (omanair.com). The Pure Maldives package at Shangri-La’s Villingili Resort & Spa costs from £595 per night, including domestic round-trip flights from Malé to Gan for two persons (shangri-la.com).

FURTHER READING

CLOCKWISE FROM BOTTOM LEFT Water Villa; over water hammock; Horizon - the resort’s luxury yacht; pool villa at dusk; Dine by Design; Dine by Design on the beach; Tree House Villa; Villa Muthee bathroom; Endheri pool Images courtesy of ShangriLa Villingili Resort & Spa

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maroon me on an island Tiffany Eastland finds herself not quite stranded on a Maldivian Island. Here’s how she survives

hotel of the month

Images courtesy of Hideaway Beach Resort & Spa

Hideaway Beach Resort & Spa

If you could choose one person to be stranded on an island with, who would it be? It’s a question that often comes up at dinner parties (or in our case, the work Christmas party), but for me, it became somewhat of a reality. My sister won the lottery, when she became the chosen one after I was dealt the difficult assignment that involved being stranded (not technically) on a Maldivian island. Don’t worry, it gets better. So, now imagine you can choose the island you’re stranded on. Having now stayed at Hideaway Beach Resort & Spa, we’d choose to return. That may seem crazy given the 80 plus resorts in the Maldives, but what we had was close to perfection, so why gamble when we’re onto a good thing? The all-suites resort is located 300km north of the capital city of Malé, and feels comparatively remote compared to other Maldivian resorts. It’s also one of the larger island resorts in the Maldives with a beach length of some 1.4 km on each side of the crescent-shaped island. This means Hideaway boasts some of the largest luxury beachfront villas, not to mention complete privacy. For the duration of our stay, a deluxe water villa with pool was home, so our days were mainly spent cooling of in the 18 sqm infinity pool and lagoon, getting often closer than we were prepared to the stunning sea creatures that inhabit the waters. When we had built up our courage (we’re both complete wusses) we snorkelled along the drop off where we had the (mis)fortune of encountering eagle rays. And when it all got a bit much for us, we spent time at the spa being pampered in one of the 12 treatment rooms. We could have easily worked our way through the treatment menu, but Happy Hour called and we had a few more menus to cross off. Our first gastronomy experience on the island was a memorable one. Since we arrived on a Saturday, we were in for a real treat with the all you can eat lobster and

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We snorkelled along the drop off where we had the (mis)fortune of encountering eagle rays

Champagne evening at Meeru Bar & Grill. Suitably stuffed, we had raising concerns about our capacity for the breakfast buffet which is served in Matheefaru Restaurant. We needn’t have worried; we completely demolished the omelettes that were made to order at an open cooking station. The highlight, however, came one evening when we had the opportunity of dining at Samsara Restaurant, where a light and fragrant selection of modern Indian specialties make this dining

Red Savannah (01242 787800/ redsavannah.com) is offering a saving of £1,954 per person on a seven-night stay at Hideaway Beach Resort & Spa, Maldives for two adults in a Deluxe Water Villa with Jacuzzi pool on a half-board basis from £3,697 per person. Price includes return flights with Turkish Airlines from London to Malé via Istanbul and return seaplane transfers to the resort. Valid for travel between 10 January – 20 December 2016.

experience an absolute pleasure. That night we discovered that Hideaway benefits from a highly knowledgeable sommelier, so do request his assistance in selecting the perfect wine accompaniment. It’s always hard coming to the end of a holiday, but when it means leaving behind paradise (and parting ways with your sister) it’s just plain cruel. At least I can take comfort in the fact that I survived being ‘stranded’ on an island. hideawaybeachmaldives.com

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SPA

SAVOUR

For complete rejuvenation there’s nothing quite like a spa visit, especially if you’re lucky enough to be staying at Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Kuda Huraa. Located on a tiny islet of its own, The Island Spa can only be reached by the resort’s beautiful dhoni, a traditional Maldivian boat. It’s here you can expect to be rocked back to health by the highly qualified therapists who use pioneering OSEA Spa treatments that draw on the healing properties of the ocean – everything from sea oxygen and sea salt to wild-harvested seaweed and nutrient-rich sea algae. fourseasons.com

SIP If y ou fancy y ourself a recreational somm elier, O n e&O nly ’s Reethi Rah i s th e i sland to b e stranded on . With lab el s from th e w orld’s fin est win eries, enjoy p erusing th e 4,000 plus bottles in tw o t emp erature-controlled walk-in win e cellars. oneandonlyresorts.com

Despite being an isolated oasis, the creativity of the award-winning chefs at Taj Exotica Resort & Spa is by no means limited. Flavours, colours, aromas and textures materialise in the form of mouth-watering dishes, taking guests on a culinary journey around the world. 24 Degrees is open daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner, serving up comfort food, fresh produce and local specialities on the beach. In the evenings, inside 24 Degrees a theatrical production kicks off at the live Teppanyaki counter where guests can enjoy masterly crafted Teppan set menus of fresh seafood, meats and vegetables. For light snacks, crispy salads and oven fresh pizzas, that will satisfy the appetite and tide you over until dinner, there’s the Pool Side Bar & Restaurant, which is open daily from midday. Finally, from 7 o’clock in the evening, Deep End Restaurant on the south side of the island, serves up unrivalled grill and seafood dishes, not to mention The Opera, its signatuyre dessert which promises to leave you speechless. tajhotels.com

SUITCASE ESSENTIALS Toquilla straw Panama hat, £135, Sensi Studio, net-a-porter.com

1 2 Facial Fuel SPF 15, £33, Kiehl’s, uk.spacenk.com

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Yasmin drawstring maillot, £307.95, Lisa Marie Fernandez, lisamariefernandez.com Portofino beach towel, £142, Abyss & Habidecor, amara.com

Men’s classic-fit red swim shorts, £38, Paul Smith, paulsmith.co.uk

Leather slides, £295, Dolce & Gabbana, mrporter.com

Striped cotton-blend tunic, £145, Lemlem, net-a-porter.com

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A FIVE-STAR UNIVERSE

It’s long been considered a honeymoon hotspot for those that desire to fly and flop, but now the Maldives is finding plenty of ways to keep visitors amused. Sarah Seise enjoys the best of both worlds during a stay at Conrad Maldives Rangali Island

hile the vast majority of the Maldives remain uninhabited, those that have been touched by human hands seem to consist of a scattering of wooden over-water villas. The result is the blueprint for paradise: tiny coral islands ringed by pure white sand, green palms and some of the cleanest, clearest water in the world. Little wonder that the Maldives has become a byword for luxury with enough five-star resorts to form a universe of their own. Those who mutter, “there’s nothing to do there,” are missing the point. Sometimes all you desire is to fly and flop. Besides, if you really want more from your day than relaxing on a terrace over the sea, there’s plenty to keep you amused. Snorkelling and sunset catamaran cruises are a must-do, as are picnics-fortwo on tiny deserted sand banks. Malé, the capital island, is worth a visit: not least for a bit of local culture that’s hard to find elsewhere. All non-hotel islands in the Maldives operate under sharia law and dress codes are respected by visitors who swap their shorts and bikinis for long sleeves and skirts. The National Museum is packed with opulent thrones, ceremonial robes and amazing carvings once owned by local sultans. Nearby, the golden-domed Islamic Centre houses a striking collection of calligraphy and sheds some light on the Islamic faith of the islanders. The hardest decision is choosing where to stay: a classic beach villa or over-water bungalow dream; an island with oodles of

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activities or complete isolation; hi-tech or rustic? Surprisingly there’s something to suit everyone and one island in particular has a bit of everything. Conrad Maldives Rangali Island, a 30-minute flight from the airport hub on Malé, is all about unpretentious barefoot luxury. And eating. This five-star hotel at the southern tip of the South Ari Atoll is actually two islands joined by long walkways that provide good spotting for a hallucinogenic coloured concoction of fish, along with whale sharks, manta rays, dolphins and turtles. Its two residential islands have countless areas to sprawl in the sun and no less than 12 restaurants and bars, including, most notably: Ithaa Undersea Restaurant. It was here, in the most beautiful restaurant in the world, or at least according to the New York Daily News in 2014, that my fly and flop, quickly became a fly, flop and feast. Nightly rates at Conrad Maldives Rangali Island start from US$1,240 (approx. £735), based on two sharing a Beach Villa on a room only basis. Rates are subject to change. Prevailing taxes and service charges apply, conradhotels.com/maldives British Airways (ba.com) flies direct from London Gatwick to Malé.

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| out of office |

review: RESTAURANTS AND LOUNGES

en years ago, the world’s first all-glass undersea restaurant was submerged five metres below sea level into the Indian Ocean using 85 tonnes of sand to weigh it down when it wouldn’t quite sink. Ithaa, meaning mother of pearl, is a thrill seeker’s bowl of delight for subterranean gastronomes enjoying an ever changing fashion parade of fish. It’s only fitting that the food should be as sybaritic as the surroundings and dinner will set you back £225 excluding wines, so get saving if submarine dining floats your boat. If you’ve ever fancied your chances on MasterChef (whether as a judge or competitor) you’ll be inspired by The Wine Cellar, which gets the vote for the highest-tech grape pairing restaurant in the world, in a chilled subterrainean cave filled wall-to-wall with famous vintages. Table settings interchange with pop-up interactive screens explaining the areas of growth, vine processes and difference between classy crus from around the world. It’s a dinner party atmosphere with an international guest list, hosted by the head sommelier and executive chef who talk you through step by step. Considering that everything apart from local reef fish is flown in, this is the antithesis of slow food, with more air miles on one plate than most people spend in a year, starting with a Dom Pérignon to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the underwater restaurant. At €150 a bottle, the 2004 tasted typically smoky, dry, elegant and refreshing. It’s a lovely mouthful of Champagne but the 1995 vintage at €400 a bottle is so much rounder and shows what your 2004 will taste like in a decade, if you have the discipline not to touch. Allan Scott’s 2011 Sauvignon Blanc is a vivacious wine that needs the vibrant flavours of grilled tiger prawns. Followed by Bouchard Finlayson’s Crocodile’s Lair 2012 – a triumph with chef

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CLOCKWISE FROM BOTTOM LEFT Over-water spa; Ufaa by Jereme Leung restaurant, Sunset Water Villa; Private beach dining; Infinity pool; Spa Water Villa; Deluxe Beach Villa; Rangali Island; Ithaa Undersea restaurant (All images ©2015 Conrad Hotels & Resorts)

Benedikt Anetsberger’s sea bass and mushroom risotto. It’s the oldest of New World wines and apparently even Napoleon preferred a good South African to a Sauternes. This Overberg is one of the country’s finest with signature oak and caramelised vanilla tones – a far cry from your 1980s house white but there’s no mistaking its Chardonnay punch. We went on to try Weingut Huber’s Schlossberg with the veal Milanese, experimenting with a variety of glass sizes and shapes. Size matters. Wine smells different. And it tastes different. There’s also something aesthetically wrong about drinking wine from a tumbler. The tumbler glass drinks flat, acidic and is nothing special with the wine striking the back of the throat. The regal allpurpose glass held some decent nose, with a back-of-the-tongue resonance. By comparison, the special pinot noir glass showed a bountiful nose full of layers of complexity and flavour that filled the mouth touching the sides of the tongue and remaining long after. It is staggering the difference a glass makes. Try the experiment at home and prepare to be surprised. If you’re surprised at the mention of a good German wine, don’t be – they just keep the best for themselves. And if there’s one Pinot Noir you need to try, then this limestone toughie is it – a big grown-up daddy at £150 a bottle. The roasted lamb loin was served with three mystery wines. And what was interesting was that everyone’s favourite differed. In fact, we had a 2007 Italian Brunello di Montalcino, a 2011 Merlot from Pomerol, and an Australian Merlot Cabernet 1992 from Margaret River. Puddings are served with a trio of desert wines. The corn brûlée balsamic caramel paired with the Grande Maison Cuvée Anges Monbazillac 2001, was its namesake: angelic. A fine note on which to leave.

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PROPERTY NEWS

Keep tabs on the market, whether you are living or investing in the capital

SALES NICK MOORE, associate at Knight Frank

Islington, comments on the trends in the residential sales market In a year that had already seen a radical overhaul in stamp duty, the end of November saw a second stamp duty increase for buyto-let investors and secondhome buyers. The new measure is an attempt by George Osborne to address concerns surrounding affordability and house price inflation but raises further questions over the affect that this will have on tax revenues at a time when the market was starting to find its feet after the previous increase. The latest proposals are still subject to a period of consultation. However, it means that buyers of second homes, whether for investment or otherwise, will pay an extra three per cent in stamp duty from April. It is still too early to tell the effect that this is going to have on the market in the first quarter; however, it is likely to produce an upturn in activity as buyers scramble to secure a property before the new rates kick in.

Celebrating a milestone As its S/S 2016 offering launches, LSA International is also celebrating its 50th anniversary. To celebrate this significant milestone, its new 5 Decades 5 Materials collection focuses on one of its iconic materials for each decade that has passed – porcelain, glass, wood, leather and enamelled steel – across tableware, drinkware and decorative accessories. Impress guests with champagne served in glasses with hand-drawn stems and metallic rims, place flowers in glass vases with contrasting natural leather straps or opt for one of the pieces specially re-issued from the archives, such as the Otis wine glass and Serve tapas serving platter. lsa-international.com

“Only time will tell how the most recent stamp duty changes will affect the market in the coming months” Whilst the first raft of changes in stamp duty dampened transaction levels across central London, the sub-£2million market remained extremely buoyant, outperforming the rest of prime London in the second half of 2015. The higher rate of stamp duty announced in November would add £30,000 to the current stamp duty rate for a second-home buyer of a £1million property. However, at current growth levels in this sector, this sum would be matched by house price inflation in less than a year. Only time will tell how the most recent stamp duty changes will affect the market in the coming months. What we do know is that we’re likely to be in for an interesting first quarter in the run up to the start of the new tax year. Knight Frank Islington 0203 657 7360 knightfrank.co.uk

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photo David Ralph

PICK AND MIX Anglepoise has launched an online studio within its website – initially exclusive to the UK – which allows customers to explore a much greater colour offering for its iconic lamp designs. First up to benefit from the new shades – designed by London-based art director Despina Curtis – is the Original 1227 Mini Studio Desk Lamp. Mix and match matte and gloss shades for different components for the base, the arm and even the fabriccoloured flex cable. The lamps will begin shipping this February. from £185, anglepoise.com

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| PROPERTY |

Both of Europe’s pre-eminent real estate markets, London and Paris, are languishing outside the top ten favoured cities for investment in 2016. London and Paris’s rankings also reflect the strengthening recovery of Europe’s other real estate markets. Berlin tops the rankings for both investment and development, while Hamburg takes the silver and Munich also features in the top ten.

- Emerging Trends in Real Estate® Europe 2016: Beyond the Capital by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and PwC AT HOME WITH HAYNES

LETTINGS NICOLA WILLIAMS, lettings manager at Knight Frank Islington, comments on the trends in the residential lettings market Having worked within the Islington lettings market for many years, I have always felt comfortable predicting the market month to month. My knowledge and experience were put to the test last year with the market becoming tougher and more unpredictable. Typically, when the sales market is static, the lettings market is busy; however, in 2015 both markets were challenging. With 2015 behind us, January has started well and we have been busy dealing with high levels of corporate relocation in every price range of

“Typically when the sales market is static, lettings is busy”

Michele Haynes of Haynes Interiors creates bespoke, elegant and contemporary interiors for central London properties. Whether you’re looking to dress a property for sale or rent, or need help selecting furnishings for your new flat, Haynes will use her design experience to help your property reach its full potential. Haynes offers her property styling service to small and medium sized developers, landlords and home owners, dressing new and existing properties, on time and to budget. She also offers a house doctoring service, whereby she’ll visit and assess a property and compile an initial report at a fixed fee. Thereafter, she can project coordinate and arrange contractor quotes. Finally, Haynes offers a personal shopping service, which may involve an accompanied shopping excursion to selected retailers, or the sourcing, ordering and delivery of items direct to your home. haynesinteriors.co.uk

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the market and are looking forward to a busy 2016. Prime properties (properties priced above £1,000 per week) have seen the largest increase in activity, with many of the houses that were sat on the market in the run up to Christmas attracting multiple offers in January. Outside of the summer months, January has always been a strong month with people reassessing their lives and making changes, whether it be relocating with work or moving in with a partner. Looking ahead to the first quarter, we have a strong sense that with the changes in stamp duty announced by the Chancellor in November, namely the additional three per cent stamp duty that is to be levied on purchases of additional properties, such as buy-to-lets from 1 April, many landlords will undoubtedly look to complete their purchases before this date. In turn, there may be an increase in letting stock, but with an increase in relocation activity we hope that this will balance out. Beyond this, predicting the remainder of 2016 is difficult. However, with a positive medium to long-term outlook for the UK economy, relocation activity should remain high, keeping upwards pressure on rental values and shaping 2016 into a successful year for lettings. Knight Frank Islington 0203 657 7360 knightfrank.co.uk

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A VERY IMPORTANT DECISION We pride ourselves on exceptional service and unrivalled market knowledge, with a global network of 417 offices across 58 countries that can showcase your property to the widest possible audience. Early indications suggest strong market conditions for 2016, so call us today on 020 3597 7670 to arrange your free market appraisal. Guide price: £895,000

Albion Riverside, Battersea SW11 An unusually large sixth floor one bedroom apartment situated in the iconic Albion Riverside. Bedroom, reception room, kitchen, bathroom. EPC: D. Approximately 79 sq m (851 sq ft). Leasehold: approximately 976 years remaining. riverside@knightfrank.com Office: 020 3597 7670

@KnightFrank KnightFrank.co.uk

Guide price: £1,795,000

Albert Bridge Road, Battersea SW11 A beautiful two bedroom duplex apartment with park views and generous ceiling heights. 2 bedrooms (1 with en suite and balcony), bathroom, kitchen, reception room. EPC: D. Approximately 137 sq m (1,480 sq ft). Leasehold: approximately 990 years remaining. battersea@knightfrank.com Office: 020 3597 7670

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OPENING DOORS IN 2016 We pride ourselves on exceptional service and unrivalled market knowledge, with a global network of 417 offices across 58 countries that can showcase your property to the widest possible audience. Early indications suggest strong market conditions for 2016, so call us today on 020 3597 7670 to arrange your free market appraisal. Guide price: £4,650,000

Centurion Building, Chelsea Bridge Wharf, Battersea SW8 A contemporary penthouse apartment with spectacular river views encompassing the bend in the river. 3 en suite bedrooms, guest WC, reception room, kitchen/dining room, utility room, balcony, 2 parking spaces. EPC: C. Approximately 214 sq m (2,304 sq ft). Leasehold: approximately 993 years remaining. riverside@knightfrank.com Office: 020 3597 7670

@KnightFrank KnightFrank.co.uk

Guide price: £2,550,000

St John's Hill, Clapham Junction SW11 A unique four bedroom house finished to an exceptional standard throughout. 4 en suite bedrooms, kitchen/dining room, reception room, cinema, garden. EPC: B. Approximately 296 sq m (3,156 sq ft). Freehold. battersea@knightfrank.com Office: 020 3597 7670

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Ontario Tower, Isle Of Dogs E14 Two bedroom duplex penthouse A contemporary two bedroom duplex penthouse apartment offering a fantastic living space along with a private south facing terrace affording far reaching River Thames views. 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, guest WC, reception room, kitchen, terrace, concierge, leisure facilities, private parking. EPC: C. Approximately 178.3 sq m (1,920 sq ft) Leasehold: approximately 984 years remaining

Guide price: £1,995,000

KnightFrank.co.uk/canarywharf cwharf@knightfrank.com 020 3641 6112

@KnightFrank KnightFrank.co.uk

KnightFrank.co.uk/CNW140014

The City- Feb 2016

13/01/2016 14:29:17

Ivory House, St Katharine Docks E1W Meticulously refurbished four bedroom warehouse apartment in handsome listed building Rarely available penthouse apartment with superb views across the docks. Master bedroom with dressing room and en suite bathroom, 2 further bedrooms with en suites, guest WC, study/ bedroom 4, triple aspect reception room/dining room, mezzanine level with two terraces and a hot tub, 2 parking spaces and a day time porter. EPC: C. Approximately 208 sq m (2,240 sq ft). Leasehold: 139 years 7 months remaining

Guide price: £3,995,950

KnightFrank.co.uk/wapping wapping@knightfrank.com 020 8166 5375

@KnightFrank KnightFrank.co.uk

KnightFrank.co.uk/WAP150155

Kensington & Chelsea Magazine

20/01/2016 12:44:37

  To find out how we can help you or to arrange your no obligation market appraisal please contact us on 020 8166 5366 or visit KnightFrank.co.uk/lettings   

Guide price: £650 per week

St Thomas Wharf, WappingE1W

>

Beautifully presented warehouse conversion with lovely south facing river views. 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, reception/dining room and balcony. EPC: B. Approximately 72 sq m (772 sq ft). Available furnished. wappinglettings@knightfrank.com Office: 020 8166 5366    

All potential tenants should be advised that, as well as rent, an administration fee of £276 will apply when renting a property. Please ask us for more information about other fees that may apply or visit KnightFrank.co.uk/tenantcharges

@KnightFrank KnightFrank.co.uk

Guide price: £850 per week

Royal Tower Lodge, City E1 Stunning brand new appartment on the edge of the City with a large terrace. 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, reception/dining room, kitchen and porter.EPC: B. Approximately 101 sq m (1,091 sq ft). Available furnished. wappinglettings@knightfrank.com Office: 020 8166 5366

Cit

LOOKING TO LET? To find out how we can help you or to arrange your no obligation market appraisal please contact us on 020 3823 9930 or visit Knightfrank.co.uk/lettings

Guide price: £795 per week

Cashmere House, Aldgate E1

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A spacious 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment to rent in Cashmere House, part of the brand new luxury Goodman's Fields development. This apartment has access to the onsite gymnasium, swimming pool and spa, plus 24 hour concierge and private cinema room. Available furnished. aldgatelettings@knightfrank.com Office: 020 3823 9930

All potential tenants should be advised that as well as rent, an administration fee of £276 and referencing fees of £48 per person will apply when renting a property. Please ask us for more information about other fees that may apply or visit KnightFrank.co.uk/tenantcharges

@KnightFrank KnightFrank.co.uk

Guide price: £650 per week

Satin House, Aldgate E1 A brand new one bedroom apartment with winter garden to rent in Satin House part of the brand new luxury Goodman's Fields development. Available furnished. aldgatelettings@knightfrank.com Office: 020 3823 9930

City Magazine Jan final 2

20/01/2016 12:11:00

WAPPING

Guide £895,000

FREE TRADE WHARF E1W 3

Whether small or tall Move with Savills

SHOREDITCH

SPITALFIELDS

OIEO £950,000

EXCHANGE BUILDINGS E1 1

TOWER HILL

EPC=C

Guide £990,000

LOVAT LANE EC3R 2

1,139 sq ft

782 sq ft 2

EPC=B

6389 City Magazine 'Small or Tall' DPS ART.indd 1

WAPPING

Guide £975,000

IVORY HOUSE E1W 1

718 sq ft 1

RUSSELL SQUARE COSMO PLACE WC1N 1

EPC=D

OIEO £650,000 439 sq ft EPC=C

ELEPHANT & CASTLE STRATA SE1 3

EPC=B

Guide £925,000

EPC=B

OIEO £1.15 million

PRINCELET STREET E1 1

902 sq ft

935 sq ft 2

SPITALFIELDS

EPC=C

OIRO £900,000

BOUNDARY STREET E2 2

1,192 sq ft

1,054 sq ft EPC=C

13/01/2016 12:43

6389

Call us 7 days a week on 020 7877 4640 savills.co.uk

OLD STREET

£750 pw + fees apply*

EAGLE POINT EC1V 2

777 sq ft

GREENWICH

EPC=B

£650 pw + fees apply*

EAST PARKSIDE SE10 3

1,088 sq ft

SHOREDITCH

EPC=B

£625 pw + fees apply*

SHOREDITCH HEIGHTS N1 2

706 sq ft EPC=B

WAPPING

£900 pw + fees apply*

WAPPING HIGH STREET E1W 3

WAPPING

EPC=D

£775 pw + fees apply*

STAR PLACE E1W 2

1,246 sq ft 2

WHITECHAPEL

EPC=C

£550 pw + fees apply*

CRAWFORD BUILDINGS E1 1

1,861 sq ft

441 sq ft EPC=B

SPITALFIELDS

£2,450 pw + fees apply*

CALVIN STREET E1 4

3,027 sq ft 4

SHAD THAMES

EPC=C

£1,495 pw + fees apply*

BUTLERS WHARF WEST SE1 3

CANARY WHARF

EPC=B

£1,500 pw + fees apply*

WESTFERRY CIRCUS E14 3

2,107 sq ft

1,710 sq ft EPC=D

If you’re thinking of buying, selling, renting or letting, please get in touch with our Canary Wharf, Shoreditch and Wapping offices offices. CANARY WHARF

£700 pw + fees apply*

THREE COLT STREET E14 2

Move with Savills

853 sq ft EPC=D

* Fees to include drawing up the tenancy agreements and reference change for one tenant – £282 inc VAT one-off fee. £36 inc VAT for each additional tenant/occupant/guarantor reference where required. Inventory check out fee – charged at the end of or early termination of the tenancy and the amount is dependant on the property size and whether furnished/unfurnished. For more details visit savills.co.uk/fees

12:43

6389 City Magazine 'Small or Tall' DPS ART.indd 2

13/01/2016 12:48

Beyond your expectations www.hamptons.co.uk

Wood Street, EC2 £1,100 per week (charges apply)* Brand New Luxurious three bedroom apartment in this landmark development. EPC: B

High Timber Street, EC4 £800 per week(charges apply)* Spacious two bedroom top floor apartment in this popular riverside development. EPC: C

High Timber Street, EC4 £750 per week (charges apply)* A refurbished two bedroom apartment in the warehouse style Globe View development. EPC: C

Hatton Garden , EC1 £825 per week (charges apply)* A stunning split level three bedroom apartment, superbly located in this modern development. EPC: D

College Hill, EC4 £540 per week (charges apply)* Stylishly presented one bedroom apartment located in the heart of the City of London. EPC: C

Brushfield Street, E1 £980 per week (charges apply)* Stunning 19th Century three bedroom property split over three floors in the heart of Spitalfields. EPC: D

Hamptons City Office Sales. 020 7717 5435 | Lettings. 020 7717 5437

*Tenant Charges Tenants should note that as well as rent, an administration charge of £216 (Inc. VAT) per property and a referencing charge of £54 (Inc. VAT) per person will apply when renting a property. Please ask us for more information about other fees that may apply or visit www.hamptons.co.uk/rent/tenant-charges

Dufferin Street , EC1 £1,200,000 Leasehold A top floor warehouse conversion with roof terrace. EPC: D

Great Tower Street, EC3 £650,000 Leasehold A bright two bedroom, two bathroom City flat. EPC: C

The Heron, EC2 £685,000 Leasehold A stunning 30th floor west-facing Galley Suite flat in The Heron. EPC: C

The Montgomery Buildings, EC1 £1,250,000 Leasehold Three bedroom duplex penthouse apartment in Clerkenwell. EPC: C

High Holborn, WC1 £1,685,000 Leasehold A three bedroom sub-penthouse in Holborn. EPC: C

Ravey Street, EC2 £6,000,000 Leasehold A rare New York style penthouse in Shoreditch. EPC: D

Beyond your expectations www.hamptons.co.uk

Hemingford Road, N1 An impressive freehold family house positioned on a prime road in the heart of Barnsbury. This handsome house offers a wealth of character throughout and is presented with flexible living accommodation over four floors. On entry level there is a grand double reception room with front to back sash windows, feature fireplaces, cornicing and views over the rear garden. On the lower floor is an additional reception room with an open plan eat-in kitchen perfect for a modern day family. EPC: Grade II listed

Hamptons Islington Office Sales. 020 7717 5453 | Lettings. 020 7717 5335

£1,795,000 Freehold • • • • • •

Four storey period house Flexible living accommodation Open plan kitchen/breakfast room Through reception Three bedrooms West facing rear garden

Northchurch Road, N1 This stunning period home offers regency style living with a modern immaculately kept interior. The current owners have spent a great deal of time meticulously keeping and improving this home to a high standard. The accommodation on the ground floor boasts an open plan well equipped kitchen area onto a dining area. A cloakroom, enclosed utility area and bi folding doors onto the garden makes this a great family entertaining space. The interior has been beautifully designed by Living in Space, this simply must be seen. EPC: D

£2,250,000 Freehold • • • • • •

Drawing room Sitting room Dining room 5 bedrooms Ensuite shower room Garden

Beyond your expectations www.hamptons.co.uk

Cinnamon Wharf, SE1 £3,500,000 Leasehold A truly stunning lateral three bedroom penthouse boasting unrivalled East to West views across the London skyline. EPC: D

Eagle Wharf, SE1 £1,395,000 Leasehold A newly refurbished bright split level three double bedroom apartment in this central Shad Thames development. EPC: F

Butlers Wharf West,SE1 £2,800,000 Leasehold 2,035 square foot apartment stretching from the front of Butler’s Wharf West to the back onto Shad Thames. EPC:B

Cinnamon Wharf, SE1 £999,950 Leasehold A two bedroom 1033 sq ft apartment on the fifth floor of this popular Shad Thames. EPC: C

Providence, SE1 £1,000,000 Leasehold This first floor flat has been presented in good condition and provides two double bedrooms, two bathrooms. EPC: B

Providence, SE1 SE1, £675,000 Leasehold A dual aspect corner apartment overlooking the Japanese-style water garden with two double bedrooms with wardrobes. EPC: C

Hamptons Tower Bridge Office Sales. 020 7717 5489 | Lettings. 020 7717 5491

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE PLACE The steps beside the Regent’s Canal with Granary Square and the University of the Arts beyond.

LIVE IN AMAZING KING’S CROSS You have restaurants, cafés, parks and fountains; you have shops, squares and the joys of a canal; you have the best national and international rail connections in London and an extraordinary choice of some of the Capital’s most extraordinary homes. Move in now and experience living at King’s Cross.

You have 6 tube lines, 3 mainline stations and a Eurostar. Live just 5 minutes from Oxford Circus and Covent Garden and a mere 8 minutes from Victoria and Piccadilly Circus.

Please contact us at: enquiries@livingatkingscross.co.uk or call +44 (0)20 7205 4246 kingscross.co.uk/homes

www.kingscross.co.uk

AVANTGARDE TOWER, SHOREDITCH E1 ● ● ● ●

2 Bedrooms 2 Bathrooms Approx. 833 sq ft (77.4 sq m) Balcony

● ● ● ●

24 Hour concierge Residents' gym 0.1 mile from Shoreditch station EPC: B

Guide price £875,000 Leasehold For more information, call Bernard Cully 020 3813 5836 or email bernard.cully@eu.jll.com

16-17 Royal Exchange London EC3V 3LL

jll.co.uk/residential

GOODMANS FIELDS, ALDGATE E1 ● ● ● ●

1 Bedroom 1 Bathroom Approx. 663 sq ft (61.6. sq m) Winter garden

● ● ● ●

On site gym 24 Hour concierge 0.1 mile from Aldgate station EPC: B

Price £650 per week Furnished For more information, call Neil Short 020 3813 5949 or email neil.short@eu.jll.com

Potential tenants are advised that administration fees may be payable when renting a property. Please ask for details of our charges.

16-17 Royal Exchange London EC3V 3LL

jll.co.uk/residential

www.cbreresidential.com/uk

Southampton Street, WC2E

In the heart of Londonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s classic and contemporary cultural scene Classically designed two bedroom apartment to rent in Covent Garden is situated on the second floor of this impressive landmark building with fantastic views over the iconic Covent Garden piazza. A stunning open plan kitchen and reception, perfect for entertaining, is fitted with high quality appliances combining sleek design and the latest technology.

ÂŁ1,850 per week +44 (0)20 7205 4611

westend.lettings@cbre.com

www.cbreresidential.com/uk

The Grays, Gray’s Inn Road, Holborn, WC1 Twelve new luxury apartments in a prestigious location This beautiful building is nestled in the very heart of London, yet acquires a serene and peaceful environment with wide welcoming streets. The apartments benefit from excellent living and entertaining spaces, open plan modern bespoke kitchens with integrated appliances, bespoke floor to ceiling height wardrobes and engineered wide plank timber flooring, a superb concierge service and lift access.

£895,000 to £1,350,000 +44 (0)20 7205 4553

westend.sales@cbre.com

Lanark Road W9 £1,700,000 Having undergone an extensive refurbishment programme this exceptional three-bedroom maisonette comes to the market in walk-in condition. Share of Freehold. EPC=E

• Light-filled maisonette • West facing roof terrace • Victorian conversion • Next to Clifton Gardens

Little Venice: 020 7993 3050 sales.lve@marshandparsons.co.uk

Modernapartment apartmentboasting boasting Modern highceilings ceilingsthroughout throughout high Matchingpeople peopleand andproperty propertyininLondon Londonfor forover over150 150years. years. Matching

122 NEWGATE STREET LONDON EC1A 7AA

T: 020 7600 0026 W: www.scottcity.co.uk E: property@scottcity.co.uk

SEDDON HOUSE, BARBICAN EC2 FOR SALE £545,000 A well-presented spacious STUDIO apartment with MEZZANINE BEDROOM and barrel vaulted ceiling situated in SEDDON HOUSE in the BARBICAN with WEST facing views from the balcony. The apartment retains many of the original features including kitchen and parts of the bathroom. There is Under floor heating throughout which is included in the service charge. Barbican tube station (Circle, Hammersmith & City Lines), Moorgate (Northern Line), St Paul’s (Central Line) Mansion House (District Line) and the new Crossrail Station, Farringdon (due 2018).

HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON WC1 FOR SALE £1,685,000 SEVEN HIGH HOLBORN is located only a minutes’ walk away from Holborn Viaduct and Hatton Garden. This spectacular THREE-BEDROOM apartment has SOLID WOOD FLOORING laid throughout, with the exceptions of the new carpeted bedrooms and tiled bathrooms. The kitchen is FULLY FITTED with modern appliances including washer/dryer, full sized fridge freezer, dishwasher and high quality GRANITE WORK SURFACES. The property also features a fantastic South and East facing Balcony, DAY CONCIERGE and secure underground PARKING.

MILTON HOUSE, EC1 £550 PER WEEK

BARBICAN, EC2 £435 PER WEEK

This TWO BEDROOM / TWO BATHROOM PROPERTY is located on the FORTH FLOOR of the building and enjoys a bright NORTH & EAST ASPECT. The living room / dining area has windows overlooking Postman’s Park, and both bedrooms are double rooms which over look Postman’s Park and ‘Little Britain’. Another key feature is that the building has a DAY CONCIERGE. Available immediately.

AVAILABLE NOW - OFFERED UNFURNISHED - Positioned on the top floor of Defoe House within the Barbican estate is the wonderful one bedroom penthouse apartment. The property has been totally refurbished throughout, with brand new carpeted flooring and the walls / ceilings are all freshly painted. Another key features of this apartment is it short walk to Barbican tube station.

WEST SMITHFIELD, EC1 £350 PER WEEK

ST PAULS, EC4 £395 PER WEEK

AVAILABLE FEBRUARY 2016 - Studio in this exceptional new development in the heart of the City. Finished to the highest specification and extending to some 395 sq. ft. the apartment is located on the fifth floor with a balcony. All apartments benefit from underfloor heating, sealed oak wood flooring and 24 hour concierge.

AVAILABLE NOW - This fantastic ONE BEDROOM apartment benefits from not just high ceilings but also tall windows, this gives a wonderful aura of both space and light. The property is offered to the market furnished and has wooden flooring throughout. Other key features include security entry system and is close to Blackfriars.

Chislehurst 020 8295 4900 Locksbottom 01689 882 988

Orpington 01689 661 400 West Wickham 020 8432 7373

Beckenham 020 8663 4433 Bromley 020 8315 5544

Chlelsfield Park BR6

£2,495,000 F/H

High Leigh is a beautiful, recently completed, six bedroom home boasting exceptional frontage. Situated in one of Kent’s most prestigious estates, ‘Chelsfield Park’, the location has a feeling of being semi-rural yet is within easy access of the A21 and M25.

Contact Locksbottom 01689 882 988

Shirley CR0

£1,895,000 F/H

Beautifully proportioned and well presented five bedroom four bathroom detached family home, offering 4,300 sqft of living accommodation. • •

Five Bedrooms Three Reception Rooms

• •

Secluded Garden Energy Efficiency Rating E

Contact West Wickham 020 8432 7373

• • • •

Six Bedroom Suites Four Reception Rooms Generous Secluded Rear Garden Energy Efficiency Rating B

Beckenham BR3

£1,250,000 F/H

Built c.1938 this home retains many charming original characteristics. Offered chain free and situated on a quiet cul-de-sac close to Beckenham High Street. • •

Five Double Bedrooms Excellent Local Amenities

• •

Detached Energy Efficiency Rating D

Contact Beckenham 020 8663 4433 A member of

The Acorn Group, incorporating:

langfordrussell.co.uk

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ELEPHANT & CASTLE

50% NOW SOLD

Now complete and ready to move in, an architectural gem in the heart of Elephant and Castle, exceptional in both quality and design. ‘Randall Court’ showcases contemporary London living, with seven boutique style 1, 2 and 3 bedroom apartments located in Zone 1 just south of the River Thames. Elephant & Castle station offers services into Waterloo and London Bridge in just 4 minutes, The City in 6 minutes and Victoria and Canary Wharf in under 16 minutes. For more information please contact:

020 7089 6565 | newhomes@acorn.ltd.uk | acornnewhomes.co.uk

SHOW HOME OPEN SATURDAYS 11AM - 4PM 1 Bed Prices From: £495,000 2 Bed Prices From: £699,995 12 Steedman Street, Elephant & Castle SE17 3AF

WWW.PADLONDON.CO.UK

London’s Finest Properties 2000

We’re celebrating 15 YEARS as London’s ﬁnest

LIFE founded at Parliament View • 1 London Ofﬁce • 183 Apartments • 3 staff

Took over Collier’s RH rental department • 2 London Ofﬁce • 500 apartments • 11 Staff

2003 Opened a franchise ofﬁce in Cape Town, South Africa

2004 Established our Head Ofﬁce in North Acton

Our LIFE journey...

2005

Opened several “Pop Up” Letting ofﬁces for: • Ballymore • St James • City & Docklands • Taylor Wimpey

2007 Acquired UltraLET • 6 London Ofﬁces • 1,000 Apartments • 50 staff

2011 Established our Hong Kong ofﬁce

2012 Merged with Galliard Residential • 12 London Ofﬁces • 2,500 Apartments • 120 staff

2013 Established our Singapore ofﬁce

2013 2015 • 14 London Ofﬁces • 3 International Ofﬁces • 3,250 Apartments • 130 staff

LETTINGS | MANAGEMENT | SALES | SERVICED APARTMENTS

CityMagazine_Feb2016.indd 1

TO BUY The Eagle, City Road EC1V • 1 bedroom • In The Eagle – a 27 storey art deco inspired development • 603 sq ft • 250 year leasehold and 2 year developer warranty • Panoramic views of The City For more information call our North London branch on: 020 7359 4488

£700,000

TO RENT Chatsworth House, One Tower Bridge SE1 • 3 bedroom / 2 bathroom • Remote control heating, airconditioning and mood-lighting • 912 sq ft apartment on 15th floor • Located in a luxurious Lincoln Plaza development • 4 storey winter garden and a business lounge, private cinema • Modern furnishing and SMEG appliances For more information call our Tower Bridge branch on: 020 7234 0666

£1,000 p/w | £4,333 p/m

020 8896 9990 | liferesidential.co.uk

21/01/2016 10:05

| PROPERTY |

Insider Knowledge

CONSIDERING CROSSRAIL Diana Alam, Head of Residential Development Sales, JLL

How will Crossrail impact the London property market in 2016? Crossrail will become fully operational in late 2019. The east to west cross-London line will increase capacity by around 10 per cent on the capital’s tube and train network. Current research by JLL Residential forecasts how much prices and rents are projected to rise over the next few years, as well as identifying the locations that will benefit the most. All Crossrail stations should see house price growth above the Greater London average during the period end-2014 to end2020 but locations such as Whitechapel, Woolwich, West Drayton and Ealing Broadway are expected to witness the highest growth. Our research on Crossrail is useful for people buying for their own occupation, buying to rent or for developers whether developing to sell or building to rent. Our main findings are: • Areas experiencing significant regeneration, combined with the Crossrail effect, will benefit most. All Crossrail locations will reap the rewards of a higher profile alongside greater consumer and developer interest. • The biggest winners from Crossrail will be Whitechapel, Woolwich, West Drayton and Ealing Broadway. • Some locations such as Woolwich, Iver, Langley and Slough are worth

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another look. • Longer-term, but more opportunistic, locations are Ilford, Forest Gate, Abbey Wood, Slough and Southall. The research also unveils that it is a misconception that Crossrail will deliver notable journey time savings throughout its route. The primary savings will be through the Central Section and on the South Eastern Section. The journey time impacts from the west into Paddington and from the north east into Liverpool Street will be marginal.

It is not too late for investors to get involved or take advantage of Crossrail Housebuilders and developers will continue to look at Crossrail opportunities, almost above all others, as we move into 2016 as the benefits, growth and location stories are clear for all. There is plenty of construction and enabling activity at various stations along the east-west route which serves as a reminder to everyone that Crossrail will get delivered pretty soon now. It should be a nudge to those who might be interested to get involved sooner rather than later.

Prices will continue to reflect the growing importance of the locations along the route and we expect price growth around most of the Crossrail stations to outperform the broader market in 2016 despite already reflecting future growth potential to some extent. Is it too late for investors to take advantage of those Crossrail hotspots? Or are there perhaps a few remaining potential gems? It is not too late for investors to get involved or take advantage of Crossrail. It is fair to say that property prices around most of the Crossrail stations have increased notably in recent years to reflect the Crossrail effect, but we still expect greater price growth at most Crossrail stations relative to wider market growth over the next couple of years at least. With new developments setting new benchmarks in terms of pricing in several locations and with such relatively hasslefree developments likely to be attractive purchases moving forwards, there are still plenty of opportunities for investors to reap notable benefits from Crossrail. To learn more about the impact of Crossrail please visit our interactive web tool: residential.jll.co.uk/new-residentialthinking-home/research/crossrailidentifying-opportunities-january-2015/ jll-crossrail-tool.aspx

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THANKS TRIP ADVISOR. WE’RE AS PLEASED AS RUM PUNCH.

Trip Advisor has awarded Saint Peter’s Bay, Barbados, their Certificate of Excellence. What makes this so special? It recognises the consistently excellent reviews we’ve been earning. From couples, families and simply anyone dedicated to real standards in this Caribbean idyll. At its heart: our concierge team, here to help you get the very best – whether that’s swimming with turtles, perfecting your swing, pampering or exploring all the riches of this Bajan jewel. A holiday of a lifetime. Or a home for a lifetime. Saint Peter’s Bay welcomes you.

UNNA Luxury Resorts & Residences

Visit stpetersbaybarbados.com and then call 0800 097 0847

THE WORLD AGREES, IT’S A WORLD APART.

agent focus The Picture of Paradise

A life in Barbados with the sea, sun and a cocktail in hand seems hard to beat, but when UNNA Luxury Resorts & Residences is involved the stakes are raised

Golf is a popular sport in Barbados, around 50 per cent of visitors play while they are staying at St Peters Bay or Port Ferdinand. To help you enjoy the game a little more, top professional golf coach Nick Bradley will be at the Golf Studio at Port Ferdinand from 6-9 February. Guests can book tuition sessions to refine their golf skills by learning from one of the best coaches in the business. Nick will also be available for further dates in March and April.

rriving at the airport after a long journey is a dangerous affair. The lack of sleep, swollen ankles and long passport queues can turn even the most calm person into a nightmare, even if the place they have just landed in is Barbados. The team at UNNA Luxury Resorts & Residences have thought of this and are there to meet and greet guests with a fast-track airport service. They ensure that residents are the first people out of the airport and are shuttled to one of the two picturesque resorts quicker than you can say rum punch. The first of UNNA’s properties on the west coast is Saint Peter’s Bay, a resort of 57 ocean-facing apartments, ranging from $1.795 m for a 2,700 sq ft ground floor three-bedroom apartment to $6.5 m for a 6,300 sq ft five-bedroom penthouse. Each property, which can be rented out with help from UNNA, overlooks a white sandy beachfront and is designed with dark wood, traditional Bajan architecture and soft, plush furnishings. The penthouse apartments are the most impressive, with stunning 360-degree views from the roof terrace across the ocean and luscious green landscape of the island. The lounge area up there can be catered for by a dumb waiter that goes straight to the resort’s kitchens below. In the rest

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this page, from top Saint Peter’s Bay Pool and Beach; Port Ferdinand; Saint Peter’s Bay apartment

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of the property, spacious living areas, en suite bathrooms and a neat kitchen strike the balance between homely comforts and ideal entertaining space. There is easy access to the front door via an elevator and direct access via a “bikini lift” to the beach at the rear. The resort also offers a gym, private training room and a small hair salon on site, but the main attraction is the poolside Gazebo Bar and Grill which serves breakfast, lunch and supper and is a great place to meet other residents and guests. Port Ferdinand is the other of the two resorts managed by UNNA, situated nearby just a few minutes’ drive north of Speightstown. Arriving by water taxi is the best way to view the vista of these 82 residences; the turquoise waters of the Port Ferdinand Marina and the gleaming white bedroom apartments ( from $2.25 m for a two-bed home to $7.75 m for the five-bedroom penthouse) resting on the harbour look like a postcard of paradise. There are two design styles available, one with dark wood hues and marble flooring and the other with light maple woodwork coupled with neutral limestone. The latter is simply exquisite in the four-bedroom penthouse when decorated with light cream furnishings and colourful paintings, and is even more impressive when lit up by the sun through the floor-to-ceiling windows. Each residence has hand-crafted coral-rendered walls, locally made oak cupboards and concealed air conditioning and four of them come with their own private swimming pools. The exterior is just as impressive, with pot plants and palm trees adorning the walkway and a berth (there are 120 in total) outside the front door. There is certainly no chance of getting bored here; the amenities are extensive. There is a modern gym, business centre, the fine-dining restaurant 13°/59°, and the Quarterdeck Bar and Pizzeria with a pool (which serves a great variety of crispy thin pizzas and Italian-inspired nibbles). And if this isn’t enough to entertain your family or guests, further around the marina is a kids’ play area next to a trickling waterfall, the Sandbox Tree Spa in a stunningly quiet leafy gully (drop a pin and you’ll hear it), as well as an adult play area with activities and golf simulator – Nick Bradley is just one of the names who come to offer residents a few tips on their game. Both sister resorts share facilities so there is never a dull moment and the UNNA concierge can also advise residents on what to do around the island. A trip on a chartered catamaran from Port Ferdinand Marina is one of the best ways to enjoy Barbados. Alternatively, try

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the catch of the day at local fine dining restaurants from the best seats in the house or pop down to Holetown for some luxury shopping at Burberry, Louis Vuitton or Michael Kors. Whether you opt for an apartment on the marina or the beach, it will undoubtedly be a great investment, either as a turn-key family residence or as a holiday home to rent out; Port Ferdinand apartments are predicted to rent from $650 per night for a two-bed in the summer, nearing $2,785 for a threebed during the peak season in winter. But the key selling point seems to be the services, facilities and support that UNNA provide, which cost an average of $2,000 a month. Staff are friendly, welcoming and extremely efficient in ensuring that everyone has the best time in the Caribbean, whether that’s trying out waterskiing, wakeboarding, jet-skiing, snorkelling or turtle-watching; a personal yoga session; a private dining experience or using the nannying services. It is so easy to get used to this lifestyle that when you lock up and leave and return to the sharp reality of London, you’ll be wondering where your meet and greet is, not to mention that cool glass of rum punch.

More information

above, from top Port Ferdinand; Saint Peter’s Bay; Port Ferdinand right Port Ferdinand

• 1,155 ultra-high-net-worth individuals live in the Caribbean • 67 per cent of these have relocated from another country • Barbados has double taxation agreements with 34 countries and 11 in the pipeline • More than 71 per cent of visitors are from Anglophone countries • Barbados properties are six times more valuable per square foot than those in Monaco • Barbados has year-round sunshine portferdinand.com, 0800 086 8662 (+1 246-272-2000) stpetersbaybarbados.com, 0800 097 0847 (+1 246-419-9601)

THE CITY MAGAZINE | February 2016

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L AS T R E M A I N I N G LU X U RY P E N T H O U S E

STUNNING PENTHOUSE - FINAL OPPORTUNITY Located on the edge of the city fringe, this contemporary penthouse is at the height of luxury - Just moments from the best of Londonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bars, restaurants and transport links. The penthouse is finished to the highest specification and offers spacious interiors with peerless views of the city. Price from ÂŁ2.25m +44 (0)20 3302 3115 onecommercialstreet.com View from Penthouse One and interior images from Penthouse Three. Price correct at time of going to press.

Heritage homes in the heart of Islington Launching 11th Feb 2016

Thursday 11th Feb, from 4pm Friday 12th Feb to Sunday 14th Feb, from 11am Call now to make a reservation: 020 3582 2504 Or visit islingtonsquare.com

Islington Square brings modern warehouse living to one of the most sought-after addresses in London. Moments from Upper Street, the spacious luxury apartments combine Edwardian architecture with contemporary design â&#x20AC;&#x201D; heritage in a modern home.

| property |

DEVELOPMENT SHOWCASE

At Your Service

n the heart of the South Bank, one of London’s most dynamic and cultural districts, South Bank Tower is a new development raising the bar for the residents of its 193 stylish apartments and four spectacular penthouses. South Bank Tower is setting a new benchmark when it comes to concierge services. The independent real estate firm CIT has created a completely new concierge brand especially for residents: Consort24. Headed up by a Residences General Manager hand-picked for his experience in five-star hotels such as The Savoy and Four Seasons, the service is much more than your standard parcel collection and porterage. Offering a completely personalised service, busy professionals can get bookings for London’s most exclusive restaurants and theatre performances, while residents travelling from abroad can have their travel, transfer and itinerary arranged and managed on their behalf.

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Exclusive to the residents of South Bank Tower, this concierge service is complemented by impressive health and well-being facilities. From relaxing in the natural stone swimming pool, sauna and steam room, watching the latest film releases or sports events in the private cinema room to entertaining friends in the private dining room atop of London’s largest private roof terrace with views across London’s iconic skyline, every detail at South Bank Tower has been thoughtfully conceived to provide the very best of luxury London living. The first residents at South Bank Tower have now settled in, with the scheme due for completion this year.

PRICES FROM £2,450,000

Upper Ground, SE1 020 3267 1048 southbanktower.com

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YOUR PRIVATE LONDON VIEWS THE TRIPLEX PENTHOUSE - ALBERT EMBANKMENT

Selling Agent:

www.telfordhomes.london

Price correct at time of going to press. Photography of The Triplex Apartment.

An exclusive penthouse set at the top of this landmark building just off Albert Embankment, with private terraces featuring sensational views of London.

Price: ÂŁ6,000,000

A development by:

To organise a private viewing please contact Jessica Munday on 020 3538 7959 or email jessica.munday@telfordhomes.london

COMPUTER GENERATED IMAGE

Bromley-By-Bow E3

Enjoy the calm of waterside living A waterside collection of 1, 2 & 3 bedroom apartments.

Launching February 2016

Excellent transport links. Under 0.7 miles* walk to Bromley-By-Bow and Bow Road stations. 10 minutes* from Bromley-by-Bow station to Westfield Stratford Shopping Centre.

A new home for a New Year Call now to register your interest

Luxury all-inclusive specification with handleless kitchens, quartz worktops and flooring throughout. Balcony or terrace to all apartments. Underground parking available**.

0344 809 9145

www.BowRiverVillage.co.uk Source: *www.tfl.gov.uk

marketing suite: Coming soon

** To selected properties

5295 ss BrV a4 Canary Wharf mag ad.indd 1

21/01/2016 11:46

THE HEIGHT OF SMART INVESTMENT • SUITES, 1, 2 & 3 BEDROOM HOMES IN ZONE 1 • STAMP DUTY CONTRIBUTION** • PRICES FROM £495,000

Elephant Park is at the heart of the largest regeneration area in Zone 1, Elephant & Castle. The Highwood affords Elephant Park’s highest living experience* – a 31-storey tower combining spectacular skyline views and the luxury of the integrated West Grove Club – making it a smart investment in a home for the future and the future of London.

BRAND NEW RELEASE AT THE HIGHWOOD, WEST GROVE Register now to arrange your appointment for the launch event

w/c 1st February at an exclusive London location Limited appointments available

Call 0203 538 9496 | welcomehome@lendlease.com All images used are for illustrative purposes only. Furniture and landscaping are also shown for illustrative purposes only. Detail design of facades and landscaping subject to planning agreement, it is anticipated that there will be changes in landscape design. Individual features such as windows, brick and other materials’ colours may vary, as may heating and electrical layouts. These particulars should not be relied upon as accurately describing any of the specific matters described by any order under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and the Business Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008. This information including images and dimensions is not intended to form part of or constitute a contract or warranty. January 2016. *Currently planned at time of press. **On selected plots only and for a limited time only.

www.elephantpark.co.uk

The Goodman Penthouse Launch at Goodman’s Fields Thursday 4th February, 6pm – 9pm

Enjoy the pinnacle of London living at The Goodman Penthouse. Just over 3,800 square feet set over the top three floors of Satin House, with exquisite interiors and breathtaking views towards the City and Canary Wharf.

The Goodman Penthouse priced at £5,000,000 – ready to move into now. Call 020 3773 5736 or email goodmans@berkeleygroup.co.uk Sales & Marketing Suite open 7 days a week 10am – 6pm (Open until 8pm on Wednesdays and 4pm on Sundays) 39 Leman Street, London, E1 8EY. Prices and details correct at time of going to press and subject to availability. Computer generated images depict Goodman’s Fields and are indicative only.

www.goodmansfields.co.uk Proud to be a member of the Berkeley Group of companies

| property |

agent focus A Pocket of Potential

Alex Myles explains why Hurford Salvi Carr’s new Aldgate office is showing plenty of promise

n 2007, the City of London Corporation began the regeneration of Aldgate, an area of London that today is almost unrecognisable. Alex Myles, branch manager at the new Hurford Salvi Carr Aldgate office, says for this reason having an office in the area was something Hurford Salvi Carr had on its mind for some time: “We knew Aldgate was going to be changing massively, and we wanted to have a prime location in the area.” And they’ve been successful in securing one, now calling the ground floor of the Altitude building home. This year, Hurford Salvi Carr celebrates a successful 20 years in the business, and the Aldgate branch is certainly reaping the rewards of the existing company: “We work a lot on recommendations and referrals, so a lot of the walk-ins and calls we’ve had are from people who already know us,” explains Myles. We’re told at this point in time, the clientele has been varied. However, currently a lot of the business has been buy-to-let investors looking to do a deal before April, and young City professionals looking for property to buy and live in. The company is, however, anticipating increasing interest from tenants as more of the developments approach the final stages of completion. “I think the high specifications and facilities that these developments offer are something that tenants are very attracted to. Perhaps they’re paying higher rents, but they get a lifestyle alongside the property they’re renting,” says Myles. For many, the facilities include a gymnasium, sauna, steam room, spin rooms and, at Goodman’s Fields, an amazing cinema room. Facilities aside, Myles believes the location itself will attract both buy-to-let investors and owner/ occupiers, especially those City workers looking for close proximity to the office. Myles’ advice to potential vendors is: “If you’ve had a property for a while and you’re thinking about selling, now is a good time, especially if you want to hit the buy-to-let

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investors before the April tax comes into place.” Equally, for landlords, “it’s a good location to start investing in,” he adds. So, why Aldgate? “You’ve got good access to Tower Bridge, Borough Market, Brick Lane, Spitalfields and top name restaurants like SUSHISAMBA, so there’s a lot to do.” The Aldgate office services Spitalfields, Brick Lane, City East, down to Tower Hill, into Wapping and then everything central to Aldgate as well. So if you are looking to relocate or invest in the area, Hurford Salvi Carr prides itself on offering exceptional attention to detail. “It’s all about attentive service, professionalism and expertise, we all come from various backgrounds; I used to manage restaurants for about 10 years, so I’ve got that built into me and I know a lot of people within the company are the same. We like creating a rapport with the vendors and buyers as well, and we like retained business. We like people to recommend us and then come back to us.” hurford-salvi-carr.co.uk

“I think the high specifications and facilities that these developments offer are something that tenants are very attracted to”

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SS0701_CityMag_01.qxp_Layout 1 20/01/2016 14:05 Page 1

70% already sold - Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t miss out Luxury 1, 2 & 3 bedroom apartments in fashionable N1 / Superior specification throughout / Canalside location / Spacious outside living / 10 minutes walk from Old Street and Angel tube stations

Prices from ÂŁ585,000* Marketing suite open Mon-Sun 10am-5pm 1 Wenlock Road, London, N1 7SL

Call today: 0344 809 9159 RegentApartments.co.uk

Now selling Platinum Apartments, including 3 & 4 bedroom duplexes

*Prices correct at the time of going to press. image is a computer generated artist impression. Travel times are approximate and have been obtained from google.co.uk/maps

INVESTMENT PORTFOLIO Waterside Living As many areas of London – particularly the East End – become increasingly built up, developments with a connection to nature may just have the upper hand. Whether it’s a riverside community or being a stone’s throw from the lake in London’s oldest public park, these three developments’ proximity to nature adds potential value

BOW RIVER VILLAGE A brand new community is taking shape and launches this February on the banks of the River Lea. The buildings which make up Bow River Village, with steel balustrades, elegant brickwork, timber decking and generously proportioned windows, reflect the area’s industrial heritage. Yet this part of London has now evolved to attract creative industries such as the Bow Arts Trust and 3 Mills Studios.

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The development consists of 92 one-, twoand three-bedroom apartments and twobedroom duplexes, many looking straight out onto the water. The interiors boast high-quality craftsmanship, streamlined kitchens with Neff and Zanussi appliances and impressive bathrooms fitted out by Grohe and Roca. Outside are landscaped courtyards and splashes of green space while every apartment has its own

balcony or terrace – private havens to enjoy the tranquillity of the riverside location, which is itself well connected. Bromley-by-Bow station offers District Line access into central London and the A12 is also nearby. from £340,000 Bow River Village, E3 0344 809 9145 bowrivervillage.co.uk

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REGENT APARTMENTS

Set within the tranquil canalside setting of Wenlock Basin, a collection of luxury one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom apartments and duplexes are currently available at Regent Apartments. Now over 70 per cent sold, the development – a short walk from Angel and Old Street stations and within easy reach of the

thriving creative and financial districts of Shoreditch and the City – is particularly appealing to professionals. Selected apartments offer a more flexible living space thanks to internal sliding pocket doors. These allow residents to utilise the living area as a large and open-plan entertaining space or divide

into more intimate areas when desired. With great attention to detail in the design, apartments incorporate chic handle-less fitted kitchens with a range of superior branded integrated appliances, underfloor heating and luxury bathrooms complete with large illuminated mirror cabinets. The Platinum Collection apartments have the added benefit of smart home technology; music, heating, lights and blinds can be controlled via LCD touch panels or a smart device. Floor-toceiling windows allow light to flood the apartments and provide enviable views of London’s skyline, which can also be enjoyed from the spacious terraces. from £585,000 Regent Apartments, N1 0344 809 9159 regentapartments.co.uk

VICTORIA PARK COLLECTION In the heart of Victoria Park Village and just a block away from the historic 200acre Victoria Park, three large, elegant townhouses are still available within the Victoria Park Collection development. As well as access to the large park and its boating lake and tennis courts, each property also benefits from private outdoor courtyard space and the local village feel of the surrounding area extends to the array of independent boutiques and pubs. Moving indoors, the properties’ interiors follow particularly high

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specifications with solid oak staircases, bespoke engineered oak flooring and a digital heating and hot water control system with WiFi to enable remote iPhone operation. Bathrooms offer freestanding StoneKAST baths and wall-mounted cascade taps while kitchens will feature Siemens appliances, German high gloss finish cabinets and stone worktops. from £1.395m Victoria Park Collection, E9 020 7613 4044 fyfemcdade.com

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Discover Londonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s youngest landmark Now Launched Berkeley Homes and Foster + Partners are proud to present South Quay Plaza, two iconic buildings just moments from Canary Wharf. At 68 storeys and with world class facilities, South Quay Plaza will redefine London living.

Suites, 1, 2 & 3 bedroom apartments available. For further information, please call 020 3811 1532 or email southquayplaza@berkeleygroup.co.uk Details are correct at time of going to press and subject to apartment type and availability. Computer generated image depicts South Quay Plaza. ÂŠ DBOX for Berkeley Homes.

www.southquayplaza.london Proud to be a member of the Berkeley Group of companies

NICO ROSBERG Global citizen

MII .. C CO TTUUM OMM

211 Regent Street, L ondon • Westfield Shepherds Bush, L ondon • L ondon City Airport

211 Regent Street, L ondon • Westfield Shepherds Bush, L ondon • L ondon City Airport Also available at Case, Harrods and Selfridges Also available at Case, Harrods and Selfridges