One of London’s oldest and most popular hotels, The Savoy is home to not just one, but two of the World’s best renowned bars. First opened in 1903, The American Bar is bright, opulent and classic, while the windowless downstairs Beaufort Bar has a far more sedate, still luxurious, atmosphere. Quintessentially art-deco, the low-lit space’s bar stands on the hotel’s former cabaret stage as the room’s prime focus, while black walls are punctuated with luxurious gold accents. Of an evening,...

If a reasonably well-informed alien were to visit the United Kingdom in May or June, he (she? It? Them?) would assume that this was a land of devotees of the great sun god, Ra. We live, it is true, in a relatively cold climate – I read somewhere that the UK is on the same latitude as Labrador – but once the sun peeps out from behind its cloak, we embrace it wholeheartedly. I say this as a Scot, whose...

Here's a Pro Tip drawn from the world of sportswriting: If you are ever called upon to write a match report – and in football that means you file within ten minutes of the final whistle unless you want to discover just how loudly an editor can scream into a phone – always have two versions of the story ready to roll by halftime. Looking back at the Champions League final of 2005, still my fondest sporting memory in a...

A hung parliament is becoming a genuine possibility based on current spread betting trends. Ed Fulton, spokesperson for Sporting Index, said buying Conservative seats was all the rage when the spreads were opened in April, with Tory seats rocketing some 30 points up to a prediction of 402-407 by 5 May. But the twists and turns of election campaigning, as well as polls showing that this election is closer than many once thought, has led to a frenzy of Labour seat...

Danish trio Baby In Vain announce the release of their long-awaited debut album More Nothing, out August 25th via Partisan Records. They have shared More Nothing’s incendiary opening track ‘To Heaven and Back’, which can be streamed now on YouTube | Vevo. A breakneck-paced anthem, ‘To Heaven and Back’ has all the ingredients of a classic Baby In Vain track - razor sharp riffs, sardonic lyrics and an unpredictability that is wholly their own. Recorded in just 11 days in...

British MPs are sitting on a property empire worth over £100 million while £500,000-worth of pay outs have been recorded from the BBC and Rupert Murdoch and nearly a quarter were revealed to employ their partner as secretaries. In an exclusive investigation by freelance journalist Chris White, 650 Members of Parliament own 273 properties, which they rent out for more than £10,000 a year per property. 198 of these properties are based in London and worth a combined £100 million,...

When I first saw the album cover for Centerpiece’s eponymous debut EP it instantly reminded me of a Crowded House record artwork; a beautiful painting of a field of sunflowers and wispy clouds and blue skies which immediately evokes that warm and happy feeling when life is good. The five-piece describe their sound as ‘Midwest indie rock’ and are from Nebraska, however they recorded the EP in Boston, which for those of you who aren’t in the know, is a...

A homeless MP candidate for London and Westminster would shut down the Saudi, Qatari and Brunei embassies in his constituency if elected, he has said. Ankit Love, The Maharaja of Kashmir candidate for MP from the Cities of London and Westminster constituency, was left homeless after filling an intelligence report with Sergeant Scott of the Parliamentary & Diplomatic protection squad. He was advised to sleep on the street in Mayfair for his security by the police at Charing Cross station, and now campaigns and...

By Michael McNulty Jack Clayton’s horror classic The Innocents, released in 1961 and based on (by way of William Archibald’s play) Henry James’ 1898 novella The Turn of the Screw, is a mysterious and haunting classic Victorian ghost story. The script, which passed through a number of hands, finally ended up in those of Truman Capote who helped to deliver it in its final form. Miss Giddens, played with a subtle restraint that belies an underlying sexual repression by an...