Review: Set the Thames on Fire
Review by Leslie Byron Pitt When it comes to the creative process, one should admire the ambition. When reading reviews of artistic endeavours, it seems that sometimes writers appear to forget that they are critiquing the efforts of a crew that have clearly worked hard to attempt to bring together the vision of a screenwriter or director. A crew who have been brought together in order help set said vision alive. It’s easy to insult and pull apart a film....
The Weekly Cocktail Recipe – Oskar’s Bar’s ‘Basil Fawlty’
Tying in with London Cocktail Week, Oskar Kinberg – the man behind the brilliant Oskar’s Bar beneath Michelin-starred Dabbous in Fitzrovia – is set to launch his first recipe book next month. The simply titled ‘Cocktail Cookbook’ features a compendium of 75 cocktails, many of which are seasonally available at the bar, and most are relatively simple to follow at home. As expected, like the kitchen at upstairs Dabbous, there’s also a massive focus on unique ingredients, encouraging readers to set...
WhatsApp with that?
Do we really need yet another Facebook friend suggestion? With 71 per cent of us admitting that there’s at least one person in our friends list that we don’t know, surely the answer is no. Identity has never been more important to us, but in a world of social media addicts, are we letting too many people in? There isn’t a single person who isn’t unique, even an identical twin is completely distinctive in their own way. Our identity is...
WIN a Meal at the Graffigna London Steak Awards 2016 Winner MASH
To celebrate the recent announcement of MASH as the London Steak Awards 2016 winner, Graffigna is offering one lucky reader the chance to dine at the winning restaurant. Five runners up will receive a bottle of Graffigna Centenario Malbec and a Graffigna steak chopping board. This summer an expert panel of judges visited the four top steak venues that made it to a shortlist following a public vote: MASH, Hawksmoor, Goodman and Gaucho. The lucky judges, including chef Neil Rankin,...
The Shocking Cost of Fatherlessness in the UK
By Matt O’Connor, Founder, Fathers4Justice While the debate around the fatherless society is normally framed by emotional and legal arguments, few have considered the seismic impact this has on our economy. The devastating cancer of family breakdown and fatherlessness isn’t just laying waste to families, it also comes at a punitive human and economic cost to employers and the taxpayer. The numbers involved are jaw dropping. More than our defence budget According the Relationships Foundation ‘Cost of Family Failure Index’, the...
Restaurant Review – Calcutta Street
Just north of Oxford Street, Fitzrovia is fast becoming the restaurant capital of London. However, quite problematically, besides eating and drinking establishments, the area has little else to offer in terms of leisure, and as a result there’s an incredible amount of competition between local restaurateurs. Fitzrovia is home to the likes of the ever-brilliant Dabbous, The Ninth, and the latest opening of Bao, which has already garnered Kardashian-level social media hysteria, not unlike its big sister restaurant in Soho....
Why We Need University Technical Colleges
By Dan Cundy For many of us – and particularly those of us working in education – September is always associated with a new school year and fresh starts. Perhaps starting a new school, wearing a new uniform or just having a new pencil case, the autumn term always seems to offer new possibilities. This new term is particularly exciting for me as the new University Technical College (UTC) of which I am Principal officially opens this week. For those unfamiliar with the ethos of...
Review: Neville Hair Salon
By Courtney Greatrex Getting my hair cut had always seemed like more of a chore to me than anything else. Once every three months I would walk from my family home, to visit a family friend who also happened to be a hairdresser. There, I would sit nursing her pet dog Buddy while she put foils in my hair and snipped at my locks, chatting away about what was (or wasn’t) going on in our sleepy Hertfordshire village. Nothing special....
A millionaire died in Dorchester hotel after cocaine binge…Will that be closed down too?
Our Northern Correspondent John Locke on the closure of Fabric and the beginning of end of the fabric of our night time economy... The closure of Fabric by revoking its licence is a bullshit decision - an Arab millionaire just died at The Dorchester hotel after a huge cocaine binge... Will that be closed down too? Utter institutional hypocrisy. It stinks of the gentrification and segregation occurring between the haves and have nots and the rich, powerful and corruptible in London....