Let the choirs of archangels, angels, seraphim and cherubim (and all the others) cry forth “Hallelujah!”, for it is once again white truffle season, that time of year when we spend vast fortunes on an underground fungus that looks like a mummified testicle but, when thinly shaved, releases a transcendent and heavenly smell that takes…
Category: Life
The Watches of Fears
When it comes to the British luxury market, there are fewer more respected. It speaks to craftsmanship, quality and heritage. These three principals are at the core of Fears, the family watch company founded in 1846 by Edwin Fear and re-founded by his great-great-great-grandson Nicholas Bowman-Scargill in 2016. After years working for Rolex, Nicholas took…
A Tour of London’s Brutalist Architecture
Brutalism, love it or loath it, London is the spiritual heart of the architectural movement, so to celebrate the launch of its Atlas of Brutalist Architecture, a tome of a book mapping 878 Brutalist buildings by 798 architects in 102 countries, Phaidon organised a tour of the Brutalist masterpieces of London. So what is Brutalism?…
Characters – The European Posho
Nicknamed the ‘posho Euro’, he sat opposite me in a rooftop bar, chainsmoking. The cigarettes mustied the pashmina around his throat. The waitress came over. “Hello, yuz?” A Polish inflection. “I’ll have a whisky and soda, please.” He looked at me. “Oh, whithky and thoda? I love you awready,” a smile, a frank expression. He…
A Soho to Guide
(This covers east of Wardour Street and south of Brewer Street.) Once synonymous with the sex industry (both gay and straight) and London’s nightlife, Soho has been smartening up over the years. This has seen the area clean up its act, but in the process concerns have been raised that it’s losing it’s character. As…
Characters – Ghost Sailor
Thirdly came the sailor. A chap. Youngish, lithe but grisly with brown hair, reddish about his face, falling down moplike about his ears. He was handsome and sat around the other side of the reservoir, near a slipway outside a tatty boathouse. Wearing dark overalls and latex gloves, he was hunched over an upturned topper,…