This month St Giles London announced the return of its zany bed, breakfast and abseil package. Over the weekend guests took on the daring feat of abseiling off the roof of the property in an effort to raise money for the St Giles’ Hotels with Heart Foundation, and their partner Centrepoint - a leading youth homelessness charity, committed to giving young people a future. The St Giles London hotel is located in the heart of the historic West End, which is steps away from the British Museum, Piccadilly Circus, Covent Garden, and many other major attractions. Last year in December, staff and g...
Read more →Sadie Whitelocks 9
The Vaults, housed under Waterloo station, is one of my favourite spaces in London and it’s always producing surprises. The venue, which is known for its wacky immersive productions, is currently hosting a brilliant show titled Divine Proportions. It instructs guests to ‘wine, dine and celebrate life’ and the steamy atmosphere of the place certainly enables this. I popped to a showing on a Friday night and everyone nervously waited in the bar area for the show to unfold. To ease the nerves, I delved into the fabulously themed cocktail list. A smokey rum twist on an old fashioned and a whi...
Read more →I've walked around this little nook of Soho a few times and never stumbled across this gem. But if you get a chance, I can't recommend Sophie's Soho enough. Housed inside a former sex cinema and nightclub, the venue is pretty spectacular. Think high ceilings, raw red brick, pipes showing and a buzzing atmosphere. This is the kind of place you could base yourself for the day, hanging out to do work, seeing friends grabbing dinner and dancing in the speakeasy club downstairs come nightfall. On walking into the venue, there is a cosy conservatory area at the front, and then you immediately g...
Read more →From the outside, the Westbury Mayfair is pretty unassuming. The only hint that there’s some magic lurking inside, is the smartly dressed doormen and luxury cars standing on call outside. With the doors swiftly opened to welcome me in, I soon forgot about the hustle and bustle of the London streets beyond. The Westbury has a way of transporting you to a world of old school sophistication, with dark lighting, art deco-styled furnishings, swathes of wood panelling and fresh flowers setting the tone. I’d stepped into the 225-room venue to check out one of its top pads, a superior corner suite...
Read more →'Pace yourself!' was the instruction we originally received before tucking into a multi-course James Bond food and drink extravaganza. ‘That’s not very in the style of James Bond,’ I thought to myself, as I imagined the infamous spy having little restraint in many aspects of life, especially on the subject of pleasure. The event was taking place at one of my favourite venues in London, The Distillery on Portobello Road, and I was sat in the upstairs private dining room with 20 other guests. There was a group of Americans, a man from Norway and Londoners, all brought together by one thing - ...
Read more →All aboard! It’s time for brave Londoners to head down to Pedley Street Station and sell their souls for a Journey To The Underworld. Immersive theatre and dining experts Funicular have prepared a luxury train carriage and are now ready to depart on the greatest love story never told, where fear, fantasy, danger and lust intertwine in a dark and romantic fairytale. The best part? Down in the Underworld, travellers dine in style. Passengers will be treated to a delicious four-course menu curated by 2017 MasterChef The Professionals finalist Louisa Ellis. The culinary maestro has designed a...
Read more →Waking up, there was sunlight streaming through the window, birds singing from the dappled trees and the faint murmur of people traversing the cobbled streets of Clerkenwell below. I'd landed at the Townhouse Apartment, a room within one of my favourite spots in London The Zetter Townhouse. But this isn't any old hotel room. Described as the 'jewel in the crown', this quaint abode is amply sized for London, with a sitting area large enough to waltz around in, an enormous bed and a charming bathroom complete with a rain shower and free-standing tub. I'd arrived at the boutique, Georgian-era...
Read more →I went to Simpson's in the Strand a couple of years go and on a recent return, I was thrilled to find that it’s upped its game. The venue opened in 1828 as a chess room and it is one of London’s oldest traditional restaurants. In 2017, in a bid to bring it more up-to-date it underwent a major refurb courtesy of its owner and neighbour, The Savoy. While the bones of the building remain the same – think wood panelled walls, high ceilings and period feature - there’s an array of new things to flesh the place out. I popped in for a Sunday lunch with my mother and spent a good five minutes admi...
Read more →Calling all surfers! Now you can ride a barrel in more ways than one... In the latest of its Beyond the Cask creative collaborations, Glenmorangie takes to the waves in partnership with Grain Surfboards of Maine, New England USA – visionary creators of hand-built wooden surfboards. The signature white oak casks for Glenmorangie Original are only ever used twice in their whisky-making lifetime, guaranteeing this single malt’s famously complex and multifaceted flavour. Now, to celebrate the wood that makes the whisky, the dedicated craftspeople at Grain Surfboards have built a series of exclu...
Read more →