Innholdsfortegnelse for 06-Jan-2021 i Country Life

THE MAYFAIR TOWNHOUSE, HALF MOON STREET, W1 Will 2021 be London’s renaissance? Last year dealt a hard blow to the hospitality industry-across the capital and the country-but glimmers of hope have already started to appear. In December 2020, three brand-new hotels flung open their doors for the very first time, in Marylebone-Henry's Townhouse, W1, Jane Austen's brother Henry's former home, and Nobu Hotel Portman Square, W1-and in Mayfair. There, Mayfair Townhouse (pictured), W1, is actually 15 townhouses that have been knocked through to create a younger, more seductive counterpart to the neighbouring and stately Ritz. Later this year, the trio will be joined by The Peninsula on Hyde Park Corner, W1, Beaverbrook Townhouse on Sloane Street, SW3, and The Londoner, a 350-bedroom boutique-style hotel in Leicester Square, WC2. Where hotels…

THE UK offers a delightful contrast, in that it produces the world’s best cyclists, then combines them with a population who will cheer Sir Chris Hoy/Wiggins/Froome whenever they can and yet curse every amateur cyclist they come across. Our capital is a far cry from the picture-postcard world of the Netherlands, where young and beautiful people cycle effortlessly around their cities with a revoltingly carefree attitude. I have always been intimidated by cycling in London, whether it’s the cars, the taxis or the buses. The city has always seemed too busy for a cyclist, especially an unfit one such as myself, but this year has made me change my perspectives on many things. One of those things is not travelling around in enclosed spaces on public transport if there’s a…

Quiz of the week 1) Which collection of water-dwelling organisms takes its name from the Greek ‘planktos', meaning wandering? 2) What prefix can be added to each of the following to form four new words: age, date, drill and go? 3) What is the world's fastest animal? 4) The Shawshank Redemption is a film adaptation of a story by which author? 5) Popular in the 16th–18th centuries, which musical instrument resembles a piano, but with plucked strings rather than struck strings? Word of the week Brolly-hop (noun) A parachute jump Oh, the agony! Resident agony uncle Kit Hesketh-Harvey solves your dilemmas Clean up your act Q After our period without a cleaner during lockdown, my wife decided we didn’t need one at all and that we could share…

Heliotropium arborescens Marine Mr Baughan's favourite annual of all creates an intermittent wave of cherry-scented, violet-blue flowers along the front, with handsome dark-green, crinkle-textured foliage. Sow in mid March. Height: 1½ft Clarkia purpurea Burgundy Wine A selected form of a Californian native with pale foliage and clusters of purple flowers that go on for longer than most clarkias. Akin to a sweet william in form. Sow in mid March. 2ft Antirrhinum majus Monarch Mixed Specifically bred for the home gardener, this traditional rust-resistant snapdragon mixture produces muted amber, coral, mauve crimson, yellow and orange flowers. Sow in mid March. 1½ft Rudbeckia hirta Sahara An unusual rudbeckia with single, semi-double and double flowers in subtle shades of caramel, copper and warm pink. Sow…

Borough Market Kitchen on Jubilee Place brings some of the most joyful places to eat together under one roof-literally. The 20-odd stands couldn't be better designed for right now: they're well ventilated and technically outdoors, but protected from the elements by the historic vaulted glass ceiling. Mei Mei, the place everyone's talking about, is the solo debut of Elizabeth Haigh, who won a Michelin star at East London favourite Pidgin. Mei Mei is a kopitiam, an all-day restaurant and coffee shop that draws on its founder's Singaporean heritage, serving everything from fragrant Hainanese chicken rice to kaya toast, spread thickly with butter and coconut jam and served with soft-boiled eggs. It's food Mrs Haigh grew up with and loves-and it shows. We're here for the Singapore chilli crab. I'm with…

Burges Grove, £5.5 million The rear of this seven-bedroom, 5,371sq ft house looks out across the garden to the Wetland Centre and the London skyline beyond. Architect-designed, it features a magnificent staircase, an airy reception room with contemporary fireplace and a vast living and dining space with Bulthaup kitchen. Upstairs, split across two floors, are seven bedrooms, most of which enjoy the fine views. Savills (020–8939 6900; www.savills.co.uk) Glebe Road, £2.15 million One of Barnes's sought-after Lion Houses, this property is only a few minutes' walk from the Green and the pond. The 2,090sq ft interiors have kept intact many period features, although they would benefit from some updating. There are four bedrooms on the upper floors and, downstairs, a double reception room, kitchen and dining area. A conservatory opens…

• Road Riese and Muller Roadster (£3,489). An entirely new integrated 625Wh battery for 2021, together with the Generation 4 Bosch Performance Line CX motor and the new Nyon display, this is a beautiful road bike, perfect for inner-city urban use • Cross-country Moustache Samedi 27 Xroad 7 FS (£4,599). One of the highest specification bikes Moustache sells, but with reason. This bike is made for 50% on-road and 50% off-road use and has front and rear suspension, a 625Wh battery, the top-of-the-range Bosch Performance Line CX motor, a dropper-seat post for maximum comfort when on the saddle and the new Bosch Nyon display. It is in British racing green • Folding Gocycle GX (£2,899). Fast folding, in less than 15 seconds, and weighing 17.8kg, the Gocycle revolutionises the way…

EVENTS, dear boy, events,’ as Harold Macmillan perceptively said, will destroy the best-laid hopes and plans. They also make us re-evaluate. The events of 2020 have made us look anew at everything, from relatives, friends and neighbours to food, health, travel and green space. Will we learn from it or will we revert to our impatient, commuting, polluting ways? Here are 10 things to keep up in 2021. 1 Local shopping Corner stores, village butchers, farm shops and enterprising delivery services were the much-deserved winners of 2020. 2 Local supportiveness By Easter, many country churches, village pubs and regional theatres will be on the brink. We’ll miss them when they’re gone. 3 Working from home We won’t all be able to do it all of the time, but finding a…

AS did many of you, I walked further last year than in the previous one. Lockdown was good for walking. I know this ‘fact’ courtesy of some mathematics on the back of an envelope and a widget on my phone that tells me how many steps I have done. The extra distance was the equivalent of tramping from London to Edinburgh, which possibly sounds more impressive than it is; in reality, it is little more than an extra mile a day. When I am in London, my step count is higher on average than it is in the countryside. This surprises me, but I walk faster in the capital, which doesn’t surprise me at all, as, on my rural rambles, anything from a new bud or a butterfly to birdsong…

YOU lately printed some admirable photographs of the great houses of England, taken from the skies. I am enclosing one of Gosford House, which you may care to print, as it is announced that the estate is to be sold by Lord Wemyss and converted into a hotel or hydropathic establishment. Gosford House, built by the grandfather of the present Earl of Wemyss, stands on the east coast of Haddington, near Aberlady. This is a great golfing country. Besides the famous courses of the East Lothian, a new course has been laid out along the coast close to Gosford House. The war interrupted its making, but when I saw it last spring a great deal had been done: there were some really thrilling holes among the sandhills.—X.…

IT’S an ill wind that blows nobody any good. As we wipe the misery of the past nine months from our collective memory, who would have thought that the big winner to emerge from the pandemic would be the British countryside? Whatever economic and social problems lie ahead, there is no doubt that many more homeowners will want to go where others led in 2020 and seek a cleaner, greener future without the grinding pressure of the dreaded daily commute. A multi-generational family with lofty ambitions can find the best of town and country at Trout Grange, near the picturesque wooded hamlet of Coldharbour, five miles from Dorking, on the southern slopes of Leith Hill—at 965ft above sea level, it’s the second-highest point in south-east England. Set in more…

NEVER underestimate the excitement that a handwritten card arriving through the letterbox brings,’ says Alex Cain of Mount Street Printers. In a time of little to no face-to-face contact and ubiquitous reliance on our phones, a considered note in your own distinguishable (or sometimes indistinguishable) hand means a great deal. My favourite thank-you letters are snappy, funny and sometimes only a one-liner that sums up a party or a present. ‘Write using a pen you enjoy so it’s never a chore and always send with a return address to encourage a response,’ suggests Mr Cain. ‘Opt for a colourful stamp to match your envelope and ink—first class preferred.’…

A YOUNG redhead—bustling, fresh-complexioned —catches our eye. She is a grocer holding a pair of scales in front of her bright red bodice and sparklingly white linen. A customer points towards the scales, one hand resting on the wooden pail that acts as a shopping basket. We look at the pair through a stone arch, past a shelf bearing a woven basket, a cone of salt, an old blue and white plate and a jar with a lid—the jar contains cakes. 'It is a delightfully uncomplicated opportunity to see a magnificent collection, Below is a carved relief of putti playing with a goat, an urn with a pink growing in it—you can almost smell the flower, touch the goods. In the back of the shop, behind a swag of curtain…

VERMEER’S A Lady at the Virginals with a Gentleman, painted in the early 1660s and bought by George III, is an intimate, intense study of a 17th-century interior, with carpet-covered table, geometrical black-and-white floor and light filtered through a casement window playing over the irregular plasterwork of the wall. The visual harmony mirrors that of the music. We can only guess at the relationship of the pair. Are they married, are they lovers? A glimpse of an easel in the looking glass reminds us that there is a third person in the room—the artist himself.…

TOWARDS the tail end of last year, I had two fairly Grinch-y telephone conversations. Both began with the usual topics: testing kits, old people, young people and the ramifications of these mixing. Then I ask the friend for her postcode, as I had resolved to send Christmas cards. This could definitely be described as Unprecedented. ‘Please don’t,’ she said. ‘What?’ ‘It’s going in the bin.’ ‘Why?’ ‘I don’t have anywhere to put them. They just sit around.’ ‘But…’ ‘They’re not green.’ ‘They’re recycled.’ ‘And the cost of stamps…’ I hung up and sent her one simply to annoy her. The next caller moved on to the dismal time she’d had in a haberdashery department. ‘The staff all stood around in pairs talking to each other and when I interrupted them…

Winter might not seem like the obvious time to indulge in birdwatching, but it’s when birds are typically less territorial and likely to flock together and feed. Best for multi-taskers Look out for the mohican-crested waxwing in your supermarket car park. Stores saw an uptick when staff began planting berry-bearing trees to try to cheer up the concrete façades Best for Royal Park walkers In St James’s, you’ll likely come across one or more of the impressive resident pelicans. Other birds include two species of migratory Icelandic (and noisy) swan, the whooper and Bewick Best for family days out Laycock Street Park supports a house-sparrow colony; Rainham Marshes welcome marsh harriers, lapwings, avocets and ringed plovers; London Wetland Centre, Barnes, has whistling ducks, Hawaiian geese and otters Best for…

Residents love Barnes's greenery-with the Common, the Green, Barn Elms, the Wetland Centre and Thames-side walks, it's hardly surprising that open space is what local people treasure the most, according to Emma Robinson Residents like the Lion Houses. Some of the village’s prettiest houses feature small lion statues at the front. Their late-Victorian developer only wanted to add one or two statues but, having received a big delivery, put lions everywhere Residents could do without the closure of Hammersmith Bridge…

THANKS to a kind of Christmas miracle, this mouse has made it to 2021 in one piece. At times—as tempers frayed and lockdowns came, went and came again—it looked unlikely. For the time being, London is in a state of forced hibernation—the masses who once thronged the streets searching for a New Year bargain left as soon as Tier 4 was announced (who can blame them?) or congregate in silent, shuffling queues outside supermarkets. But London is only biding its time and its masses will soon be back. As much as we might crave open space, there’s little that can compete with the capital’s effervescent lure, from the architecture and art galleries to restaurants serving food from every conceivable country. Hundreds of businesses, large and small, have heartbreakingly been lost,…

Depth of dried apricot Morrisons, The Best Pecorino, Terre di Chieti, Abruzzo, Italy 2019. £6.75, Morrisons, alc 13% A relatively reserved nose of elderflower, green apple and peach. Saline citrus, apricot and yellow apple on the textured palate, with mouthwatering acidity and a depth of dried apricot, which carries to the finish. A stony bite Izadi, Larrosa Rosado, Rioja, Spain 2019. £11.95–£13.50, Alexander Hadleigh, Eton Vintners, Noble Green, alc 14% This old-vine Garnacha rosado takes its cue from Provence, with a pale-salmon colour and pretty strawberry and cherry aromas. The palate has body and texture. Red berries and ripe stone-fruit notes are balanced by grapefruit and lime citrus, with a stony bite to the finish. Hints of florality Oldenburg Vineyards, Syrah, Stellenbosch, South Africa 2016. £15.95, Jeroboams, alc…

Our learned societies must have support IN 1854, the government purchased Burlington House on Piccadilly for what was described as ‘the public service’. This celebrated townhouse was subsequently remodelled not only as the home of the Royal Academy, but of a group of learned societies as well. The Royal Society came and went (it’s now based in Carlton House Terrace), but the enclosing wings of the courtyard still house the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Geological Society, the Linnean Society, the Royal Astronomical Society and the Society of Antiquaries. In providing this purpose-built accommodation with museum space, libraries and meeting rooms, the intention was to underpin the endeavours of these bodies and their membership. Times have changed. The Royal Academy acquired a 999-year lease of its rooms as part of…

Birds and gardens go together. Now is the time of shortage, so we must redouble our efforts to provide supplies. Put out plenty of sunflower hearts, groundnuts, mealworms and fatballs to cater for all tastes. Arrange matters so that the squirrel and the cat are defeated. The dunnocks and their friends will clean up crumbs that fall from the rich man's table. Keep birdbaths full and break ice when necessary. And brace yourself for the carnage of a visit from the sparrowhawk or the buzzard. They, too, must eat.…

• The Royal Collection, one of the last great intact European royal collections, is held in trust by The Queen for her successors and the nation; it comprises more than a million objects across the fine and decorative Arts, including some 600 drawings by da Vinci • Charles I attracted artists of the calibre of van Dyck and Rubens to England and bought the entire collection of the Dukes of Mantua. After the Cromwell Protectorate, more than 1,000 of his works were returned to royal hands • Charles II, on whom the Dutch bestowed a magnificent collection of Old Masters, bought Bruegel’s Massacre of the Innocents • James II commissioned 13 naval portraits by Lely and battles by van de Velde the Elder and Younger • George III bought the…

MAKING the unmakeable is the hallmark of a champion. Take this deal from the Olympiad Trials, the last face-to-face bridge played before all such bridge ended for a protracted period. West led the Queen of Clubs and declarer surveyed the dummy. It appeared he had only 11 winners, but declarer saw hope. After winning the Ace of Clubs, at trick two, he led the eight of Spades and passed it to East’s Knave. East looked no further than a Club return and declarer’s hopes rose. Winning the King of Clubs, declarer crossed to the King of Diamonds. He then cashed the Ace of Spades, before ruffing a third Club and running all his trumps. Here is the ending as the last trump was led. West had to discard a Heart…