Category: LONDON

UK Coffee Week: 5 other espresso martini cocktails to try

Espresso martini

It’s UK Coffee Week and there’s no better way to celebrate the occasion than with some delicious caffeinated cocktails courtesy of the masterminds at The Bottle Club. Cinnamon Espresso Martini An autumnal take on the traditional Espresso Martini, a Cinnamon Espresso Martini is just the thing you need to get you through those rainy days and cold nights. Credit: Pxfuel  Ingredients  60ml Monin Cinnamon Syrup  60ml vodka  60ml espresso  1-2 tbsp cinnamon sugar  Cinnamon sticks and coffee beans for garnish How to make  Start by pouring roughly 30ml of the cinnamon syrup on a small plate and covering it with your cinnamon sugar. Then, gently run the rim of the martini glass over the mixture – your cocktail glass is now decorated and Instagram ready!  Once the all-important presentation is out of the way, it’s now time to make your drink! In a cocktail shaker, combine your vodka, espresso and 30ml of syrup and give the contents a good old shake. Finally, strain the drink into your glass and garnish with your coffee beans and cinnamon sticks.  Espresso Tonic Forget a gin and tonic, ever heard of an espresso tonic? Made from two simple ingredients, this booze-free drink will ensure that you won’t miss out on that espresso martini kick, even if you are the designated driver.  Credit: Unsplash Ingredients 100ml tonic water 50ml fresh espresso   How to make Begin by brewing your espresso in a shot glass or small jug and letting it stand. While this is happening, fill your chilled glass with big… Read More

What to expect this Christmas at Kew Gardens in London

Christmas lights Kew Gardens

From Wednesday 17 November 2021 to Sunday 9 January 2022, Kew Gardens in London is doing Christmas and it needs to be on your list of things to do to end the last two years of nightmare. Now in its ninth festive year, this year’s trail features a host of seasonal favourites alongside pioneering new light installations, illuminating Kew Gardens’ UNESCO World Heritage landscape with vibrant bursts of colour and over a million twinkling lights. Standouts at-a-glance: New installations feature stunning video design and scenescapes inspired by Kew collections Highlights include 12 Days of Christmas tree installation, Christmas Cathedral, and LED light spheres illuminating night sky 200 metres over-head Visitors can keep warm with seasonal street food, mulled wine and hot chocolate, or enjoy a Christmas dinner at newly refurbished The Botanical Brasserie restaurant Trail is supported by Montezuma’s Chocolate This year and kicking off next month in November 2021, we’ll be gifted with a first-time selection of spectacular trees from Kew’s arboretum as their canvas. Creative studio Novak will create a brand-new piece for Christmas 2021, using a stunning combination of video design, projection mapping and light to bring botanical illustrations from Kew’s archive to life, alongside a host of heart-warming festive imagery. Further, a brand-new installation, Spheric, which is a fifteen-metre-wide dome of light covered in over 2,000 individually controlled LED pixels, will sit on a reflective water pool, allowing you to fully immerse yourself in this unique mirrored illusion as they cross the lake. And as we’d hope, the favourite Christmas Cathedral returns for 2021, affording guests the perfect opportunity to capture this quintessential… Read More

Picnic with the Queen: Buckingham Palace opens gardens to public

Buckingham Palace garden

Buckingham Palace, official residence and mothership of the British Monarchy is trying something new. The Palace Gardens, the largest privately owned garden in London, is now ticketed and open to the public for picnics, walks and sun-soaked (if you’re lucky) enjoyment! Alcohol’s prohibited, but picnic baskets, blankets and nibbles can be brought – or purchased at the shop – as you while away a casual afternoon with friends and family. You will be free to wander around the garden’s winding paths at your own pace and experience the beauty and calm of this walled oasis in central London. Among the many features to enjoy are the 156-metre Herbaceous Border, the Horse Chestnut Avenue, the Plane trees planted by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and the famous lake with its island that is home to the Buckingham Palace bees. There’s no dress code – other than comfort – and with the suggestion of sunscreen to keep it responsible, you’re welcome to while away the day amongst the grandeur of hundreds of years of British history. For more information and to book your slot, head to the Royal Collection Trust website.

Design exhibition at the V&A: its pivotal role in our time

Design 1900 to Now installation shots , 16th June 2021

From 1900 to now, design has been an integral part of how we’ve evolved, but also existed. The latest exhibition at the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum in London is testament to that, exploring how design shapes and is shaped by how we live, work, travel, communicate and consume.   Housed within the museum’s former 20th Century Gallery, this newly curated space brings together leading design objects alongside the first redisplay of V&A’s celebrated Rapid Response Collecting programme since its founding in 2014.   As part of the gallery, new acquisitions will go on display for the first time at the V&A, including Margaret Calvert and Jock Kinneir’s iconic British road signage system, Kim Kardashian’s Selfish book, Nike’s Nigeria football shirt for the 2018 World Cup and a one-of-a-kind desk designed by Future Systems for Condé Nast Chairman Jonathan Newhouse.  For more and to book your visit, head to the V&A website

Get better water in the UK: Zerowater is the way

Zerowater

Know what’s scary? A recent survey by Zerowater UK revealed that 70% of people in the UK are still drinking unfiltered tap water. It also turns out that while we know bottled water contains a tonne of microplastics – obviously – unfiltered UK tap water does, too. This is why we need a suitable alternative for hydration that’s a bit more environmentally sound than bottles and can live stylishly on our kitchen benches. Enter the Zerowater 12 cup filter worth £39.99, the absolutely foolproof water filtration system for your home that removes as much as 99.6% of all toxins, solids and contaminants, such as lead, chlorine, mercury, aluminium and plastic particle. It is so good it makes tap water the closest thing to pure H20. A list of what it removes is here. Zerowater rates what it does so highly, that they even asked famous UK TV personality Philip Schofield to step in a demo the gunk-extracting power of Zerowater – with a bottle of red wine. And the results? Well, have a look…

Victoria and Albert Museum London’s got an exhibition of Fabergé eggs and more

Faberge 1

Opening this November, the V&A announces Fabergé in London: Romance to Revolution, the first major exhibition devoted to the international prominence of the legendary Russian goldsmith and the importance of his little-known London branch: Fabergé in London: Romance to Revolution Gallery 39 and North Court 20 November 2021 – 8 May 2022  With a focus on Fabergé’s Edwardian high society clientele, the exhibition will shine a light on his triumphs in Britain as well as a global fascination with the joyful opulence of his creations. Three of his legendary Imperial Easter Eggs will go on display for the first time in the UK as part of the exhibition’s dramatic finalé. Who or what is Feberge? Carl Fabergé is the man which is now synonymous with his internationally recognised firm that symbolised Russian craftsmanship and elegance – an association further strengthened by its connection to the romance, glamour and tragedy of the Russian Imperial family. Highlights to see: A miniature of the Imperial Regalia, lent by the Hermitage Museum, made for the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle will capture Carl Fabergé’s role as official goldsmith to the Imperial family a figurine portrait taken from life of the private bodyguard of the Dowager Empress will be on display – a sculpture on a level of rarity with the Imperial Easter eggs A prayer book gifted by Emperor Nicholas II to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna on his Coronation Day will also sit alongside early photography of the Imperial family with their prized possessions, and more! For more information and to book your visit, head to… Read More

What’s on at Royal Botanic Gardens Kew in 2021

london-kew-gardens-gardens-and-lake

After a year of time spent inside, we’re due a long, hot summer of outdoor activities and there are few better than a day spent at London’s Kew Royal Botanic Gardens. Make plans now for the year of new festivals to celebrate British biodiversity and botanical treasures of Japan, like: The Secret world of plants in May. Kew Gardens will put on a large-scale, immersive ‘plantscapes’ representing diverse UK habitats, including coastal cliffs, moorland, and meadows, will celebrate the biodiversity on our doorsteps. A programme of exciting artistic activities designed to capture the imagination will offer visitors a fresh perspective on the ‘wall of green’ that surrounds them, helping them to appreciate and protect the botanical gems to be found in their day-to-day environment. Saturday 1 May – Sunday 19 September As well as a display of the brightest colours on Earth! Inspired by the natural world, you’ll explore the origins of sight and colour, natural phenomena such as bioluminescence, and techniques used by artists to replicate the brightest and most intense hues found in nature, the exhibition will be a treat for the eyes and give visitors a chance to interact with cutting-edge technology and catch a glimpse of its future potential in the art world and beyond. Saturday 1 May – Sunday 12 September October will welcome-in the fiery colours of Japan. In a brand-new festival in the Temperate House. The festival will explore Japan through its fascinating horticultural traditions and wider practices, emphasising the importance of the natural world and the concepts… Read More

Make it creamy: Creams’ new round of fabulously-flamboyant desserts

Creams indulgence doughnut box 3

For everything sugary, carby and delicious, there’s only really one name you need to know in London: Creams. Encircling the city, Creams are the place to go for fabulously flamboyant desserts and sweet treats, celebrating all things vibrant, colourful and fun. Think gelato, loaded waffles and sky-high shakes, to crepes, cheesecakes and even savoury choices, there’s something for everyone on the menu. Currently, they’re pumping the doughnut option from November onwards, that rival even the biggest names in doughnut providores around town (sorry Doughnut Time and Crosstown!). Add on top of that the usual Creams staples like shakes, crepes, sundaes and the rest of it, you’ve got a whole menu that spreads the whole gamut of things your dentist would slap you for eating. Coupled with fluffy waffles, sweet-but-not-sickeningly-so cookie doughs and generous scoops of icecream finished with lashings of sauces and syrups, Creams cafes are the producers of some of the best desserts known to man – and it’s easy to see why. “We’re even more proud of our commitment to diversity. People matter more to us than anything else (even ice-cream) and we open our arms to everyone both as customers and in our cafe teams”, they say. Like desserts, like philosophy! Find your nearest Creams at their website.

Masterpieces from Buckingham Palace: the December exhibition you need to see

Masterpieces from Buckingham Palace

This December, the Queen’s Gallery at the inner sanctum of Buckingham Palace is opening its post-Corona doors again, putting on a show that is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience Her Majesty’s collection. Bringing together 65 of the most spectacular paintings in the Royal Collection, which usually hang in the Picture Gallery, one of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace, guests will view paintings widely acknowledged to be among the highlights of the Royal Collection, including spectacular works by Titian, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Van Dyck and Canaletto. The exhibition has been made possible by the removal of the paintings from the Picture Gallery to allow for essential works to take place as part of the Buckingham Palace Reservicing Programme. These works will include the replacement of electrics and pipework, some of which has not been updated since the 1940s. A team of art handlers and conservators have spent four weeks carefully emptying the Picture Gallery of paintings and decorative arts from the Royal Collection. Old Master paintings have hung in the room since it was first created for George IV in the 1820s. While the display of paintings is occasionally refreshed, the Picture Gallery has not been entirely emptied of its contents since it was last redecorated in 1976.  For more, to book a visit and explore more, visit the Royal Collection Trust’s website.

The London Bridge Rooftop: making it worth going outside this winter

London city

With bottomless fondue, 360-degree views and a cosy set-up, the London Bridge Rooftop and its newly launched ‘Winter Heights’ pop-up is officially one of the best reasons to leave home this winter. It’s a brand new alfresco rooftop bar in the heart of London Bridge, only a two minute walk from the station, serving you breathtaking sights of the dazzling Shard lit up at night alongside hot cocktails, live DJs, Ginger Pig BBQ and more. You’ll find it nestled on top of a 60s-style office block building six storeys high, the light grey concrete and brutalist architecture of the rooftop mingles with twinkling fairy lights and 12-foot Christmas trees to create a stunning festive oasis. Open now, grab five friends and catch up to make up for lost time, while still keeping safe in the heated outdoor setting. The 180 cover venue will be open from midday until 11pm daily with tickets available from £17.50 – £25 per person including entry, a mulled wine and a hearty meal of hot cheese fondue, gourmet ginger pig hot dog gourmet barbecued halloumi hotdog and more! Find the rooftop at Colechurch House, Tooley Street, London SE1 2SS or visit the London Bridge Rooftop website