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mathew

Mathew Hamilton Green. Videographer, writer, wry smiled smirker.

Food & Drink

The Dining Room

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At last! It’s in vogue to be British! Hoorah (in the non marine sense) to all Henries, let’s all dress head-to-toe in Harris Tweed and celebrate massively, in an incredibly understated miniature fashion, don our best stiff upper lips and swap all Chihuahuas for sizeable hounds immediately. I was reluctantly persuaded to leave the pipe at home and do my very best to behave tonight.  Alright, perhaps I’m a little over excited – but I’m off to The Goring. Once upon a time, not too long ago, The Goring Hotel was born into the blue-blooded heart of Belgravia, a mere brogue’s throw from Buckingham Palace. Like all things regally British,…

Style

B.L.T.

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Michael Caine. Actor. South Londoner. Legend. And sartorial hero of mine. By the time the second Summer of Love rolled around, I’d been a punk, a breakdancer, a psychobilly, a skater, a BMXer, and a hippy (one of my better looks, given my long curly locks at the time). But as my peers boarded to The Farm’s Groovy Train, I found myself wanting ride to T-Rex’s White Swan, delving deeper and deeper into the psychedelic 60s and, ironically, became more interested in the first Summer of Love! And so it was, along with my discovery of all things psychedelic and groovy, that I developed a penchant for the films of…

Food & Drink

Voltaire

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God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well. Located in the square mile, Voltaire is housed in a Grade Two-listed building, styled by renowned interior designer Sue Wheldon. At one time, the vaults at Voltaire housed the vast wealth of the patrons to the bank above. Now, you are more likely to find a rich plume than doubloon in its hallowed walls. The vaults are mini-cavernous escapes adjacent to Voltaire, where you and your private party can retreat into the stone for an evening of private frivolity. Here guests can enjoy handmade canapés, fine cigars from a variety…

Interviews

Citizen Caine

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With his distinct cockney accent and rough-around-the-edges charm, Michael Caine gained stardom in the 1960s as the working-class antithesis to the typical upper-class English hero. The Review met with Caine to discuss his successful—yet seesawed—career. How did you get into acting? My father thought acting was for sissies – but he didn’t actively discourage me from doing it. He died soon after I became an actor. But my mother always encouraged me to do whatever I wanted, she was really great. Growing up, how involved were you with the South London gangsters?  I knew a lot of gangsters in London very well. That’s why, when I made Get Carter, I…

Food & Drink

RADIO

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Radio is the new rooftop bar and terrace atop the newest of the ME hotel’s, owned by Sol Melia on The Strand. Having stepped out of the Rolls Royce Phantom (provided by the team at the Envy Group), we power walked from the car to the hotel’s circular street entrance and into the Norman Foster designed building. Space is top of the menu here, with a cavernous lobby opening up to 157 individually designed rooms, 16 suits and 499sqm of meeting space. But tonight, we aren’t here for the hotel. We aren’t even here for a suite. We are actually here for the launch of Radio, the hotel’s destination bar…

Travel

Mountain Exposure – Zermatt

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I don’t know where to start. It creeps up on me. I could be placating my way through a board meeting, or having drinks with friends, and then I just lose all interest. The situation, whatever it is, completely ceases to amaze me. Life just loses its colour. I try to reassure myself, whilst hopelessly attempting to coax the addiction monkey off my shoulder and back into its bloody cage. I just can’t get enough powder. Before we go any further, and I get a call from my mother (probably to enquire into the quality, rather than express concern) I want to make it clear that I’m talking about snow….

Travel

Gansevoort New York

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The Gansevoort Hotel’s new Park Avenue location is, in simplest terms, stunning. A sublime combination of the Hotel Group’s standard five-star service combined with a chic boutique interior. Just when you have mastered the layout, there’s another sultry speakeasy-style bar lurking in the shadows. We take a tour with Hotel Manager Suzi DeAngelis. The luxury hotels of Manhattan have long been a staple of the skyline. With the Plaza, Oriental and Four Seasons deeply imbedded in the luxury traveller’s zeitgeist, one might assume the big players have little to contend with. But they would be very, very wrong. Many hotels spring up in Manhattan offering, boutique chic and pop-up experiences,…

Interviews

Q&A – Jean Georges Vongerichten

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Since the hotel opened 60 years ago on a promontory of the same name, Eden Rock has been a magnet for the A-list crowd from Greta Garbo and Howard Hughes to some of today’s most distinguished celebs. 2012 saw the addition of acclaimed chef Jean Georges Vongerichten join the hotel. This is the first collaboration of its kind on St Barths, and Vongerichten is responsible for the hotel’s two renowned restaurants, The Sand Bar and On the Rocks. What made you decide to join Eden Rock-St Barths?  I have always loved St Barths as a vacation destination.  When approached to open a restaurant at Eden Rock I was hesitant since…

Automotive

Bentley W12 GTC

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It may be named Continental, but the new Bentley is unapologetically British. From the moment that W.O. Bentley’s brand new, three-litre engine roared into life, in his London-based New Street Mews workshops, sometime during October 1919, his dream, his passion “To build a good car, a fast car, the best in class” started coming to fruition. This innovative engine, designed by ex-Royal Flying Corps officer Clive Gallop, had four valves per cylinder, and lightweight aluminium pistons. It was good enough to power Douglas Hawkes’s car, in the 1922 Indianapolis 500 race, at an average speed of 80mph. The 1920s were a golden decade for Bentley. Ettore Bugatti, his greatest competitor…

Automotive

Ferrari California

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Ferrari taken over to Europe to make sure that the natives are not ‘too restless’. Speed essential to report from the ground, so the latest Ferrari California 30 was chosen for the journey. It was to take four days, 1605 miles, and visits to Paris, Bordeaux, and Le Mans to confirm that the bad weather had not unsettled the natives, and that the entente was still cordiale. ‘Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough! It isn’t fit for humans now’, opined John Betjeman in his famous ten-stanza poem of 1937. Fast forward 75 years, and ‘we are fortunate now’ that the majority of the 850 factories that incurred his wrath…