Marylebone Journal Issue 93

MARYLEBONE JOURNAL

P.20 AN APPOINTMENT WITH MILLINER SARAH MARSHALL AT THE CHARACTERFUL BOUTIQUE AND STUDIO OF JOHN BOYD HATS

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ISSUE NO.93 BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE HOWARD DE WALDEN ESTATE AND THE PORTMAN ESTATE

P.34 BASQUE CUISINE, HARD CIDER AND THE WILD RESPONSE TO THE MEAT OF OLD DAIRY COWS P.42 ISABEL MANNS ON REVERSIBLE CLOTHING, TIMELESS COLOURS AND THE VALUE OF CUSTOMISATION

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HOPE MONTESSORI SCHOOL Admin@HopeMontessoriSchool.com +44 (0) 7919 84 48 53 HopeMontessoriSchool.com MJ 93 ARTWK LIVE PROOF02.indd 2

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MARYLEBONE JOURNAL ISSUE NO.93 BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE HOWARD DE WALDEN ESTATE AND THE PORTMAN ESTATE Cover: Sarah Marshall by Orlando Gili

Marylebone Journal marylebonejournal.com Instagram: @marylebonejrnl Twitter: @MaryleboneJrnl Marylebone Village marylebonevillage.com Instagram: @marylebonevillage Twitter: @MaryleboneVllge Portman Marylebone portmanmarylebone.com Instagram: @portmanmarylebone Publisher LSC Publishing lscpublishing.com Editor Mark Riddaway mark@lscpublishing.com Advertising sales Donna Earrey 020 7401 2772 donna@lscpublishing.com Contributers Jean-Paul Aubin-Parvu Lauren Bravo Ellie Costigan Clare Finney Orlando Gili Emily Jupp Jackie Modlinger Viel Richardson Design and art direction Em-Project Limited mike@em-project.com Owned and supported by The Howard de Walden Estate 23 Queen Anne Street, W1G 9DL 020 7580 3163 hdwe.co.uk annette.shiel@hdwe.co.uk The Portman Estate 40 Portman Square, W1H 6LT 020 7563 1400 portmanestate.co.uk kate.jonsson@portmanestate.co.uk

HAPPENINGS IN MARYLEBONE

2 A CLOSER LOOK

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IN PROFILE: XAVIER BRAY

Q&A: 12 MELODY ADAMS & NEMANJA BORJANOVIC

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Events, exhibitions, film, music, shopping, talks, theatre and walks

Food, style, home, wellbeing and healthcare

The director of The Wallace Collection on loaning artworks, battling bugs and broadening the gallery’s appeal

THE GLAD HATTER

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A visit to the characterful New Quebec Street boutique and studio of John Boyd Hats, where milliner Sarah Marshall makes and sells her skilfully handcrafted creations

THE DIFFERENCE MAKERS

The co-owners of Lurra and Donostia on Basque cuisine, hard cider and the wild response to the meat of old dairy cows

Q&A: ISABEL MANNS

The eponymous founder of the Isabel Manns brand on reversible clothing, timeless colours and the value of customisation

MY PERFECT 29 DAY

Ayla Mammadova, clinical lead for the Mind in Brent, Wandsworth & Westminster charity’s mental health support team

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66

Howard Jacobson, the Booker Prize-winning novelist, describes his perfect Marylebone Day

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HAPPENINGS IN MARYLEBONE

HAPPENINGS IN MARYLEBONE EVENTS EXHIBITIONS FILM MUSIC SHOPPING TALKS THEATRE WALKS

MUSIC 22 – 25 FEBRUARY, 6pm DAYLIGHTING Royal Academy of Music Marylebone Road, NW1 5HT ram.ac.uk Daylighting, a new commission from PhD composition student Louise Drewett (with a libretto

by Clare Shaw) involves Academy singers and instrumentalists performing alongside primary school children, exploring the Tyburn, a hidden river that flows close to the Academy.

EXHIBITION UNTIL 26 FEBRUARY KALPESH LATHIGRA: THE TREE OF A MAN NAMED BEOHHA – BECONTREE NOW RIBA First Floor Gallery 66 Portland Place, W1B 1AD architecture.com As part of a series of activities marking the centenary of the ground-breaking Becontree Estate in east London, local photographer Kalpesh Lathigra presents a nuanced study of its architecture as it appears today.

MUSIC

Directed by Rachel Podger, the Bach in Leipzig series continues with two Eastertide cantatas and one for Pentecost. Wer mich liebet, for Whit Sunday, is potentially the first cantata that Bach ever wrote with Leipzig in mind, and is notable for its restrained use of large, festal forces.

27 FEBRUARY, 12pm BACH IN LEIPZIG Royal Academy of Music Marylebone Road, NW1 5HT ram.ac.uk

1. Rachel Podger, Royal Academy of Music 2. Trevor Pinnock, Royal Academy of Music 3. Lulama Wolf, SoShiro 4. Helter Skelter, The Cockpit

VIRTUAL TOUR 1 MARCH, 12.30pm FABULOUS MARYLEBONE WOMEN OF THE PAST Baker Street Quarter Partnership bakerstreetq.co.uk Celebrate International Women’s Day with a virtual walk led by professional tour guide Tina Hodgkinson, who’ll introduce you to a cast of illustrious women who have lived and worked in the Baker Street Quarter through the centuries.

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MUSIC 4 MARCH, 1pm TREVOR PINNOCK CONDUCTS THE ACADEMY CHAMBER ORCHESTRA Royal Academy of Music Marylebone Road, NW1 5HT ram.ac.uk

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Trevor Pinnock conducts Schubert’s unfinished Eighth Symphony, which was composed in 1822, the year the Academy was founded.

Mendelssohn’s virtuosic Violin Concerto in E minor completes the programme.

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HAPPENINGS IN MARYLEBONE

P.12→

Xavier Bray, director of The Wallace Collection, on loaning artworks, battling bugs and broadening the gallery’s appeal

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EXHIBITION

This exhibition of new works by the 27-year-old South African visual artist Lulama Wolf features some of the fruits of her recent month-long residency in Antibes, France, for the Undiscovered Canvas residency programme for emerging African artists.

Lulama’s approach is rooted in her heritage – her paintings make use of the traditional techniques of smearing, scraping and deep pigmentation – and her work captures some of the simplicity and deep spiritual power of the pre-colonial African experience, but her interrogation of history, geography and spirituality feels highly contemporary.

UNTIL 4 MARCH LULAMA WOLF: NDIZALWE NGE NGUBO EMHLOPHE (I WAS BORN WRAPPED IN A WHITE BLANKET) SoShiro 23 Welbeck Street, W1G 8DZ soshiro.co

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THEATRE 3-5 MARCH HELTER SKELTER The Cockpit Gateforth Street, NW8 8EH thecockpit.co.uk Based on the life of a vulnerable adolescent, Susan Atkins, and her indoctrination into the notorious Manson Family cult in 1967, Helter Skelter tells the story of a utopian dream that descends into a nightmare of violence. In the Californian desert, Susan spirals towards an act that cannot be undone.

MUSIC 8 MARCH, 7.30pm ELAINE MITCHENER: WOMENS WORK Wigmore Hall 36 Wigmore Street, W1U 2BP wigmore-hall.org.uk Experimental vocalist, movement artist and composer Elaine Mitchener presents a programme devoted to contemporary female composers, its title taken from a pioneering 1970s magazine dedicated to the overlooked work of female artists.

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HAPPENINGS IN MARYLEBONE

TALK 9 MARCH, 7pm RUTH PADEL: SONGS FROM THE LABYRINTH The Hellenic Centre 16-18 Paddington Street, W1U 5AS helleniccentre.org

1. Apartment House, Wigmore Hall 2. Regent Street Cinema 3. The Tempest, The Cockpit 4. Brita Granström, Thompson’s Gallery

Author Ruth Padel talks about her novel Daughters of the Labyrinth, which explores the buried past of the Jews of Crete, and Cretan singer and musician Kalia Baklitzanaki performs some of the music referenced in the book.

MUSIC 12 MARCH, 3pm BECHSTEIN SESSIONS: NOBODY’S JIG Wigmore Hall 36 Wigmore Street, W1U 2BP wigmore-hall.org.uk

ONLINE TALK 18 MARCH, 7pm UNDERSTANDING SLEEP (& HOW TO GET MORE OF IT!) Baker Street Quarter Partnership bakerstreetq.co.uk

The Bechstein Sessions are informal performances in Wigmore Hall’s Bechstein Bar. Nobody’s Jig explores the intersection between folk and early Baroque music-making traditions, giving voice to an old and intimate tradition of song repertoire.

On World Sleep Day, this free online session led by sleep expert Julie Wright offers practical guidance on how to incorporate good habits to support sound sleep, and explores the many benefits this can have for mental and physical health.

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EXHIBITION UNTIL 9 MARCH YUKAKO TANAKA: FLUCTUATING FLUCTUATIONS: NOW=THEN HERE=ELSEWHERE Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation 13-14 Cornwall Terrace, NW1 4QP dajf.org.uk Yukako Tanaka presents four installations, an online public conversation and a workshop, all of which explore the relationships between art, science and philosophy.

FOOD 10 MARCH, 12pm FOOD MARKET AT 55 BAKER STREET Baker Street Quarter Partnership bakerstreetq.co.uk The Baker Street Quarter’s fortnightly food market in the covered atrium of 55 Baker Street gathers together a small but diverse range of independent street-food stalls, offering a mouthwatering alternative to the usual workday lunch.

MUSIC 10 MARCH, 7.30pm APARTMENT HOUSE Wigmore Hall 36 Wigmore Street, W1U 2BP wigmore-hall.org.uk British contemporary music ensemble Apartment House presents a programme including two UK premières: The Boy With A Wolf Eye Is Melting And There Is Nothing I Can Do, by Russian composer Darya Zvezdina, and Helmut Oehring’s Fourth String Quartet.

FILM

Every Monday, the magnificent Regent Street Cinema presents a programme of classic films from all eras of filmmaking for guests over 55 to enjoy. The screenings, for which tickets are subsidised at £4, have developed a real community feel.

Coming up: 21 February: An Officer and a Gentleman 28 February: Ninotchka 7 March: The Talented Mr Ripley 14 March: On the Town EVERY MONDAY, 1pm REGENCY SENIORS Regent Street Cinema 307 Regent Street, W1B 2HW regentstreetcinema.com/regency-seniors 2.

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HAPPENINGS IN MARYLEBONE

THEATRE 9 – 19 MARCH THE TEMPEST The Cockpit Gateforth Street, NW8 8EH thecockpit.co.uk

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The Bridge Theatre Training Company’s time-shifting production of The Tempest reimagines Shakespeare’s desert island as a 1950s painter’s studio where, betrayed by family and peers, and Prospero races against time to complete his masterpiece.

EXHIBITION 2 – 19 MARCH BRITA GRANSTRÖM: “INSCAPES” Thompson’s Gallery 3 Seymour Place, W1H 5AZ thompsonsgallery.co.uk Stylistic renderings of woodlands, domestic scenes, and still lifes by Swedish artist Brita Granström, who has lived in the UK since 1993 and draws inspiration from both countries.

She is, she says, drawn to “environments that are always changing, never still”.

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HAPPENINGS IN MARYLEBONE

Q&A: LAURIE BOLGER

The London-based poet on working, writing and running workshops for the Baker Street Quarter

How did you come to be a poet?

I didn’t really have a great time at school, but I did have an amazing English teacher. He made the GCSE poetry anthology so accessible and he also encouraged us to find our own voices. He was great. I was the only person in my family to go, apart from my auntie, the arty one, who was a bit of a role model for me. When I was at university, there was an open mic night as part of a Poems in Pubs event. I got up and I did this poem. It was absolute filth. I obviously thought I had to be really rude to make an impact, which is not at all right, but I managed to get booked off the back of that and it started rolling from there. I ended up getting shortlisted for Young Poet Laureate for London in 2014, then started working around London as a poet.

How hard is it to build a career in poetry?

I think you’ve got to be really resilient and take what you can at the beginning, but then know your worth a bit, because people seem to think that you just sit in your flat with a quill and write into the night for fun. Some people don’t even think it’s a job. I can’t do online dating because I literally hate it. I’ll be like, “I’m a poet.” And they’re like, “Ooh.

Is that a real job?” Yes it is! It’s a really hard job. The sad thing is that it’s a really inaccessible industry for a lot of working-class people still, because you need money to buy books, to go and do gigs, to build a following.

I think that’s a shame, because those working-class poets have some of the best stories to tell.

Your online creative writing workshops, like those you run for the Baker Street Quarter, seem to be a thriving part of your work.

The workshops are the best. I love them. I really like working with people who maybe don’t consider themselves writers, because I love seeing the surprise on their faces after I’ve given them a few prompts and it all starts to come together. I started the Creative Writing Breakfast Club during lockdown, and people have stayed loyal to it and come back every week. Often, I’ve no idea where they’ve even come from, but they turn up every Sunday. They clearly

find it therapeutic. I’ve started doing a supper club too, where I send a recipe and we all eat together as part of the workshop. For the Baker Street Quarter, I collaborate with my sister a lot – she’s a yoga instructor. We do workshops where people are put into various restorative yoga poses.

As they’re lying there, I might read a poem, and it’s just about letting those words enter your body and seeing how they make you feel. Then we do exercises where they write. I just think it’s a lovely, mindful thing to do. I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad session.

What do you want people to get out of your workshops?

Just to clear their heads really and connect with themselves creatively.

Just write for the sake of writing – and draw as well, just make marks on a page and enjoy doing that. I do run some workshops in person, and there’s a lot to be said for that, but actually Zoom’s great too, because people can really chill out in their

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HAPPENINGS IN MARYLEBONE

1. Jess Gillam, Wigmore Hall 2. Eamonn Dougan, Royal Academy of Music 3. Christian McBride & Inside Straight, Wigmore Hall

MUSIC 20 MARCH, 7.30pm JESS GILLAM & MANCHESTER CAMERATA Wigmore Hall 36 Wigmore Street, W1U 2BP wigmore-hall.org.uk

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Works by Shostakovich and Glazunov, together with a new piece by the 35-year-old British composer Daniel Kidane, are performed by the Manchester Camerata ensemble – on its Wigmore Hall debut – and the brilliant Cumbrian saxophonist Jess Gillam.

MUSIC 20 MARCH, 12pm BACH IN LEIPZIG Royal Academy of Music Marylebone Road, NW1 5HT ram.ac.uk

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The Academy’s third Bach in Leipzig concert of 2022, directed

by Eamonn Dougan, features an opulent cantata written for Epiphany – Sie werden aus Saba alle kommen – bookended by two intense, questioning works: Ich glaube, lieber Herr, and Herze schwimmt im Blut.

own space – sitting at home with no shoes on – and that helps clear some of their inhibitions. It’s such an amazing thing to do for yourself.

Tapping into some part of your life that you probably wouldn’t otherwise think about is amazing. I think it teaches you a lot about other people and I think it teaches you a lot about yourself – that’s why I love poetry.

Tell us about Call Me Lady, the new collection you’ve been writing.

It’s a celebration of the working-class immigrant women in my family, who moved here from Ireland, grew up in the Avenues of West London and worked their socks off to make a life.

They taught me a lot about being a woman. Some of that comes with a bit of an edge – these women had to be really hardcore to get by – but there’s a lot of love in there too.

CREATIVE WRITING AND MINDFULNESS 21 MARCH, 6pm Baker Street Quarter Partnership bakerstreetq.co.uk

MUSIC

American bassist, composer and arranger Christian McBride comes to Wigmore Hall with his own quintet of leading jazz musicians, described by NPR music as “both inside a comfortable groove pocket and straight-forwardly bluesy”.

21 MARCH, 7.30pm CHRISTIAN MCBRIDE & INSIDE STRAIGHT Wigmore Hall 36 Wigmore Street, W1U 2BP wigmore-hall.org.uk 3.

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HAPPENINGS IN MARYLEBONE

1. Tea Stories, jaggedart 2. Consigned Sealed Delivered (CSD) 3. P ainting of Change

by Tatsuo Miyajima, Lisson Gallery

THEATRE 25 MARCH, 4pm & 7.30pm LIKE A BUTTERFLY The Cockpit Gateforth Street, NW8 8EH thecockpit.co.uk West End choreographer Ryan Lee Seager transforms John McHugh’s original script and score into a vibrant mix of boxing, dance and theatre, exploring the extraordinary life, in and out of the ring, of the man they called “the greatest”: heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali.

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POP-UP

Consigned Sealed Delivered (CSD) – which begins with the belief that fast fashion is an environmental disaster and luxury fashion is too beautiful to go unused – sources and sells exceptional used designer clothes, bags and accessories, but applies the same standards of presentation and service you’d expect if they were new. The brand’s commitment to sustainability informs every aspect of its work, including carbon neutral shipping, non-toxic dry cleaning, and support for One Tree Planted’s tree planting mission. The Marylebone Lane pop-up is CSD’s first physical store.

CONSIGNED SEALED DELIVERED (CSD) 70-72 Marylebone Lane, W1U 2PQ csd.shop

MUSIC 28 MARCH, 7.30pm ROYAL ACADEMY OF MUSIC BAROQUE SOLOISTS: BACH AND THE GREENER GRASS Wigmore Hall 36 Wigmore Street, W1U 2BP wigmore-hall.org.uk Esteemed director and violinist Rachel Podger joins artists from the nearby conservatoire for an all-Bach programme, including works written exactly 100 years before the founding of the Academy in 1822.

EXHIBITION UNTIL 30 MARCH 1821 VISIONS OF FREEDOM The Hellenic Centre 16-18 Paddington Street, W1U 5AS helleniccenre.org

EXHIBITION

Japanese installation artist and sculptor Tatsuo Miyajima, whose profoundly spiritual art explores Buddhist philosophy through technological installations, unveils three new bodies of work – Keep Changing (Mondrian), Painting of Change and Unstable Time – all of which use digits, in the form of LED lights, oils or gold leaf, to explore ideas of life, reincarnation, chance and flux.

UNTIL 9 APRIL TATSUO MIYAJIMA: ART IN YOU Lisson Gallery 67 Lisson Street, NW1 5DA lissongallery.com

To mark the bicentenary of the start of the War of Independence, The Hellenic Centre presents 12 iconic lithographs of scenes from the conflict, which were commissioned and vividly captioned by one of its heroes, General Yannis Makriyannis.

EXHIBITION 9 MARCH – 8 APRIL TEA STORIES jaggedart 28A Devonshire Street, W1G 6PS jaggedart.com

SHOP 2.

For this group exhibition themed around the soothing and very British topic of tea, jaggedart brings together a selection of photography by Peter Abrahams, works in ceramic and paper by Charlotte Hodes, ceramics and photography by Livia Marin, and ceramics by Paul Scott.

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HAPPENINGS IN MARYLEBONE

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THE COMMITMENTS HAPPENINGS IN MARYLEBONE

FOOD

The Marylebone Food Festival marks its highly welcome return after an enforced two-year hiatus.

Visit the website for updates on dozens of culinary events taking place across the neighbourhood throughout the festival, which is organised and funded by The Howard de Walden Estate and The Portman Estate.

Highlights include a gala dinner hosted

by Jay Rayner, with each course cooked by a different chef from the area’s best restaurants.

26 APRIL – 1 MAY MARYLEBONE FOOD FESTIVAL marylebonefoodfestival.com

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EXHIBITION UNTIL 9 APRIL PORTALS Lisson Gallery 27 Bell Street, NW1 5BY lissongallery.com

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The tie that binds the artists in this richly varied group exhibition is their use of the gallery space to open up an array of physical, meta-physical and metaphorical portals, offering passage to entirely speculative or abstract realities, new spatial possibilities and even paths through time.

EXHIBITION 6 APRIL – 16 OCTOBER INSPIRING WALT DISNEY: THE ANIMATION OF FRENCH DECORATIVE ARTS The Wallace Collection Manchester Square, W1U 3BN wallacecollection.org

1. Marylebone Food Festival 2. Canvas Event by John Latham, Lisson Gallery

The Wallace’s latest blockbuster explores Walt Disney’s personal fascination with France, and how his studio’s illustrators have continued to look to 18thcentury French artworks for their source material.

See feature, p12.

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IN PROFILE: XAVIER BRAY

IN PROFILE

XAVIER BRAY The director of The Wallace Collection on loaning artworks, battling bugs and broadening the gallery’s appeal Words: Emily Jupp Images: Julian Calder, Thierry Bal

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IN PROFILE: XAVIER BRAY

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IN PROFILE: XAVIER BRAY

“The Wallace Collection was the greatest gift ever made to the nation, and I guess my mission is to make people realise that.”

Xavier Bray’s ambitions for the institution he leads are clear. Within the cultural landscape of the UK, The Wallace Collection is currently something of a hidden gem, but he wants it hidden no longer. Based in Hertford House, a large townhouse in Manchester Square, the collection comprises over 5,000 objects and artworks amassed in the 18th and 19th centuries by the first four marquesses of Hertford and Sir Richard Wallace, the illegitimate son of the 4th marquess, and bequeathed to the British people by Sir Richard’s widow in 1897.

“And the thing about it is that it’s all top quality,” enthuses Xavier, who became the Wallace’s director in 2016.

One reason for the gallery’s ‘hidden gem’ status (it pulls in a respectable but by no means enormous stream of about 400,000 visitors a year) is that the board of directors at the Wallace have always refused to lend its objects out. Until now. Xavier explains: “In Lady Wallace’s will, she said that the collection should remain together and unmixed with other objects, and the trustees had always chosen to interpret that as meaning nothing could enter or leave the museum, which basically prohibited loans in and loans out. But in their own lifetime, Lady Wallace and Richard Wallace were extremely generous.

They loved to be part of the London cultural life.

They lent to the Royal Academy, the V&A and lots of other places.”

Like many cultural institutions, the Wallace has to raise 60 per cent of its running costs itself, with the rest coming from government funds. For most galleries and museums, loaning can be a highly effective form of networking – forging relationships with other institutions across the world and exploiting the benefits of the subsequent publicity, which in turn helps generate an income. This Wallace was consistently hamstrung by its own interpretation of Lady Wallace’s words.

Then, in 2019, for the first time in the collection’s long history, the board made the landmark decision to lend a painting on a temporary basis. That first loan, of Titian’s Perseus and Andromeda, was bestowed upon the National Gallery for a major exhibition, Titian: Love, Desire and Death. The six key works that made up the show, reunited from galleries in Boston, Madrid and London, all depict stories from Classical mythology about love and desire; sometimes euphoric, often fatal, with figures expressing the full gamut of human emotion. Forget once in a lifetime, this was a once in 400-years chance to see them all together in one place. A very big deal indeed.

“For the Wallace, it was amazing to be part of that, making history – or at least making art history,” Xavier jokes, “and really being talked about.” Starting off by loaning to the National made sense, not only because of its status as the nation’s art gallery but also because of Xavier’s knowledge of the institution – he was the gallery’s assistant curator in the late 1990s and early 2000s. When the loan was announced, Gabriele Finaldi, the National Gallery’s director, spoke on the momentous news: “Unthinkable until today, for the first time in over four centuries, thanks to The Wallace Collection’s loan of the Titian Perseus and Andromeda, all of the artist’s late poesie mythologies for the King of Spain will be seen together, as he intended.”

While the loan marked a significant departure from the Wallace’s previous insularity, Xavier believes the move to be entirely consistent with the spirit and intentions of the institution’s founders. “Richard Wallace lent his whole collection to the Bethnal Green Museum in 1872, and crowds of people came,” he says. “It was the first blockbuster exhibition, about 3.5 million people went to visit. He was actually going out to people and sharing, and that’s why I think Richard would have been so proud and pleased. You know, collectors are proud. They love showing off what they’ve bought and seeing it being appreciated by others, and that’s exactly what happened at the National.”

Appreciated the painting certainly was – but not by nearly as many people as had been presumed. When Covid-19 forced the doors of the National Gallery to shut on 18th March 2020, it meant that this eagerly anticipated exhibition, years in the making, had to close after just three days. “It has to be said, the trumpets were certainly muted in terms of this great moment,” says Xavier, wryly. The Wallace, too, suffered an unprecedented hit.

Before the first lockdown, the gallery was on the verge of attracting 500,000 annual visitors – an all-time high.

Needless to say, this record was never achieved. “People did come back, but before lockdown we were at over 5,000 people a week, then after lockdown it went down to 800. It was pretty awful.”

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IN PROFILE: XAVIER BRAY

“The French prescribe going to a museum once a week for their wellbeing. It’s true – there are moments you look at something and it just fills you with aesthetic satisfaction and pushes away depression.”

>

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IN PROFILE: XAVIER BRAY

While Hertford House was closed, Xavier still came in every day to check on the collection, his steps echoing through the empty rooms, occasionally exchanging words with the security teams who remained on site 24 hours a day to protect the gallery’s priceless treasures. “In the deepest moment of lockdown, it was only me, the security, and the senior management team really,” says Xavier, “I did feel a bit like Richard Wallace wandering around my house, so although it was a sad and gloomy time, there was one part of it that was actually, in a very selfish way, highly enjoyable!”

Xavier, it’s safe to say, is inclined towards positivity, and that can clearly be seen in the Wallace’s response to the pandemic, which offered some unexpected opportunities.

Rather importantly, a lot of the collection got cleaned for the first time in a century. Ninety-six per cent of The Wallace Collection is on display, which means routine cleaning is often a difficult task to undertake. The first lockdown offered a perfect opportunity to spruce things up, with a lot of brushing, waxing and polishing. According to Xavier, he’s never worked so hard in his life. He wasn’t alone. “The Wallace team is small and dedicated and everyone was keen to undertake all kinds of work that would have been really difficult and expensive to do while

“We did a deep clean, we repainted the entrance hall, we did a lot of relighting of the gallery. Now, when you go up the stairs and drop into the 18th-century gallery, it just looks... something.”

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we were open. We did a deep clean, we repainted the entrance hall, we did a lot of relighting of the gallery.

Now, when you go up the stairs and drop into the 18th-century gallery, it just looks... something,” he says.

The iconic Rococo painting The Swing, by JeanHonoré Fragonard, which until recently had a thick, tarnished yellow varnish, has been restored to its former glory in “one of the greatest restorations I’ve seen in my career”. The girl at the centre of the work now leaps out from the painting, her facial expression one of pure delight. “It’s as if she was painted yesterday; it is astonishing,” Xavier marvels.

Less obvious projects included the introduction of a pest management system, which was set up to combat the annual nuisance of bugs – the cloth webbing moth, carpet beetle and woolly bear beetle were identified as particular enemies of the art. Xavier and his team also developed and launched a free digital guide on the Bloomberg Connects app, which provides virtual cultural experiences. The guide features video shorts and support for deaf and visually impaired visitors.

The loans programme got back on its feet too.

The Titian has travelled on – to the Prado in Madrid and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston – and another of the Wallace’s most famous paintings, A Dance to the Music of Time, appeared last year in the National Gallery’s Nicolas Poussin exhibition. There are plans in place for further significant loans, including the collection’s Louis XV commode – among the most famous pieces of furniture in the world, acquired in 1865. It’s a fine example of Rococo furniture, but the story that goes with it is what makes it so interesting. Xavier tells it with relish: in Louis XV’s bedroom, the commode was facing the fireplace and the flickering firelight reflected on its gilding, playing tricks with the king’s mind as he lay on his deathbed, leading the monarch to declare that he was already dead and among the flames of hell.

Vivid proof of Xavier’s desire to make the collection as broadly accessible as possible is apparent in the theme of the exhibition that will follow in Hals’ wake, entitled Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts, which opens on 6 April. “Walt Disney loved The Wallace and loved the 18th-century French decorative arts and paintings,” says Xavier. In fact, the fascination endures, with The Swing featuring in Disney’s Frozen and in concept art by Disney artist Lisa Keene for the film Tangled, with Rapunzel kicking off her shoe.

A large section of the exhibition is devoted to that most Rococo of films, Beauty and the Beast. When the liveaction remake was filmed in 2017, “the studio was set up near Warren Street and the creative team would come to the Wallace to seek inspiration,” says Xavier.

The Wallace Collection’s wide hallways and welcoming cafe – and the fact that it’s permanent galleries are free to visit – have long been attracting parents with small children to the Wallace, and this is something Xavier keenly wants to encourage. The Disney exhibition should help with that plan. “Children love going to the Wallace because it’s like a dollhouse,” he says.

Xavier’s dream is to see banners everywhere proclaiming what’s on next at the Wallace, and a constant stream of engaged visitors making their way to the gallery.

“That I would be proud of.” He feels that museums and galleries, in general, are sadly underused and their benefits undervalued. “The Wallace is a place where people should come at least three times a year for their medicine,” he says.

“The French prescribe going to a museum once a week for their wellbeing. It’s true – there are moments you look at something and it just fills you with aesthetic satisfaction and pushes away depression.”

THE WALLACE COLLECTION Manchester Square, W1U 3BN wallacecollection.org

The period of reflection enabled by the pandemic resulted in some ambitious plans for exhibitions at Hertford House. The recent Frans Hals show, The Male Portrait, which brought together the 17th century Dutch painter’s portraits of men who look like people – not mannered or grave, their features not moulded to fit the fashion of the day – was a major critical success. It was accompanied by an audio guide, for which Xavier worked with the contemporary artist Grayson Perry, who talked compellingly about masculinity and what it means to be male. In testament to its broad appeal, Xavier confides that he persuaded his 14-year-old son to come to the exhibition with the enticement of listening to Grayson Perry – plus a burger afterwards.

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“In the deepest moment of lockdown, it was only me, the security, and the senior management team really. I felt a bit like Richard Wallace wandering around his house. That was actually, in a very selfish way, highly enjoyable!”

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THE GLAD HATTER

THE GLAD HATTER

The Journal pays a visit to the characterful New Quebec Street boutique and studio of John Boyd Hats, where milliner Sarah Marshall makes and sells her skilfully handcrafted creations Words: Clare Finney Images: Orlando Gili Sarah Marshall at John Boyd Hats

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“The more weddings you go to,” my editor once observed, “the more you remember them like episodes of Friends.” There’s the one where the father of the bride’s speech described, in graphic detail, his daughter’s birth; the one where a bridesmaid broke up with her fiancé over the breakfast; and – my personal favourite – the one where the mothers of the bride and groom inadvertently wore the same outfit, right up to and including their hats.

“It does happen sometimes,” laughs milliner Sarah Marshall, when I recount this story over coffee in her small, enchanting shop on New Quebec Street. “Not the mothers of the bride and groom – I’ve never had that before! – but people who’re going to the same wedding being drawn to the same style of hat. I had it the other week with a bride, her sister and mum.”

Of course, the chances of their choosing matching hats is infinitely lower if they’re shopping here rather than in say, Accessorize, where hats are off the peg and manufactured in their thousands – but there are occasions which require the milliner to “very tactfully steer a customer.

When I realised their mother had been here and bought a very similar hat to the ones they were trying on, I said: ‘You’d better take some pictures and show them to your mum.’”

Mercifully, no two hats are exactly the same, so even if Sarah hadn’t clocked that the three were related and attending the same wedding, the fallout would have been minimal. “You might have a similar style, but one person will go for a different colour, or a smaller brim, or add a flower.” The flowers – soft and deceptively natural, a far cry from the stiff artifices gracing most mass-manufactured hats – are handmade, either by Sarah or by an elderly couple in Germany. Each hat is crafted by hand at the back of

her shop and tailored precisely to fit both its owner’s head and their outfit. “I am a craftsperson, first and foremost,” she explains, “but I love meeting customers and helping them find their hat, and the two elements of the work go hand in hand. How can you have any idea if your hats will suit if you’re making them in a separate place from the people you’re making them for?” Besides, she continues, “customers love to see where we make them. It’s an unusual thing.”

It certainly is, I think, feasting my eyes on the wooden hat blocks lining tall shelves at the back of her shop; on the pinboard, stuck with scraps of fabric and pictures; the tall drawers of flowers. The blocks in particular are compelling, varying in size, shape and colour: from light, amber and shiny to dull, dark and riddled with tiny holes. These holes are not woodworm, Sarah explains, but pin marks from where they’ve been worked on over decades gone by. “The darker they are, the older.

Some could be 100 years old – even older.” Most of them come from Luton. Though better known today for its airport, Luton has long been the national centre of millenary, she continues. “Even today, that is where our lace comes from, and any new blocks if we want them. We make our own shape, using canvas and wires, and the blockmakers carve it so you have your own new style.”

For the most part, though, Sarah draws upon history; the vintage styles of the 20th century when hats were not just for royalty and races but were par for the course for most people.

“That’s the sort of hat you’d have put on if you were going for cocktails with a girlfriend,” she smiles, as I don a black beret with a dainty net veil.

In fact, it’s a John Boyd original, she continues, designed by the founder himself soon after he began his business in post-war London. “That’s

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his signature look, which we’ve been making since he started. It’s simple, not-too-showy, and you can see how the line draws attention to your eyes.”

John Boyd opened his shop in Knightsbridge in 1947, after an inauspicious start making wellington boots at the British Rubber Company. By 1960, word of Mr Boyd’s eye-catching hats had reached the be-pearled ears of Princess Anne, “a real fashion leader at the time,” says Sarah. In the 1980s, the trend for big hairdos put hats on hold until Diana Spencer’s mother decided her daughter’s image needed smartening up if she was to secure her prince charming. She took her to her milliner, John Boyd, who went on to make the hats for several of Diana’s most iconic outfits, including the peach tricorn she donned for her ‘going away’ outfit after her wedding.

Understandably, Sarah is discreet when discussing today’s VIP clients, though they “have made a few for the Duchess of Cambridge – and are always open to making more!” she adds, should the duchess happen to pick up a copy of the Marylebone Journal. Princess Kate’s custom exemplifies the loyalty many families feel toward John Boyd Hats, which in many cases is now onto its third generation of customers. “Mr Boyd’s clients grew old with him, and their children and then grandchildren started seeing us,” says Sarah, who inherited the business upon his death in 2018. “It was a huge surprise,” she recalls. “I’d worked with him for 17 years, loved the business, and was running it toward the end – but I didn’t have any idea that was going to happen. It was a real honour to

Understandably, Sarah is discreet when discussing today’s VIP clients, though they “have made a few for the Duchess of Cambridge – and are always open to making more!” she adds.

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MADE-TO-MEASURE IN MARYLEBONE

be able to carry his name forward.”

Yet no sooner had Sarah taken up this precious millinery mantle, the ANGLO-ITALIAN English style and Italian construction, pandemic hit, and every conceivable with made-to-order jackets and shoes. reason for hats disappeared.

57 Weymouth Street, London W1G 8NP “Weddings, Royal Ascot, the angloitalian.com Grand National – all those things ANNA VALENTINE were cancelled, of course, so there Hidden-away atelier housing curated capsules was no custom. It was difficult for of couture and ready-to-wear. all milliners.” The pandemic 15 Cross Keys Close, W1U 2DN did yield a silver lining, annavalentine.com however – without it Sarah CASELY-HAYFORD would perhaps never have Stylish tailoring by Charlie Casely-Hayford, including wandered the empty streets bespoke and made-to-measure. of London and alighted 3 Chiltern Street, W1U 7PB casely-hayford.com upon New Quebec Street, John Boyd’s new home.

CROMFORD LEATHER CO “I inherited the business Long-established designer and maker of bespoke leather from Mr Boyd – but clothing.

56 Chiltern Street, W1U 7QY I didn’t inherit the cromfordleather.co.uk building, so I needed to find somewhere DASHING TWEEDS else,” she explains.

Colourful tweeds for the 21st century, with a made-to-measure tailoring service.

“I used the time 47 Dorset Street, W1U 7ND in lockdown to dashingtweeds.co.uk wander the city.

I fell in love with ENGLISH CUT Tailored suits with a slim-cut silhouette and a soft, comfortable make. this area, with 58 Chiltern Street, W1U 7QZ its pretty streets englishcut.com and independent businesses – GREY FLANNEL Marylebone menswear institution with made-to-measure and and it works bespoke services. well being near 7 Chiltern Street, W1U 7PE Suzannah [the greyflannel.co.uk luxury and JAMES TAYLOR & SON formal wear Makers of beautiful bespoke shoes and boots for over 150 years. boutique] and 4 Paddington Street, W1U 5QE the Alterations taylormadeshoes.co.uk Boutique. They SUZANNAH – THE ATELIER send their clients Couture and made-to measure womenswear from Suzannah Crabb. to us, and we 20 New Quebec Street, W1H 7RZ. send our clients suzannah.com there.”

TALIARE If fashion is art Savile Row tailoring tradition paired with modern styles (and many argue it and fabrics. is) then milliners, 2 Seymour Place, W1H 7NA like jewellers, are taliare.com more like sculptors WILLIAM CRABTREE & SONS than painters. Their Storied made-to-measure tailoring brand with roots in craft is fundamentally 19th century Yorkshire. three dimensional – 15 New Quebec Street, W1H 7RT williamcrabtree.co.uk which is important, says

Sarah: “I rarely sketch designs out.

I get my inspiration from a flower, or material, or the shape of the block, and I work from there.” As she works, she can see how the material stretches, how the flower or veil drapes, how the shape comes together as a whole – and make adaptations accordingly. Crucial to her designs, as it was to John Boyd’s, is the line of the hat– that is, the angle the viewer’s eye is first drawn to. “You want to draw their attention to the wearer’s eyes. Mr Boyd’s main thing was about flattering a woman, making her feel beautiful and comfortable; about putting the woman, rather than the hat, first.”

This, to me, is a strong selling point.

The main reason I don’t wear hats is that I invariably feel like a hat’s support act. “I’d like to introduce you to my hat,” is what I feel like saying when I’m wearing one – so as a result, I almost never do. This idea of the line – of a milliner prioritising my face above their creative flair – makes me feel more at ease with the idea than I have ever done, to the point where I’m even tempted to try some.

“I don’t make anyone try on hats if they feel awkward about it – but I do believe that those people who say they don’t suit hats just haven’t tried the right hat,” says Sarah. “I often have people come into the shop who say they hate hats, and by the time they leave they’ve tried everything on and I’ve helped steer them towards a hat that looks really good.”

This is easier said than done.

As a gay man, John Boyd could deliver lines like “your chin looks big in that” or “that doesn’t work with your nose” with a directness Sarah cannot get away with. “He was brutal, and people loved it. I have to find a more tactful approach,” she laughs, “but you do have to be super honest.

The worst thing you can do for your business, as well as for customers, is > let people go off in the wrong hat.”

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“Mr Boyd’s main thing was about flattering a woman, making her feel beautiful and comfortable; about putting the woman, rather than the hat, first,” says Sarah.

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The more you wear a hat, the better it looks, she goes on – citing as an example the trilby, “which never used to have a dent in the top. That’s come about from people holding them at the top, and the dent being incorporated into the design because it looks good.”

Sarah wants her hats to last a lifetime; to be more than another hat on a hatstand. Nothing gives her greater pleasure than a customer bringing in a John Boyd hat from 50 years ago and asking her to repair or update it. “These aren’t throwaway objects. I want people to love their hats and pass them on.”

Of course, this isn’t just a question of Sarah’s professional satisfaction, but of the environment.

“I’ve always been interested in sustainability, and actually, millinery can be amazingly sustainable.” The majority of her materials are recycled or vintage; every single scrap is saved, as evidenced by the motley pin board; and if Sarah is making a hat to match a particular outfit, she will ask the atelier for their fabric cuttings so she can incorporate them. “Milliners are notorious for being economical with materials, and saving and using all sorts of scraps.” By offering a lifetime care guarantee, under which customers “can bring their hats back free forever and I’ll repair or adapt them to different occasions”, Sarah has woven sustainability into the heart of her business and into hats customers can cherish for decades. It’s almost enough to persuade me that the next wedding I attend could be the one where I finally wear a hat.

“John was brutal, and people loved it. I have to find a more tactful approach,” Sarah laughs, “but you do have to be super honest. The worst thing you can do for your business, as well as for customers, is let people go off in the wrong hat.”

JOHN BOYD HATS 16A New Quebec Street, W1H 7RU johnboydhats.co.uk

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FOR BEAUTIFUL LIVING

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THE DIFFERENCE MAKERS

THE DIFFERENCE MAKERS Introducing the people behind Marylebone’s vital charities and community organisations: Ayla Mammadova, clinical lead for the Mind in Brent, Wandsworth & Westminster charity’s mental health support team Interview: Jean-Paul Aubin-Parvu Portraits: Orlando Gili

I’m what’s known as a ‘third culture kid’ – somebody who’s born in one country, grows up somewhere else, and then lives in a completely different place. That was me. I was born in Azerbaijan but grew up in the Middle East, and then lived in the United States. Now I’m here in London. Because of this, I have always been fascinated by people’s individual differences – by what it is that makes us us.

My biggest interest is in trying to help children and young people get through the massive changes they experience in life. I have been in this profession for many years, starting off at an adolescent inpatient psychiatric unit, then in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and also in forensics. I joined Mind in Brent, Wandsworth & Westminster as a clinical supervisor in January 2020, and became clinical lead in August 2021.

Our team works across 33 schools in Westminster, some of which are in Marylebone – I lived there for nine years, so I know the area very well.

Our CEO, Simon Thompson, is passionate about ensuring that everybody gets the care they need. The Mental Health Support team was set up by the service manager Nada Calovska in response to the green paper that came out a couple of years ago saying that children and adolescent mental health services are failing. We shouldn’t be waiting for a crisis to develop before we offer help to young people. We should be helping them at the start, at the early intervention stage. That’s what we try to do.

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“If you broke your leg, you would get the support you needed without a second thought. You should definitely get the same level of support if you’re struggling with your mental health.”

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We mostly focus on low mood, anxiety and challenging behaviour. When a referral comes to us, our team of educational mental health practitioners deliver cognitive behavioural therapy – usually six to eight sessions. As clinical lead I supervise the supervisors, who in turn supervise the practitioners. One day a week, I have a clinical day working with families.

Each of the schools we work with has a dedicated mental health lead who links in with our service. These are the professionals on the ground whose role it is to identify those children and young people who are struggling. We triage the referrals to see if we’re the bestplaced service for them; if we conclude that we’re not, we send them on to the right service.

For children aged between five and 11 with challenging behaviour and anxiety, our work is usually delivered through the parents – we try to equip them with the tools they need to support their child. The 11 to 18-year-olds we see often have challenges relating to low mood and anxiety, together with emotional dysregulation and the feeling of being out of place. For this age group we work directly with the young people, either in a group or one-to-one capacity.

We notice that a large proportion of referrals come during transition stages – children transitioning from primary to secondary school, or 16- to 18-year-olds who are approaching adulthood and confronting the big, pressurised life decisions that come around that age.

That’s not to say that we don’t receive referrals from other year groups, but those are the two key ones. We have recently expanded our service to cater to the needs of children under the age of five, which is very exciting.

We also work closely with pupils, families and staff across the whole school to improve emotional wellbeing and provide mental health support. This is essentially a set of workshops catering to a wide range of different needs. For example, last year there was a very worrying Ofsted report published that outlined the unwanted sexual attention that adolescents receive, so we put together a workshop that tells young people what is and isn’t safe and what behaviours to report. We looked at cyber bullying, sexting and the sharing of inappropriate images. We hold forums where people at school can give us feedback and let us know what it is that they need, where there’s a gap, and then we deliver workshops to try to assist them with those things.

The pandemic has been very challenging, with a massive increase in referrals. More and more young

people have been struggling and needing help. For children and young people struggling with low mood, lockdown took away their daily interactions with others, and those interactions are often vital for managing their distress. All of a sudden, that coping strategy went out of the window. It was particularly hard for those who have difficult relationships within their own household, where they were stuck inside. Things start to escalate.

The pressures of falling behind academically because of not being able to attend classes also meant that lots of young people were feeling more anxious or experiencing low mood more.

As a result, we’ve noticed an increase in risk. Ours is an early intervention service and technically speaking we aren’t meant to be working with anyone who may be at risk to themselves – the idea is that they should receive support from CAMHS. But because CAMHS is working at full capacity dealing with the most extreme cases, we’ve had to adapt our practice and train up the workforce to ensure that we can also respond to young people who are feeling at risk, who are either selfharming or experiencing suicidal ideation.

It’s not just children, young people and parents who’ve struggled during the pandemic, but also the teachers and staff working at the schools. They’ve been working non-stop while also having to adapt their practices. Remember all the times when most of us could work from home? Well, teachers had no choice but to come into school. We know of teachers who couldn’t even see their own children, because they were living in other households, yet they had to come into school and work with other people’s children every day, while the virus was running wild. The fact that they had to work in bubbles meant that they couldn’t even really see their colleagues. It felt so lonely and very isolating.

One of our challenges is to shift the way that mental health difficulties are perceived in the world. We are trying to break the stigma and we’re trying to make it more apparent that mental health is as important as physical health. If you broke your leg, you would get the support you needed without a second thought, so you should definitely get the same level of support if you’re struggling with your mental health.

We are constantly moving with the times, just trying to ensure that the younger generations are prepared for this confusing, ever-changing world. We can’t ever know exactly what’s around the corner for them, but with our help at least they’ll be able to process some of those difficult feelings a little better. All we want is for them to be able to deal with the stresses that life throws at them as best they can.

MIND IN BRENT, WANDSWORTH & WESTMINSTER Hopkinson House, 6 Osbert Street, SW1P 2QU bwwmind.org.uk

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A CLOSER LOOK FOOD

A CLOSER LOOK FOOD » 34 STYLE » 42 HOME » 46 WELLBEING » 54 HEALTHCARE » 60

FOOD » 37

FOOD PHILOSOPHY

Tim Schroeder of Hagen Marylebone on the true meaning of hygge, the art of coffee making, and the importance of interaction STYLE » 42

Q&A

Designer Isabel Manns on reversible clothing, timeless colours and the value of customisation HOME » 46

ANATOMY OF A DESIGN

Ruth Mottershead, creative director of Little Greene, on Burges Snail wallpaper

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A CLOSER LOOK FOOD

Q&A: MELODY ADAMS & NEMANJA BORJANOVIC The co-owners of Lurra and Donostia on Basque cuisine, hard cider and the wild response to the meat of old dairy cows Interview: Ellie Costigan Images: Orlando Gili

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Q: How did you come to open a Basque restaurant in Marylebone?

Nemanja: Mel and I were working in finance and banking before opening the restaurant. We have always been foodies – ones who were prepared to drop everything and dive deep into the restaurant world. One of the biggest regrets we have is not doing the jump sooner. When you’re working in the City, you’re pretty much there because you need to pay the bills. It was a lifestyle shift – we wanted to work in food, we had a passion for it. It doesn’t feel so much like work.

Melody: It was discovering San Sebastián that changed everything.

I was unsuccessfully importing wine at the time and Nemanja and I were driving to a winery to get a new vintage. It was a long drive, so we thought we’d stop over in this small town that’s known for its gastronomy.

We stayed in San Sebastián for one night and were shocked that, despite there being such a massive food scene in London – particularly Spanish – there was this Basque gem being overlooked. It’s very different to traditional Spanish cuisine. We started going back to San Sebastián and the surrounding regions more and more, and eventually decided that somebody should do this kind of thing in London. And it should be us.

Q: What would you say characterises Basque cuisine?

Nemanja: Few ingredients, all about sourcing, no faffing around on the plate. You hear that a lot – “We’re all about sourcing good ingredients” – but nowhere is it truer than in the Basque Country. Many are oneingredient dishes: the turbot, the steak, the peppers. No embellishment, no nothing. You can imagine how good it’s got to be. That’s one of the key characteristics of Basque cuisine and that’s what really appealed to us; the simplicity.

Q: The region’s also known for a particular wine: txakoli. What’s special about it?

Nemanja: Txakoli is only produced in a couple of regions of the Basque Country – mainly in the hills of Getaria, which is a small fishing village, famous for its turbot. The wine is unique because it has a natural spritz: you pour it into a beaker from a height, which is quite showy, to aerate it and start the fizz. You’re supposed to pour just a little bit and neck it. It’s great because it’s a low-alcohol wine, only 10 to 10.5 per cent, which these days is quite hard to find. It has this amazing lightness. It has a taste of the sea. The minerality in it is something special. It pairs well with the turbot, which we also do in Lurra. It’s a match made in heaven.

Q: The Basques are famed for their cider making – tell us about that.

Nemanja: They make the scrumpystyle, natural cloudy cider – not carbonated or sweet, more on the sour side. It’s called ‘hard cider’. The guys who do it well use 100 per cent Basque apples. Again, it’s poured from a height to get a little bit of fizz.

The tradition of the cider houses is, the farmers would bring their meat and exchange it for cider. Over time, they ended up cooking the meat in the cider house and drinking the cider there. It’s now an established gastronomic tradition, where you go to the cider house and you have the steak, you have the cod, the Basquestyle chorizo – and you get pissed on the apple cider. It’s very good.

Q: As good ingredients are so clearly integral, was it difficult to find the right suppliers?

Melody: We didn’t have a clue at first.

The first time we went, there was a UK government travel warning because of the local terrorist group Eta, which was still semi-active. You didn’t see many foreign tourists, other than a few surfers. We started talking to the restaurants that we liked, and back then, they were very approachable.

One couple in particular said: “Next time you come to San Sebastián we’ll show you around.” They introduced us to one of their txakoli suppliers, who we still work with today – Elizabeth, the same lady supplying the same txakoli since we opened – their Cantabrian anchovies supplier, their beef supplier, who we now import beef from for various restaurants as well as our own. It was very open.

Nemanja: Our chefs went and did work experience at Elkano, which back then was just a popular seaside restaurant – now it’s become the place you can’t visit San Sebastián without going to.

I asked if our chefs could come for two weeks and learn how to do the turbot and the sauce and it was like: “Yeah, sure. Tell them to knock on the door when they’re here and speak to so and so.” Now it’s all become very Michelin, you have to do a six-month

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stage. It was fantastic for our chefs. You think to cook turbot you just put it on the grill; they came back and said: “So, there are 13 steps to cook turbot the Basque way. This is how you debone it, this is how you make the secret sauce, this is how you introduce it.” They also went to La Viña, which is famous for its burnt Basque cheesecake. It’s very hard to replicate what they do there, but we give it a good go.

Q: How important is it to you that you stay true to traditional Basque recipes and techniques?

Nemanja: We do as much as we can.

When we were opening Donostia,

we were very keen to do the pintxos thing, but we had to adapt that to the market here. There, it’s all up on the bar, with the cocktail sticks: you eat them, then take your sticks and pay for however many you’ve taken.

We kind of thought if we did that here people would be thinking, how long has that been out there? And it might be perceived as canapes. So, we started doing pintxos made to order, fresh, rather than standing on the bar. We’ve adapted things slightly.

We also source what we can from the UK. Our turbot is always wild from Cornwall, veg comes from the UK, predominantly.

Q: What made you open up a second restaurant, Lurra, just over the road from Donostia?

Nemanja: When we opened Donostia, we never really had any ambition to open another restaurant, but then a couple of things happened at the same time. Donostia was an instant success and very busy. We were turning a lot of people away, because the restaurant is so small – and then we discovered Galician blond meat.

It comes from old dairy cows and we had never come across anything like it. We started doing the steak as a special, bringing in 20, 30 kilos, and whenever we had it on the menu

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FOOD PHILOSOPHY

HAGEN MARYLEONE

Tim Schroeder, owner of Hagen, on the true meaning of hygge, the art of coffee making, and the importance of interaction Interview: Viel Richardson

The espresso bar can mean different things to different people and Hagen was born out of what it means to me. In Denmark you have the notion of a ‘kaffe pause’, and in many cultures, when you invite someone to grab a coffee there’s a social element involved. It’s rarely just about the caffeine hit. For me, a coffee bar needs to capture those two elements: you’re here for the coffee, but you’re also here to be with friends.

‘Hygge’ is a term you hear a lot, but often it’s a version that’s been packaged to make it easy to sell things. It’s presented as blankets, a fireplace, Nordicstyle furnishings. In Denmark, the meaning runs much deeper; it’s a term that encompasses the nurturing aspects of

togetherness. When I see my sister, I would say it’s hygge to see her. That’s the reason we put it on the wall here, even though it may be perceived as commercial. It’s the definition of the feeling we are trying to create.

Our layout is designed to create interaction between the team and the customers, but also between the customers themselves. Rather than designing our shops to maximize the number of seats, we want to maximize human interaction.

We see making great coffee almost as an artform, so we want to showcase the skills that our team have. That’s why our bars are very open, with the baristas facing the customers as they make their drinks.

There are so many fantastic roasters, buyers and producers in the speciality coffee industry.

Rather than recreating their jobs and then trying to persuade people that we’re better, we thought, why don’t we just collaborate with them? We work with Prologe from Denmark – one of the best roasters in the world and a favourite of René Redzepi, the owner of Noma – and Dark Arks from Shoreditch, who create our house espresso blend.

The way we choose the varieties we sell is based on the customer experience. For

example, we want our house cappuccino to be chocolatey, nutty and smooth. At certain times of the year, those qualities will come from Brazil and at other times from other countries or regions. Our roasters can find the most amazing coffee in places that you would never know, so we trust their ability to source the best coffees for the experiences we want to create for our customers.

Another very important part of what Hagen stands for is our charitable work. We sell our own beans from the Himalayas. It is some of the first speciality coffee from Nepal and 100 per cent of the profit goes back to the farmers directly. We are giving them access to the premium coffee market; what we require from them is that all the processing equipment we’re setting up are sustainable, as we want carbon neutrality at source.

We have looked at other places, but Marylebone High Street feels right for us.

The area still has a genuine village atmosphere. It feels like a place where you can create a proper sense of community and that makes us very excited to be here.

HAGEN MARYLEBONE 82 Marylebone High Street, W1U 4QW thehagenproject.com

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people were wowed by it. It wasn’t just: “Thank you, that was a very nice steak, see ya.” It was: “Here is my business card, when you’ve got it in again, call me.” We realised that nobody else was doing this Galician blond meat in any of the Spanish restaurants in London. But it was difficult to do it in Donostia: you’ve got a small plancha and when you’ve got three steaks on it, everything else is on hold. Then we saw The Portman Estate, our landlord, doing up this site. There’s a courtyard in the back, which is beautiful – and so rare. We thought, why don’t we do a Basque grill? The turbot, the steak, the suckling lamb – bigger dishes. We took a punt, and it paid off.

Q: Covid-19 had a huge impact on the hospitality industry. Has there been a lasting impact?

Melody: During the lockdowns we were operating an online shop and delivering food boxes, including working with charities to cook for the NHS. We’ve stopped doing that now, but our baked Basque cheesecake became hugely popular – it was an Instagram hit! So we’ve continued to do that: you can either order a whole cheesecake, which people like to do for birthdays, for example, or you can just pop in and pick up a slice to take away.

Lurra is open full time and we have all our classics back on the menu: the grilled turbot, the steak, as well as Basque specials like pil-pil cod cheeks. Donostia is back open, but still closed on a Monday, and Tuesday and Wednesday lunchtimes – but we’re getting there. It’s just great having customers back in. After everything that’s happened, it’s so lovely to see a full, buzzy restaurant. We’re back doing what we love, which is serving customers face to face.

Q: Something that seems to be affecting the whole industry is staff shortages. Has that impacted you?

Melody: We still have our head chef, Charlie – my brother. We also have a lovely French girl, Justine, who has worked with us for five years and has now been head chef at Donostia for six months. But otherwise, we’ve had to build a new team. Arguably, though, it’s the strongest we’ve ever had. We’ve been through a lot together and the people who are with us now really want to be here, they really want to work.

Although it’s harder to hire, people stay for longer. When they’re with you, and like working with you, they stay.

Q: Have you noticed any changes in the way people eat out, and their appreciation for restaurants?

Melody: When we reopened last year, it was like Christmas – people having these long, boozy lunches, because they just hadn’t been out for ages.

While that’s settled down, lunchtimes are still much busier than they used to be. It’s more important than ever for people to take clients out and see them face to face, because they’re not having office meetings as much. The business lunch has become crucial to maintaining relationships. That’s really interesting – and a real plus for us!

LURRA 9 Seymour Place, W1H 5BA lurra.co.uk DONOSTIA 10 Seymour Place, W1H 7ND donostia.co.uk

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ANATOMY OF A DISH

TORTELLI WITH WINTER GREENS & TRUFFLE BUTTER

Yohei Furuhashi, head chef at The Italian Greyhound, on a simple, seasonal pasta dish In a nutshell The beauty of this elegant vegetarian pasta dish is that it’s seasonal, yet it kind of lasts the whole year.

It can be made with whatever you find at the market: from dark greens like cavolo nero and cime di rapa in winter to lighter coloured peas and agretti – sometimes called monk’s beard – in spring.

The inspiration As I’ve explored Italian cookery over the past decade, this dish has been my go-to. I love its simplicity and honesty, and the fact that the dish is about as Italian as it gets. One of the most beautiful things about Italian cooking is how effortlessly they harness the seasons. It’s built into the culture. It’s just what’s good that week, lovingly enrobed in pasta – and that’s very much what we do at The Italian Greyhound.

We’re about seasonal, rustic Italian simplicity.

The purpose The idea is to use delicate pasta to carry cookeddown seasonal greens which are mixed with a little ricotta and parmesan to lighten and aerate it. As the dish is running on our menu from late winter through to early spring, I enrich the dish with a truffle butter for a bit of extra indulgence when it’s cold.

The technique I make sure my pasta dough is made with 00 flour, and I always use the deepest orange egg yolks I can find. I lightly blanch the greens then chop them small. I like to slow cook greens to intensify the flavour, with a clove of crushed garlic, fennel seeds and a good glug of extra virgin olive oil. I use cicoria or cime di rapa if it’s in season, as it lends a bitterness and depth to the dish, reminding me of the colder climes of the north of Italy. If you want to intensify the flavours further, think of using ingredients such as radicchio and smoked pancetta.

The secret Tuscan-style tortelli feels a little less formal and more interesting than ravioli. They’re a bit more durable and fun, and they’re easy to make once you get the hang of it. My brigade and I have some of our best conversations about life while making tortelli; it’s a break between the intensity of services. The best thing is that when you plate the dish, they sit nice and upright, and hold the sauce really well because it seeps into all the little handmade crevices of the pasta. When it comes to the filling ratio, the filling is very much about the greens – not the cheese!

THE ITALIAN GREYHOUND 62 Seymour Street, W1H 5BN theitaliangreyhound.co.uk 39 — MARYLEBONE JOURNAL / ISSUE NO. 93

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A GLASS APART

Laurent Faure, owner of Le Vieux Comptoir, on chignin bergeron: a littleknown Alpine white wine

NEW NEW ARRIVAL

28°-50° By Night In some respects, 28°-50° By Night closely resembles its nearby sister restaurant, the much-loved 28°-50°. It offers the same style of simple, seasonal food and the same nerdish appreciation for excellent wine. But it differs in two crucial ways: it’s open late into the night, and the food and wine are accompanied by a stellar programme of live blues and jazz.

28°-50° BY NIGHT 76 Jason Court, W1U 2SJ 2850bynight.co.uk

Interview: Viel Richardson Chignin bergeron is a really interesting white wine produced in the Vin de Savoie appellation of the French Alps. Although the name chignin bergeron is unique to this region, the grape is the same variety as the much better known roussanne, which is used in the Côtes du Rhône in the production of several prestigious wines, including châteauneuf-du-pape.

The wonderful thing about chignin bergeron is that the flavours and the aromas have the same big character of a Rhône Valley roussanne, but without the price. Roussanne wines can be quite expensive, but in the Alps, it is still possible to access chignin bergeron for more reasonable prices.

Classically, the chignin

bergeron has bright, floral aromas; you also find nuts, stone fruits like peach or apricot, and a hint of spice. It has very rich flavours, but because of the terroir of the appellation there is also minerality and good acidity. Sometimes, people find the roussanne wines of the Côtes du Rhône a bit too rich.

With chignin bergeron, the extra acidity gives a nice silky texture and a better balance.

Using chignin bergeron grapes, local winemakers produce very classic white wines that can be drunk for themselves, paired with the main meal, or even used as an aperitif. They also produce some specific cuvées with grapes that are a little more flavoured. While not technically what is called

‘late harvest’ wines, where the grapes are left on the vines for longer to develop more flavour, the harvest for these cuvées is slightly delayed by about two weeks, giving the grapes more fruitiness and allowing the flavours to develop slightly further. Because of the extra richness, these curvées are able to match with foods with big flavours.

Chignin bergeron is only produced by very traditional winemakers and as in many parts of France, production is very strictly regulated and protected. One very important thing to note is that you will only ever find 100 per cent chignin bergeron wines. There

is no blending at all. In the Rhône Valley, rousanne is usually blended with other white grapes from the area. If you really want to taste the essence of this grape, buy a chignin bergeron.

I sometimes get asked if chignin bergeron is found anywhere else in the Alps, and the answer is no. In fact, only a small part of the Savoie appellation is able to produce it.

The winemaker we represent probably has the best parcels for this wine in the region.

If you have not tried chignin bergeron before, you have a very pleasant experience in store.

LE VIEUX COMPTOIR 26, 28 Moxon Street, W1U 4EU levieuxcomptoir.co.uk

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Q&A: ISABEL MANNS

The eponymous founder of the Isabel Manns brand on reversible clothing, timeless colours and the value of customisation Interview: Clare Finney Images: Charlie Cluff

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raw materials, right through the supply chain. I hope with rising demand that costs will go down.

That’s one of the reasons I developed the idea for reversible clothing – because few people can justify spending that much money on an item unless they can get a lot of wear from it. In a reversible outfit they essentially get two for the price of one.

Q: How did sustainability become a cornerstone of your philosophy?

A: I studied at Parsons School of Design in New York, and they drilled sustainability into us from day one.

Anyone who didn’t care was taught to care. That said, I never really liked fast fashion, even as a child. My mum is not someone who throws anything away.

She used to make and adapt clothes, and if I ever wanted something, she would encourage me to either make it myself or buy it second hand.

Q: Sustainability has become a catch-all term for all sorts of ideas.

What does it mean in fashion today?

A: For us, it means thinking about the entire cycle: where the material is coming from, where it’s going next, what the customer can do with it. If I could source everything from Britain, I would – but it’s impossible. The only thing you can buy here is wool. That means I do have to buy some materials from abroad, but I follow the whole chain. When I first started buying silk from Italy, I was told it was Italian silk – but it turned out it came from China. It was being flown to Italy, where it was dyed and printed, then shipped to the UK. That made zero sense to me, so I had a chat with one of my previous employers and they kindly shared their contact. Now I go straight to the source and cut out unnecessary transportation. Once the material comes to the UK, it goes

straight to our ateliers, which are based only a few miles away.

We don’t produce much, and once we sell out, we’re out; we only make more to order, so the only stock we carry is fabric. One of the biggest problems with fast fashion is overproduction – but we only do one collection a year, with bits added in here and there, so we never have sales or stock left over that we can’t shift.

Q: Previously, you worked in couture, for the likes of Burberry and Emilia Wickstead in London, and Naeem Khan and Alexandra Vidal in New York. What did you learn from those brands?

A: Couture is a very different market. Sustainability wasn’t really on their conscience. Everything was beaded and embroidered in India, for example, and retailed at $5-10,000. That said, the experience did influence my approach to design because I saw how pieces are made to last. These are pieces that you envisage still wearing in 20 or 30 years, pieces that you might pass down to your children and grandchildren. Couture is anti-fast fashion by definition. They’re all about lasting quality.

Q: Why is sustainability still the preserve of small brands rather than big fashion houses?

A: Because it’s so expensive – from

Q: When did you come up with the idea of reversible clothes?

A: When I was at university and thinking about my graduation collection. I was about 20 years old.

In the end I didn’t’ do it for my graduation collection, because I worried that the idea would then be out there. I didn’t tell anyone about it until I could launch my own brand!

Of course, the idea isn’t new: people have designed reversible jackets and jerseys for years, for example – but they’ve done so at a lower price point and without the focus on quality and elegance as well as functionality. One reason for this is that once you get to the type of items I design – silk dresses and tops and so on – it’s very difficult to produce in bulk, because it’s so technical and requires real patience and appreciation. You need to be able to control the entire manufacturing process, which is partly why I chose factories based locally. I visit my ateliers once or twice a week and have a very close relationship.

Q: Why is reversible clothing so technically challenging?

A: There are many aspects to this, but one of the main challenges is the fastenings. Reversible buttons and zips are hard to find in the UK, and most of the ones that exist are for jackets, so they aren’t light enough in weight or petite enough in size for silk dresses and tops. Our fastenings are one of the few things we have to have made in Italy, because no one in the UK could do it. Another challenge is the material: silk is a natural fabric, so it can stretch over time – but reversible hems obviously have to be the same > length on both sides. In order to

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protect against one becoming longer than the other, the factory has to let each item hang overnight, which isn’t hard but is time consuming.

Q: How do you ensure designs are emotionally and stylistically durable, as well as physically?

A: I feel that when customers put one of our items on, it becomes part of them and they find their own ways of wearing it. One of our dresses can work 10 different ways. For example, one of our dresses comes with a tie belt, and one customer wore it around her neck as a choker, so the ends hung down the open back – and it looked amazing.

Q: Often colour or pattern is what makes a style seem dated. How do you safeguard against that?

A: These are the two areas I am constantly thinking about. It’s hard to predict the future, but I try to design prints that will be timeless: to not create something too floral, for example, that will soon go out of fashion. When it comes to colour, I think about colours that look good with all skin and hair colours – which is why cobalt blue is our signature.

It’s a timeless colour, which you can wear at any age, and looks good on absolutely everybody. Same with dark reds and dark greens – emerald green in particular. It’s not a colour

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STYLE PHILOSOPHY

ALLBIRDS

be as high as 30kg of carbon, but we tax ourselves on that 10kg, so we’re incentivised to treat it as a cost item, and say: “How can we find a different way?”

Sandeep Verma of Allbirds on sustainable manufacturing, carbon offsetting and modern retailing Interview: Lauren Bravo

The big idea behind Allbirds is to be a driving force in a sustainable manufacturing revolution. Put simply, we try to help people tread more lightly on the planet.

It all starts with premium natural materials. Our signature shoes use ZQ merino wool from New Zealand in 17.5 microns, which is super, super fine – 20 per cent the diameter of a human hair. It’s the same quality wool that you’d typically find in a $5,000 Tom Ford suit. Nobody had really thought to use wool in footwear before, but it creates an upper that’s cosy and comfortable. Our Tree designs have uppers made from FSC-certified eucalyptus, which has a light, breezy property. Our soles are made from renewable sugarcane instead of petrol.

We like to take away unnecessary details and make the materials the hero. It’s a simple, neutral design that people can style however they like.

People have got enough going on in their lives; they just want to feel good in whatever they wear.

The challenge of running a sustainable company is making sure that, at the heart of it, you’re creating a better product – one that consumers want to buy because it’s more desirable, it’s more durable, it’s a good price.

People shouldn’t buy Allbirds just because they’re sustainable.

They should buy them because they’re great shoes.

Carbon emissions are the central issue of sustainability.

We think of it as almost an economic problem: there is a carbon impact, which we can work to measure and reduce through innovation, and whatever pollution is left we need to pay for through carbon offsetting. That’s our philosophy: measure, reduce and offset. We produce about 10kg of carbon per pair of Allbirds, while other shoes can

I particularly liked to begin with, but after designing with it I realised how versatile it is.

Q: Why is customisation such an important part of durable design?

A: Our customisation service is key.

We offer everything: from totally bespoke, where it’s specially made for you, to creating a dress that is slightly shorter or longer, or with a different sleeve or colour. We have 120 different colour options, so you can very easily say: “I love it but can I have it in navy blue on the inside rather than cobalt?” It’s more expensive than buying straight off the rail, because it’s made to order,

We don’t think bricks-andmortar retail is dead. Only bad retail is dead. And we’re insightobsessed, so there’s nothing better for us than listening to consumers and understanding what they like, what they don’t like and what’s working for them. It’s about people getting to physically touch the materials, understand why we make shoes from them, and of course trying them on and experiencing that comfort.

Normally in a shoe shop, you ask staff for your size then wait for 10 minutes while they disappear.

It’s a weird, outdated experience.

Instead, we have a service bar that’s in sight of the front door, and shoe racks directly behind that. We like to get shoes onto feet in 40 seconds flat.

In Marylebone, there’s a nocompromise attitude; people have high standards, and they understand that if they buy sustainable brands they’re making a better choice. We love the high street, we think it’s powerful and we want to be a good example of how if you get it right, it can work.

ALLBIRDS 46 Marylebone High Street, W1U 5HQ allbirds.co.uk

but it means you’ll wear it more.

We’ve had customers come in with a long gown they’ve worn to an event and ask if we can shorten it, to make it more versatile. We’ve had brides who’ve wanted their dresses coloured or shortened, so they can wear them again. One bride wore a trouser suit, and now wears the shortened trousers with trainers to work.

Whenever customers buy anything, I remind them that we can continue to customise and mend it.

Q: What made Marylebone the best place for you to launch your first Isabel Manns store?

A: It’s long been my favourite area

in London. I love the independent brands and the village feel.

People look out for each other here, and it strikes me that the people who live here are very loyal to Marylebone; they aren’t inclined to shop for everything online. The Howard de Walden Estate have been hugely supportive landlords; they seem to really be thinking about the future of fashion and interested in brands that are unique and sustainable, and that’s exciting to be part of.

ISABEL MANNS 103 Marylebone High Street, W1U 4RP isabelmanns.com

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THE LOOK

TOP OF THE WORLD

Jane Ellis of KJ’s Laundry on the boutique’s own-label collection of easy-to-wear tops

We were super excited to launch a small capsule collection a few seasons ago under our own label, KJ’s Laundry.

The KJ’s Laundry line is an evolving, pared-back edit of wardrobe classics that have been inspired by our customers’ feedback over several years. After working in the store ourselves we know what our customers need in terms of fit and style, so it was a natural step to begin to produce our own garments – clothes that reflect the KJ’s Laundry vibe and our customers’ aesthetic.

The current range of easy-to-wear tops are nostalgia inspired and feature detailing that evokes the Edwardian era. Pretty pin tuck details, lace inserts and panels elevate each item to something more than the everyday. Pieces are subtly refined and tweaked over seasons to create wardrobe staples that transcend trends and are unseasonal.

The range has quickly become the most requested in-store so we are looking to expand it further in seasons to come.

Currently in the works are trousers, dresses and several more tops. Working closely with print designers we develop prints that are exclusive to KJ’s Laundry, so far these have been nature-inspired florals, which have been very popular.

The range is produced in a small family-owned factory in India. We try to work as sustainably as possible in terms of production, packaging and delivery. We’re enjoying the process immensely and when the designs drop, it’s so rewarding to see our customers browsing the racks and picking out our own pieces to try on and buy. It’s always a particular thrill when they buy the same top in two or three colours!

KJ’S LAUNDRY 74 Marylebone Lane, W1U 2PW kjslaundry.com

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KJ’s Laundry Phoebe blouse, £145

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NEW NEW ARRIVAL

MONC Eyewear brand MONC has opened its first physical store, and – as with the products themselves – its design and construction emphasise both style and sustainability. Everything inside the shop can be reused, disassembled for recycling, or returned to the ground as nourishment, with fixtures and fittings created from bio acetate, cornstarch foam, mycelium and hemp.

MONC 21 Chiltern Street, W1U 7PH monclondon.com

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NEW

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NEW ARRIVAL

Bloobloom Bloobloom’s beautifully crafted range of spectacles and sunglasses come with a commitment to ethical production and complete transparency about the supply chain. And for every pair bought, another pair is donated to someone in need, a significant contribution in a world where 2.5 billion people still don’t have access to glasses.

CARAMEL LEATHER BELT FURSAC, £130 defursac.fr/en/

BLOOBLOOM 27 Marylebone High Street, W1U 4PH bloobloom.com

WOVEN STRETCH SURCINGLE BELT JOHN SIMONS, £110 johnsimons.co.uk

LEATHER BELT THE KOOPLES, £135 thekooples.com

SMOOTH LEATHER BELT SANDRO, £139 uk.sandro-paris.com

ANDERSON’S NARROW PLAITED BELT TRUNK CLOTHIERS, £85 trunkclothiers.com

CHUNKY LEATHER BELT SUNSPEL, £95 sunspel.com

THE EDIT A SELECTION OF THE SEASON’S MOST COVETABLE BELTS

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THREE OF THE BEST

1.

UMBRELLAS Few images illustrate the

British weather quite so succinctly as an umbrella turned inside out in its effort to battle both wind and rain. By the same token, few accessories are quite as sought-after as an umbrella that doesn’t do that. These manage not only to fit that brief, but to look stylish while doing so, with chic canopies and handles and a smooth, fluid opening that will leave you feeling almost – almost – glad it’s raining.

2.

1. LONDON UNDERCOVER FOLDED UMBRELLA TRUNK CLOTHIERS, £75 trunkclothiers.com

2. BORDER WALKER UMBRELLA PAUL SMITH, £120 paulsmith.com

With a telescopic metal shaft and a handcrafted crook handle, this bright, light umbrella from London Undercover manages to save space without compromising on style or function. Its compact size and protective sleeve make it perfect for stowing in your bag for that inevitable moment when the weather turns.

No one could be relied upon more to make a stylish umbrella than the long-reigning monarch of understated British design.

Here, a classic walker umbrella is given the inimitable Paul Smith makeover with a metal tip, the designer’s iconic multicoloured stripe around the canopy, and his embossed signature on the grained wooden handle.

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NEW NEW ARRIVAL

New & Lingwood Founded in Eton in 1865 by a young couple, Elisabeth New and Samuel Lingwood, New & Lingwood is a brand steeped in heritage, but one that marries its history with an eye for relaxed contemporary British styles. The new Chiltern Street popup is devoted to New & Lingwood’s ever-growing loungewear collection, including dressing gowns and pyjamas.

NEW & LINGWOOD 14 Chiltern Street, W1U 7PY newandlingwood.com

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3. MADE IN FRANCE UMBRELLA AGNÈS B, £245 agnesb.co.uk There aren’t many people who could transform a product as British as the umbrella into something quintessentially French, but if anyone was going to manage, it’s agnès b.

To create “an umbrella that represents French chic”, the designer collaborated with Maison Pierre Vaux, a family-run manufacturer of umbrellas and sunshades which dates back to 1920.

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ANATOMY OF A DESIGN

BURGES SNAIL WALLPAPER

Ruth Mottershead, creative director of Little Greene, on a wallpaper design inspired by the interior of a National Trust historic house

The philosophy The beauty of wallpaper is that if you follow your heart, it can allow you to create a truly personal space. There are so many different colours, designs and styles available.

Whether it’s a bold, bright, large-scale pattern that works as a design statement, or a smaller-scale pattern that can be used for all four walls, it is one of the quickest ways to create a dramatic and impactful design change. For example, narrow hallways with little natural light can be filled with colours that bring warmth and brightness, and patterns that draw the eye upwards, giving a feeling of space. Bathrooms can become decorative jewel boxes, with larger-scale patterns giving a true feel of escapism.

Living rooms can be linked to the beauty of nature, with floral and foliage-inspired patterns.

If you love a particular wallpaper pattern, embrace it and build the room’s decorative scheme around it.

The inspiration We have been working with the National Trust since January 2018. This past autumn saw the launch of our second instalment of wallpaper designs, National Trust Papers II. The concept was to create a collection that could be easily adapted for modern interiors, but with its origins in original patterns from the National Trust’s historic houses. Each design can be traced to a particular pattern or place. Burges Snail is based on a design found at Knighthayes Court in Devon, dating from around 1878. The property was designed by the Gothic Revivalist architect and interior designer William Burges. An eccentric and controversial character,

he designed some of the most original and extravagant Victorian interiors. This quirky wallpaper adorns the walls of one of the bathrooms. Remaining faithful to Burges’s original choice of location, we also photographed it in a bathroom for our collection.

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The design process As part of the research, we visited many of the National Trust properties to see the designs in real life. We then selected several designs to carry forward to the design process, which involved working on their scale, pattern and colour. The first part of the challenge was deciding which designs to focus on – with such a wealth of options at our fingertips it was not easy to pick a shortlist. We wanted to make sure that the wallpapers could offer flexibility, with darker, more dramatic colours as well as fresh and vivid brighter shades; colours from nature as well as softer neutrals. Each design includes a nod to the original and a more traditional interpretation as well as more contemporary options.

The ecological principles Little Greene has always been totally committed to protecting the environment. From big business decisions to the smallest everyday tasks, we act positively and responsibly to minimise our ecological impact.

The papers we use come from sustainable forests certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), where for every tree used another four are planted. The FSC ensures the products we use come from responsibly managed forests and also cares for the people and wildlife who live there.

The pigments that we use are completely non-toxic, and we also have a solvent-free adhesive paste for use with our papers.

PIEDE PLANTER IN SPECKLED GREEN THE CONRAN SHOP, £18 conranshop.co.uk

TERAZZO WHITE AND BLACK PLANTER DESIGNERS GUILD, £55 designersguild.com

HEXAGONAL TERRAZZO POT THE COLLABORATIVE STORE, £50 thecollaborativestore.co.uk

DREAM SUIT BLUE POT BY JOY YAMUSANGIE PAUL SMITH, £1,440 paulsmith.com

THE EDIT A SELECTION OF THE SEASON’S MOST COVETABLE PLANT POTS

ACORN VASE ANOTHER COUNTRY, £22 anothercountry.com

LONGPI INDOOR HANGING PLANTER TOAST, £30 toa.st

The legacy Choosing patterns and colours for your home involves very subjective judgements.

I think interior design is about telling a story that reflects the personalities of the people who live within those walls. I love the fact that the Burges Snail design already has a story, and its inclusion in this collection can continue that story in a new home, giving pleasure to future generations.

LITTLE GREENE 3 New Cavendish Street, W1G 8UX littlegreene.com 53 — MARYLEBONE JOURNAL / ISSUE NO. 93

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A CLOSER LOOK WELLBEING

A SELECTION OF THE SEASON’S MOST COVETABLE GROOMING TOOLS

HANDLE MIRROR SPACE NK, £25 spacenk.com

ZWILLING NAIL NIPPERS JOHN BELL & CROYDEN, £81 johnbellcroyden.co.uk

Marine Vincent of The French Pharmacy on wellbeing, Gallic products and the French love of simplicity

THE EDIT

Interview: Jackie Modlinger

BAMBOO TOOTHBRUSH THE COLLABORATIVE STORE, £4.50 thecollaborativestore.co.uk

DOUBLE-SIDED NAIL BRUSH ANATOME, £6 anatome.co

LITTLE PHARMA

CRYSTAL NAIL FILE MARGARET DABBS, £15 margaretdabbs.co.uk

SHAVING BRUSH AESOP, £43 aesop.com

Pharmaceuticals, it seems, are in the genes. Marine Vincent, who opened The French Pharmacy in Marylebone’s New Cavendish Street in 2020, grew up in St Bonnet des Quarts, a little village near Lyons, raised by a mother and father who worked together in the same pharmaceutical company for 25 years.

Marine studied at Lyon’s Université Claude Bernard, which specialises in science and medicine.

“I was always interested in biology – the human body is fascinating – and I also loved retail, as my maternal grandmother Mireille had her own grocery shop,” she says. “I did my ‘internship’ – something you do when you are around 13 or 14 – as a pharmacist.

I always liked going to pharmacies in France with my grandmother.

I love the smell of a French pharmacy.”

After moving to England, Marine opened her first pharmacy in Clapham, close to her new home. “It’s a what we call a ‘parapharmacie’, which

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A CLOSER LOOK WELLBEING

means you’ll find all the skincare and hygiene products but we don’t dispense on site. Here in Marylebone we also dispense medicines,” she explains.

What prompted the move from France to London?

It was actually my husband – who was not my husband at the time. We had been together for five years when he had a work offer from a London bank. I was only 24 or 25 at the time but I saw it as a good opportunity. At that age, you take the risk and the adventure. It was supposed to be three years, max. Fifteen years later I’m still here.

Why open in Marylebone?

Because it has that village feeling. I visited different

places of course, but for me Marylebone made 100 per cent sense. I really wanted to create that neighbourhood feeling, so people know they can trust us, know we’re giving a good service and that they can find a lot of things here. We have been superwelcomed by local people, so it’s a good start. Of course, we are still at the beginning of the journey – when you start something new, it takes a bit of time to be known and trusted.

I’m happy that we have now opened a Tuesday therapy room downstairs, because we couldn’t do beauty treatments before. Now, I can work with acupuncturists, osteopaths, massage therapists, nutritionists, naturopaths, and so on.

For me, it’s all about wellbeing – I really wanted to have a space where I could offer such therapies because being happy and being well are so complementary.

How do French pharmacies and British chemists differ?

Here, in a chemist’s shop, the pharmacist works alone at the back, in the dispensary – you have to ask to speak with him or her, so the contact is not the same at all. In France, the pharmacy is really the first point of care, because there’s not only one pharmacist per pharmacy; there may be two or three depending on the size. I’ve found that with healthcare in general in France, we are much more about prevention. There, everyone gets a blood test every year, but here it’s not so easy; you almost have to beg. There, you go and see your dermatologist once a year, whether or not you have a problem. It’s a more proactive approach to healthcare.

Is there much difference between the customers?

From my point of view, what French customers really love is the naturality of the products – they are very cautious about formulations. I think sometimes British customers are not as suspicious, they just want a product that works, but in France there is this huge quest for natural products which I don’t necessarily agree with – a natural product isn’t necessarily better than a technical

one and being made from chemicals shouldn’t always imply that something is bad. It depends on the person, your skin type and what you want to achieve.

What’s special about the range of products you sell?

We have certain exclusive French brands, like Rogé Cavaillès. We have Monoi Hei Poa – a very old, wellknown coconut oil which to French people is like summer in a bottle. I work with La Rosée cosmetics, which are found in all French pharmacies, and produce a very simple range for all skin types using lovely ingredients.

I have Somatoline for slimming, Caudalie’s Eau Micellaire cleansing water, and Le Petit Marseillais shower gels, which everyone knows in France – people are crazy about them.

What are the beauty secrets of the French?

I think we tend to do things simply. We don’t overdo things. We keep the routine simple and we don’t do layers of products: cleansing, serum, cream, that’s really it. At night, more of the same. When it comes to hair and makeup, again we tend to veer more towards the natural, even with hair colour.

I have also noticed that the French are more loyal with their products as well – when you find something you like, you stick with the brand or the products.

THE FRENCH PHARMACY 10 New Cavendish Street, W1G 8UL thefrenchpharmacy.co

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TOWARDS THE LIGHT

Mr Shaw Somers, consultant gastrointestinal surgeon at The London Clinic, on the medical and surgical interventions used in the fight against obesity Interview: Viel Richardson

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Q: What is your role at The London Clinic?

I am a consultant in general surgery, but I specialise in upper gastrointestinal and weight loss surgery. My team has partnered with The London Clinic to run specialist weight management services.

Obesity is now recognised as a major public health issue, with up to 30 per cent of the population significantly overweight. People’s ability to control their weight in the current food environment is becoming increasingly difficult.

We now accept that many people who have struggled with their weight for years need medical or surgical intervention rather than diet and lifestyle advice.

Q: What happens when a patient requests a consultation?

The patient will see a surgical consultant, a dietician and, if necessary, a food psychologist. After some in-depth discussion with the patient about their present situation and what they wish to achieve, we explain the different options available and between us create a plan. This might be a medical regime at first with an option of a surgical procedure later, or we may go straight to the surgical option.

Q: What are the medical and surgical approaches?

There are three standard medical interventions. One involves a three-month treatment programme based around hormone injections used to speed up the metabolism, alongside a weight loss plan. Gastric balloons are the second intervention.

Then there is the endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty (ESG) – with this we reduce the size of the stomach by closing off a section using an endoscopic suturing device.

Even though the ESG involves an anaesthetic and some internal stitching, none of these procedures are classed as surgical, as they don’t involve accessing the stomach through an external surgical incision.

“This is one of those areas where people actively want your help. These patients have struggled with their weight for so long that your intervention is seen as a huge positive. It is a very happy clinic to do, and incredibly satisfying when you see your patients going off to enjoy a much higher quality of life.”

Q: What is a gastric balloon?

There are two types: a short-term balloon, which is in place for up to six months, and longer-term implants, which can be in place for around a year. A deflated balloon is inserted into the stomach, either by swallowing a capsule or using an endoscope. Once in place, the balloon is inflated remotely.

It helps to reduce the patient’s appetite and improves their ability to reduce their food intake. These balloons are doing something much more complex than just taking up space. They change the way people experience hunger and reduce their desire to eat.

Q: What are the surgical options?

The main ones are the gastric band, gastric sleeve and the gastric bypass.

We define them as surgical because they involve a full anaesthetic and

keyhole surgery as opposed to feeding an endoscope down the patient’s throat.

Q: Why would you choose one over the other?

After counselling and discussion with a consultant the patient will decide on the best option. People who are not that much overweight may want a gastric band. People with other medical issues, such as diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, may want to go for a gastric sleeve or a gastric bypass, which can help control these medical problems more effectively.

Q: What is involved in the gastric band procedure?

This is an inflatable rubber band that sits around the top of the stomach and is designed to last the rest of the patient’s life. It is adjusted by a small button that we implant in the abdomen which allows us to inflate or deflate the band as required.

Some people need it quite tight to stop them eating, while others need just enough of a restriction to remind them to slow down. We tend to adjust it quite often in the first year so we can get it just right for that individual. After that, we need to change things far less often.

Q: If the capacity of the stomach stays the same, what is the mechanism by which it works?

The mechanism at work here is that by slowing down the rate at which a person eats, we allow time for the stomach to send messages to the brain saying it is full. The body takes between 20 minutes and half an hour to register the nutritional value of your food and send the message to your brain to tell you to stop eating when you have taken on enough calories. Part of the problem is that many modern foods are so packed with calories that we have taken on far too many in that 30-minute timeframe. It means we eat more than we need before the message to stop comes through.

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Q: Do the gastric sleeve and gastric bypass have the same effect?

These do reduce the capacity of the stomach as well as changing the way the stomach talks to the brain.

The great thing about all these procedures is that the patient still enjoys the food they eat, they just do not feel the need to eat as much.

I have a number of chefs and cookery writers under my care who tell me that undergoing their procedure has been a huge blessing.

Q: How invasive is the gastric sleeve surgery?

Using a very thin stapling instrument, we reshape the stomach. We will typically remove about three-quarters of the stomach, including the part that sends messages to the brain that say you’re hungry. Patients have told me that while food still smells appetising, and they do still get hungry, they are not as desperate to eat it as they were before. However, they still receive the signal saying they are satiated and no longer need to eat, and crucially this happens much more quickly than before, taking place in more like 10-15 minutes.

Q: What about the gastric bypass?

This is a slightly more involved procedure. Not only do we reduce the size of the stomach, giving the patients those benefits, but we also create a minor short-circuit in a part of the small intestine called the duodenum. Doing this changes the messages sent to the pancreas gland that controls the way that your body metabolises sugars.

Q: How does this affect people who have diabetes?

It has a profound effect on those suffering from type 2 diabetes. They often find that they go into complete remission once they have had a gastric bypass. We do not completely understand the mechanism, but it seems to make their own insulin system work much better than before. Most can safely come off their

diabetic medication completely after the procedure.

Q: Is it possible for people to undergo this procedure primarily to cure the diabetes then, rather than obesity?

Yes it is. We modify the bypass so that the weight loss effect is minimised, but the anti-diabetic effect is maximised. However, in my experience it is very rare to find someone who is type 2 diabetic and not overweight. A patient may be only modestly overweight but still have the procedure to cure their diabetes.

I have had doctors who were not significantly overweight approach me for the surgery because they know what a dangerous disease diabetes is.

Q: All interventions involve some risk. What are the risks here?

These are among the safest operations you can do. The chances of a complication are between 1-2 per cent. It is incredibly rare that something happens that we cannot easily remedy. We occasionally find that people just can’t tolerate the balloon, so we have to remove it. There is often some initial discomfort, but with our guidance the vast majority get through that in a couple of weeks. With endoscopic procedures, there can be a small risk of some post-procedure bleeding, but we can deal with that very effectively.

For many people, any complication from the procedure still poses far less of a risk to their health than not having the procedure at all. This is especially true over the long term when considering the risks posed by cardiovascular disease or diabetes.

Q: What happens after the procedures?

Each patient receives post-operative coaching to help them develop a healthier and more enjoyable diet.

The whole multi-disciplinary team remains available to them, so if they need extra psychological as well as technical support, we will arrange that for them.

Q: Are there clinical issues that would render people unsuited to these procedures?

Possibly some people who cannot tolerate anaesthetic. However, in over 3,000 cases I can’t recall the last time I had to tell a patient that there was a clinical reason why I could not help them. Psychologically it is different. Patients such as those with an uncontrolled psychiatric illness or those dependant on drugs or alcohol do not respond well. This is because it is very difficult for them to comply with the post-procedure programme.

These procedures involve a three-way partnership. We will perform the right operation, the dietician and psychologist offer the right aftercare and coaching but the patient has a role to play as well. The good news is I have seen many people use this as a springboard to overcoming these issues and go on to have very successful procedures.

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Q: What is the gender balance of the patients you treat?

We treat twice as many women as we do men. The frustration is that we know weight-related disease kills more men than women. Men carry their extra weight internally, around organs like the heart, where it is doing real damage, whereas women tend to carry it under their skin. The problem is men are less likely to act, so putting themselves at greater risk.

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Q: Has Covid had much of an impact on your field?

I have seen a significant increase in Covid-related enquiries for obesity treatment. Obesity is linked to what we call metabolic syndrome, where many of the body’s metabolic functions such as diabetes control begin to fail. These conditions can ‘creep up’ on obese individuals and only manifest when an acute illness like Covid arises.

This compounds the effects of Covid and can complicate the recovery.

THE LONDON CLINIC 20 Devonshire Place, W1G 6BW thelondonclinic.co.uk

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management unit, featuring some of the best medical experts, facilities and services available.

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MY LIFE IN MEDICINE

Tim Sunnucks, co-founder of Thayer Street Dental Centre Interview: Viel Rickardson

Ihelped start up the dental practice here at Thayer Street in 1998 as a sister practice to one in Wandsworth.

I had already been in practice for several years and was developing a special interest in restorative dentistry – a wide-ranging subject that involves most of the disciplines needed to rebuild and restore teeth.

Endodontics is a part of this wider field. Endodontics is concerned with soft tissue inside the tooth: the pulp and the nerve. This includes what a layperson would know as a ‘root canal’ treatment, where the tooth has died, so the nerve needs to be taken out and the root canal system filled in. I’m now on the specialist endodontics register, but I still undertake wider restorative dentistry treatments as the two sit very well together.

I can’t think of a better example of ‘less is more’ than dentistry. If, as a dentist, I can avoid doing a procedure while fixing a problem, I see that as a big win. Often, by having more specialised endodontic knowledge, I can avoid needing to carry out the root canal treatment at all. Often, something much less invasive will solve the problem. If it’s a problem with the pulp, a technique like pulp capping, for example, might be sufficient.

Alongside the practice, I have become increasingly involved in training, which I find extremely rewarding. It really concentrates the mind. An hour-long lecture takes many hours of thought, planning and preparation. If you’re going to

stand up in front of a roomful of postgraduates, clinicians and other people with knowledge of the subject, you had better make sure you’re on the ball. You also inevitably analyse your own practices and techniques in relation to the latest knowledge and current thinking. It keeps you thinking deeply about what you do and stops things becoming too routine.

I’m involved with a programme that is helping train some of the dentists within BUPA to be what are called enhanced clinical skills practitioners. There is actually a fairly limited number of fully trained endodontists in the UK – around 250, which is not enough to cover the demand. The idea is to bring dentists to a level where they have better endodontic skills, while not yet being

specialists. This allows them to take on more challenging cases, if not the most problematic ones, and thus take some of the strain off the demand for specialist endodontists.

I really enjoy the hands-on teaching environment that these relatively small groups create. You can develop a rapport with people that you don’t necessarily get in other areas of the job.

A lovely tangent to the teaching was when a company called John Baines Tours asked me if I would be interested in doing some lecturing.

I said yes, assuming this would be in the usual conference centres or hotels, but it turned out to be on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean.

These are professional development trips for dentists, and I was to be one of the lecturers. I’ve done several trips around the Med and the Baltic.

My wife and I were meant to be doing one around Iceland but that was cancelled due to Covid.

This is a really fascinating time to be involved with restorative dentistry, because while the field has undergone steady but slow progress for many years, that speed is picking up. Technologies are emerging which are having an impact on how we practice. A lot of the new computer-aided manufacturing and 3D printing technology is having a huge impact in the field. Complex restorative structures can now be designed based on highly detailed scans of the tooth or jaw, leading to a much better final result.

In endodontic, a big changes could come from stem cell technology. It raises the possibility of being able to regrow dead tissue.

This could mean that if a tooth dies, rather than removing the dead pulp and refilling the tooth, you could potentially put stem cells in and regrow the pulp. I’m really excited about where this technology might take us and the benefits it could have for future patients.

THAYER STREET DENTAL CENTRE 12 Thayer Street, W1U 3JP 020 7486 4866

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MY PERFECT DAY

MY PERFECT DAY Howard Jacobson, the Booker Prize-winning novelist, describes his perfect Marylebone Day Interview: Clare Finney

Fresh air I like parks, and I like park benches.

I like reading what’s written on them.

My essay The Dog’s Last Walk was simply a description of me sitting in Paddington Street Gardens, watching a lady walking a very old dog. My wife and I decided, from observing them, that it must be his last day on earth – so I wrote about that. It was very moving. One of the things I have taken to doing lately, when my wife has an appointment, is going to the gardens via The Ginger Pig, where I buy a sausage roll. I wander down Moxon Street, find a bench in the garden – in the sun, if I can get it – and sit down to eat my sausage roll.

I read dedications on the benches; check around to see if the old dog wasn’t, in fact, dying, then leave via the toilets – which rather takes away from the romance of it all. Now, in my head, The Ginger Pig sausage rolls are inextricably bound up with Paddington Street Gardens. I’ve eaten many other things in that park, but never with the zest with which I eat one of those sausage rolls.

St Marylebone Parish Church from my window. Whenever my wife visited, she would look up at the angels on that church as she left, because she worried about me, and in a way they were looking over me. Now whenever we see those angels it reminds us of that time; that anxious but affectionate, caring time. They hold a certain importance.

Culture It is The Wallace Collection for me. When I was writing The Act of Love, in which one of the characters volunteers as an art guide there, I haunted it. I had to edit out tens and

Shopping After my sausage roll, I like to go to The Conran Shop. I have a son and a granddaughter in Manchester, and I can always find something in there for them. We also use The White Company for our bed linen, so a lot of what we eat, drink and lie in comes from Marylebone.

New outfit I’m not very good at spending money on clothes. I wasn’t brought up to. My wife, however, does like several clothes shops in Marylebone, including Matches and that little shop for woollen cardigans and jumpers: Brora.

Anything else When I was in the Princess Grace Hospital 12 or so years ago, I could see the golden angels of the 66 — MARYLEBONE JOURNAL / ISSUE NO. 93

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MY PERFECT DAY

tens of pages describing the gallery because it was just too detailed.

My favourite painting is Thomas Lawrence’s Margaret, Countess of Blessington, in front of which I set a major scene involving two of the main characters.

Pre-dinner drinks Marylebone Lane is a particularly wonderful place to sit outside and have a drink. We usually go to 28°-50°: the people are nice, and there is a good wine list.

Eating in We go to La Fromagerie for cheese,

of course: for birthday cheese and Christmas cheese. You are in a wonderful world of cheese with assistants who know everything there is to know. We have bought meat from The Ginger Pig to cook at home, and we use that Waitrose too from time to time. It depends how much energy we have for lugging bags home.

Eating out The idea for An Act of Love began at 4pm on Blandford Street, as I watched the restaurants reopening after their lunch break. I saw waiters finishing their cigarettes and going back inside to lay white tablecloths and shining

glasses, and there was something very arousing about it. The whole scene was full of sexual promise; of the day giving way, and the fact it was so close to The Wallace Collection, which is full of such saucy paintings – well, the whole novel came from that. I like the restaurant world of Blandford Street a lot, and when we do eat out it is there – at Fairuz, or Trishna – or on Marylebone Lane at the Golden Hind or Delamina, which is very good.

We’ve also had a very good meal at La Brasseria on the high street. If my wife were to turn to me tonight and say let’s go out to eat, I’d probably say there.

The Conran Shop Opposite top: La Brasseria Opposite bottom: Paddington Street Gardens

67 — MARYLEBONE JOURNAL / ISSUE NO. 93

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020 7486 6711

A unique personal service in interior design The largest stockists of Flamant furniture in the UK Bespoke rental packages for staging homes for sale or rental We offer free local home visits by our design team Visit our showroom at 108-111 Crawford Street, Marylebone, W1H 2JA Monday to Saturday 10am-6pm www.mcglashansinteriors.co.uk follow us on Instagram @mcglashansinteriors 108 Crawford Street, London W1H 2JA

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www.mcglashansinteriors.co.uk

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Executive Property Specialists 020 7486 6711

sales@mcglashans.co.uk / lettings@mcglashans.co.uk

Chiltern Street, Marylebone W1 £1,850 pw / £8,017 pcm A stunning 1st floor flat of over 1,500 sq ft, refurbished in an amazing contemporary style. Open plan living/ dining/kitchen room, 3 bedrooms (all en suite), guest cloakroom, 24hr porters, lift, gym (fees apply), EPC – C

Marylebone Lane, Marylebone W1 £595 pw / £2,578 pcm A bright and modern, one bedroom flat with wood flooring and neutral décor in the heart of Marylebone Village. Living room, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, EPC – D

York Street, Marylebone W1 £995 pw / £4,312 pcm A beautiful duplex apartment in a period house. The flat has wood floors throughout and offers an abundance of light. Living room with dining area, eat in kitchen, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms (1 en suite), EPC – D

107 Crawford Street, London W1H 2JA

www.mcglashans.co.uk For Tenancy Info please refer to the website

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MOVE INTO 2022 SOME OF THE WONDERFUL COMMENTS OUR CLIENTS HAVE MADE ABOUT US IN 2021

Rozie was absolutely fantastic in finding our first rental home in Marylebone, was very honest, understanding, and flexible when it came to our requests. She was incredibly helpful all the way through the process, and we'd definitely recommend using her, and Druce, to find your next home!

The Management Team are superb, they keep me advised on all matters concerning my property and the standard of professionalism is outstanding, that I would rate it a 10 out of 10. It is always a pleasure to come into the office, as I receive such a warm welcome by all the team.

JC

We could not be happier and cannot quite believe it’s been almost 15 years that we have engaged the services of Druce as our managing agent for our leased flat in London. At all times, we have found the staff to be timely, professional, and willing to resolve any management or building query, and they always find us quality tenants.

We wholeheartedly recommend Druce and look forward to another 15 years of their support!

Mrs. C

CS

I worked with Druce when I was looking for my current residence. They have been very professional and helpful. My letting agent was Rozie W who has hands down been the best and most honest letting agent I’ve worked with thus far. She painstakingly took the time to find places that matched my requirements. I highly recommend contacting her for your next tenancy/ purchase!

SA

Hello Sukey. I just wanted to follow up this morning’s texts with a heartfelt thank you to you. I’ve lost count now, was this three or four properties that you have sold for us? You did an amazing job to get us the price that you did so well done and such nice people too. Wishing you all the best Sukey and thanks again.

Tony successfully sold my mews house and at the exact price we agreed at the start. He was committed, professional, fully dedicated and always available for any calls or any concerns.

K&CA

ML I have lived in Marylebone for 20 years and during that time have always used Sukey Brecher at Druce for property matters - both buying and selling and for both residential property and investment purposes. Sukey’s professionalism and knowledge of the market is outstanding and she is backed up by a great team at Druce. She genuinely cares and is interested in a long-term working relationship rather than a quick sale. I would have no hesitation in recommending her as one of - if not the best - in the market.

BR

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ZB909 D

22 14:39

My husband and I wanted to buy a pied-à-terre in Marylebone and decided to look for a property during the lockdown. We contacted most of the agents in the area, but were particularly impressed by the friendly, efficient and experienced Sukey Brecher from Druce. Once we’ve found our dream property, Sukey helped us to go through the process with ease and without any complications.

She kept a close eye during the whole process of purchase and since the completion has stayed in touch, just because she is lovely!

OA

Re: Level of service from Maxine. I could not have wished for better, she is very efficient, any problems have been sorted out very quickly, she has handled a very demanding/difficult tenant with great level of understanding and patience. I have always received honest and accurate feedback. I have been very fortunate to have Maxine as my property manager.

Best regards, Thank you so much for all you have done to get us to this enviable position. We couldn't have asked for a nicer, better estate agent. You were always at the other end of the phone for us, you gave us the best advice, you were realistic, tenacious and super professional at every turn. You went the extra mile and more. Thank you, thank you!

DM

KL I had no previous experience of buying and selling in London and didn’t know where to start. Sukey Brecher took me under her wing and helped me successfully sell my Marylebone flat and buy another, larger one, not far away.

She and all at Druce were hugely supportive during the whole process and I would have no hesitation in recommending any potential buyer or seller to start the process by going in and talking to them!

AC

Over the last decade, we have sold and bought properties with Druce in Marylebone. Simon and his team are both friendly and efficient. In the time that we have known them, they have been a pleasure to work with, often going beyond the realms of duty.

MOVE WITH DRUCE DRUCE CONNECTING PEOPLE WITH HOMES FOR 200 YEARS, 1822 TO 2022 Whether Buying or Selling, Renting or Letting, let our unrivalled heritage guide you

DT

020 7935 6535

w1sales@druce.com www.druce.com

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J J & Co

Jeremy James and Company

40 Years’ Experience in Marylebone Village

Jeremy James and Company

MARYLEBONE STREET, LONDON W1 A stunning two bedroom garden flat, in this popular caretaker block, located in the heart of Marylebone Village. The apartment features modern and bright interiors with wood flooring throughout.

The accommodation comprises of two bedrooms, one bathroom, kitchen, reception and direct access to communal gardens. It extends to approximately 720 sq.ft (67 sq.m). This property resides moments from Marylebone High Street with its superb range of prestigious boutiques, bars, cafes and restaurants.

Regent’s Park and Baker Street station are in close proximity, the green open spaces of Regent’s Park are also nearby.

Please see website for full details

£650 PER WEEK

DEVONSHIRE PLACE, LONDON W1 999 Year Leasehold Investment for sale.

A Georgian 18th century building located in the heart of the medical district, the building comprises of lower ground, ground floor and second floors served by a passenger lift. It extends to approximately 5,616 sq ft (521.73 sq.m).

Situated in the heart of Marylebone Village, Devonshire Place is conveniently located moments from Marylebone High Street together with the open spaces of Regent’s Park. The building is located on the west side of Devonshire Place close to the junction with Devonshire Street. Transport links can be found from a number of nearby underground and train stations (Baker Street, Bond Street), as well as access to the Marylebone Road.

Please see website for full details

ASKING PRICE: £7,950,000

+44 (0) 20 7486 4111

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www.jeremy-james.co.uk

jjandco@jeremy-james.co.uk

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carterjonas.co.uk

HARMONT HOUSE London W1G

Stunning, newly refurbished two bedroom, two bathroom apartment on the second floor (with lift) of this portered building.

Marylebone & Regent’s Park 020 7486 8866 marylebone@carterjonas.co.uk

2 bedrooms • 1 reception room • 2 bathrooms • 901 square feet • Concierge • Apartment • Upper floor with lift

Guide price £1,475,000

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