The Shangri-La Hotel, which occupies floors 34-52 of the Shard has lost more than £60 million since it opened four years ago.

The five-star hotel offers spectacular views over the Capital as well as marble bathrooms, an infinity pool 600 feet off the ground and a standard room rate of £399.

Reasons for the losses have been rocketing costs and a very competitive hotel landscape in London, where 5,000 new rooms were added in 2016.

Olympia Exhibition and Conference Centre is to get a £1 billion refurbishment under plans drawn up by its new owners, Yoo Capital. (Evening Standard)

These include a new 1,500 seat theatre, another performing arts centre, a cinema, two hotels and a number of new restaurants. The exhibition halls are having mezzanine floors put in to increase floor space for exhibitions, the main delivery hub is to be moved underground and Yoo Capital has launched a campaign to get the Tube service from Earl’s Court to Olympia reinstated, a move that will be much appreciated by the all-important visitors.

To a tasting of Vinho Verde wines from quintas (farms) in North-West Portugal and available in the UK.

The wines are increasingly popular in the UK as the demand for light, fresh wines with low alcohol and calories grows – apparently last year we necked more than 1.5 million litres with a value of 3.4 million euros.

The big grape variety, and getting bigger is Alvarinho and this was the grape used for one of our high-scorers, the Casa Do Capitao – Mor Reserva 2016 from the Quinta de Pacos which delivered a fruity vanilla and lychee hit. (Importer Casa Leal) Also excellent was the Alvarinho Deu La Deu Premium 2015 from the Adega Dde Moncao with lots of fresh citrus. (Importer Clarke Foyster) However our top favourites were a very fruity white from Arinto grapes and an equally fruity rose from Espadeiro e Tintas grapes, both from 2017 bottlings by the Quinta de Linhares. (Importer Lisbon Wines Ltd)

Plans by actor Robert De Niro and BD Hotels for a hotel in Covent Garden have been scrapped.

The Wellington Hotel was to have 83 bedrooms, a spa, a restaurant and a members club and would have taken up the whole Strand side of Covent Garden, spreading across six buildings However BD Hotels say that a change in the economics killed it. Covent Garden landlord, Capco (formerly owners of Olympia) say that they have not reached satisfactory commercial terms, presumably agreement on rent.

BD Hotels have 24 hotels in the USA, including the Greenwich Hotel, co-owned with De Niro and developed in conjunction with him. In 2015 De Niro commented that he was talking to BD about another Greenwich-style property in another city, but that it “had to be the right city”.

The former CEO of Excel exhibition and conference centre, David Pegler is to be sued for more than £2million by his former employer and Excel owner the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC).

ADNEC say that they sacked Pegler last November because they found out he was employing his brother, Richard Pegler there on a deal worth up to £120,000 a year and failed to tell either ADNEC or the Excel board about it. ADNEC also allege that David Pegler put “inappropriate pressure” on two potential suppliers to Excel to employ his brother in a high-paying job saying that this would give them a competitive advantage when seeking contracts with Excel, an aspect that has been denied by Pegler.

Pegler, say ADNEC, also took a number of first class flights and train journeys that were against Excel’s rules on expenses.

David Pegler is counter-suing ADNEC for £1 million for the loss of his job.

If a bittersweet film about beauty, and the loss of it floats your boat then you’ll love The Butterfly Tree.

This ravishingly-shot and quirky Australian film from 2017 is the visually stunning debut of its writer and director Priscilla Cameron and stars the very talented Melissa George as a lovely former burlesque dancer, Evelyn who opens a flower shop in a small town in lush Queensland, entrances a local teacher, Al, (played by Ewen Leslie) while bewitching a sixteen year old boy, Fin, (played by Ed Oxenbould) without realising that Fin is Al’s son. Fin’s love of beauty reflects in his hobby of gazing at butterflies caught under a tent he has rigged up in a fig tree. Sometimes he kills them and uses their wings to decorate a photo of his beautiful mother, Rose, who hanged herself when he was thirteen. Continue reading →

There’s a joke going the rounds that the reason our railways have named their latest debacle “Railplan 20/20” is because 2020 is the year by which they are finally hoping to get some of their trains running to time.

Of course it’s no joke for the millions who have to travel and are currently suffering the worst service ever in their efforts just to get to work and back. And sadly they are the railway’s captive market, who have little choice but to keep suffering, and paying for the privilege. Continue reading →

Two diners who suffered campylobacter poisoning after eating chicken liver parfait at The Brewery are suing the venue’s caterers at the time Gather and Gather.

The parfait was part of a pigeon breast starter served at the Digital Impact Awards last October and one of the diners, telecoms executive Philip Earlam, 47, was left fighting for his life in hospital after the campylobacter apparently triggered a condition known as Miller Fisher Syndrome. This causes absence of the tendon reflexes, paralysis of the eye muscles, abnormal muscle co-ordination and is fatal in eight per cent of cases. Continue reading →

The BA pilot who was hauled out of his cockpit by police and found to be four times over the limit of alcohol for flying has been jailed for nine months.

Julian Monaghan, 49, was due to be the third pilot on the BA Boeing 777 8.00pm flight from Gatwick to Mauritius on January 8 but was arrested after a flight technician became concerned that he could smell alcohol on his breath. In 2015 and 2017 pilots over the limit were jailed for similar periods. Continue reading →