This week involved an enjoyable combination of sights and sipping. A swimming pool will offer uplookers an eyeful, the view from my HQ has an unexpectedly named watering hole and the Ally Pally seeks booze
Too good a view?
Developer Ballymore will soon receive an expensive package from the US 鈥� a 拢2.5m, 25m-long transparent glass swimming pool to be suspended 10 storeys up between two London apartment blocks. The pool, at the Irish client鈥檚 Embassy Gardens, a luxury residential scheme under construction opposite the soon-to-be US Embassy in Nine Elms, has already grabbed headlines for its voyeuristic position 35m above the streets below, affording passers-by a view of any residents taking a dip. The pool has been designed by Arup Associates and costed by QS Bruceshaw. It鈥檚 set to be shipped over from Colorado in the US 鈥� where a manufacturer was found capable of meeting the unusual demands of the job 鈥� in the next few weeks.
Roll out the barrels
It鈥檚 not only Willmott Dixon鈥檚 revamp of Alexandra Palace that鈥檚 new. I see the north London venue is also looking for a new beer supplier for the next five years. It has advertised the 拢1m-a-year deal on the OJEU 鈥� set to be a thing of the past in the UK thanks to Brexit 鈥� with the winning supplier expected to deliver an annual supply of 2,200 barrels. The denizens of Muswell Hill certainly know how to have a good time. Even my old drinking buddies Richard Harris, Peter O鈥橳oole and Oliver Reed might have struggled with that.
A hairy question
Twinkly-eyed Irish charmer James Nesbitt has admitted that hair transplants have given him better roles. The 52-year-old, who made his entrance at last year鈥檚 好色先生TV Awards with a note-perfect rendition of Frank Sinatra鈥檚 Come Fly With Me, said the procedures have given him confidence and a new lease of life. 鈥淐areer-wise it had an impact; in terms of the range of leading roles I鈥檝e had since then, it鈥檚 probably helped,鈥� he said. Is it too much of a push to suggest that 鈥満蒙壬鶷V Awards host 2016鈥� was top of the list when he was totting up the leading roles he鈥檚 had since he fixed his barnet?
Don鈥檛 cause a rumpus
One of my hacks met up with an industry contact here at 240 Blackfriars in London. They journeyed up to the top floor, level 19, to survey the building work that鈥檚 going on around the area. My hack tells me his guest鈥檚 eye caught the Mondrian Hotel at Sea Containers. 鈥淚t can be tricky getting expenses through there,鈥� he observed. Why was that? 鈥淭hey have a bar called the Rumpus Room. It鈥檚 an unfortunate sounding name.鈥�
Great towers think alike
Memories were jogged earlier this month when Spanish star architect Santiago Calatrava unveiled his plans for a 拢1bn development designed on Greenwich Peninsula in south-east London (far left). Called Peninsula Place, the scheme features three towers rising to 30 storeys in height, as well as an 80ft-high winter garden and 500ft-long glass galleria. Now let鈥檚 go back a year to London practice Tonkin Liu, which was toasting its competition-winning proposal for a new trade centre in Zhengzhou, China. The Cradle Towers of Zhengzhou, they鈥檙e called. There is definitely a certain similarity 鈥�
Send any juicy industry gossip to hansom@ubm.com
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