Lansdown Links Issue 1

The exclusive magazine for

I N V E S T M E N T S A R T & A N T I Q U E S E D U C A T I O N P R O P E R T Y F O O D & D R I N K F A S H I O N

ISSUE #1JUNE 2010

G O I N G

TROPICALUnique hol iday ret reats

T O P

TOWNHOUSESBr is tol and Bath hot proper t ies

F A M I L Y

FUTURESAdvice on how to invest for your chi ldren

S E N S A T I O N A L

SEAFOODThe best restaurants in the South West

JohnnyJohnnyH E R E ’ SJohnnyTA L K S T O U S A B O U T H I S N E W D O O R S R O C K U M E N TA R Y

DEPP

L A N S D O W N

magazineLINKS

JUNE 2010 3Financial Advice: Independent & Impartial

Editor ’s Letter

As far as announcements go, this one is pretty special. So, it is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the launch issue of Lansdown Links, the new bi-monthly lifestyle magazine for Lansdown Place. We hope you enjoy reading it as much as the team loved putting it all together.

We have a line-up of contributors from such newspapers as The Independent and The Guardian and an A-list star in the form of Johnny Depp, being candid about his new film, his love for wife Vanessa Paradis and his private life spent doing his best to dodge his demons and paparazzi flashbulbs.

On our food pages we find out what it ’s like to indulge in some top quality fare at Rick Stein’s and Nathan Outlaw’s restaurants and the travel section is all about leaving the package holidaymakers by the wayside and jetting off for a hefty dose of escapism in some of the most exotic places on the planet. And no, we’re definitely not talking Malaga.

If you like your wines rich and ruby red or crisp and white, your accessories designer, your art contemporary and sound financial advice straight out of the mouths of the experts, we’ve got it covered. Happy reading.

Leigh Ferrani

Leigh Ferrani – Editor

Tony Merlini – Art Director

Alex Sullivan – Executive Director

Peter Robinson – Commercial Director

Leza Jagroop – Sales Executive

Rob Fisher – Marketing Manager

Geraldine Pounsford – Publisherand Circulation Manager

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

Hello

Published by – The Clifton Agency8-10 Whiteladies Road, Bristol BS8 1PD UK

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Designed by The Wow Factory. Printed by Cambrian Printers. All rights reserved. The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher. The publisher cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions relating to advertising or editorial. The publisher reserves the right to change or amend any competitions or prizes offered. No part of this publication may be reproduced without prior written consent from the publisher. No responsibility is taken for unsolicited materials or the return of these materials whilst in transit.

LANSDOWN LINKS magazine

4 JUNE 2010 www.lansdownplace.co.uk


11 – Johnny Depp. The star discusses rock ‘n’ roll documentary When You’re Strange and digs deep when it comes to his personal life

17 – Q&A. Ex-rugby player for Bristol and Scotland, Graeme Beveridge, answers our quick-fire questions. 18 – Investing in your children. Raising kids is a pricey business so find out the best ways to prepare for the future. 26 – Executive toys. There is nothing sportier than a Porsche – and now the Panamera hits the nation’s highways. 29 – Hidden tropical retreats. Marvel at some of the most exotic and unusual places to holiday.

37 – Top Townhouses. Take a look around the swankiest properties on the Bristol and Bath property market.

43 – Dining out. Featuring the three finest seafood eateries in the SW, including Rick Stein’s restaurant. 47 – Seek out the Sommelier. Our

wine columnist shares his views on how to order the best vintages when eating out. 50 – The Gallery. We exhibit contemporary works of art from local galleries. 54 – Stieg Larsson’s high profile posthumous career features in our book review section. 58 – Beau fighters. Bristol Cars set up shop 65 years ago and here we discover why they are still going strong.

Contents

Our ContributorsDavid Nicholson is a London-based freelance writer who has penned pieces for GQ, The Sunday Times Magazine and The Observer. He is sharing his wealth of

globe-trotting experiences with us on page 29, in locations including Africa’s Caribbean Islands and Uganda.

Neil Crossley is a freelance journalist and editor who has written across a broad range of topics for publications such as The Guardian, The Independent and

The Daily Telegraph. He joins us on page 43 as our restaurant reviewer.

Laith Al-Kaisy writes about many subjects and for our first issue he tells us all about the Porsche Panamera on page 26 and uses his property expertise on page 37

for his report on the best townhouses in the SW. Laith is a contributor for The Independent and the Record Collector.

Clare Sturges is a freelance writer and editor who has worked extensively in the financial services industry. On page 18 she urges us to invest for our children.

VICTORIANS ONBOARD

Released on June 25, The Smell of the Continent takes a rather humorous and surprising look at a hundred years of Victorian tourism on the continent.

Historians James Munson and Richard Mullen examine just what it was about the continent that so attracted British travelers in the hundred years from the fall of Napoleon to the outbreak of the First World War. It was the fi rst time in history that the British, en masse, took to the seas to discover Europe.

Drawing on contemporary accounts, diaries and letters, Munson and Mullen offer an entertaining portrait of the Victorians abroad, most of them convinced that their country was not only vastly superior to any other but also the envy of the whole world.

Pan. £7.99 paperback.

Drawing on contemporary accounts, diaries and letters, Munson and Mullen offer an entertaining portrait of the Victorians abroad, most of them convinced that their country was not only vastly superior to any other but also the envy of the whole world.

Pan. £7.99

Under the Spotlight

SpotlightNews. Goods.

Gadgets.

Under the

TRUST IN BRUNEL

The new Visitor Centre at Brunel’s SS Great Britain was recently opened by Carol Vorderman and sightseers have been fl ocking to the place since, which includes a shop and ticket offi ce and provides a suitable entry point for the award-winning museum and attraction.

The Visitor Centre is on the ground fl oor of a new building which externally replicates the original Brunel Steam Engine Factory – erected in the late 1830s to build the SS Great Britain. This is the fi rst stage of an ambitious project which will see the opening of the SS Great Britain Trust’s Brunel Institute, and conservation and learning centre, in the autumn. It will also feature the Brunel Archive, the David MacGregor Library, and an impressive lecture theatre. Educational programmes, funded by The Lloyd’s Register Educational Trust, include SeaHear storytelling for pre-school children, Future Brunels, and the Brunel Badge scheme.

For details about events taking place during the school holidays, please go to: www.ssgreatbritain.org


SPEAKING VOLUMES

If you like your sounds as sharp as razor blades, but you don’t much appreciate the aesthetic charm of those old fashioned wood effect speakers on the market then the FHOO7 system is perfect as it is all about state of the art design.

A mini version of the acclaimed FHOO1, FHOO2 and FHOO3 combined system, it has been developed for a wider consumer market and has been designed to work with all Hi-Fi music player formats.

It should also be taken down and noted that no compromises were made in the R&D process; the sound and build quality are of the standard expected from a Ferguson Hill product.

Not only can you blast your favourite tunes through them, but they make a pretty snazzy accompaniment to your living room decor.

Mini speaker version: £395

For more information go to: www.fergusonhill.co.uk

FAIRLY FRUITFUL

The new health-conscious Fair range includes a liqueur made from goji berries, which are considered one of the most nutritious fruits on earth.

Goji berries have been harvested by Tibetan monks for thousands of years and worshipped by locals as the source of eternal happiness. Today, they are a celebrity favourite of Victoria Beckham and Madonna, due to the fact that they reportedly contain 500 times more Vitamin C than an orange. Plus, they taste much nicer than anything you can fi nd in any traditional fruit bowl. Fair source their berries from deep in the remote valleys of the Himalayas, just so that you can enjoy this exotic liqueur, which can now be found at Harvey Nichols’ Wineshop. Good health to you.

FAIR Goji Liqueur £23.50

If you like your sounds as sharp as razor blades, but you don’t much appreciate the




Under the Spotlight

FAREWELL TO THE FLOPPY DISK

Sad times are upon us. Sony recently announced that they will be discontinuing sales of the 3.5 inch fl oppy disk in Japan, due to lack of demand.

Not surprising though, when you consider the wealth of media saving methods around, such as USBs, DVDs and CDs. But if you do still prefer to use them production lines will still be running until March 2011. The decision marks the end to nearly 30 years of the disk that the company helped to pioneer back in 1981 and sold approximately 47 million in Japan by the year 2000.

But, approaching 2009, numbers had fallen dramatically, Sankei News reported. Most other major manufacturers have already withdrawn the disk type from the market entirely, which means that soon the only place you will able to fi nd one of the dear old things is at the back of a kitchen drawer in a fi ve years’ time, along with dusty cassette tapes of Simply Red.

INDULGE IN A NEW FÉTISH

Venturi launched a ground breaking concept for its 20th anniversary: Fétish, the world’s fi rst electric sports car.

This move caused a major cultural change and ever since then the Venturi Fétish has gone all around the world, changing the image of the electric car and infl uencing the automotive industry, from small craftsmen to large manufacturers.

Venturi’s new VM300 is the most successful electric motor ever designed for this type of application. Offering over 300 hp (+220 kW),

this new-generation motor benefi ts in particular from Venturi’s efforts to reduce the weight of its components. Weighing only 35 kilos, it in fact means 30% less mass for 22% more power, as compared with their 1st-generation motor, all with outstanding energy effi ciency of 92%.

£254,514 (€297,000)

Check them out on: www.venturi.fr



Ask the Experts

Lansdown Place is a leading independent financial advisory service in the South West, so who better to answer your questions regarding investments, mortgages, bonds, pensions and all things monetary?

Ask the ExpertsAsk the Experts

is a leading independent financial advisory service in the South West, so who better to answer your questions regarding investments, mortgages, bonds, pensions and all things monetary?

the Exper tsAsk

Send your questions to: [email protected]

ISA THE ONE FOR MEI am an interior designer and sole trader and would like to set up an ISA, as a sound future investment. Can you tell me what would be the best product for someone self employed with an income of around £40,000?

Mellissa Bell, Clifton, Bristol An ISA is a tax effi cient investment which can allow an investment of up to £10,200 per tax year into a portfolio of stocks and shares, or up to £5,100 into a cash ISA with the balance in stocks and shares.

There is a large range of ISA providers available, therefore it is recommended to use the services of an Independent Financial Adviser who can select the most suitable ISA manager from all the providers in the market; however fund supermarket and wrap providers offer the greatest fl exibility with regard to fund choices available.

The investment funds recommended within the ISA will depend upon your attitude to investment risk and anticipated term of investment, which can be assessed by your fi nancial adviser when making appropriate recommendations.

SAILING OFF INTO THE SUNSETI recently retired and have saved up quite a nice nest egg so I can fulfi l my life-long ambition of buying a boat and sailing around the world. I would like to put some money by for my grandchildren, for when they both reach 18 (they are now 11 and 15). What do you suggest?

Gareth Jennings, Saltford One possible investment is an OEIC/Unit Trust account which is a fl exible, open-ended investment that can allow regular or ad hoc lump sum payments.

If you were to invest in a unit trust for each of your grandchildren, although it will be in your name, you can designate it for each of them. This means that, while the investment is still yours and

you will pay whatever tax you would normally pay on it, the investment is designated for the child (please note: you may need to designate this investment in your will if you want to ensure your grandchildren receive the investment when you die, otherwise the money will go towards your estate). When each grandchild reaches age 18 the investment can be held in their own name directly.

The suitability of this type of investment would depend upon your tax situation, and we would recommend that you seek independent fi nancial advice prior to making any decisions, to ensure that a suitable portfolio of funds are selected which are appropriate for the risk you wish to take and the term of investment.

SELLING UP AND MOVING FORWARDFor ten years I have run my own printing business and want to sell it. I am still only 55 and will be left with a fair sum. I would like to know how to invest wisely.

Margaret Lester, Clifton, Bristol I would recommend consulting an independent fi nancial adviser who will be able to advise a portfolio using a range of investment products appropriate to your personal situation, taking into consideration some of the following;• Amount to be invested• Liquidity required• Proposed term of investment• Any future lump sum requirements

(how much and when required)• Income requirements (amount and frequency)• Attitude to investment risk• Tax status• Health

In addition, before selling your business we would recommend you seek independent tax advice to ensure the sale takes place in the most tax effi cient manner for your circumstances.

JUNE 2010 11Financial Advice: Independent & Impartial JUNE 2010 11Financial Advice: Independent & Impartial

Johnny Depp

strangeJohnny Depp

strangeJohnny Depp

In another lifetime, not so long ago that he can’t remember, Johnny Depp embraced the demons that ultimately drove Jim Morisson to his death. Jan Janssen finds out more.

Life can be

Like the Lizard King, Johnny once abused alcohol and other substances to deaden the pain and get a little closer to “the other side,” the tantalizing paradise that seemed to obsess Morisson. But Depp pulled back from the brink, found Paradis in the form of Vanessa, and recaptured the innocent and naïve spirit of a man whose greatest happiness is watching his children at play.

For many reasons, Depp felt a kinship to Jim Morisson and perhaps he was fated to narrate Tom DiCillo’s haunting new documentary, When You’re

Strange, about the seminal sixties’ band The Doors and their tortured desert mystic poet. Dead of a heart attack at age 27 following a three day alcohol binge while living in Paris, Jim Morisson was the defi nitive counterculture icon. In his own way, Depp also rebelled against fame and the conformity expected of a rising young movie star. In the early nineties, he tested his admittedly high tolerance for alcohol, dated a supermodel (Kate Moss), attacked hotel room furniture, and came close to following Morisson’s early exit from the world stage. Then an inner voice told Johnny it was time to stop, the same

subliminal messenger that kept exhorting Jim to go over the edge.

Depp’s voice adds a stark yet oddly sensual appeal to When You’re Strange, infusing Morisson’s poetry with a glib resonance that serves as an eerie counterpoint to The Doors’ haunting music. Interspersing concert footage with unseen material from Morisson’s own

aborted experimental fi lm HWY, DiCillio’s documentary allows us to stand frozen in time and trapped in the sixties when Morisson and The Doors were at the height of their popularity.

“In this movie, The Doors will never get old,” DiCillo advises. He deliberately avoided using

As a rock n’ roll documentary it doesn’t get any better than this.

interviews with the surviving band members, preferring Depp’s voice over narration to add an odd gravitas to the Morisson myth. Depp himself felt honoured to lend his presence to the doc.

“As a rock n’ roll documentary, or any kind of documentary for that matter, it simply doesn’t get any better than this,” says Depp. “I’m as proud of this as anything I’ve done before. Watching the unreleased footage of Jim, John, Ray, and Robby, I felt like I experienced it all through their eyes. It’s as if Jim has been resurrected to remind us that he is, to this very day, one of the most signifi cant frontmen/poets/shaman to ever grace a stage.”

It’s not hard to understand why the 46-year-old Depp feels connected to Morisson. Though imperfect alter egos, there are plenty of similarities to suggest that Johnny and Jim are spiritual antipodes who suffered from chronic self-doubts that fed their self-destructive impulses.

“I had reached a point where I just got sick and tired of being wasted and poisoning myself for a living,” recalls Depp. “I was self-medicating myself with alcohol because I didn't want to feel anything. I wound up getting into this strange spiral where I would drink hard liquor to the point where I didn't even get hangovers anymore. I would wake up and

have another drink... I reached my natural limits and decided to pull back and save myself. And in some ways my reward for that was meeting Vanessa.”

Depp might easily have wound up a dead icon had friends and family not helped him clean up and straighten out. While shooting Roman Polanski’s The Nineth Gate in Paris in 1998, Depp spotted French singer/actress Vanessa Paradis while dining at the same restaurant. He saw her from across the room and his “heart stopped.” It was perfect timing. They were both unattached. She had been burned in a few relationships, he was looking for a measure of calm and stability and a woman who wanted to start a family.

“I loved the fact that she was completely relaxed in who she is and didn't put up any facade or walls or put on an act,” Depp recollects. “Even though she was very successful, very well known, she wasn't seduced or warped by her fame. She was just a very sweet, natural person. She also had this self-assured quality and that was part of what allowed her to be who she is. She also had a great sense of humour and could get me out of my bad moods. I can still fl y off the handle about some

things and she's the one person able to get me to see things differently and not get so worked up.”

Within a few months, Depp and Paradis had moved in together and they both realised they had found a life partner. For Vanessa, it was the end of a long search.

“I’d wanted to be a mother for a long time, but with him I couldn’t avoid it,” she has said. “He was, and still is, the love of my life. There is a lot of friendship between us, respect and admiration. We’ve understood that if we want it to carry on working, it’s essential to give each other space. You don’t eat the same food every day; you don’t read the same book or listen to the same record over and over again. You have to discover things for yourself. Maybe I’m a good girlfriend because I’m his girlfriend. I’m not sure I’d be a good girlfriend to anyone else.”

Certainly Depp credits his ongoing twelve-year relationship with the French singer-actress Vanessa Paradis and their two children, Lily-Rose, 11, and 8-year-old Jack with giving him the sense of comfort and belonging he desperately lacked growing up in Kentucky and Florida. His father was long absent and his mother was left to raise Depp and his three siblings largely on her own.

He dropped out of school at 15, worked as various odd jobs including pumping gas at a fi lling station, and began playing with various garage bands.

“Music was my way out of my misery,” observes Depp. “I just thrived on it and felt connected to it. I started listening to a lot of Bob Dylan, the soundtrack from Last

Tango in Paris, different stuff. My brother (ten years Depp's senior) was a huge infl uence on me and introduced me to a lot of great music.”

“So my guitar became my best friend and I just threw myself into learning all the chords and riffs from all the best groups that I was listening to at the time. If I hadn't got into acting I would have loved to have become a musician and just played the guitar for a living and just toured and enjoyed life on the road. That's how I wound up going to L.A., but when my band broke up acting was just an opportunity that came up and my life went in a different direction.”

While Morisson dropped out of fi lm school to pursue music, Depp, whose band The Kids toured with Iggy Pop in the early eighties, turned to acting to support himself on the suggestion of Nic Cage, whom he had in met after moving to L.A. After a few bit parts in fi lms Depp saw his career fortunes soar when in 1987 he was cast to play in a hugely successful kid’s action series, 21 Jump Street. The show turned him into a teen heartthrob and his face was plastered on the covers of magazines. Hollywood then beckoned and fi lms like John Waters’ Cry Baby

I had reached a point where I got sick and tired of being wasted.




and Tim Burton’s Edward Scizzorhands established him as rising movie star. A romance with Winona Ryder assured him a permanent place as a celebrity, as did the death of River Phoenix who died of a heroin overdose on the sidewalk outside of Depp’s Viper Club on L.A.’s Sunset Boulevard. The death stunned Johnny and sent him on a downward spiral. None of his success had made much of a dent on his lingering self-image as an outsider and former gas-station attendant.

“I had such a deep sense of being an outsider and felt so out of place growing up that I don't even know if I knew there was an easier life or a better life to fi t into. You grow up a bit damaged and broken and then you have some success but you don't know how to feel good about the work you're doing or the life you're leading. You feel empty.”

During his turbulent mid-nineties romance with Kate Moss, Depp was often a forlorn fi gure. After making headlines around the world in 1994 following his arrest for smashing up a New York hotel room he had been sharing with Moss, many observers had begun to write off Depp. His fi lm career was bottoming out and so was Johnny. But he wasn’t ready to give up.

“I got lucky. I straightened myself out, met a beautiful woman who understood me and knew how to straighten out the kinks in my head, at least some of them, and got to lead a good life. Things became very easy and you wonder what the hell was the matter with you for so long.”

Aside from domestic tranquility, Depp entered a new realm as the frontman for a juggernaut movie franchise – Pirates of the Caribbean. The three Pirate fi lms Depp has made thus far have netted him close to $100 million. The fi lling station geek had come full circle and buried his demons by relishing the opportunity to make fi lms “that my children could love and one day tell their children that their granddaddy played Captain Jack.”

Depp and Paradis settled in a Provencal villa in 2002 so that they could both escape from the glare of being a celebrity couple and retreat to a place where they could raise their children insulated from the outside world.

“I love our house over there which is hidden in the French countryside. But we actually live most of the time in Los Angeles these days because that’s where our children go to school. So we try not to move around that much and when we do travel it’s during school holidays. But I love being in France, because the people in our area treat us like neighbours and not like celebrities. We don’t want our children to think their parents are strange creatures and get a distorted impression of the world. The world is strange enough.”

And Johnny should know.

Johnny Depp

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What ’s In-store?

In-store?This season the Mulberry look is all about youthful exuberance and vibrant colour, with bags in dazzling shades of pink, yellow and leopard print.

What ’s

∆ East West ShimmyIvory Snow Leopard Haircalf £1,495

Alexa – Butter Sof t Buffalo Leather £695 ∆

∆ Leah Shoulder – Peony Pink Plonge Lambskin £550

Q&AK I T C H E N

Berkeley Square Hotel, Berkeley Square, Clifton, Bristol BS8 1HB

0117 921 0455

www.thesquareclub.com

S Q U A R E

THE SQUARE KITCHENWith a traditional yet stylish interior and French bistro

inspired menu made from the freshest local ingredients.

The Square Kitchen at the Berkeley Square boasts 2 AA rosettes and is amongst the top restaurants in the city.

Open for lunch and dinner.

THE LOWER DECK & TERRACEThe lower ground fl oor features luxurious drapes

and decadent chaise-longues and provides intimate spaces for you to indulge in our cocktail list.

Next to this is our heated sun terrace, recently voted the best outside dining spot in Bristol, with quirky wooden furniture, outdoor art and some very chilled out music.

june 2010 17Financial Advice: Independent & Impartial

Q&A

Q&AWhat should young sportsmen and women be doing from an early age, in terms of managing their finances for life after sport?

Personal pension provision is becoming increasingly important as a means of avoiding reliance on state provision in the future and providing a reasonable level of income in retirement. Tax efficient savings, which can be either cash or Stocks and Shares ISA accounts, or a combination of both, are sensible too. It is important that you build a fund which will be readily available to ease the transition from professional sport into the ‘real world’. The government has given each of us a tax free savings allowance per annum of £10,200, increasing each year in line with inflation, as was announced in the recent budget. The balance between savings as cash and investment in stocks and shares for long-term growth would be agreed through discussion with the individual and related to the expected duration of the investment and the attitude to risk of the investor.

How did rugby handle the leap from amateur to professional in your experience?

I think we handled it very well. We were getting paid to do something we all loved, so it was great. Maybe some people didn’t cope with at as best as they could have and spent all their money, but these days’ young sportsmen coming into rugby are aware of the pitfalls and make more provisions for when their career finishes.

What’s your best memory from being on the pitch?

It would have to be my first cap for Scotland, coming off the bench against New Zealand in Auckland in June 2000. You dream about playing the All Blacks and I actually managed to do it. To be on the pitch with those guys was incredible.

Who do you fancy for the World Cup next year? I think the All Blacks, but sometimes the

pressure seems to get to them, and there’s the added pressure of being at home. South Africa would possibly be my bet to handle the pressure.

If you could be any famous sportsperson who would it be?

Lewis Hamilton. He gets paid a lot of money to lead a very glamorous life and travel the world and he gets to do something that is a big adrenalin rush every day.

What are you up to sports-wise these days?

I’m currently player coach at local side Old Redcliffians RFC. We have had a fantastic season winning the Tribute Western Counties North league and completed the double by winning the RFU

Intermediate Cup at Twickenham. I am really enjoying being back with an amateur rugby club, which is very similar to my local club where I first started playing.

If you had to spend a week stuck in a lift with three people who would you choose?

Billy Connolly, John Malkovich and William Wallace. Did you notice that I didn’t mention any famous women? My wife will read this…

I’m enjoying being back with a club just like my local club where I started playing

Answering our questions this month is former Scotland rugby international, Graeme Beveridge, 34. now a Financial Consultant at Lansdown Place, he talks about his time on the pitch and gives us his expert advice as to how budding sportspeople can invest their money wisely.

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They ’re our future and we love them, but raising children is a costly business. Reports and research put the bill at anywhere between £180,000 and over £300,000. So how are we to meet these ever-rising financial demands? Clare Sturges investigates.

Very few of us would ever sit down and tot up the cost of raising a child before conception. If we did, it’s quite possible we’d never venture into the act of parenting at all.

Depending on which report you believe, for the amount of money it takes to raise a child to

the age of 21, you could sail around the world on the QE2 eight times, eat at the Ivy restaurant three times a week, or invest and be millionaires within 20 years.

Some research suggests the costs involved are more modest – you don’t have to clothe your kids in Gucci and feed them caviar – but what’s clear in all cases is that we need to be fi nancially prepared if we’re to give our children the best possible start in life. Let’s take a look at the fi gures.

IT ALL ADDS UPResearch conducted for the UK’s largest friendly society LV= suggests that the cost of raising a child has gone up an infl ation-busting 4% since January 2009, and is up 43% over the seven years since 2003.

It found that feeding, clothing and educating our children is the greatest expense – with parents typically shelling out £9,610 a year on these things alone. LV= puts the total cost of raising children to the age of 21 at £201,809... and that doesn’t include private school fees.

A similar survey for fi nancial services provider Liverpool Victoria conducted in 2006 estimated that a child costs its parents £23.50 a day. It placed childcare and education as the most expensive factors, averaging around £50,000 a year.

Other surveys by London Magazine and insurance giant AXA in 2002 and 2003 put the total cost at a staggering £300,000 – and that’s not including

special events like school holidays, hobbies and extra lessons. The cost differs depending on your location in the country, with outer London being predictably the most expensive place to raise a family and Yorkshire and Humber being the least.

So, a great deal of the cost of raising children depends not just on geography, but on decisions about their childcare and education, how many extra-curricular activities to do and how willing we are to submit to buying branded goodies that are (apparently) absolute must-haves. It’s a given that we want to grant them the best start in life: to be happy, successful and accepted by their peers, and not to be denied opportunities.

What all these surveys indicate is that there is a great deal of benefi t in putting away regular amounts of money to cover the cost of raising children. Mike Rogers, Chief Executive of LV= says: “Every parent knows how expensive it is to raise a little one and we don’t begrudge a penny of it. But I suspect many new and prospective mums and dads will be a bit shocked to see the potential fi nancial burden ahead of them.”

PROVIDING FOR YOUR CHILDREN’S FUTURESo it’s clear that raising a family requires careful fi nancial planning – for example, thinking about whether to invest a lump sum or a regular premium, the time scale, risk profi le and tax considerations.

Numerous products are available to meet your needs, including children’s bank accounts, National Savings and Investments (NS&I) Children’s Bonus Bonds, bare trusts, individual savings accounts (ISAs), unit trusts and open-ended investment companies (OEICs).

Speaking to your independent fi nancial adviser can be useful. They’ll help you to analyse your position, think about how you feel about risk, and defi ne your needs and objectives. The key is investing your money in such a way that

Investingin your children




Few of us would ever

sit down and tot up the cost of raising

a child.

Investing in your children

it is accessible at the right times, in the right amounts... and that you have some contingency.

There are a number of bank accounts for children, which often have an attractive interest rate. This is because they’re usually held for a relatively short period of time. Investing in cash in this way is low risk and it’s great if you’re not concerned about infl ation.

If the interest accrued on a children’s bank account during a tax year is less than the child’s personal allowance of £6,475 (in 2010/2011), then there shouldn’t be any tax to pay.

As well as this, you can gift a child as much money as you like. But be aware that, as a parent or step-parent, if the money you give your child earns more than £100 interest a year, this interest will be taxed as if it were your own. The £100 interest limit doesn't apply to grandparents

and other adults who give money to your children, so if a signifi cant gift is to be

KEY FINDINGS

› The high cost of starting a family has increased the cultural shift away from households having just one working parent. More women are working – 70 per cent of mothers will be working in 2010.

› Fathers’ roles are set to change dramatically over the next decade; this change follows the shift in women's roles since the 1950s.

› With the breakdown of the nuclear family, the whole family – siblings, aunts, uncles and grandparents – is to be important in securing the wellbeing of children in the future.


When a child reaches 16, they can open a tax-free cash ISA. And at 18, your child can invest in stocks and shares ISAs.

WAYS TO SAVE FOR YOUR CHILD’S FUTURE

1. Bank accounts for children

2. NS&I Children’s Bonus Bonds

3. Bare trusts

4. Tax-free ISAs

5. Unit trusts and OEICs

5




made, it may be best to come from them.NS&I is an executive agency of the Chancellor

of the Exchequer, best known for Premium Bonds. It runs Children’s Bonus Bonds – where you can invest up to £3,000 tax-free for a child under the age of 16 for up to fi ve years, with a guaranteed bonus. The savings are 100% protected because NS&I is backed by HM Treasury.

Another tax-effi cient method investing for your children is to ring-fence assets in a Bare Trust arrangement. This is where an investment is held by an adult for a child until they reach age 18, when they can access the assets. It’s often used by parents and grandparents who wish to put some money aside for when their children reach maturity.

Although the adult is the named holder of the investment, only the named benefi ciary (your child) has any entitlement to the investment. Any income is taxed as part of the child’s taxable income and any capital gains as part of the child’s capital gains. There’s no additional cost to investing your money in this way.

When a child reaches 16, they can open a tax-free cash ISA. And at 18, your child can invest in stocks and shares ISAs, which is higher risk but can offer better potential returns. These investments have been popular because they mean you don’t pay income or capital gains tax on any interest earned. But


CHANGING TRENDS IN FAMILY LIFE

Mothers have been at the forefront of social change over the last few decades as they’re moved in unprecedented numbers into paid work.

According to a report from the Family and Parenting Institute in November 2009, over the next decade it will be men. The fact that more women are working opens up more opportunities than ever before for men to get involved in family life.


interest rate levels for cash ISAs have been low recently and many people are disappointed with their performance.

If you’re looking for higher potential returns, gilts and corporate bonds held within an ISA are also tax-free and may offer stronger performance.

Unit trusts and OEICs are forms of collective investments where investors’ money is put into one pot to allow a wider investment spread. Because of economies if scale, this way of investing often costs less to administer than an individual portfolio.

These investments are considered to be medium to long term, meaning at least 5–10 years. They allow you to weather ups and downs in the markets and to make full use of your children’s capital gains (£10,100) and tax allowances (£6,475).

It’s possible to invest in unit trusts and OEICs tax-free up to the ISA limit and take advantage of all the tax-effi cient savings available to you. If you choose to invest in a unit trust or OEIC as an ISA, you can continue to make contributions even if you’ve used up your ISA allowance for the year. It just means you won’t get the same tax benefi ts as with an ISA.

THE LIKELY COSTS OF RAISING A CHILDFirst year With a full-time nanny: £25,940Without a nanny: £5,140

Ages 2-5 With a part-timenanny and nursery: £47,008Without a nanny: £21,248

Ages 5-11 With a part-time nanny and private day school: £121,560Without childcare: £75,162

Ages 11-18 Including private day school: £98,224

Ages 18-21 Including University fees and living expenses: £25,125

£47,008Without a

£21,248

With a part-time Ages 18-21

expenses:

Ages 11-18

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THE SCHOOL YEARSA fi rst-class education is one of the most valuable gifts a parent or grandparent can give to children. It’s also one of the biggest fi nancial commitments a family makes.

According to the Private School Directory, which lists over 2,500 preparatory and senior schools in the UK, junior fees can be from anywhere up to £2,500 a year (day) to up to £4,000 (boarding). And senior fees can reach from anywhere up to £3,500 a year (day) to as much as £5,600 (boarding).

The good news is that infl ation over the years of education plays a major part in creating the daunting fi gures needed to fund preparatory and senior school. So the projected cost in today's money may be substantially lower. In other words, investment growth may match or exceed infl ation over the period your children are in school and help you meet these costs.

GETTING TO UNI: TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY?Heading off to university is another exciting and formative time. Your children are setting out on their journey into adulthood, perhaps living away from home for the fi rst time.

LV=’s research shows that the cost of raising a child peaks during the university years, when parents could face paying out a whopping £13,677 a year. That includes a fi rst car, fees and living costs for a three-year undergraduate degree.

Many parents are weighing up the cost of accommodation with actually buying a house and acting as a landlord to their child and other students. The decision may depend largely on the capital you have available for a mortgage and fees, and the level of commitment you’re willing to make.

After all, students don’t have a great reputation for home maintenance. Although renting a room or a fl at for your child gives you no return on your investment, it does mean you don’t have the responsibility for maintenance and midnight phonecalls when anything goes wrong.

However, if you opt to buy you will have a saleable asset after the three years hard study is up. You can choose to continue to let and receive a rental income on it, or sell up if house prices have risen. It’s a sizeable risk though, as you could fi nd yourself in a position of negative equity where you owe more than your house is worth and fewer options open to you.





MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR ADVISERIt can all appear rather daunting from the outset, and that’s where the guidance of an independent fi nancial adviser (IFA) can be really useful. They’ll take you through a process to help calculate how much you’re going to need in the future, when and how, and look at ways in which you can meet your savings goals on a monthly or yearly basis.

You’ll be encouraged to look with fresh eyes at your situation – thinking broadly about any potential changes. This could include things like an inheritance, whether your extended family can contribute, whether you’re expecting a promotion at work, an increase or decrease in earnings, and how your working status may change, for example mothers returning to work.

One of the most important and revealing stages of the advice session is risk profi ling. This assesses your risk tolerance and facilitates a discussion about your investment expectations.

Nicola Mould, Managing Director of Lansdown Place, explains: “At Lansdown Place, we use a system of profi ling that gets to the heart of how people feel about risk. It’s a really insightful tool that enables us to make choices about asset allocation that refl ect people’s true risk tolerance and achieve their investment objectives. It’s all about knowing you and helping to meet your needs.”

It’s a complex, interesting process that provides you with real fi gures and projections that account for infl ation and any escalations. You get a clear plan that accounts for urgent, medium-term and long-term investment, and plenty of information about the products that might suit you.

Not all fi nancial advice fi rms offer products from across the market; some are tied to certain providers. Lansdown Place is not tied to any company and can access the whole of the market in every area we offer advice, from unit trusts

to income protection. So you get access to the best opportunities the market has to offer.

PROTECTING THEIR INTERESTSOne last thought – and it’s not one many of us are keen to dwell on – but life often throws up unexpected circumstances that may affect your family. It’s worth asking about protecting your situation so that if anything happens to you, your family is taken care of and there is some continuity. You should look into income protection, including death, disability and critical illness cover, and be sure to have made a will – giving consideration to trustees and guardians for your children.

By being aware of and planning for the real costs of raising your children, we’re so much better prepared to meet the fi nancial demands it places on us. Implementing a savings strategy now means that time will be on your side. The peace of mind you gain from knowing you can confi dently provide for your children – and for any unforeseen events – outweighs all the cruise trips and fancy meals in the world, no matter how appealing.

The cost of raising a child peaks during

the university years.

To fi nd out more about investing for your children call Lansdown Place on 0845 30 50 222 and quote ‘Lansdown Links Magazine’ to book your session.


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Porsches were not conceived with practicality in mind. Okay, let ’s rephrase that: they weren’t designed for people with practicality in mind. Laith Al-Kaisy examines the thinking behind the Panamera.

They’re not for families, groceries, school runs, or roof-racks. No, Porches are for excitement, indulgence and opulence; the reserve and culture of epicureans which is a fi ne thing when backed by a bank account that enjoys collecting zeros.

Hedonistic in theory, hedonistic in practice, Porsche was with us for a good eight decades until it fi nally considered demography

outside its comfort zone of 30 - 55 year old affl uent males. And as such, last year saw the unveiling of the Panamera the fi rst four-door Porsche, which sounds innately paradoxical. And for hobbyists, in particular, it could seem tantamount to heresy.

Get beyond that, though, and you realise what a shrewd move Porsche have made. The four-doors will benefi t both company and consumers alike, because essentially, the Panamera is a family-friendly saloon, making it more accessible and more attractive to more people. Version one of the Panamera boasted a V8 engine, which was then

ExecutiveLANSDOWN LINKS magazine



Executive Toys

abated to V6 for last month’s double release of the Panamera and Panamera 4, both with a 60-ish-grand price-tag.

The verdict? Well, the original V8 Panamera was released to a mixed reaction, and matters weren’t helped by the faulty-seatbelt recall last October. But, if you believe in absolution and are looking for something

pragmatic yet pleasurable, this may just be your motor. The Panamera maintains all the things that made Porsche great - the aesthetics, the acceleration, the adventure - and marries it with the vehicular idealism of a family wagon.

So, enough room for the picnic, suitcases and shopping, but still in keeping with the well-made, well-styled and well-luxurious ethos that has made Porsche one of the leading brands for girls and boys who love their toys.


...we can offer the fi nancial advice

you need, creating an innovative and

appropriate solution.

We have specialists in all aspects of fi nancial

planning and the products we recommend

are impartially selected from the full range

available in the UK marketplace.

Call Lansdown Place today and discover

how we can help you and your fi nances.

Whatever your horizon...

We act on your behalf and not for any one company. And because we don’t rely solely on commissions to pay for our services, we can offer you the option of paying by fee only. The important thing is that you always receive value for money.

• managing your investments

• lasting illness or life cover

• looking after your heirs

• a full fi nancial planning review

• peace of mind in retirement Financial Advice: Independent & Impartial

Telephone: 0845 30 50 222Email: [email protected] www.lansdownplace.co.uk

Hidden Tropical Retreats

tropicalAs budget air travel, the internet and 24 hour news shrink an already small world adventurous, well-heeled travellers have started to wonder where they can go for some truly undisturbed luxury. Our globe-trotting travel journalist David Nicholson offers some suggestions.

Hidden

retreats

MALDIVES BY YACHT No sooner had we surfaced from a quite staggering dive, huge manta and eagle rays were fl ying in formation above and below us, reef sharks loomed out of the big blue and the best coral in North Male Atol hid

in the depths - and then the weather hit.First it was a black cloud the size of Egypt

that came tearing towards us from the west, shedding wide curtains of rain, and the wind that whipped off the choppy waves and rocked our boat sideways, sent loose crockery for six.

The sails went up, all four billowing, and then taut as we caught the right angle, and soon we were rattling along at almost 10 knots, heading for the island of Reethi Rah aboard one of just two sailing yachts in the Maldives that function as year-round liveaboards. Getting to and from dive sites can now be almost as much fun as the diving itself.

This vessel was Sultan of Fervour (the other is Sultan of Blues), just delivered brand new from Italy and taking divers on a mystery tour of amazing sites, determined partly by the weather and wind direction. We sailed up to Baa Atol for a couple of days, looking in on the chic resort of Soneva Fushi, recently host to George Michael and Jennifer Lopez among others, and spent an evening on a deserted island where we were served dinner lit by fl ares on the beach and stars above our heads.

Sailing between dives offers one other positive bonus: the absence of noise and the lack of motorisation. Diving is at best a magnifi cent opportunity to get close to nature, so if your means of transport can harness natural forces and cut down on fuel, so much the better.

The diving, as visitors to the Maldives will know, is divine. Such a profusion of sea life that you can become quite dizzy when it all swarms around you at once. At Madivaru Beru, we saw two large hawksbill turtles taking off from the cliff edge like slow motion seabirds, besides moray eels nosing in their sinister fashion out of their caves, plus a mass of glassfi sh and shoals of clown triggerfi sh in bright colours.

Both the diving and sailing operations are run by Sultans of the Seas, a Maldivian company owned by Moho Adil, who also owns the upmarket island of Reethi Rah, one of the One&Only resorts. For the past fi ve years the group has run liveaboards all around the Maldives, from the popular diving grounds of North Male down to the little explored sites of Huvadhoo Atol, with its exceptional coral and complete lack of tourist resorts.

In just fi ve days diving on Huvadhoo, we saw upwards of a dozen green turtles, seven or eight eagle rays, a couple of giant moray eels, dolphins, massive tuna, grand old Napoleon wrasses, stingrays, scorpion fi sh, thousands of tiny multicoloured fi sh and - of course - many varieties of shark.

Contact: www.sultansoftheseas.com

Email: [email protected]


AFRICA’S CARIBBEAN ISLANDS As you reach the top of the ridge, you’re suddenly aware of the thousand-foot drop on the other side. A couple of mountain goats scuttle along a tiny ledge

on a cliff across the valley and you’re bombarded by ladybirds and giant aphids.

Looking down, you can see the coastline, fringed with white from the incessant surf, in a 360 degree view. You’re on an island just 25 miles long by 15 miles wide and yet you’re already at 1,300 metres, looking out over the deep blue Atlantic.

This is the island of Santiago, the largest of the Cape Verde islands, lying off the coast of Senegal in West Africa, and rapidly becoming a favoured tourist and property investment location. The reasons are simple: the islands are tropical, with year-round great weather, gorgeous scenery and fi ne sandy beaches.

One or two businesses are run by Portuguese companies and many of the islanders’ names are Portuguese, but ethnically, the great majority (at least on Santiago) are West African. The islands were a hub for the slave trade, with thousands of people collected from the mainland and brought here ready for transit to the Caribbean and Europe.

“The people who live here now are descended from these slaves – but they were the strongest and fi ttest ones – they escaped from the Portuguese and ran up into the mountains,” says Jaime da Silva, my mountain guide, as we head upwards to the highest point on the island, Pico St Antonio. The result is a race of athletic, good-looking people who are cheerful and welcoming to visitors, much like Caribbean islands such as St Lucia. The second guide, Julia, is a friendly Rasta who has not cut his hair for 17 years and speaks the local Creole dialect.

A wet year in the Cape Verde islands means something like four days of rain. But just this amount is enough to swathe the hillsides in verdant bushes and trees, giving the islands their name. On the hillsides all around Pico St Antonio there are

towering thyme bushes, giving off a delightful aroma as you brush past them.

On Santiago, the action centres on the main town of Praia, home to the international airport and the main government offi ces. For an entertaining daytime stroll, check out the central market in the Plato district of Praia, where you will see hundreds of women carrying baskets of apples or slabs of tuna on their heads.

There are small, cosy bars serving rum and scotch, as well as fi sh restaurants and cafés set around large, tree-lined squares. Then a little way up the coast is the more upmarket district housing the four-star Oasis Praiamar hotel and the smart Gambao restaurant nearby.

Seafood makes up the best and most plentiful cuisine on the islands, with tuna (seared, baked or Carpaccio) or lobster a speciality. But you can equally enjoy beef, pork or lamb, washed down with Portuguese vinho verde. Rice with a mixed seafood stew is a staple dish.

The islands’ mix of Latin America and Africa is vibrant, fresh and intoxicating. Once you’ve visited, you’ll want to come back for more.

Contact: Jaime da Silva, Mountain Guide Tel: +238 991 7469 Email: [email protected] property investment, visit: www.sambaladevelopments.com

A wet year in the Cape Verde islands means four days of rain!




WILDLIFE IN UGANDA“Uggggh!” says the guide. “Ugggh, ugggh!”

This is his call to the mighty mountain gorillas, hidden in the rainforest around us. He knows their language and before long a giant silverback male appears

in a clearing, staring at us under his thick eyebrow ridge with implacable black eyes.

Here in the Bwindi Impenetrable forest in Uganda there is a strict code that we now have to follow. No eating, drinking or smoking – gorillas are acutely susceptible to human infection so we mustn’t leave any trace of our visit and even a loo break needs to be buried half a metre underground. We’re instructed to stay still, talk only in soft voices and keep at least fi ve metres away from the animals. There are an estimated 350 mountain gorillas in this

park, more than half the entire world population. In rare cases, gorillas will charge humans.

So be sure to have a few dollars ready to hand over. But seriously, the code for dealing with charging gorillas is to stay absolutely still and avoid their gaze. Certainly don’t make any loud noises or try to run away – they’re quicker than you and taking them on in a fi ght wouldn’t be any fun either. Besides we have two guards with AK47 assault guns if things got really serious.

The guns are mainly in case of human attacks rather than animal ones. In 1999 a group of trekkers and their guides were killed by Rwandan rebels in this park, leading to the current security precautions. Hundreds, if not thousands, of tourists make this safari every year, so there’s little genuine reason to fear being attacked. But the knowledge that it just could happen is one of the attractions for some.

Certainly there are regions of Uganda that are effectively off limits to tourists. Lonely Planet lists the northeast Karamoja region and neighbouring Katakwi district as places where ethnic confl ict and

We’re instructed to stay still, talk only in soft voices and keep at least five metres away from the animals.





banditry are still a problem. The mountainous region of Nebbi in the west of the country is also seen as dangerous, while sporadic armed confl ict has been going on along the borders with Congo and Rwanda. In the north, visitors should avoid Gulu, the Murchison Falls National Park, Kitgum, Pader, Adjumani, Apac and Lira, while the Kidepo National Park has recently been closed to visitors.

Camping at high altitude is also a testing experience: temperatures at night can fall to just over zero and you may have to squeeze back into sodden clothes and boots from your boggy trek the day before. It can be a tough challenge, mentally as well as physically. But then, if you’re happy to overcome the challenge of visiting Uganda in the fi rst place, despite the horror stories of violence, unrest and savage beasts in the jungle, then you’re probably tough enough to put up with a long walk.

Contact: Aardvark Safaris organise trips to Bwindi, Kibali and Queen Elizabeth National Parks: www.aardvarksafaris.com Tel: 01980 849160.

Rainbow Tours also offer a variety of Ugandan safaris: www.rainbowtours.co.uk

General tourist information can be found at www.visituganda.com

KE Adventure organises treks up in the Rwenzori mountain range: www.keadventure.com



UNDERNEATH THE CATARACTFlowing at a rate of 1,700 cubic metres per second, the Iguassu Falls on the Brazil/Argentina border is one of the seven natural wonders of the world. More than twice as wide as the Niagara

Falls and with more water crashing over its extraordinary semicircular edge than the Victoria Falls in Africa, Iguassu is an unbelievable spectacle. It also provided a stunning backdrop to the movie The Mission, with Robert de Niro and Jeremy Irons, besides several other fi lms and TV shows.

Best seen from the Brazilian side, the falls offer a terrifi c feast of water and jungle-based adventure. Hire a guide, fi x an itinerary and head into the canyon ready for adrenalin-fuelled action.

We started with a bike safari into the rainforest, dipping and diving through twisting trails, listening out for the many exotic species of bird – parrots, hummingbirds and toucans among others – along with the butterfl ies and orchids that add fl ashes of colour to the route.

Next was a canoe trip along the Iguassu river, going with the fl ow (so not too strenuous), but

this period of calm was deceptive. After lunch in a local bar we headed for ‘Devil’s Throat’ – a u-shaped cliff right on the border between the two countries. After a mile-long hike through the jungle, we’re roped up, told to say our prayers and thrown off a 55 metre (150 foot) cliff with streams of water cascading all around us.

Once we’d abseiled to the foot of the cliff, it was straight into a raft, in which we bounced and plunged down white water rapids, as we clung to our vessel.

By the evening, we had little energy left for anything other than the traditional Brazilian barbecue of churrascaria.

Contact: www.responsibletravel.com for details of Iguassu tours

PARADISE GOLFING IN MAURITIUSLook behind you and there is one of the most exceptional sights in the world – a range of wooded mountains rising steeply from the white sandy shoreline. Look ahead and you’re facing

the fi rst hole of an 18-hole championship golf course, arranged along a breathtaking peninsula on the south coast of Mauritius, far from the package holiday throngs.

For once, a resort called ‘Paradis’ lives up to its name. Several of the fairways and greens swoop around bays or lakes, so you have to play over water. Whether beginner or professional, you can’t fail to be amazed by the extraordinary beauty of this stretch of coastline, set a few hundred miles from the South African mainland but a world away in terms of peace, tranquillity and top of the range services.

The atmosphere, culture and climate have more in common with fellow Indian Ocean state Goa, or the Seychelles. Nothing is hurried, the food is superb, the water warm and forgiving. Even your golf is

likely to improve, as your sense of wellbeing rises with every step around these exceptional courses.

Nearby, along the south western coast, is Le Telfair, created from what was once a sugar plantation and now houses another championship 18-hole course along with a scuba diving operation, deer sanctuary and original colonial mansion where haute cuisine chefs create culinary masterpieces for guests.

Hotel staff offer sunset cruises with champagne cocktails, exquisite French cooking and a friendly golf pro to spark up your game.

Contact: www.paradis-hotel.comand www.letelfair.com


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optimising and protecting your property investmentBERKELEY PLACE

Bristol • England

Gloucester Row

Top Townhouses

It ’s been a slow process, but people are finally catching on. Not just in Bristol, elsewhere too, townhouses have been luring the rich, the famous and the au courant away from country-home and penthouse living, welcoming them to the terraced streets of understated luxury.

Townhouses are having their renaissance – a restoration of Georgian grandeur coupled with the idealism of twenty-first century living. The price is right and the market’s ready. Are you?

Townhouses

Lansdown Place East

Sutton House

TopTopTownhousesTopTownhousesTownhousesTopTownhousesTopIt ’s been a slow process, but people are finally catching

TopIt ’s been a slow process, but people are finally catching on. Not just in Bristol, elsewhere too, townhouses have

Topon. Not just in Bristol, elsewhere too, townhouses have

Top

37

For more information on this property please email: [email protected] or call 0117 906060

This fi ve-story property epitomises contemporary living, situated in the soul of Bristol - Clifton - which boasts everything from the city’s fi nest restaurants, cafés and bars, museums and galleries, a shopping mall, and a community who undoubtedly prefer the fi ner things in life.

The recent refurb’ is outstanding, keeping in taste with the house’s vastness and historicism. The kitchen / breakfast room is just what any discerning dweller wants it to be: light, airy and spacious, leading to secluded outdoor decking, perfect for entertaining or general lazing. The dining room is modern fl air, vaunting much canvass for personalisation, and idyllic views of Christchurch Green.

As drawing rooms go, this one’s both sweeping and stylish. Again, the potential for individualisation here is limitless. The bedrooms are, unsurprisingly, pretty capacious, from the wooden grandeur of the master suite to the generous comfort of three top-fl oorers.

But what really sets this townhouse apart is its attention to detail: the his-and-her sinks in the master en suite; the ornate fi nish to the doors; the Georgian iron of the balcony. It just goes to show that a bit of imagination and intuition can get you a lot more for your dollar.

Price: £1.65m

11 Gloucester Row




Bath is one of those cities drenched in history and distinction, and its architecture is a great refl ection of this. Located in Lansdown Place, this traditional Georgian townhouse is complete with a lofty aesthetics, classy décor, and an adjacent town garden (which frankly is a deal-clincher in itself).

The fi ve-bedroom behemoth spans fi ve fl oors of authentically peachy exterior. The rooms, however, follow a well-restored, white-wall-and-wood-fl oor simplicity, allowing light and space to do the talking. High ceilings and proportionality are key features here, but there’s no trick of-the-eye or smoke-and-mirrors involved, just pure, unadulterated nothingness: space to do what the heck you want with.

And that garden. Mercy me, that garden. With the sun in your eyes, it could be Southern France. It’s always the unexpected surprises which make us fall in love, and in the case of this gorgeous property, it’s that garden. (Oh, okay: and those ceilings.)

Hop over the garden wall, however, and you’re a stone-throw from the golf and tennis club, the racecourse, and yes, all that vast historicism and recreation that Bath has to offer.

Price: £2m

2 Lansdown Place





Another Clifton-based property here: another example of innovative restoration and indulgent living. Dissimilar in all but price to our previous townhouses, the ground fl oor here is very much an open-plan affair, which depending on your requirements, may prove rather appealing. That feeling of Georgian grandness coupled with subtle modernity makes for a

home both cosy and aesthetically appealing. Encompassing seven bedrooms, with three en suites, over four fl oors, this property truly makes the most of space without compromising ergonomics, luxury or charm.

The light atmosphere of this place lends well to its openness; each room magically appearing larger than it should be. There is a kitchen, breakfast area, dining room, retirement room and sitting room all situated on the ground fl oor alone. The ascending fl oors are dominated by boudoirs, and a study.

Gardens lead around the building, with ample space for parking, playing, lazing and barbequing. And the views, well, they’re halcyon to say the least: both from the inside and out, they overlook 400 acres of parkland. The Downs are one of Bristol‘s great natural attractions; tranquil and picturesque. Plus, this location boasts all the benefi ts of Clifton’s higher-brow amenities and entertainment. A rare fi nd, indeed.

Price: £3.25m

Sutton House, Clifton Downs

Top Townhouses



Dining Out

SeafoodFew areas in the UK can boast a coastline as breathtaking or marine life as diverse as that of the South West. From Padstow lobster and Bigbury Bay oysters to Brixham red mullet and Lyme Bay scallops, the appetising potential is overwhelming. The region is also rich in the quality of its seafood cuisine. In the pages that follow, Neil Crossley looks at three restaurants that are as inspiring as they are exemplary.

and eat it

The Seafood RestaurantRiverside, Padstow, Cornwall PL28 8BYTel: 01841 532700www.rickstein.comEmail: [email protected]

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It was 1975 when Rick and Jill Stein opened a small seafood bistro on the harbourside in Padstow. Thirty-fi ve years on and the business has grown into fi ve restaurants, with 40 bedrooms, three shops, a cookery school and a pub. Little wonder that locals have dubbed the town ‘Padstein’.

As anyone with even the most cursory knowledge of Rick Stein knows, he is an effusive champion of seafood cuisine. Such passion pervades the ethos of The Seafood Restaurant, the Steins’ very fi rst venture, situated now, as then, just across from the quay where the lobster boats and trawlers tie up, close enough to ensure that much of the fi sh comes straight off the boats and in through the kitchen doors.

Ambience-wise, the recently redesigned restaurant feels light and elegant. The staff are brisk and generally attentive, although you’d be hard pushed to describe them as ‘friendly’. When it comes to the food however The Seafood Restaurant is quite faultless.

The diversity of the menu has grown signifi cantly over the years and now has a strong Asian tinge. Fresh oysters, lobsters, langoustines, mussels, turbot and Dover sole appear on the menu alongside spicy seafood dishes such as Singapore chilli crab, stir-fried with garlic, ginger, chilli and coriander, and Indonesian seafood curry with monkfi sh, cuttlefi sh and prawns. Classic French

dishes such as lobster thermidor and bourride are also in evidence, as are Stein’s own creations, including casserole of brill with cep mushrooms.

The Seafood Restaurant has received some fl ak for its high prices. But with dishes as succulent and downright inspiring to the palette as this, such criticism seems almost churlish.

43Financial Advice: Independent & Impartial

Photographs: Chris Terry and Toby Roxburgh ∆

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Restaurant Nathan OutlawSt. Enodoc Hotel, Rock, Cornwall PL27 6LATel: 01208 863394www.nathan-outlaw.co.ukEmail: [email protected]

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Nathan Outlaw honed his reputation as chef at the Marina Hotel in Fowey, achieving a one rising to two-star Michelin status and notching up a number 10 place in the Good Food Guide. In March 2010, he parted company with the Marina Hotel to open his own restaurant at the St. Enedoc Hotel, an exquisitely positioned location on Cornwall’s rugged north coast.

Outlaw’s aim is simple - to create one of the best modern seafood restaurants in the country while promoting Cornwall as a top food-lovers’ destination outside London. And the signs are that he’s doing just that.

All seafood is sourced locally and Outlaw stresses the importance of his relationship with his supplier. “I don’t ever ask him to source something,” says Outlaw. “He tells me what he’s got. I’m fortunate to be able to trust him to only give me the best of what’s coming on the market.”

The quality of the local produce is what drives his cooking. He creates uncomplicated dishes, using modern techniques that allow the fl avours of the produce to shine through for themselves. Such intentions are impeccably realised in his

wreckfi sh with curried crab, leek and potato, a wonderfully judged dish, while the brill with oysters also highlights the outstanding local produce and the subtlety and elegance of Outlaw’s cooking.

His refreshing lack of pretension is echoed by the underplayed decor, which exudes a calming ambience. These are early days for Restaurant Nathan Outlaw. But with skill this developed, it’s hard to envisage him progressing anywhere but up.


44 JUNE 2010


The Rockfish Grill and Seafood Market128 Whiteladies Road, Bristol BS8 2RSTel: 0117 973 7384www.rockfishgrill.co.uk

Photographs: Chris Terry and Toby Roxburgh ∆

Cool restraint and a commitment to seriously fresh fi sh are defi ning characteristics of the Rockfi sh Grill and Seafood Market in Clifton, Bristol. Founded by fi shmonger, self-taught chef and TV personality Mitch Tonks in summer 2009, this restaurant stands on the site once occupied by a branch of Fishworks, the chain founded by Tonks 15 years ago. Tonks has since parted company with Fishworks, establishing The Seahorse Restaurant in Dartmouth and latterly its sibling establishment the Rockfi sh, nestled within a row of shops in the Clifton area of Bristol.

The dining room is bright and inviting, with a view of the kitchen, while seafood-themed pictures and bookshelves fi lled with wine line the walls. Fittingly, the restaurant and the small seafood stall at the rear of the building are committed to serving the freshest of fi sh, much of which is sourced from Brixham and delivered to the restaurant within 12 hours of being landed.

The theme here is simplicity, with the minimal culinary fuss ensuring that the fresh seafood fl avours

are allowed to come through. Dishes include whole roast John Dory, Dartmouth crab, dressed to order, a plate of mixed seafood, roast ray wing with anchovy and capers, and bream cooked in paper with roasted garlic and thyme. The food is succulent, sparklingly fresh and cooked to perfection. The daily-changing menu is complemented by carefully selected wines, included Tonnix, a Portuguese white blended by Tonks and friend Mark Hix.

In an era awash with ever-convoluted cuisine, the ethos of simplicity and care on display at the Rockfi sh Grill is uplifting. It’s an approach that is justifi ably paying dividends.

Dining Out


Good Food. Good Wine. Goodfellows.5 Sadler Street, Wells, Somerset BA5 2RRTelephone: 01749 673866

www.goodfellowswells.co.uk

Recommended Michelin Guide 2010

38 New Bridge Street, Exeter EX4 3AH

Tel: 01392 499038

www.angelasrestaurant.co.uk

ANGELA'S

Above: Seared Brixham Scallops on a sweet potato puree with balsamic dressing

Restaurant




Seek outWe’ve all had that feeling – you’re comfortably seated and contemplating the delights promised on the menu when suddenly a wine list the length of a government dossier appears in front of you and you wish you’d opted for pizza on the couch.

How do you even begin to choose one or two wines from a list which could conceivably take you a week to read? The temptation is to pick the one next to the house wine and save everyone a lot of bother.

This is always a mistake. Most restaurants put a lot of time and effort into selecting their

house wines, but the next cheapest is invariably an afterthought. You’re far better off just closing the list and asking for the house wine; at worst it will be drinkable, at best surprisingly tasty.

When you do delve into the list, search by region (most lists are laid out this way). Avoid Bordeaux and Burgundy unless you don’t mind paying the highest mark-ups on the list. Most sommeliers will admit (under duress) to marking up top Claret and Burgundy by 80% or more, compared with 55%- 65% on most other wines, so a £20 Claret will cost you £100, whereas a £20 Rhone will cost you £60 or less.

Great value wines can be found in the Rhone, Alsace and Loire. A good Cotes-du-Rhone Villages should be a better match with most meat dishes than anything from Bordeaux and an Alsace Riesling is always a sure bet with fi sh. In the Loire, avoid Sancerre and go for Menetou Salon, Quincy or Reuilly – these neighbouring villages use the same grape variety and offer far better value. Also, asking a sommelier about these regions will make you look like you know a thing or two about wine.

However, you should never hesitate to call the sommelier over and ask for a recommendation – he or she will know the list better than anyone else and is usually delighted to be asked. And don’t worry about setting a price limit – there’s a good chance

that you’ll fi nd yourself with a delicious bottle that you’d never have picked in a million years.

So, if you see a wine on a restaurant list that you know you like, at a good price, then buy it and remember, in a restaurant you are not just paying for the wine, you’re paying for the ambience, for not having to drink it with the food you’d cook at home and for someone to wash the dishes. But if you want to treat your taste buds, ask the sommelier, but remember that you’re in charge.

Most sommeliers will admit to marking up top Burgundy by 80%admit to marking up top Burgundy by 80%admit to marking up

Here, wine expert, Aaron Rice, gives us his views on how to decide on the finest wines when eating out.

Wine

the Sommelier


JUNE 2010 49Financial Advice: Independent & Impartial JUNE 2010 49

The Lansdown Links Calendar 2010

2010JUNE4-13 London International Fine Art Fair Olympia Exhibition Centre, London

8-19 Hampton Court Festival Hampton Court Palace, Surrey

9-16 Art Antiques London Kensington Gardens, London

15-19 Royal Ascot Berkshire

19 JP Morgan Round the Island Race Isle of Wight

21–4 July Wimbledon Tennis Championship Wimbledon, London

22 Nocturne: The Romantic Life Of Frederic Chopin St George’s Bristol

23-27 Glastonbury Festival Glastonbury, Somerset

30–4 July Henley Royal Regatta Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire

JULY1 Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons St George’s Bristol

3-4 The Festival of Speed Goodwood, West Sussex

6-11 Hampton Court Flower Show Hampton Court Palace, Surrey

7 Celebrity Charity Cricket Clifton College, Clifton, Bristol

9-11 British Grand Prix Silverstone, Northamptonshire

27-31 Glorious Goodwood Goodwood, West Sussex

31-5 Aug Tuscan Sun Festival Cortona, Italy

31 –7 Aug Cowes Week Isle of Wight

AUGUST14-22 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition Piccadilly, London

6-30 Edinburgh Fringe Festival Edinburgh

13-14 Aviva London Grand Prix Crystal Palace Sports Centre, London

SEPTEMBER1-11 Venice Film Festival Venice, Italy

11 Last Night of the Proms Royal Albert Hall, London

17-21 London Fashion Week London

22-29 Milan Fashion Week Milan, Italy

OCTOBER1-3 Ryder Cup Celtic Manor, South Wales

2-3 Prix de l‘Arc de Triomphe Paris, France

7-10 The Palace Art Fair Fulham Palace, London

14-17 Frieze Art Fair Regent’s Park, London

NOVEMBER7 London to Brighton Veteran Car Run

25-27 Winter Festival Newbury, West Berkshire

DECEMBER20-28 Feb Cresta Run St. Moritz, Switzerland

The Lansdown Links

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TheGallery

Artist: Chris BusheTitle: Fading Sun, Saligo Bay Medium: Oil on canvas Gallery: Beaux Arts BathPrice: £3,750

Artist: Gwyn RobertsTitle: Near St DavidsMedium: Oil on canvasGallery: Fosse Gallery Price: £1,150

Artist: Gill Rocca Title: Boundary Medium: Oil on canvasGallery: Bo Lee GalleryPrice: £2,500

‹ from left to right ›

lansdown links magazine

50 june 2010 www.lansdownplace.co.uk

The Gallery

Artist: Mia BrownellTitle: Still Life with Pear and Grape II Medium: Oil on canvas Gallery: Bo Lee GalleryPrice: £2,800

Artist: Judith I BridglandTitle: Clouds over the CuillinsMedium: Oil on canvasGallery: Lime Tree Gallery Price: £3,750

Artist: Michael Scott Title: The Letter Medium: Oil on canvasGallery: Fosse GalleryPrice: £4,200

‹ from left to right ›


AppsA new era in

Your app should have multiple entry and multiple measurable exit points, marketing and delivery, with a commercial recovery, i.e., a profi t and sound information on your customer base. It should also look sexy.

When adopting an app go for measurable content with manageable return of investment, just while you get your feet wet, and you should also avoid static content, target user engagement and measure quicker and manage faster.

Avoid thinking an ‘app’ is simply

a game like tennis or Space Invaders for example, but instead, embrace the enterprise app, engage with your customer base, see where they shop, how they shop and what they buy. Use the Push Notifi cation System, isolate user groups, think age range, location and budget - adopt the technology, feed the customer and be, simply put, helpful.

Is mobile commercial engagement intrusive? No, customers fi nd your information useful, after all, that’s why they have downloaded your app,

as well as your branding and your products, so keep doing it, but better and more frequently.

Expensive? No, we level risk vs. reward on the design and functionality, marketing, sales, public relations and business management all rolled into one.

An app offers a 24-hour mobile conversation, which means that knowing how many potential customers are in your London store or delegates at a seminar is powerful. With GPS on the iPhone you can not only do that but also message key staff, customers or sales people

and report on it. Now that’s good business. Mobile key messages and reporting are

all in real time. On the internet this would take minutes, if not hours, to produce the

content and select user groups - after which you then have to send and be at your desk to do all this. What a headache.

On the app all this would take seconds, if that. The process is called autonomics, which means that just like your lungs and heart, the app operates without thinking.

You can engage with thousands of people instantaneously in any area, but

where it gets really sexy is that through the correct response and monitoring you determine a wealth

of information, undiscovered business drivers, key threats to your portfolio - the list is endless.

Putting your services, products or message on an app allows you to manage the full sales cycle, intelligent information gathering and reporting. It’s a 3-way-street between your customers, your products and you.

Always think conversation not broadcast.

We hear a lot about iPhone apps, but what are they and why are they big news? Faizcy Hope-Lumley, one of europe’s leading technology strategists, gives us the basics.

Faizcy Hope-Lumley

e-mailto: [email protected]: 0800 027 7852 mob: 07528 471941

145-157 St. John Street, London EC1V 4PY


52 june 2010

Apps

www.lansdownplace.co.uk

The exclusive magazine for Advertising Feature

There is much more to his story than meets the eye and although the author’s books are high on the entertainment factor, albeit rather long-winded in certain narrative areas in The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, you can’t help but be pleased that this writer has fi nally got what he deserves, even if he isn’t here to enjoy it all.

When you look at his life you wonder how he would have coped with the attention. Larsson maintained a low profi le and wrote his manuscripts in the evenings, after long days in the offi ce. The editor of anti-racist magazine, Expo, he devoted most of his time to fi ghting the

Stieg Larsson’s trilogy of fast-paced crime thrillers, starting with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and finishing with the last in the series The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, are worldwide best sellers and the hype surrounding them has been phenomenal.

Leigh Ferrani questions whether Larsson’s untimely death, at the age of just 50 from a heart attack, might have had just a little something to do with stepping up the furore though.

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The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest – paperback £7.99. Quercus.

Translated from Swedish by Reg Keeland.

extreme right in Sweden and one of the cases he reported on was the 1999 murder of the trade unionist Björn Söderberg by neo-Nazis. Suspecting that he would be a target for reprisals, Larsson was careful to watch his back, but still, several threats were made on his life.

He wasn’t one to give in though. His hatred of any kind of discrimination or violence against women was what drove him on and was where he found his inspiration for the heroine of the series, the punky computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander, who wreaks revenge on men who

cross her. Mikael Blomkvist, who works for a publication similar to Expo, was no doubt based on Larsson himself and the duo make a quirky and offbeat fi ctional team, not seen often enough in mainstream thriller writing, which can lean heavily on generic plotting and re-hashed characterisation. Larsson’s ideas and people tend to teeter along the more alternative side of life.

The creation of the sociopathic and off-kilter Lisbeth is the most impressive achievement in Larsson’s series and why his books demand attention, along with his

own personal posthumous story of triumph over tragedy. It’s what the publicity machine thrives off of, cynical though it is to say it.

Shortly before his death Larsson told a friend that he was halfway through writing his fourth book and although it has been suggested that his life-long partner, Eva Gabrielsson, was so close to him and his work that she could easily complete it, it is down to Swedish law to decide if it will hit the shelves or not. Hopefully, in the not too distant future, we will be seeing Salander and Blomkvist make a dramatic return.

Some might say Larsson’s unwavering beliefs caused his personal downfall and others may observe that

death has an uncanny way of making legends out of such people. Since Larsson passed away in 2004 – just months after signing his three-book deal - the work he left behind and his own compelling life story have turned him into a literary fi gure of heroic status. No doubt this modest man would have been secretly rather proud of himself. And quite rightly so.

His hatred of any kind of discrimination or violence against women was what drove him on. discrimination or violence against women was what drove him on. discrimination or violence against

his books demand attention, along with his





BeauLiam Gallagher was chauffeured by Patsy Kensit in his, designer Paul Smith used an image of his on a range of products, while Richard Branson made sure the whole board of Virgin drove them.

It’s exactly 100 years since the Bristol Aircraft

Company was established in Filton to serve Britain’s fl edgling aviation market. After building thousands of aircraft during the First and Second World Wars there was, unsurprisingly, surplus engineering and production capacity when fi ghting ended in 1945. Not being a brand to sit on its laurels, the BAC branched out into motor vehicle manufacture and in the 65 years that have followed, Bristol Cars have become synonymous with the best British values of engineering integrity and cool understatement.

Four different cars are manufactured today – the Fighter, Blenheim, Blenheim Speedster and the Series 6- and sold alongside the best used and classic examples from the renowned Bristol showroom on London’s Kensington High Street.

Now owned by life-long Bristol enthusiast Toby Silverton, the company puts the same focus on engineering and build quality as its aviation forefather, with labour hours totting up to three or four times that of other car makers. The result is legendary long-term reliability;

cars trimmed by hand in the fi nest leather, low road noise and a smooth, powerful ride.

For luxury cars they are all sensibly narrow, with the 210mph Fighter being a full 10 inches slimmer than a Ferrari 599 – a factor that makes a huge difference when hustling along a country road or battling through congestion.

“It’s all very well having a massaging seat but I’d much rather have a car that you can drive without having to give a thought to speed bumps, congestion or narrow gaps. We make our cars for everyday use,” says Silverton. “Owning a Bristol is like having the world’s best butler. It will do anything you ask of it but without an ounce of ostentation.”

It isn’t diffi cult to detect the pride that exudes from Silverton as he fi nishes by predicting the future of Bristol Cars. “And that’s why we’ll be here, doing what we do, in another 65 years,” he concludes. Looking at a company ethos that focuses on hard graft, authenticity and quality engineering it is highly likely that the brand will be around for even longer than that.

In every issue we cast the spotlight on Britain’s most iconic brands. Ellie Hargreaves visits the historic car company that has helped put Bristol on the international map.

fighters



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