BBC PROMS

A Prom means a Promenade Concert, or a concert where part of the audience stands in a "promenade" area of the hall. The BBC Proms is an annual music festival running from from 17 July until 12 September inclusive and comprising over seventy-six Prom concerts and nineteen Chamber concerts at nearby Cadogan Hall.

Promming is part of the Proms audience has always stood in the Arena, directly in front of the orchestra, and many consider this the best position in the hall. However, you can also stand high up in the Gallery and just let the sound drift up to you.

Today there are still over 1,000 standing places available at each Prom. The traditionally low prices allow you to enjoy world-class concerts for just £5! Day Promming tickets cannot be booked in advance, so even if all seats have been sold, you always have a good chance of getting in. Early queuing is advisable for the more popular concerts, however.

How can I get tickets for the Last Night of the Proms?
Owing to the huge demand for Last Night tickets, special booking arrangements apply. Please contact the Royal Albert Hall Box Office at boxofficeenquiries@royalalberthall.com or telephone 0845 401 5040 (calls from a BT landline are charged at up to 8p per minute; charges from mobiles and other networks may be higher).

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London restaurant's wins Michelin Stars

Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester, Hibiscus and L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon were the biggest winners in this year’s Michelin Guide Great Britain and Ireland – all three London restaurants were awarded two stars.

The new two-star restaurants are a typically conservative choice by the folk at French-owned Michelin: all three serve high-end French cuisine and are fronted by French chefs; Hibiscus held two stars before it relocated from Ludlow to London in late 2007; while Robuchon and Ducasse's ever-expanding restaurant empires keep them vying for the title of the world's most Michelin-starred chef.

Eight London restaurants were awarded one star. Angela Hartnett’s Murano, Helene Darroze at The Connaught and Jean-Christophe Ansanay-Alex’s Ambassade de L’Ile were the most predictable beneficiaries, all of the chefs having previously held or currently holding stars at other establishments. More unexpected were stars for Chinese restaurant Kai and Italian Ristorante Semplice, both in Mayfair, as well as L’Autre Pied, the younger and more informal sibling of two-star Pied a Terre. Another surprise winner was St John. Serving robust, no-frills British food and regularly hailed as one of London’s best eateries, the Clerkenwell restaurant has been open for almost 15 years, and little has changed in the last 12 months.

No new restaurants were awarded three stars, with Bray’s Waterside Inn and Fat Duck plus London’s Restaurant Gordon Ramsay all retaining Michelin's top accolade.

LONDON MICHELIN STARS 2009

Three Stars
Restaurant Gordon Ramsay

Two Stars
Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester
The Capital
Hibiscus
L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon
Le Gavroche
Marcus Wareing at The Berkeley
Pied a Terre
The Square
One Star
Amaya
Ambassade de L'Ile
Arbutus
Assaggi
Aubergine
Benares
Chapter One
Chez Bruce
Club Gascon
Foliage
Glasshouse
Gordon Ramsay at Claridge’s
The Greenhouse
Hakkasan
Helene Darroze at The Connaught
Kai
L'Autre Pied
La Trompette
The Ledbury
Locanda Locatelli
Maze
Murano
Nahm
Nobu
Nobu Berkeley St
Quilon
Rasoi Vineet Bhatia
Rhodes Twenty Four
Rhodes W1 Restaurant
Richard Corrigan at Lindsay House
Ristorante Semplice
The River Cafe
Roussillon
Sketch: Lecture Room & Library
St John
Tom Aikens
Umu
Wild Honey
Yauatcha
Zafferano

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London with something extra

Try something unusual next time you visit London. This is not something you find in the broschures of the big touring companies. These are tailor made tours into the smallest detail by our excellent London Blue Badge Guide. Return to your home and tell all your friends that you have seen something no one else has!

CANARY WHARF - SCULPTURE & ARCHITECTURE OF THE 21ST CENTURY
This spectacular part of Docklands began as a – risky - vision of an integrated commercial development with significant investment in design and public spaces. Various architectural practices collaborated and some of the world’s leading architects and designers have been involved in its creation. Vast expanses of landscaped open space – including the water filled docks – incorporate striking examples of public art.
There is an award winning Underground station and historical remains nestling between state of the art architecture. The facts, figures, details and background to what was for many years Europe’s largest building site and a huge commercial risk. Much to hear and see and a chance to find out whether it was all worth it?
Duration c 2 hours.

THE SOUTH BANK - WALKING TOUR FROM A CONTEMPORARY POINT OF VIEW
A specialist walking tour about the huge changes that have taken place over the last 150 years – and especially the last 15 years – along the South bank right in the heart of London often involving daring technical solutions.
Starting by the still operational Tower Bridge, the tour will take in Shad Thames’ unique warehouse conversions, Norman Foster’s award winning City Hall, Borough Market with its unique Floral Hall extension, the replica Globe theatre complex, Tate Modern in a former 1950s power station, the Millennium Bridge, the co-operatively owned and managed Oxo Tower Wharf, bohemian Gabriel’s Wharf and much more. End perhaps with drinks, lunch or dinner.

Read as well about the tours of 2012 Olympic Games sites. Construction on the Olympic Park site has started ahead of schedule. Building work is already taking place on the Olympic Stadium, Aquatics Centre and Olympic Village. The building of the Olympic Park is one of the largest construction and engineering projects in Europe.

Read more .... Olympic Games 2012, Sites tours » » »

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Theatre of Dreams - Old Trafford

There's nothing quite like Old Trafford on or a match day but as well quite a unique place with out football. Located just 10-15 minutes from the city i's within easy reach for any central located hotel.
Old Trafford offer everything needed for an all important conference, meeting, dinner etc. with 24 purpose built event suites, 160 luxury executive boxes.

Imaging the incentive for any conference & meeting to include during the coffee break a guided tour of the Manchester United Museum. Follow the history of the club from the foundation in 1878 right through moderns times through tragedies and trophies.

And finish the day with the famous Stadium Tours, the tours that takes you behind the scene of the Theatre of Dreams. The Stadium Tours takes you to places that are only accessible to players and officials on match days.

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London West End Shows

Over nine million people went to see musicals last year. However, it was the old favourits that triumphed. Nearly every new production folded!

This year already looks more promising with the blockbuster revival of Oliver! up and running after taking an unprecedented £15 million in advance bookings and the imminent arrival of two shows based on hit films - Pricilla, Queen of the Desert and Sister Act.

Longest running shows and still running .......

The Mousetrap - 56 years
Les Miserables - 23 years
Phantom of the Opera - 22 years
Blood Brothers - 20 years
The Woman in Black - 19 years
Chicago - 11 years
Mama Mia - 9 years
Lion King - 9 years
We will rock you - 6 years
Stomp - 6 years

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Titanic in Belfast!

The Titanic was built at Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast A permanent exhibition devoted to the Titanic could be one of the top tourist attractions in Ireland, according to organisers.

Thousands of people from across the world are already flocking to a Titanic festival in Belfast. Those behind the event at City Hall believe its success can be built on. The Festival manager said: "We have already shown with this festival that the Titanic story has a future. This is our sixth annual Titanic Made in Belfast festival and each year we get 20-30,000 people who come to this festival".

History
The story of Titanic is inextricably linked with the growth of Belfast as a city and an industrial capital. Harland & Wolff Shipyard in Belfast, which built nearly every ship that the White Star Line owned, was the biggest shipyard in the world at the turn of the 20th century.

The RMS Titanic was an Olympic-class passenger liner owned by the White Star Line. On the night of 14 April 1912, during her maiden voyage, Titanic hit an iceberg, and sank two hours and forty minutes later, early on 15 April 1912. At the time she was the largest passenger steamship in the world.

The sinking resulted in the deaths of over 1,500 people, making it one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history. The high casualty rate was due in part to the fact that, while compliant with the regulations of the time, the ship did not carry enough lifeboats for everyone aboard. The ship had a total lifeboat capacity of 1,178 persons even though her maximum capacity was 3,547 people. A disproportionate number of men died also, due to the women and children first protocol which was followed.

The Titanic used some of the most advanced technology available at the time and was, after the sinking, popularly believed to have been described as “unsinkable”.

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Ben Hur Live in London!

Ben Hur stage spectacle promises all the excitement of film epic ... in half the time! The stage show will feature a climactic chariot race round a 250m track.

It is an amassing £5 million stage version of Ben Hur, complete with live chariot race, massed gladiatorial combat, sea battle, heaving bazaar, crucifixion and, for good measure, an orgy. Fifteen years in the making, Ben Hur Live will receive its world premiere September 2009 at the O2, the concert venue that has finally made a success of what was a notorious landmark in Greenwich.

With a cast of more than 400 people and 100 animals including horses, camels, donkeys, chickens, falcons eagles and a pair of vultures who have a cameo near the end circling the Valley of the Lepers, it is just spectacular!

The show is based on the 1880 novel Ben Hur - A tale of the Christ. It became a hit on Broadway and in the West End a century ago and then an acclaimed silent film. For most people, however, Ben Hur will always mean Charlton Heston and the 1959 Technicolor epic that still holds, the record for most Oscars awarded to one film – 11. It was almost four hours long and at the time the most expensive film made.

The new show’s German producer, promises to create all the excitement of the film in half the time and with jokes. Audiences attending the evening performances on September 15, 18 and 19, rather than the family matinees, will also see that the book’s rather prim orgy sequence (omitted from the 1959 film) has been fleshed out with considerable nudity and “above the belt erotic scenes. . . which show more explicitly what happens in an orgy”. This decadent sequence will be interrupted by a fight between two groups of gladiators, “perhaps 70 of them versus 70”. The sea battle will feature at least three galleys.

The show includes a hi-tech package of light, sound, water, wind and pyrotechnic effects put together by Chris Corbould, the special effects co-ordinator for the past ten Bond films, and Mark Fisher, who designed The Wall stage show for Pink Floyd, every Rolling Stones show since 1989 and the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic Games.

The show will have the quality of Cirque du Soleil, the deep sensitivity of great opera, the speed of a good musical, the power of a rock concert and the visual opulence of a Hollywood blockbuster,” he said. It will be staged in the round with the climactic chariot race involving five teams of four horses hurtling round a 250m track at 35mph.

Tickets for the 15,000-capacity O2 show will cost £35-£125.

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Pricilla, Queen of the desert

Jason Donovan will join in leading the cast of Priscilla Queen Of The Desert, a new musical which opens at the Palace theatre on 23 March (previews from 10 March).

Based on the 1994 Oscar-winning film The Adventures Of Priscilla Queen Of The Desert, this new stage version premiered in Sydney in 2006 and, following a recent tour to New Zealand, will return to Sydney this autumn due to public demand.
Billed as a ‘heart-warming, uplifting adventure’, the story follows a Sydney-based performing trio comprised of two drag queens and a transsexual, who hop aboard a battered old bus (nicknamed Priscilla) to take their show to the middle of the Australian outback. Searching for love and friendship, the trio end up finding more than they could ever have dreamed.

Almost 500 costumes are used by the production, and the outlandish designs include a headdress containing 25 rubber ducks and another featuring an aquarium complete with fish. The musical’s score is packed with dance floor classics including I Say A Little Prayer, Hot Stuff, Venus, Downtown and I Will Survive.

With a dazzling array of outrageous costumes and featuring a score of dance-floor classics. This wildly fresh and funny new musical is a sensational journey to the heart of fabulous. Priscilla will have you dancing, singing and laughing all night, so don’t miss the bus!

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London named Destination of the Year

London has been named Destination of the Year at the World Travel Awards.

Voted for by travel professionals from 167,000 organisations worldwide, the capital faced down competition from city destinations including New York and Sydney as well as the island destinations of Barbados and the Maldives. In total London beat 12 others to claim the award at a gala ceremony on the Turks and Caicos Islands.

“This Award bolsters London’s position as is the number one city destination in the world and tops an incredible year for the UK capital,” said Visit London chief executive James Bidwell. “2006 was a record year for overseas visitors to London and our global market share of international visitor numbers also increased. From building new world-class venues to attracting international sporting events, our intention is to continue this momentum in the lead up to and beyond the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. We will not rest on our laurels but continue to innovate and seek highly creative solutions in all that we do.”

Mayor of London Ken Livingstone added: “Last year’s record number of overseas visitors to London reflects the capital’s profile on the world stage. Visit London has become one of the most professional marketing organisations in the world, delivering hundreds of millions of pounds in economic benefit to the city and the Destination of the Year Award is testament to this. London drives the UK economy and the promotion of the capital translates directly into jobs and income for Londoners.”

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No More Justice!

Bow Street Court closes doors:

LONDON -- One of London's most famous legal landmarks, the Bow Street Magistrates Court, has closed its doors for the last time. The closure ends 267 years of legal history at a court which played host to characters as diverse as Oscar Wilde, Dr Crippen, Jeffrey Archer and the Kray Twins.
The historic building will now be turned into a luxury hotel. A museum space is said to be part of the plans for the hotel.

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The Thames River Cruise with a difference!

The only way to see the Thames; a “must do” excursion with a unique and exciting capital city tour. More exhilarating, fast and fun than traditional river cruises with friendly crew who have a wealth of experience and knowledge.
The custom built specialised vessels provide fantastic maneuverability and comfort to feel and see the sights and sounds of the river Thames. Family friendly for all ages and abilities in small groups. All major river attractions are covered, but the abilities of the vessels allow each tour to be tailored to your needs, letting you discover the Thames you want to see. Open all year round with sailing and life jackets provided.

All sailings are premium class, with no queues and a maximum of 12 people in each boat. London RIB Voyages provides safe, exhilarating tours on the Thames Our qualified guides are at hand to tell you all there is to know about one of the most famous and interesting waterways in the World.

The tour covers a larger area of the River Thames than conventional tours, so you’ll experience more in an action-packed hour-long trip.
The tour takes you under the bridges of the Thames, close to the water – and this will enable you to experience the “feel” of the Thames – the history of years gone past and the future.
Expert guides provide a wealth of information that will intrigue and entertain you.
Groups are limited to a maximum of 12 passengers, you’ll be able to interact with your guide, to make sure you are experiencing exactly what you want out of your voyage.
The purpose built Rigid Inflatable Boats (RIB) are licensed to carry passengers in complete safety and comfort. The boats are not only great fun, but you will have a comfortable ride into the bargain.

We supply life jackets to children and adults of all ages and sizes with regularly tested life jackets. Adults are fitted with jackets that inflate automatically on contact with the water, that also feature a manual inflation toggle. Children and toddlers are fitted with foam jackets. Due to an element of wind-chill in certain conditions on this type of vessel we supply both children and adults with warm waterproof sailing jackets. These are not necessary but they’re available to any customer who requires one.

The seating is comfortable with seats made out of robust aluminium to provide high level of support with comfortable padded seating. There is ample provision for under seat storage and access.

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British Vision Ltd

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