JADE JAGGER On rocks and rock’n’roll

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news
A topping day for art
Grayson Perry and Stephen Fry joined Royal
Academy of Arts president Christopher Le Brun,
secretary and chief executive Charles Saumarez
Smith and keeper of the Royal Academy
Schools Eileen Cooper to lay a symbolic brick at
the topping-out ceremony for the RA’s Keeper’s
House on Piccadilly.
The Keeper’s House will open in September,
transforming facilities for RA visitors and
supporters. The £6.5 million project has been
designed by David Chipperfield Architects, with
interiors featuring new artworks by Perry and
other Royal Academicians and catering by
restaurateur Oliver Peyton.
Parky in
the garden
SIR MICHAEL PARKINSON has
agreed to open the 2013
Residents’ Society of Mayfair
and St James’s summer garden
party, which takes place on June
24 in Mount Street Gardens.
The event will run from 6pm
until dusk and will feature
champagne, canapés, music and
a variety of entertainment.
Ticket prices are £25 for
association members and £30 for
non-members. If you want to get
involved, either as a sponsor or a
supporter, call organiser Howard
Evans on 07950 776 704 or email
him at howard.evans@
conferencebusiness.co.uk.
Tickets are available at the
Mayfair Library, 25 South Audley
Street, or online at
www.rsmsj.com/summer-gardenparty.
The space includes a new restaurant, bar
and walled garden. The renovation will allow the
RA to offer more to friends, patrons, Royal
Academicians and the general public through
increased social spaces, extended opening
hours and a public programme featuring talks,
debates, workshops and exhibitions.
GRAYSON PERRY RA, EILEEN COOPER RA,
CHRISTOPHER LE BRUN PRA AND STEPHEN FRY
AT THE TOPPING-OUT CEREMONY OF THE
KEEPER’S HOUSE
PHOTO: DARREN GERRISH
© ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS, LONDON
Icons in our midst
HALCYON GALLERY at 29 New Bond Street is
exhibiting a collection of iconic contemporary
art including images by Andy Warhol.
The exhibition, called Iconic, will feature
photographs from Andy Warhol’s Exposure of
1979, a collection that saw Warhol amass
images of the glamorous and famous in his
daily life.
In addition to work by Warhol, there are
images by David LaChapelle, whose work has
been described as kitsch-pop surrealism, and
sculpture and painting by Mauro Perucchetti
and Santiago Montoya.
The exhibition runs until June 30.
MITCH GRIFFITHS, THEY LOVE ME,
THEY LOVE ME NOT © HALCYON GALLERY
New cast for West
End Company
NEW WEST END COMPANY has announced
two key appointments to lead the newly formed
Bond Street Retail Group. Paul Diamond, deputy
chairman of DAKS Simpson Group, has taken on
the role of interim chairman, and Beverley
Aspinall, former managing director of Fortnum &
Mason, has been appointed interim managing
director.
The Bond Street Retail Group will be made
up of senior directors from Bond Street’s leading
Out of Claridge’s
GORDON RAMSAY at Claridge’s is to close
next month after a 12-year collaboration.
Telling Mayfair Times of his departure,
Ramsay said: “Claridge’s was fantastic and
the feeling when we signed up was incredible
– it really pushed things forward for us.
“It was a brilliant partnership for more than
12 years, but we took the decision to move on
and look at other opportunities and developments.
You can’t stand still – you’ve got to keep on moving,
which is what we’re doing.”
September will see the opening of Union Street Café
in Borough Market, in partnership with David Beckham,
while Ramsay still owns Maze and Maze Grill in
Grosvenor Square.
luxury retailers and will work with funding partner
New West End Company. The transitional
management team, lead by Diamond and
Aspinall, will develop and start implementing a
five-year plan for Bond Street.
The group will work closely with Westminster
City Council and Transport for London to
manage a programme of work aimed at
transforming the public spaces of Bond Street,
including superior carriageways and paving. It will
also oversee new investment in the area, attract
an increase in spending from high-net-worth
visitors and help shape the future of
Bond Steet.
Prime-London primer
THE LONDON REAL Estate Forum, a two-day exhibition
and conference programme, takes place next month
(June 11-12) in Berkeley Square. It brings together more
than 50 major office, retail and residential developments
available to let or to invest in over the next decade.
The conference will present the latest development
activity in prime-London office and residential locations,
investigate future occupier requirements in the financial,
retail, technology, media and telecommunications sectors
and identify the latest investment and funding trends.
Speakers include David Shaw, head of Regent Street
Portfolio at The Crown Estate; Peter Vernon, chief
executive, Grosvenor Britain & Ireland; and Boris
Johnson, mayor of London. See www.lref.co.uk.
Dine back in time
LUKE THOMAS, the subject of recent BBC Three
documentary Britain’s Youngest Head Chef, has
partnered with restaurateur, hotelier and club owner Mark
Fuller to take over the ground-floor restaurant at Fuller’s
Embassy nightclub for a six-month pop-up social diner.
Called Retro Feasts, the food and drink concept is
inspired by childhood favourites, with classic British
dishes given a fresh twist.
The interior will give a nod to the retro styling of the
1970s and 1980s, with glassware and crockery to match,
while waiters and waitresses will be dressed in “cheeky
and colourful” old-school vintage clothing. For the launch
week (May 8-12) food prices will be set at 1983 levels.
Britain’s Youngest Head Chef followed Thomas, 19,
during his first seven months as chef patron at Luke’s
Dining Room at Sanctum on the Green, under the
watchful eye of Fuller.
Fancy that
AN EXTREMELY RARE, fancy deep-blue
diamond ring weighing 5.30 carats set a new
world record at Bohams Fine Jewellery sale
last month. The ring, made by Bulgari,
fetched £1.18 million per carat – beating the
previous world record for a blue diamond of
approximately £1 million.
Graff Diamonds, which has headquarters
in New Bond Bond Street, paid £6,201,250
for the gem, a Trombino ring made in the
mid Sixties, which had been expected to sell
for up to £1.5 million.
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