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The Plaza Hotel in New York City
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The Black Swan Superyacht
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The America's Cup Returns to the Americas
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Modern Moscow
The Russian capital has the largest number of billionaire residents in the world, up again from last year. With some newfound freedom, and the extra capital overflowing from the pockets of oligarchs (the powerful new citizens of Moscow), the city has experienced a rebirth.
Read more posts on Jetset »
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Jade Mountain
Jade Mountain:Situated on the idyllic island of St. Lucia, in a tropical setting of unparalleled beauty, architect Nick Troubetzkoy has created Jade Mountain—a uniquely natural resort offering a true separation from the working world—no telephones, no televisions and no clocks
Read more posts on Jetset »
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Bentley EXP 9 F | A Pinnacle Luxury Performance SUV Concept
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The Pursuitist In New York – Day One – Photo Tour
The Pursuitist has landing in New York. We arrived at the wonderful Ritz-Carlton New York, Central Park, and enjoyed drinks and tasty delicacies at the Club Lounge. Our suite is terrific — overlooking Central Park (first photo below). We explored the Columbus Circle area, visited Lincoln Center and then took a stroll up Park Avenue. Next up, dinner reservations tonight at Eric Ripert’s Le Bernardin at 6:30PM, rated by Zagat and Michelin as New York’s best restaurant. For live updates of our luxe visit to NYC, and our dinner at Le Bernardin, follow us on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/pursuitist
As mentioned previously, while on our New York adventures, new stories on The Pursuitist will be limited, but catch the latest on Twitter.
Enjoy a photo tour of our first day in NYC…
Read more posts on Pursuitist »
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This Horse Is Worth More Than $160 Million
As Frankel faces his final race, Brian Viner talks to his trainer, Sir Henry Cecil, and others who know the world's greatest racehorse best.
Frankel. It is not a name that rolls off the tongue, like those of some other great thoroughbred racehorses, such as Nijinsky, Mill Reef and Brigadier Gerard.
But in racing people it ignites sheer wonder, for Frankel is the superstar of Flat racing, not simply unbeaten in 13 races, but untouchable.
In monetary terms his potential to sire future champions makes him the most valuable single sporting commodity on the planet. It is said £100 million would not buy him.
At Ascot this afternoon Frankel and his jockey, Tom Queally, will attempt to extend their winning run to 14 races out of 14. Should they fail, the shock will radiate far beyond Berkshire, the more so as today’s big race, the Qipco Champion Stakes, is likely to be Frankel’s valediction. At four years old, the racehorse said by some to be the greatest ever foaled is on the verge of retirement.
If his owner, the billionaire Saudi businessman Prince Khalid Abdullah, does decide to call time on this epic chapter in Flat racing (as distinct from National Hunt, or jump racing), then when today’s meeting is over Frankel will be driven back to the Warren Place stables in Newmarket, owned by his trainer, Sir Henry Cecil, and attention will turn to his forthcoming stud career, where his colossal value now lies. Some 120 brood mares a year will visit him, their owners paying at least £100,000 in the event of a foaling. That might go on for the best part of two decades.
No one could have foreseen all this on the day Frankel was foaled – February 11 2008 – at Banstead Manor stud near Newmarket, the breeding arm of Prince Khalid’s Juddmonte racing operation. True, the young bay colt had a marvellous lineage. His parents were the 2001 Derby winner, Galileo, and Kind, a mare who had won five consecutive races in 2004. But equine breeding is an inexact science. 'As [the American breeder] Bull Hancock said, “You send the best to the best and hope for the best,”’ Philip Mitchell, who runs Banstead Manor stud, told me.
The first signs that the progeny of Galileo and Kind might not only live up to expectations but exceed them emerged on a July morning in 2010, the day of Frankel’s first proper gallop, with Queally in the saddle, on the vast Limekilns training ground a couple of miles outside Newmarket. Among those watching was Prince Khalid’s racing manager, Lord Grimthorpe, whose job it is to liaise every day with the 14 trainers of the prince’s 250 horses worldwide, and report nightly to his patron. In a lifetime in racing, he said, he had never seen a spectacle like it. One moment Frankel was bunched up with his stablemates, the next he was streaking away as if the others were hauling ploughs.
'I have to watch a lot of gallops and know how misleading it can be when you don’t know all the horses, weights or instructions,’ Lord Grimthorpe told the racing journalist Brough Scott. 'But you could not mistake this. He was going so fast at the end we thought he would finish in Newmarket High Street. When we gathered afterwards, nobody said anything, and Queally was white as a sheet.’
Henry Cecil knew better than anyone that impressive speed on the gallops is not always replicated on the track, yet his natural reticence hid a growing excitement at the possibilities for this still-unnamed colt. 'I realised he was out of the ordinary about halfway through the year,’ Cecil told me in his oak-panelled study at Warren Place. 'There was something very different about him.’
The same might be said of the charismatic Cecil. He started training as an assistant to his elderly stepfather, Sir Cecil Boyd-Rochfort, before striking out on his own in 1969. There followed 30 years of steady and sometimes spectacular success, before a precipitous, disastrous decline at the start of the new century in both his professional and personal fortunes. His beloved twin brother, David, died of cancer; his second marriage disintegrated; he even lost his driving licence for five years. Then he, too, was diagnosed with cancer, of the stomach, and all the while the yard produced fewer and fewer winners, hitting an all-time low in 2005, with only 12.
Many racehorse owners severed their ties with him, but Prince Khalid stayed loyal. The 75-year-old prince, the brother-in-law of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, had been involved in British racing since the 1970s, and with Cecil since 1990. They had forged a firm friendship. But business is still business. And although Cecil’s travails had compounded the affection in which he was held by the racing public, plenty felt he was a busted flush.
Happily, the yard returned to form. And little though anyone knew it on the day Prince Khalid sent him 'the Galileo colt’, Cecil’s greatest triumphs were yet to come. For Lord Grimthorpe it is the comeback of all comebacks. 'Henry’s gone from the Premier League to practically the Conference and back,’ he said, offering a football analogy. 'It is one of the great sporting achievements.’
Characteristically, Cecil plays down his talents. 'I’m qualified to do nothing,’ he said. 'I was the first student ever to fail Common Entrance into Eton from an Eton prep school. But I got a chance as my stepfather’s assistant. I’ve been very lucky.’
His luck remains variable. Cecil, 69, is currently being treated for cancer for the second time. The weight has dropped off him, the beautifully cut suits hang limply, and, when we talked, a throat infection had reduced his voice to a hoarse whisper. 'I look like death,’ he rasped, 'and when people see me they’ll think I’m going to die tomorrow. But I’m not.’ Chemotherapy, he assured me, was doing its job. He would get better. All the same, his illness adds poignancy to Frankel’s success. The horse appears to have intensified Cecil’s already fierce will to live.
'I love life,’ said Cecil, whose staccato sentences have more to do with his patrician background than his ill-health. 'I’ve always been a winner. I’ve had bad times – personal or financial, no horses, bad years – but I don’t like being an also-ran. I have responsibilities. I’m married again. And I’m very determined that I have to be there for Frankel. So he has helped to keep me going.’
Three months after his first gallop at Limekilns, the horse, by now named Frankel (after Bobby Frankel, one of America’s most successful trainers, who trained many winners for Prince Khalid, and who died of leukaemia in 2009), demonstrated his abilities where it really mattered, at Ascot. The Royal Lodge Stakes was Frankel’s third race, but the first in which he obliterated top-class opposition, winning by 10 lengths and pulling clear of the others 'like a greyhound that had just slipped its leash’, according to Brough Scott.
It was becoming clear that the length of Frankel’s stride would be the main weapon in his armoury. Along with a formidable lung capacity, it helps him to accelerate more than once in a race. Even the finest racehorses can normally find only one extra gear; Frankel has two, sometimes three. The horses that can keep pace with him the first time he quickens have nothing left to give when he quickens again. And although he is not huge, he has unusually large feet, which even in a gallop he sets rather than stamps down, making him less reliant than most horses on the condition of the ground.
Following the Royal Lodge Stakes, the bookmakers, always a nose ahead of the betting fraternity, immediately slashed Frankel’s odds for the following year’s 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket, the first of the Flat racing season’s so-called Classics (five prestigious races open only to three-year-olds).
On April 30 last year Frankel started the Guineas as the shortest-priced favourite since 1974, and went on to make his 1/2 odds look downright generous: his performance was simply one of the most dominant in the venerable race’s 200-year history. In the Queen Anne Stakes at Ascot this summer, which he started at odds of 1/10, Frankel won by 11 lengths, compelling racing correspondents to reach for new superlatives. 'This was not just Frankel’s finest performance,’ Greg Wood wrote in the Guardian, 'it was possibly the best single performance by any horse, on any track, since three Arabian stallions were imported into Britain to found the thoroughbred breed in the early years of the 18th century.’
Of course it isn’t simply Frankel’s natural assets that propel him across the turf so much faster than the competition; he has been impeccably handled by Cecil and his devoted team at Warren Place, all of whom speak about him with great affection, and some as if he were human.
'He’s very much his own person,’ Cecil said. 'He has a presence. It’s rather like people. Through my training career I’ve come across so many people I’d never otherwise have met, whether it be princes or successful businessmen. Most have an ambience about them, a lot of presence and panache. Good horses have the same thing.’
Shane Featherstonhaugh, a 35-year-old Dubliner who rides Frankel daily in training, agrees. 'He’s a big alpha male,’ he says. 'He’s not one for petting.’ Like his colleagues, Featherstonhaugh tries not to think about Frankel’s eye-watering value. 'They talk about hundreds of millions, but that has no meaning to me,’ he said. 'I don’t understand those numbers.’
What he does understand is riding, yet neither he, nor Cecil, nor anyone else, can make any racehorse run quicker than muscle and sinew allow. All they can do is minimise the dozens of imponderables that might obstruct its development.
'What people don’t sometimes understand,’ Lord Grimthorpe explained, 'is just what it takes to get a horse to the races in good fettle once. To get him there 13 times, to get out of him the sort of performances that people crave, want and adore, is quite extraordinary. The combination of things that have to go right is not quite the Lottery… but it’s up there.’
Among those charged with ensuring that the Lottery balls fall as favourably as possible is Frankel’s groom, Sandeep Gauravaram, a 32-year-old former jockey from Hyderabad. An engaging but shy man, he is still not comfortable with the attention that Frankel’s fame has brought his way. But, brought in to Cecil’s study to talk about the wonder horse, he became animated.
'He wants things done his way,’ he said. 'We tried to move him to one of the bigger boxes, and he didn’t like it. He tried to jump out, he sulked, he wouldn’t eat.’ This was the stretch of stables known by staff as Millionaires’ Row. It is where Cecil has kept all his most prized horses, but not Frankel. He stayed in his swanky new surroundings for less than two days before being returned to the barn in the oldest, least salubrious part of the yard, where lorries come and go all day, and where, traditionally, the also-rans live.
Such willpower made Frankel tricky to handle early on in his career. As Cecil’s travelling head lad, responsible for getting horses to courses, and for their welfare once they are there, Michael McGowan had a few run-ins with the rising star. 'As a two-year-old he was quite difficult,’ McGowan recalled. 'But at three he became more settled, and now he’s the complete professional.’
This was confirmed by the 29-year-old Irishman whose happy destiny it is to be forever bracketed with Frankel in the record books. 'He’s grown up no end,’ Tom Queally told me, as he sat outside the weighing-room at Newmarket Racecourse. 'He’s so mature now, much more relaxed. Even as a three-year-old he could be very fiery, but pure class got him through. Now, I’ve amazing belief in him. I couldn’t pull him up at York [where Frankel last raced, in August, winning the Juddmonte International Stakes, sponsored by Prince Khalid, by a street]. Some horses are triers, but they’re normally low-grade animals. For a horse with so much at his disposal, he just gives you so much. I’ve ridden some very good horses, but when they get to the front they think they’ve done enough.’
Henry Cecil has grown used to the claim that Frankel is the greatest racehorse of all time, and treats it with a mix of pride, gratitude and self-deprecation. 'Good horses help make successful trainers,’ he said, 'and I’ve had a lot of champions. And I didn’t live in the days of Sceptre [the only horse to win four British Classics] in the early 1900s. So it’s very difficult to compare. But it would be wrong to say he isn’t the best horse there’s ever been… because he could be.’
Cecil admitted that there will be a tear in his eye on the day Frankel leaves the yard. 'I may be training for 30 more years,’ he said – with a wry smile, as if daring me to contradict him – 'but it’s very unlikely that I’ll get another one like that.’
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See How Much Home You Can Afford For $900,000
Each week we take a look at how much house you can expect to get at a specific price point. This week, we’re looking at homes priced around $900,000.
Santa Barbara, CA
115 Coronada Cir, Santa Barbara CA
For sale: $899,000
Sunshine, sand and beach! Santa Barbara real estate comes with all that and more, but usually at quite steep prices. This $899,000 home is 2,167 square feet and has 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and access to a community pool and spa.
Atlanta, GA
310 Peachtree Ave NE, Atlanta GA
For sale: $899,900
Although it was built in 2012, this Atlanta home has plenty of the charms found in older homes, including a generous front porch and dormer window. The 3,300-square-foot home has 6 bedrooms and 4.5 baths.
Chesapeake, VA
1512 Bankbury Way, Chesapeake VA
For sale: $899,000
This 4-bedroom, 5-bathroom home is unusual in that each bedroom is a full suite with attached bathroom. The two-story home also has a finished attic and sits on a little over half an acre with a pool and plenty of patio space.
Naples, FL
1681 Golden Gate Blvd W, Naples FL
For sale: $899,900
Sitting on 2.5 acres in Naples, this Mediterranean-style home has recently been reduced in price by $75,000. Offering 3,608 square feet of living space, the home has 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms and an additional 1,900-square-foot guest house with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths.
Fort Collins
6076 Waterfront Dr, Fort Collins CO
For sale: $900,000
Love water sports? How about a Fort Collins home located on a private water ski lake? The custom-built home is a whopping 7,677 square feet on more than 3 lakefront acres with 4 bedrooms and 5 baths.
DON'T MISS: Colorado Couple Builds An Incredible Treehouse Village In Costa Rica >
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Russian Punk Trio Pussy Riot Makes List Of 100 Most Powerful People In Art
Pussy Riot, the Russian punk trio jailed for campaigning against Vladimir Putin, have been named in a list of the world’s most important contemporary art figures.
The three women – Yekaterina Samutsevich, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova – are included in the ArtReview’s Power 100 list for the first time.
They made headlines earlier this year when they were jailed for staging an anti-Kremlin protest in Moscow’s main cathedral.
Art Review said the band earned their place alongside the likes of artist Ai Weiwei, Damien Hirst and Gerhard Richter because “art has more than ever become a space for protest”.
The list is topped by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, the first woman to make number one in the annual survey and described by ArtReview as “a significant taste-maker”.
She may not be a household name, but the Italian-American curator of Germany’s Documenta 13 exhibition was chosen because “her engagement of ideas and practices from outside the sphere of contemporary art are particularly influential, prompting discussions across the art world”, according to the magazine.
Larry Gagosian, the US art dealer and owner of a string of galleries around the world, was second in the list.
Ai Weiwei, the Chinese dissident artist who topped the list last year, is at number three.
The highest ranked British figure in the list is Sir Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate, who is in eighth place.
Gerhard Richter is the highest placed artist. Earlier this week, Eric Clapton sold a Richter abstract painting for £21.3 million at Sotheby’s – a new record for a living artist.
The list is a mixture of dealers, artists, curators and super-rich buyers. Damien Hirst is 41st after his record-breaking Tate Modern show this year.
The highest climber is Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, who has risen from number 90 last year to number 11 as head of the Qatar Museums Authority.
Pussy Riot are at number 57, ahead of the artists Jeff Koons, Steve McQueen, Takashi Murakami and Tino Sehgal.
ArtReview said: “Art has more than ever become a space for protest, with artists, curators and organisations taking up the cause of the Occupy movements, Pussy Riot or the censorship issues raised by last year’s number one, Ai Weiwei.
“Art is seen increasingly as a space of social and political commentary.”
Power 100
1. Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev
2. Larry Gagosian
3. Ai Weiwei
4. Iwan Wirth
5. David Zwirner
6. Gerhard Richter
7. Beatrix Ruf
8. Nicholas Serota
9. Glenn D. Lowry
10. Hans Ulrich Obrist & Julia Peyton-Jones
11. Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani
12. Anton Vidokle, Julieta Aranda & Brian Kuan Wood
13. Cindy Sherman
14. Alain Seban & Alfred Pacquement
15. Adam D. Weinberg
16. Annette Schönholzer, Marc Spiegler & Magnus Renfrew
17. Marc Glimcher
18. Marian Goodman
19. Massimiliano Gioni
20. Jay Jopling
21. François Pinault
22. Klaus Biesenbach
23. Matthew Slotover & Amanda Sharp
24. Barbara Gladstone
25. RoseLee Goldberg
26. Eli & Edythe Broad
27. Patricia Phelps de Cisneros
28. Bernard Arnault
29. Nicholas Logsdail
30. Liam Gillick
31. Ann Philbin
32. Victor Pinchuk
33. Maja Hoffmann
34. Tim Blum & Jeff Poe
35. Marina Abramović
36. Dakis Joannou
37. Udo Kittelmann
38. Monika Sprüth & Philomene Magers
39. Matthew Marks
40. Gavin Brown
41. Damien Hirst
42. Rosemarie Trockel
43. Wolfgang Tillmans
44. Agnes Gund
45. Chus Martínez
46. Isa Genzken
47. Iwona Blazwick
48. Anne Pasternak
49. Sadie Coles
50. Daniel Buchholz
51. Toby Webster
52. Adam Szymczyk
53. James Lingwood & Michael Morris
54. William Wells & Yasser Gerab
55. Michael Ringier
56. Theaster Gates
57. Pussy Riot
58. Jeff Koons
59. Steve McQueen
60. Takashi Murakami
61. Boris Groys
62. Emmanuel Perrotin
63. Richard Chang
64. Tim Neuger & Burkhard Riemschneider
65. Slavoj Žižek
66. Thaddaeus Ropac
67. Chang Tsong-zung
68. Elena Filipovic
69. Tino Sehgal
70. Christian Boros & Karen Lohmann
71. Luisa Strina
72. Claire Hsu
73. José Kuri & Mónica Manzutto
74. Brett Gorvy & Amy Cappellazzo
75. Tobias Meyer & Cheyenne Westphal
76. Budi Tek
77. Walid Raad
78. Cuauhtémoc Medina
79. Massimo De Carlo
80. Bernardo Paz
81. Christine Tohme
82. Mario Cristiani, Lorenzo Fiaschi & Maurizio Rigillo
83. John Baldessari
84. Sheikha Hoor Al-Qasimi
85. Dasha Zhukova
86. Vasif Kortun
87. Anita & Poju Zabludowicz
88. Candida Gertler
89. Gisela Capitain
90. Carol Greene
91. Franco Noero & Pierpaolo Falone
92. Jacques Rancière
93. Miuccia Prada
94. Maureen Paley
95. Don, Mera, Jason & Jennifer Rubell
96. Paul Chan
97. Victoria Miro
98. Adriano Pedrosa
99. Johann König
100. Gregor Podnar
Now meet the 10 biggest art collectors of 2012 >
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Darren Clarke: I've Had 15 Ferraris, Three Lamborghinis, And Lived The Dream
There are plenty of popular misconceptions about me and many revolve around drink. To listen to some you’d think I crawled home every night, but while I admit to a liking for the black stuff and fine red wine, I rarely imbibe more than I can handle, and it never interferes with my professional life.
On the road, I can go for weeks without touching a drop and if I do go on a serious bender it is always well away from a tournament. People who think I’m a party guy who plays golf and then goes straight to the pub do not know the true Darren Christopher Clarke.
So what is the real me?
One of my biggest pluses is also one of my biggest negatives, in that my desire and determination, admirable qualities for the most part, sometimes get in the way of what I am trying to achieve. I want things so badly that although my attitude has driven me to the highest of highs, it has also taken me to the lowest of lows. And I find it very difficult to deal with the lows.
I have let my attitude get the better of me on many occasions. I know I shouldn’t have done, but I have. I get very angry with myself, and in those circumstances I am not a particularly nice person to be around. I rarely fall out with anybody other than myself, however. In all my years on the Tour, I haven’t really had a big bust-up with many people, although I once threatened to thump a major champion who had hit a ball way too close to my head.
I’ve always struggled to deal with failure and you have to deal with an awful lot of it. A golfer is only as good as his last result, unfortunately for me. I should be more relaxed. I should be happier and I’m not, because I crave success – not from a material point of view, not for recognition, but for myself. That hunger has been to the detriment of earlier relationships, including my relationship with Heather at times, because golf to me is all-consuming. It shouldn’t be, but it is.
I frequently ask myself, why am I doing this, why am I working away at this, why am I pushing myself to the limits, why am I doing it all over and over again? It’s driven me mad at times. There’s a saying that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Well, I’ve done all the right things – the practice, the gym, sports psychologists, coaches – over and over again, but the results rarely satisfy me.
And then there is the other Darren Christopher Clarke.
I’m a giver in a world of takers. I try to look after people who have helped me and I like to be very generous towards them. I never forget when people have been good to me and it’s fair to say I also never forget when anybody’s been bad. I’ve never actively sought a celebrity lifestyle. I’ve been materialistic because I’ve been in a position to afford the things I’ve dreamt of. I had pictures of Lamborghinis on my bedroom wall as I was growing up, and when I could afford one I bought one. I’ve been very good to myself, but I also take great pleasure in helping out my friends.
As Butch Harmon once said to me, ‘You don’t see any hearses pulling a safe’. Well, you’re definitely not going to see mine pulling one. Sometimes I’m generous to the point of stupidity, but I get great enjoyment from it. I’ve always done it and for nobody more than my family. I like to share a bit of happiness and that’s why I employ all my family.
My three main hobbies outside golf are cars, wine and fly fishing. I indulge in them way too much but I enjoy doing it. I work hard, so I play hard. What’s the point in working so hard if I can’t do that? Mind you, sometimes I’ve rewarded myself a little too much in comparison to what I’ve achieved and Chubby [Chandler] has had to rein me in. It was once said that I lived a major championship lifestyle without the major. To be honest, I probably got that from Chubby himself.
I’m not a celebrity golfer; it’s not me, just not my thing. It’s nice to get invited to one or two events now and again, and I do have some celebrity friends, but throughout my career I’ve tended to surround myself with what I would call regular, normal people.
I’ve done quite a few personality tests, including the Myers-Briggs, and those results indicate I’m an introvert, but people think I’m an extrovert. I am shy and will never go into a room first if there is an option. Yet that will never have come across, particularly in light of some of the outfits I’ve worn at tournaments.
One thing that has been a constant throughout my career and for most of my life is that when it comes to shopping and spending, I have few rivals. My excesses often have to be seen to be believed.
If I said I once bought 60 pairs of Calvin Klein underpants, would you believe me? Didn’t think so, but I did. Or 40 pairs of trousers on the same day from the same shop? Yes, I did. Or thirty belts? Yes, that’s me. I’ve had 15 Ferraris, three Lamborghinis and an assortment of Jags, Bentleys, Mercedes, BMWs and Porsches. The most cars I’ve ever had at once was seven and I’ll admit that was a little excessive. I’m more sensible now.
The lifestyle I’ve had, I dreamed about as a kid, even though there was nothing wrong with the modest lifestyle I had growing up. My dreams were big not small because I have always felt that if you don’t aim high enough, you will invariably come up short.
This may take some believing, but I’ve never known how much money I’ve had in the bank, although occasionally I’ve known how little there was when Chubby’s said, ‘For heaven’s sake, Darren, stop spending’.
My greatest extravagance was the private jet I owned with Lee [Westwood]. It cost us something like $12 million, with annual running costs of $2 million, and we had it for about 10 years. The running costs were ridiculous, but it was a great idea at the time. We were travelling a lot together because our itineraries were similar and it worked for us. But when Heather got sick, my schedule got out of sync with Lee’s, so when he used it, it cost him double and the same for me when I used it. We couldn’t split the bills any more and that’s when it stopped working, but there was always a nice buzz walking up the stairs to your own jet.
Looking back now, I know it was an extravagance, but that was when I was playing an awful lot of golf in Europe and America. Over the course of a year, it gave me an extra week with the kids and that was priceless.
Nowadays I’m just as happy going down to Belfast and getting on easyJet. I’m a lot more sensible than I used to be and some of that has been forced on me, because when Heather passed away I had to sit down and figure everything out. Thankfully, Alison has been wonderful for me in that respect. She’s a businesswoman who knows far more about the value of money than I do.
She’s helped me curb that foolish, excessive side. I did enjoy the high life for a while when I was in London, but circumstances changed and although London was the best place to be based for my golf, it wasn’t for my life. London and Portrush are chalk and cheese. London is a massive, wonderful city, full of the best things in life and all kinds of people and characters, whereas small-town Portrush has just a few of the nice things in life, but is full of all the best people.
Although I adore the house I have in the Bahamas, there is no place like home and that home is Portrush. When you come from Ulster, there’s always the question about whether you are British or Irish. I loved London and I’ve loved representing Ireland, but when people ask what I am, I’m just proud to say that I’m from Northern Ireland. It’s home.
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The 13 Scariest Haunted Houses In America
Haunted Houses have been making America scream for nearly 40 years, and now Haunted Houses have gone global. The haunted house industry is an American export.
100 percent made in America as haunt vendors design, build and install haunted houses all over the WORLD! Halloween is extremely popular within the US. However, it was not as popular worldwide.
Trick-or-treating is an American tradition, and for years it was the primary way most American’s celebrated Halloween, but many things have changed over the last twenty years. Halloween has become the second largest retail holiday grossing more than $8 billion. The industry of making people scream is now a WORLD WIDE industry. Today, you can find haunted houses in most countries. People of all nations pay top dollar to enter a haunted house…to be SCARED.
So what makes a haunted house one of the best and scariest in America 2012? There are several things a paying customer might look for in a haunted attraction prior to buying a ticket. There are so many established haunted houses, plus so many more that open new each year, and a lot of over the top (potentially false) advertisements promoting them all in every city across America.
At Hauntworld, we suggest attending every haunt possible (of course), but for those of you on a budget, typically you’ll want to steer clear from the brand new haunted houses. New haunts have yet to establish themselves and build up an arsenal of experience to make people scream.
Rather, we suggest you visit the established haunted houses, the ones with years of experience, the ones who spend tens of thousands of dollars every year to renovate for each season, and the ones committed to making their haunted houses the best scream factories in America.
We look for many things when evaluating a haunt for our America’s best list. So many haunted attractions are quite different from each other. Many haunted houses like The Beast in Kansas City, Missouri are inside industrial buildings, while others like Headless Horseman in New York are outdoor haunts with massive hayrides, corn mazes and more.
How do you compare a scream park haunted attraction and an indoor haunted house? In most cases, the indoor haunted house will have the best attention to detail, sets and special FX. However, the scream park style attractions will offer more variety, longer attractions and typically more bang for the buck.
There are scary haunted houses, and then there are THE SCARIEST haunted houses in America. What’s the difference? Some haunts just want to make you scream, but some haunts go all out with over-the-top efforts trying to be the biggest, the baddest and the scariest haunted houses on the planet. The haunts that have that WOW factor can make their guests scream, PLUS they provide horrific atmosphere creating realism in every scare.
They provide a Hollywood movie quality punch to the gut! Who wants to watch horror movies anymore when you can visit a haunted house and be right in the middle of the action? Below is our list of the best haunted attractions in America.
These haunts will put you on stage inside a horror movie atmosphere and basically make YOU the scream queen! Before visiting a haunted house, use Hauntworld.com to find the best haunted houses in America, as we boast the largest and most informative database for finding haunted houses. Shop by city, state and zip to find a haunted house near you or around the World.
So which haunted houses are the best and scariest haunted houses in America 2012? Which haunts can make you scream more than any other, more than the best horror movie? Below you’ll read about the longest haunted houses, the oldest haunted houses, and even about the best rides with a Halloween theme? We have it all for you once again in our annual Top 13 best haunted houses in America List. Get ready, turn out the lights, and get ready to scream!
#13 Nightmare on the Bayou in Houston, TX
Located in the shadow of downtown Houston, TX next to Houston’s oldest graveyard, Nightmare on the Bayou is the name people think of when searching “HAUNTED TEXAS.” Nightmare on the Bayou is entering its 12th year in operation and has grown even bigger, even better, and even scarier with every passing year.
Featuring newly designed scenes, Hollywood quality props, professional animatronics and dozens upon dozens of the most well-trained and highly supervised actors, CRAZED ACTORS, whose sole purpose is to scare you to death. Nightmare on the Bayou boasts, “the only haunted house in Houston with REAL ghosts,” and with its location right next to the graveyard…I believe them!
Ghost sightings are frequent from both customers and employees alike. Additionally, Nightmare On The Bayou is one of the only haunted houses in America with a WORLD CLASS Halloween retail store on site for your ease and convenience.
#12 13th Floor Haunted House offering 3 locations: San Antonio, TX, Denver, CO and Phoenix, AZ
What is the terrible secret hidden within the 13th Floor? Superstition? Conspiracy? Or something much, much worse? As legend has foretold, The 13th Floor Haunted House provides a gut wrenching ride to untold nightmares STRAIGHT DOWN!
The 13th Floor Haunted House is a franchise haunted attraction located in multiple locations. These attractions are a true testament to high action, in-your-face premium production value among all haunted houses. Each attraction offers a massive haunted event, one as big as 40,000 square feet and another as high as 3 floors up! Through the wickedness of its massive Gothic cemetery and into its horrifically fantastic haunted hotel, 13th Floor customers get to experience a barrage of special effects, animatronic monsters and impeccably detailed sets.
Add to that some of the most talented group of performers in the industry, and you’ve got a top notch, first rate haunted house that’s second to none.
#11 The Bates Motel in Philadelphia, PA
For more than 20 years, The Bates Motel Haunted Hayride at Arasapha Farm has been making Philadelphia SCREAM!
This event is one of the biggest haunted house events in America featuring amazing props, digital FX, terrifying actors, professional makeup, pyrotechnics and multiple attractions in one location including a massive corn maze, an infamous hayride and a horrific haunted house.
The Bates Motel has been featured on multiple television shows and ranked as high as THE BEST haunted house in the nation by multiple media outlets including Hauntworld.com. The Bates Motel dominates the Philadelphia market as well as every surrounding area. People travel from miles away just to attend this haunting event.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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The World's 20 Best Wine Country Hotels
At Oregon’s Allison Inn & Spa, you can wake up to a view of Willamette Valley from your terrace, spend the afternoon sampling Pinot Noirs at local wineries, then retreat to the hotel spa for a “pinotherapy” treatment.
That kind of immersive experience has earned Allison Inn the No. 4 ranking among wine country hotels, based on Travel + Leisure readers’ votes in the annual World’s Best Awards survey. The winners come in lots of varietals, from opulent hotels to cozy inns, and turn up in established wine regions (South Africa’s Franschhoek, Argentina’s Mendoza) and less-expected destinations like Arizona’s Verde Valley and the Mount Etna area of Sicily, where that volcanic soil can work wonders.
Napa Valley, CA, certainly has experience catering to the wine-focused traveler. “Our customers come here to experience wine country from head to toe,” says George Goeggel, managing partner of Auberge du Soleil in the Napa Valley, one of the area’s first boutique resorts. “We try to embody the wine country lifestyle in all aspects, from a glass of wine at reception to the local bottles on the menu to the crushed grapes in our spa treatments.”
That sentiment rings true in Santa Barbara, CA, as well. “We estimate that 94 percent of our guests are wine lovers,” says Seamus McManus, managing director of San Ysidro Ranch, whose 1,600-bottle collection features an abundance of local labels. To satisfy their expectations, the hotel offers winery tours, hosts dinners with nearby vintners, and stocks local wines in each of its cottages.
Not to be left out, the East Coast has its own properties among this year’s winners. Virginia’s rolling hills nurture The Inn at Little Washington as well as Keswick Hall, decked out with hunt-club prints and Chippendale chairs and host of regular themed wine dinners.
Even select urban hotels have caught on to the interest in wine tourism and offer guided day trips to wineries within a short drive. The renovated Four Seasons, Firenze, occupies a glorious frescoed palazzo with a pool and an 11-acre park. It makes a refined base for guided excursions into Chianti, 40 minutes away, or for tastings at the hotel's Winery restaurant (nearly 400 bottles at last count).
No matter which wine-country hotel you choose, one thing’s for sure: you won’t go home thirsty.
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Hotel Crillon le Brave, Crillon le Brave, France
The tiny hilltop town of Crillon le Brave lends its name to this 32-room medieval stone property with gardens, terraces, and spectacular views of vineyards and olive groves.
The concierge can arrange for day trips to the wineries of Côtes du Rhône and Châteauneuf-du-Pape (about half an hour away), known for their Syrahs, Marsannes, and Grenache noirs. Or simply enjoy a local bottle and take in the sweeping scenery from the romantic terrace at the hotel’s restaurant.
Domaine des Hauts de Loire, Onzain, France
This handsome 19th-century hunting lodge is covered in ivy vines, furnished with antiques, and occupies 178 forested acres along the wine route in Loir-et-Cher. The restaurant, overseen by chef Rémy Giraud, serves the Loire Valley’s famed Vouvrays, Montlouises, and Touraines, though guests seeking a bird’s-eye view of the region’s châteaux can arrange for a private helicopter or hot-air balloon tour of neighboring vineyards, castles, and ancient cities.
Les Crayères, Reims, France
In the heart of the Champagne region, this 20-room Belle Époque château (a former family home) maintains an impeccable sense of classic style.
The wine cellar at the Michelin-starred restaurant counts 400 champagne labels, and the hotel can arrange visits to bold-faced sites like nearby Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin or the Moët et Chandon cellars, as well as the Notre Dame Cathedral.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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Luxury Hotels & Social Media: The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company
We’re entering a new age in luxury hotel marketing. Top-tier hotels are now using Twitter for concierge services, social geo-locating platforms to unlock free gifts, Facebook for customer service and YouTube to showcase unique properties. They are finding new, large and responsive audiences across the social web. No doubt, luxury travel’s latest destination is online.
Yet who is leading the charge in this recent wave of innovative hotel social media strategies? What are their methods and how are they finding success? In our ongoing series “Luxury Hotels & Social Media,” Pursuitist is interviewing the top luxe hotel leaders (Four Seasons, The Peninsula, Waldorf Astoria and many more) to gain insight into the online strategies of the industry’s elite.
Today’s interview is with Laura Troy, Social Media Manager, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company.
Q. Why is Social Media important for your company?
A. The Ritz-Carlton cares deeply about how our guests interact with us even when they are not in our hotels, which is why we have paid special attention to the role of social media. Digital programs and social networks further support our efforts to stay with our guests and add value to their lives at home or when they are traveling. We also ensure our brand remains relevant to the consumer and that we reach them in the ways they have told us they would like to be reached.
The Ritz-Carlton continuously leverages efficiency and impact of marketing efforts through global planning and digital activations, with an end goal to create guests for life through thoughtful touch points along their continuous guest journey.
Our primary objectives are to deepen our connection to existing guests and cultivate the next generation of guests. Both of these serve higher-level objectives such as increasing customer loyalty and increasing word-of-mouth recommendations. These objectives are achieved through the systematic use of various strategies that range from engaging our guests on platforms they are already on, to being curators of the social experience by tailoring our content around their interests, and using our expertise to enhance their total experience.
Q. How many people manage your social media channels & what types of tools do you use?
A. We have a global team of Ritz-Carlton communications experts with social media expertise that work with a Social Media Manager at the brand level. The discipline falls under the Vice President of Global Public Relations, and the Chief Marketing Officer. We also partner with a social media agency in Boston, Pandemic Labs. They act as our strategic partners in the space and build our brand appropriate assets.
The Ritz-Carlton Facebook, Twitter and YouTube channels operate on a hub and spoke model, with our brand’s assets at the core. The 77 hotels all run and launch assets that complement their unique characteristics. We don’t mandate that our hotels all activate these social channels, but rather pursue the ones that make sense for their property and the destination in which they are located. The brand assets represent our portfolio as a whole.
On networks such as Foursquare and Pinterest (on which we launch in March), we employ a single, brand presence to curate experiences, and stay with guests as they live, travel, experience and share with their friends.
Q. What has been the most effective content to engage users?
A. We believe in the old adage, ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’. We have consistently found that strong images which showcase the exciting destinations our hotels are located in are crucial to our social media engagement strategy. Virtually all our content incorporates high-quality, rich media that amplifies the expertise of our Ladies and Gentlemen, the core of all our social content and of who we are as an organization.
We have also seen much success and received much acclaim for the Foursquare World Concierge service The Ritz-Carlton extended the exclusive services of our concierge to a mobile public audience. Five new tips are populated every week by concierges from all 77 Ritz-Carlton hotels around the world, providing a knowledge-base that grows and evolves every week.
Q. What measurable results or successes have you seen due to Social Media?
A. Use of social media strategies has increased engagement with existing guests, which in turn has increased their likelihood to return and to share information about The Ritz-Carlton with their friends. Additionally, these social assets increase ability to be organically discovered. Presences on social networks effective expand the digital profile of Ritz-Carlton hotels and increase visibility in the digital world.
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Dana Tanamachi, Chalk Letterer
Dana Tanamachi is a graphic designer and custom chalk letterer who hails from the Lone Star State, but now resides in Brooklyn, New York. Currently, she works at Louise Fili Ltd, a NYC-based studio specializing in logo, package, restaurant, and book design. After hours, Dana moonlights as a custom chalk letterer, creating large-scale chalk installations in New York City. She also applies her chalk lettering to a wide variety of uses for publications, packaging, and apparel. Having admired her incredible work, The Pursuitist asked Dana a few questions:
Q. How long have you been making your custom chalk creations?
A. I’ve been creating large scale chalk installations since November 2009, so just over a year and a half.
Q. What do you love about your medium (or regret)?
A. I love that it’s temporary and easy to manipulate. There’s no harm done if I make mistake, just erase and try again. And I can’t complain about the price— chalk is cheap!
Q. Who are some custom chalk clients?
A. Recently, I’ve collaborated with clients such as Google, Adidas, West Elm, Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine, and The Ace Hotel New York.
Q. Tell us about your day job…
A. I work at a small boutique design studio called Louise Fili Ltd. We specialize in high-end food packaging and restaurant design. My job is a mix of production, design, PR, and administration for the studio—since we’re small, we all wear many hats!
Q. And where did you study?
A. I studied Communication Design at the University of North Texas— a school primarily known for its art and Jazz programs. http://art.unt.edu/
Visit Dana Tanamachi online at: http://www.danatanamachi.com/
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AZC’s A Bridge in Paris Concept
Have you ever dreamt of bouncing across the Seine? The Paris-based architecture studio AZC have — and they created the trampoline bridge concept for the Archtriumph 2012 contest of ideas. This inflatable floating bridge project would consist of three buoys giant 30 meters in diameter and 94 meters long.
Here’s Atelier Zündel Cristea on the design of the trampoline bridge: “The competition brief, A Bridge in Paris, allows us to locate an architectural reflection within this same realm of contemporary urban enjoyment. It appears to us that Paris has the bridges and passages necessary for the flow of vehicular and pedestrian traffic across its waterways. Our intention is to invite its visitors and inhabitants to engage on a newer and more playful path across this same water. We propose, now, a distinctive urban feature: An inflatable bridge equipped with giant trampolines, dedicated to the joyful release from gravity as one bounces above the river. Installed near the Bir-Hakeim Bridge, it is formed of inflatable modules, like giant life-preservers, 30 meters in diameter. In the central part of each ring, a trampoline mesh is stretched. The floating buoys, fabricated in PVC membrane, are attached together by cord to form a stable and self-supporting ensemble. Each module under tension – filled with 3700 cubic meters of air – develops in space with an arch-like form.”
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The Pursuitist in New York – Lux in the City
The Pursuitist jet-setted to New York City for amazing luxury adventures, delights, sights and sounds. We stayed at the utterly perfect Ritz-Carlton New York, overlooking the majestic Central Park. Dinner reservations were set for the top rated Michelin and Zagat restaurants in New York, including Eric Ripert’s Le Bernardin, Thomas Keller’s Per Se and Daniel Humm’s Eleven Madison Park (all delicious — reviews are forthcoming). We visited amazing shops, from Hermes, Purl, Barneys New York. Louis Vuitton to Ladurée. For the arts, we explored the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and attended a stirring performance of Il Trovatore at the Met Opera.
(Here’s our initial photo tour of our first day in NYC…)
Below, discover our second photo report from New York City, including visits to TriBeCa and SoHo, entitled Lux in the City: Photos © Pursuitist
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Luxury Marketing and Social Media
Christopher Parr is an industry leader with over 15 years of experience in digital marketing. He is an award-winning luxury marketing veteran, writer, a frequent speaker at luxury and interactive marketing conferences and a pioneer in web publishing. He launched Pursuitist as a curated list of the good things in life, with guest contributors from Forbes, Mashable, TechCrunch, Glamour, Saveur and more sharing their favorite luxuries. Askmen.com recently named him “one of the 6 coolest guys in fashion,” his family is featured in Disney’s new social media campaign, Marc Jacobs leverages Pursuitist’s editorial, and Milton Pedraza, CEO, Luxury Institute, calls him “One of the top expert practitioners in global luxury in marketing with a particular expertise in marketing, selling and engaging customers in the digital world. He is one of those professionals who executes brilliantly. He is innovative while looking out for the return on investment…”
In 1996, Michael Wolff’s NetGuide named Christopher Parr‘s inaugural online magazine Cybermad as “The Best Site of the Year” at MacWorld. He holds a MFA from Brandeis and a BA from Viterbo.
Here’s a Q&A with Christopher Parr as he shares his digital strategy behind creating an authentic luxury platform to engage affluent readers and connect with luxury brands. It’s a new age of blogging and editorial intersecting with digital luxury marketing and social media to create online buzz for the world’s best luxury brands.
Can you talk a little bit about where you got the idea to start Pursuitist.com?
The idea of Pursuitist.com was to create a travel, style and leisure destination for affluent consumers. For readers pursuing amazing fashion brands, hotels, restaurants, gadgets, experiences, and autos – Pursuitist is a destination site that curates the good things in life. We’ve brought in world-class content producers — remarkable writers sharing remarkable experiences.
How has the experience of the site differed from what you expected it would become?
It’s been a blast. As I tell my writers — write about remarkable people, products and experiences. We aspire to go beyond the bling – Pursuitist is luxury redefined. We focus on the artisans that make amazing handcrafted products – from a designer at Louis Vuitton to a 2nd generation organic winemaker in Napa. We pursue to tell the story and go behind the scenes. We officially launched in July. While in beta, the Pursuitist editors have diligently curated a rich list of the good things in life to share with affluent readers. Coinciding with the launch, a few of the new contributors sharing their favorite luxuries include remarkable writers.
How does the site plan to attract affluent individuals?
To build awareness, we’re launching a 360-degree advertising campaign. To attract and keep the right readers, our strategy includes word-of-month, PR, campaigns with Facebook, Twitter, banner ads on other affluent websites, and email marketing. Facebook integration is also a major tactic – the sharing, liking, and commenting is exclusively powered by Facebook to help us go viral and obtain more likeminded readers.
What is your relationship to the brands you write about?
As we’re able to serve up a targeted audience, luxury brands love our platform. We’re also very selective of the advertisers that appear on our site. Pursuitist is truly a targeted online destination for luxury advertisers to connect and engage with affluent consumers. Advertisers have included Burberry, Coach, Intel, BMW, Chase Bank, Audemars Piguet, Broadmoor Hotel and Cosmopolitan Hotel. The Pursuitist is a great place to be seen – as our readers are affluent (65% with an annual income of $75k and up) and influencers.
How do you keep your content authentic?
There’s a shortage of online destinations for affluent consumers seeking authentic experiences. Plenty of cold bling sites exist, focusing on editorial content with ultra premium and inaccessible luxuries. That’s the void, and why Pursuitist was created — there’s not another site like us. Pursuitist is one destination site with 9 targeted sections (Arts, Auto, Epicurean, Family, Green, House, Style, Tech and Travel) – best described as an online mashup of The Huffington Post and Conde Nast.Our editorial is also different — from our travel journals to our features on amazing artisans and clever destinations. With friendlier and accessible narratives – our readers tell us they feel like insiders, along for the ride.
In general, what kind of lift can this kind of content offer brands? Is this something they should focus on getting more of?
We’ve also worked quite closely with other luxury brands to organically integrate and feature their products – from Four Seasons, Hermes, Patron, Gucci, Prada, Robert Mondavi Wine, Ralph Lauren, Lobel Steaks of New York, to Chanel. As we only focus on premier brands and destinations, we are selective of the brands we feature. It’s a terrific halo effect – to be “Pursuitist Recommended.”
Do most brands react to what you write? How do they respond to your content?
They love it. The brands, from Marc Jacobs, Land Rover to Viking Range prefer to re-tweet and link to our editorial on their social media channels. (See an example of Marc Jacobs leveraging Pursuitist’s editorial here.)
Also read, Luxury Daily News: Interview with Christopher Parr on latest startup and creating online buzz with Marc Jacbos, BWM and Jimmy Choo
Christopher Parr, CEO of Parr Interactive, is an award-winning writer and online marketing strategist. Since 1995, the Madison, Wisconsin-based internet pioneer and marketer has launched numerous successful web projects, viral videos and online marketing campaigns for Fortune 500 companies. In addition to creating blogging and buzz marketing platforms, services include web design, social media marketing, digital marketing and SEO. Visit www.parrinteractive.com to learn more.
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The Best Seafood Restaurants In The US
Summer's over in Maine, but you’d hardly know it from the queue of vacationers and regulars at the Clam Shack.
A teenager shouts out orders of clam strips, chowder, and fried shrimp. But it's the whole, handpicked lobster piled onto a buttered roll that earns this eatery a place among the seafood greats.
Today’s culinary landscape is all about über-local ingredients and farm-to-table cooking. But before there were menus crediting farmers for their kale or acorn-fed pork, there were dockside establishments serving just-caught crab and lobster or oysters farmed a few miles up the shore. America’s seafood restaurants were sourcing fish from their backyard long before it was popular.
These iconic, unfussy joints, for many of us, define seafood at its best. After all, what could be better than plump, juicy bivalves paired with a cold beer and views of bobbing boats? Or picking crabs on brown paper–covered communal tables, your hands a mess of clarified butter and Old Bay?
Our top picks include as many (if not more) down-and-dirty restaurants—where no-frills décor meets the freshest grouper, blackened, simply dressed with mayo and lettuce, and served on a toasted bun—as high-end ones helmed by toques who marry French techniques and worldly ingredients with pristine bluefin, cobia, and escolar.
You’ll find America’s best seafood at a shanty overlooking Florida’s Sarasota Bay, and on Maui’s northern shore in a kitschy, yet romantic South Seas setting where the catch changes so often that menus are printed twice daily, but also in Atlanta, where seafood meets southern society over oysters and putt-putt at the Optimist.
Whether high or low, one thing is consistent: Each of these local favorites, in big cities and small towns, is a catch.
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GT Fish & Oyster: Chicago
This River North restaurant in Chicago wows with its nautical good looks: Dutch Master–style oil paintings of stormy seas, fishermen’s-netting chandeliers, and a massive chalkboard drawing of a swordfish skeleton are cool rather than kitschy when paired with cane-backed chairs, gold-trimmed black tables, and plush banquettes.
But the real reason to come is Giuseppe Tentori’s cooking: tuna poke with mangoes and cucumbers; taro chips with smoked haddock dip; and clam bake in a cauldron with corn, sausage and spicy seaweed in a white wine broth.
Mama's Fish House: Maui
There’s nothing understated or outdated about this Maui classic, est. 1973. The setting—palm trees, tide pools, white sand beach—is beyond romantic, and the fish is as fresh as it gets.
Menus, printed twice daily, credit fishermen by name, and may include local catches like opah, onaga, and ono, baked in a macadamia-nut crust, served up-country style with caramelized onions, avocado, and baby bok choy, or marinated in lime and coconut milk.
Hogfish Bar & Grill: Stock Island, FL
On Stock Island, Key West’s less rowdy neighbor, this low-key spot, tucked between a trailer park and the shrimp docks, is known for its pinks—Key West shrimp, distinguished by a pink dot in the center of its shell—and for its hogfish.
The former come fried and barbecued, stuffed in tacos, or battered with coconut. But there’s really only one way to order hogfish. Ask for the Killer, which pairs fried, just-caught hogfish with melted Swiss cheese and mushrooms on Cuban bread.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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The Hottest Tour Guides In London Are Homeless People
Like many other Londoners who make a living showing tourists around the city, Viv is telling a group of visitors how Waterloo Bridge was largely rebuilt by women after World War II.
But Viv, 56, is no ordinary tour guide. She is homeless -- and the stairs under the bridge, which boasts majestic views of the Houses of Parliament and St Paul's Cathedral, were once her home.
"I lived there for two months," she tells the sightseers. "I had a patch made of wooden pallets, newspapers and cartons."
With a gaunt face and several missing teeth, and wearing a neat beige mackintosh that she found in the street, Norwegian-born Viv shows tourists the British capital as seen through the eyes of one of its homeless residents.
She is among half a dozen homeless guides working with Unseen Tours -- a scheme launched by the volunteer network Sock Mob -- weaving tales of their own lives on the streets into their walking tours.
Viv -- her past means she only wants to be known by her first name -- starts her tour in the Victoria Embankment Gardens on the edge of the River Thames.
An imposing statue of the 19th century industrialist William Edward Forster looks over the manicured gardens, which were Viv's home for four summers.
"That used to be my bench," she says, pointing at a family eating sandwiches nearby.
"You're very safe in a park, because they close the park at night. You don't get attacked by the public."
Homeless Londoners hear about "spare" benches through word of mouth, she adds. She speaks quickly, the sweat on her brow revealing her nerves.
Viv guides the group from the bath where Charles Dickens once took a dip to a tea hut frequented by taxi drivers for over a century, before stopping at the Savoy Hotel to tell the story of the wooden cat that sits in its lobby.
The handsome three-foot (0.9-metre) cat, named Kaspar, is brought out to join unlucky parties of 13 diners at the opulent hotel to make up their numbers to 14, Viv explains.
Without pausing, she adds that up to 200 people used to sleep in the archway next to the Savoy until the authorities began fencing it off at night.
"One night we had an elderly lady. At around two or three in the morning, some kids tried to set her alight," Viv calmly tells the tourists.
"They poured fuel on her sleeping bag and tried to set her alight. Luckily some of us heard the commotion, woke up, and chased them away."
The tour group, who have so far seemed dazed by Viv's stark account of life on the streets, finally pluck up the courage to ask some questions.
"What about the hotel?" one visitor asks. "I imagine they had a lot of leftover food?"
"It's a hotel for the rich," Viv says, without bitterness.
Paul van Beusekom, a 32-year-old bicycle designer from the Netherlands, eventually dares to ask a more personal question: how did Viv become homeless?
"My marriage broke up. I left my kids at home and moved out," she says simply, clearly unwilling to dwell on the subject. The tourists' questions dry up.
Viv has been homeless since 1997, drifting between parks and bridges when she cannot sleep on the sofas of friends and relatives.
She earns around £30 ($48, 37 euros) a week from her work as a guide. Unseen Tours pays her 60 percent of the earnings from each tour -- which costs £10 a ticket -- plus £40 a month for transport and £20 for her telephone bill.
"It's very little, but it's still worth it," she says.
Above all, the tours give Viv a task to occupy her days and take her mind off things.
"I have something other to do than selling the Big Issue," she said of the weekly British magazine distributed by homeless people.
For visitors, the tours show that homeless people are not always "dossers and give-ups", said 56-year-old tourist Angie Hester, a firefighter.
"They've got a story to tell," Hester said.
Van Beusekom added that Viv's anecdotes about her own life had been even more interesting than her stories about the sights.
"It's sometimes embarrassing for homeless people to say why they're homeless," he said.
"But during the tour, I was more comfortable asking questions. It sounds so easy to become homeless. It could happen to anybody. It's scary."
His friend slipped a few coins into Viv's hand at the end of the tour.
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