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April 2020

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Welcome to a world of travel, entertainment and culture, curated from a global collective of writers, photojournalists and artists. Each article of our award-winning magazine is sure to inspire, no matter which of our destinations you call home.

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Poetry in motion

A spa hotel in the heart of Billy Elliot country proves romance isn’t dead

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Eardrum Buzz, Haarlemmerplein, Amsterdam

Eardrum Buzz owners Rutger Kruijer and Arjen Poelhuis are confident that vinyl has a bright future. They say: “Records are beautiful and have charm and charisma. They also sound great. The act of putting on a record and listening to it is something nothing can compete with. Digging through vinyl is a lot more fun and organic than downloading or streaming music"

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aQuarius Records, San Francisco

Co-owner Andee Connors has worked at the store since 1994. Famous musicians such as Blondie, Bjork and Elvis Costello have visited. Connors says: “Everyone who works here is super-obsessive about music. So even if we didn’t work in a record store, we’d all be hunting down new, cool, weird sounds. Our customers are a great source too. We get tonnes of recommendations from folks all over the world”

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Libreria Acqua Alta, Venice

Store manager Gianni Coppola opened Libreria Acqua Alta with owner Luigi Frizzo ten years ago. The shop oozes Venetian character and authenticity, with stacks of books piled in every nook and cranny. Being Venice, the store floods regularly, but the books are protected by storing them in various boats and bath tubs, including a full sized gondola. It’s these quirky details that the bookshop is known for.

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St Pancras Renaissance London Hotel

The Savoy, The Langham, Claridge’s, The Ritz, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera – the list of luxurious London properties with storied histories is undeniably impressive. St Pancras Renaissance London Hotel, opened in 2011, is a relative newcomer, but its own story began in the golden age of grand London hotels. The hotel occupies a building designed by the great Victorian architect Sir George Gilbert Scott

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Studio 28, Paris

Studio 28, run by Alain Roulleau, is the oldest cinema in Paris and has never closed since first opening. Roullea’s father, who was a film producer, bought the cinema in 1948, although it dates back a further 20 years. He is the third generation of the family to be involved, and has worked there from a very young age

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The Book Lounge, Cape Town

The Book Lounge’s founder Mervyn Sloman takes satisfaction in introducing customers to his favourite books. He supports Cape Town’s Open Book Festival, which aims to put on a truly international literary festival in Cape Town, to promote the best of South African writing to international audiences, to build a love of reading among the youth of Cape Town and to attract a diverse audience

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Filmhouse, Edinburgh

Head of Edinburgh’s Filmhouse, Rod White has welcomed several stars to the cinema, including Sean Connery, Jennifer Lawrence and Jimmy Cliff. He describes the movie theatre as a place that "lives, breathes and loves cinema, and offers the perfect, relaxed environment to discuss that thought-provoking film you’ve just seen over a meal or a drink”

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Pet Sounds, Stockholm

Blur, Oasis and Coldplay have all performed at Stefan Jacobson’s Pet Sounds. The store owner says he is inspired by “the sound, the smell, the sheer beauty of a vinyl record on the shelf.” The shop stocks a really large selection of new and secondhand records. Customers range from young hipsters buying the latest import releases to grumpy old men buying original 1960s LPs

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D.Tales, Dubai

In what is seemingly an unlikely path for a design aficionado, Swedish native Lars Narfeldt was a UN peacekeeper in war zones across Africa and Afghanistan before settling in Dubai to pursue his dream of bringing Scandinavian design to the Middle East.

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