Latest news with #HenmanHill
Irish Times
7 days ago
- Lifestyle
- Irish Times
Where a cherry costs £1: Ordinary London neighbourhoods falling to gentrification
A neighbourhood adjacent to ours has its own version of Henman Hill. Each year, for the Wimbledon men's final, a committee of local traders applies to the council for a licence to close off the main thoroughfare, Northcote Road, where they erect a big screen to watch the tennis. They set it up at the bottom of a junction with one of the side roads, a vast hill that sweeps up towards a local common. Hordes of glamorous people aged in their 20s and 30s gathered there in Sunday's sunshine to catch the action, sitting on the tarmac all the way to the top of the hill. As I casually observed the crowd, a couple of thoughts entered my mind. The first was that somebody should tell these affluent young Londoners that draught Guinness in a can should never be consumed straight from the tin. READ MORE The second thing to strike me was puzzlement at how, as affluent as they are, any of these young people could afford to live around here. I certainly couldn't. Our 20-minute stroll down to Northcote Road is an aspirational journey to see how the other half lives. It is perhaps the most middle-class half-mile in south London, an array of elite boutiques with prices to match. My wife popped in to one of the fruit and vegetable shops on the street to buy a snack before the tennis. She paid almost £1 (€1.15) per cherry. It is precisely the sort of place where you would expect to find a neighbourhood watch party of plummy young professionals, nourished by lakes of Pimms and oddly-consumed Guinness, glued to the action at the All-England Lawn Tennis Club. But if a half-dozen cherries costs more than a fiver on Northcote Road, imagine just how much it costs to rent around there. Modest family homes on the neat little terraces nearby are priced at £5,000-£6,000 per month. Higher-end terraced properties top £10,000 per month. This is not Mayfair or Knightsbridge. Locals say it was a regular working community with regular prices to match until about 15 or 20 years ago. Now it is an increasingly elite enclave where extortion seems to be the norm. [ A van and a plan: House and furniture hunting in London is not for the faint of heart Opens in new window ] My wife and I called into a friend who is employed in one of the nearby charity shops and we marvelled together at the audacity of the Northcote Road vibe. If you want to gauge the sort of people who live locally, she said, just check out the men's shirts on display in her charity shop. Sure enough, they all had cufflinked sleeves. 'Local finance bros. They wear them a few times then donate them to us.' She said the rule of thumb for local estate agents in this particular area is that your income should be at least 3½ times the annual rent of the property. If a typical family home costs close to £70,000 per year, that meant a common household income in the area would be near £250,000. I looked again at the sweep of younger people gathered outside watching the tennis and concluded that if they weren't finance bros, they must be sharers living cheek-by-jowl just to make their monthly rent. Our friend working in the charity shop recently moved to Crystal Palace, a grittier part of south London. Even there, rents for ordinary homes are spiralling out of her reach. Her longer-term plan is to move to Poole, a seaside town in Dorset, two hours south of London. She said she could earn the same salary working in the retail industry there as she could in London, yet she could also halve her rent. She was resigned to the fact of being inched further and further from the liveable core of her beloved home city. 'There are communities like Northcote Road all over London. These were ordinary places. But the ordinary people are being forced out.' The Labour government of Keir Starmer has staked its future on building 1.5 million new homes by the time of the next election in four years' time. About £39 billion has also been set aside for affordable housing, albeit over the next decade. Many of the new homes are earmarked for outer suburban areas and greenbelt zones where development has been stifled for years. But officials in London have also lobbied for a chunk of the funding to be spent on homes in hollowed-out inner-city communities. Gentrification driven by higher property prices is a phenomenon of every vibrant city. But it is a particular feature of life in London, a city that is really more of a bubble with its own unique, baffling economic climate.
Metro
14-07-2025
- Climate
- Metro
Huge plumes of smoke over London as wildfire ravages country park
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video A huge tower of smoke can be seen over London as 125 firefighters try to stop a raging wildfire from engulfing a country park. Locals are being evacuated as fire engines try to douse the out-of-control grass fire in Beam Valley Country Park in Dagenham. London Fire Brigade (LFB) say the area is around eight hectares of grass, shrubland and trees, as well as fences and garden furniture. An LFB spokesman said: 'Residents are advised to keep their doors and windows shut due to the smoke and the public is advised to avoid the area due to road closures.' The cause of the fire is not known at this stage. MORE: Three arrested after 'loving' father stabbed to death outside Knightsbridge casino MORE: I'm the tennis-mad fan who proposed on Henman Hill at Wimbledon MORE: 'I'm camping for 8 days to see Billie Eilish – I promise I don't stink'
IOL News
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- IOL News
Wimbledon etiquette gone awry: how a champagne cork stole the spotlight from Amanda Anisimova
Amanda Anisimova (right) shakes hands with Coco Gauff after winning at the end of their women's singles tennis match at Wimbledon in 2022. Image: Sebastien Bozon / AFP Wimbledon is steeped in British tradition - from standing in long queues to watch matches through to sipping Pimms and scoffing back strawberries and cream - but the popping of champagne corks is what has been on everyone's lips this year. In an incident on Friday afternoon, world No 13 Amanda Anisimova was left fuming after her serving game against Hungarian opponent Dalma Galfi was rudely interrupted by the loud pop of a champagne cork on No 3 Court. Anisimova could be heard exclaiming: "Why did you have to open that right now?" Then came the umpire's call to the enthusiastic crowd: "Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, if you could avoid opening bottles of champagne when the players are about to serve." In the video, a pundit can be heard saying they "loved that", adding that it was "the most Wimbledon warning you've ever heard". Anisimova eventually bypassed Galfi 6-3, 5-7, 6-3. She told "Mail Sport": "I mean, it kept happening (champagne corks popping) "At some point, I was, like, 'Can everybody just do it on the changeover?' "It was a bit rowdy on that court, too, because you could hear everyone on the sides that are, like, outside of the court. It was definitely a bit distracting. "Then again, I have to just adjust, try and focus as much as I can. But it can be a little loud when people are doing their external things, but I love the atmosphere and the energy and the crowd supporting me, so it's been good." The famous "Henman Hill" at Wimbledon, but it was the popping of champagne corks that disrupted play. Image: Independent Media / Zaahier Adams
The Sun
08-07-2025
- Sport
- The Sun
BBC pundit Tim Henman's daughter BLOCKED from sitting on Henman Hill at Wimbledon
TIM HENMAN'S daughter was blocked from sitting on Henman Hill at Wimbledon. The All England Club was packed as Brit Cameron Norrie took on defending champion Carlos Alcaraz. 2 There was barely an empty seat inside Centre Court and there was not a patch of grass uncovered on Henman Hill. So many fans packed onto the famous lawn that it had to be shut by staff at the grounds. And that meant Henman's daughter was unable to access the hill named after her dad. Wimbledon icon Henman said on BBC commentary: "My daughter just messaged me saying it's shut. "They shut the hill because it's too busy and she can't get on it." Cameras panned out to show thousands of spectators catching a glimpse of the action on the big screen. After the first set, which was won by Alcaraz, presenter Clare Balding confirmed what Henman said. She added: "They have closed the hill because it is so busy. "Even his daughter could not get on the hill named after him I mean what?!" Henman and his wife Lucy Heald have three daughters - Rosie, 20, Olivia, 20, and Grace, 17.
Daily Mail
20-06-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
Jack Draper reaches semi-finals at Queen's in straight-sets win over Brandon Nakashima - and ensures VERY helpful seeding for Wimbledon
In his on-court interview after reaching a first semi-final on home soil, Jack Draper was asked whether we should rename Henman Hill in his honour and who he might face in the last four of Wimbledon. Safe to say we are all getting a bit carried away. But it is so far so good for the 23-year-old in his first British summer as a bona fide top player. For the second round in a row a deciding set was required but he got through doughty American Brandon Nakashima 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 and will play Czech Jiri Lehecka on Saturday for a place in the HSBC Championships final. He remains on a collision course with two-time Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz, who beat French lucky loser Arthur Rinderknech 7-5, 6-4. Draper has also guaranteed himself the No4 seeding at Wimbledon and, as was pointed out to him on court, cannot therefore not face Alcaraz or Jannik Sinner before the semi-finals. 'Last year going in ranked around 30, to be inside the top four come Wimbledon one year around, that's massive progress,' said Draper. 'A testament to my team, to the dedication I have had for tennis, the work I have put in on a daily basis. 'I live and breathe the sport. I'm obsessed with progressing, obsessed with becoming the player I want to become and achieving the things I want to.' As nice as it is to look ahead to potential Wimbledon semi-finals, Draper knows he will need to play an awful lot better to realise those dreams. He has been scratching around for his best form all week, searching for genuine conviction on his groundstrokes. Against Nakashima it was almost like, on the arena which bears the man's name, Draper was trying to play Andy Murray-style grass-court tennis: massaging the ball around, dinking drop shots and working the angles. As much as Draper's all-court game has developed over the last 12 months he is still a first-strike player, especially on this surface. He spent two months learning to grind it out on the clay and a part of his cortex still seems rooted in the dustbowls of mainland Europe. 'There are definitely glimpses of stuff,' said Draper of his form. 'My movement, the first week on grass is pretty difficult. I'm getting a little bit better each time. I don't know when it will come together but still doing well to be in the semis. Day by day, we'll see. 'It's such a hard adjustment from the clay but definitely I want to be more aggressive out there.' The good news is when facing adversity on his serve - as he frequently did - Draper went into beast mode, saving 10 out of 11 break points. He came from 0-40 down to serve out the first set and 15-40 down to serve out the match He hit 14 aces and landed 67 per cent of his first serves at an average speed of 123mph - with numbers like that Draper will take some beating on grass. The parochial hope was that Draper would have set up an all-British semi-final but his childhood friend and rival Jacob Fearnley lost 7-5, 6-2 to Lehecka in the first match of the day. The 23-year-old Scot looked understandably weary after a three-set win over Corentin Moutet on Thursday, the hottest day of the year, followed by a doubles win with Cam Norrie. It was only really in the second set when the wilt set in, though, and he would probably have taken the first were it not for eight double faults. From 3-1 up he served three in a game to be broken back, then three again at 5-5. 'He was serving great; I was serving terrible,' was Fearnley's succinct description of the match.
