PublishedNovember 1 2025
Stay informed with free updates
Simply sign up to the Property myFT Digest – delivered directly to your inbox.
If there is a theme that connects the stories in this issue, it is that of reinvention. Colman Domingo is the ultimate chameleon, as comfortable in Broadway musicals in razzle-dazzle showman mode as he is in quieter, more cerebral roles. Now 55, Domingo has been nominated for two Academy Awards and two Tonys, and has won an Emmy. He can do broad comedy, Shakespeare and contemporary drama – his performance in Sing Sing was among my favourites of last year. This month he turns up in The Running Man, another remake of the dystopian Stephen King novel about a gameshow, in whi…
PublishedNovember 1 2025
Stay informed with free updates
Simply sign up to the Property myFT Digest – delivered directly to your inbox.
If there is a theme that connects the stories in this issue, it is that of reinvention. Colman Domingo is the ultimate chameleon, as comfortable in Broadway musicals in razzle-dazzle showman mode as he is in quieter, more cerebral roles. Now 55, Domingo has been nominated for two Academy Awards and two Tonys, and has won an Emmy. He can do broad comedy, Shakespeare and contemporary drama – his performance in Sing Sing was among my favourites of last year. This month he turns up in The Running Man, another remake of the dystopian Stephen King novel about a gameshow, in which Domingo plays its messianic host. He’ll then appear as Daddy Jackson in the Michael Jackson biopic. As someone who found fame well into his career, he is anxious to let no chance go to waste.
Actor Colman Domingo in Harlem © Andre D Wagner
Domingo is also a keen follower of fashion. For our shoot with Andre D Wagner and stylist Wilow Diallo, he gamely danced through the boiling streets of Harlem wearing huge shaggy faux-furs and fitted woollen suits. “I love to dress,” says the actor, who was a co-chair at this year’s Met Gala in celebration of the Costume Institute’s Superfine: Tailoring Black Style exhibition. “It’s truly simple storytelling, and I love to inspire other people to do the same.”
Gabriel Chipperfield at Sol’s restaurant on Leinster Terrace, Bayswater © Max Miechowski
Reinvention is also the theme of this week’s property section, in which we visit places that have been regenerated by developers who claim to be as focused on reviving communities as they are their own financial gain. Put a decent restaurant on a neglected street and you can totally reboot an area: it’s a theory that Gabriel Chipperfield has been banking on across his myriad projects, his latest being the development of Leinster Terrace in Bayswater, now invigorated with restaurants, a florist and a small number of flats. Known as placemaking, it’s an effort by modern developers to try to transform depleted areas. Chipperfield has some form, especially in Margate, and with this and the redevelopment of former department store Whiteleys it will be intriguing to see how the Bayswater project progresses in further months.
The Parchment Works, Northamptonshire, with an extension by Will Gamble Architects © Johan Dehlin
Perhaps you are considering the purchase of a crumbling building? Rather than obliterating the original features, growing numbers of homeowners are trying to make an architectural feature of their ruins. Cathy Hawker looks at some of the more successful projects: Will Gamble Architects, for example, helped transform The Parchment Works in Northamptonshire using two transparent glass boxes. Other architects have made a virtue of tilting roofs, missing padstones and other states of dereliction using interventions that even satisfy the inspectors of the Heritage at Risk Register at Historic England.
Two bento lunchboxes by Sara Kiyo Popowa © Sara Kiyo Popowa
Lastly, would you like to reinvent your lunchbox? And yes, I can see you sniggering at the back. I mean, of course, the packed lunch, believed by chef Alice Waters and a host of ardent proponents to be a receptacle of love. Waters says that preparing the perfect lunch means its recipient “understands intuitively that they are cared for and valued”. Which has set Ajesh Patalay on a journey through a new wave of cookbooks dedicated to beautifully curated rainbow salads, bountiful bento boxes and “fetamole” dips.
Sadly, it’s a little too late for me to administer such lavish culinary affection. My record for packed lunches is middling to grim. My poor daughter would no doubt be the first to tell you that she was subjected to the same old crusty cheese sandwich, apple and a yoghurt throughout her entire school career.
Want to read HTSI before everyone else? Get all the top stories straight to your inbox every Friday. Sign up to our free weekly newsletter here