St Paul's Cathedral, one of Britain's most spectacular buildings, has been fully restored to its glory as a 15-year renovation finally came to an end, reported news.yahoo.com. For the first time for years, Londoners were able to see the historic building without the hindrance of scaffolding. St Paul's, which sits atop Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London financial district, is the capital's architectural centrepiece and dominated the skyline before the era of tower blocks. The US$ 58 million restoration project, one of the largest ever undertaken in Britain, has been completed in time to mark the giant cathedral's 300th anniversary. What has been the first comprehensive restoration of the cathedral began in summer 1996. Work has included landscaping the South Churchyard gardens, restoring the Grand Organ and adding wheelchair access to the crypt and Whispering and South Triforium Galleries. Throughout, the bells peeled and services were uninterrupted. The smoke and filth of three centuries of London pollution had left the exterior blackened and damaged, but this has now been completely cleaned. More than 150,000 blocks of Portland stone were restored. Designed by Christopher Wren and built in grey Portland limestone, like many of London's most significant buildings, the Renaissance-style cathedral took 36 years to complete. It replaced the previous St Paul's, built by the Normans, which was gutted in the 1666 Great Fire of London. Construction of this great building was completed in 1711. The funerals of wartime heroes the Duke of Wellington, Horatio Nelson and Winston Churchill took place there, as did the 1981 wedding of Prince Charles and Diana Spencer.

As reported by news agency Reuters, the building of the 12,000-seat basketball arena for the London 2012 Olympics has been completed. The temporary stadium took 15 months to build and is the fourth venue at the Olympic Park to be finished, with a test event to be held there in August. The 115 meters long and 35 meters high, the white-clad arena is one of the largest temporary venues ever used for an Olympic Games and will be dismantled afterwards to be reused elsewhere. Building began in October 2009, with work to erect the 1,000-tonne steel frame starting in March 2010. The venue, completed on budget (US$ 69 billion), will hold the Olympic Park's first test event when six top men's teams (Britain, Australia, China, Croatia, France and Serbia) play in an International Invitational tournament from August 16-21. Other Olympic Park venues already finished are the main stadium, the velodrome and the handball arena.

According to Arabian business, Britain's rich are selling up and moving out of central London, replaced by super-wealthy buyers from regions such as the Middle East, China, and India, new research found. Real estate consultancy Savills said foreign buyers inject some US$6 billion into London property each year, the bulk of which - US$ 4.4 billion - is used to snap up homes in billionaire markets such as Mayfair, Kensington, and Chelsea. The biggest spenders in the capital come from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, putting down US$ 10.3 million on average. Buyers from the Middle East and North Africa are among the biggest spenders on high-end property, holding a 10 percent share of prime central London real estate and with an average spend of US$ 6.7 million, Savills said. By value, MENA homeowners hold 13 percent of London's most expensive property. Indian buyers, who make up nine percent of all buyers, spend US$ 5.7 million while Chinese, widely tipped as the next group to arrive in force, spending US$ 3.7 million on average. The British spend, on average, US$ 2.5 million on prime London property, Savills said. As reported by Arabian business, UK owners are disinvesting and moving out of the central areas, taking their equity with them. Central London is becoming more international as these (foreign) buyers tend to hold their stock for longer than their UK counterparts. For example One Hyde Park, the UK's priciest real estate project, has sold nearly a quarter of its apartments to wealthy Arab buyers. Between 20-25 percent of sales were to Middle East buyers, with the cheapest apartment in the development costing US$ 9.2 million.

The last piece of turf was laid on Tuesday at the Olympic Stadium, symbolising the completion of building work on the 80 000-seat flagship venue for the 2012 London Games. Former Olympic sprinter Frank Fredericks used a shovel to lay down the symbolic last piece of grass on the infield, 16 months before next year's games. London organisers and International Olympic Committee officials visited the stadium to mark the milestone. Fredericks was among the members of the IOC coordination commission taking part in the ceremony at the Olympic Park in east London. The IOC panel is making its eighth visit to London to check on preparations for the games. Construction on the $777-million stadium began in May 2008. "The Olympic Stadium has been finished on time and under budget," Olympic Delivery Authority chairperson John Armitt said. A total of 360 rolls of turf were needed to cover the 9 000-square metre infield. The surface of the running track will be laid later this year. "We wouldn't want anyone to run away with the idea that this stadium is ready to stage an Olympic track and field championship tomorrow," organising committee chairperson Sebastian Coe said. "With one year and a few months to go, this is a great place to be."

Today is the Grand Opening of One Hyde Park, the most expensive residential development in the world. It is situated in London's Knightsbridge and consists of 4 main buildings connected to each other with total area of 65000sg.m. The development consists of 86 luxury apartments and three boutiques. In the late 2006 an old building on today's development site was demolished and the main construction work was carried in 2007- 2010. The One Hyde Park was designed by Rogers Stirk Harbor + Partners, an exclusive interior design was made by Candy & Candy, and Laing O'Rourke was the General contractor. The luxurious residential development is owned by Project Grande Guernsey Limited (PGGL), a joint venture between Candy&Candy - the company of the famous luxury home developer brothers Nick Candy and Christian Candy, and Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani - the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Qatar. Project was financed via development loan from German Eurohypo AG bank. Maintenance of the development will carry the neighboring Mandarin Oriental hotel which is the first "residential experience" for the company in Europe. There are about 350 guests invited to the Opening for who cooked the celebrity chefs Heston Blumenthal and Daniel Boulud. Despite the continuing steady decline in the cost of housing in the UK, the price of apartments in One Hide Park starting at around £ 20 million, and late last summer one of its penthouses have been sold for a record sum for the country, at £ 140 million (approximately US$ 222m). The six-bedroom Penthouse stretches across two floors and has a wonderful panoramic view through bullet-proof windows to the main sight of Hyde Park- Serpentine Lake. Despite 24 hour protection from SAS-trained security guards, this apartment also equipped with so-called "safe room", where you can hide in the event of a break-in, home invasion, or other threat (as in the American thriller "Panic Room" by David Fincher). Name of the purchaser of this penthouse is kept in strict confidence, but some high-end realtors suggest a possible buyer from the Middle East or Nigeria.