Recently by Tom Derbyshire

Property tips column

Providing additional space in your home requires special considerations. In some cases extra rooms in the roof may be an appropriate solution.

Otherwise you may consider a single or two-storey extension, or perhaps a straightforward garden room or conservatory would suffice.

Whichever you chose it could be a lot less costly and stressful than moving home.

London’s waterways have been subject to frenzied regeneration of late but the banks of the Thames have seen most of the action. Now, with the Olympics just over four years away, east London’s maze of waterways is undergoing a renaissance with schemes such as Caspian Wharf on the banks of Limehouse Cut in Bow.

Planning permission and funding is being granted to build on the banks of the waterways, complemented by many of the original warehouses being brought back to life. One of the new-build developments is Caspian Wharf – Berkeley Homes (South East London) Ltd’s apartment block.

After a year-long intermission while he was touring the world as King Lear, Limehouse resident Sir Ian McKellen has returned to his blog, the popular “E-POST” at www.mckellen.com.

Months before the British International Motor Show opens at ExCeL in the Royal Docks (public days from July 23 to August 3), a sneak preview of the exhibition’s main attractions is already available online.

Visitors to www.britishmotorshow.co.uk can navigate around a fully interactive map which highlights the must-see features at the event.

PILATES pro Karen Hall has been helping Wharfers get in shape and limber up for the last year.

Karen runs sessions at the Exceptional Health centre, off Marsh Wall, teaching pilates to anyone from pregnant women to serious golfers wanting to improve their swing.

She’s a familiar face at Sweaty Betty in Cabot Place, where she holds sessions every Wednesday.

She also writes for fitness magazines and is training to run a half marathon later this year.

Karen likes jazz music and even plays the trumpet in a friend’s band. She’s a fan of the great outdoors and spent the weekend digging at her family’s allotment.

Nominate yourself or someone you know to be a Face of the Week by
emailing kay.harrison@wharf.co.uk.
Each Face will receive a bottle of wine or two cocktails and snacks at wonderful West India Quay bar and restaurant 1802.

For an update from the Docklands Sailing and Watersport Centre activities in April see the longer version of this entry...

HUNDREDS of lorry journeys a week should be avoided thanks to a new device giving barges access to the Olympic site for 2012 Games construction.

A fishbelly gate was delivered to Prescott’s Lock, part of the Bow Back Rivers on the edge of the 2012 Games area, on March 17. The gate, which gets its name from its distinctive shape, will
control the flow of water through the lock at the site above Three Mills.

It will create a green gateway for barges entering the Olympic Park as construction work on the 2012 venues is stepped up later this year, helping to stop east London roads being clogged up
by trucks.

With just over a month to go until the London mayor election, we invited the main candidates to tell us what they would do to tackle the issues affecting Canary Wharf and Docklands.

The Mayor, with the Greater London Authority, has control of some of the key aspects of London life, including transport, planning and culture. Ken Livingstone had his say when he visited Canary Wharf with the Prime Minister last Thursday (March 20) – see here – so we asked Conservative candidate Boris Johnson and the Lib Dem’s Brian Paddick what they will do for Wharfers. Questions from Simon Hayes

Diarmuid Gavin, Naomi Cleaver, Matt James and Jason Bradbury will be joining Kevin McCloud at this year’s Grand Designs Live London at ExCeL London.

Fans of the TV show should put a date in their diaries for May 3-11, when the event at ExCeL in the Royal Docks will be held for a fourth year.

New homes buyers in the south are faced with stamp duty bills that are £7,533 higher than those in the north, based on the current average price of a new home recorded in February.

The figures come from the latest SmartNewHomes.com index, revealing that the average residential stamp duty bill is nearly five times higher in the south than in the north.

The most expensive stamp duty bill is in Greater London at £12,184 and the least expensive is in the East Midlands at £2,130.