Back in 2007, we reported on plans by Declan "Dec" Donnelly to renovate his Chiswick home so that it would match the Chiswick home of Anthony "Ant" McPartlin, which can be found, conveniently, a few doors away. The neighbours weren't happy, was the story, and I'm not surprised. A whole street can be tainted by that kind of weirdness. I didn't think Dec would get away with it... but apparently - and a little bit creepily - he has:

Just so visitors can tell the difference, Ant's is on the left and Dec's is on the right - the positions the pair religiously follow in their public appearances.

And there's nothing like mock-Edwardian when you want everyone to know you've arrived.

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I used to live a stone's throw from Charing Cross hospital... and remember watching plans for their specialist cancer centre closely. Architecture's all about form and function, which is why Maggies Centre won the Stirling. No Stirlings for Poundbury, eh, Charles?

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It's a plan apparently being considered by Hammersmith & Fulham Council.

The plans comprise a building that is divided into five and 10 storeys fronting Shepherd's Bush Road, with shops and more than 2,800 square metres of leisure space, according to a planning statement. There will be some 429 student studios, singles and doubles.

Expect more news in November.

Technorati Tags: development, London, property, real estate

Colonel Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi has bought a plush pad in Hampstead. Here's how the Mail on Sunday managed to paint a picture of a venue fit for a Bond villain:

The neo-Georgian eight-bedroom property bought by Saif al-Islam Gaddafi in a secluded road in Hampstead, North London, boasts a swimming pool, sauna room, Jacuzzi and suede-lined cinema room where he will be able to monitor world events.

... while stroking a long-haired white cat. He might choose to watch Laurel & Hardy films while he's in there, too, but they're probably right. He'll mainly use it to monitor world events. What's the country coming to?

Meanwhile, it gets worse. Over at the Telegraph, that final bastion of opera-loving, Jag-driving, University town murder-solving Englishness Inspector Morse has had his elegant home redesigned redneck-style by a bunch of hapless squatters:

Members of the Inspector Morse Appreciation Society regularly travel to see the historic house, which was once worth well over £2 million. But they have been horrified to find that the one-time delightful 19th century mansion now lies derelict with boarded-up windows and doors a far cry in from its TV heyday. The Polish squatters stripped valuable fittings from the house and have left its overgrown gardens strewn with discarded junk furniture and other rubbish.

Interestingly, the house isn't in Oxford, it's in Ealing.

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

A freedom of information request by Andrew Slaughter, MP for Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush, shows notes of presentations to senior Tory figures made by Stephen Greenhalgh, Tory leader of Hammersmith and Fulham council, which suggest limiting social housing to the old, infirm and disabled in a bid to solve the "concentration of deprivation".

Also among the recommendations: enforced "downsizing" for single tenants, perhaps to rooms in shared houses, and five-yearly reviews of personal circumstances, and the demolition of the some of the boroughs housing estates. Labour MP Andrew Slaughter has accused the Tory borough of "social cleansing". Council officers have denied contributing, other than by providing facts.

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

A little-known regional index (no, not house prices) was published by the Communities and Local Government Department a couple of days ago. It's the happiness index... how happy are you living where you do. The City came out tops, with a 92.4% swellness rating, narrowly beating Richmond upon Thames into second place. Richmond - clearly taking this kind of crap far too seriously - has fought back... calling the City "statistically insignificant" because of its sub-10,000 population, and proclaiming itself the swellest place in the country. Incidentally, the least swell place in the country was also in London... sorry, Barking and Dagenham (56.6%).

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That's right, "boost". Counter-intuitive, but here's the (possibly flawed) reasoning:

Real estate experts at Jones Lang LaSalle claim expansion is excellent news for the property market in the Western Corridor as it signals its willingness to back a major infrastructure project in west London. Maninder Grewal, manager of Landmark property services in Parklands Parade, Hounslow, agreed and told the Chronicle: "Now expansion has been given the go ahead, it is sure to increase house prices in the area. It will bring more business and more jobs, meaning a higher demand for homes.

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I drive past these regularly, and love the look of them. The Times' Anne Ashworth pays a visit to one, and asks why it's not selling. There's apparently no traffic noise, no Talgarth Road grime; the big windows were designed for the young artists who originally lived in this row and apparently do just what you'd imagine... let in loads of light. My own guess? The price. The owners apparently bought the place for £458,700 in 2000. Admittedly, it seems they've done a huge amount of work on the house, but an asking price of £1.75m now is probably doing them few favours. Still... it's lovely.

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"What downturn?" asks Jasper Conran. His Chiswick Mall (those nice ones by the river... occasional flooding, a few good pubs, huge bay windows, views over an island) house has recently sold for £12.5m, breaking its own record (£7.25m) as the biggest Chiswick deal ever. Walpole House is set back from the road... it's an ex-home for vagrant girls and an ex-boys' school (the model, apparently, for Miss Pinkerton's Academy). Conran bought it just two years ago. Asking prices in Chiswick have been hit harder than most. According to Land Registry documents Conran sold the house on May 30.

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Apparently, Lambeth Council have "take action" against as many as 400 squatters who were reported to have taken control of a south London housing estate called Limerick Close, emptied, but not secured, by the authorities. According to locals, the place had been turned into party central... music late into the night, bottles and bombfires everywhere. The news is that bailiffs with battering rams paid a visit to the site, and encouraged the squatter to leave. But when people leave one place, they have a habit of turning up elsewhere. It's physics. In this instance, they've turned up at William Gardens, in Putney, where they've taken control of a Ministry of Defence building, recently used by soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate