Murdoch bought it for £10m, Marcus Cooper's paying £200m for it, but plans to build houses worth £500m on it. It's Wapping, and it's about to enter its next phase of development. More here.

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

Apparently, the light's "special". It's the George Tavern on Commercial Road. Plans to knock down next door's Stepney's nightclub (mmm, sounds nice) and replace it with affordable housing has left the George's landlady concerned about the future of her pub. Moss and a band of east London fashionistas are also concerned... the pub's also used as an impromptu venue for fashion shoots. Go here for a picture of Moss in a campaigning t-shirt.

Technorati Tags: celebrity, London, property, real estate

Forget about Celebrity Big Brother, reality TV is about to get interesting in Shoreditch, where the Shoreditch Trust is considering a plan to link up the borough's huge network of CCTV cameras into a giant broadband-linked security channel residents of the borough's housing estates will be able to watch on their tellies. Called Shoreditch Digital Bridge, it will offer viewers a Community Safety Channel, plus a "Usual Suspects" ASBO line-up... a kind of Shoreditch's Most Wanted. Experts foresee problems with privacy rules, but if the plan goes ahead, the Rat and Mouse predicts demand from boroughs right across London, where snooping on the neighbours from the comfort of one's own sofa will surely prove the hit of 2006. More, here.

A good school could not only get your children into university, but help pay their way too according to this new piece of research from Hometrack. Improving schools (as judged by the DfES) improve the value of the properties in their catchment areas - radically! London's most improved is in Stepney Way, E1, and here property prices have increased since 2001 by 56% within the catchment area as opposed to 13% outside. The next best is in St Pauls Way, E3, where the differential is 35% to 13%. (its all happening out East these days). I guess it pays to get involved in the PTA.