... with their incessant building and bragging and odd-smelling organic cheeses and expensive handbags. Except mainly the building. According to today's Times, the City of London, guardians of the Heath, are warning that the character and peace of the place is under threat from a spate of extensions and home improvements which will loom over the capital's favourite parkland, and offer the toffs uninterrupted views of ladies bathing in the ladies' pond and men coupling in the bushes. More here.

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

According to this trip around 61/2 Redington Road in Hampstead, it's had half the Arsenal team sniffing around its fingerprint entry system, floor-to-ceiling glazing and Ralph Lauren bed. It's a remarkable place... four bedrooms, John McAslan and Partners design, double garage... with Quintessentially Estates, guide price £6m (although I can't find any sign of it on their website... if you want pictures, go here for the Telegraph slideshow). It's apparently not so remarkable it hasn't been on the market for a while, though. Here's a piece from June, and the Times, welcoming the property to the market.

Technorati Tags: architecture, design, London, property, real estate

New England manager Fabio Capello is, apparently, house-hunting; and if rumours are true he's taken a shine to Sven Goran Eriksson's old Regent's Park mansion. Don't do it, say the fans. That place is cursed!

Technorati Tags: celebrity, London, property, real estate

Just a reminder... Open House weekend takes place September 15/16 in London. Among the 600 properties opening their doors to the great unwashed is 27A Redington Road in Hampstead... an unconventional eco house designed by Monahan Blythen. The Rat and Mouse was entirely unfamiliar with the property... until we found this informative piece in the Telegraph.

Technorati Tags: architecture, London, property, real estate

Lucy Denyer - writing in yesterday's Sunday Times - had the scoop on East Weald... a 17-bedroom Bishops Avenue house with indoor and outdoor pools which was bought by Andreas Panayiotou last year for £14m, and is currently getting the interior (and exterior) design equivalent of a steroid injection. Neighbours can expect to witness the delivery of all kinds of Italian marble, and the panic room will benefit from a toilet... which the Rat and Mouse considers only sensible. Glentree Estates believe the house - when finished - could fetch £85m. Panayiotou talks to Denyer here.

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

The money, that is, from a successful short-term flip on a New York apartment... they've spent it on the adjoining property to their Belsize Park home, apparently. This kind of property expansion... it's clearly a trend. We need to think of a good name for it immediately.

Technorati Tags: celebrity, London, New York, property, real estate

Intercontinental chef Theo Randall takes the Independent around his Chalk Farm Victorian and they end up, inevitably, in the kitchen... where stainless steel (good for wiping) and Smeg (good for crackling) come out of it well. Randall likes to cook in his garden too. In fact, in the summer months, there's nothing he likes more than to pop outside and spit roast a chicken.

Technorati Tags: property, London, real estate

Building Design [free subscription required] praises designers Gustafson Porter for their landscaping vision for Swiss Cottage. And after the Diana Memorial debacle, a bit of a stroke is presumably just what the Anglo-American firm need the most. The plan - announced tomorrow - is said to be an ambitious exercise in planting. Oh yeah - plus a granite water feature.

They can't expand up in Hampstead (planning restrictions) so, if you'll pardon the expression, they're going down. The Ham & High reports on the number of basement excavations currently taking place in the posh suburb. But over at the Heath and Hampstead Society, they say enough is enough. Basement excavations are apparently endangering the structural integrity of neighbouring houses, as well as damaging tree roots.

Because, according to this, he's just arrived back from New York (where he made the fairly basic mistake of reporting a burglary and then forgetting to hide his stash before the police came around looking for evidence), and the US banker currently renting his Hampstead home won't play ball and clear out. He's currently in a London hotel, but what he'd really like is a bit of home comfort where he can properly hide his stash and make a nice cup of tea. All offers to the usual address.

Wherever he lays his hat [August 31]

So the million pound council house was in SW3, and the £700,000 council flat is in Primrose Hill. The Mirror is making a serious fuss about this Victorian duplex, built and previously owned by the council. But, come on, it's a period three bedroom flat with a garden in a nice north London area, not the kind of 1950s box that almost cracked seven figures in Chelsea... where's the story? Oh yeah, it's that an estate agent named after a character from "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" could have such a great list.