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Area: W1
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Courtney Love loves Hyde Park.
"I am going to move here. I am getting a house in New York and a house in the UK. A flat, anyway."
Between the second sentence and the third, presumably she typed W1 into Primelocation.
Technorati Tags: celebrity |
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It started on Facebook... a simple little invite to a few friends, meeting at a Mayfair mansion they didn't own. And it ended up with 2,000 revelers having their party ruined by police in riot gear, concerned the property was actually going to collapse, due to the number of people clinging to its exterior and climbing onto its roof. More here. According to the Guardian:
The police spokesman said: "Inquiries are under way to establish who the organisers were."
Perhaps they should start their enquiries with the Guardian, where the two organisers are interviewed at length.
Fox said: "I've never seen that many people, except at festivals. As we were leaving the police said 'it's all kicking off you'd better get out of here'. They didn't know we had organised the party and were responsible for this chaos around us."
Doh! The organisers believe that the property's co-owned by HSBC, and the event was intended to be part protest, part squat, part old-fashioned rave. Could this be the start of a new chapter in the ongoing Mayfair squat story?
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate |
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That's what owners of empty and derelict Mayfair properties are being told... sell now, before a bunch of useless key workers take up residence in your lovely empty, decaying mansion. Read here about "chastened" commercial property developer Simon Halabi and his boarded up four-storey Georgian house at 21 Charles Street... new to the market at £30.5m if anyone's interested. The place is in such a state, the particulars carry an artist's impression.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate |
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And in Belgravia, no less.
The air is thick with dust; I notice large streaks of it are smeared across the back of Trevor's overcoat.
Filthy bloody Bohemians.
Actually, Eve's apparently an amateur architecture nut, and is elbows deep in townhouse restoration. The Telegraph gets the interesting early viewing that should - by rights - have gone to the Rat and Mouse. On second thoughts...
There is nowhere for us to sit; Sharon, who starred in Holby City and played opposite Trevor in the most recent series of WTD, moves a builder's half-eaten sandwich off a large cardboard box. "Don't sit there," Trevor says. "That's a speaker." So we hover by the large bow window at the end of the room, and look out across the garden, which is the reason they bought the house in South Eaton Place 18 months ago. "We'd never seen a rear aspect like this..."
And that, after playing opposite Claire Goose in Waking The Dead... Anyway, it's an interesting piece, and there's the making there for a very fine Belgravia townhouse.
Technorati Tags: celebrity, London, property, real estate |
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The Telegraph locates the smallest house in Mayfair, 9 New Burlington Place (pictured, above), a compact two-story one-bedroom pad in just about the coolest location in the west. And how compact is the price? It's listed at £750,000, particulars here.
Meanwhile, the original location for Mayfair's iconic In and Out Club is also for sale. 94 Piccadilly has been standing vacant, apparently, while Anglo Swiss Holdings planned to open an exclusive £50,000 a year private members' club at the address. For some reason interest is waining. More here.
Staying Mayfair, if you're looking for somewhere suitably spooky to spend tomorrow night, Metro explains why Mayfair's The Grenadier might not be a bad choice.
This Mayfair boozer's spooksome claim to fame involves the tale of an 18th century officer caught cheating at cards. He was flogged to death and his ghost still roams the pub keeping an eye out for devious punters. Strange clouds of cigar smoke and poltergeist-like activity have been reported.
If that's not spooky enough, how about The Killers' dungeon? What?
It’s 3pm on a Friday but in Michael Gleason’s cellar it could be the middle of the night. The vaulted room beneath Farm Street in Mayfair is one of London’s hippest party haunts; Brandon Flowers, lead singer of the Killers, has nicknamed it “Michael’s dungeon”.
Nice. Lucky Gleason wasn't called Fred. Or Josef. Anyway, Michael's moving to Dublin so he's looking for a tenant for the three-bedroom house plus wine cellar (pictured below) and dungeon. It's with Knight Frank, at £5,500 per week. Particulars here.
Finally. Primelocation offers a useful guide to dealing with squatters. Essential reading - perhaps - in Mayfair.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate |
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The six-storey buildings, one the former Mexican embassy, the other the former Tanzanian High Commission, have been taken over by a collective known as 'The Oubliette', which dedicates itself to finding large work spaces for struggling artists.
And, judging by the photograph in the Telegraph, they're pretty house-proud. Not the usual needles, Cider soft bottles and dog shit interior design concept here... rather, they've gone for the minimalist look, cleaning the place up, and I like it. They're now seeking like-minded artists to come in and make the buildings useful.
Squatter hits Billionaires' Row, claims to be doing owners' a favour [July 15, 2009]
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate |
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A court in Southwark has been hearing the case of two Mayfair mansion block neighbours at war. Simon Carson - a founder of London & Argyll property group - was so outraged by alleged constant noise and building work from his upstairs neighbour commercial estate agent Simon Korn that he threatened him with an antique Samurai sword. Fearing for his life, Korn grabbed at the blade, cutting himself in the process, and the two fell to the floor in an undignified middle-aged grapple. At which point, the wives got down to a bit of pushing. More here and here.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate |
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A prime, Mayfair freehold at 14 Charles Street (plus 12A Hays Mews) goes under the hammer on July 22 in what's described as "a residential receivership sale". Unusual? Yes, for the quality of the property, which has a guide price of £22m. The property's over six floors, with a lift, an underground (under the garden) swimming pool, linking the house to the mews. The house itself has been completely refurbished, the mews is yet to be worked on... but there's planning consent for a mixed office/residential use building. We can't find a listing yet, but when we do, we'll post it. Hamptons and Sothebys are dealing with the auction.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate |
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"There were two things I could become - an estate agent or a politician. Those are the only two jobs for people who know nothing."
Don't beat about the bush, Mr Moss.
Actually, he turned landlord, amassing tens of millions in property, and 43 London tenants, according to the Independent profile. There are some interesting details about his own gaff, too... a £3m plus house behind Hyde Park Corner, replete with gadgets, including a carbon fibre (yes, F1-manufactured) lift and a motorised table that rises and falls from the ceiling. Very boys' toys.
Technorati Tags: celebrity, London, property, real estate |
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Land Securities will build 39 flats in a nine-storey block, overlooking Selfridges. It's a Hamiltons-designed building... it looks pretty... and it will also contain shopping and offices. There'll be a delay, while the developers deal with any appeals against the hotly-contested building decision, and then - according to this - they'll be pressing on with the first major Oxford Street development in 40 years just as soon as they can pin down the contractors. Flats are expected to cost from £2m. The building replaces Park House. Go here for some great pictures.
Technorati Tags: architecture, design, development, London, property, real estate |
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From the Winter 2009 London Residential Review:
The slightly clichéd assumption made by estate agents is that a weak market leads to a "flight to quality" as purchasers concentrate on "best in class" properties that are likely to retain their value. Conversations with investors and more market savvy purchasers at thee current time reveals [sic] that the market downturn is providing them with opportunities to buy into future growth areas.
Where?! Where?!
The document namechecks Fitzrovia (not just Fitzroy Square, but "more peripheral" locations), Bloomsbury (when Kings Cross eventually pulls its pants up), Paddington ("properties on a par with Notting Hill") and the South Bank.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate |
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But it's not for our money, it's for foreign money, which is worth so much more these days. The agent's Marsh & Parsons, the branch manager will be ex-Chesterton, ex-Foxtons Guy Major, who also wins the Most Masculine Name In London Property Award. More here.
Technorati Tags: estate agents, London, property, real estate, real estate agents |
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Gone, from Park Lane and Clarges Mews. Daily Mail readers can sleep easy once more. While they were there, the squatters had been giving classes in a range of skills, from bicycle maintenance to dancing the charleston.
Outside the Park Lane properties yesterday the squatters threw carpets out of the windows as they waited for bailiffs to arrive.
And they left on flying carpets.
The squatting continues, reaches Park Lane [January 22, 2009]
Thursday lunchtime linkage - squatting, letting, committing, admitting [January 22, 2009]
Boomtime for squatters in London [January 9, 2009]
Posh squatters invite Daily Mail into Mayfair mansion [November 7, 2008]
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate |
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Remember the Grosvenor Street squatters who, toward the end of last year, helped themselves to a piece of prime Mayfair real estate, moved in and drove the Daily Mail nuts with their flagrant disregard for everything that's sacred in this country? Anyway, they were evicted. Or so we thought. Actually, it appears they've traded up the property ladder, leaving the frankly tatty £6m house for something much more suitable... a Clarges Mews property that sold for £22.5m at the height of the boom. The current owners (a management company) only realised the house had become occupied when a Christmas tree appeared in one of the windows. The temporary residents are hosting film screenings and a variety of free workshops at the property. Legal action has been taken. |
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Not just Reese Witherspoon but her partner Jake Gyllenhaal. They're apparently viewing in Mayfair.
Technorati Tags: celebrity, London, property, real estate |
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Said to be on the point of moving into a £20,000-a-month Mayfair rental... a hub for his family while he films a Robin Hood movie with Sienna Miller.
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In one of the nicest roads in the area, in our opinion, this Fitzrovia mews house belongs to talented ads and docs director Daniel Barber - who was recently Oscar-nominated for a short film - and it's with Hudson Property, listed at £1.85m. Four bedrooms over five floors, and immaculate inside... particulars here.
Meanwhile, no panic in Noho [May 13, 2008]
Technorati Tags: celebrity, London, property, real estate |
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There's an interesting piece in Homes & Property, predicting that current market woes are going to be no more than a temporary blip in the rise of the West End market. Here, the subject is Soho, the redevelopment of the St Martin's building, the Central St Giles project. And, of course, just plain Soho:
Behind the glaring cheap neon lights, much of old Soho is hidden. There is fine architecture — Queen Anne, Georgian and Victorian buildings — that is not immediately obvious, often being tucked away in narrow streets and alleys. Increasingly, pockets of property, neglected upper floors above shops and small buildings are being turned into flats and converted from offices to residential use.
Too right... peel off the hooker's facepaint and it's a beautiful part of London... perfectly situated, too. But isn't that facepaint what makes Soho Soho? And it's still one of the few places in town where you can find independent shops that aren't just catering for the Primrose Hill or Chiswick crowd... ie. that sell stuff you actually need. So the question remains... would it be possible to reinvent Soho as a family-friendly residential area in any way in which it remains recognisable?
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate |
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Not according to wealth-bulletin, a little journal us property blogging moguls like to peruse occasionally. The story is that hot-on-the-heels of the Candies' Noho Square development, there's a constant stream of art scene trendies and gallerinas finally flooding into a potentially important little pocket of the west that's somehow lacked identity for a very long time.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate |
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It's a reader find:
I came across a duplex apartment in Mayfair above commercial premises. Price: £7,500,000. I know that the stigma of living above commercial premises has become less of late, but I wonder if it's enough for someone to spend this sort of money.
He's right. It's pulling a whisker under £2,000 a square foot, but then it's Mayfair, and we think we've seen £3,000 a square foot in Belgravia.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate |
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According to the Daily Mail, Bruce Willis has been viewing a £30m penthouse in Park Lane. The rumour is he's about to settle down with his girlfriend, and Mayfair is where he wants to do it. Good choice, although exactly what Willis sees in the 29-year-old lingerie model he's dating we just can't work out.
Technorati Tags: celebrity, London, property, real estate |
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You know how it is. You really like a pub, you go there with your mates for a good old fashioned knees up, a bit of a Lambeth Walk, and then you think - sod it, it's only £5m and it's so convenient, just around the corner from my Mayfair home - I'll buy it. Madonna and Guy are now landlady and landlord of The Punchbowl in Farm Street. They bought the pub from Greg Foreman, son of London gangster Freddie Foreman.
Technorati Tags: celebrity, London |
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I've scoured the Sotheby's website but to no avail, so if anybody else can lay their mouse on the particulars, I'd be keen to hear from them. The story is that Sotheby's are marketing the Green Street (Mayfair) top floor flat rented for the Beatles by Brian Epstein in the autumn of '63, shortly after She Love You. It's the only property the Beatles stayed in together, and it's featured on the cover of The Beatles Book ('63 edition). Guide price: £1.75m.
UPDATE - THANKS TO MARK IN THE COMMENTS... A LINK.
If these walls could talk... Naked Chef edition (February 8, 2008]
Technorati Tags: celebrity, London, property, real estate |
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In Mayfair, according to the Telegraph, and I've got to trust their judgement on this, it's out with the fat old cigar smokers and in with the hip. Evidence? New clubs are opening, buzzy boutiques and restaurants, celebs are being spotted... oh... and this:
In the summer, [Richard] Cutt [of Knight Frank] sold a fabulous apartment in a modern development in Davies Street over Cipriani's at £2,300 per square foot. "The price last year for that flat was £1,300." And he is now marketing a smart three- bedroom flat in Green Street for £5 million, equating to £2,439 a square foot. This is one for the boys with all the toys - Lutron lighting, Creston sound system, Baulthaup kitchen, top of the range TVs and electronic blinds.
Meanwhile, even East Dulwich is continuing to distance itself from Peckham in every way it can short of tearing up the Earth's very crust and leaving a wide rupture along the A2214. According to resident Ginetta Vedrickas - also writing in the Telegraph - it's become so chi-chi it's in danger of just becoming chite. Foxtons have arrived, house prices are shooting up, and residents are concerned the area might be about to lose its character. Before leaving us to worry about the future of SE22, she does, however, point out a few tasty properties, including this rather special former bakery on Silvester Road, currently being used as an office but presumably - judging by the particulars - with a residential future. Guide price £750,000.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate |
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Mr Cent... I know exactly where you're coming from. Except I'd have to add the tubes are a cxxt. Apparently, 50 Cent is hot to become 25 Pence and find a place in Marylebone.
I have a top guy searching for the perfect house for me right now beside the Landmark Hotel, where I always stay. I love the Marylebone area, it's great around there.
Right on, 25. Here you go, mate:
[via SoundGenerator]
Technorati Tags: celebrity, London, property, real estate |
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Remember, back in March, we reported on this Great Cumberland Place house: ten bedrooms, four bathrooms, five reception rooms, a balcony and a party wall shared with Madonna? It was on the market for £5.75m, and the vendor was property developer Paul Davies. The news is... it's been sold... to Madonna. We can't - as yet - speculate on the price; but Davies is the ultimate shrewd operator, and Madonna is said to have spent eight months negotioting with him and fighting off interest from Mario Testino and Jennifer Saunders (separately... they're not, as far as we know, a couple). Whether Madonna intends to "knock through" or turn landlady isn't clear.
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Technorati Tags: celebrity, London, property, real estate |
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Westminster Council have awarded Ridgeford Properties consent to build more high-end flats and penthouses at 10 Weymouth Street in Marylebone. Ridgeford will be employing Ken Shuttleworth's Make practice, Work will start as soon as October and is scheduled to end in March 2009. Environmental features were said to be at the fore of the application, and include a "green meadow roof" and a ground source heat pump.
Technorati Tags: architecture, London |
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The International Herald Tribune turns its attention to the (always, we thought) competitive market for historic homes, and writes about a Mayfair house formerly belonging to America's second president (and the first to eventually occupy the White House), John Adams, when he was spoiling us as ambassador. There's a brief chat with developer Ben Carson, about how he's protecting the period features while installing Lutron lighting, electric curtains, under-floor heating and connected up audio-visual systems. Clearly, nobody's going to find a rough draft of A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States under these floorboards. I believe the house is 9 Grosvenor Square. If you're as nerdy as I am and want to read some fascinating detailed history of the building - its former owners, and even how much rent they paid - have a look at this.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate |
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It's 10 Park Street - pool, five bedrooms, an adjoining two-bedroom mews house and, oh yeah, use of the Rolls Royce Phantom thrown in. A Russian oligarch is apparently due to move in soon, but in the meantime, landlord Paul Davies doesn't think he's asking too much:
"We're close to a number of hotels and the top suites there are more much smaller than this and they sell for about £5,000 to £6,000 a day."
[via ITV News]
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate |
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It's on Great Cumberland Place, it's a Grade 2-listed house with ten bedrooms, four bathrooms, five reception rooms and a balcony, it needs complete renovation after being used as a clinic for a number of years, it's priced at £5.75m and... oh yeah... it shares a party wall with Madonna. Particulars here.
Technorati Tags: celebrity, London, property, real estate |
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Time for a bit of property porn: a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment on Mayfair's Upper Brook Street with five south-facing windows lighting up the reception room. The other walls are wood-paneled. It's in a block with lift and porter, and it's with Brompton, listed at £1.25 million. Particulars here.
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It's a studio , on the 3rd floor of a 1930s mansion block (Basildon Court) on Devonshire Street, Marylebone. Good, central location, communal roof terrace, hall, big window, fold-down bed and storage. It's with Stern Studios, listed at £199,950. Viewings are by appointment, lunchtime Friday 15, or lunchtime or 5.45-6.30pm Monday 18
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Actually, I'm not positive they were actually given the £12 million to spend... but they certainly went out on a property shopping fantasy, one to Belgravia, one to Mayfair. In Belgravia, £12 million bought 76 Eaton Square (above) - my own favourite of the two - and a sensibly modern reworking of giant three-bedroom apartment on the right side of the square. In Mayfair, the choice a slightly strange part- reconversion of a series of offices and flats back into a giant home comprising some of 44 and some of 46 next door. 44 Park Street (below) is by Northacre, and - named The Ambassadorial - goes the Ferrero Roche route in terms of ambience. Interestingly, though, there's a "curved first-floor ballroom" where Churchill once held cabinet meetings. Read the full piece here.
And here are a few photos from Northacre's Ambassadorial launch party. Security, it appears, wasn't what it should have been, and a bunch of women managed to sneak in disguised as fixtures and fittings.
  
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I don't buy the Times every day so I missed this one, but apparently the well-heeled residents of Mayfair's Upper Brook Street recently took out a two-page ad in the newspaper demanding that Westminster Council close the roads surrounding the neighbouring American Embassy. Six million pounds worth of security measures are about to be put in place to protect the area from its obvious terrorist attractions, but it's not enough. And - for Christ's sake - imagine this:
[A] resident, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Times that she was displeased with council plans for hydraulic bollards that can be raised during periods of high alert. "It's going to look like a prison," she said, adding that the authorities had not even had the decency to match railings with the existing gold ones.
What's the world coming to? The best bit's still to come:
A neighbour, Thea Haddad, understands, however. "It is going to be like living in the West Bank," claims the 29-year-old property developer, whose pillared doorstep is not far from the Embassy.
I'm sure it must be just like the West Bank. But that's only the very first layer of irony. Unwrap the others for yourself. And here's the piece. |
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The Guardian reports on the demise of top London madam Anne O'Brien, who was sentenced to community service yesterday for running busy brothels in residential areas in Mayfair and Marylebone. She was renting 164a Gloucester Place; but the Mayfair address - 32 Upper Berkeley Street, a Georgian townhouse - she is said to have bought for £1.2 million, paying almost half of that upfront in cash. Read the full story on the other side of this link. |
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 It seems like only Thursday when we heard that Regent Street was waving goodbye to Dickins & Jones. And now it's Laura Ashley's turn to clear out and clear off, complaining of extortionate rents. Now the last time the Rat and Mouse visited Laura Ashley was the last time we decided to attend a Cotswold Conservative Association garden party in drag, but still... soon it'll just be Starbucks, dodgy mobile phone shops and the Apple store who can afford the area.
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