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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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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

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

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:

Marylebone - property for sale

Technorati Tags: celebrity, London, property, real estate

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.