An interesting piece in the Daily Mail (is this what it's come to?) about designer Tom Dixon's work to turn a 5,000 gallon water tower into a 5,000 square foot living space. It's a fascinating project, perhaps blighted a tiny bit, though, by its position. The photo below, from Google's StreetView, shows just how one side "benefits", as they say, from a view of the canal; but the other looks over a Sainsbury car park. Will it matter?

Another noteworthy detail from the Daily Mail piece is that Tom Dixon's a self-taught designer. Very, very impressive. More here.

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

It's North Kensington, at the top of Portobello Road, and it's about to undergo a somewhat controversial redevelopment, starting, according to this, very shortly. Enthusiasts point to 1,000 homes, a new London square; critics say existing families living on the estate will be moved out of the borough against their will.

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

It's hard to imagine the neighbourhood with the market, but - according to this - that's how it might be if the current Government and Central Rating Office policy to remove concessionary rates for small businesses continues. Some traders have seen rates increase by 100%. Don't expect small, independent shops to survive. Sign the petition. And according to this, there'll be a demonstration on Saturday.

Technorati Tags: London

[photo by Matt Brown]

It's this weekend, in London... two days in which you're free to wander around some of the capital's architectural wonders. In the Guardian, Jonathan Glancey provides a useful preview. Our highlight? Erno Goldfinger's Trellick Tower, a modern masterpiece, and an important lesson in protecting architectural assets even especially while they're temporarily out of fashion.

[Open House London]

Technorati Tags: architecture, London, property, real estate

Apparently, there's this thing, where somebody sells a house to somebody else who buys it. Used to happen a lot. Here's one for sale. It's a three-bedroom end-of-row on Portobello Road, and it comes complete with a gallery space on the ground and lower ground floors. The space could be rented out, kept, or even converted. But the house is more interesting than that. Designed by Meadowcroft Griffin in 2004, it won a Conservation Commendation at the 2006 RIBAs, and it's bold inside and out, with the "good light" distributed throughout, rather than reserved for the gallery spaces. It's with The Modern House Estate Agents, with a guide price of £2.25m.

Technorati Tags: architecture, London, property, real estate

Tanya Same - founder of the Ghost label - opens her Ladbroke Grove home to Charlotte Crips in today's Independent. As you'd imagine, it sounds hip - a homely and unstudied ragtag of 20th Century design, found objects and bits of Ghost. Hey, it also has a bar - so what do we know? And just in case anybody hadn't read the Ladbroke Grove bit, and was in any doubt we're talking about west London:

There's a spiral staircase here that leads up to an attic bedroom at the top of the house, where I do yoga every morning with my yoga teacher. I've just learnt to stand on my head.

In case you didn't know it, it's the Peabody Trust's Dalgarno Gardens that's been surrounded much of the day by police apparently shouting "Mohammed" through megaphones. The entire estate has been cordoned off all day - with residents told to stay indoors. Somebody reported a "controlled explosion" - possibly a smoke bomb.