The market for flats might be flat, but it's marvelous in mews-land. The Rat and Mouse hears on the grapevine that mews-specialists Lurot Brand are breaking records faster than Phelps, securing £1,220 a square foot in Hyde Park Garden Mews (previous record: £1,112) and £1,256 a square foot in Leinster Mews (previous record: £1,000). While the National Anthem's played and Team LB receive their medals, we can inform you that the properties in questions sold for £2.2m and £1.44m.

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Buying agent Robert Bailey says: "The hoteliers are now selling their backpacker hostels to rich bankers who are, of course, converting them back into luxury homes. The hoteliers have been very canny, selling at the peak of the market - it will be interesting to see how developers who buy them fare.

The Telegraph revisits the Bayswater revival and finds "London's worst-kept secret". With the Lancasters due for completion this year, a glut of press coverage ever since Tony Blair's purchase(s), and the market doing what the market's doing, is there any value left in W2?

The Lancasters - some prices revealed (January 17, 2008]
Hookahs, hookers and Tony Blair get lucky... it's Bayswater time [November 19, 2007]

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The secret of über-developer Lois Gosling, as revealed to the Telegraph:

"People earning huge sums want top products."

Gosling has an enviable track record, turning mammoth profits on swish properties in no time at all. As well as paying attention to the kit, she apparently works fast, claiming to go from first viewing to detailed plans, costs, finance and purchase in less than two days. She's currently selling Cornwall Gardens in Kensington, Queens Gardens in up-and-coming W2 and Langham Mansions in Earl's Court Square. If you're a budding property developer the Rat and Mouse recommends you read the Telegraph piece so you can see what you're competing against... well-connected, well-financed pros with cheap credit and ready-to-move crews.

The Lancasters - some prices revealed [January 17, 2008]
Hookahs, hookers and Tony Blair get lucky... it's Bayswater time [November 19, 2007]

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At the forefront of the rise of Bayswater , the Lancasters - Northacre's ambition redevelopment of the listed Thistle Hotel - has been a hot topic since work began in 2007. Apartments will become available in 2010 and prices have remained a closely guarded secret, despite a lot of interest (there's a sense of ground being tested here... developers keen to see what Bayswater might realistically become in the next five years). But this morning, thanks to a tip-off, the Rat and Mouse can reveal some numbers. The first release involves two-bedroom apartments, with a guide price ranging from £1.9m to £2.5m. So you think that's a lot? You're right. Square footage is estimated at 1,046 to 1,415... giving a price per square foot of over £1,700. In Kensington & Chelsea, it's only just broken the £1,000 barrier.

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Only in London:

The price of £18m may seem a lot for a maisonette, but it is a third less than an equivalent home would cost on Chester or Belgrave Squares.

It's the Sunday Times on the subject of Bayswater. Jimmy Choos in. Claudia Schiffer in. Ilaria Bulgari in. Sally Croker-Poole, who? The point of the piece is that Bayswater prices have risen 40% since January - which would have made for some happy hookers if they didn't all rent - and estate agents concur that what we're seeing is a long-awaited gentrification. It is - in the words of search agent Robert Bailey - "becoming sexy".

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Rumours of a certain rankling over at Connaught Street are currently focussing on the always-edgy subject of parking. Apparently, fellow residents have received a letter asking how they'd feel about giving up a nine-metre stretch of prime parking real estate for Blair-only use.

Blairs need to learn neighbourly diplomacy [July 23, 2007]
Blairs' Connaught Square neighbours start to feel the heat [July 16, 2007]
Connaught Square's message to the Blairs: You're not welcome 'round here [June 25, 2007]

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But you'll have to be prepared to spend £3.35m. This four-bedroom home in Bark Place comes with a mews house and garage at the bottom of the garden. Plus conservatory, proper wine cellar and planning permission to extend. Full details here.

Tomorrow... a Victorian school conversion.

Apparently, the Blairs' new Connaught Square neighbours haven't exactly had their concerns laid to rest since the couple moved in.

One of Blair's neighbours Dr Shella Arora was approached by a cop with his gun pointing at her while she was parking her car outside her apartment.

Dr Arora is a 72-year-old ex-GP. The policeman apparently asked her why she was parking her car outside the apartment. She explained that it was because she lived there. The policeman couldn't think of any more questions. There's been more gun-pointing, too... enough for residents to be concerned that one of them might be shot by accident. Blimey, if this was a council estate in Manchester they'd be looking at serving the Blairs with an ASBO.

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They knew it was never going to be easy. But, perhaps, the Blairs' new Connaught Street neighbours were hoping there'd at least be a little settling in time to soften the blow, before the ex-Prime Minister's presence started to impinge on their everyday lives. Well, he's been in his new home just over week, and they've apparently had their parking bays suspended.

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The Daily Mail have done the research and put together a fascinating history of the Blairs' new Connaught Street home, including interviews with previous owners.

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An extraordinary petition has been sent to Westminster Council, signed by the residents of Connaught Square, suggesting that the Blairs shouldn't count on a warm welcome when they (finally) move into their new home. The Daily Mail appears to have got hold of the text:

Headed tersely: "The Blair Family In Connaught Square", it highlights residents' anger that they will be at risk and have been told nothing about the proposed security measures which could cause chaos in the secluded Square.

The petition reads: "It has been suggested that to protect the Blairs it may be necessary to:

• Prevent vehicles and unauthorised pedestrians entering the west side of the Square, where the Blairs live.

• Turn part of the Square into a gated community, policed by armed guards.

• Prune or cut down some of our magnificent old plane trees for Prevention of Terrorism reasons.

• Have a police helicopter hovering above the Square."

The letter goes on to state that they feel they are being put at unreasonable risk and inconvenience simply to make room for one family, and so the Blairs shouldn't move in. The Blairs - still - apparently plan to attend the Connaught Square garden party. Should be a riot. Literally.

[via the Daily Mail]

More Connaught Square news

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Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker wasn't amongst those getting all damp-eyed at the prospect of Tony Blair's farewells, yesterday. Baker's eyes were on the Blair's country residence prize... apparently, the builder's are, ahem, behind schedule readying Blair's Connaught Square home, and it's somehow been agreed that Blair will move into Chequers at the taxpayers' expense (of £1,738 a day). According to the government it will only be for "a couple of days" (£3, 476). And that forecast is from where? Presumably, the builders... and if Blair's colleagues are really that naive, no wonder the PM's managed to run riot for a decade. The house remains sheathed in scaffolding.

[via the Daily Mirror]

Blairs win Connaught Square planning permission [May 4, 2007]

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It's permission to connect their Connaught Square house with an adjoining mews house in Archery Close, to install solar panels and CCTV cameras and create a roof terrace. Bizarrely, neighbour objections appear to have focussed on the roof terrace, which they claimed would be "noisy and smelly". Were they complaining it would be noisy and smelly on the roof terrace? A problem they could presumably avoid by not accepting invitations. Or were they complaining it would be noisy and smelly because of the roof terrace? In which case... isn't that a bit rude? More here.

Latest Blair property news [March 26, 2007]

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The Sunday Times has got its hands on planning documents lodged with Westminster Council that outline the Blairs' plans for their Connaught Street home. Apparently, they can look forward to enjoying a rooftop sun terrace (with four solar panels and views towards Hyde Park) and a giant ground floor kitchen. The plans also include details of how they intend to knock the main house and the mews house into one, and locations for two new CCTV cameras. More here.

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Sometimes the Telegraph can seem a little Thames Gateway-obsessed - but, you've got to hand it to them, they know how to do these redevelopment features. Here's Sheila Prophet with a very nice state-of-play piece, looking at Brent Cross Cricklewood, Paddington Basin, King's Cross, Elephant & Castle, Convoy's Wharf Deptford, Silvertown Quays, oh, okay, and Greenwich Peninsula. She also asks, "Should you invest?" Elephant & Caslte, King's Cross (above) and Silvertown (below) get something of a thumbs up.


Ah smell that? That's the smell of money, Mrs Turveydrop... [October 3, 2006]

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The Times has the exclusive on plans by Minerva, new owners of Lancaster Gate's Thistle hotel, to turn the site into 80 apartments with price tags set to break Bayswater's price-per-square-foot record. The piece also claims that a number of bankers have (and this is pre-planning permission) made informal off-plan offers. Minerva had already secured planning permission to build 124 apartments, but the new vision is all about less resulting in more.

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Where? According to the Telegraph, it's the bit inside Bayswater Road, Edgware Road and Sussex Gardens, and it's getting a £20 million revamp courtesy of landlords the Church Of England. There's a website, and there's apparently an influx of investors rubbing their hands at the unarguables (like, properties half the price of equivalents on the other side of Hyde Park). More here.

property for sale

According to Merryn Somerset Webb, it's a ghost town... and it's not the first time the Rat and Mouse has heard stories about a deserted Paddington Basin development. In fact, we've heard a few courtesy of the self-same Merryn Somerset Webb: first, lamenting the fact she couldn't sell her flat there (and predicting a property price crash); then, suggesting people rent in the Paddington Basin, because rents are cheap and getting cheaper (and predicting a property price crash). Now, she's back with the message... we're bang in the middle of the (predicted) bust. We just don't know it.

Thanks to a Rat and Mouse reader for pointing this one out to us. It's (too far) west of Little Venice; and it's with Hamptons at £1.25 million, for which you get four floors of live/work space, five bedrooms, a roof garden, and the kind of 60s pop layout that might make you feel like Twiggy or Peter Sellers, depending on your persuasion. We can't bring you a link to the particulars, because the Hamptons site just doesn't work that way. But we can bring you a link to this, which showed up after a bit of research.

At the weekend, the Telegraph carried this interview with the Hirsts, who are leaving Connaught Square before the Blairs move in. What's interesting is that £2.75 million will apparently buy you a bigger house than the Prime Minister's... including six bedrooms, four receptions rooms and three bathrooms. We'd bring you a link to the particulars, but the pages just don't load that way. So you'll have to go here and search yourself.

A couple of squatters found inside an old lady's Bayswater home have been jailed. While the woman was away, staying with a sick relative, squatters had moved in, helped themselves to electricity and indulged in such inelegant living that the owner said she almost had a heart attack when she saw how they'd left the place. It's actually a sad story. The house had been her home for 60 years - now she's afraid to move back in, and can't afford to repair the property because she'd let her insurance lapse. Just how bad is the squatter problem? How long do you have to leave a house before you're in danger? How long do you have to leave it before squatters have any kind of moral right to use it as shelter? More, courtesy of the the BBC, here.