Category: OPULENCE & SPLENDOUR

Luxury and the arts From houses to cars and from Hockney to van Dyck, a profile of the best and the worst

Seeing RED

Our new columnist Jacinta de Vere analyses fashion’s most dangerous colour

I really enjoy seeing people take various pieces that you would think would look hideous on their own and combine them to make a fantastic look. Alternatively, there are people who take one piece and manage to look like a hot mess.

Jacinta de Vere suggests that opting for a red outfit can result in you either looking like a “vision in…” or “getting it all wrong.” There’s no middle ground.

When I choose an ensemble, I think to myself: “Keep it simple and edit.” I am not sure what I loathe more, a slovenly attired woman or a woman who manages to miswear a fabulous designer. One does not need to wear a well-known label to look good. One just needs to edit and to think about what is flattering for one’s body and proportions. Colours are very important when selecting a piece to buy or to pull out of your closet. If you go too soft, you get drowned out by the shade and if you go too bold, you become an easy eyesore.

As any respectable person who loves fashion will tell you, the colour red tends to be more associated with your bank balance at the end of the month after a Harrods shopping spree rather than the “it” colour of your wardrobe. Red is one of the colours that some people tend to get all wrong. Selecting the right shade of red for your skin tone can really lift and brighten you. Selecting the wrong shade of red for your skin tone can make you resemble a flashing street light and overwhelm you. Additionally, if you choose a busy red dress in the wrong shade, you may find yourself with an imaginary bowl of fruit on your head, holding maracas.

Recently while dining with friends, a woman dressed in a red feathered and lace ensemble walked by our table. This hideous dress made her look like a bright red “Big Bird.” I spotted the back of Big Bird and much to my horror, she had also decided to wear her favorite red bra. I would have chosen a nude strapless Le Mystere bustier bra. I am not sure what “look” this woman was attempting to achieve, aside from resembling “Cha-cha” in Grease, but I think everyone should try to keep it simple when wearing red. If I were her, I would get new friends because letting her leave the house in that ensemble was a crime to any friendship. Either pick lace or pick the feathers but to wear both together is a fashion disaster on any continent.

Marchesa versus Jane Norman

Marchesa has a lace and tulle cocktail dress at £5,700 (http://www.netaporter.com) that is sexy, stylish and just the right kind of busy. If you’re on a recession budget, then have a look at Jane Norman’s lace dress at £35 (http://www.houseoffraser.com). You want the attention on you because of your fabulous lace dress, not because of your poor choice of red.

Elie Saab versus Jessica Howard

Another woman was wearing a red Lanvin, floor length chiffon Grecian style gown. She was blond with an uneven skin tone, so the red gown with all the chiffon layers overpowered her. The fact she skipped putting on a bra did not help her case. I was confounded, wondering if her chest sagged due to the lack of support or if she failed to tailor the layers of chiffon draping the dress. It pained me to see this lovely dress make this woman look terrible. If we are insecure about our bodies and would like to hide our imperfections, we should find a way to emphasize the positive assets whilst camouflaging the bits you do not like. Buying designer does not guarantee you are going to look amazing. The dress may be amazing but you can still get it wrong if the dress overwhelms you. You want to wear the dress not the opposite. I think if our pot-bellied, saggy chested friend had chosen Elie Saab’s gathered front gown at £3,065 (http://www.netaporter.com) or, if on budget, Jessica Howard’s one shouldered beaded waist gown at £80 (http://www.houseoffraser.com), she would have looked like a million bucks.

Spanx, Le Mystère and Bring It Up

One can hide unsightly bits and pieces in an outfit without getting lost in yards of chiffon. Just because you’re wearing Lanvin, Valentino, Erdem or Chanel, it does not mean it will look good on you. Buy for the cut and fit and not the label. For these unfortunate situations, I turn to Spanx Slimplicity Convertible Full Slip at £79 (http://www.spanx.co.uk) and to Le Mystère sculptural strapless bra Style 2755 at £56 (http://www.lemystere.com). These are my lifesavers when I am wearing borrowed, tighter fitting or strapless outfits. Lastly, if my chest needs a temporary lift, I rely on Bring It Up Instant Breast Lifts, 8 pairs/pack at $20 (http://www.bringitup.com).

Jacinta de Vere is a lover of haute couture and all things fashionable and decadent. She is based in London.

Follow her on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/jacintadevere

December 3, 2012
Let there be light!

Thomas James examines the Luzinterruptus art movement

Luzinterruptus is a Spanish artistic group, who create temporary urban interventions in public spaces. Using light as their primary component and the black of night as their canvas, the group consists of three anonymous artists from different artistic backgrounds. Interestingly, the artistic group’s name Luzinterruptus is of Latin origin and means: “Interrupted light.”

The group’s first artistic “urban intervention” took place on the streets of Madrid in 2008. The motive for it was to focus peoples’ attention on a problem they found in the city that seemed to go unnoticed. Some 50% of Madrid’s public drinking fountains have fallen into disrepair and Luzinterruptus wanted to address the city’s administration’s indifference to the need for public drinking water. With their installation, “Drinking Water Running Through The Streets,” they sought to provoke thought and highlight the issue.

Drinking Water Running Through The Streets

To create it, 200 glass containers were collected over the course of 4 months and these were used to fill four fountains with their signature luminous work. The installation lit up the city on a cold night in January and attracted great media interest.

Plastic garbage guarding the museum

Another fascinating work by the collective was named “Plastic garbage guarding the museum.” Installed directly in front of the Gewerbemuseum Winterthur in Switzerland, this featured approximately 5,000 plastic bags. They selected the most vibrant and colourful ones from those they had collected, filled each with air and lit them from within. Piled up in a dumpster, they looked more like treasures one would find in Santa’s sleigh. The installation was designed to provoke discussion about consumption and the issue of what damage not disposing of carrier bags properly does to the environment. The plastic bags deflated and deteriorated during the four-month installation and this was said to symbolise consumption and waste, as well as highlighting the damaging effects of mindless consumption. Luzinterruptus proceeded to give visitors to the exhibit an illuminated plastic bag to take away. Their aim by doing such was to: “Fill the sk[ies] with small plasticised full moons.”

1,000 poems by mail

Luzinterruptus’s installation “1,000 poems by mail” was created for the “2010 poetas pr Km²” Spanish poetry festival in Madrid uniting light, literature, and public space. 1,000 white envelopes, each containing a small light and a poem written by one of 17 poets, were hung in the gardens where the poetry readings and performances happened. The radiant envelopes illuminated the gardens for three days and added atmosphere to the festival – especially at night. On the final evening, the envelopes were given to the public to keep or to send to someone special. Afterwards, Luzinterruptus mailed out the envelopes with their lights still burning bright.

Literature versus Traffic

This summer at the Federation Square in Melbourne, Luzinterruptus placed 10,000 illuminated books, which they acquired from local libraries, across the ground during a festival dedicated to reading. They placed LED lights behind the pages of each book to illuminate the printed words. The installation entitled “Literature versus Traffic” was created to portray a winding river going along the streets of the bustling public square. “The objective was to create a symbolic gesture in which literature took control of the streets and became the conqueror of the public space,” one the anonymous artists explained.

Look out. A Luzinterruptus exhibition could be interrupting the streets of your city soon. It’ll certainly be cleverly planned and it will definitely provoke you to think about whatever issue they decide to focus on next.

View the website of Luzinterruptus at: http://www.luzinterruptus.com

View Thomas James’s blog, The Gentledaneur, at: http://thegentleman-dandy-flaneur.tumblr.com

Follow Thomas James on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/thomasjames124

December 2, 2012
A Gipsy flies

The story of a 1929 bi-plane with a truly fascinating pedigree

Britain’s best-known wartime Prime Minister piloted a Gipsy Moth aeroplane that will be sold by auctioneers Bonhams in February 2013 at a guide of £120,000. The same craft was also featured in an iconic 1980s film and was also supposedly flown by a member of the Fiennes family who mysteriously disappeared in 1998.

The 1929 De Havilland DH 60 GMW Gipsy Moth bi-plane G-AAMY that will be sold by Bonhams at the Grand Palais in Paris in February 2013

Sir Winston Churchill (1874 – 1965)

Piloted several times by Sir Winston Churchill (1874 – 1965) and used in the Oscar award winning Out of Africa, this 1929 De Havilland Gipsy Moth bi-plane is 24-foot long and has a 30-foot wingspan. It is capable of a maximum speed of 105mph and “wears” a yellow and black livery. It’s registration is G-AAMY in homage to the pioneering English aviatrix Amy Johnson (1903 – 1941).

In the film, the plane was flown by Robert Redford but though the life of the big game hunter Denys Finch Hatton he played is intriguing; the exploits of Redford’s aviator double are just as fascinating a story.

Sydney Pollack’s “Out of Africa” (1985) starred Robert Redford and Meryl Streep

Tom Danaher pictured whilst filming with Mel Gibson

Few outside of the aviation world will have heard of Tom Danaher (1929 – ) but aside from Out of Africa, he’s pretty much done it all. After graduating from a high school in Dallas in 1941, he became a Marine Corps fighter pilot. Stationed on Okiwana in August 1945, he shot down the last Japanese bomber on the final night of the Second World War and also made history, aged 21, for downing three other Japanese “Betty” bombers in the eight nights before the ceasefire.

Recalled to active service in 1951, Danaher flew one of the earliest jets, the F3D Skynight, with the Marines in Korea on night combat patrols and then was part of the last combat mission on a high altitude bombing strike over Pyongyang, North Korea in July 1953.

Danaher’s passion for flying continued after the war and in 1954 he flew his own plane, a 1948 Bonanza, to England to visit friends he’d made from the RAF whilst in Korea. To make the journey, he built a 109-gallon auxiliary fuel tank so that he could fly straight across the Atlantic. On the way home he called in for an audience with Pope Pius XII in Rome.

The surplus Second World War minesweeper from which Wonderful Radio London operated in the 1960s

Danaher’s visits to England led to him becoming involved in a pirate radio station in from 1944 to 1967 named Wonderful Radio London. Like many others, Danaher was not impressed by the BBC’s monopolistic attitude to radio programming and so helped build a 17,000-watt station on a surplus Second World War minesweeper. It was anchored three and a half miles off the English coast and outside of Britain’s territorial limit. Of the experience, Danaher told Airport Journals:

“We had someone in Dallas who would record KLIF, a top 40 station, and we put it right on the air… The Englishmen over there just ate it up… The station programmed news and top 40 music and was very successful. It had the largest listening audience of any of any commercial broadcast station at the time.”

Back in America, Danaher owned three car dealerships in Wichita Falls, Texas but sold them in 1972 to open his own airport, the Tom Danaher Airport. Lake Wichita Airport (7TXO), as it was also known, kept the aviator busy but he has also piloted in films numbering Empire of the Sun, Sky Bandits, Air America, Bad Medicine, The Pleasure of Love, White Hunter Black Heart, Cliffhanger and Goldeneye.

In 1985, Danaher was recruited to fly Gipsy Moth G-AAMY by Sydney Pollack (1934 – 2008), the American director of Out of Africa. He recounted his six week experience on set in Masai Mara, Kenya in an interview for his local Texan newspaper, the TimesRecordNews, in 2008. Here, he highlighted the problems of trying to film with a vintage plane that “has no brakes and is difficult to steer”:

“Robert Redford couldn’t make the thing turn. It took considerable finesse to turn it on the ground… The third time, he gave it full throttle… The left wing contacted a thick thorn bush and it tore some of the fabric off the lower left wing of the plane. We couldn’t fly it the rest of the day.”

Other dramas arose with G-AAMY in terms of Meryl Streep’s body double refusing to fly in it and the craft struggling to reach the high altitudes necessary to film a sweeping shot of the plane flying past a waterfall. Danaher took charge stating: “If I can get a piece of string and a ruler, I can fix this.” He found just such, cleverly installed them and Pollack: “got every single shot he wanted.”

Pilot Roger Fiennes (1944 – 1998) pictured with Alexy Zaitov during the 1989 Glasmoth project expedition to Moscow and back

Another person to have piloted the Gipsy Moth G-AAMY, according to a comment left in the PPRuNe Professional Pilots Rumour Network forum, was a man named Roger Fiennes. Whether this “rumour” is true or not, the cousin of the actor Ralph Fiennes and the explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, is another character with a flying history as fascinating as his true family name – which turns out to be “Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes” when presented in full. Of why he did not use this lengthy and historic surname, Fiennes is said to have once commented:

“You try writing that signature on a 6 foot long cheque book.”

Fiennes flew many hours in a variety of planes and one of the best documented was an expedition supported by the Daily Mail from White Waltham Airfield in Berkshire to Sheremetyevo Airport in the Soviet Union in April 1989 and back. He flew one of three Tiger Moth bi-planes with a Russian navigator named Alexy Zaitov. The journey took three weeks to complete, involved 33 perilous stops and covered 5,000 miles.

On 19^th April 1998, Fiennes was piloting a 1941 DH82A Tiger Moth, G-BALX, from Dieppe to Headcorn Aerodrome in Kent but he failed to reach his destination. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) report into the disappearance concluded:

“Although the pilot contacted Paris Information by radio, in the absence of a specific request, the flight plan was not activated. Lashenden was therefore unaware of the flight’s departure and ETA. When the aircraft was reported missing overdue action, and the subsequent Search and Rescue operation, which was activated on the morning of 21 April 1998. Since then there has been no sign of the aircraft or pilot.”

Articles at the time and forums since are sparse in detail but several forum posters and articles suggest that Mr Fiennes had “mounting debts and a string of business collapses.” Whilst some go as far as to suggest a “Lord Lucan” style disappearance and make references to “paddling canoes” and “check[ing] the Panamanian register,” others remember a “nice guy, sadly missed.” Whatever really happened that fateful day, though, will probably never be solved.

Another image of Gipsy Moth G-AAMY

G-AAMY, which was marked G-AAMT for the filming of Out of Africa, is a plane with a remarkable past. We suspect there’ll be a few more dramas for this craft yet.

The 1929 De Havilland DH 60 GMW Gipsy Moth bi-plane G-AAMY will be sold by Bonhams at the Grand Palais in Paris, France sale during Rétromobile week (6^th to 7^th February 2013). For more information telephone +33 1 42 61 10 11 or go to: http://www.bonhams.com

To learn more about Tom Danaher’s experience flying G-AAMY in Out of Africa, read the full TimesRecordNews report by Lara K. Richards at: http://www.timesrecordnews.com/news/2008/jun/08/fly/?print=1

To read the AAIB account of the disappearance of Roger Fiennes and DH82A Tiger Moth, G-BALX, go to: http://www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources.cfm?file=/dft_avsafety_pdf_502449.pdf

November 29, 2012
Blessed Beckham

Victoria Beckham tours Brian Blessed’s former home

In April, the blog that preceded The Steeple Times featured an article on Clarence House in Richmond.

At the time this former school and home of actor Brian Blessed was priced at £22,500,000 but after languishing on the market, the price has been slashed by £4,500,000 to £18,000,000.

Victoria Beckham pictured in the garden of Clarence House, 2 The Vineyard, Richmond Hill, Surrey, TW10 6AQ

The front of Clarence House would no doubt need “pap proofing” to suit the privacy requirements of David and Victoria Beckham and their family

In recent days Victoria Beckham has been pictured touring this and other properties in south-west London. No stranger to securing a bargain and worth some £160 million, Mrs Beckham could no doubt slice a little extra off if she decided to proceed. She and her husband are allegedly set to return to the UK and an unnamed source is quoted as revealing:

“David has been really missing London and the UK recently. The royal wedding, the Olympics and now Christmas coming up have all made him long for the UK. He talks about being in London a lot and he misses his family, so it would make perfect sense for the family to all move back to Britain. For the Beckhams, Eton [as a school for their sons] would be the ultimate arrival.”

Since the pupils of Eton College recently parodied the ‘Gangnam Style’ high-energy Korean disco music, maybe they’ll also embrace the Beckham boys

Perhaps if the couple don’t manage to get their sons to “go Eton Style,” they could reopen Clarence House as a school. The most famous pupil to pass through the doors was Bernardo O’Higgins (1778 – 1842), the liberator and founding father of Chile.

To read the original feature on Clarence House, 2 The Vineyard, Richmond Hill, Surrey, TW10 6AQ go to: http://thesteepletimes.com/opulence-splendour/blessed-clarence/

Watch the Eton Style Gangam parody at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FtZkVRkusQ

November 27, 2012
Ecstasy and Babycham

A marine residence with a history tied to the Rolls-Royce Spirit of Ecstasy, the Special Operations Executive and Babycham

The House on the Shore on Thorns Beach at Beaulieu in Hampshire is a home that wouldn’t look out of place in the Hamptons or Rhode Island. Dramatically situated next to the Solent waters to the north of the Isle of Wight, this suitably named building wouldn’t have been out of place in the 1980s BBC series Howards’ Way. It could. Indeed, have been an ideal home for Gerald and Polly Urquhart. (more…)

November 20, 2012
Move It Like Beckham

Another rumoured sale of “Beckingham Palace” is reported

November 2012: In March this year, the blog that preceded The Steeple Times looked into reports that David and Victoria Beckham would be selling their Hertfordshire home, Rowneybury House (better known as “Beckingham Palace”). For all the talk of that sale, as far as we are aware, it still remains in their possession. In recent days another media source has reported that the house is indeed on the market and that the Beckham family are now moving to New York. This has now become a story akin to that of “the boy who cried wolf” and it’s one that we’ll only believe to be true when the removal vans actually pull up.

March 2013: In a further update, the story has resurfaced but the supposed price is allegedly now just £10 million. That’s quite a reduction.

Whenever there’s a quiet news day, British newspapers like to put out claims that David and Victoria Beckham are to sell their Hertfordshire mansion, Rowneybury House. Such a sale has never followed but that the Mail Online chose to run this as a lead article is indeed interesting in view of the footballer’s recent return to LA Galaxy.

“Beckingham Palace” before it was altered: Rowneybury House, Harlow Road, Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, CM21 0AJ

The results of the “Posh” makeover included extensions, garden landscaping and even a soccer pitch

Similar stories, for example, ran in the Mirror in April 2007 and again in September 2010. In the latter piece, an unnamed spokesman stated:

“We can confirm David and Victoria have had their UK home valued.”

Strangely all of these stories share a lack of credited sources and are written in the same vein on each occasion. Though Rowneybury House has certainly not come to the open market to date, today’s suggestion that the couple are selling as they think it “wasteful to hold on to when they never visit” would appear a sensible course of action.

Rowneybury House itself was built in the 1930s and used as a council owned orphanage. Bought by the Beckhams in October 1999 for £2,500,000, the couple vastly altered and enlarged the Grade II listed house to include 7-bedrooms, a recording studio, gym, pool room and indoor and outdoor pools. They even added a 52ft garden pavilion complete with a huge barbecue reputed to have cost £70,000.

In the grounds, which extend to some 24 acres, the Beckhams have added a petting zoo for their children as well as a soccer pitch, two full size golf holes, a floodlit tennis court and a helicopter landing pad. Three gazebos, one “romantic,” one “lakeside” and another “ornamental” were also constructed.

The sum total for all of this work is, for some reason, always quoted in the mainstream press at £18,000,000. Though it is obvious that vast expense has indeed been spent on Rowneybury House by the couple, the figure does seem a little exaggerated. Equally ludicrous is the suggestion that they will sell at a loss.

The Beckhams’ time at Rowneybury House has not been without drama. In 2002, police foiled an Eastern European gang who planned to kidnap them from the house and on occasions intruders were caught in the grounds. Further drama ensued in 2008 when the pair’s housekeepers, Eric and June Emmett, were arrested after being accused of stealing items of memorabilia.

I myself found myself involved in a story about the house when, in 2004, I worked for a PR firm who were representing an estate agent selling an adjoining property. The owners Mick and Lynda Allen, who I believe eventually sold their home, Rowneybury Bungalow, to the Beckhams, used the surrounding publicity to attempt to launch the pop career of their daughter Nikki. I am not certain how she subsequently fared.

David and Victoria Beckham with their children Brooklyn Joseph, Romeo James, Cruz David and Harper Seven

The $22,000,000 “Italian style” 9-bedroom Los Angeles home the Beckhams have owned since 2007

The Beckhams, who are worth some £160,000,000, now spend the majority of their time in America and are said to prefer it there. When in the UK, they opt mainly to stay at either Claridge’s or The Savoy as both are more convenient for Mrs Beckham’s meetings at her design studio in Battersea.

Both the Mail Online and the Mirror suggest that Victoria Beckham has recently been looking at apartments “next to Hyde Park” so that she can maintain a smaller base in the UK. Perhaps a move to the £7,000 per square foot One Hyde Park development could be on the cards.

If this news is indeed finally true, it’ll certainly be the end of an era for the pad dubbed “Beckingham Palace” as a portmanteau of “Beckham” and “Buckingham Palace.”

Read Kimberley Dadds’s Mail Online piece at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2119709/David-Victoria-Beckham-sell-Beckingham-Palace.html

Read Lara Gould’s Mail Online piece at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2301669/Beckingham-Palace-goes-sale-David-Victoria-eye-London-life–wont-allow-developers-buy-it.html

November 19, 2012
All work and no bunga bunga makes Versace a good boy

A Modernist masterpiece based upon simple rationalism

Two buildings were designed by architects Carlo di Carli and Antonio Carminati in 1953 – 1954 in Milan’s Via dei Giardini. Both are considered Modernist masterpieces and both stand proudly in this, the city’s only tree lined street.

Architect and designer Carlo di Carli (1910 – 1999)

Carli’s awarding winning 683 Cassina chair

Carlo di Carli (1910 – 1999) is considered to be amongst the “master[s] of Italian design” and is best known for a chair named the 683 Cassina that won him the Compasso d’Oro award in 1954. He was a leading figure at the Polytechnic of Milan and worked extensively with Longhi and Cinoca. An exhibition of his works was held at the Triennale Design Museum in 2011.

Santos Versace’s residence in the Via dei Giardini, Milan

A colourful, simplistic Versace designed reception room

Versace’s design influences continue in the property’s games room

Versace’s influence is clear in a shower room in the property

Whilst one could definitely have imagined Gianni Versace relaxing on this roof terrace

Laid out in the shape of an octagon overlapping a rectangle, one of these rationalist buildings is a five-storey 22,000 square foot single family residence. It boasts an elevator, a private garden and a roof top terrace and in last week’s Evening Standard, Lorenzo Mercolini of Sotheby’s, who is selling it for Santo Versace, president and co-CEO of Gianni Versace SpA and a Member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Republic, commented: “There is simply no other property in Milan like it.”

Santo Versace

Santo Versace (born 1944), like his late brother Gianni and sister Donatella, is a colourful character. A graduate of the University of Messina, he worked first as a banker and then as an accountant. He gave this up in 1976 to support his brother in his rising career as a designer and effectively was the business brains behind the house of Versace. The company now generates over $1 billion a year in retail sales.

Married with two children, Santo Versace launched his political career in 2008 with Silvio Berlusconi’s The People of Freedom party before sensationally quitting in September 2011. His parting words to the “king of bunga bunga” were:

“I like to work. And in (Mr Berlusconi’s political party), there’s no need for people who work.”

He is now a member of the Alliance for Italy party and regularly speaks out against corruption in Italian politics. Mr Versace has not given a comment as to why he is selling his base at the heart of Milan’s shopping district.

You’d have to be Gaga about Versace to purchase this Via dei Giardini mansion though. The asking price is a staggering £40,000,000.

For more details about Santo Versace’s Via dei Giardini home, contact Ricardo Bergamo of Sotheby’s on +39 02 8707 8300 or go to: http://www.milan-sothebysrealty.com/eng/sales/detail/289-l-1952-4000032335/a-one-of-a-kind-glamourous-property-in-milan-milano-mi-

November 18, 2012
The Hamptons: where the upper classes of New York holiday

Thomas James on the playground of the rich and famous that is The Hamptons

A typical beach scene in the Hamptons

One of the most popular guest features on the blog that preceded The Steeple Times was this article by Thomas James. The summer may well have passed along with Sandy and her might but as the article continues to attract vast numbers of hits, we thought we’d share it with you again this autumn day.

The Hamptons is a beautiful coastal retreat with sandy beaches and vineyards, is home to premier pieces of real estate, and is known as the playground of the rich and famous.

Generally speaking, it is an area of concentrated Manhattan wealth, as many New Yorkers have second and third homes there that are most commonly occupied during the summer months. The differing hamlets that create this wondrous land of lush gardens and luxury real estate possess a distinct atmosphere and attract different types of individuals.

Sunset in the Hamptons

East Hampton is the most coveted hamlet as it is dotted with world-class restaurants, well-known art galleries, and boutiques such as Blue and Cream. It is also home to the Hamptons International Film Festival.

The residents of East Hampton are a culmination of celebrities, fashionable, and chic individuals such as Kelly Bensimon and Russell Simmons as well as those who are more traditional or preppy in nature – who tend to belong to the Maidstone Club. Models, celebrities, and socialites from Linday Lohan to Lauren Conrad flock to Lily Pond, a trendy nightclub in East Hampton featuring French crystal chandeliers and it becomes a massive VIP lounge for today’s youth to celebrate.

Kelly Killoren Bensimon: a lady who terms herself an “author, jewelry designer, model, former editor of Elle Accessories and star of The Real Housewives of New York City”

Art For Life is an annual benefit held at the home of Russell Simmons. The proceeds of Art For Life support art programs for New York City students. This soiree is a grand event as Russell Simmons has no limitations to his imagination and often amazing performance artists entertain guests. The event attracts celebrities, philanthropists and lovers of art.

Hip-hop star Russell Simmons: co-founder of Def Jam and creator of Phat Farm, Argyleculture and American Classics

As one strolls down Main Street after enjoying a memorable cup of coffee at Sant Ambroeus, one may bump into Ina Garten purchasing fresh vegetables at Citarella or a socialite shopping at Hermes.

Southampton is similar to that of East Hampton as it is home to many chic restaurants and boutiques such as Stubbs and Wootton. Southampton has many social events throughout the year and is very Waspy in nature.

The hamlet of Bridgehampton is known for the Hampton Classic, which is a highly anticipated equestrian riding event held annually. One may find solace venturing through Bridgehampton’s world-renowned vineyards in the early morning and later soaking up the fruity wines of Bridgehampton’s famed wineries.

Hamptonites often flock to Pierre’s with friends in Bridgehampton for ideal French cuisine. “The atmosphere is cozy and intimate, elegant but relaxed, a place to see and to be seen.”

Polo in the Hamptons

Nacho Figueras: this top polo player is the face of Ralph Lauren’s Black line and often described as the “David Beckham of polo.” He’s a regular on the Hamptons social scene and married to photographer Deflina Blaquier.

Many artists, writers, and actors are drawn to the hamlet of Watermill. Watermill has many riding stables, golf courses, and a polo team. The Watermill Center is a haven for artists who are free to explore, experiment, and express their ideas. The glamorous Watermill Gala is an end of summer fundraiser where eccentric performance artists are on display as partygoers are sipping their champagne.

If one truly desires to step into the untouched beauty of the Hampton’s one usually ventures to Montauk. This hamlet is the farthest hamlet on the east end. The estates of prominent individuals line the shores of the Atlantic.

Bernie and Ruth Madoff’s former holiday home in Montauk: 216 Old Montauk Highway, Montauk, NY 11954

In 2009, Bernard and Ruth Madoff’s Montauk beach house was sold to an unidentified buyer. He and his former home penetrate one’s mind with an image of vulgar decadence. Surprisingly, the 4 bedroom, 3,014 square foot house, which sits on 1.2 acres, is a mere cottage amongst the typical mansions and estates. This classic beach house sits closer to the ocean than the neighboring homes of Ralph Lauren and Robert DeNiro, which was it’s major selling point as well as the unsurpassed views of Montauk’s untouched beauty. Bernie Madoff purchased the land and then built the home in 1979 for approximately $3 million but due to the exposure of his scam, the house was taken by the government in July 2009. Proceeds of the sale benefited victims of Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. It is now estimated to now be worth around $8 million.

From Alec Baldwin, preserving the raw beauty found here, to local artists trying to capture the indescribable beauty of the east end, the Hamptons is a truly special place where lavish individuals harmonise beautifully with the lush nature found there.

For more information on The Hamptons International Film Festival, go to: http://hamptonsfilmfest.org

For details on The Hamptons Classic, go to: http://www.hamptonclassic.com

For general information on the Hamptons, go to: http://www.hamptons.com or follow Hamptons.com on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/hamptons

Read Niche Media LLC’s Hamptons magazine at: http://hamptons-magazine.com

To read a blog dedicated to the Hamptons, go to: http://bloghamptons.com

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November 18, 2012
Fry's delight

Andreas Kirchberger captures the atmosphere at a private view of the works of Robert Fry

On Thursday 25^th October, Ilona Pacia and Jesper Thomsen of Mews42 Gallery hosted a private view of the works of Robert Fry in Princes Gate, South Kensington.

Artist Robert Fry pictured with exhibition sponsor Andrew Harding of Qube Property Management

The exterior of Mews 42 Gallery, 42 Princes Gate Mews, London, SW7 2PR

Robert Fry’s works on display at Mews42 Gallery

Andreas Kirchberger was on hand on behalf of The Steeple Times and captured an exotic array of guests who numbered Bianca Boscu Brandinelli, Esther Osorio, Ivan Rosenschein, Alexander Batchvarov, David Stoddart, Marco Calmisani Calzorali, Zuqiang Lin, Oonagh Shanley-Toffolo, Aurelia Bonito, Wendy Coumantaros, Klas Nilsson, Georgina Budge and Robin Dutt.

For those yet to discover his works, Robert Fry is a London based painter with an impressive CV. Born in 1980, he has already exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery and Alexia Goethe Arts & Co. in his home city, Moscow’s Atelier 2 and Los Angeles’s François Ghebaly Gallery.

Fry is described as having an “obsession with the concepts of form and norm, symmetry and deformation and that of mutation and maturity.” Martin Coomer of Time Out suggests he leads us “back to Picasso via the spatial experiments and fine line of David Hockney” and adds that he has: “Found a fruitful way of using the traditional skills shunned by most artists of his age.”

Robert Fry’s works are on show at Mews42 Gallery, 42 Princes Gate Mews, London, SW7 2PR until 2^nd December 2012.

Viewing is by appointment and can be arranged by telephoning +44 (0) 798 000 0264 or emailing Ilona Pacia at [email protected]. Website: http://www.mews42.com

All images © Andreas Kirchberger/Photo-Factory 2012

November 17, 2012
A Monarch Carries On

The sale of the The Manor House, Stoke Poges

In the blog that preceded “The Steeple Times,” Matthew Steeples took a look at The Manor House at Stoke Poges in March 2012. It’s still on the market at £13,500,000 and though the price has yet to be cut, there has been uproar about revelations that the former owners, South Buckinghamshire District Council, sold the freehold and a sculpture by John Deare for just £300,000. A link to the May 2012 “Bucks Free Press” article about this is included at the end of this article. What a Carry On!

The Manor House, Park Road, Stoke Poges, Slough, Buckinghamshire, SL2 4PG

An image of The Manor House sometime between 1910 and 1929

Estate agents particulars are funny things. Normally gushing with nonsense such as “prestigious,” “luxurious” and “architect designed,” property agents rarely miss a trick when it comes to selling historical and personality related peculiarities.

Sidney James as The Reverend Flasher AKA “Big Dick” Turpin with Barbara Windsor as Harriett in a scene filmed in The Great Hall at The Manor House, Stoke Poges for the film Carry on Dick

The Great Hall at The Manor House today

I was therefore somewhat perplexed that the brochure for The Manor House at Stoke Poges in Buckinghamshire didn’t contain reference to its appearance in the 1974 classic Carry on Dick.

Agents Savills instead opted to gush about the house’s previous owners, who numbered Francis Hastings, second Earl of Huntingdon, Sir Edward Coke and Thomas Penn, son of William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania. The brochure also goes to the lengths of describing visitors who have included Queen Elizabeth I, Charles I and Sir Thomas Gray and points out that Sir Edwin Landseer used The Manor House as a studio whilst painting his most famous work, The Monarch of the Glen, in 1851. The filming of For Your Eyes Only and Bridget Jones’ Diary in the adjoining Stoke Park also get mention but Savills utterly neglect the starring role of the building as the home of the Reverend Flasher, played by Sid James, in Carry on Dick. Plainly “Big Dick” is not someone they wish this £13,500,000 house to be associated with.

The Manor House is now a quarter of its original size as, on his return from America, Thomas Penn decided the house too dilapidated for his own occupation. He commissioned James Wyatt to build him the new mansion that is now Stoke Park Club in the 1790s and demolished the majority of The Manor House.

Stoke Park as the backdrop to a golf match between James Bond (Sean Connery) and Auric Goldfinger (Gert Froebe) in For Your Eyes Only (1981). Oddjob (Toshiyuki Harold Sakata) caddies.

In 1911, shortly after the Stoke Park golf course was laid out, further refurbishments were carried out that included the creation of the current Great Hall from the former kitchen, the introduction of bay windows and a new grand staircase.

In 2010, Comer Homes acquired The Manor House and brought it into the 21^st century. The 11,227 square foot main house and 7,966 square foot of guest and leisure accommodation were completely renovated and such things as multi-zoned, multi-sourced entertainment systems, CAT5 cabling and underfloor heating installed.

The extremely neutral style of decoration is perhaps a reason that a buyer has yet to bite

The uninspired theme continues in the kitchen

Whilst this bedroom could be located, well, erm, just about anywhere

Just 35 minutes drive from Mayfair and now looking somewhat like a hotel out of the Mr & Mrs Smith guide, The Manor House is an extremely manageable country home as it stands in just 10 acres of grounds. It will no doubt have huge appeal to a popstar, Euromillions winner or Russian oligarch. When viewing, however, they just better not mention “Big Dick” as no doubt soon the agent will have had “enough of it!”

For more information on The Manor House, Park Road, Stoke Poges, Slough, Buckinghamshire, SL2 4PG contact Nick Ingle of Savills Beaconsfield on +44 (0) 1494 73152 or download a PDF brochure from: http://residentialsearch.savills.co.uk/property-detail/311852

To see more images of The Manor House, Stoke Poges from when it was in Carry on Dick, go to: http://www.thewhippitinn.com/carry_on_film_locations/carry_on_dick

View the trailer for Carry on Dick at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lk0NaWsbko

To read the Bucks Free Press article about The Manor House and the £300,000 freehold sale, go to: http://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/news/9701227._Why_was_historic_home_sold_for_so_little__/

November 17, 2012