Thursday, March 28, 2024
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OPULENCE & SPLENDOUR

A BIG Bugatti

Theodora Ong lusts after a £1.55 million 2013 Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport that currently sports the registration plate ‘BIG 3’ – but could become ‘BUG 8’

Wallies of the Week – Martin and Lesley Kipling

Aston Martin driving company director named Mr Kipling appeals to Prince Charles for “clemency” for UPVC conservatory added without planning permission to his Grade II listed home that John Profumo fled to in 1963; he doesn’t want to return to “lap tray suppers.”

Murky Maxwell’s Property & PR Projects

As her brother takes to the airwaves to PR her on Radio 4, Ghislaine Maxwell’s sale of her “showgirl-hooker-esque” London townhouse for an astonishing sum 44% lower than it was marketed at is branded a “shenanigan.”

A Cut Cost Chapel

Detached partly converted Victorian chapel in quaint Hampshire village goes to auction for 25% less than it sold for in 2018; it seems like a bargain, but there is, of course, a “but”…

Lock Him Up 2021!

Ideal new ‘home’ for likely to be impeached Donald Trump for sale just as he prepares to leave office; it comes with its own jail – the perfect place to “lock him up!”

A Christmas Nightmare

“Mini castle” in Pennsylvania goes on sale in time for Christmas for 512% more than it sold for in 2000 in spite of its decoration being nightmare nasty.

A Cottage or a Car Space?

Detached Georgian cottage in Wales goes on for sale for a sum 64% lower than a single parking space in a basement in Knightsbridge.

The World’s Worst McMansion – It’s So Bad, It’s Good

New Jersey ‘McMansion’ complete with Flintstone-esque pebbled bathrooms and gaudy grottos goes on sale for £1.65 million; it’s so bad, it’s good.

Steeply Priced Roof Space Slashed

Steeply-pitched, unused mansard roof space in Hampshire House, 150 Central Park South, New York heads to a slashed no reserve auction after failing to sell for £30.3 million.

Windowless in South Ken

Windowless property in Stanhope Gardens, South Kensington, SW7 goes to auction with a guide price of just £20,000; there is, of course, a catch.

Only Fools and Golf Cabriolets

1987 Volkswagen Golf GTI Karmann cabriolet – nicknamed ‘Rodney’ – previously owned by ‘Only Fools and Horses’ actor Sir David Jason to be auctioned. Sadly, of it, even Del Boy couldn’t claim: “Just one lady owner from new.”

Thinking 2022

Event promoter The Mansion London bizarrely gives up on the coming New Year and begins promoting an event to welcome in 2022 instead.

Epstein’s Final Exposure

Last portrait of Jeffrey Epstein goes on show as part of a very controversial exhibition in New York; in the image the late paedophile’s arrogant smugness is clearly exposed.

Going Bonkers For A Bin

Auctioneers Christie’s sought to sell five waste bins for £230; they ultimately went for the astounding sum of just under £34,000.

A Pyrotechnic Pad

Mansion in controversial compound in The Boltons, SW10 for sale for £50 million; the setting has seen court cases and pyrotechnic parties involving a self-declared “Relentless” multi-millionaire.

Mocking The Dockers

Welsh ‘mock castle’ once occupied by notorious spendaholic Lady Docker for sale for £2.85m; the Dockers were turfed out in 1956 after it was discovered they’d lavished the equivalent of £1.3m today of company money on the place without permission.

A Socially Distanced Showcase

An invitation from businesswoman Heather Bird Tchenguiz to a socially distanced ‘by appointment’ exhibition of the works of William Cookson in Knightsbridge this September.

Five of the Worst – Undesirable Homes Currently For Sale

‘The Steeple Times’ selects five undesirable homes currently for sale that many would say would remain best avoided; they’ve all been in the news and they’re all connected to infamous names.

Chic Chicheley

Grade I listed Baroque mansion Chicheley Hall in Buckinghamshire for sale for £7 million or 62% less than the current owners have spent on it.

Georges Simenon’s ‘House of Happiness’

Tiny French pied à terre on the Côte d’Azur once owned by the ‘Maigret’ author Georges Simenon for sale for just £107,000; he described the property as his ‘house of happiness.’

A Hair of the Dog of a House

Detached Edwardian house in New York State for sale for just £744 or 8,400% less than it cost to build in 1906; home to a famous German police dog in the 1920s

A Mach 3 Fixer Upper

Charming detached Edwardian house in Buffalo, Kansas – the birthplace of the first man to beat Mach 3 – for sale for just £15,000; it comes with 0.5 acres of land, a barn and is in reasonable condition.

From Cloth Caps And Clogs to Sophistication

Reader of ‘The Steeple Times’ shares news that ‘up north’ is “no longer “just cloth caps and clogs” and illustrates this with information about the sale of her £1.5 million home Our readers are important...

Grosvenor Grabs The Ground Rent

Vast Belgravia artists’ studio goes on sale for just £1.3 million, but of course, there is a catch and that is the extortionate ground rent

A Grand Greek Revival

Grand Greek Revival mini-mansion in Illinois goes on sale for just £35 per square foot in spite of having been mostly renovated; it is situated within an area colonised by utopian Swedish Janssonists.

A Mini White House in Mississippi

Colonial Revival ‘Mini White House’ on an 8-acre plot in Mississippi for sale for just £299,000 or £56 per square foot; the mini mansion is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Cheaper Than Fiction – A Bargain in The Boltons

Cheapest, smallest house on the best side of one of London’s most sought after streets, The Boltons, comes up for sale; the tardis like building was home to novelist-politician Jeffrey Archer and his scientist wife Mary in the 1970s.