Luxury and the arts From houses to cars and from Hockney to van Dyck, a profile of the best and the worst
An opportunity to create your own version of Downton Abbey in the Cotswolds
For a mere £27 million you can currently purchase a 6-bedroomed mews house in Reeves Mews in Mayfair. Alternatively, a buyer with the same sum to hand could splash out on something a little grander, a 774.32 acre Cotswold estate complete with a mansion, two entrance lodges and eleven cottages. (more…)
A £6.9 million home in “Britain’s Monte Carlo”
Whilst London has “Billionaires Row” in the form of Kensington Palace Gardens, the coastal county of Dorset has an equivalent in the form of the Sandbanks Peninsula – known locally as “Millionaires Row”. Property prices here are said to be the fourth highest on the planet (more…)
Small, unmodernised former home of Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh for sale for the extraordinary figure of £7.5 million
Built in 1850, Durham Cottage in Christchurch Street, Chelsea is a house “hidden behind a high dusty brick wall” that was the love nest of Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh between 1937 and 1956. Now, in totally unmodernised condition, the house is for sale after failing to sell at auction (despite a bid of £6,980,000). (more…)
Conor Mccreedy work sells for £100,000
Aged just 27, South African artist Conor Mccreedy has pulled off an extraordinary coup in selling a painting for just shy of £100,000 (R1.8 million ZAR). (more…)
Norah Docker’s yacht, Shemara, has found a saviour in Charles Dunstone
When spendaholics Sir Bernard and Lady Docker took ownership of a 65-metre yacht, the Shemara, in the 1950s, little did they know that it would ultimately become part of their nemesis. The very same boat – after languishing for many years – has now been fully restored and is now in the ownership of the telecommunications titan Sir Charles Dunstone. (more…)
Chelsea revealed to be London’s most popular residential address and not just “a place where servants live”
Whilst in March, estate agents Beauchamp Estates announced that Chelsea is “a place where servants live”; a more recent analysis by local firm Russell Simpson has found quite to the contrary and provides proof that it is “London’s most popular residential address”. (more…)
A studio apartment with a difference in Mayfair’s Mount Street
Estate agent Roy Brooks became famous in the 1960s for the derogatory descriptions he gave to the properties he marketed and such phrases as “not enough room to swing a cat” were amongst his most frequently used. His advertisements were chronicled in two books, Brothel in Pimlico and Mud, Straw and Insults, and he’d have had a field day if he’d taken on a £625 per week studio flat in Mayfair (more…)
House where items lay untouched for 100 years remains on the market for over a year
The Hermitage in Hexham, Northumberland is a “small stately home” that truly is a time warp. Rented by the Morant family for nearly 100 years, this Grade II* listed, 14 bedroomed mansion was barely touched during that period. (more…)
James Murphy examines his romantic heroes, Ian Fleming and James Bond
I was privileged to attend the recent Masterpiece art and antiques fair in Chelsea. For me, the undoubted highlight was coming face to face with the letters of Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, on Peter Harrington’s stand. (more…)
