Tag: 2015

  • Beating his blues

    Beating his blues

    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…)

  • Messing About in Boats

    Messing About in Boats

    Thameside cottage where ‘Lewis’ was filmed for sale; it is just the perfect place for ‘messing about in boats’

    Two episodes of the Inspector Morse sequel, Lewis, were filmed at Thatched Cottage at Mile End Reach, Henley-on-Thames. The cottage – last sold in 2000 for £1,075,000 – is now on the market for £3,600,000 through Knight Frank.

     

    Thatched Cottage, Mile End Reach, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, RG9 3BL
    Thatched Cottage, Mile End Reach, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, RG9 3BL

    A true “chocolate box” of a property, Thatched Cottage was built in 1897 and was at one point home to the Queen Mother’s cousin, Elizabeth Bowes Lyons. It currently comprises of 3,938 square foot of accommodation and has planning permission for a substantial extension that would take it to a grand total of 6,580 square foot.

     

    The highlight of the property, however, is its 1-acre plot as it comes complete with 99 foot of frontage to the River Thames and “unspoilt views over the river and water meadows beyond”. The current owners moor two boats on the property’s private moorings.

     

    A bathroom complete with port hole windows
    A bathroom complete with port hole windows

     

    There is a self-contained annexe in the garden
    There is a self-contained annexe in the garden

     

    The house comes with planning permission for a substantial extension
    The house comes with planning permission for a substantial extension

    In The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame famously wrote:

     

    “Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats”.

     

    For anyone with such a passion, 5-6 bedroomed Thatched Cottage would be just the perfect spot.

     

    Update: 21st February 2016: According to The Sun, the cottage has been sold to the comedian Russell Brand for circa £3.3 million.

     

  • Drugs and Dents

    Drugs and Dents

    A Cumbrian mansion built by opium traders and more recently used by cannabis growers comes to the market for just £1.5 million

     

    Built by the well-known Dent family, who made their fortune trading both tea and opium, Flass is a vast 23,000 square foot Palladian mansion on the outskirts of the village of Maulds Meaburn in Cumbria. Ironically it was also the setting for one of the country’s biggest drug raids in May 2012. (more…)

  • Shame on the Socialist Worker

    Shame on the Socialist Worker

    The ‘Socialist Worker’ owes the family of Horatio Chapple an apology

     

    The Socialist Worker can be relied upon to spout nonsense but in making fun of the death of a 17-year old Eton pupil, they’ve gone too far. (more…)

  • Simon Ogilvie-Harris: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

    Simon Ogilvie-Harris: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

    The Steeple Times asks the founder and managing director of Chavín Jewellery Simon Ogilvie-Harris: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

     

    The Steeple Times shares “wit and wisdom”. What’s your guiding force?

    I don’t really have a guiding force. I take every day as it comes.

     

    “Don’t get even, get medieval” is, in our humble opinion, a great motto. What’s yours?

    A very wise man once told me: “The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary”.

      (more…)

  • Jack Carlson: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

    Jack Carlson: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

    The Steeple Times asks author of “Rowing Blazers” Jack Carlson: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

     

    The Steeple Times shares “wit and wisdom”. What’s your guiding force?

    Creativity and persistence.

     

    “Don’t get even, get medieval” is, in our humble opinion, a great motto. What’s yours?

    Aut viam inveniam aut faciam: “Either I shall find a way, or I shall make one”.

      (more…)

  • Frank Furedi (born Ferenc Furedi)

    Frank Furedi (born Ferenc Furedi)

    Frank FurediThis Hungarian “former student radical” and emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Kent argued that historic abuse offences should effectively be swept under the carpet on Newsnight in July 2014. Faversham based Furedi – who is married to the CEO of the UK’s largest independent abortion provider – has previously bizarrely leapt to the support of Sarah Palin, attacked the scientific consensus on Global Warming and published a book titled “First World War: Still No End in Sight”. His supporters argue that his critics are just “jealous, small-minded and unable to engage politically or intellectually with the ideas he devises and promulgates on a cooperative, non-coercive basis” whilst he loftily sees himself as “the Lenin de nos jours”. That this academic, wannabe politician and author wrote a book describing the Jimmy Savile scandal as a “moral crusade” in 2013 about says it all. Frank Furedi is nothing more than a pompous, ridiculous man.

     

  • Cinematic bliss

    Cinematic bliss

    Former home of film director Richard Attenborough for sale for £12.75 million

     

    The Academy Award winning actor, producer and director Lord Attenborough is best known for his roles in such hits as The Great Escape, Gandhi and 10 Rillington Place but it was at Old Friars, his home of many years in Richmond, Surrey, that he was able to enjoy watching films in privacy due to the house having its very own private cinema. (more…)

  • Anna Soubry MP

    Anna Soubry MP

    Anna SoubryIn discussion with UKIP’s Nigel Farage MEP in June 2014, “lighthearted” Soubry suggested that some people who raise concerns about immigration are “frankly racist”. Immediately disowned by Downing Street, this former television presenter turned Conservative politician is a single mother of two children and a supporter of the legalisation of cannabis. In December 2013, she described Farage as looking “like somebody [who] has put their finger up [their] bottom and [who] really rather likes it” whilst earlier that year, the Speaker told her “to sit there and be quiet or to leave the chamber” after she heckled a fellow MP. She’s not easily silenced.

     

  • Picture of the Week: Skintland

    Picture of the Week: Skintland

    A redrawn map of Scotland sums up the perils of independence

     

    It’s always been our belief that the sum parts of the Union are worth more together than apart. Great Britain is great because of the diversity brought together in uniting England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Commonwealth and with their attempt to become independent, the Scots lobbying for it just show themselves to be fools. (more…)