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
A onetime contributor of ours is best known for saying: “It’s good” of almost any situation and in 1 Rivers Edge Drive in Colts Neck, Monmouth County we’ve discovered what is quite possibly the best ever example of: “It’s so bad, it’s good” in architectural terms.
Styled from outside in the form of an atypical ‘McMansion’ or ‘Hummer House,’ the 5,420 square foot ‘palace’ of a property on offer for sale currently stands in a community described by realtor Jason Mitchell as “the gem of New Jersey.”
Whilst the property hawker lists the area as a “most affluent suburb” and a place having “country flair,” he neglects to mention the township was the scene of a gruesome familial “mansion mass murder” in 2018. The case against businessman Paul Caneiro is ongoing, but on a more positive note for music lovers, rock and roll legend Bruce Springsteen is listed by Wikipedia as the “township’s largest equestrian farm” owner.
1 Rivers Edge Drive itself is something quite extraordinary in terms of its tackiness. Featured on the Facebook Architectural Crimes group last weekend, here is an example of what one Brandon Vescovo described as: “The ugliest house in all of New Jersey.” Going further, he added: You might click through the exterior pictures and think ‘eh, this isn’t that bad, just landscaped and stoned to within an inch of its life’ – but, oh no. Oh no. It’s always the inside of these audacious McMansions that send mind hurtling into the void.”
The entrance hall to the ‘house’ resembles a Christmas grotto, but not one you’d want to take any child near given it is more Halloween-horror-esque.Christmas and Christ are definitely an obsession of the current owner – and they plainly want everyone who comes through the door to know it.The Facebook group ‘Architectural Crimes’ chose 1 Rivers Edge Drive, Colts Neck to feature on the pages last week. One user described it as “like a psychotically festive mole tripping on really bad acid.” Another added: “Hyacinth Bucket informs us that Sheridan is appalled.”
Standing on a plot of 2.77-acres in an area which tragically lost a high proportion of its population on 9/11 during the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre, selling agent Robert DeFalco remarks of the 4-bedroom house: “Spectacular, stunning [and] tranquil are a few words to describe this custom-built colonial.” He kindly terms it “distinctive” and lauds the salt water swimming pool’s 20-foot Fred Flintstone-esque “boulder wall waterfall” and “resort like atmosphere” amongst its key selling points.
If you want a true mish-mash of weirdness, you should put in an offer for 1 Rivers Edge Drive. Here is a McMansion that would suit perhaps Gemma Collins or Katie Price. Now girls, get your cheque books out; they’d need the ludicrous sum of £1.65 million though, up from a sale price of just £233,000 in July 1999.
Pictured top: The exterior of the ‘McMansion’ isn’t exactly architecturally stimulating, but it gives little away of the horrors of the contents of the ‘Bet Lynch on crack-like’ pad within.
The Numbers – 1 Rivers Edge Drive, Colts Neck, Monmouth, New Jersey, NJ 07722, United States of America
A double height reception room contains artwork that one would imagine was purchased from the tat ridden railings of Hyde Park, London on a damp Sunday long ago.The junk collection continues in what appears to be some kind of gallery for familial photos.There’s hardly any space left for the table in this dining space of the McMansion.The heron flying on the television screen is about the only appealing thing in this attempt at some form of a ‘dude ranch’ drinking den crossed with a boardroom.Whatever this room was meant to be – there is a desk – it’s ended up as yet another junk emporium.One could imagine Tamara Ecclestone feeling at home here.More crap.A model giraffe was plainly meant to give this airport lounge style space a hint of ‘Out of Africa.’The dark wood kitchen, surprisingly, has remained largely unscathed, but the faux plants and wreaths merrily help it along.One of four busy bedrooms. Perhaps they employed napkin slapping Dawn Ward for these areas of the McMansion.A dressing room for a gentleman clearly completely lacking in colour coordinating abilities.Who’d have thought it? Pink, brown, gold and grey aren’t a great colour comibination.Double dishing the same with the sinks.Fred Flintstone plainly came to play on the day this shower room was fitted. The bog and sink colour palette… Well…A shower suitable for a fatty and a jacuzzi tub suitable for a hooker.Nicely folded towels.Is the wreath for whomever died in this contraption?Even the golf club storage area gets gaudy.Exercise with colour.The backyard is fully of junk also.From this angle, the swimming pool doesn’t look too abnormal.But then, you see the grotto…A vast block paved driveway is a requirement for any McMansion owner.You simply would never guess the horrors inside 1 Rivers Edge Drive from above.
Last portrait of Jeffrey Epstein goes on exhibition as part of a very controversial showcase in New York; in the image the late paedophile’s arrogant smugness is clearly exposed
Featured first in Artnet News on Monday, it can be revealed that the “likely final portrait” of Jeffrey Epstein, shot just months before his death in 2019 by Andres Serrano, has gone on display in New York.
Forming part of a highly controversial exhibition titled Infamous that also includes racist memorabilia and items related to Donald Trump, of the shot the photographer commented:
“After he died, I decided I had to put Jeffrey Epstein’s portrait in Infamous because there’s no one more infamous than Jeffrey.”
Going further and describing why he “agreed to shoot [the]photograph in exchange for a 16th century statue of the Madonna,” Serrano added:
“I have no doubt that Jeffrey Epstein was a monster and pedophile. I would have dealt with the devil himself for that Madonna. And apparently, I did.”
Describing how they came together, Artnet’s Sarah Cascone commented:
“Serrano, who collects Medieval and Renaissance art, had tried to purchase the sculpture and a matching statue of St. John from an antique shop in 1995 – only to learn that a man called Epstein had beaten him to the punch, splitting up the pair.”
“Epstein soon learned that he owned a work of art Serrano coveted, and they met several times over the years to discuss it. (Serrano clarified these were business meetings attended by the artist’s wife, Irina Movmyga, and never involved dinner, parties, or Epstein’s infamous private jet or island).”
“Fueled by an overwhelming desire to reunite the two religious statues, Serrano agreed in 2018 to a trade: Epstein’s portrait for the Madonna. The financier followed up – improbably, three months before his arrest in July 2019 and four months before his death – to secure his half of the deal.”
‘Infamous’ by Andres Serrano is on show until 14th March 2021 at Fotografiska New York, 281 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10010.
Pictured top: The most definitely avant-garde photographer Andres Serrano (right) and his most definitely arrogant and evil paedophile monster subject.
In July 2020, ‘The Steeple Times’ featured news of a gold paint covered statue of Jeffrey Epstein “popping up” in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was promptly removed and its current location is unknown.
Auctioneers Christie’s sought to sell five waste bins for £230; they ultimately went for the astounding sum of just under £34,000
Whilst most people would rubbish around a few pounds for a waste bin to put the junk mail we mentioned on Friday, a set of five sold for £33,900 ($43,750, €37,300 or درهم160,700) in a Christie’s auction last week.
Offered with an estimate of £230 to £390 ($300 to $500, €260 to €430 or درهم1,100 to درهم1,800) to reflect that they had been supplied by the late French interior designer Henri Samuel – a man “hailed by Architectural Digest as a ‘supreme master of progressive historicism’” – the 20th century faux wood grain and cream painted bins were supplied with Italian marbelised paper linings.
Plainly another deciding factor for the purchaser of these very expensive rubbish containers was their past ownership. The bins had previously been owned by the late American socialite and philanthropist Jayne Wrightsman.
The collection of Jayne Wrightsman (1919 – 2019) sold for a total of £930,000 ($1.2 million, €1 million or درهم4.4 million) at Christie’s. Her waste baskets were the top performing lot in the sale.
As Rolf Harris is spotted pounding the pavements in soiled clothing, the public must be reminded that this paedo pest is still nothing but a mucky monster
This morning, the Mirror featured pictures of the disgraced deviant and all-round filth bag Rolf Harris out walking wearing soiled clothing.
Previously snapped clearly breaching the terms of his release pestering children in a playground in February 2019, the now 90-year-old nuisance nonce was seen “hobbling along a walking stick” with his dog according to the paper’s Sara-Aisha Kent. He was charmingly described as having a “screwed up face” and “cut a scruffy figure in clothes covered in marks and stains.”
Harris, it must be remembered, is a monster who has showed no remorse for what he did to his victims – whom called out his actions as having “destroyed their childhood innocence” and left them feeling “grubby, dirty and disgusting.” In 2015, this awful Australian penned a sordid ‘song’ in which he described them as “slimy little woodworms.” Sickly titled Gutter Girls, it went as follows:
Climb up out of the woodwork babe
From forty years ago,
The climate’s great in Britain now
For making loads of dough
You’ve festered down there long enough,
Time’s right to grab your chance
Clap eyes on a rich celebrity
And make the bastard dance
Chorus
Make him squirm, slimy little woodworm
Make him squirm, squirm, squirm
Sink your claws right in to the hilt, don’t let him go
(Group) NO! NO!
Make him burn, burn, burn
Slimy little woodworm, make him burn
Get your fifty-years-old hooks into his dough
(Group) GO BABY GO
That old bandwagon you crawled out of
(rotten to the core)
Conceals a host of foul accusers,
Twenty maybe more
My guess is they’ll slide after you
All following your stench,
Perhaps you believe you’re pretty still
Some perfumed sultry wench
Chorus
“Make him squirm”,
I can hear you singing
“Make him squirm, squirm, squirm:
Just imagine all of the money waiting there
(Group) OH YEAH!
Make him burn, burn, burn
Come and join the feeding frenzy girls,
Don’t miss out, come on and join me for your share
(Group) PUT IT THERE!
Elsewhere, a Change.org petition attempting to clear Harris’ name astoundingly remains online in spite of all avenues for such having been exhausted. On it, his loopy daughter – whom bizarrely goes by the name ‘Ava Reeves’ (in spite of previously calling herself Bindi Nicholls) – declares: “He has been tarred by the propaganda out there. He has been swept up in a witch hunt because of his high profile and celebrity! A total travesty at his age.”
Frankly, the best thing for this deluded duo is the funny farm. It’s time for some straitjackets to be sent to Fishery Road, Bray.
Rotten Rolf’s Riverfront Lair – Highlands, Fishery Road, Bray, Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 1UP; in August 2017 the ‘Daily Mail’ reported that neighbours were “selling up their homes disgust after [the paedophile Rolf Harris] returned from prison.”Rotten Rolf’s Dirty Dinners – Prior to his conviction Harris and his weird looking wife used to enjoy consuming curries at Malik’s Tandorri House in Cookham. Whether he’s returned recently with “dear friend” Amanda Plattell, for example, is unknown, but if he did, he’d likely find his local Member of Parliament Theresa – now Lady – May at an adjoining table.In February 2020, Twitter users reacted angrily to a forcible deportation flight bound for Jamaica by arguing that it was wrong that the convicted paedophile Rolf Harris was not put on such a flight back to Australia after his release from prison in May 2017. Here, we picture the monster with his equally off-the-scale weird chum Sir Cliff Richard.Rolf Harris was quite deservedly described as a “Jekyll and Hyde character” at his trial in 2014. Here, he is pictured with his wife Alwen Hughes, daughter Bindi Nicholls and another relative.As with many of their type, paedophile Rolf Harris was friendly with fellow monsters including Sir Jimmy Savile. Here they are seen “sharing a joke” and “grinning creepily at each other” as the Australian ‘artist’ painted the abuser of even corpses.
An invitation from businesswoman Heather Bird Tchenguiz to a socially distanced ‘by appointment’ exhibition of the works of William Cookson in Knightsbridge
Today’s updated COVID restrictions will sadly result in the curtailing of many activities for the next six months, but in Beauchamp Place, Knightsbridge, London, SW3 artist William Cookson and salon-gallery owner Heather Bird Tchenguiz are opening an appropriately socially distanced ‘by appointment only exhibition’ this evening.
Limiting the number of guests to a maximum of six in total at any one time and offering hand sanitisation and masks to all attending, interested collectors will be able to view abstract works of art in complete safety whilst enjoying mindfully served refreshments. No walk-in visitors will be allowed access.
Great to see an artist coming up with a socially distanced way of doing an exhibition right now. Looking forward to joining limited numbers of you at Heather Bird’s Beauchamp Place, Knightsbridge, SW3 gallery to view William Cookson’s works. Here’s a video intro to what’s to come pic.twitter.com/uuiJTfAMEX
Prior to the exhibition commencing Harrow School and Charles Cecil Studios trained Cookson briefly introduced his works in a video that has since been uploaded to Twitter.
Now, today, as the exhibition commences, Bird Tchenguiz comments: “We all need a little joy right now and William’s vibrant works give just such. I hope many of you will be able to attend and be welcomed safely yet enthusiastically by us both.”
Cookson’s oil on canvas works are priced at between £600 and £1,000 and will be available for sale at the gallery for the next two weeks. He has previously exhibited in London, Corfu and Barbados.
To arrange an appointment to view William Cookson’s art at HB Gallery, 12 Beauchamp Place, London, SW3 1NQ, telephone: +44 (0) 777 568 5778 or email [email protected] to request further details.
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’
Whilst some of the supposed ‘bargain’ properties we’ve featured recently – such as this £15,000 Edwardian ‘fixer upper’ house in Buffalo, Kansas – are in obscure parts of America and might seem a little off-piste and quirky, an especially quaint £107,000 Côte d’Azur pied à terre will no doubt appeal to literary lovers.
Bought by the Maigret author Georges Simenon (1903 – 1989) in 1956 as a birthday present for his second wife, Denyse Ouimet, and featuring usable space extending to 272.2 square foot, the property includes a reception room, kitchen, bathroom and mezzanine sleeping area. A separate entrance leads to a second bedroom and bathroom.
Offered for sale last year for £161,000, this petite pad in Cagnes-sur-Mer has recently been reduced in price by 34% to £107,00. The selling agents are Emmanuelle Minassian International Real Estate – whose offices are situated directly next door.
The Numbers – 98 Montée de la Bourgade, Cagnes-sur-Mer, Haut-de-Cagnes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (PACA), 06800, France
September 2020 – Reduced in price to £107,000 ($142,000, €120,000 or درهم522,000) through estate agents Emmanuelle Minassian International Real Estate. The cost to fix the roof has been estimated at £12,110 ($16,060, €13,550 or درهم58,975) by the selling agents.
November 2019 – Offered for sale for £161,000 ($213,000, €180,000 or درهم781,000) through estate agents Emmanuelle Minassian International Real Estate.
Pictured top: The former Cagnes-sur-Mer home of Georges Simeon – which he is said to have described as his “house of happiness” – and the acclaimed author himself. The Belgian born writer published over 500 novels and was capable of writing 60 to 80 pages per day. He had at least two dozen pseudonyms and around 550 million copies of his works have been printed.
Georges Simenon’s ‘House of Happiness’ – The reception room features an open fireplace and tiled flooring.Georges Simenon’s ‘House of Happiness’ – Georges Simeon somehow managed to live at 98 montée de la Bourgade with his third wife and their three children in the 1950s in spite of it being quite beyond tiny. His initial ‘S’ is still to be found on in the ironmongery on the external staircase railings of the building.Georges Simenon’s ‘House of Happiness’ – 98 Montée de la Bourgade is situated on a picture perfect side street in Cagnes-sur-Mer. Amongst attractions of the town are the Hippodrome de la Côte d’Azur, a well-known horse racing track, and a 2.5-mile long beach.
Matthew Steeples laments the death of the high street, but sees some hope in a shift to a new way of retailing
Remember when Mary Portas was banging on about saving the high street? Appointed in May 2011 by David Cameron and Nick Clegg to “breathe life back” into shopping hubs, this “retail consultant’s” well-meant attempt ended up sadly achieving little in reality.
Now, partly due to the impact of coronavirus and in many cases actually due to longer standing systemic problems with largescale companies, Britain’s towns and cities need to fast adapt if their central business districts are to survive.
Firstly, the high street’s customer base has altered and businesses must come to understand this. With those who’d worked in offices previously having used sandwich shops and retailers at lunchtime gone, many operations such as Pret are seeing footfall collapse and opting to cut staff hours and close stores.
Secondly, the likes of Marks & Spencer – which announced 7,000 job cuts yesterday – will find itself forced into doing more business online. People have adapted to having their food and clothing delivered and a shift to more of that kind of business seems the only way forward for the big household names.
Thirdly, as both retail and office space empties as a result of these changes, town planners must look at new ways of drawing in life and use for this accommodation. Whilst some such spaces are suitable for conversion to housing, another idea could be to make more locations centres of specialisation. Hay-on-Wye, for example, has prospered as a book town whilst Margate has gone from a shabby resort to a vastly successful centre for the arts. Another example is Leeds – which took advantage of the .com boom in the 1990s and became a major location for financial services businesses and call centres.
In spite of a future that looks bleak right now – with Pizza Express axing 1,000 of its workers also as they close numerous locations – if our currently completely haphazard government help it adapt, there could be a future for the high street. It must, however, be one that will have to involve more reasonable landlords and a firm goodbye to greedy robber barons asset strippers like Sir Philip Green also.
Vast Belgravia artists’ studio goes on sale for just £1.3 million, but of course, there is a catch and that is the extorionate ground rent
A 2,124 square foot artists’ studio in Belgravia has gone on sale for just £1.3 million or the equivalent of £612 per square foot. There is, of course, a catch and that is that the ground rent is a staggering sum of £58,000 per year.
Featured in The Steeple Times when last offered for sale for £995,000 in November 2017, the opulently decorated ground and first floor property available provides not only a double height 23’9” by 20’6” reception room but also a dining room and kitchen. There are also 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and the space is described as being “for those involved in arts and media.”
The lease on the space is described as having been “renewed for 15 years with the Grosvenor Estate and agents Lurot Brand remark: “The grandeur and scale of this property is extraordinary in both charm and character.”
The Numbers – Ground and First Floor Apartment, Bradbrook House, Kinnerton Street, London, SW1X 8EL, United Kingdom
August 2020 – Offered for sale for £1.3 million ($1.7 million, €1.4 million or درهم2.4 million) by agents Lurot Brand.
August 2020 – Ground rent of £58,000 per year ($76,000, €64,000 or درهم278,000 per year), an increase of 9.4% on the sum in 2017.
November 2017 – Marketed for £995,000 ($1.3 million, €1.1 million or درهم4.8 million) by Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward.
Iceberg home formed in part from the former Chelsea studios of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife for sale for sum 1,178% higher than in 2012
The grand location used as Uncle Monty’s London home in Withnail & I – the 1987 classic dark comedy starring Richard E. Grant – was West House at 35 Glebe Place in Chelsea. That building was sold to François Pinault, the owner of amongst other things Christie’s, Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, for £20 million in 2011, whilst last month we featured an equally fabled residence in a street once home to artists, but now the preserve of billionaires – the £6.95 million former residence of the now in exile oligarch Sergei Pugachev at 53 and 54 Glebe Place.
Yesterday, the Daily Mail reported that Pugachev’s publicity craving ex-partner and mother of three of his children, ‘Karen-esque’ Countess Alexandra Tolstoy, had finally been evicted from that property. “It’s not our choice to leave, it’s painful and oh so sad” blubbed this batshit bonkers woman on Instagram, but now there’s another house for sale in the street that will make headlines and this time because of its connections to an esteemed art nouveau architect, Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868 – 1928).
Glasgow born Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his Black Country born wife Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh (top) and a replacement plaque commemorating their association with the building that is located on the garage door at 43 Glebe Place. A plaque was first erected to mark the centenary of the Glasgow School of Art in 2009, but was “removed at some point between 2009 and 2015.”
Bizarrely sold in November 2012 for a sum £55,000 lower than in February that year, 43 Glebe Place has just come to the market for £14.95 million through agent Johnny Turnbull of The London Broker – a sum 1,178% higher than eight years ago.
Now vastly larger due to the fact that it has been ‘iceberged’ with the addition of an entirely new ‘mega-basement’ level (of similar concept to that created under the five houses opposite during their controversial merger by Monsoon and Accessorize owner Peter Simon in 2015), 43 Glebe Place is formed from the merger of a simple cottage and two artists’ studios. It now extends to 3,871 square foot in total over three levels.
One section of the property formed from the artists’ studios – known at that time as 43a Hans Studio – was used by Mackintosh from August 1915 to circa 1923 whilst his wife, Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh (1864 – 1933), occupied the adjoining space.
The studios were entered through “a small high walled courtyard” which now forms the garden of the newly created house and during this period, the couple lived nearby in Oakley Street, SW3 also. They had been forced to move to London after being banned from Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, where they had previously lived, as Mackintosh had been suspected of being a German spy due to his “affinity with Austria.”
Of their time there, writing in 2016, Mackintosh expert Sheila Harris remarked:
“As with most studios the ceilings were high, in order, most probably, to capture as much as light as possible and although they were fairly austere, with the furniture, artefacts and decorative panels originally housed in their Glasgow home, the place would soon have become an extension of their artistic lives.”
“Let’s not forget that whilst Mackintosh was working quietly in his studio another, completely different, scenario was unfolding outside his studio door. A resident of Glebe Place wrote: ‘Never shall I forget how suddenly Chelsea seemed to become an armed camp… Army motor lorries were rattling noisily along the normally quiet Embankment, and those hot nights we lay awake listening to the heavy rumble of laden troop-trains, all night long… It was a heart-rending sight to see the young men of all ranks going up the steps of Chelsea Town Hall to enlist.’”
“Clearly Mackintosh and Margaret embraced life in Chelsea and made the very best of their new-found circumstances. They adopted their new surroundings, making their studios an inviting, hospitable place to spend their days, often in the company of like-minded people. They certainly faced up to the challenges of living in the capital city which was the target of so many bombing raids.”
“Whilst little evidence can be found on the daily routine of the Mackintoshes’ life in London, we know that they… spent their days in the adjoining studios in Glebe Place, and many evenings were enjoyed at the Blue Cockatoo [a long since gone local hostelry in Oakley Street that was popular also with Augustus John and other “artistic Chelsea denizens”] meeting friends and colleagues for dinner… We do know that Margaret held parties, including children’s parties, at the studios.”
Given what the estate agent Turnbull terms a “three year, multi-million pound rebuild by the current owners, creating an exquisite and self-indulgent London home for themselves,” it is doubtful that the Mackintoshes would now recognise their former home. It now provides a 21-foot by 16-foot reception room with a ceiling heght of 14-feet and a study area with a mezzanine beyond, a 30-foot long dining kitchen, 3 bedroom suites, a wine cellar and a gym with a steam room. There is a somewhat narrow garage, off-street parking for an additional car, a 24-foot by 23-foot garden and a 22-foot long roof terrace also.
In their marketing literature, The London Broker interestingly point out also of the freehold house: “This property currently has mixed use. The buyer should speak to their solicitor and seek advice to confirm that this could significantly reduce SDLT.” Who said the rich don’t like a bargain?
The Numbers – 43 Glebe Place, Chelsea, London, SW3 5JE, United Kingdom
July 2020 – For sale for £14.95 million ($18.90 million, €16.67 million or درهم69.40 million) through agents The London Broker.
November 2012 – Sold for £1.17 million ($1.48 million, €1.30 million or درهم5.43 million)
February 2012 – Sold for £1.225 million ($1.548 million, €1.366 million or درهم5.687 million).
A large entrance hall is formed out of the majority of the ground floor of the original, surprisingly unlisted cottage.Out of one of the studio spaces, a vast dining kitchen with doors to the courtyard garden has been created. It is bright and airy as a result of its ceiling lights.Beyond is a reception space, again with studio windows above.Another view of the room.A dividing glass partition leads to a space intended as a study. It has a mezzanine above.The master bedroom suite is to be found in the original cottage. It has its own terrace.The bathroom of the master bedroom also has a door onto the terrace.In the newly recreated ‘iceberg mega-basement’ daylight is brought in courtesy of a lightwell. A most useful wine cellar can be seen at the end of this corridor.The other two bedroom suites are located on the lower level.Also below ground is a large gym. It seems an ideal space for health conscious super-rich yummy mummy types to work out their frustrations in.The courtyard garden (looking towards the original house and garage) is quite charming and restful.The courtyard garden (looking towards the studio conversion section).A floor plan of the very much enlarged property.
A BBC video briefly mentioning Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s time at 43 Glebe Place. Video courtesy of The 78 Derngate Northampton Trust.
Flamboyant Uncle Monty plied Withnail and Marwood with booze in his drawing room at 35 Glebe Place in the film. His intentions were less than decent. In 2011, the house was sold for £20 million to the billionaire businessman François Pinault – reportedly the 27th richest man in the world as of October 2019.
Moving on homes owned by the newsworthy – including a country house apartment in a castle currently owned by Jasper Conran and the childhood homes of Al Capone and Jackie Kennedy
Soppy Savills Fail to Salivate
https://vimeo.com/227878828
Jasper Conran OBE paid just £2.75 million ($3.43 million, €3.04 million or درهم12.61 million) for New Wardour Castle in Tisbury, Wiltshire in August 2010. The catch? He didn’t get the whole James Paine and Giacomo Quarenghi designed Palladian mansion, but as the Daily Mail’sAlexis Parr reported at that time he “captured” 23,185 square foot of a repossessed building divided into a total of ten flats. ‘Apartment 1,’ as the space the designer son of Sir Terence Conran currently owns is known as, includes 8 reception rooms, 6 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms.
Agents Savills could have enthused gushingly about the Grade I listed building and its spectacular 60-foot central rotunda, but instead they are simply seeking £3.95 million ($4.93 million, €4.36 million or درهم18.12 million) for what they underwhelmingly market as the “largest [apartment] in Wiltshire.” Conran would have done better to have appointed someone more akin to the late Roy Brooks we’d say – at least he’d have showed some flowery enthusiasm for this capacious crib.
From Electric to Insta
‘The James Seymour Mansion,’ the £37,000 ($50,000, €45,000 or درهم184,000) Gothic revival mansion in New York State The Steeple Times featured in December 2019, has finally got itself new owners after 204 submissions from across the world to buy it.
Creatively marketed by Michael DeRosa on behalf of the local authority after a property tax foreclosure, the 10-bedroom house on a 0.9-acre plot is situated in Auburn, Cayuga County – a place best known for being the gruesome location of the world’s first legal execution using an electric chair in August 1890.
Whilst the process of the death of “vegetable peddler and known alcoholic” William Kemmler (whom murdered his common-law wife in March 1888) was regarded as a “historic bungle,” all worked out well James and Katie Joynt and their seven children. The family – whom currently manage an Amish co-op in Pennsylvania – will spend around £123,000 ($155,000, €136,000 or درهم565,000) restoring the house according to New York Upstate and are going to take the crumbling house into the 21st century whilst documenting their journey on Instagram.
Going Gangsta
Of a New York “multi-family townhouse” at 21 Garfield Place, North Slope in June 2017, the New York Post quipped: “A Brooklyn homeowner hopes a mob of buyers will take a shot at this town house.” That property was sold for £1.94 million ($2.42 million, €2.14 million or درهم8.89 million) in early 2018 to an Emmy award winning television producer named Steven Kalifowitz and is now again for sale, this time for £2.3 million ($2.9 million, €2.6 million or درهم10.7 million).
Agents Douglas Elliman neglect to mention that the 2,980 square foot building – which is “currently configured as an owner’s duplex with two spacious one bedroom apartments above” – was a childhood home of the gangster Al Capone (1899 – 1947) in the early 1900s. 21 Garfield Place previously sold for a “little more than £800,000 ($1 million, €885,000 or درهم3.7 million)” according to The New York Times in July 2006 and now looks anything but like a bootlegger’s workplace; there’s even a child’s playroom in the basement.
Anything But A Discount Holiday
Those looking to escape to the Hamptons post-lockdown could do worse than purchase the childhood summer home of the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (1929 – 1994) – if they’ve got £6 million ($7.5 million, €6.6 million or درهم27.5 million) going spare.
Built in 1895, Wildmoor at East Hampton extends to 4,291 square foot and has 6 bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms. It’s on the market through Paula S. Bulter of Sotheby’s International Realty and also noteworthy is that an art studio on the property was used for many years by the Abstract Expressionist artist Adolph Gottlieb (1903 – 1974).
Gottlieb purchased the shingled house on a 0.92-acre plot in 1960, but interested buyers should note that the current décor scheme is definitely a bit passé. As Kennedy herself once said: “It looks like it’s been furnished by discount stores.”
