The Steeple Times

Tag: Buckinghamshire

  • The Miracle of Winslow

    The Miracle of Winslow

    Stowe Opera’s ‘Marriage of Figaro’ at Winslow Hall

     

    In July 2012, the Stowe Opera Company will perform Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro in the grounds of Winslow Hall in Buckinghamshire.

     

    The Stowe Opera Company was founded in 1995 by the renowned musician and conductor Robert Secret and originally performed in the grounds of Stowe School. The company’s repertoire has included Don Giovanni, Figaro, Don Carlos and Madam Butterfly and The Times described their musical standards as being: “A bit of a miracle.”

     

    Winslow Hall, Winslow, Buckinghamshire, MK18 3HL

    Winslow Hall itself is a perfect backdrop for such a performance and here the company will perform on six dates:

     

    Saturday 21st July at 6.00 pm

    Sunday 22nd July at 3.00 pm

    Wednesday 25th July at 6.00 pm

    Thursday 26th July at 6.00 pm

    Saturday 28th July at 6.00 pm

    Sunday 29th July at 3.00 pm

     

    Each evening performance will have a 90-minute supper interval whilst the Sunday matinees will have a 30-minute interval. Tickets are £60 per person. For the comfort of the audience, the stage and auditorium will be covered by a performance marquee and seating will be tiered for optimum viewing.

     

    Winslow Hall itself is a fascinating Grade I listed house that the architectural commentator Marcus Binney described as being: “A trophy without rival… The Rolls-Royce of English domestic architecture.” Built to the designs of Sir Christopher Wren, the property has variously been a school, an office for RAF Bomber Command and an antiques showroom.

     

    Restored as a private house by Sir Edward Tomkins, the former British ambassador to the Netherlands, and his wife following their purchase of it in 1959, Winslow Hall was offered for sale in May 2007. It was rumoured that the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife, Cherie, were to buy the house but ultimately it was sold to the former restaurateur Christopher Gilmour and his delightful Australian wife, Mardi.

     

    The Gilmours, like previous custodians, generously allow the annual Winslow Show to take place each August opposite Winslow Hall and now with the arrival of the Stowe Opera Company, the building really is making it’s mark culturally also.

     

    As Steven Berkoff once commented:

     

    “A great opera house isn’t run by a director, but by a great administrator.”

     

    Christopher Gilmour is indeed such a man and do I suspect that this will be a festival that should not be missed.

     

    For further information and to book, call +44 (0) 1280 848275 or go to http://www.stoweopera.com or contact Christopher Gilmour at [email protected]

  • Written in the sun

    Written in the sun

    The sale of the former home of Dame Rebecca West

     

    Ibstone House at Ibstone in Buckinghamshire has recently come to the market at a price of offers in excess of £15 million. Now owned by Ariadne “Ari” Getty Williams, the daughter of Paul Getty and Abigail Harris, Ibstone has also been home to Sun City tycoon Sol Kerzner, who is currently divorcing his wife Heather. This Grade II listed house is situated in the Chiltern Hills and was originally built in the late 18th century.

     

    Ibstone House, Ibstone, Near High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, HP14 3YA
    A reception room at Ibstone House
    The house’s swimming pool
    An aerial view of the estate

    Arranged over three floors and including an extensive leisure and entertaining complex, the property includes 6 principal reception rooms, 7 bedrooms and an indoor pool. A 2-bedroom lodge cottage and large barn stand in the 79-acre grounds that also include gardens designed by Lady Arabella Lennox-Boyd.

     

    Dame Rebecca West, described by TIME Magazine as being “indisputably the world’s number one writer” in 1947, purchased Ibstone House in the late 1930s and lived there with her banker husband Henry Maxwell Andrews.

     

    Dame Rebecca West DBE (1892 – 1983)

    West, who had affairs with H. G. Wells, Charlie Chaplin and Lord Beaverbrook, used the grounds of the house as a small dairy farm and also housed Yugoslav refugees in the blacked out spare rooms of the manor during the Second World War. After the death of her husband, she sold up and moved to an apartment next to the Iranian Embassy in Prince’s Gate, London. During the 1980 siege there, aged 87, she had to be evacuated.

     

    Solomon “Sol” and Heather Kerzner

    Kerzner, who has been married four times to Kerzner and tragically lost his son, Butch, in a helicopter crash, has homes around the world and both he and his wife blamed the breakdown of their marriage on his workaholic lifestyle.

     

    Of divorcing her husband, Heather Kerzner commented:

     

    “He’s a hugely important person to myself and my children. I have only positive things to say about him. He’s the most influential person in my life – and that’s worth a lot. He’s one of the world’s most incredible men, he has shown me a different world and we had an incredible life together but sometimes I guess it just doesn’t work out.”

     

    Some time ago the Kerzners sold Ibstone House to Ms. Getty but now she too has decided to sell up. Though best known because of her family name, Aridane Getty has run the Fuserna Foundation since 2005 and is considered a great philanthropist in her own right.

     

    It’ll be fascinating to see what chapter opens next for this magnificent house.

     

    For more information contact Stephen Christie-Miller of Savills on +44 (0) 1491 843000. To download a brochure for Ibstone House go to: http://residentialsearch.savills.co.uk/property-detail/333522/list

     

    For more details on the Fuserna Foundation, go to: http://fusernafoundation.org

  • Nicky Haslam (Nicholas Haslam)

    Nicky Haslam (Nicholas Haslam)

    “Britain’s ultimate interior designer” is a man of many talents and guises. Haslam flits from party to party by night, but by day writes, edits and designs. He’s performed cabaret at The Savoy and Bellamy’s and interior watercolour renderings by him are held by the Victoria & Albert Museum. This trendsetter’s life is indeed summed up by the title of one of his books: Sheer Opulence.

  • Andrew Davis

    Andrew Davis

    He was labeled “Baron Von Essen” but evidence of his pedigree failed to surface. Starting in 1990, this buccaneer built up a collection of 26 luxury hotels but the £300m empire, developed with loans from bankers who plainly asked very few questions, collapsed in 2011. Since then, instead of quietly going to ground, he’s bought a Rolls-Royce from his friend Michael Winner and appeared at quite a few parties. Watch out: “The Talented Mr Davis” is plainly plotting his next move.