This twice married, self-made billionaire publisher and philanthropist is a polarising force. Desmond’s portfolio has at various times included titles as diverse as the Daily Express, OK!, Asian Babes and Penthouse and this is used against him by enemies like Tom Bower who have also claimed that he’s “violent and dishonest”. Though some might loathe this Montecristo loving tycoon for his “devil don’t care attitude”, we salute him for taking a “no prisoners” approach and for standing up against the “useless, backbiting” Press Complaints Commission and the hapless Leveson inquiry. He occasionally drums with Roger Daltrey and of Rupert Murdoch states: “I like [him] because he’s bold and has a go and he leads from the front”.
Tag: Chris Meyer
-
Richard Desmond (nicknamed “Mr Badger”)
-
Put this dying dog down
Matthew Steeples argues the case for scrapping the Charity Commission
The Charity Commission recently appointed a new chairman, William Shawcross CVO. The author and journalist is to be paid an astonishing £50,000 for just two days work a week and even he himself admits he’s taken on a “a poisoned chalice”.
-
UKIP’s acceptability
Nigel Farage comes under attack from all quarters
Yesterday, Nigel Farage came under attack from a bunch of yobs whilst visiting Edinburgh to support one of his candidates, Otto Inglis, who is standing in a by-election.
-
Closeted in Chanel
Lady Meyer applies to build a “closet wing”
The wife of the former ambassador Sir Christopher Meyer, once described as “Chanel-clad” by The Telegraph, has applied to The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea to build a number of closets at a property she recently purchased just off the Kings Road.
-
Moving on
A monthly round up of the moves of the newsworthy
Fishing around
Poissonnerie on Draycott Avenue, popular with the likes of Sir Michael Caine and Sir Roger Moore, is for sale through Miles Commercial. The 6,700 square foot property, owned by respected restaurateur Peter Rosignoli, has a price tag of £14,000,000 and the agents state that it “has good redevelopment potential”. Meanwhile, around the corner in Walton Street, the same firm seeks £90,000 per year for the former Baity Kitchen premises.
Living like Lilly
The “Queen of Prep” Lilly Pulitzer’s realtor daughter, Liza, is marketing her late mother’s former home at 710 South County Road in Palm Beach, Florida at a price of £5,500,000. Originally marketed at £7,500,000, the fashion titan told the New York Times recently that the house is “just magnificent, but I’m old and I’m cranky and I can’t keep it up the way it should be”. She now rests in peace but with the “cabana inspired” property being marketed as a “tear-down” or for subdivision into two lots, it looks like the bulldozers will be on the way.
Meyer’s kebabed
Sir Christopher Meyer was recently spotted on the steps of 17 Lincoln Street in Chelsea with a group of men who looked like builders. The same property, for which offers in excess of £2,650,000 were sought, is now “under offer/sold” on the Primelocation.com website. If indeed the former ambassador and his wife, who was described as being “Chanel-clad” by the Daily Telegraph in May 2011, have bought the house, they’ll quickly have to get used to the smell of kebabs. The 4-storey unmodernised end of terrace is right next to the Al Dar restaurant.
Monckton moves on
The house where financier John Monckton was tragically murdered in November 2004 in Upper Cheyne Row, Chelsea has recently come on the market with W. A. Ellis. Monckton’s killer Damien Hanson and his accomplice Elliott White were rightly jailed and now, his widow, Homeyra, is selling the 5-bedroomed house at a guide price of £5,500,000.
If you know of a story about someone newsworthy who is changing jobs, setting up a new business or selling an existing one or moving home, do email us at: [email protected]
-
Put a sock in it
Matthew Steeples takes a look at the farcical results of the PCC elections
A former ambassador to the US undiplomatically Tweeted the following an hour or two ago: “Prezza beaten. Humberside policing saved.” His dovetailed stooge, one Mowbray Jackson, added: “Tiresome tub thumper ‘Lord’ Prescott rejected in PCC election. There is a god.”
Lord Prescott faces defeat in the PCC elections like all great men: He proudly holds his head up and heads straight to the bar. 
Sir Christopher Meyer and his sidekick Mowbray Jackson share their somewhat predictable views about Lord Prescott’s defeat. The first of this pair of social elevators loves a good old Ralph Lauren sofa and the second is often to be found lizard-like with a carafe swilling partner at the bars of London’s Hollywood Road. One stood accused by Prescott of doing “nothing” over phone-hacking whilst chair of the PCC, which probably explains his bitterness, but the other has little connections to the former Deputy Prime Minister other than a picture of himself posing outside 10 Downing Street on his Twitter handle. This image was taken at an event that a certain Lady Meyer hosted with “she so enthusiastic for PCC’s,” our “esteemed” Home Secretary, Theresa May. Dogs, fleas and all that.
From the start, I was very vocal in my view that the PCC elections were a waste of time. I personally couldn’t see the point of them but the one person I thought deserved to win was John Prescott. The right-wing columnist Peter Oborne agreed and summed up my views perfectly in a Daily Telegraph column on Wednesday:
“Most members of the Labour Cabinet [Prescott] served in are now off doing rather grubby jobs in the private sector and feathering their nest, whereas John Prescott, well into his 70s, is still filled with the desire to serve. Good luck to him tomorrow. It would be a magnificent thing for British politics if he wins.”
A Conservative government, though, should not have advocated this additional layer of bureaucracy and all the Police and Crime Commissioners will be is just such. Conservatives are meant to be about “less” rather than “more” government and that one polling station in Wales had a ballot box that, when opened, contained zero papers speaks volumes. It’s been a dismal day for democracy and frankly the government should “sock” the lot of these bureauprats before they have chance to do an iota of damage.
Read Peter Oborne’s article, “Why I hope John Prescott wins in Humberside tomorrow,” at: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/peteroborne/100189605/why-i-hope-john-prescott-wins-in-humberside-tomorrow/
-
Windows on the WAGs
A £15 million mansion fit for a self-made tycoon or an upwardly mobile WAG
While the youth of the Kings Road and Loughton have featured in the reality shows Made in Chelsea and The Only Way is Essex, their counterparts in Cheshire have yet to undergo the same social experiment. Having come across a fair few of their number though, I can only imagine their antics would result in television of comparable car crash proportions.
Wayne and Coleen Rooney and their home on Collar House Drive in Prestbury, East Cheshire 
Warrington born Kerry Katona isn’t considered one of the “Cheshire set’s” finest exports Cheshire itself is a county of contrasts: there’s the farming and hunting set and then there’s the new money. From the 1950s onwards an invasion of nouveau riche footballers and self-made business people came to Alderley Edge and Wilmslow and it is said that there are more Rolls-Royces per square mile here than anywhere else in the UK.
Though today’s Coronation Street actresses and Man United players generally favour brand new homes in Prestbury, the new wealth have not just consigned themselves to such. The likes of Take That’s Gary Barlow, for a time, owned Delamere Manor at Cuddington but sold it in 2005 due to his ever-growing commitments elsewhere. Equally, Neil Hamilton, whilst MP for Tatton, lived at The Old Rectory at Nether Alderley with his formidable wife Christine but when their days in politics came to an end, they too moved on. For a time, David and Victoria Beckham were the undoubted glitterati of this manor, but of those footballers still resident Wayne and Coleen Rooney are definitely now the best known.
Swettenham Hall, Swettenham, Congleton, Cheshire, CW12 2JZ 
Double glazing tycoon Brian Kennedy In a “grey area between old and new” sits Swettenham Hall at Swettenham near Congleton. This 12,590 square foot Georgian mansion dates to 1795 but since it was acquired by Brian Kennedy, a double glazing, home improvements and mobile telephone entrepreneur, the house has been given a total makeover. The colourful style he’s given the house can best be described as being akin to: “Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen meets Austin Powers.”
Swettenham Hall’s drawing room is decorated and furnished in a cacophony of colours 
The kitchen is painted in an equally vivid shade of lime green 
A bedroom boasts a carpet that would make Austin Powers shout: “Yeah, baby, yeah!” 
The same carpeting continues into the wood paneled “gentleman’s study” 
At Swettenham Hall, bathrooms, equally, are far from neutral in their styling 
Mr Kennedy and his wife Christine employed Julian Bicknell Associates to design an impressive leisure wing in 2004 Swettenham Hall is most definitely a party palace and along with the addition of a leisure wing consisting of a swimming pool, Jacuzzi®, plunge pool, steam room and gymnasium in 2004, Kennedy has also constructed a 47ft by 44ft helicopter hangar complete with a retractable helicopter pad.
Standing in 100 acres of grounds, the house does seem a tad expensive at £15 million especially since that the adjoining former farm buildings were sold off and converted into eight homes in 1999. The driveway is partly shared with these homes and for those seeking the ultimate in privacy, this could indeed be an issue. It is perhaps why Swettenham Hall has yet to sell.
The former farm buildings next to Swettenham Hall were sold off and converted into eight homes by Egerton Estates and Watts Developments in 1999 
The proximity of Swettenham Hall to the neighbouring barn conversions is illustrated in this Google Earth map Brian Kennedy is someone I hadn’t heard of until I came across Swettenham Hall but here is a fascinating man whose meteoric rise is frankly very clearly linked to windows. The son of a window cleaner from Edinburgh, this self-made tycoon started his career as a trainee manager at the Royal Bank of Scotland. He subsequently briefly worked as a trainee accountant but left when offered the chance to become youngest branch manager of Moben Kitchens at the age of 20.
At around this time, Kennedy acquired a stake in Farouche Kitchens and with a Rochdale born property entrepreneur named David Russell, he was transformed from a door-to-door salesman to a pioneer in direct sales. In 1988, when Farouche was sold, Kennedy netted circa £1 million. From here, this entrepreneur returned to his family’s roots by venturing into double glazing with Weatherseal Windows and then home improvements with Space Kitchens & Bedrooms.
In 1999, with the help of funds raised by private equity investors 3i, Kennedy paid £42 million for the well known brand Everest but sold part of his stake to the management for £63 million in 2003. In due course he added to his shareholding and then sold 21.5% of the company to Hutton Collins in a deal which valued the company at £150 million in 2007.
Ever the empire builder, Kennedy paid £29 million for a conservatory manufacturer named Ultrafame in 2006 and then also added another double glazing brand, Zenith Staybrite, to his portfolio in 2008. Many other business ventures followed but not being afraid to diversify, Kennedy formed Patrick Properties, whose portfolio is now valued in excess of £100 million, in 2002 and Kennedy Renewables, which specialises in wind energy, in 2009.
In the technology sector, a chance conversation in a Knutsford wine bar in 1995 led to him venturing into the mobile telephone market with a company named Genesis Communications. The business was sold to Dixons in 2002 for £31 million.
In January 2012, Kennedy merged his main Latium Holdings business with Jim Rawson’s Epwin Group to form Epwin Holdings. The merger resulted in a company with more than 2,500 employees and brands numbering Spectus, Swish, CET and Kestrel.
Of his success, Kennedy states:
“Business is common sense [and] dealing with people is common sense. I don’t think I have any particular flair. I think it is about common sense, taking the opportunity when it comes and hard work.”
Brian Kennedy’s wealth has allowed him to indulge many of his passions. A period of semi-retirement “drove [him] and [his] kids nuts,” but this Scotsman’s love of rugby resulted in him acquiring the Sale Sharks Rugby Club in 1999. He is said to have set the “club on a sound financial footing” and turned it into “one of the leading rugby clubs in Britain.”
Philanthropy is something that Kennedy, a Jehovah’s Witness, has also dedicated his wealth to. Through his Brian Kennedy Trust, he has supported a number of charities and organisations but it is for his role as the main backer of Find Madeleine Fund that he has come to public attention. Of his reasoning for backing the missing child’s parents financially, he stated:
“In light of the quite literally incredible accusations against Gerry and Kate McCann, which are clearly exacerbating their emotional torture, I felt compelled to offer, along with other like-minded businessmen, financial support and the full logistical support of the Latium team. That support is principally our in-house lawyer Ed Smethurst and [official spokesman] Clarence Mitchell.”
Brian Kennedy was involved in the funding of a team that included Clarence Mitchell for the Find Madeleine Fund until 2009. Here Mitchell (standing) is pictured with Gerry and Kate McCann. 
An ex-lawyer and campaigner Anthony “Tony” Bennett is the former secretary of The Madeleine Foundation who has been involved in various legal disputes with Brian Kennedy and Gerry and Kate McCann Kennedy’s donation attracted much press attention in 2007 in the weeks following Madeleine McCann’s disappearance and he continues to support them to this day. A very public spat involving him, Gerry and Kate McCann and a campaigner named Tony Bennett, who also was involved in The Madeleine Foundation, has been the subject of various legal actions. In October 2011, Mr Bennett was forced to publicly apologise to Mr Kennedy and separately an August 2009 Evening Standard article by Mark Hollingsworth “investigat[ing] the investigators,” was pulled because for “legal and editorial reasons.” In it, “someone who worked closely with [Kennedy]” was quoted as saying:
“He was appalled by the Portuguese police, but he also had visions of flying in by helicopter to rescue Madeleine.”
Angelina Jolie, another avid aviator, once commented: “Wherever I am I find myself looking out of the window wishing I was somewhere else.” We do not know why Brian Kennedy is selling Swettenham Hall, but Jolie is indeed one of the few with the resources to take these particular windows off his hands.
For more information about Swettenham Hall, Swettenham, Congleton, Cheshire, CW12 2JZ, contact Edward Welton of Knight Frank on +44 (0) 20 7861 1114.For more details about Brian Kennedy, go to: http://www.brian-kennedy.co.uk
For more details about the Find Madeleine Fund go to: http://www.findmadeleine.com and for information on The Madeleine Foundation: http://www.madeleinefoundation.org.uk/
-
First Among (Not So) Equals
The latest sale of 32a Ovington Square
I first visited 32a Ovington Square in September 2009. At the time, this “hidden house” was the home of Lord Carrington and it had just come on the market at a price, if I recall correctly, of circa £3,000,000.
The newly redeveloped Carrington House, 32a Ovington Square, London, SW3 1LR 
The Rt. Hon. The Lord Carrington KG, GCMG, CH, MC, PC, DL (born 6th June 1919) with his wife Lady Carrington (1920 – 2009) and their dog Edward A friend was looking for somewhere to buy in London and I’d somehow come across the aforementioned property in a magazine. A detached house in Knightsbridge at this price seemed like a bargain and as he was keen to take a look and I lived round the corner, we arranged to see it together.
During this period, I had unfortunately made the mistake of making the acquaintance of a former ambassador’s wife who thought herself rather grand. Said woman somehow found out about my friend going to what Americans might term an “open house” at 32a Ovington Square and somehow muscled in. This individual happened to be selling her own home nearby and I reckon she, like my friend, thought she’d be onto a bargain. She’d previously unsuccessfully tried to persuade my friend to buy her individually styled, Ralph Lauren wallpapered home but as it actually rattled every time an underground train went underneath and as it was far from a bargain, he’d sensibly declined.
We arrived at the 2,240 square foot 32a Ovington Square to be told by a rather unhelpful estate agent that we’d have to just wander round by ourselves and that there was no brochure or floor plan. As a merry throng trailed through the house, Lord Carrington stood in the garden looking bemused and his secretary fussed around him. The pair plainly weren’t comfortable with all the interlopers and all in all, who could blame them.
The ex-ambassador’s wife, whose carelessness Rupert Everett most amusingly made reference to in his recent memoirs, spent the entire visit whingeing about the house being dark and stinking of damp. I had to agree with her as the neighbouring buildings towered over it and there was mould on the walls. My friend simply said: “It needs a fortune spending on it.” We left and later I heard that it sold for well above the asking price. The wife of the ex-ambassador thankfully departed from our lives soon after.
A site plan shows how hidden away 32a Ovington Square truly is – ideal for a government minister or indeed a wayward celebrity About a year and a half later, I saw 32a Ovington Square for sale with planning permission to construct a far larger residence with a basement and sub-basement pool complex. The price was in the order of £14,000,000. I thought that somewhat ludicrous but now that the very same property is on the market at a price of £23,00,000, it seems that the world has just gone mad.
The brochure for the new residence, which has been renamed, Carrington House, reveals a three-storey low-built freehold building with 5,300 square foot of accommodation. Though 32a Ovington Square has been more than doubled in size by a developer named London City Developments, the sub-basement leisure complex has not been constructed. Could this have been because of planning problems or simply because such construction wasn’t deemed to add value?
In August 2002, Lord Carrington, whom The Mirror described as being “doddery” in a Scurra diary piece, was said to have objected to a bar named Townhouse behind his former home being given a 1am licence. That bar has since closed but as seven of the residents of Ovington Square and Beauchamp Place also took a dislike to the prospect of subterranean developments at his former home, only proposals for a single basement level were included in the January 2010 plans submitted by a Mr & Mrs R. Garner.
Jeffrey Archer’s 1984 novel “First Among Equals” (published in the UK by Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN: 0-340-35266-3) Aside from controversy with residents and planning officials, this “heavily overlooked,” “dark” house gets a brief credit in Jeffrey Archer’s 1984 novel, First Among Equals:
“Charles would not have normally accepted the invitation. Lately he found cocktail parties to consist of nothing but silly little bits of food, never being able to get the right drink and rarely enjoying the trivial conversation. But when he glanced on his mantelpiece and saw an ‘At Home’ from Lady Carrington he felt it might be an amusing break from the routine he had fallen into since Fiona left. He was keen to discover more about the rumoured squabbles in Cabinet over expenditure cuts. He checked his tie in the mirror, removed an umbrella from the hat stand and left Eaton Square for Ovington Square… He arrived at Lord Carrington’s front door a little after six forty-five. A maid answered his knock, and he walked straight through to a drawing room that could have held fifty guests and very nearly did. He even managed to be served with the right blend of whiskey before joining his colleagues from both the Upper and Lower Houses.”
Turning to the real Lord Carrington, here is a man who has led a remarkable life. He served as Foreign Secretary in Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet between 1979 and 1982 and as Secretary General of NATO from 1984 to 1988. The last surviving member of the Cabinets of both Harold Macmillan and Sir Alec Douglas-Home was British High Commissioner in Australia between 1956 and 1959 and also chaired the 1979 Lancaster House conference that brought Zimbabwe’s revolutionary war to an end. In 1991, Carrington presided over diplomatic talks in the former Yugoslavia and commented:
“When I first talked to Presidents Milošević and Tudjman, it was quite clear that both of them had a solution which was mutually satisfactory – which was that they were going to carve up Bosnia between them.”
Lord Carrington at his desk in 32a Ovington Square, Knightsbridge 
The Manor House, Bledlow, Buckinghamshire, HP27 9PB is the country home of Lord Carrington Milošević was found dead in his cell in 2006 but it is quite possible that Lord Carrington’s name will be mentioned in the trial of Goran Hadzic at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia that has just commenced at The Hague. It is amazing to think that matters involving this 93-year old politician are still current but Carrington’s stamina is shown in his roles as the longest serving member of the House of Lords and the second longest serving member of the Privy Council after HRH The Duke of Edinburgh.
Aside from politics, there is much on the internet, a considerable amount of it written by wildcards and fantasists whose number includes David Icke, about Carrington’s involvement with Henry Kissinger, the Illuminati, the Bilderberg Group and the Committee of 300. The consensus of these conspiracy theorists generally borders on the ludicrous, but it is without doubt that Lord Carrington had and continues to have influence in many high places. He was chairman of Christie’s International PLC from 1988 to 1993 and has held directorships on the boards of companies that have included Barclays Banks PLC, Hambros PLC, Cadbury Schweppes PLC, Amalgamated Metal Corporation PLC, British Metal Corpoation PLC, Rio Tinto PLC, Kissinger Associates Inc. and Hollinger Inc.
The main entrance to Carrington House 
The main reception room of the house is decorated in a contemporary style and a far cry from the traditional decoration favoured by Lord and Lady Carrington 
An essential feature in any house priced over £10 million is a media room 
Carrington House now boasts a bar that any dignitary would envy 
The newly added basement level features an entertaining hall, dining room, bar, gym, media room and two bedroom suites 
The staircase is now lit by a glazed cupola 
The master bedroom 
The master bathroom 
Another bedroom, located at basement level, is decorated with a Scottish theme and has access to a shared courtyard 
The other suite that shares the courtyard is decorated with an “Out of Africa” theme complete with an image of a zebra and matching linen and upholstery 
Would the purchaser of a £23,000,000 home truly want an AstroTurf lawn? Following on from this rather over the top redevelopment, a new chapter has certainly begun at 32a Ovington Square. Whether it is bought by a popstar or a Russian oligarch, they’ll definitely not be anywhere nearly as equal to Lord Carrington in terms of their league of influence.
Carrington House, 32a Ovington Square, London, SW3 1LR is for sale through Knight Frank. For further information contact Nick Vestey on +44 (0) 20 7591 8600. Full details of the house can be viewed at: http://search.knightfrank.com/sla100211
For more details about the Carrington family’s Carrington Estates Ltd., go to: http://www.carington.co.uk/
-
Winging it
Sarah Tucker gives an update on goings on at the resort where Madeleine McCann vanished
Four hundred and thirty euros, one bedroom apartment, one week at the height of season at a luxury family resort in Portugal. And oh yes, it’s the Ocean Club at Praia da Luz. There’s availability with two and three bedroom apartments as well. I asked about apartment 5a where Madeleine disappeared but the PR is coming back to me on that one. That was four days ago.
The Ocean Club entrance and Apartment 5A at the top of the street I checked this out because having looked at the comments on The Steeple Times McCann roll call entry, I wanted to know what became of the resort where she disappeared. Last year the lady who owned the property itself couldn’t sell it because women buyers were put off by it’s history. I don’t blame them. I would never recommend buying from a divorcing couple, no matter how good the deal, so buying somewhere where a child has been allegedly kidnapped is a no no. Estate agents will say nonsense, but that’s a woman’s superstition for you. Or a mother’s superstition.
I remember writing at the time about Mark Warner, a company synonymous with a reputation for keeping parents who treated parenting as a subject to be studied to A*, not as something to leave to instinct, God forbid. Perhaps that’s an exaggeration, but having recently vox popped over 500 parents* asking if they would leave their children in their hotel room unsupervised while they ate in a restaurant on site, none of them, not one, said they would do so. I never mentioned the McCann case. The question about childcare was mixed in with other family travel related stuff, but some even mentioned the McCann’s case when they responded. And all claimed they would take advantage of a babysitting service if it was offered or eat earlier and with the kids if it wasn’t.
I was asked at the time if I would ever leave my son alone. I never have. Too risky and having lost him for ten minutes in the salubrious area that is East Sheen high street at five in the afternoon five years ago, because I refused to wait for him to tie up his shoe lace for the nth time, and getting no less than eighteen other men and women, all who had been either waiting for buses, serving or being served in shops, or in several cases drinking in the local pub, to run up and down, shouting his name, I understand the McCann’s need to go to the end of the earth, the prime minister, the Pope, to find their daughter. I completely understand this. What I never understood was their emotional reaction or rather lack of it. In the meantime babysitting services are still offered at the Ocean Club.
* Using social media (parents of three to six year olds).
-
Gerry & Kate McCann
Their daughter Madeleine disappeared on the evening 3rd May 2007 from a holiday apartment whilst they sat enjoying tapas with a bunch of friends. Some believe the poor child was kidnapped. Others have alternative theories. A public fund to find “Maddie” raised hundreds of thousands of pounds but Mrs McCann’s book, Madeleine, contains so many references to trips on private jets and meeting famous people that it makes one question whether the search for the child or fame has become the focus.