A marine residence with a history tied to the Rolls-Royce Spirit of Ecstasy, the Special Operations Executive and Babycham
The House on the Shore on Thorns Beach at Beaulieu in Hampshire is a home that wouldn’t look out of place in the Hamptons or Rhode Island. Dramatically situated next to the Solent waters to the north of the Isle of Wight, this suitably named building wouldn’t have been out of place in the 1980s BBC series Howards’ Way. It could. Indeed, have been an ideal home for Gerald and Polly Urquhart. (more…)
In the first of a series, we publish a number of the most popular articles from the blog that conceived The Steeple Times. Here, in a February 2012 piece, Matthew Steeples reviews a boozy breakfast at Hawksmoor Guildhall with Anthony Brown. After seeing an image of their breakfast on Facebook this morning, we were reminded just how good it truly is, so if you haven’t tried it already – you really should.
On arrival at the Hawksmoor Guildhall, in the heart of the City of London, I immediately found myself thinking about Edward Hopper’s iconic painting Nighthawks.
Nighthawks (Art Institute of Chicago, 1942) by Edward Hopper (1882 – 1967)
The main dining area at Hawksmoor Guildhall
Here, in this vast space, which can seat 160 in the restaurant and 75 in the bar, was a venue that very much combines the feel of an old banking hall with something akin to a friendlier version of the American café diner in Hopper’s Nighthawks painting. Though, to my mind, the City is indeed a lonely place, the welcoming staff and the somewhat noisy suited brokers created an atmosphere that truly reflected the stature of this fine establishment.
My companion and I wrongly assumed that this relatively new restaurant had simply taken the space of something that had been there before. In fact, this was just a clever trick. The owners, Will Beckett and Huw Gott, collaborated with the Macaulay Sinclair design studio, who were also responsible for their Seven Dials site, to create a style that combines solid mahogany panels made out of Natural History Museum specimen cabinets, a bar formed out of the counter of a Dutch bank and teak flooring taken from the University of the Arts Building near Bond Street. The result is truly impressive.
We opted to share the Hawksmoor breakfast for two priced at £35. This superb offering was served in a large pan with a smoked bacon chop, the most phenomenal sausages made from pork, beef and mutton, black pudding, short-rib bubble and squeak, trotter baked beans, fried eggs, grilled mushrooms, roast tomatoes and HP gravy. Served with unlimited toast, not that it was actually required, this bargain of a meal was a breakfast fit for a king. After this, you really won’t need to eat again for several days.
Also on offer for breakfast, on a menu designed by the Hawksmoor’s executive chef, Richard Turner, are wild mushrooms on toast with poached eggs Hollandaise (£10), a 200g fillet steak with fried eggs and hash browns (£25) and a twist on McDonalds in the form of the sausage and egg HkMufin (£8.50). Scotch pancakes come available with streaky bacon and maple syrup (£6) or with roasted plums (£5).
Urged to try the breakfast cocktails, we sampled the Hawksmoor’s Marmalade Cocktail (£8) of gin, lemon juice, homemade orange bitters and a dash of Campari and another named Shaky Pete’s Ginger Brew (£8.50) that consisted of gin, homemade ginger syrup and lemon juice topped with London Pride. The first was sharp and a perfect awakener and the second, described on the menu as “a turbo –shandy for the discerning drinker,” surprisingly worked utterly brilliant in terms of the ingredients it combined.
Open for breakfast from 7am and serving until 10.30pm at night, this is a restaurant of which the Metro’s Marina O’Loughlin rightly comments: “As Homer Simspon might say, mmmnmnhrhmm…”
Charles Mitford Cust test drives the Range Rover Evoque
When I saw my first Range Rover Evoque coupé in the flesh I decided right then that it was time to emigrate. The actual remark I made is too rude to put in print, but the jist is that it’s ‘slammed’ rear styling reminded me of a baboon whose derriere had just suffered the unwanted amorous attentions of a short-sighted elephant.
The Evoque has a lot more off-road capability than you might expect
It was my indignation that such a macho and traditional brand as Land Rover had built the thing at all, which led to me to cast unwarranted aspersions about the kind of car designers now working at the Land Rover HQ and the much-published fact that Victoria Beckham had designed the interior only added to my incandescent rage. As far I was concerned this was the ultimate example of design over function, and the last word in brand exploitation and betrayal, and to me this proved Land Rover as a British institution was dead.
You see, my family has owned every model of Land Rover since the Series One was launched in the 1948. My father even took delivery of the second privately owned Range Rover sold, just a few days after Her Majesty had taken delivery of hers. I have Land Rover in my DNA, so to me the fact that they had built something like the Evoque coupe was like Purdey deciding to give up building guns in order to make designer curtains.
Then one day, about a month ago, out shooting, I came across an example of the 2011 5-door version of the Evoque, the roofline of which has subtly been raised some 2-inches to accommodate the rear doors without compromising the original radical design. It was finished in dark Aintree green rather than the normal footballer pearlescent white, and standing there covered in mud on the top of a rain swept hill, it looked quite at home in it’s surroundings. I looked inside fully expecting to see the usual multi coloured blinged up interior, but instead I saw a muddy Labrador panting contentedly on plain black leather seats, which were strewn with cartridge boxes and general shooting detritus.
I stepped back a couple of paces and looked at the vehicle in a new light, not as in the context of a Rangy, Disco or any full size 4×4, but as a compact SUV, or shooting break in old parlance, which is what the Evoque actually is, and do you know what? I reluctantly began to appreciate that I was looking at a work of genius, in fact quite simply the best looking SUV vehicle ever designed… in the entire world.
It was with some considerable trepidation therefore that I decided to check out the performance reviews of the machine that was now causing me some consternation. I felt sure that my brief change of heart would be proved totally unjustified by reports of laughably pathetic off-road capability and a reinforcement of my original scepticism.
Well I was to be disappointed; every test I read praised the quite unexpected off-road capability. Oh, obviously, with it’s sexy aerodynamic curves it was never destined to be a Defender, but it was more than holding it’s own against the best Jerry could build, and for that reason alone, it is a bit of a hero. Especially as whilst the efforts of BMW, Mercedes and Porsche were all incredibly ugly, in comparison, our homegrown SUV was as handsome as James Bond standing in a room full of bald, fat Blofeld clones.
My research led me to a great YouTube clip of Top Gear’s James May driving an Evoque across the Mojave Desert. I noted that he was able to talk quite normally as he traversed the rock strewn desert floor at 70 mph, praising the amazing ride. Now I have considerable respect for deserts, I have nearly died in three: in the Nullabor from sun stroke, in the Nevada from hyperthermia and in the Sahara from riding a Paris Dakar bike at 60 mph into a dry river bed hidden from view by a the dust of riders ahead of me. So, I know only too well to my cost that deserts are places without mercy but May’s Evoque was making one of the toughest of the lot look like the M4 on a sunny midweek afternoon.
It was not the high-speed desert floor performance, impressive although it was, that convinced me to look more closely at the Evoque. No, rather it was watching May climb up a horrific 40-degree rock strewn dry watercourse like the one that nearly accounted for the last of the Mitford Custs that caught my attention. I have been up these nightmares many times and take it from me, although ultimately the Evoque’s low profile road orientated tyres finally failed it about 90% of the way up, the fact it even made it that far was enough to make me pick up the phone to my local Land Rover dealer and request an immediate test drive.
I really hadn’t bothered to bone up on the different specs in which the car is built before going there but it really came down to the fact I would be testing two versions: A 2-litre 240 bhp petrol Dynamic spec model with the optional Adaptive Dynamics suspension fitted, and a 2.2-litre 190 bhp diesel version in the Prestige configuration with standard suspension.
So let’s see, one will go well and will corner like a sports car and the other will cough along like a drunk camel on roller skates. Pretty obvious which the Ferrari and Ducati loving Charlie boy is going to like best eh?
Well that’s exactly what I thought, but once again, I could not have been more wrong.
More handsome than it’s German rivals, but also tougher in the rough stuff, the Evoque is the James Bond of the SUV world
Handling and ride
What I am about to say is so extraordinary that it is essential that I establish my credibility first. As a teenager, I cut my teeth thrashing the wheel nuts off hairy arsed rear wheel drive rally cars like the 1800 BDA Mexico and RS 2000’s that only knew one way to corner, and that was completely sideways leaving a streak of molten rubber. By dealing in cars like this as a student I earned enough money to buy my first Ferrari, a black 308 GTS just in time for my 25th birthday.
That is when my real driving career started. There have been many occasions during the next two decades and a quarter of a million Ferrari miles in which I have found it necessary to prove to some upstart in a Evo or Imprezza that contrary to what he obviously read in a car magazine, his slant eyed rice burner was not in fact able to overtake Italy’s finest on a tight twisting back-road. You get the picture.
So if I say a car’s handling is crap please trust me, it truly is. If on the other hand I say that it’s cornering capability is utterly, and quite unexpectedly astonishing, well, you can take my word for it. I really do know what I am talking about.
Such was the case when I picked up the “Prestige Pack” Evoque, the cooking pot version which drinks the fuel of the Devil, I fully expected it to roll about hopelessly on the tight switchback North Devon back-roads like most top heavy tractor-fuel guzzling four wheel drives do. I was so glad when they said that I could drive this model first, because this would make driving the petrol version so much more fun afterwards. Oh boy, was I was in for a shock.
Once I turned off the main North Devon Link Road in the SD4 and on to one of the finest drivers ‘B’ roads in Devon, I found myself at the wheel of a car with truly astonishing poise. I simply could not find fault with it. The electrically powered steering was perfectly balanced, weighted and geared. It ‘turned in’ with absolute precision, no oversteer, no understeer, just right. The body control was astonishing for a vehicle of this type with no almost no roll or weave in mid corner. There was no discernable lateral pitch either under hard breaking. Believe me, I tried very hard to upset it by deliberately chucking it into corners using the wrong line or by making clumsy mid corner steering inputs, but it always kept its cool, very impressive indeed.
In fact I can honestly say that much to my absolute amazement, the Evoque SD4 prestige proved to have one of the best combinations of ride and handling of any 5-door car I have ever driven, let alone an SUV with a relatively high centre of gravity.
That said, here comes the next surprise: The petrol version, even this one which was fitted with the Adaptive Dynamics option with MagneRide dampers (which supposedly react to the road inputs 1000 times per second by employing magnetically reactive damper fluid and clever electronics), was a total disappointment. In ‘normal’ or ‘comfort’ setting it rolled around in all directions horribly, pitching and weaving like a tramp steamer in a rough sea. Unlike the SD4, the turn-in was woolly and the wheel twitched nervously whilst under-steering horribly, totally lacking the precision of the diesel.
Bizarrely, engaging ’Adaptive Dynamics’ mode did very little to cure any of this, it just seemed to make the ride harder whilst still doing the same thing. It was horrible. I simply cannot understand how two versions of the same vehicle could be so different, one utterly brilliant, the other totally crap. Clearly as even the Adaptive Dynamics option did little to improve matters the problem has to be fundamental.
All I can assume is that Land Rover must have spent the whole suspension budget perfecting the spring and damper rates for the most common model, the turbo diesel, and then just didn’t have any time resources or cash left over for the lighter engined petrol version.
Performance and economy
Other differences in the driving experience between the two models would seem to support this hypothesis. Both cars have the excellent steering wheel mounted flapper changes allowing manual override of the 6-speed auto boxes. However, whilst on the diesel the operation was seamlessly faultless, the petrol’s was jerky and rough. Presumably they haven’t bothered to re-tune the torque convertor for the higher revving petrol engine.
I would say that the diesel lacked a bit of mid-range grunt, but at least its torque was usually in the right place. The same could not be said of the petrol’s, which was simply hard work to row along if you were trying to make ‘good progress’ as my ex-Police Class 1 driving instructors, whose services I have engaged over the years would say. Again, another first for me was that whilst the diesel was quiet and refined, the petrol engine was actually intrusively noisy. Not in a good or exciting way as it is in a Ferrari, just annoyingly so.
The only good thing I can think to say about the petrol was that in a straight line, you could certainly feel the benefit of the extra 50 bhp in terms of overtaking acceleration. However, in real terms all the other drawbacks would outweigh this. On the average B-road, the diesel would win hands down with a real driver at the wheel. Plus a diesel is easy to re-programme these days. With the right engine management remap, you can claw that 50 bhp back in a few minutes.
Economy was surprisingly similar between the two models. Zeroing the average mpg on the trip computer before the back road thrash, the diesel achieved 21 mpg and the petrol 19.6 mpg. Zeroing it again just as I rejoined the North Devon Link Road and then driving very sedately at a steady 60 mph average for 25 miles, achieved almost identical mpg of 30.5 for the diesel and 30.2 for the petrol. However, undoubtedly the diesel would prove more economical around town and also would creep up nearer to mid or late 30’s mpg over a longer distance on a motorway. Although I would bet my socks that cruising at motorway speeds it would not crack 40 mpg, no matter what Land Rover claims.
An interesting insight as to why the diesel returned such poor economy could be identified when I followed up the test of these two Evoques with a test of the Discovery 4 by way of comparison. Doing exactly the same back road thrash and sedate run on the main road returned an average of 3 mpg better despite the fact that the Disco weighs nearly a tonne more than a Evoque. This can only be down to a better engine/weight ratio. This is why the 2011 Range Rover is even more economical again than the Disco. The combination of its larger 4.4 V8 engine and lighter alloy body win the day. You cannot escape the fact that big heavy cars need an appropriate engine capacity.
It seems Land Rover has missed a trick here. Had they installed the Disco’s larger 3-litre diesel engine in the Evoque it would have had a world class winner. Not only would this drop the already respectable if not exactly tarmac melting 0-60 from 8 seconds to around 6.5 seconds by my guess, whilst adding mind blowing mid range grunt to boot, but it would also achieve at least 10 mpg better economy, probably 15 mpg.
This is all down to the crazy way the green brigade force car manufacturers to create vehicles which produce fewer emissions at the exhaust pipe, whilst ignoring the reality of the fact that putting too small an engine in a vehicle will actually cause it to use far more fuel and therefore produce far more emissions over its lifetime. Just like catalytic convertors, yes they cut emissions, but fitting them causes all vehicles to use 5-10% more fuel, so the net result is far more global emissions, duh.
The only advantage of the 2.2-litre diesel is the fact that it saves you £185 per year road tax, which is only a saving if you are not doing large mileages. If you were, then this would soon be negated by the extra economy from an Evoque fitted with the larger Disco engine.
Off-road performance
I had only a limited opportunity to try the SD4 off-road, but the little I did looked promising. A muddy field can sometimes stop even the most seriously modified off-roader in it’s tracks but despite it’s low profile road tyres the SD4 had no trouble pulling itself up a 25 degree slope of muddy wet grass. When I tried to get it to break traction by flooring the accelerator it’s traction control cut in smoothly and it refused to even step out of line.
Next, I then tried it on a short stretch of green lane, which is used not only by serious offroading enthusiasts, but also several motor clubs for trials. Known locally as ‘Hell Hill’ its broken surface consists of mud covered slick rock. Very few contestants, either car drivers or dirt bikers clear the section in one attempt in a trial. The SD4 made light work of both going down and up the short section I attempted and surprisingly the road-orientated suspension did not cause it to bang or crash over the rough ground. It just absorbed it all smoothly and without drama. That’s all you could ask for on a compromise SUV like this, it does not pretend to be a Defender. I doubt any of the German competitors would have performed anywhere near as competently.
The interior of the Evoque (I’d personally ditch the WAG look and get it in black)The Evoque’s glass ceilingAmple room for a Labrador and a pair of Purdeys
Build quality and interior
The Evoque has a high quality feel about it both inside and out. Fit and finish is excellent and both examples were rattle free. I have to confess I really struggle to believe Posh had much input in the interior’s design as it appears to me to be an identical clone of the Rangy and Disco’s but more compact. Even the instruments and switchgear are identical. Sounds like PR BS to me, and you know what that stands for.
Frankly the seats could have been more comfortable, a little more front thigh support would have done wonders for long journey comfort. The sports seats in the ‘Dynamic’ package are worse than the ‘Prestige’. Why can’t car manufacturers get this simple aspect of seat design right? They only have to consult the top motor sport seat manufacturers.
I loved the full-length transparent tinted roof, which gave the interior an airy feel it might have otherwise lacked, plus more headroom. The surround camera system was a nice gimmick, which could come in handy off-road sometimes although they would need to be frequently cleaned in muddy environments. The sat nav was clear and even works off-road. The upgrade 825w sound system with 16 speakers was first class and frankly I found it like sitting in my own Albert Hall.
In conclusion
The 5-door Evoque is actually a really brilliant SUV, which in its unique way is a credit to the Land Rover brand. I started off hating it but now I am a bit in love with it. If you are going to get one, take my advice and buy the diesel Prestige in a decent colour like dark green or the very nice dark blue like the SD4 tested. Avoid the petrol version like the plague. If you want to get the Adaptive Dynamics option make sure you test it back to back with the standard suspension first. There wasn’t a diesel available with this option for me to compare. Stick to black leather and everyone will applaud your good taste. The tinted transparent roof is a must and don’t, whatever you do, dare mess up the ride and handling by fitting the optional 20-inch wheels.
What else? Oh yes, but you did not hear this from me right? Get the diesel re-programmed on the quiet to give it about 240 bhp, tons more torque and better economy. Make sure it is done by a reputable firm whose work cannot be detected so it doesn’t invalidate the warranty. Believe me, the chassis will easily handle the extra performance and it will be a lot cheaper to run. Then, I can assure you, the Evoque SD4 will become the best all round 5-door country car you ever owned.
Could the number 13 be the reason Halcyon Hall has failed to sell?
Several over the top Californian residences we’ve featured on The Steeple Times, namely the $40,000,000 Chateau d’Or in Bel Air and the $87,000,000 Villa del Lago on the Newport coast, were properties that have seen huge price reductions. Though $15,000,000 has been sliced off the asking price of the Bel Air pad, it remains unsold and meanwhile Villa del Lago, now renamed One Pelican Hill Road, achieved just $18.5 million in a bankruptcy auction. It sold for less than a quarter of what the developer originally sought for it.
The 25,000 square foot Chateau d’Or, 10425 West Sunset Boulevard, Bel Air, Los Angeles, California, CA 90077 first came on the market at $40,000,000 in 2009. At $25,000,000, it still hasn’t sold.One Pelican Hill Road North, Newport Coast, Newport Beach, Orange County, California, CA 92657 was originally on the market for $87,000,000. It eventually sold at a bankruptcy auction for just $18,500,000 and features a 17,706 square foot Italianate mansion with 8 bedrooms and 17 bathrooms. Additional features number staff accommodation, a gatehouse, garaging for 17 cars, a 1-acre lake with terraced waterfalls, a tennis court, stabling and a riding area and a private vineyard with a wine cave.
We believed monstrous white elephants like these were confined to the US, but we are afraid we’ve come across something today that truly proves otherwise. The behemoth we refer to is a 14,000 square foot house in Radlett, Hertfordshire. Built in 2005 for a businessman named Barry Beck, “Halcyon Hall” stands on the site of a far more modest property that was simply known as 11 Newlands Avenue.
The phrase “halcyon days” refers to “the seven days of winter when storms never occur” in the Greek myth of Alycone but whether this inspired Beck in naming this place is unknown. He and his wife, Pauline, did, however, decide upon an “Elizabethan theme” for the residence and our pictures illustrate their extravagantly eccentric tastes adequately.
Halcyon Hall, 11 Newlands Avenue, Radlett, Hertfordshire, WD7 8EHThe entrance hall is guarded by a pair of knights in full suits of armourThe hall and entertaining salon is far from understatedThe main staircase is guarded by a life-size bearThe dining room attempts to look ElizabethanWhilst the kitchen dabbles with medieval meets “The Real Housewives of New York”Decorating mish-mash continues in a formal entertaining spaceAnd the “games gallery” isn’t exactly neutral eitherThe master bedroom suite takes “over-the-top” to another levelBut it is the thirteen seat cinema that we find most curious
Undoubtedly the construction of this vast Hertfordshire crib is of a high quality but the look is nothing other than ludicrous. Here is a mix of pastiche, ostentatiousness and just plain odd. Not even a WAG could have come up with décor this curious and such things as a private cinema with 13 seats can plainly not be the choice of someone who follows the curse of the hangman’s noose.
This 7-bedroomed house, which stands in 1.17 acres, would strangely, though, be ideal for someone who is a little paranoid. As well as all the security features you’d expect of any multi-million pound mansion in the Home Counties, it also includes a bathroom that doubles as a panic room. If you close the door in a certain way, steel bars supposedly come down making sure no intruder can follow you inside.
Two knights in full suits of armour guard the entrance hallway and a life-size stuffed bear stands dominant in the games gallery of the house. Plainly this beast’s not persuaded anyone to bite yet as whilst the price of Halcyon Hall has fallen from £15,000,000 in February 2011 to just under £13,000,000 in November 2012, the house remains on the market. We suspect that the curse of “Unlucky Thirteen” may well be alive and well somewhere between numbers 11 and 15 Newlands Avenue.
Halcyon Hall, 11 Newlands Avenue, Radlett, Hertfordshire, WD7 8EH is for sale through Statons. For more information telephone: +44 (0) 20 8445 3694 or email:[email protected]
Edward Kay takes a look at a yacht that forms part of the legacy of Steve Jobs
In a bittersweet moment, Steve Jobs’s yacht was launched on 29th October from the Feadship’s de Vries yard in Aalsmeer, The Netherlands with his wife and three children aboard. The Jobs family gave the members of the yard iPod’s inscribed with the name of the yacht to show their appreciation for the six-year build.
The unusual 256-foot yacht has been christened “Venus” after the Roman goddess of love and features huge floor to ceiling windows and teak decks.
Venus emerges from the Feadship de Vries yardA closeup of the bridge deck of Venus shows seven 27-inch iMacsThe iMacs in situVenus in all her glorySteve Jobs (1955 – 2011)
The minimalist Phillipe Starck designed aluminium vessel has been described as looking like an iPhone resting on an iPad resting on a MacBook Air and there are indeed seven 27-inch Mac screens clearly visible on the bridge deck.
Jobs told his biographer Walter Isaacson: “I know it’s possible I will die and leave Laurene [his wife] with a half built boat. But I have to keep going on it. If I don’t, it’s an admission that I’m about to die.”
Of the boat itself, Starck adds:
“The idea for the boat was very simple. It was mainly philosophical. It is not like a lot of mega yachts showing the vulgarity of money. It’s a boat showing the elegance of intelligence.”
Indeed, when Jobs saw the designs, he is said to have stated: “My God, it’s better than I could have dreamt.” I quite agree. Venus is a spectacular bequest.
This Texan born designer and film director turned around the fortunes of Gucci and YSL and had a huge success with A Single Man. A fixture at New York’s Studio 54, his designs are hugely influenced by the club’s disco-era glamour and his love of all things black and square. Ford met his journalist partner, Richard Buckley, at a fashion show in 1986. They share a love for smooth fox terriers and announced the birth of their son, Alexander Buckley Ford, in September 2012. Of being “gay,” he comments: “I hate that word” but declares that he’ll marry when same-sex marriage is legalised in California. Of Ford, his partner, Buckley, adds: “There’s only one Tom for me.”
The flexible £12.75 million former home of Tom Ford
Number 26 Gilston Road in London’s SW10 is a property that has been on and off the market repeatedly in recent years. On each and every occasion it has been promoted as the “former home of the fashion icon Tom Ford” and though he hasn’t lived there in years, it is still just as he left it.
Designer and film producer Tom Ford“The former home of design icon Tom Ford”: 26 Gilston Road, London, SW10 9SS
Situated at the end of a terrace on the corner of Priory Walk, one can see why the house appealed to the Texan born designer credited with turning around the fortunes of Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent. Hidden behind a high wall and hedging, 26 Gilston Road is private yet minutes from the restaurants of Old Brompton and Fulham Roads.
This 4-storey townhouse was sold in June 1997 for £2,250,000 and again marketed in 2009 for £8,500,000 through Aylesford. In the time since, it has been available to let at prices ranging from £5,500 to £7,500 per week, but is now back for sale at the extraordinary figure of £12,750,00 through Russell Simpson.
One of the reception rooms, just as Tom Ford left itAnother of the Tom Ford styled roomsA Tom Ford designed bedroomThe garden of the property is extremely private
What explains such a rise during a period of economic downturn? Well, it’s because developers Equilibrium have gained permission to “de-Ford” the house. As is now the trend in London, they have planned a total redesign. Their illustrations incorporate a new sub-basement and as a result the gross internal area will increase from just over 3,700 square feet to just under 5,300 square feet.
Equilibrium’s plans include a vast living-dining-kitchen with a study in the void over. The space is lit by a skylight.A cutaway shows the extent of the redevelopment plannedA view of 26 Gilston Road from the corner of Priory Walk
Whilst the layout Tom Ford, himself a graduate in architecture from Parsons The New School of Design, created at 26 Gilston Road was ideal for A Single Man; the new floor plan with 4 bedrooms is much better suited to a family. Ford and his partner, Richard Buckley, announced the birth of their son, Alexander, in September. Perhaps they should put in a bid.
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 CheshireWarrington 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.
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 coloursThe kitchen is painted in an equally vivid shade of lime greenA 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 stylingMr 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 1999The 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/
Christian Huhnt recounts an evening at the launch of La Suite West
I have a personal connection to Inverness Terrace as twice in my life I’ve had to crash at my friend’s place there. It’s less than a minute from the new Anouska Hempel-designed hotel, La Suite West, and runs parallel to Queensway.
Bursting with cheap Chinese, Arabic and Mediterranean restaurants, this is an area that has great transport links to Oxford Street and the city centre that is also a very short walk from Hyde Park. As a result it’s full of tourists. Here, they arrive and depart every day, wandering around with heavy luggage trying to find their way. Most of them look like they’re hopelessly lost and in need of a good scrub. The tourist density here is almost equal to that of Victoria Station’s Gatwick Express exit or the Piazza San Marco in Venice.
The lobby of La Suite West, 41 – 51 Inverness Terrace, London, W2 3JNParty guests at the launch of La Suite West
Please don’t get me wrong though. I have always felt that this place, the heart of Bayswater, has been totally underestimated. It is charming with lots of London Plane trees and a very cosmopolitan feel. Lady Weinberg, better known as the visionary designer and sometime actress Anouska Hempel, plainly agreed as she integrated all that was good about this atmosphere into the hotel that she has cleverly designed.
“Let’s celebrate with a little champagne”Guests at the party included the British supermodel and VogueTV presenter Jade Parfitt and Duncan McDonald of Propeller CommunicationsOur party correspondent Christian Huhnt and Inga Buschke enjoying the launch of La Suite WestAngelo Valentino also represented “The Steeple Times” with his daughterGuests at the launch of La Suite WestSusan Ansary, a regular on the party circuit, even put in an appearance
Arriving at the hotel entrance, you get a feel of how important it was for Hempel to grasp this outside space and use it as a communal environment for the guests. I was invited to visit on the evening of the hotel’s launch and this was the area where guests congregated. Here, along with the champagne, they served molecular bites including Nutella ice cream that had been shock frozen using liquid nitrogen. This, they told me, had been done to avoid ice crystals appearing and the result was a very smooth and creamy texture. I’d put money on this having left the menu now though as just days later I read news reports of a girl in Lancaster losing her stomach after drinking a cocktail made in a similar manner. With hindsight, I must say that my stomach is very glad that they got the measure just right.
When you enter the hotel, which first opened to guests three months ago, you feel as if you are visiting a Scientology church or traversing the ramp of a Star Wars space shuttle. Coming “onboard,” you enter a reception hall, in which a friendly concierge welcomes you. The whole interior is very minimalistic and has been reduced to hues of only black and white. A long fireplace leads you deeper into this shuttle, onto a main corridor, past the dining rooms and connects into to labyrinthian walkways that transport guests to their appointed suites.
I was told that the hotel rooms are all decorated in the same style and have similar layouts. They differ only slightly in size. On the evening of the launch, the largest could be admired and all of them had a very independent feel as they benefited from their own access to the street. Essentially, the rooms are quite small but all offer the contemporary luxury that any jetsetter would expect. The bathrooms have a particularly sophisticated feel and are clad in marble throughout. The extendable televisions hidden in the bed frames perfectly fitted with the minimalist design, but where this became bizarrely rigorous was the flexible water hose in the bathrooms that dispensed with the need for good old European toilet paper.
One of the hotel’s bedroomsA toilet at La Suite West – complete with hose attachment but minus loo roll
La Suite West is a great step forward. In fact, it is a very audacious move towards upgrading a whole area that clearly has potential for more and which, at the time of writing, does not offer anything better than shabby hostels and seedy bed and breakfasts. The hotel is a well-arranged concept and evidently Hempel put a lot of thought into the execution of it. The design is well composed, but being German I did notice some of the carpets and minor details could have been a little better.
One last piece of advice: the management might want to ship in some bog roll. Some ageing Brit might decide to show up and I’m sure nobody would want a scene from Fawlty Towers to be played out in that rather smart lobby.
La Suite West, 41 – 51 Inverness Terrace, London, W2 3JN. Telephone: +44 (0) 20 3642 3928. Website:http://lasuitewest-px.rtrk.co.uk
Images by Andreas Kirchberger and Christian Huhnt.
Nicky Haslam is a man of many parts. He’s best known as an interior designer and author but over the years, in chameleon like fashion, he’s variously styled himself as Liam Gallagher, bought a house in Transylvania on the net and once told Vanity Fair he’d rather meet Kim Jong Il than Nelson Mandela. Whether he’s partying with Paris Hilton or working with a Russian oligarch, Haslam’s character and charm always shine through and for good reason he tops the list of the most invited in the land.
Nicky Haslam’s “Total Control”
Nicky Haslam’s life has been well documented in many a column but his latest move, recording a debut album entitled Midnight Matinée, can certainly be described as a bold departure. Yes, he did cabaret at Bellamy’s in 2009 and The Savoy in 2010 but having heard the first song, this truly does represent something akin to Kevin Spacey’s Beyond the Sea. I must admit that I thought it vastly superior.
Produced by David Ogilvy, who wrote the music for a BBC film about the interior designer, Total Control is the first in the series of songs to be released. It is accompanied by a video by a Canadian filmmaker named Douglas Arrowsmith.
We at The Steeple Times very much like Haslam’s “highly individual” foray into the “contemporary music scene” and for that reason make it our video of the week.
