Former church hall on the Isle of Lewis to be sold for just £34,000 in spite of the fact that it could earn the buyer £300 per night
Lionel (Gaelic: ‘Lìonal’) forms part of the Barvas (‘Barabhas’) civil parish on the Isle of Lewis, the largest island of the Outer Hebrides archipelago in Scotland. Like the castle we featured last month, it is extremely isolated but unlike that white elephant, it is situated on an island that has a population of some 20,000 and where the main industries are crofting, fishing, peat cutting and weaving.
Accessed by a daily ferry from Ullapool on the Scottish mainland that takes 2 hours and 30 minutes and served by an airport also, Lewis remains an extremely religious island and though the Sabbath is still observed mostly, the sale of a church hall is indicative that change is perhaps on the way.
Offered by Future Property Auctions this week, the non-listed former church hall at Lionel is described as a “super investment opportunity” with “development potential” as an Airbnb that could rent for “upto £300 per night ($417, €347 or درهم1,500 per night) at peak times.”
Extending to 820 square foot in total currently with a large, double height single room and entrance vestibule, the detached building has been listed with a remarkably low guide price of just £34,000 ($47,300, €39,400 or درهم173,600) and is described as potentially also being capable for use as a permanent home, creche, museum or public library with “super income earning potential.”
Bidding online for the church hall opens at 10am on the 7th May 2021 and closes at 4pm on the same day on the Future Property Auctions website.
The interior of the building is watertight but in need of renovation. Sadly, character features including pews have been removed, but there is clearly potential to create a two-storey single dwelling house with earning options as a holiday home within the space.Viewed from the rear and side, the plot on which the former Lionel Mission Hall is clearly not large, but it is surrounded by farmland.For someone seeking peace and quiet, the location would be ideal. Equally, given tourism is a source of local income, the earning potential of the building once renovated as a holiday let is clear.A view of the former church hall from the road.A site plan shows the limited land that surrounds the building.Clearly, as shown by this map, the property is certainly remote.
Wrecking ball sent in to destroy Prince Andrew’s paedo bestie Jeffrey Epstein’s £13.2 million Palm Beach mucky mansion
Today, especially for ‘Rod’ from Australia, the reader who has left more comments than anyone else in the 9 years since The Steeple Times launched in 2012, we can report that a wrecking ball was sent in yesterday to forever rid the world of Jeffrey Epstein’s mucky mansion in Palm Beach.
Whilst Epstein’s palatial New York residence – sold for circa £36 million in March – will no doubt be restored in a graceful fashion (after a visit perhaps for a blessing by a priest or a rabbi), his Florida home at 358 El Brillo Way is being “wiped off the map of Palm Beach” according to the purchaser Todd Michael Glaser’s representative, real estate broker Lawrence A. Moens.
Of his plans for the property, Glaser told The Real Deal last November that he’d be constructing a “14,000 square foot Art Moderne mansion” on the site and added: “Palm Beach is going to be very happy [when] it’s gone.”
With permits issued for destruction last week, demolition crews from BG Group of Delray Beach “used heavy equipment to began pulling down the walls of the mansion. They tore into it again and again, starting on the east side – where vines still clung to the walls, blooming with flowers that were soon crushed – and eating through the house toward the waterfront,” the Palm Beach Daily News reported.
“By noon, debris littered the ground, as broken windows pierced walls that remained standing. And still intact was much of the second-floor balcony that overlooked the water, connected to the pool patio below by a graceful spiral staircase.”
Speaking after hearing of the wrecking ball’s swing yesterday, Michael Reiter, the former Palm Beach police chief who first led investigations into Epstein’s activities at the house, commented:
“The former owner of this house did unmeasurable damage to the lives of countless children and was able to corrupt the legal system to the point that the courts have called it a national disgrace. While it is critical that we learn from this tragedy, it is nearly as important that we follow with doing everything possible to erase any connection of him from our community.”
Situated on a plot of about an acre, 358 El Brillo Way had been enthusiastically marketed by Kerry Warwick of The Corcoran Group as a “beautiful John Volk lakefront residence located in the prestigious Estate Section… [with] westerly views of Tarpon Island and Everglades Island.” Unsurprisingly, the sales associate made no mention of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s monstrous activities whilst living there.
Epstein Gets Wrecking Ball – 358 El Brillo Way seen from the waterfront. Aside from the wraparound balconies, the property also included an outdoor swimming pool and docking facilities.
The Names & Numbers – 358 El Brillo Way, Palm Beach, Florida, FL 33480, United States of America
19th April 2021 – Demolition begins to make way for new build.
15th March 2021 – Sold to Miami property developer Todd Michael Glaser for £13.2 million ($18.5 million, €15.3 million or درهم67.9 million).
July 2020 – Listed for sale for £15.726 million ($21.995 million, €18.227 million or درهم80.777 million) by Kerry Warwick of The Corcoran Group. The property was described as standing on a lot of 36,050 square feet and featured a 14,223 square foot “white box” structure with 6 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms and a 3-car garage.
August 2019 – 12 News reported that the gates to the house had been vandalised by someone who tagged them “@Leroy” in large red letters.
2011 – Ownership transferred by Epstein from his name to an entity named Laurel Inc., a company registered in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
1990 – Sold to Jeffrey Epstein for £1.8 million ($2.5 million, €2.1 million or درهم9.2 million) and “significantly remodeled.”
1952 – Built to the designs of Austrian born John L. Volk (1901 – 1984) “in West Indies-style architecture.”
The wrecking ball was merciless yesterday as it tore down Jeffrey Epstein’s former home. Ridding the world of this house of horrors will not upset anyone other than perhaps his ex-lover associate Ghislaine Maxwell.358 El Brillo Way will most definitely not be remembered as an architectural treasure.An aerial shot of the property illustrates just why this scene of multiple abuse of underage girls truly deserved the wrecking ball.This swimming pool was a place where Ghislaine Maxwell allegedly took many filthy photographs.A view from above looking out across the water.The property is located in a ritzy waterfront district of Palm Beach, Florida.After the evil paedophile Jeffrey Epstein died and before the wrecking ball arrived, the gates of the property became prone to visits from vigilantes and graffiti artists. On one occasion, quite appropriately, a tag that read: “Gone but not forgiven” was added.
Sharing news of a not-so-neighbourly dispute that subsequently featured on the Facebook Group Angry People in Local Newspapers, Sexton began: “A councillor who built three sheds [complete with “fire hazard” “dodgy wiring”] without [planning] permission in his garden and let his son live in one has been facing complaints from neighbours over amorous trysts.”
Pointing out that Brian Ayling – himself astoundingly a member of Southend’s development control committee, but someone who claimed “he did not realise he needed permission [for the structures]” – allowed his son to live in one of the sheds for a year, Sexton added:
“Complaints to the council from a neighbour, said to be over the son’s amorous trysts with his girlfriend, resulted in the councillor being ordered to submit a planning application – which has now been rejected.”
“A statement by Mr Ayling’s neighbour said: ‘I have to listen to them participating in sexual activities.’”
Going further, a fellow councillor, Matt Dent, told the paper: “He said he didn’t realise, but it’s bizarre for someone on the development control committee.” Replying, Brian Ayling, remarked: “I [have] made an official complaint on [sic] councillor Dent.”
Responding to the article, one reader amusingly offered: “If the shed’s rockin’, don’t come knockin’” whilst another amusingly added: “Perhaps his son should honour the age old Essex tradition known as ‘dogging’, adjusting it slightly for the 21st century, as many have during lockdown, and start a lucrative webcam based sex show. The councillor can adjust his sights slightly and apply for permission to start a business in the outbuildings and, Bob’s yer uncle, lemonade from lemons!”
Southend Sexual Shed Scandal – After seven councilors voted to refuse his retrospective application to keep his outbuildings, councillor Brian Ayling remarked: “They all ganged together against me.”Southend Sexual Shed Scandal – Earlier this month, we reported on a more typical story featured on the Facebook group ‘Angry People in Local Newspapers’ about someone getting angry about Tesco’s “shelf arrangements.” The “Southend sexual shed scandal,” however, is altogether an all-together more serious affair, yet perhaps instead if councillor Brian Ayling had turned one of his structures into a “mancave” garden bar and invited round his neighbours, it would have all worked out better.Southend Sexual Shed Scandal – Readers of the ‘Basildon-Canvey-Southend Echo’ responded with merriment and mirth to the story.Southend Sexual Shed Scandal – One suggested that “making your son live in a shed is child cruelty” whilst others compared the situation to the BBC’s ‘The Archers’ current story about modern day slavery. Controversially, another remarked: “I used to lock my wife in the coal bunker, she’d come out black” – to which came the response: “Shocking, that you have ever had a wife.”Southend Sexual Shed Scandal – Over at the Facebook group ‘Angry People in Local Newspapers’ discussion centred on use of the words “romps” and “noisy romping.” One Nikos Lefteris Christodoulou remarked: “Dodgy local councillor, planning permission woes and noisy romping all in one article!” Another, Ben Richardson, added: “If you go down to the illegal shed, you’re sure of a big surprise.”Southend Sexual Shed Scandal – ‘Top fan’ Kieran Clarke added: “Everything that it is to be ‘British,’ distilled in one headline!” whilst another, Mark Button, suggested that councillor Brian Ayling has a look of the late entertainer Sir Bruce Forsyth about him.
Jobsworth Robert Jenrick announces estate agents CAN take potential virus spreaders into peoples’ homes even in Tier 4 lockdown areas; a QUARTER of donations to the Tory party come from the property sector
Housing secretary Robert Jenrick likes to do favours for his ridiculously rich cronies. He came to attention in May when he “unlawfully approved” a planning scheme for Richard Desmond (AKA ‘Mr Badger’) and on Saturday, this murky multi-millionaire Tory MP again showed his true colours when he bizarrely tweeted celebrating the fact that estate agents could remain open in Tier 4 areas even.
Whilst the public are cruelly banned from going to a socially distanced restaurant space or from having dinner with their lonely granny in her kitchen because of the risk of spreading coronavirus, how is it acceptable for estate agents to be allowed to take members of the public into the private spaces of peoples’ homes for viewings?
For jobsworth Jenrick, it seems, allowing prospective buyers and tenants to touch doors, walls and surfaces in confined spaces is not at all risky, but one is left wondering how he came to this conclusion. In June, the Independent revealed that the Conservative Party had received £11 million (or over a quarter of their donations) from the property sector since Boris Johnson became Prime Minister.
Pictured top: Disgracefully, Robert Jenrick MP and his government have not made property viewings a “restricted zone” in Tier 4 lockdown areas.
Stay Homes, Save Lives… But NOT if you’re an estate agent… Why have estate agents not been lumped into “non-essential” businesses forced to close by our incompetent government? The answer as to why “Stay Home, Save Lives” has not been applied to the property sector is unsurprising: A quarter of donations to the Tory Party comes from the property sector and we all know that Robert Jenrick enjoys Carlton Club suppers with rich developers like Richard Desmond.Jenrick tweeted jubilantly about estate agents remaining open for business on Saturday. His government, meanwhile, has forced many other businesses to close and many of them will most likely tragically never reopen.Twitter users were unsurprisingly unimpressed by Robert Jenrick’s enthusiasm for estate agents remaining open. One, Gavin Wilkins, remarked: “So thanks to the announcement my mum’s shit scared to come to my house for Xmas (she’s on her own), but I can go to value or view as many houses as I want. Sums it all up. Shitshow – government should be ashamed.”Boris Johnson is equally happy to hang out with porn baron turned property developer. He should now be asked: “What first attracted you to the multi-millionaire Richard Desmond, Boris?”
Steeply-pitched, unused mansard roof space in Manhattan heads to a slashed no reserve auction after failing to sell for £30.3 million
A currently unused roof space with an existing apartment overlooking Central Park that has bopped on and off the market since 2013 is being placed in a no reserve online auction early next month. It follows on from the fire sale of another ritzy penthouse we featured in June this year that went on the market for 64% lower than it sold for in 2014.
Featuring the existing 37th floor unit and having “pre-approved, shovel ready design, plans and permits” to extend into what was home to the mechanical systems of Hampshire House (alternatively known as ‘150 Central Park South), the potential triplex penthouse on offer could extend to 9,650 square foot.
Offered initially in 2013 for £12.7 million, the development opportunity was bought by a London based Israeli developer and artist named Arnon Katz in 2014 and 2015 for a combined total said to be £16.6 million. He attempted to sell it on for £18.9 million in June 2018 and then increased the ask to a staggering £30.3 million more recently.
Speaking of the 5-bedroom, 5.5-bathroom scheme – which also includes a “grand salon, formal living and dining rooms and an eat-in kitchen” – Katz remarked:
“Years of passion and knowledge went into the planning, design, and obtaining of the permits necessary to offer this extraordinary offering.”
“There is absolutely nothing else like it in the world, and this is what makes it truly special. I’m confident that Concierge Auctions’ incredible global reach and a team of top talent will identify the perfect buyer, an individual as unique as this property itself, who not only understands the value, but who also has the vision to complete this magnificent penthouse to its reality.”
The Concierge Auctions online sale commences on 18th December and closes on 22nd December and if sold, the buyer will get to live in a building dating to 1931 which has counted the artist Frida Kahlo and the tenor Luciano Pavarotti amongst its former occupants.
The Names & Numbers – The Penthouse, Hampshire House, 150 Central Park South, Manhattan, New York, NY 10019, United States of America
November 2020 – The roof space is to be offered for auction with “no reserve to the highest bidder” by Concierge Auctions against a previous price of £30.3 million ($40 million, €33.8 million or درهم146.9 million). The online auction commences on the 18th December and closes on 22nd December 2020.
According to a press release from Concierge Auctions, the penthouse is “appraised at £75.6 million ($100 million, €84.4 million or درهم367.3million) on completion” and finish costs are estimated at upto £15.1 million ($20 million, €16.9 million or درهم73.5 million).
Anticipated annual costs are described as “unusually low” and estimated at £45,400per year ($60,000, €50,600 or درهم220,400 per year) to include taxes and co-op fees.
2014 to 2015 – UK based artist and real estate investor Arnon Katz purchased the 1,800 square foot penthouse of Hampshire House as well as the rights to develop the two floors of roof space above it. According to Forbes, he paid £16.6 million ($22 million, €18.6 million or درهم80.8 million) in total – of which, surprisingly, just £3 million ($4 million, €3.4 million or درهم14.7 million) was for the 37th floor space according to Mansion Global.
January 2013 – Listed for sale for £12.7 million ($16.9 million, €14.2 million or درهم62.1 million) according to Zillow.
The Penthouse, Hampshire House – In what was formerly home to mechanical equipment, there is potential for some truly spectacular entertaining spaces.The Penthouse, Hampshire House – Hosting guests indoors and out with a ‘wow factor’ will be possible for the ultimate occupant.The Penthouse, Hampshire House – A dining room with a view and a striking open staircase are planned for the unit.The Penthouse, Hampshire House – Cooking with a view.The Penthouse, Hampshire House – It is proposed that the master bedroom will not only have huge windows, but also a feature fireplace.The Penthouse, Hampshire House – The master bathroom is certainly vast.The Penthouse, Hampshire House – One of several terraces.The Penthouse, Hampshire House – The view over Central Park.The Penthouse, Hampshire House – Looking towards Hampshire House from Central Park.The Penthouse, Hampshire House – The building is next door to the famous Essex House.The Penthouse, Hampshire House – An image of the penthouse and tower in its setting.The Penthouse, Hampshire House – Floor plans for the prosed 36th and 37th floors.The Penthouse, Hampshire House – Floor plans for the proposed 38th floor.The Penthouse, Hampshire House – Floor plans for the proposed 39th floor.
Former lead investigator in Madeleine McCann case predicted latest development involving German paedophile in April 2019; he suggested the man would be made a “scapegoat” by Scotland Yard
Amongst all the hubbub of the last 24 hours surrounding the “identification of a German sex offender as the key suspect” in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, it has been conveniently forgotten that the former lead detective in the case, Goncalo Amaral, predicted such a development back in April 2019.
With nearly £12 million of public money spent on this case thus far, an ending – happy or otherwise – would bring closure for all involved. Yet, with British cops again recently grubbing around for yet more funding, this actually not so new ‘development’ actually could instead be primarily about helping that endeavour.
In April last year, Amaral – who had focused his inquiries onto a German paedophile without success in 2008 – told Australia’s News 9 (through an interpreter):
“Scotland Yard are preparing the end of the case. They are going to a use a German paedophile who is in jail in Germany at this time. He is going to be the scapegoat for it. I don’t how they will start it, but that will be the big ending. This will be the conclusion of the case.”
Significantly, Scotland Yard and the mainstream media seem to have now forgotten all about this.
The police have yet to explain the actual significance of photographs of a 1980s Volkswagen T3 Westfalia campervan and a 1993 Jaguar XJR6.The car hired by the McCanns also remains a bit of a mystery. In 2008, it was revealed that “one of them had later removed the carpet from the boot compartment in order to scrub it clean.” The boot had been “left open for several days” also.More significantly, shared on ‘The Complete Mystery of Madeleine McCann’ Facebook page last month is this photograph illustrating the distribution of blood spots in the sitting room of the holiday apartment where the McCann family were staying in Praia da Luz, Portugal in May 2007. Elsewhere, analysis of the setting highlights that tiles in the room were later removed by persons unknown.
Many questions about what happened on the evening of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann remain. Some that have been highlighted by the press and discussed online include:
Why did Kate McCann refuse to answer 48 questions put to her by the Portuguese police?
Why were certain records of phone calls on the evening of the disappearance “whoosh-clunked”from the memories of the phones of Mr and Mrs McCann and the ‘Tapas 9’?
Why did a British sniffer dog sense the smell of a corpse in a cupboard in the apartment from which Madeleine McCann disappeared?
Why did a sniffer dog also supposedly sense the smell of a corpse in a vehicle hired by the couple a month after the disappearance of their daughter?
Why did Mr and Mrs McCann go jogging and play tennis in the days after their daughter’s disappearance?
Was it acceptable for Mr and Mrs McCann’s mortgage to be paid by the fund established to search for their missing daughter?
Ex-Daily Express owner Richard Desmond’s plans for a 1,500 apartment complex kicked out as Tory housing minister Robert Jenrick MP is shown to have “unlawfully approved” the proposed scheme
Given the green light just 24 hours before a new levy that “would have cost [Desmond] over £40 million” kicked in, the minister has now accepted the application must be “redetermined.”
With this controversial planning decision now frozen after Tower Hamlets council took legal action against the minister because of their apparent “bias towards the former owner of the Star, Daily Express and Sunday Express,” further questions about Jenrick’s judgment will follow.
Local councilor Andrew Wood, whom resigned from the Conservative Party “over the issue,” has now “put in a freedom of information request for all the correspondence between officials and the minister relating to the Westferry Road printworks development.”
He told the Guardian: “It should be investigated. The key question is: why did [Robert Jenrick] make the decision when he did so against the inspector’s advice?”
Robert Jenrick approved Richard Desmond’s £1 billion Westferry Printworks, Isle of Dogs, E14 scheme in January. 1,524 properties were due to be built there on the site of the former presses of the ‘Daily Express,’ ‘Sunday Express’ and ‘Daily Star.’ Originals plans, approved by then mayor Boris Johnson in 2016, for the site were for just 722 units.
“Grand” Grade II* listed Midlands manor for sale for just £350,000; it comes with a 49-seat cinema and several unexpected catches
Where there’s muck, there’s money and a late 18th century Midlands manor house currently for sale for just £350,000 ($451,000, €402,000 or درهم1.65 million) provides an example of the tale of the progress and decline of industrial wealth in once Great Britain.
Built in 1757 for a family of Black Country industrialists, Wordsley Manor in Wordsley, near Stourbridge has been owned by the Firmstone family and their relatives since around 1850. A red brick built, four floor “small mansion” that extends to 7,464 square foot in total, the building has been Grade II* listed since 1976 and was expanded in the 19th century with the addition of two service wings.
Comprising of 3 reception rooms, 7 cellar rooms, 4 bedrooms and just 1 bathroom, dilapidated Wordsley Manor is – giving explanation for its extremely low asking price – in need of complete renovation. It comes, however, with an unexpected bonus: Where bedrooms previously existed on its second floor, there is currently an art studio and a quirky 49-seat cinema with a Christie organ, box office and projection and switch rooms.
Architect Christopher Firmstone and wife Joan have been occupants of Wordsley since inheriting it in 1991. They have attempted to maintain the house but in 2011, Mr Firmstone told the Birmingham Mail:
“I took it on and sorted it out as best I could. Most people would have run a mile, but I had a real sense of attachment to it [he spent his childhood there also]”.
“I spent a bit more than I could afford on it, but I was unable to do everything that needed doing”.
In 2013, the couple followed in the footsteps of relatives who had sold off much of the surrounding land for housing in the mid 20th century and agreed a deal with a firm of developers named David Alexander Homes. In exchange for yet another parcel of the former estate’s grounds – that was subsequently marketed rather cheesily as a residential complex named “To the Manor Bourne” – a £400,000 ($512,000, €460,000 or درهم1.88 million) payment is to be made towards the restoration of Wordsley Manor.
In their sales brochure, agents The Lee, Shaw Partnership state: “Best and final offers must be made for Wordsley Manor by 5.30pm on Tuesday 27th June”. They add: “Only cash purchasers” need apply.
With such a name, this suave gent just had to design landmarks. University of Westminster educated and Hampshire based Robert Adam (born 1948) followed his more famous namesake (1728 – 1792) and became a designer of “progressive neo-classical style buildings” in 1975. He won “the richest prize in architecture” in January 2017 and counts the Sackler Library at the University of Oxford, a “miniature Baroque mansion” at Eastwood Farm – complete with a lion on the roof – in Herstmonceux, East Sussex and the “KGB proof” Ingliston House on the Wentworth Estate in Surrey amongst his notable works.
Former Algerian Embassy in Holland Park for sale for £30 million; the detached stucco house needs complete renovation and counts David and Victoria Beckham as neighbours
The former Embassy of the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria in Holland Park, W11 has just been placed for sale for the sum of £30 million ($39.1 million, €34.9 million or درهم143.7 million).
Offered by estate agent Anthony Sharp, the 9,490 square foot, Grade II listed detached stucco house includes accommodation over five floors and was built in 1862. One of remaining Italianate villas designed by brothers Francis and William Radford, 54 Holland Park is described as being “in need of full modernisation” and as having “scope to create a magnificent family home”.
The buyer will count David and Victoria Beckham as near neighbours. They paid £31.5 million ($41.1 million, €36.6 million or درهم150.9 million) for 23 Holland Park in 2013 and finally took up residence there in July 2016 after completing an £8 million ($10.4 million, €9.3 million or درهم38.3 million) renovation that included, amongst other things, a vast subterranean redevelopment.
