The Steeple Times

Tag: Ford

  • Post-Fordism

    Post-Fordism

    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 it
    Another of the Tom Ford styled rooms
    A Tom Ford designed bedroom
    The 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 planned
    A 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.

     

    For more information about 26 Gilston Road, London, SW10 9SS, contact Russell Simpson, 5 Anderson Street, London, SW3 3LU. Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7225 0277. View a brochure for the property at: http://www.russellsimpson.co.uk/assets/12/06/15/5081/pdf_archive-1.pdf

     

    View Equilibrium’s website at: http://www.equilibriumlondon.com

     

    View Tom Ford’s website at: http://www.tomford.com

  • Sir Benjamin Slade Bt.: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

    Sir Benjamin Slade Bt.: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

    The Steeple Times asks the right-wing businessman and owner of Maunsel House and Woodlands Castle, Sir Benjamin Slade: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

     

    The Steeple Times shares “wit and wisdom.” What’s your guiding force?

    Money, power, sex, success, land, trees, books and fine wine.

     

    “Don’t get even, get medieval” is, in our humble opinion, a great motto. What’s yours?

    “If it f**ks, floats or flies: Rent it, don’t buy it and don’t marry it!”

     

    Kerry Katona was considered unacceptable in 2007. Who or what is unacceptable in 2012?

    David Cameron and Sir Mervyn King.

     

    Tony Blair misses being Prime Minister. What do you miss most in your life?

    Being in London full-time.

     

    What might you swap all your wealth for?

    Good health and two healthy sons.

     

    Donald Trump was once a case of: “If you owe the bank a thousand, they close you down; but if you owe the bank a billion, you own the bank.” What’s your view on the banking crisis?

    It’s like putting bartenders on commission and allowing them to give credit to alcoholics who die and go bankrupt.

     

    What phrase or word do you most loathe?

    I’ve got three: 1. “Sustainability.” 2. “Stakeholder.” 3. “Human rights.”

     

    In the UK, some people consider charity to “begin at home.” What’s your view and what causes do you personally support?

    UKIP and Help for Heroes.

     

    The judge in “Law Abiding Citizen” states: “I can pretty do whatever I want” before being blown up whilst answering her mobile phone. What’s your view on the appropriate use of such devices?

    They are useful for ringing up if late, doing deals and arranging dinners with girls.

     

    If you could fill a carriage on The Orient Express, who would be your fellow passengers?

    Warren Buffett, Bobby Faber, Philip Gibbs, Bettany Hughes, Brian Kingham, Lady Kitchener-Fellowes, Francis Fulford, Robert Lyle, Sir John Madejski, David Ord, General Sir Michael Rose, Roger Seelig, Alexander Stockton, Jonathan Sumption PC, Norman Tebbit, Lord Westbury, the Duke of Westminster and Mrs William Worsley.  Adrian de Ferranti can sit in the luggage car and serve wine.

     

    Sir Benjamin Slade Bt.

    If you were unfortunate enough to end up on death row, what would be your last meal and where would you eat it?

    It’d have to be at La Tour d’Argent in Paris.

     

    What time is it acceptable to consume the first drink of the day?

    1pm and 6pm.

     

    A Negroni, a martini or a cup of tea?

    Green tea.

     

    Whose parties do you enjoy the most and why?

    Sotheby’s and Christie’s and those hosted by Liz Floyd and Philip Gibbs.

     

    Who is the most positive person you know?

    My friend Bobby Faber.

     

    What’s your most guilty pleasure?

    Drinking claret at £100 per bottle.

     

    If a tattoo were to sum you up, what would it be of?

    A big castle with lots of walnut trees, good books and bottles of wine. And girls’ hips.

     

    If you were a car, what marque would you be?

    A Ford Fiesta.

     

    Cilla Black presented “Surprise, Surprise.” Tell us the most surprising thing about you.

    I’m self-made, have a great knowledge of history and am a seriously good doctor with over 120 patients. And, you’ll be surprised to learn that I was a spy in the Middle East for Britain.

     

    What’s currently sitting on your mantelpiece?

    Tankards, invites, various Mouser and Walther pistols, cows horns, Roman artifacts, decanters, pewter cups, silver, an 18th century bottle of port and a Russian machine gun.

     

    Maunsel House, North Newton, Near Taunton, Somerset, TA7 0BU. Telephone: +44 (0) 1278 661076. Website: http://www.maunselhouse.co.uk

     

    Woodlands Castle, Ruishton, Taunton, Somerset, TA3 5LU. Telephone: +44 (0) 1823 444955. Website: http://www.woodlandscastle.co.uk

     

    Read Sir Benjamin Slade’s blog at: http://sirbenslade.blogspot.co.uk/ and follow him on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/sirbenslade

  • Picture of the Week: Sinking and stupid

    Picture of the Week: Sinking and stupid

    A pair of pillocks piddling about in a puddle

     

    All of us who drive have made stupid mistakes but most of us, at worst, have knocked over a gatepost or pranged a door in a supermarket car park.

     

    Our picture of the week: Tony and Barrie Drewitt-Barlow on the roof of their Range Rover

    A couple named Barrie and Tony Drewitt-Barlow, however, take the biscuit. This idiotic pair of millionaires, who are best known for having had five children by a surrogate and for having run a business into liquidation, somehow thought they could drive through a flooded ford in their Range Rover Sport in the early hours of the morning without incident.

     

    The pair, who’d spent the day filming at a most naff sounding event named Essex Fashion Week with the “stars” of The Only Way is Essex, claimed that their vehicle spun around three times before starting to fill up with water. Barrie Drewitt-Barlow told the Mail Online:

     

    “It went dark. We had to climb out of the window. I thought I was going to die.”

     

    Plainly terrified of getting his “tuxedo” wet, Tony Drewitt-Barlow called the emergency services from the roof and supposedly, with the help of a police helicopter, an inflatable boat and fifteen firefighters, the couple were rescued an hour later.

     

    A boat rescues the pair from the roof of their Range Rover Sport
    The car remained in the water on the following day
    Tony and Barrie Drewitt-Barlow pictured outside Southwark Crown Court last year

    Now, instead of issuing an apology for the havoc their recklessness caused, the Drewitt-Barlows’ are bleating:

     

    “Tony is suffering from shock and hypothermia at the moment from having over an hour on the roof,” stated Barrie Drewitt-Barlow before he added:

     

    “We went back yesterday to rescue some personal belongings from the boot, a couple of photo albums, clothes, and my laptop, but they had all been stolen. My laptop had all of our photos on. We have put a £5,000 reward up for the return of the photos and laptop.”

     

    Maybe their possessions floated away. They must have left the windows open when they exited the vehicle and if the car really did fill with water, the computer and photo albums would be ruined anyway.  Either way, whether stolen or not, the lack of gratitude of this couple showed towards their rescuers makes them utterly contemptible. After all, how much did this ridiculous episode cost?

     

    One comment left on the Mail Online described the Drewitt-Barlow’s as a pair of “pillocks in a puddle.” We agree and simply had to make the image of this ludicrous couple’s foolishness The Steeple Times picture of the week.

     

    Read the Mail Online’s coverage of this story at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2214157/Millionaire-gay-fathers-rescued-roof-Range-Rover-wearing-tuxedoes-trying-drive-flooded-road.html

     

     

  • Martha Stewart

    Martha Stewart

    This “High Priestess of Homemaking” was brought up in ordinary surroundings in Jersey City, New Jersey but became a self-made business magnate, author, magazine publisher and television personality. A divorced mother of one, Stewart briefly dated Sir Anthony Hopkins but couldn’t help associating him with his Silence of the Lambs character, Hannibal Lecter, and so ended the relationship. Now worth some $638 million, she was jailed briefly in 2004 after being convicted of insider trading but has made a remarkable comeback in the years since. Stewart lives in Katonahm, New York and also has a 35,000 square residence named Skylands on Mount Desert Island, Seal Habor, Maine that formerly belonged to Edsel Ford, the son of Henry Ford. America’s “Queen of Entertaining” is a lady who has worked extremely hard and as a result she is deservedly one of the world’s most successful businesswomen.

  • Picture of the Week: Going white for Linda

    Picture of the Week: Going white for Linda

    A white van man not afraid to bare his heart  

     

    After a mixed response to our last picture of the week, taken from the Mail Online and featuring a “whingeing Brit” pensioner named Pamela Burbery, today we have chosen a more positive image from the very same title.

     

    This week’s image is of another typically British sight, a white van. “White Van Man – The scourge of the road” was a description van drivers were christened with in 1997 by Jonathan Leake, the then transport editor of The Sunday Times, who described them as “the most feared driver on the road.”

     

    The white VW van left on a roundabout in County Durham

    White Van Man has never been considered a particularly sensitive chap but his image may have changed this week when the Mail Online featured an image of a VW van left on the George Reynolds Industrial Estate in County Durham decorated with the following:

     

    Linda I’m sorry

    I’m a fool and an idiot sometimes.

    I love you with all my heart!

    Please come home and put this right

    We miss you!! I miss us.

    I want to grow old with you.

    Will you marry me?

    Here is a White Van Man with a heart but even with their resources, the Mail Online did not manage to find out the identity of the driver prior to publication.

     

    We very much hope Linda and her mystery man are reunited.

     
    Read the original article from the Mail Online at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2205538/Linda-Im-sorry–marry-Van-driver-parks-busy-roundabout-unusual-proposal-printed-vehicle.html

  • Dad's van

    Dad's van

    The sale of the 1935 Ford used as Lance Corporal Jones’s butcher’s van in “Dad’s Army”

     

    A highlight in Bonhams’s 3rd December sale at Mercedes-Benz World Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey will be a van used as Lance Corporal Jones’s butcher’s van in the classic television series, Dad’s Army.

     

    The 1935 “Dad’s Army” Ford Box Van
    The cast of “Dad’s Army” and the Jones’s 1935 Ford Box Van
    Clive Dunn OBE as Lance Corporal Jones in the 1935 Ford Box Van

    Currently part of the Patrick Motor Museum collection, this 1935 Ford Box Van featured in some of the most iconic shots in the series and has a guide of £20,000 to £30,000.

     

    Jones, played by Clive Dunn OBE (born 1920), was best known for his catchphrases: “Permission to speak, sir?”, “You saved my life!” and “They don’t like it up ‘em!” In Dad’s Army he plays the town butcher of Walmington-on-Sea and when his precious delivery van is commandeered by his Home Guard, he is far from amused when modifications are made to it for the platoon’s activities.

     

    In one episode the van is damaged and Jones becomes so upset that he threatens to ban Captain Mainwaring, the Home Guard company commander, from his sausage list. This is met with the reply: “Steady Jones.”

     

    It may not be a case of: “There’s a war on” when this lot comes to auction, but you can bet there’ll be some fierce bidding. As Jones frequently said: “Don’t panic! Don’t panic!”

     

    For more information on the sale, go to: http://www.bonhams.com

     

    Watch a clip of the van in action at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkoDcFNR1H4&feature=player_embedded

     

    For more information on Dad’s Army, see the Dad’s Army Appreciation Society page at: http://www.dadsarmy.co.uk/

  • Charles Morgan

    Charles Morgan

    He’s a member of the family who created and still own the legendary Morgan Motor Company. He’s also worked in television news as a cameraman for ITN and is a motivational speaker specialising in change management. Morgan lists his quirk to be: “Looking English in spite of buying Italian jackets.”