Tag: Fulham

Waitrose Wake-Up

Waitrose Belgravia respond to ‘The Steeple Times’s’ expose of their not selling Royal British Legion poppies and allow them into their store

After The Steeple Times reported on various high street retailers in Belgravia, Chelsea, Fulham and Knightsbridge not selling Royal British Legion poppies, our story went viral.

Shared on Twitter by countless individuals – including the radio and television presenter Matthew Wright – we can now report that Waitrose Belgravia (the store where our editor was told: “We do not condone war so do not sell poppies. It is against our company policy.”) have caved in.

In a tweet received Saturday, the firm announced:

“We had a poppy seller at the shop yesterday who will be returning Monday. We looked after her with a hot drink and treated her to lunch and are really looking forward to seeing her again next week – she did a fab job on a brisk autumn day!”

Aside from their rightful climb down, we would suggest Waitrose Belgravia make up for their transgression with a more substantial gesture. We call upon the store’s management to give a donation to the Royal British Legion’s poppy appeal and we also urge our readers to buy a poppy and wear it with pride.

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November 3, 2018
The Poppy Pariahs

Matthew Steeples names and shames the retail giants who won’t be selling Royal British Legion poppies this year; they include Boots, Sainsbury’s, Selfridges, Tesco, Waitrose and Wholefoods

Even ‘Murky’ Meghan Markle – down under in New Zealand on tour – is sporting one right now; the humble poppy. A mark of respect to those who fought so we didn’t end up living under a regime of terror, most surprisingly, isn’t available at a single supermarket in Belgravia, Chelsea, Fulham or Knightsbridge.

Today, I visited Sainsbury’s in Elizabeth Street, Belgravia in the hope of buying a Royal British Legion poppy. I asked at the counter and was met with: “We don’t sell those things.” I then telephoned the company’s press office and was told: “Our employees got the wrong end of the stick.”

Subsequently, by email, a media relations executive working at the firm, Jordan Grant, replied and commented: “We can reassure customers poppies will be available in store this week.” Given it is already 29^th October and Remembrance Sunday is just 13 days away, this is hardly acceptable – especially given the store is already selling Christmas decorations (Christmas Day is 57 days away).

Next, in frustration, I visited Tesco on Royal Hospital Road in Chelsea. Situated directly next to the National Army Museum and close to the Royal Hospital – home to the legendary and widely respected Chelsea Pensioners. On asking for a poppy, a till operative lackadaisically remarked: “We do not sell those things. We are a supermarket.”

Waitrose Belgravia – commonly known as “Celebrity Waitrose” due to the likes of John Cleese and Lady Helen Taylor being regulars –presented a similar but worse response. The customer service desk operative at the flagship store told me: “We do not condone war so do not sell poppies. It is against our company policy.”

A friend, on my behalf, visited Wholefoods and was told: “We don’t know what poppies are” (they, at least, suggested donating to a homeless charity). She also got told at Boots: “We don’t sell things like that” but did find a lovely pair of Sikh gentlemen selling poppies in the Fulham Broadway underground station. She gave them £25.

A phone call to Selfridges was met with: “We do not supply poppies” but Harrods came through. Their customer service desk call handler announced: “We will be selling poppies later this week. We like to support the Royal British Legion.”

Shame on the high street retailers of Britain. Not a poppy in sight and not an ounce of support for the heroes who’ve saved us. This is an utter disgrace and it should be named as such.

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October 29, 2018
Foot in Mouth in K&C

Both Labour and the Tories get it very wrong in Kensington and disgrace themselves with their truly offensive conduct

On Monday, the political blog Guido Fawkes exposed the new Member of Parliament for Kensington, Emma Dent Coad, as having viciously called a black Tory candidate named Shaun Bailey as a “token ghetto boy,” “gobby and dangerous,” a “free-loading scumbag” and “the most hated man in North Kensington” back in 2010 in a post on her blog.

Elsewhere, on Twitter, various users shared a survey circulated by Kensington, Chelsea and Fulham Conservatives that disgustingly asked residents of the Courtfield Ward to rate the importance of the Grenfell Tower tragedy on a scale of one-to-ten in terms of its importance.

One is only left asking: What on earth is wrong with these moronic people? Have they not an ounce of sense?

Follow The Steeple Times on Twitter at @SteepleTimes.

Emma Dent Coad MP likes to blog and tweet yet blocked her now constituent Matthew Steeples on Twitter after he asked her about the hidden homeless problem in South Kensington prior to her election; she claimed to be “too busy” to answer him

The disgraceful survey put out by Kensington, Chelsea and Fulham Conservatives

November 13, 2017
Betting on the Blues

Jon Vine on betting on Britain’s 2017 General Election

The General Election is just days away and bookmakers are experiencing a surprisingly stronger than usual uplift in interest from political betting punters. After Theresa May called an election back in April, the United Kingdom is going to the polls three years earlier than expected and bookmakers have unsurprisingly made her party, the Conservatives, huge odds-on favourites to win the most seats and an overall majority.

Political betting has become big business over the past few years and bookies expect millions to be wagered on this year’s election. One firm alone, William Hill, took £3 million on the last General Election in 2015 and £5 million on last year’s US presidential election.

With six days to go until the election takes place, the Tories are just 2/9 with bookmakers to win the most seats, and 1/4 to win with a majority. It’s a general 6/1 at time of writing that Labour win the most seats, with a Labour majority 10/1 with some firms.

However, although the Conservatives are the bookmakers’ favourites, momentum appears to be with Labour, and their election odds continue to be trimmed ahead of polling day.

Mrs May’s lead over Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on YouGov’s ‘Best PM’ tracker has dropped massively in recent weeks, and punters can expect more twists and turns over the next few days.

In-play betting on the 2017 General Election is expected to be more popular than any previous election, and betting on a range of election markets will be available on 8^th June itself, with ‘in-play’ General Election betting expected to be live with a number of major bookmakers even after voting ends and right through the night until a result is announced.

Polling booths will open at 7am on Thursday 8^th June and voting will take place until 10pm. Counting of votes will only begin when the polls closed, and by the early hours of Friday, June 9th, the result of the 2017 General Election will likely be known.

Betting is available on candidates in 650 individual constituencies, and live election odds are available on such sites as BetOnPolitics.co.uk website.

For BetOnPolitics.co.uk, editor Phil Lowe commented:

“The decision to call an election caught everyone by surprise, although, looking back, there were a few signals that the PM was up to something – a big one being the omission of a date in the political calendar for the Queen’s Speech”.

“Despite the polls coming out in recent days, Mrs May and the Conservatives will still be confident of victory on June 8th and the betting still suggests this will be the case. The initial talk of a ‘landslide’ victory for the Blues may have died down, but although the markets got the result of the EU referendum wrong, and were also wrong with the US election, all signs still point to a defeat for Labour”.

Example odds:

Chelsea and Fulham

Alan De’Ath, Labour Party – 25/1

Bill Cashmore, Green Party – 400/1

Greg Hands, Conservative Party – 1/500

Louise Rowntree, Liberal Democrats – 250/1

Kensington

Lady Borwick, Conservative Party – 1/50

Emma Dent Coad, Labour – 50/1

Annabel Mullin, Liberal Democrats – 14/1

James Torrance, Independent – 100/1

Islington North

Keith Angus, Liberal Democrats – 20/1

James Clark, Conservative Party – 40/1

Jeremy Corbyn, Labour Party – 1/200

Knigel Knapp, Official Monster Raving Loony Party – 250/1

Maidenhead

Lord Buckethead, Official Monster Raving Loony Party – 250/1

Tony Hill, Liberal Democrats – 33/1

Pat McDonald, Labour Party – 33/1

Theresa May, Conservative Party – 1/500

Westmorland and Lonsdale

James Airey, Conservative Party – 13/5

Eli Aldridge, Labour Party – 200/1

Mr Fishfinger, Independent – 200/1

Tim Farron, Liberal Democrats – 1/7

June 2, 2017
Best in Britain

EXCLUSIVE – “Nationally important” Grade II* listed Berkshire mansion in 130 acres for sale for £26 million; its interior is yet to be renovated

A Grade II* listed building capable of being reinstated as one of Britain’s finest country houses has just been placed on the market for £26 million.

Benham Park – formerly known as Benham Vallence – at Marsh Benham, near Newbury comes with around 130 acres of Grade II listed Capability Brown (1716 – 1783) designed parkland and currently extends to 27,620 square foot. It has planning permission in place to either revert to a truly epic single family mansion or to convert into a 100 bedroom ‘wellness centre’ to rival Champneys in Hertfordshire and Clinique La Prairie in Switzerland. The schemes proposed would provide between 50,000 and 140,000 square foot of accommodation and, already, businessmen Harry Marriott and Michael Fresson, owners since 2011, have restored the exterior of the building along with its gardens and park.

Built at the behest of the nobleman William Craven (1738 – 1791) to designs of the Fulham born architect Henry Holland (1745 – 1806) in 1774 – 1775, this fine neoclassical house was constructed from Bath stone and later altered by the extremely wealthy Sutton baronets during their tenure in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. The estate was sold for £1 million to the innovative computer manufacturers Norsk Data in 1983 and remained in the firm’s ownership until it was dissolved in 1992. It then became the offices of other technology companies until again being placed for sale for £6 million in 2010.

Benham Park in the era when it was used as offices; the modern buildings have now been demolished and the car park landscaped

The main mansion prior to renovation of its exterior

A view from another angle (after external renovation)

From the lake

And from its imposing entrance

One of several entrances to the estate

Another set of impressive gates

Should a buyer use the existing designs for a residential scheme, they would find themselves owning a house that would not only come with 12 reception rooms and 29 bedroom suites, but also one with a sports complex, a sculpture gallery, a 40-seat cinema and garaging for 50 cars. Aside from an existing 5-bedroom mill house on the estate’s 10 acre lake and a gate lodge, the proposals would add a further 8 additional ancillary houses also.

Of Benham Park, Crispin Holborow of selling agent Savills commented:

“[This] is a nationally important stately home so its sale presents a very exciting proposition for a future owner to oversee its transformation. The prospect of restoring a property of such magnificent proportions with excellent access to London has not arisen for many years, and we expect interest from potential buyers for either its reinstatement as a significant country residence or its repurpose into a world leading wellness centre”.

Those looking to extend the compound further have the option to purchase two separately owned properties that were formerly part of the estate. A house known as ‘Greenhouses’, for sale with Savills, is offered for £1.3 million and comes with 1.47 acres of land whilst Mill Bank House, which stands in 2 acres, is on the market through Strutt & Parker.

The Numbers – Benham Park

1771 – 1774

William Craven, 6^th Baron Craven paid Capability Brown £7,150 for works to the house and grounds. This sum is the equivalent of £989,000 today ($1.3 million, €1.1 million or درهم4.7 million).

1982

Sold to Norsk Data for £1 million (the equivalent of £3.2 million, $4.1 million, €3.7 million or درهم15.1 million today) by Sir Richard Sutton (born 1937).

2010

Placed on the market for £6 million ($7.7 million, €6.9 million or درهم28.3 million).

2011

Sold to Harry Marriott and Michael Fresson for £5 million ($6.4 million, €5.7 million or درهم23.6 million).

2017

Benham Park placed on the market for £26 million ($33.4 million, €29.9 million or درهم123 million).

Separately owned estate houses

Mill Bank House – On the market for £1.4 million ($1.8 million, €1.6 million or درهم6.6 million).

Greenhouses – On the market for £1.3 million ($1.7 million, €1.5 million or درهم6.1 million).

May 29, 2017
Louise Rowntree – What’s on your mantelpiece?

A 20-question interview with public affairs and communications consultant and Liberal Democrat candidate for Chelsea & Fulham Louise Rowntree

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

Treat others the way you want to be treated.

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

You’re not living unless you take risks.

Kerry Katona was considered unacceptable in 2007. Who or what is unacceptable in 2017?

Theresa May.

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

Time to ‘mong’.

What might you swap all your wealth for?

Being the fastest swimmer in the world.

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 state of the financial system?

It was going quite well in Britain until Brexit.

What phrase or word do you most loathe?

“How are you?” instead of “hello”.

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

With three children, a small business and the General Election, I am conscious that I don’t do enough to help out in the local community currently. Locally, I’m ambassador for the Fulham Cricket Club – which gives free cricket training to children whose parents wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford it, and has linked up with a number of charities including Hammersmith & Fulham Refugees Welcome. More generally, I donate (a modest sum) to Save the Children each month.

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

My late father always said: “You can tell who’s important. They’re the ones without a phone”. When on a train take calls in the corridor, try to avoid taking them when with others but – if you must – ask permission first. Never put your phone on a table if with others.

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

Vincent Cassel, Nancy Wake (‘The White Mouse’), Ian Hislop, Michelle Obama, Mick Jagger, Amy Schumer, Guillaume Canet, Diana Ross, Jimmy Fallon and the entire cast of Saturday Night Live.

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

Chinese dim sum, on a boat on the River Thames going through Chelsea and Fulham.

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

Any time, as long the occasion fits and you can handle your drink.

A Negroni, a martini or a cup of tea?

A Negroni, but in a glass, not from the bottle.

Whose parties do you enjoy the most and why?

Ours: Because my husband DJ’s and we always have to threaten to call the police at 4am.

Who is the most positive person you know?

Jessica Arora: Fashion guru, co-founder of NotSuchAModelMum and a good friend.

What’s your most guilty pleasure?

Eating a whole box of salt and vinegar Pringles whilst drinking wine in bed and watching American TV series’.

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

A rowan tree: I’m a descendant of Vikings who invaded York over a thousand years ago and took their name from the local rowan tree – which morphed into ‘Rowntree’: Rooted, earth, strong, proud – it sums up both my Yorkshire ancestors and me.

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

A Lada: Old fashioned, rare, traditional and scrubs up surprisingly well with a bit of polish.

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

I was taught how to fight at the age of five, but thankfully have only once had to.

What’s currently sitting on your mantelpiece?

A Mappin & Webb clock my late father was given when he retired from the bank he ran, a couple of Delft vases from a Belgian flee market, a Limoges egg which belonged to my late grandmother, and my son’s Grade 2 Music Theory certificate.

Louise Rowntree is a lawyer-turned-public affairs and communications consultant who grew up in Chelsea and lives in Fulham. She is married to Raphael, a Belgian lawyer, has three sons and is standing as the Liberal Democrat for Chelsea & Fulham in the 2017 General Election.

Louise worked for several years in Brussels – where she ran Hill & Knowlton’s Trade & Competition department. In 2012 she founded her own, niche, consultancy Rowntree & Associates and moved back to London soon after. She has personally advised heads of state, ambassadors, ministers, multinationals, NGOs and law firms.

Follow her on Twitter at @louise_rowntree.

Photograph by Micki Scupin Rogers.

May 14, 2017
Breaking with Boris

Breaking News – Rachel Johnson explains why she ditched the party of her Foreign Secretary brother Boris and defected to the Lib Dems

On this morning’s Andrew Marr Show on BBC1, Rachel Johnson was interviewed about her decision to defect to the Liberal Democrat Party.

Explaining her rationale for ditching the Tories and the party of her Brexit supporting Foreign Secretary brother, Boris Johnson, Rachel Johnson commented:

“This is single issue election. We could be going over a cliff on a hard Brexit… Everything on the table from last June is now off the table. Business needs to stay in the Single Market. It’s all lose, lose, lose… A second referendum gives the country another go”.

Answering a question about whether she plans to stand as a candidate herself, Johnson, a columnist for the Mail on Sunday, remarked:

“This is my paper making mischief to embarrass me… [But I am] not ruling anything out”.

Later, in the segment, she tempered this further by adding:

“I am very tempted to campaign in my constituency of Kensington and Chelsea”.

Given her comments, The Steeple Times urges Rachel Johnson to join with us to support Gina Miller’s Best for Britain tactical voting campaign and suggests she also throws her campaigning efforts behind the Liberal Democrats’ Annabel Mullin for Kensington and Louise Rowntree for Chelsea & Fulham.

#BritainDeservesBetter #MakeJuneEndOfMay

Louise Rowntree (left) pictured with Matthew Steeples of The Steeple Times and Annabel Mullin in Chelsea last week

The Johnson clan – Stanley Johnson (far left) with his children: Rachel, Boris and Jo

April 30, 2017
Advertorial – City Relay

Matthew Steeples takes a look at the services offered by City Relay, a hassle free short-term rental management company

Established three years ago and based in Earl’s Court, City Relay offer the very best guest and host management services for over two hundred apartments and houses in Central and West London.

Primarily focused on taking away the hassle of managing bookings through marketing services such as Airbnb, City Relay’s 5-star hospitality team deal with check-ins, key holding and guest support. The firm also have their own property maintenance team to ensure properties are kept in immaculate condition between change-overs and can organise housekeeping services and supply fresh hotel quality linens also.

Of the firm’s services to those with apartments and houses to rent, the company’s Mathilde Le Bault comments:

“Brexit has brought a bonus for landlords and has encouraged many to opt for short-term rentals to tourists and business people rather than leaving their properties empty in a declining long-term market. Higher yields follow and with the ease and convenience of dealing with just City Relay’s team, we make it much easier to navigate the Airbnb process”.

“City Relay’s reception desk is located at 62 Kenway Road, London, SW5 0RD and the many international, mostly European clients we deal with find that having someone they can actually speak to and meet in person most useful”.

For further details about City Relay’s services, click here. Alternatively, telephone: +44 (0) 20 7993 5693.

April 30, 2017
Degenerates and Dr Nastro

Matthew Steeples alerts event hosts in London to Dr Nastro, Ian Thomas and their merry gang of party crashing cohorts

Last Wednesday, in London, around twenty gatecrashers arrived at a party I was co-hosting.

‘Invited’ by someone named Ian Thomas and a character who goes by the plainly invented moniker of ‘Dr Nastro’ (operating from [email protected]), these degenerates appeared mostly brandishing a doctored invite that came without anything other than timings and an address. It came with a note above it from ‘Dr Nastro’ reading “Embassy of X, invites you to taste of X” and instructions to “please come early, no RSVP required”.

Amongst those to arrive and be turned away were usual suspects such as David Pun – no surprises there – and several badly dressed women with the scruffiest shoes known to man. Told at the door that they couldn’t come in (with Pun being urged to “get back to Harvey Nick’s”), these people resorted to yelling abuse at the staff and one went as far as to tell me I was “a racist” and claimed I’d “be prosecuted”. He ranted at a distinguished lady and described her as “a dirty woman” and, as he left, yelled: “Elitist, comprehensive school educated bigots”.

Others in the ‘party’ numbered two ‘Housewives’ from Fulham. I nearly caved in and let them in given how ‘Desperate’ (not in the Eva Longoria sense) they looked, but rightly the doorman sent them on their merry way. The IDS-lookalike muttered and moaned for a moment before heading off into the cold night whilst Mr Frizzy and the chap that pretends to be a jockey complained: “You’ve made us feel uncomfortable”.

The next morning, a missive was sent to my co-host by a man named Phil P. Kelly of a never-heard-of before Twitter account @HowToEnjoyLDN. He moaned: “When we made a choice and went all the way, to what turned out to be a gin tasting event, a member of your staff rejected us because we had not RSVPed! This surprised us, as no RSVP was specified in the original invite, copied below. Or was it? Can you enlighten us further?”

After reading the accompanying forwarded message, I contacted the source, Dr Nastro. He answered with various excuses and claimed: “This has nothing to do with me”. He added: “I’ve been told it was someone called Ian Thomas who creates a party list weekly and my name has been used to forward to his friends”.

In a further missive, without even yet even the hint of an apology, the not-so-good doctor added:

“I got a lots [sic] of emails sent to me. I don’t remember that one. Maybe I could have sent it on. I did not know this was your event. I don’t really go to these type of events. I mainly see Pun at art gallaries [sic] making a nuisance of himself”.

Told by return “’maybe’ is a very convenient word” by me, he then bizarrely responded with an invite to a preview event at an art gallery named ‘Unit London’ that very evening. He explained: “If you would like to meet here, we could talk about it”.

I responded with the comment: “I am astounded. You now invite me to someone else’s event. Is that even appropriate given what you did to my event by inviting people who shouldn’t ever have been invited?” and contacted ‘Unit London’ and alerted them of his plan to crash their event.

Dr Nastro’s last email followed minutes later: “I will not send anyone to your events again, you need to find who leaked your invite… I’ve just been banned from The Unit. Can we leave it at that?” We can now.

November 28, 2016
Slumping Super-Prime

Sales of super-prime properties in the UK fall by 86%

Yesterday, the property group London Central Portfolio released data that showed that sales of £10 million-plus properties in the UK had fallen 86% over the past year.

Blaming hefty Stamp Duty increases and Brexit uncertainty, the firm reported that just 5 “super-prime” properties had changed hands between June and August compared to a recorded 35 a year earlier. All of the sales in the period this year were in Central London whilst such properties accounted for just 30% of the figure in the year previous.

Top-end developers, whose sales accounted for 23% of the figure in 2015, were especially affected. They made zero sales in this price bracket in the period and now, according to Naomi Heaton, CEO of LCP, they are reworking their developments to create smaller, cheaper units.

Citygrove Securities PLC and McClaren Properties’ The Clearings development in Chelsea’s Milner Street is being reworked to include fewer super-prime properties

Of this, Ms Heaton commented:

“Many [developers are] looking to divide large, high-priced property into smaller flats to increase their attractiveness”.

Examples given by LCP include Clivedale’s Hanover Square development – where the scheme is being reworked to create four times as many units – and Citygrove Securities PLC and McClaren Properties’ The Clearings development in Chelsea’s Milner Street – where seven townhouses will be replaced with smaller properties.

Speaking more generally, Ms Heaton – who predicts the consequences of this development will be a £45 million fall in Stamp Duty receipts to the government – added:

“This slowdown in the luxury property market—a big contributor for the Exchequer and UK economy—is very concerning. As the government faces the daunting task of negotiating Brexit together with a potential slowdown in the UK economy, it should consider its strategy on residential-property taxation carefully to ensure it meets its objectives of increasing revenues”.

Stamp Duty on a £6 million property was £420,000 under the old system; it is now £633,750. On a £2 million property it was £100,000; it’s now £153,750 whilst in addition buyers of second homes and investment properties now have to pay an additional 3% surcharge also.

October 18, 2016