Tag: garden

The Stars of Beel

Neglected Georgian mansion that has been home to Sir Dirk Bogarde, Basil Dearden, Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne, Matt Aitken and Robert Kilroy-Silk for sale for 39% less than it sold for in 2014

A dilapidated Grade II* listed country house whose extensive roster of owners numbers aristocrats, rock and film stars and politicians is on sale for £3.95 million or 39% less from the £6.5 million sum it sold for in 2014.

Built for the Duke of Buckingham in the 1600s and extending to 10,743 square foot, Beel House in Little Chalfont, near Amersham in Buckinghamshire stands in 13.5 acres of land. It comprises of a 7 reception room, 8 bedroom, 6 bathroom main house and also comes with an indoor swimming pool complex, a tennis court and garaging for 5 cars.

Home to The Hon. Lady Caroline Cavendish in the 1830s and Colonel Abram ‘Arthur’ Lyle of the Tate & Lyle dynasty from 1909 to 1920, Beel House was bought by the actor Sir Dirk Bogarde in a “dilapidated state” in 1954. Of discovering it, Bogarde, who had been renting a cottage in the close vicinity on the Bendrose Estate, stated:

“[The actress Kay Kendall and I] walked across muddy fields from my rented home to look at Beel House. It was a horror. Bleak and empty, few of its twenty-six rooms caught the sun, and the garden surrounding it was a tangle of overgrown rosebeds. Inside it seemed a labyrinth of corridors and stone passages. It was painted throughout in dejected yellow and brown and each room had a rusty gas fire in it.”

Bogarde made significant changes to the building and pulled down a wing of 11 rooms. In their place, he built a swimming pool and a 30-foot long conservatory in the grounds – which Kay Kendall later described as looking like “an out patients’ department” – and it seems he spent several happy years there. He moved to another property nearby named Drummer’s Yard in 1960 and sold Beel House to Basil Dearden, the director of The Assassination Bureau, Khartoum and The Man Who Haunted Himself.

An aerial photo of Beel House, Little Chalfont, Amersham, Buckinghamshire, HP7 9QP, United Kingdom

Images of the exterior of Beel House in the 1950s

Actor Anthony Forwood, Sir Dirk Bogarde’s eventual “life partner,” at Beel House with his dogs Sinuhe and Bogie; Sir Dirk Bogarde in his study at the house

Sir Dirk Bogarde outside Beel House with one of many Rolls-Royces he owned and inside on the house’s main staircase

Film director Basil Dearden, owner of Beel House between 1960 and 1966, worked with Sir Dirk Bogarde on the controversial film ‘Victim’ in 1961; it was the first English language film to use the word “homosexual” and of it one Italian critic remarked: “At last the British have stopped being hypocrites”

Dearden sold up in 1966 and the next famous owners were Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne in the early 1980s. It was whilst here that Mr Osbourne “decided to murder his wife” and of the ensuing incident on 3^rd September 1989, the Amersham Museum’s website reports:

“Ozzy Osbourne put the house up for sale after he had been arrested for the attempted murder of his wife whilst living at Beel House. After taking a cocktail of drugs and drinking heavily during a family meal at the Chinese restaurant at Nightingales Corner he attacked his wife and was subsequently arrested. He had no memory of the attack but the conditions of his bail were that he entered a rehab centre, did not contact his wife and did not return to Beel House.”

Marketed for £1.75 million in 1991, unsurprisingly Sharon Osbourne, herself, did not have much positive to say about her time at Beel House either. In her 2006 autobiography, Extreme, she remarked:

“I decided I wanted to go back to England. By this time we had already sold Beel House. I had enough bad memories not to be too sorry to see it go. Also it had reached what the builder called the domino point: mending one thing only triggered something else that needed to be done.”

Ozzy Osbourne, photographed by Conrad Rickenbacker, sitting on his four poster bed at Beel House in the 1980s

Images of Beel House during the ownership of Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne (photographs by Conrad Rickenbacker)

Robert Kilroy-Silk at Beel House prior to his appearance on ‘I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here’ in November 2008

The house as furnished by Robert Kilroy-Silk and his wife Jan Beech, circa 2014

Matt Aitken, the composer of chart toppers for Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, Rick Astley and Bananarama, supposedly lived at Beel House for a period subsequently and in the 1990s, the property was sold to the “exotically handsome man, with a very un-English facial glow and ice blue eyes” Robert Kilroy-Silk and his wife, Jan Beech.

Controversial television personality Mr Kilroy-Silk, an MP from 1974 to 1986 and an MEP from 2004 to 2009, brought with him a herd of fallow deer as well as Vietnamese pheasants and bantams to Beel House. He lived between there and his home in Spain and then sold up for the staggering sum of £6.5 million in 2014 to an “international buyer” who, according to Country Life’s Penny Churchill, immediately found “it ‘surplus to requirements’ and put it straight back on the market” through Savills.

Of the estate, which by then had been for sale for three years, in October 2017, then selling agent Hugh Maconochie told the Bucks Free Press:

“In many respects Beel House is the archetypal country residence: a Grade II* listed home in the heart of the Chilterns, beautiful grounds and easy access to London by both rail and road. Yet, while it was completely refurbished in the 1980s – new garaging, games block and swimming pool complex included – its current state necessitates a complete restoration project.”

“For those seeking a country residence to move straight into, Beel House is not the home for them. Instead it would appeal to a buyer looking to restore and revive a Georgian gem. A reduction in price over the years reflects the refurbishment that’s required.”

Empty and plainly somewhat neglected, Edward Welton of Knight Frank’s Baker Street office is now marketing the property. His firm describes Beel House as: “An exciting opportunity for a full restoration project, giving someone the chance to create their own style on a private estate, so close to London.”

Beel House – The Names and Numbers

November 2017 – Further reduced to just £3.95 million ($5.29 million, €4.47 million or درهم19.44 million) through Knight Frank.

January 2017 – Reduced to £4.95 million ($6.63 million, €5.61 million or درهم24.37 million) through Savills.

November 2015 – For sale again for £6.5 million ($8.7 million, €7.4 million or درهم32 million) through Savills.

2014 – Sold to “an international buyer” by Robert Kilroy-Silk for “close to” the £6.5 million ($8.7 million, €7.4 million or درهم32 million) asking price.

June 1991 – For sale for £1.75 million (the equivalent of £3.45 million, $4.62 million, €3.91 million or درهم16.98 million today).

October 1989 – Placed for sale by media personalities Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne.

1966 – Placed on the market by Basil Dearden for £66,000 (the equivalent of £1.1 million, $1.5 million, €1.2 million or درهم5.4 million today).

Circa 1960 – Sold to film director Basil Dearden (1911 – 1971).

January 1954 – Sold to actor Sir Dirk Bogarde (1921 – 1999) for £4,000 (the equivalent of £101,000, $135,000, €114,000 or درهم497,000 today).

1836 to 1954 – Part of the estate of the Lowndes family, largescale landowners in the Chesham, Buckinghamshire area. During this time tenants included The Hon. Lady Caroline Cavendish and from 1909 to 1920 by Colonel Abram Lyle (of the Tate & Lyle dynasty).

1730 – Valued at £500 (the equivalent of £99,000, $133,000, €112,000 or درهم487,000 today) by Sun Insurance whilst home to Thomas White of Middle Temple.

1672 to 1682 – Home to Mary Pennington, the mother-in-law of the Quaker founder of the State of Pennsylvania, William Penn.

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November 29, 2017
Lord of the Thatch

Former Wiltshire home of ‘Lord of the Flies’ author Sir William Golding for sale for 562% more than he sold it for in 1985

The one-time home of the author and Nobel Prize in Literature and Booker Prize winner Sir William Golding, CBE (1911 – 1993) has gone on sale for £795,000 ($1.1 million, €891,000 or درهم3.9 million) in spite of needing modernisation.

Ebble Thatch at Mead End, Bowerchalke, near Salisbury was the residence of the Lord of the Flies author in 1940 and between 1958 and 1985 and it was here that he met his fellow villager, the scientist James Lovelock CH, CBE, FRS. He sold the house in 1985 on deciding to move to a Georgian mansion in Cornwall for £120,000 (the equivalent of £334,000, $441,000, €374,000 or درهم1.6 million today).

Consisting of 4 reception rooms, a kitchen with AGA, a conservatory, 5 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms the main house is described as “flexible” and “well-configured” and in addition there is a detached 1 bedroom cottage on the property’s 0.7 acre plot.

Strutt & Parker are the selling agents.

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November 19, 2017
A Wheel Window

Grade I listed Tudor open hall house in West Yorkshire for sale; it comes complete with a replica cabin from a 1920s ocean liner and an ‘apple and pear wheel window’

Situated in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty near the Rochdale Canal in Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire, Wood Lane Hall is a Grade I listed Tudor open hall house that has recently gone of sale for £750,000 ($980,000, €842,000 or درهم3.6 million).

Centred around a two-storey open hall with a gallery over, the 7,950 square foot property also includes 5 reception rooms, a study, a bespoke pine kitchen with an AGA, 6 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, cellars and a double garage.

Aside from such things as embattled parapets, gargoyles, decorative plasterwork and paneling, the building – which dates to 1649 – features an unusual circular window known as a ‘rose wheel’ or ‘apple and pear’ window. One of the bedrooms was decorated in the 1940s with the insertion of the contents of a 1920s ship’s cabin and though described “in need of remedial work,” this fine building could easily be crafted back into a very fine residence.

Edkins & Holmes are the agents handling the sale.

The house was marketed some time ago with 3 acres of land and in better condition; this land is not mentioned in the current marketing material

The undoubted star feature of Wood Lane Hall is its ‘rose wheel’ or ‘apple and pear’ window

The insertion of the contents of a 1920s ship’s cabin makes this a most unusual bedroom

Wood Lane Hall in times past (date unknown)

A drawing of the property

A floor plan of the house

November 4, 2017
Wealthy Wilton

Six-storey Belgravia residence with controversial business connections goes on sale for 22% less than it was marketed for in 2015 and 3,497% more than it sold for in 1997

A 6,961 square foot freehold terraced townhouse in Belgravia has gone on sale for £25 million or 3,497% more than it was sold for in 1997.

4 Wilton Crescent – which sold in 1997 for what now seems like the paltry sum of just £695,000 – was marketed two years ago for £32 million and provides 5 reception rooms, 9 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms and 2 garages in an adjoining mews house.

Featuring traditional interior design by Robert Kime – decorator to the Prince of Wales – the property featured in court papers in December 2015 in the context of a dispute between a lawyer turned secretive property speculator named Glenn Maud and his former associate Robert Tchenguiz. Said to be at one-time worth £4.5 billion at the height of his success and originally from Sheffield, this businessman and his wife reportedly spent some £6 million renovating the house but was ordered to live on £500 per week in 2012 by a Guernsey court.

4 Wilton Crescent is now offered by Knight Frank.

4 Wilton Crescent – The Numbers

October 2017 – On the market for £25 million ($32.8 million, €27.9 million or درهم120.5 million) through Knight Frank.

March 2016 – On the market for £30 million ($39.4 million, €33.5 million or درهم144.6 million) through Beauchamp Estates.

December 2015 – On the market for £32 million ($42 million, €35.7 million or درهم154.2 million) according to court documents. Owner Glenn Maud reportedly spent £6 million ($7.9 million, €6.7 million or درهم28.9 million) on “improvements” to the property.

September 1997 – Sold for £695,000 ($912,000, €775,000 or درهم3.3 million).

October 24, 2017
A Bastard of a Basement

Knightsbridge townhouse for sale for sum 11% lower than it sold for in 2011; it comes with a rather large hole in the garden that has been described as “almost as deep as the Führerbunker”

To the poet and wit Henry Luttrell (1765 – 1861) “eating pâté de foie gras to the sound of trumpets” was his idea of heaven. Now, a very wealthy buyer has the opportunity to acquire what some might consider the very opposite of such with the sale of his former home – complete with a 4-storey hole in its garden – in Knightsbridge.

Empty for many years and the subject of numerous critical articles about its dereliction in such titles as the Mirror and Daily Mail, Grade II listed 31 Brompton Square is on the market for £3 million less than it sold for in 2011. It was previously reportedly owned by the industrialist Lord Tanlaw and was also in the possession of the High Commission of Malaysia at some point.

Fraudster Achilleas Kallakis was undoubtedly the most controversial owner of the building

Philanthropists Dora and Mary de Beer (pictured with Esmond de Beer) were certainly more civilised residents

Baron Tanlaw of Tanlawhill reportedly owned the house for a period also

Aside from being home to the philanthropist sisters Dora and Mary de Beer (owners of the house between 1934 and 1981) and the Conservative Party politician the Hon. Michael Astor in addition, most controversially the property was bought by the now jailed businessman Achilleas Kallakis in the mid 2000s.

Kallakis – who in spite of demanding he be called ‘His Excellency’ and ‘The Don’ was actually simply “Britain’s biggest mortgage fraudster” – began work on a scheme to create what he termed a “pleasure palace” at 31 Brompton Square in 2005. He employed contractors to dig four levels down beneath what had been a pretty garden and commenced both authorised and unauthorised works to create what could still ultimately become a 22,000 square foot, 8-floor “trophy home.”

Construction stopped in 2008 after Kallakis’ arrest and in 2011, 31 Brompton Square was sold for £8 million more than sought to a Virgin Islands based company by receivers acting for Barclays Wealth. Said by locals to actually be owned at that time by a Dubai based businessman named Jonathan Hart, further planning schemes were submitted in October 2016 and now agents Savills seek £25 million for the unfinished building.

Of the sale, one near neighbour told The Steeple Times:

“This bastard of a basement has blighted this area of Knightsbridge for far too long.”

“We have feared subsidence might cause the hole to cave in since 2005 and now hope a new owner will rectify the mess left by the conman Kallakis. We simply want to be able to live out our years in peace and would like a nice, quiet family rather than a brash billionaire be the purchasers.”

31 Brompton Square – The Numbers

September 2017 – For sale for £25 million ($33.9 million, €28.4 million or درهم125 million).

June 2016 – Predicted to be worth £50 million ($67.8 million, €56.9 million or درهم249 million) if iceberg extension were to be completed.

March 2011 – Sold for £28 million ($38 million, €31.9 million or درهم139.5 million) after a bidding war on an asking price of £20 million ($27.1 million, €22.7 million or درهم99.6 million).

An aerial view of the giant hole behind 31 Brompton Square

A closer view of the dormant site

The front elevation of 31 Brompton Square

A proposed floor plan for the building

A CGI image of a proposed design for a reception room within the existing building

A CGI image of a proposed design for a reception space in the proposed extension of the house

A CGI image of a proposed design for a reception space backing onto the garden

A CGI image of a proposed design for a swimming pool within the extension

A CGI image of the proposed garden

Another view of the space

A drawing of the proposed redevelopment

September 25, 2017
A Caged Crib

Former San Francisco home of actor Nicolas Cage for sale for £11.4 million or 660% more than it sold for in 1996

Thrice married and an Academy Award winning actor Nicolas Cage is also known for lavish spending. Aside from once buying twenty-two cars in one hit – including a “squadron” of nine Rolls-Royce – he “wound up” owning fifteen personal residences in 2007 and now one of them is for sale for £11.4 million.

898 Francisco Street in San Francisco’s Russian Hill neighbourhood was purchased by a trust connected to Cage in 2006 for £6.9 million and sold by him in 2008 at a loss for £6.3 million. It was built in Gothic Tudor style in 1914, extends to 6,305 square foot and is spread over four floors.

The front door is an example of fine craftmanship within the house

As is the carving on this fireplace

Featuring 4 reception rooms, 6 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms, the house also has a 2-car garage and enjoys views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and the Bay Area. It has a garden to the rear and is adjoined by a further adjacent plot on Hyde Street that has potential for a further residence.

Debi Dicello of Sotheby’s International Realty has the listing and seeks either a total of £11.4 million for the entire property or £8.8 million for the main house and £2.6 million for the adjacent 40-foot by 60-foot lot.

898 Francisco Street – The Numbers

2017 – £8.8 million ($12 million, €10 million or درهم44.1 million) for the main house plus £2.6 million ($3.5million, €2.9 million or درهم12.9 million) for the adjoining plot.

2008 – Sold for £6.3 million ($8.5 million, €7.1 million or درهم31.2 million).

2006 – Bought by a trust connected to Nicolas Cage for £6.9 million ($9.4 million, €7.9 million or درهم34.5 million).

1996 – Sold for £1.5 million ($2 million, €1.7 million or درهم7.4 million).

September 17, 2017
Flying a White Elephant

Orange County mega-estate sold last for £14 million on an original asking price of £67 million offered for sale again for £43 million after death of owner

The largest residential estate on the Newport Coast of California is back on the market. One Pelican Hill Road North in Newport Beach – alternatively known as ‘Villa Del Lago’ or ‘Villa of the Lake’ – is a property with an extraordinary past and though listed on construction for £67 million in 2009, eventually sold at a fire auction in 2012 for just £14 million. Its subsequent owner, a Japanese industrialist and publisher, death has now resulted in it being placed for sale again and this time £43 million is sought.

Situated on a plot of 12.47 acres and comprising 17,706 square foot of ‘Italianate-style’ accommodation, One Pelican Hill Road North was last marketed as having 8 bedrooms and 17 bathrooms. On a new, dedicated marketing page for it, it is now being promoted as having, amongst other things, 2 screening rooms, a china/silver room, an “indoor lap pool with fibre optic twinkling star ceiling”, a 14-car garage and a “wine cave”. Outside, there is a “cascading private lake”, stabling, a riding ring, a putting green, an “organic edible garden” and potential for a vineyard.

Jeffrey Janger and Linda Janger of Pace Properties have the listing currently but given another agent, Michael Gosselin of Surterre Properties, previously commented: “Newport Coast has yet to see any homes sell for more than $20 million (£15.5 million)”, it’ll be likely there’ll be a few price cuts yet.

One Pelican Hill Road North – The Extraordinary Numbers

2003 – Land purchased for $3.2 million by Monarch Estates. Subsequent construction loans total $27.3 million.

February 2009 – Completed house placed for sale for sale for $87 million by a realtor named John McMonigle, the managing member of a partnership developing the project.

May 2010 – Price reduced to $57 million.

January 2011 – Three offers received, all were below $37 million and not accepted.

April 2012 – Offered at a court-sanctioned auction with “no opening bid sought”. Sold for $18.5 million to Toshiaki Ogasawara, an industrialist and publisher of the Japan Times.

January 2017 – Placed on the market after Ogasawara’s death in December 2016 for $55 million.

August 18, 2017
Tales of The Tube

South Kensington house for sale for £4 million in spite of being literally right next to a noisy London Underground line

Estate agents are not known for honesty but Strutt & Parker certainly neglected a key detail when preparing particulars for a £3.95 million ($5.13 million, €4.38 million or درهم18.83 million) property in Pelham Street, SW7.

In a brochure for what is termed a “fabulous five bedroom freehold house situated within a charming terrace of stucco fronted houses, set back behind a private paved garden,” the firm neglect to mention that exactly to the rear of the building is the busy District and Circle line.

The renovated 2,523 square foot terraced house offered spans four floors – and presumably the top floors rattle less than the lower ones – and includes a drawing room, dining kitchen, a cinema room, 5 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. It has a garden to the front, a roof terrace and the London Underground directly next to it. How charming.

August 10, 2017
Parking a Farmhouse

Listed Cumbrian time warp farmhouse goes on sale for less than the price of an open-air parking space in London, W2

A detached, 17^th century farmhouse in Cumbria’s Eden Valley has gone on sale for just £290,000 ($378,000, €321,000 or درهم1.4 million) or £10,000 less than the price of an open-air car parking space in London, W2.

Previously listed last year for £225,000 as part of the £2.3 million sale of a 344-acre farm – where then agents Carter Jonas ultimately received 18 offers – Newbiggin Hall Farmhouse at Newbiggin is now marketed by Eden Estate Agents simply with its gardens.

The 4-bedroom house is in need of complete refurbishment but with 2,291 square foot of accommodation and a price that thus equates to the paltry sum of £127 per square foot, it does indeed seem like a genuine bargain.

The selling agents comment: “The property is Grade II listed and has retained many charming period features, including exposed beams, paneling, feature windows and sandstone flags and stairs. This is a fascinating renovation project with a great deal of potential.”

August 6, 2017
Breaking For Gold

Thatched seaside cottage in West Sussex for sale; it has a plot laid out in the style of the Chelsea Flower Show Gold Medal winning garden of 1936

A thatched seaside cottage on what has been described as “the Sussex Riviera” has gone on sale for £3.25 million ($4.19 million, €3.67 million or درهم15.39 million) through agents Savills.

Having the look of something you might also find in the Hamptons in America, The Breakers on the Willowhayne Estate at East Preston, near Littlehampton was built in 1936 in the Arts and Crafts style and restored over the last nine years by the current owners.

Providing 6,006 square foot of accommodation over three floors, the house includes 4 reception rooms, 6 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms. It stands on a 0.75-acre beachside plot laid out in the plan of the winning garden at Chelsea Flower Show in 1936 and has an outdoor swimming pool – built in 2010 – also.

A neighbouring house, owned by one of the original question setters for the game Trivial Pursuit, burnt to the ground in January 2014.

July 9, 2017