Toothy tea leaf Angela Gulbenkian admits stealing £1.1 million and pleads guilty as fellow art crook Inigo Philbrick remains in the clink also
“Grifter heiress” Angela Gulbenkian once mused “life is art” on her Instagram page, but for her, after putting in a guilty plea “to scamming collectors out of art they never received,” she might opt to change that to “life is prison.”
Branded an “ultimate deceiver” alongside the equally audacious art broker Inigo Philbrick in The Steeple Times last June after legendary Chelsea interior designer Jane Morris of Percy Bass called out the crook for conning her firm also, Gulbenkian yesterday admitted two charges of theft at Southwark Crown Court.
Married to the great-grandnephew of the British-Armenian art collector and oil baron Calouste Gulbenkian – father of the legendary Nubar – this wicked wench used her surname to give herself a “veneer of respectability in her work as an art advisor” supposedly. She even used a fake familial foundation email to back up her “shady dealings” and exploited Instagram in a manner similar to Philbrick’s dopey baby mama and Made In Chelsea whining warbler, Victoria Baker Harber.
Sadly, however, for the many victims of this bleach blonde bimbo turned art lifter, it seems that those who handed Gulbenkian over a million pounds will find it hard to recover their funds according to Artnet. In an email provided to them, Metropolitan Police officer Duncan Graham declared: “A confiscation order was made for the amount stolen. At present no assets are present within the UK to realise this confiscation.”
Speaking to The Art Newspaper, Christopher Marinello of Art Recovery International, who is representing one of private jet loving Gulbenkian’s victims, added:
“[The plea] was not too surprising to us because we had her dead to rights. She signed a stipulation of settlement in 2018 where she acknowledged owing the money that she stole, and that she was going to pay it back, but of course she defaulted, so the trial would have been very quick.”
“We pursue these fraud cases vigorously, and I think it’s the only way you can do that. The art world is seeing a rise in fraud and we went after Gulbenkian and anything and everything she touched. We think that the way to take on these fraud cases is to be relentless, and that’s what we’ve done.”
Angela Gulbenkian (née Ischwang and deservedly nicknamed ‘Awful Ange’ by a former friend) – who has been on remand since being extradited from Portugal after failing to show up at court in May 2020 – will be sentenced on 28th July. She will subsequently potentially face trial over separate charges in relation to a case involving the sale of a Warhol portrait of Queen Elizabeth II at a later date. Long may this grubby grotbag rot!
Birds of a Cell – Bearded bullshitter Inigo Philbrick, a wannabe ‘Talented Mr Ripley,’ and toothy tea leaf Angela Gulbenkian share not only a love of art, but also the pleasures of the pokey currently. Philbrick, like ‘Awful Ange,’ was quite deservedly “grabbed” after he sought to evade justice by hiding out in Port Vila, Vanuata, South Pacific in June 2020 and then flown “under instructions from the FBI” to the United States of America. He now faces charges of theft, misappropriation, borrowing money against artworks he did not even own and selling overlapping shares of artworks and has been branded a “pillock” and “Ponzi schemer.” His victims number the Reuben family and art columnist Kenny Schachter.The crimes of both Gulbenkian and Philbrick have involved the works of pumpkin sculptures designed by Yayoi Kusama.A socialite who traded on the name of the late, great Nubar Gulbenkian and the billionaire family of the same name, ‘Awful Ange’ thought declaring “life is art” appropriate. Now, though this monstrous mess will quite rightly languish in the pokey for quite some period, members of the public should be warned that she is someone to most definitely avoid. Period.
Will wine chucking Boris Johnson baby mama Carrie Symonds go the same way as the ‘Carrie’ of creepy crooner Sir Cliff Richard’s 1980s song?
Described on his ‘official’ YouTube channel in the comments section by some as “magical” and “one of his greatest hits” in spite of being frankly weird, a seriously strange video of Cliff Richard singing ‘Carrie’ on The Kenny Everett Video Show is something that could sum up what could soon happen to Carrie Symonds next.
Focused on the lyrics “Carrie doesn’t live here anymore” as the contemptible Christian crackpot ‘Cliffy’ croons in the mist outside a café-bar, the continuation with “Carrie used to live on the second floor… Sorry that she left no forwarding address… That was known to me, Carrie” could soon apply to Boris Johnson’s latest baby mama.
Quite deservedly under fire as to failing to explain who really funded payment of the vast £200,000 bill caused by Peter Jones loathing Miss Symonds’ demands for a quite unnecessary makeover of their perfectly habitable Downing Street flat, Boris Johnson – who still faces an ongoing inquiry also into who paid for the December 2019 Mustique holiday nearly 16 months later also – is on the ropes. Like Teflon, he may bat these investigations away, but with his “psychopath” nemesis – as some have branded him – Cummings having “gone rogue,” this time things are beginning to stick.
Of the imaginary ‘Carrie’ in the 1980 song – written by ‘Devil Woman’ songwriter Terry Britten – all-round oddity Sir Cliff told the Mail on Sunday in November 2008:
“It’s a mysterious song because you never really know what it’s about. A guy turns up in the neighborhood asking where Carrie is. The very last line goes: ‘Carrie doesn’t live, doesn’t live…’ You’re left thinking: ‘Is she dead? Has she been murdered?’”
Now, with public outrage turning up the heat in ‘Costly Carrie’s’ Westminster lair, will this ‘Modern Day Lady Macbeth’ puppet mistress ‘survive’ her “date with her own kind of fate”? Some might think that, but we couldn’t possibly comment.
Creepy Cliff & Costly Carrie 2021 – The March 1980 screening of Cliff Richard singing ‘Carrie’ on The Kenny Everett Video Show. Of the song, one fan, Tim Roxborough, cringeworthily declared: “Late 70s/early 80s songs like ‘Dreamin,’ ‘Carrie’ and ‘We Don’t Talk Anymore’ aren’t just hits, nor are they just catchy pop tunes. Vocally, Cliff is singing much higher and with far greater emotion and elasticity than what he did in the 50s and 60s. If you’re prejudiced, pretend ‘Carrie’ isn’t a Cliff Richard song and its hook, its groove, its paranoid lyrics and its clean production make it a worthy music cousin of Marvin Gaye’s ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine.’” We’d argue to the contrary: It’s frankly just creepy.Creepy Cliff & Costly Carrie – Sir Cliff Richard and Carrie Symonds share a penchant for hooch and holidays. Equally, they both share a liking for making things up and being the centre of attention. Examples of such behaviour includes Miss Symonds’ temper tantrum over being called ‘Princess Nut Nut’ by Dominic Cummings and Sir Cliff’s “young man, go f**k yourself” rant after supposedly being “duped” into describing his own wine as “tainted and insipid” by Gordon Ramsay in June 2006.Creepy Cliff & Costly Carrie – The similarities between Boris Johnson’s latest baby mama and the creepy Christian crooner continue in the design department. Whilst Miss Symonds likes curious colour concoctions that wouldn’t look out of place in the home of Edina Monsoon in the comedy ‘Absolutely Fabulous’ (left), Sir Cliff favours décor decisions that would most definitely appeal to dictators and despots such as Saddam Hussein and Nicolae Ceaușescu (right).
Creepy Cliff & Costly Carrie – Both Sir Cliff Richard and Carrie Symonds take the attitude of the late, great Ian Richardson in the original (and better) television adaptation of Michael Dobbs’ ‘House of Cards’ and respond to any criticism with his infamous: “You might very well think that, but I couldn’t possibly comment.” Perhaps, if Tory sleaze does indeed engulf his administration, puppet mistress Miss Symonds and her hapless hubby-to-be may find themselves forced into taking a very ‘Long Summer Holiday’ soon too.
Matthew Steeples argues that Daniel Johnson’s “Come on Carrie: your country needs you!” call to Boris Johnson’s wine chucking latest baby mama is nothing but claptrap
The Article is one of those online titles that one can dip into from time to time and find an array of opinions about politics. It claims to show “the world in all its shades of grey” and though that’s not meant in a ‘John Major style’ (thank the Lord), the publication’s attempts to “see a story from every angle” is indeed refreshing.
Yesterday, however, the title’s editor Daniel Johnson – the brother of the controversial right-wing Vote Leave and anti-lockdown COVID Recovery Group funding former owner of the Pizza Express group Luke Johnson – penned quite frankly the most bizarre article known to man.
Daniel Johnson, also a founding editor of Standpoint and described by the Independent as having “the air of a classics don” and listed on Wikipedia for having “asserted that Islam in not a peaceful religion,” asked: “Why isn’t the Prime Minister calling for a post-Covid catch-up campaign [for British school children]?” He then turned to what he believes should happen in the wake of Prince Philip’s funeral tomorrow.
Bizarrely and from utterly nowhere, the journalist went off on a seriously odd tangent and declared:
“Our sympathy for the Royal Family is all the greater because this has been a sad time for so many others, too. After so many funerals, a wedding would not come amiss. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a divorced man in possession of the good fortune to be Prime Minister must be in want of a wife.”
“Next month Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds will have been engaged for 18 months. Once the restrictions on weddings have been lifted in June, there is nothing to stop them getting married. Not everyone would rejoice, but most people would wish them well. Royal weddings happen regularly; prime ministerial ones are rare birds. Indeed, the last time a Prime Minister tied the knot while in office was in 1822, when Lord Liverpool remarried after being widowed.”
“If a week is a long time in politics, two centuries is an aeon. There are many reasons why Boris might be hesitant, but his fiancée is no shrinking violet and is quite capable of insisting that the time has come. Little Wilfred is growing fast. The nation needs cheering up. Come on, Carrie: your country needs you!”
Aside from the fact that most of the nation would prefer Prime Minister Johnson to be focusing on getting the current out of the Covid crisis and fixing our economy, ‘Journalist Johnson’ misses the point entirely about the country’s thoughts about our serial shagging head honcho.
Whilst Tory sleaze – with the Greenshill scandal and the likes of Matt Hancock handing out multi-million pound contracts willy-nilly to his mates – is dominating the headlines, I’d argue that our country needs a little less of ‘Costly Carrie’ and not a bit more. With her penchant for £200,000 “monstrous” interior design makeovers and £12,500 deliveries of food from ritzy Daylesford, here is a Barbara Amiel-esque wastrel completely out of touch with the nation.
“Absolutely nothing” is frankly the only acceptable answer.
Next!
Don’t Come On Carrie! Boris Johnson’s current squeeze Carrie Symonds was described by her alleged spreader of fake news about Russia ex-boyfriend Oliver Haiste (sometimes spelt ‘Haste’) as: “Any relationship with Carrie or friendship with Carrie is very intense and can often burn brightly… Never boring… Tumultuous… Intense and passionate… That passion can work the other way when she is not happy with you… It’s the most up and down relationship I have had.”Don’t Come On Carrie! Rumours of Boris Johnson’s affairs continue to do the rounds on social media. Aside from a supposed ongoing fling with a certain tame BBC journalist, the Prime Minister has been repeatedly linked to various Russians.Don’t Come On Carrie! The man pictured left believes “Boris Johnson was sent by Christ” to “fulfill bible prophecy” whilst a parody magazine mocked the Prime Minister with a headline: “Scumbag Exposed! My hubby had TWELVE children before WE MET!”
The extravagance of Carrie Symonds plainly knows no bounds; what ‘Costly Carrie’ wants, cost unconscious puppet mistress Carrie gets
‘Princess Nut Nut’ – AKA ‘Costly Carrie’ Symonds – will go down in history as Downing Street’s answer to Barbara Amiel. With an attitude to expenditure that makes she whose “extravagance knew no bounds” look meek, Boris Johnson’s puppet mistress has deservedly been criticised in recent days for her £200,000“monstrous” and “inappropriate” makeover of the flat occupied by the Prime Minister.
Now, with news that she’s topped her spendaholic lifestyle with over £12,500 of deliveries from ritzy Daylesford – owned by “lady doors to manual” Carole Bamford – during successive lockdowns, this utterly out-of-touch with ordinary folk woman is understandably being mocked and derided. Here is someone whose Imelda Marcos ways will ultimately make Cherie Blair seem like a comparative penny pincher.
Costly Carrie – Carrie Symonds definitely wields the power in Downing Street these days. Her drippy hubby-to-be Boris Johnson is nothing but a puppet, in fact.Costly Carrie – Aside from daily deliveries of expensive provisions from Lady Bamford’s ritzy Daylesford “farm shop” during the pandemic lockups, Symonds brought in the anything but cheap “celebrity eco designer” Lulu Lytle to eliminate the “John Lewis furniture nightmare” of the Theresa May era décor of the Prime Minister’s Downing Street private residence.
Described as “architecturally unsurpassed and with a lavish interior” and an “ambassadorial style Smallbone kitchen” by selling agents Jackson-Stops, this vast English attempt at a ‘McMansion’ is quite frankly one of the most ludicrously laughable houses we’ve ever featured.
Standing on a plot of just under 11 acres where a probably perfectly charming yet subsequently bastardised residence was constructed in 1864, the ‘hall’ itself extends to about 20,000 square foot. It includes 5 reception rooms, a cinema room, a games room, a music room, an orangery and 8 en-suite bedrooms.
In addition, there is a ‘leisure suite’ with an indoor swimming pool and gym, a staff flat, a 3-bedroom lodge, a 620 square foot ‘entertaining pavilion,’ garaging for 28 cars, a helicopter hangar, kenneling and stabling.
Plainly desperate to offload this gargantuan white elephant, Jackson-Stops declare: “Our clients are looking to downsize and would consider part exchange with either another residential property or commercial property, or possibly another asset class (for instance, prestige and collectible cars, art, etc.).”
An English McMansion Monstrosity – Amateur golf champion, BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year 1980 and tax fraudster Duncan Evans owned Deansgreen Hall from 2002 to 2003.The entrance hall to Deansgreen Hall harks back to the past and currently features coats of armour and a model of an old sailing ship.The dining room of the McMansion is equally “historic” in its inspiration, yet the white gloss paint scheme simply just doesn’t work.Plainly aimed at a sale to a footballer, the cinema room – complete with its naff sparkling light ceiling and purple panels – could have been designed by the “prosecco gagging” disaster that is Dawn Ward.
The Names & Numbers – Deansgreen Hall, Crouchley Lane, Lymm, Cheshire, WA13 0TL, United Kingdom
March 2021 – For sale for £6 million ($8.4 million, €7 million or درهم8 million) with Jackson-Stops. Listed first with the firm circa December 2019.
June 2018 – A former policeman named Roderick Bond, whose current correspondence address for his active company Ravenstone UK Ltd., was jailed for 2 years and 8 months as a result of his involvement in a “Formula 1 film tax scam” in June 2018.
2006 – Purchased by the current owner and “remodeled and presented in its current condition.”
2002 – Sold to BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year 1980 Duncan Evans for £1.2 million ($1.7 million, €1.4 million or درهم2 million) having reverted to private ownership in the 1990s.
1970s – Used as “commercial offices” by Fairclough Homes.
1864 – Original house built on the site. What remains of that, God only knows.
In November 2020, we featured what we termed “the world’s worst McMansion,” a £1.65 million horror in New Jersey. In Deansgreen Hall, we’ve definitely found something that could actually come a very close second.The insipid white theme continues in this vaulted sitting room of the English McMansion.A spokesperson for selling agents Jackson-Stops remarked of the McMansion’s kitchen: “The centre of the house has an ambassadorial-sized Smallbone fitted kitchen/breakfast room with large central island (with seating for 10) with sofas at one end.” Any serious chef would respond: “What a bloody impractical layout.” The McMansion’s indoor swimming pool, surprisingly, seems relatively tame in its decorative styling.A games room in “regal red.”It’s back to the medieval mixed up with nautical heritage theme on the McMansion’s landing – complete with a chess board that looks like it came from Dungeons & Dragons.The ‘master bedroom’ has an especially ghastly fireplace surround and it’s got some shagpile carpets that Jimmy Savile would have loved to have rolled around on.The nautical touch continues in this bathroom area where also included is a tub where Prince Andrew might feel at home.The rear elevation of the McMansion is frankly nothing but a hotchpotch and a design disaster. How many styles did the architect wish to combine?A set of flags stands patriotically at the front of the building along with a very necessary pair of dragon statues.Looking outwards, there’s a hint of classicism to enjoy.The garage block and ‘lodge house’ of the McMansion resemble something found on a Barratt housing estate.Yet more patriotism on display at England’s naffest McMansion. Nigel Farage and Ann Widdecombe would go potty. There are two lakes that are supposedly “stuffed” with carp. Watch out, Eddie Grundy of BBC Radio 4’s ‘The Archers’ will be round to do a bit of poaching.The entrance gates to the McMansion complete with a set of cobbles that wouldn’t look out of place on ITV1’s ‘Coronation Street.’
Grade I listed Baroque mansion Chicheley Hall in Buckinghamshire for sale for £7 million or 62% less than the current owners have spent on it
Just as historically significant as the £10 million Lilford Hall in nearby Northamptonshire we featured in June, but in far better condition, a Grade I listed mansion in Buckinghamshire has just come to the market for £3 million less.
Chicheley Hall, near Olney is being sold due to the activities there – a combination of a conference venue, hotel and a centre used by the Royal Society – being curtailed due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. It is offered for the sum of £7 million – which seems a relative bargain given its current owners paid £6.5 million for it in 2007 and spent a further £12 million on its renovation subsequently.
Constructed on the site of an earlier house destroyed in the Civil War in the 1720s to the designs of master builder Francis Smith, Chicheley Hall became the seat of Sir John Chester, the 4th baronet. It is of nine bays on three floors upon a raised basement and is described as an “exceedingly rare example” of English Baroque architecture.
“For more than 100 years, architectural historians have waxed lyrical in the pages of Country Life of Chicheley Hall” remarked Penny Churchill when it was placed for sale in June 2007 and since 2009 it has been owned by the Royal Society.
Knight Frank market the 34,928 square foot freehold property as a whole or in three lots complete with 75 acres. They describe the mini-estate as including “beautiful formal gardens, a ‘3 sided’ lake, a walled garden, woodland walks, a Grade II* dovecote and farmland.”
Chicheley Hall is situated 7 miles north east of Milton Keynes and is 50 miles from both central London and Oxford.
The Names & Numbers – Chicheley Hall, Hall Lane, Chicheley, near Olney, Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, MK16 9JJ, United Kingdom
September 2020 – For sale for £7 million ($9.1 million, €7.7 million or درهم12.6 million) through Knight Frank.
June 2020 – De Vere Venues permanently closed Chicheley Hall as a conference venue and hotel due to the impact of coronavirus. In a statement to MKFM, the firm remarked: “Sadly the resulting devastating economic impact [of the pandemic] on the hospitality industry, together with heightened operational restrictions, has meant we have taken the difficult decision to close our doors permanently.”
2007 – Sold to the Royal Society for £6.5 million ($8.5 million, €7.2 million or درهم31.1 million). They supposedly subsequently spent £12 million ($15.6 million, €13.3 million or درهم57.5 million) on renovations. These were in part funded by the Norwegian-American business and philanthropist Fred Kavli (1927 – 2013).
June 2007 – Placed for sale for £9 million ($11.7 million, €10 million or درهم43.1 million) through Savills on behalf of Nicholas Beatty, the 3rd Earl (born 1946).
2001 – Used as a stand-in for Bletchley Park in the feature film Enigma. The building has also been used in other productions including Pride and Prejudice, The Meaning of Life, The Red Violin and Black Beauty.
1952 – Ownership by the Chester family ends when David Beatty, 2nd Earl Beatty (1905 – 1972), son of First World War naval hero Admiral David Beatty, bought the hall. Of his “major restoration programme,” Penny Churchill remarked: “Interior designer Felix Harbord, perhaps best known for his work at Luttrellstown Castle near Dublin, set out to recreate classic 18th-century interiors, using mainly light colours to accentuate the beauty of the mouldings and panelling. Very sensibly, the earl also added a bathroom to almost every bedroom.”
1939 to 1945 – Chicheley Hall was used by the Special Operations Executive as its Special Training School No. 46, by Czechoslovaks for SOE parachute missions and as a FANY wireless telegraphy school. After the war, the hall was converted for use as a school.
1720 to 1724 – Built by Sir John Chester, 4th baronet on the site of an earlier mansion to the designs of master-builder Francis Smith of Warwick. According to Country Life’s Penny Churchill, “a total of 955,550 bricks was used in the construction of the house, wings and garden, of which a staggering 85,000 were used for the garden walls.” She added: “For the next four years, Sir John himself paid the various master-craftsmen who worked on the interiors. The result was some of the finest woodcarving, joinery and plaster-work to be found in any English country house of that period. The elegant formal gardens were laid out by George London and Henry Wise, of Hampton Court and Melbourne Hall fame.”
The entrance hall of the house is impressive. English Heritage remark of it: “Entrance hall with Corinthian surround to front door and triple arched screen with marble columns leading to staircase, said to be designed by Flitcroft when working for Kent. Ceiling painting attributed to Kent.”The ceiling painting is attributed to William Kent and depicts Herse and her sisters sacrificing to Flora.Continuing, there is an especially wide staircase beyond.One of many reception rooms.The dining room is dominated by wooden panelling.Another entertaining space.In its last use as a hotel and conference centre, a total of 48 bedroom suites were created within the property.This former coach house is currently configured as two large conference suites and a meeting room.One of two lecture theatres currently on-site.A conference room.Another view of the exterior of Chicheley Hall.Viewed from across the ‘three sided lake.’An aerial shot of part of the 75-acre mini estate.And from another angle.Formal gardens.A plan of part of the Chicheley Hall site.
Nicky Haslam designed Belgravia house for sale for 33% less than in 2010 in spite of yoyo-ing up and down in price for ten years
Estate agents like to make things sound grander generally and often give a house a name rather than a number. In the case of ‘Orpheo House’ in Belgravia, they’ve done the opposite and even though technically it stands in Elizabeth Street, its listed address is the rather grander sounding ‘50a Eaton Square.’
Grosvenor Estate owned Eaton Square, developed from 1827 onwards, has variously been home to actors, politicians and statesmen. Amongst them have been Stanley Baldwin, Sean Connery, Rex Harrison, Vivien Leigh, Joachim von Ribbentrop, George Soros and Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands and most recently in 2019, the square was used as a location in the hit BBC drama series The Capture.
50a Eaton Square has had a curious history. In 1992, it was listed as the final address of the fourth and last Baron of Southborough on his death and subsequently, in 2009, it was sold to a “British music executive” according to Financial News. In 2010, he commissioned the renowned interior designer Nicky Haslam to turn it into a “trophy home” and the “epitome of comfortable luxury.” It now includes not only air conditioning and underfloor heating, but also has “secret drawers for DVDs” and “display cabinets for watches and sunglasses.”
“Super-stylish… [and] whimsical… with a Parisienne theme” according to the Evening Standard in 2016, the three-storey property fronts Elizabeth Street, but can also be accessed from a side door into Eaton Mews West – a cobbled street that has been home to Belgravia Garage since 1930.
Plainly, being next to the busy garage and car wash has put off buyers given that the property has yoyo-ed on and off the market at prices as high as £4.5 million since 2010. The real problem, however, is that the remaining 26-year lease is not enfranchisable.
Extending to 2,253 square feet, 50a Eaton Square features a double reception room, an Italian black lacquer kitchen and a small bedroom suite on its ground floor, a 25-foot by 24-foot reception on its first floor whilst a “generous” bedroom suite with dressing room, bathroom and west facing roof terrace takes up the entire second floor. A spiral wine cellar is located on the lower ground floor and a parking space within the mews is also included.
Agents Rokstone now seek the very much reduced sum of £3 million for the property.
March 2020 – Reduced in price to £3 million ($3.5 million, €3.3 million or درهم12.9 million) and still available through agents Rokstone.
November 2019 – Listed for sale on Zoopla.com for £3.45 million ($4 million, €3.7 million or درهم14.8 million).
June 2018 – Listed for sale in Square Mile magazine for £4.25 million ($5 million, €4.6 million or درهم18.3 million).
October 2016 – Featured in the Evening Standard’s ‘Homes & Property’ section at a price of £4.25 million ($5 million, €4.6 million or درهم18.3 million) with agents Rokstone.
July 2011 – Listed as the ‘House of the Day’ on the Financial News website at a price of £3.95 million ($4.6 million, €4.3 million or درهم17 million) through agents Savills.
January 2010 – Listed for sale in Square Mile magazine for £4.5 million ($5.3 million, €4.9 million or درهم19.4 million) with agents Aylesford.
2009 – Sold to a “British music executive” according to Financial News. They state: “He moved out last year while [Nicky] Haslam completely gutted the house, taking it back to bare brick and changing the ceiling heights.”
June 1992 – Described as the last address of Francis Michael Hopwood, Lord Southborough, whom died on 15th June 1992 (born 1922). Given the fourth Baron of Southborough had no offspring, the title (which was created in 1917 by King George V) then became extinct.
June 1955 – Featured in The Gazette as the address of Ambrose Dasent, an engineer and relative of the Sir George Webbe Dasent (1817 – 1896), the renowned translator of Scandinavian literature and mythology.
February 1936 – Featured in The Times as having “been sold by Messrs.’ George Trollope and Sons before auction.
The designer of the interior of 50a Eaton Square, Nicky Haslam (pictured with fellow socialite Paris Hilton).The entrance hall and staircase.The main reception room.Viewed from another angle.The room includes a bar and is opulent in its styling.A second reception room, on the ground floor, features a sitting area within a bay window.It is has a division.With a dining area beyond.The kitchen features a central island.The main bedroom suite.Another view of that suite’s bathroom.The suite comes with its own roof terrace.The second bedroom is situated on the ground floor.A floor plan of the property.
Pint-sized flat in Knightsbridge goes on sale for ambitious sum of £5,813 per square foot; it was offered for the even more crazy sum of £7,027 per square foot in 2013
The owners of an apartment in the edifice of vulgarity that is One Hyde Park in Knightsbridge plainly have no belief in Brexit and increased stamp duty having affected the property market given they have just put the 989 square foot space on the market for the punchy price of £5.75 million ($7.65 million, €6.58 million or درهم28.11 million).
Offered effectively for £5,183 per square foot ($6,900, €5,928 or درهم25,342 per square foot) by agents Strutt & Parker, the third floor space was last marketed in June 2013 with what appears to be identical interior design for £6.95 million ($9.25 million, €7.95 million or درهم33.99 million). It consists of a 26’2” by 12’10” reception room with a champagne bar, a 9’2” by 6’4” kitchen and an 18’3” by 10’6 bedroom with an en-suite bathroom and comes with a single parking space and basement storage room.
A similar 988 square foot apartment on the fourth floor – which had been repossessed by an Irish bank – was marketed for £5.25 million ($6.99 million, €6.01 million or درهم25.68 million) or £5,313 per square foot ($7,071, €6,077 or درهم25,980 per square foot) in September 2013.
Eccentric Hudson Heights, New York cliffside residence for sale for £3.33 million; at certain times of day it resembles a pumpkin
16 Chittenden Avenue, Hudson Heights, New York certainly doesn’t sound like an inspirational place to live. Though mention of this address won’t set pulses racing and despite one previous owner joking: “It’s not the White House”, whoever buys it will actually get something quite breathtaking situated on the highest natural point in Manhattan.
Offered for £3.33 million – a figure 202% higher than it sold for 17 years ago in 2000 – ‘The Pumpkin House’, as the residence is more famously known, is a freestanding cliffside structure that is described by selling agents Sotheby’s International Realty as having a “seemingly jack-o’-lantern face that glows across the Hudson [River] reflecting the light of the setting sun”.
The Pumpkin House – 16 Chittenden Avenue, Hudson Heights, New York, NY 10033, United States of America
The building in the 1930s
It is spread over 4 floors, extends to 3,144 square foot and includes 2 reception rooms, a library, a home office, a “French country style” kitchen, 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. A basement flat provides 1 reception room, a kitchen, 1 bedroom and 1 bathroom and in addition to a 2-car garage, there is a small garden, a balcony and a vast, part covered 66-foot long roof terrace.
Built on a steel foundation in 1925 by an engineer and “sort of a dreamer” named Cleveland Walcutt and referenced by The New York Times in 2008 as “a face in the crowd”, ‘The Pumpkin House’ was owned by an interior designer named William Spink from 2000 to 2011. During the renovations he orchestrated, a construction worker fell off the building and was seriously injured but what potential buyers will either love or loathe about this architectural miracle suspended over a 265-foot drop is that it truly is utterly eccentric.
The Numbers – The Pumpkin House
2000 – Sold for $1.10 million (the equivalent of $1.56 million, £1.22 million, €1.39 million or درهم5.73 million today).
2005 – Listed for $3.45 million (the equivalent of $4.32 million, £3.38 million, €3.86 million or درهم15.87 million today). Failed to sell.
2010 – Relisted for increased price of $3.90 million (the equivalent of $4.38 million, £3.43 million, €3.91 million or درهم16.09 million today).
Oslo born, San Francisco based interior designer and philanthropist Charlot D. Malin had a day named in her honour by The City and County of San Francisco in November 2016. A mother of twins and the co-founder of Troon Pacific Inc. with her husband Gregory, “forward-thinking” Malin worked on properties for George Lucas and Robert Redford and supported everything from the San Francisco Opera Guild to the Voss Foundation. She considered “health the ultimate luxury” and loathed microwave ovens.
