The Steeple Times

Tag: Italian

  • An Airhead’s Tardis – Hidden House In Knightsbridge Once Home To Donna Air For Sale For £14.5 Million

    An Airhead’s Tardis – Hidden House In Knightsbridge Once Home To Donna Air For Sale For £14.5 Million

    Tardis-like hidden house in Knightsbridge once home to ‘airhead’ Donna Air – who once amusingly asked The Corrs: “Where did you all meet?” – for sale for £14.5 million (or 383% more than it was ‘worth’ in 2003)

    Update, Thursday 4th April 2024 – Internal images removed at insistence of Annabel Edney, associate PR, Savills.

     

    The ‘cheap wing’ of one of Knightsbridge’s landmark churches, St Saviour’s, has gone on sale for a not-insubstantial sum of £14.5 million after the more ‘expensive wing’ was marketed for the very punchy sum of £55 million in 2019 and the still somewhat punchy sum of £44 million in 2020.

     

    The deceptively Tardis-like Hastings House in Walton Street is a ‘blink-and-you’ll-miss-it’ home from the pavement. It is entered through a small door to the side of a church that was reduced in size to accommodate the vast 12,102 square foot St Saviour’s House and the new-build in 1999 property of 5,261 square foot now offered by agents Savills.

     

    Actress and presenter Donna Air – who once hilariously asked the siblings that formed The Corrs: “Where did you all meet?” during an interview – numbers amongst the well-known ‘names’ to have lived in the house. This likeable lady shared the property with her wealthy conservationist then partner Damian Aspinall and even operated her even more hilariously named company (since dissolved) Airhead And Money Limited from the address.

     

    Occupied also variously by a fast-living, Bugatti driving oil trader named Pierre Andurand and the controversial Italian sports manager Pierandrea Semeraro, the three-storey residence is centred around a “serene” private courtyard and includes 2 reception rooms, 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and a rather impressive roof terrace.

     

    Savills describe the freehold house as “opulent” and laud “one of the crowning jewels of the residence,” its underground pool, as a “hidden gem” in the basement; perhaps Sharon Corr and her siblings could hold a reunion there.

     

    Editor’s note – Unlike as is the case in many publications, this article was NOT sponsored or supported by a third-party. Follow Matthew Steeples on Twitter at @M_Steeples and watch his current nightly show on YouTube at 8.30pm daily.

     

    A message from our editorial team – Thank you for reading this article. We’re more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus and the cost-of-living crisis impacts our advertisers. If you haven’t already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by supporting our work via Patreon.

     

    James Middleton Donna Air Victoria Fisher Damian Aspinall
    Actress and presenter Donna Air and conservationist Damian Aspinall with James Middleton – Air’s partner between 2013 and 2018 – and Victoria Fisher – whom Aspinall married in 2016. Aspinall and Air were an item between 2000 and 2007. Donna Air’s most famous moment on the telly box was summed up in an interview with Sharon Corr of the Celtic pop band The Corrs. Of the encounter, Corr stated: “We did a live television interview with Donna Air. Her opening question was: ‘So, where did you all meet?’ I looked at my brother and sisters and our hearts sank. If that was the opening question, it could only go downhill from there. It was clear that she knew absolutely nothing about us.”
    Pierre Andurand and Pierandrea Smeraro
    Oil trading tycoon Pierre Andurand and sports tycoon Pierandrea Semeraro have also both been listed at the address in Companies House records. How long each of the men lived at the property is unknown.

    The Names & Numbers – Hastings House, Walton Place, Knightsbridge, London, SW3 1SA, United Kingdom

    March 2024 – Offered for sale as an “ultra-cool freehold house” by William Duckworth-Chad and Alex Christian of Savills for £14.5 million ($18.3 million, €17 million or درهم67.2 million) – an asking price 123% higher than the asking price 20 years ago in March 2004 and 383% higher than the quoted worth in May 2003 – and described by Robb Report’s Abigail Montanez as a “stately London home hiding in plain sight… in the affluent Knightsbridge neighbourhood.”

     

    April 2012 – Richard Compton Miller for The Standard bizarrely contradicts previous evidence and suggests Damian Aspinall and Donna Air “recently moved into [the] converted church.” It can only be assumed he was regurgitating somewhat outdated parish news.

     

    April 2010 – Listed as the address of French “entrepreneur” Pierre Andurand on his appointment as a director of Andurand Events Limited company. The company ultimately was dissolved on 28th June 2011 after a compulsory strike-off.

     

    Aixe-en-Provence born Mr Andurand is listed on Wikipedia as a “businessman and hedge fund manager” who was educated at the University of Oxford. This twice married “leader” of Andurand Capital has variously been listed as a “star trader,” an “oil trading wildcard” and someone who operates with “no set risk limits.” World Top Investors list this kickboxing enthusiast as “the comeback kid, the hotshot trader living the jock-bro dream, driving a Bugatti supercar, a Knightsbridge townhouse, and a trophy wife Russian model.”

     

    23rd January 2007 – A planning application submitted by the Italian sports manager Pierandrea Semeraro concerning the property is approved.

     

    Mr Semeraro is listed on Wikipedia as having been the president of the Sports Union Lecce from 2006 to 2010. He was subsequently banned and disqualified after an investigation into a football betting scandal.

     

    November 2006 – Planning application submitted to make various alterations to Hastings House by a firm named Stanhope Gate including the addition of skylights.

     

    April 2004 – Described by the Daily Mail’s Adam Helliker as being the “weekday… converted church” home where “daughter of a bus mechanic from Newcastle” who “has, by all accounts, rather taken to the life of luxury” Donna Air “busies herself with acting lessons, acupuncture, shiatsu and stints with her personal trainer.”

     

    March 2004 – Featured once again by The Observer’s Ben Flanagan after going on sale for the far higher than he’d previously mentioned sum of £6.5 million ($8.2 million, €7.6 million or درهم30.1 million) through the rather ritzy realtors Aylesford.

     

    Of it, Flanagan enthused:

     

    “Behind a discreet doorway on an exclusive Knightsbridge street lies this 5,250 sq ft home, which the estate agent describes as ‘one of London’s hidden gems.’”

     

    “You’d never guess the house was built in the 1990s as you wander through its elegant Italianate central courtyard to the neo-classical cloisters and drawing room. One clue, however, is the basement swimming pool and bar, which has a more modern – if a little Footballers’ Wives – look… ‘There’s an amazing ‘party pad’ feel to it,’ says a spokesman.”

     

    May 2003 – Described by The Observer’s Ben Flanagan as worth £3 million ($3.8 million, €3.5 million or درهم13.9 million) in a feature that mentions it being the home of actress Donna Air and zoo owning tycoon Damian Aspinall.

     

    28th July 2000 – Listed as the correspondence address of “presenter” Donna Air’s amusingly named “radio and television activities” company, Airhead And Money Limited. The company ultimately was dissolved on 1st March 2011 after a compulsory strike-off.

     

    1999 – Completion of Hastings House and St Saviour’s House by developers The Raven Group Limited.

     

    4th September 1998 – Full planning permission granted for the construction of Hastings House by the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea. Of the planning history of the unlisted property then to be constructed, the council noted separately: “The subject site was formerly included within the ground of the St Saviour’s Church, which is a listed building, however following planning permission which was granted in August 1997 for the erection of the subject building, the subject site has been formally renumbered in 2001 as Hastings House and is considered as a separate planning unit to St Saviours Church.”

     

  • Mucky Madam’s Mark Twain Moment

    Mucky Madam’s Mark Twain Moment

    As she faces sentencing for sex trafficking, morally bankrupt mucky madam Ghislaine Maxwell turns to the words of morally superior Mark Twain; all they really have in common is mutual experience of financial bankruptcy

    As deranged and delusional as only a woman who “makes monster moves” and “growls” in front of prison guards most certainly has to be – qualities apparently moulded into her by her equally deranged and delusional crook father – it must be said that when she gave a TED talk in 2014, the since convicted mucky madam sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell did exhibit obvious intellectual intelligence.

     

    University of Oxford educated and the holder of both a BA and an MA – courtesy, it must be remembered, of her decidedly dodgy daddy bunging a fair wad of wonga to the college both she and her school chum Dame Cressida Dick attended – Miss Maxwell (AKA ‘Mrs Scott Borgerson’ – if he’s not given up on her and run off with his sexually “saucy” yoga partner) is now gunning for an appeal against her conviction.

     

    As part of a strategy they believe will set this sordid sex trafficker free, the Maxwell family are using their @RealGhislaine Twitter account to peddle yet more piffle about their “beloved sister.” The account has attracted 10,000 followers and some media attention, but most responses to it have without a shadow of a doubt been beyond negative.

     

    Yesterday evening whilst currently facing a long wait until sentencing on the 28th June, taking a turn further into the bizarre after babbling on about the ‘Bouncing Czech’s’ favourite child – a child he also allegedly abused, if you’d believe a word that morphs out of the mouth of onetime owner of The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph Lord Hartwell’s daughter Eleanor Berry – @RealGhislaine went for the “intellectual” angle and tweeted:

     

    “‘When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it happened or not. But I’m getting older, and soon, I’ll remember only the things that never happened.’ Mark Twain.”

     

    In sharing this, the Maxwells may think themselves clever, but they seem to forget that though Mark Twain shared having been bankrupt financially once with them, he most certainly wasn’t also morally bankrupt like their evil, murderer father. Unlike the pension pot plunderer’s kiddies with a still missing £500 million on their collective consciences, Twain paid back his creditors in full and unlike them, history remembers him fondly. History and especially the pensioners cheated out of comfortable retirements will never remember the duplicitous Maxwells in that way.

     

    On the last day of January, obviously irritated at the way in which their seriously sinister sibling was quite deservedly being presented, @RealGhislaine shared another laughable tweet. It read:

     

    “The narrative that says ‘she’s the daughter of a bad man, she’s treated badly, she goes with another bad man’ it’s so simplistic… It’s just intellectually lazy and it’s wrong.”

     

    As crusading author Kirby Sommers highlighted in Ghislaine Maxwell: An Unauthorized Biography, Robert Maxwell once remarked: “I have a beautiful daughter and she’s just like me.” As, we have pointed out repeatedly when quoting it: The word “beautiful” should be replaced with “deviant” and it is jolly well time the mendacious Maxwell family faced that unsavoury truth.

     

    To purchase a copy of ‘Ghislaine Maxwell: An Unauthorized Biography’ by Kirby Sommers, click here.

     

    Jeffrey Epstein Ghislaine Maxwell
    Ghislaine Maxwell might like to think of herself as a bit of a brainbox, but forevermore she’ll be remembered for sex trafficking young girls with the croaked paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and for teaching the dimwitted dumb disgrace Lady Victoria Hervey how to give blowjobs.
    Ghislaine Maxwell TED 2014
    Ghislaine Maxwell has spoken on TED and at such events as the Westchester Digital Summit. In promotional material for such she was referenced as “a private helicopter pilot, a trained EMT, and a qualified ROV and Deepworker submarine pilot.” They added: “She speaks four languages: English, French, Spanish and Italian,” but neglected to mention that in addition to her American, British and French passports, she bizarrely told lawyers at Boies Schiller & Flexner that she was “a citizen of TerraMar” in April 2016.
    @RealGhislaine Tweet 1
    The @RealGhislaine ‘Mark Twain Moment’ tweet didn’t exactly go viral. It was liked just 24 times, quoted once and retweeted by 3 other accounts.

    Responses to @RealGhislaine’s ‘Mark Twain Moment’:

    “F**king what? The whole family is delusional lmfao.”

     

    “This is so disgusting! Your basically say all those women are liars, f**k outs here. This account is pathetic.”

     

    “You wouldn’t know Mark Twain if you ran into him! He wasn’t a sick person such as yourself. #guilty #pedophile.”

     

    “If I raped a bunch of kids (like you), I’d probably wish for that outcome as well.”

     

    @RealGhislaine Tweet 2
    The @RealGhislaine ‘Bad Man’ tweet was equally badly received and only liked 28 times and retweeted by 3 other accounts.
    @RealGhislaine Tweet 3
    The second part of this missive, complete with a link to a toady interview with Ian Maxwell in ‘La Repubblica’ on 31st January 2022, was liked only 18 times.

    Responses to @RealGhislaine’s ‘Bad Man Moment’:

    “Let’s be honest. For donkey’s years, your sister has had the media on her side with the rich and famous for her own aggrandizement and projects. You are lucky you are given a platform to speak. Most people are not.”

     

    “Whichever way you cut it, you cannot get beyond the fact that your sister had a business with/was in business with Jeffrey Epstein and that she herself or her reps have admitted to his misconduct. She could have done something to stop it. So why didn’t she?”

     

    “When your sister was deposed she could have said something. She didn’t. That was her choice. She could have gone to the FBI herself. She didn’t. These were conscious decisions she made. She does have to bear responsibility of her own decisions to keep quiet.”

     

    “If your sister was a victim of Jeffrey Epstein’s, she could have told the FBI, she could have called trafficking hotlines. It’’ not as if she was not extremely well connected, including to Clinton, Trump, Gates, Jobs, Rothschild, Kerry… She was better connected than 99.9%.”

     

    “Ghislaine Maxwell traded on being the daughter of Robert Maxwell and girlfriend/associate of Jeffrey Epstein. She didn’t have a problem with being associated with them when it served her purpose. Only now is it a problem…”

     

    “I guess we need to see the sex photos to prove her brother is wrong.”

     

    “What a vomit inducing family.”

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pUzcRORDIg&list=PLrpYYSyHdJhhUgM5HW7vYXL92eDMSWA73
  • Tatler Tells Fake Tales

    Tatler Tells Fake Tales

    ‘Tatler’ magazine called out for suggesting a Chelsea restaurant that closed down in August 2016 as a “hot spot” post ‘Lockdown 3.0’ ending in May 2021

    A “tattler” is an “observer or spectator… a gossip who tells tales,” whilst ‘THE’ Tatler is defined by the Oxford Learners’ Dictionary as “a British magazine, published once a month and containing articles about upper-class and upper-middle-class social events, fashion and the arts.”

     

    Given the Condé Nast lifestyle publication’s staff – amongst them previously the current editor of the Daily Mail, Geordie Greig, and the ex-editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, Tina Brown CBE – have variously included many Oxbridge alumni, one would assume they’d be a little better at fact checking than the notoriously sloppy seconds employed by the MailOnline (which is rated 1 out of 5 by the Microsoft Edge browser given its propensity to share fake news), but instead a recent edition of the monthly society bible featured a complete balls-up.

     

    In an article titled: “13 Chelsea restaurant stalwarts to head to when we can eat indoors too,” an unnamed contributor banged on about where its ritzy readers could head to post the end of ‘Lockdown 3.0’ and lauded one particular Sydney Street, SW3 restaurant as:

     

    “[Brasserie Gustave at 4 Sydney Street, London, SW3 6PP is] located at the exact point where South Ken meets Chelsea (and on a site that has seen more restaurants than Ramires has had yellow cards), this French bistro is a keeper. If the art-deco posters look a bit hackneyed, not to say banal, the food is anything but. It’s fresh and lively, classic French dishes prepared with punctilious attention to detail. Confit de canard is superb and you won’t find a better plate of kidneys in London. Great wines too, managed with gusto by experienced sommelier Richard Weiss.”

     

    Whilst of their thirteen selections, the loathed by Dan Wootton magazine prattled: “We’ve eaten our way around Chelsea’s top restaurants… We’ve got you covered,” a comment on OpenTable from as long ago 22nd August 2016 reads: “I made a reservation and got there and the restaurant was closed.” Plainly, anyone with half a brain would have realised five years ago that Brasserie Gustave turned out actually to be anything but “a keeper.”

     

    In the time since, Tatler’s editorial team also missed their very own one-time contributor Giles Coren’s visit to 4 Sydney Street on 15th July 2017. At that time, he lauded “pan-Asian” Zheng Chelsea as “the sort of places foodies go in quest of the new and wonderful.”

     

    Whatever next for the society go-to bible? An-inhouse position for our least favourite fake news PR peddler Ivy Holt? Next!

     

    Pictured top: 4 Sydney Street has been various restaurants over the years including Carpaccio, Sette, Marco Pierre White’s Sydney Street Grill, Brasserie Gustave and most recently Zheng Chelsea.

     

    Tatler Tells Fake Tales 2021 – Tatler lauds Chelsea restaurant Brasserie Gustave, 4 Sydney Street, SW3 which closed in August 2016 in May 2021 – ‘Tatler’ magazine called out for suggesting a Chelsea restaurant that closed down in 2016 as a “hot spot” post ‘Lockdown 3.0’ ending in 2021.
    The magazine’s May 2020 feature on Brasserie Gustave – a restaurant that closed in August 2016.
    Tatler Tells Fake Tales 2021 – Tatler lauds Chelsea restaurant Brasserie Gustave, 4 Sydney Street, SW3 which closed in August 2016 in May 2021 – ‘Tatler’ magazine called out for suggesting a Chelsea restaurant that closed down in 2016 as a “hot spot” post ‘Lockdown 3.0’ ending in 2021.
    In August 2016, an OpenTable user commented: “I made a reservation for [Brasserie Gustave] on Open Table and got there and the restaurant was closed.”
    Tatler Tells Fake Tales 2021 – Tatler lauds Chelsea restaurant Brasserie Gustave, 4 Sydney Street, SW3 which closed in August 2016 in May 2021 – ‘Tatler’ magazine called out for suggesting a Chelsea restaurant that closed down in 2016 as a “hot spot” post ‘Lockdown 3.0’ ending in 2021.
    The front elevation of Zheng Chelsea, 4 Sydney Street, Chelsea, London, SW3 6PP.
    Tatler Tells Fake Tales 2021 – Tatler lauds Chelsea restaurant Brasserie Gustave, 4 Sydney Street, SW3 which closed in August 2016 in May 2021 – ‘Tatler’ magazine called out for suggesting a Chelsea restaurant that closed down in 2016 as a “hot spot” post ‘Lockdown 3.0’ ending in 2021.
    The interior of the restaurant as it used to be during the era that Brasserie Gustave (left) occupied the site and as it has been since circa 2016 as “pan-Asian” Zheng Chelsea (right). Of food there, in July 2017, Giles Coren remarked: “Food this good and this unusual would normally never be found in Chelsea… Chelsea is not absolutely the last place in the entire world that I would go looking for brilliant authentic Malaysian cooking, but it comes close. What with the well-upholstered complacency of the locals, the lack of any significant oriental population, the high throughput of tourists and idle shoppers in need of plasticky chain food, the sky-high rents and concomitant historical lack of any decent restaurants here at all, Chelsea is perhaps the second last place in the known universe that I would go in expectation of fiery, original, challenging but entirely successful Straits Chinese cuisine.”
    Tatler Tells Fake Tales 2021 – Tatler lauds Chelsea restaurant Brasserie Gustave, 4 Sydney Street, SW3 which closed in August 2016 in May 2021 – ‘Tatler’ magazine called out for suggesting a Chelsea restaurant that closed down in 2016 as a “hot spot” post ‘Lockdown 3.0’ ending in 2021.
    The society go-to title was previously accused of a “swathe of inaccuracies and false misrepresentations” in May 2020 by Kensington Palace after it published an article about one-time friend of its current editor, Richard Dennen (pictured together right), the Duchess of Cambridge titled “Catherine the Great.”

  • A BIG Bugatti

    A BIG Bugatti

    Theodora Ong lusts after a £1.55 million 2013 Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport that currently sports the registration plate ‘BIG 3’ – but could become ‘BUG 8’

    The Steeples Times’ classic cars columnist Theodora Ong is back on the road after the pandemic lockdowns and is all set for essential-journey test drives – or, in this case, is still dreaming of them.

     

    So, you didn’t get out much during 2020 and you’ve saved a fair bit.  Staycation country jaunts sound like the safest plan for no-hassle cruising, so, today, I share with you something a little more modern than my normal automobile offerings.

     

    Ready for you to drive away is this rare Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport. One of only 58 produced, it’s a UK-registered supermobile, but you are unlikely to have spotted it running around as it’s clocked up just 2,220 miles (3,574 kms).

     

    Right now, this gleaming pearly white Grand Sport is in a secret location in the custody of classic & supercars specialists Graeme Hunt Ltd. They say it’s definitely for driving now rather than to be swaddled up in storage. Well, who wouldn’t want to get some sunshine bouncing off its curvy armour-like shell, designed to profile its muscle structure and ferocious 7993cc – with pano roof down right now?

     

    When the Bugatti Veyron was launched, it redefined sports motoring on the road, in the way that only every decade or so, a new contender explodes on the scene. This is a hypercar of extreme concept fully realised. Its 0 to 60 in just over 2 seconds is too simplistic a way to describe its abilities. It’s a car you can feel; the dealer describes the noise you hear when firing it up as “utterly charming, the oils and fluids pulsing around the engine warming up the 16 cylinders make you just sizzle with excitement,” though I am still waiting to share the flutter of elation from an ever-hopeful outing.

     

    With the heritage of Italian-born industrial designer Ettore Bugatti and memorable Grand Prix victories, the 21st century Bugatti is a brand of our Euro-age, as a French subsidiary of Volkswagen AG. After some six years in concept, the Veyron was launched in 2005, and models of increasing refinement rolled off for nearly a decade after. Four turbochargers produced 1001 horsepower offering a top speed of 253 mph (407 km/h) and the price was announced at £880,000 ($1.2 million, €1 million or درهم4.5 million). It sealed its iconic status when the BBC’s Top Gear compared it to Concorde.

     

    And who are amongst the greatest who have sought the greatest? Tom Cruise set the pace of the Mission Impossible III premiere by arriving in a Bugatti Veyron. Beyoncé gifted one to Jay-Z, and the Veyron’s speed and slick looks lured sportsmen Cristiano Ronaldo and Floyd Mayweather Jr and lifestyle designer Ralph Lauren, plus a sizeable clutch of big-time rappers and R&B dukes.  

     

    Jazzy customisations and two-tone body paint on Veyrons have been plenty, so it’s soothing to see our pearly king sporting a restrained black interior. It’s currently number plated as ‘BIG 3.’ Does that give a clue as to its current owner? 

     

    Just hope we don’t have any more lockdown travel restrictions. You’re almost guaranteed to be tracked if you’re driving this. And don’t even think about emulating the infamous 2014 insurance scam when an owner drove his Veyron into a lake, claiming ‘to avoid a low flying pelican’, then tried to claim £1.6 million ($2.2 million, €1.8 million or درهم8.1 million). His antics were crisply caught on film by an admiring nearby driver and are well worth a watch.

     

    The market at this ultimate top end has stayed unswervingly buoyant in these troubled times, so this Grand Sport looks an investment you can indulge your passion in for decades to come. 

     

    Graeme Hunt have the 2013 Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport listed at a price of £1.55 million ($2.14 million, €1.79 million or درهم7.88 million). They share that the cherished number plate ‘BIG 3’ “does not form part of the sale,” but add: “We do have ‘BUG 8’ on retention should anyone wish to discuss it.”

     

    A BIG Bugatti – £1.55m for 2013 Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport – Theodora Ong lusts after a 2013 Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport that currently sports the registration plate ‘BIG 3’ – For sale through Graeme Hunt for £1.55 million ($2.14 million, €1.79 million or درهم7.88 million).
    A BIG Bugatti – £1.55m for 2013 Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport – Theodora Ong lusts after a 2013 Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport that currently sports the registration plate ‘BIG 3’ – For sale through Graeme Hunt for £1.55 million ($2.14 million, €1.79 million or درهم7.88 million).
    A BIG Bugatti – £1.55m for 2013 Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport – Theodora Ong lusts after a 2013 Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport that currently sports the registration plate ‘BIG 3’ – For sale through Graeme Hunt for £1.55 million ($2.14 million, €1.79 million or درهم7.88 million).
    A BIG Bugatti – £1.55m for 2013 Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport – Theodora Ong lusts after a 2013 Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport that currently sports the registration plate ‘BIG 3’ – For sale through Graeme Hunt for £1.55 million ($2.14 million, €1.79 million or درهم7.88 million).
  • A Chelsea Essential

    A Chelsea Essential

    Management of Fulham Road Italian The Chelsea Corner share their anger at the British government with protest posters against Lockup 3.0 and restaurants being branded “non-essential”

    Deservedly featured as one of our ‘Five Stalwart Restaurants for your Rolodex in The Royal Borough’ in May 2019, the management of The Chelsea Corner on Fulham Road, SW10 have quite rightly taken a stand against the latest ludicrous government rules that categorise them as “non-essential.”

     

    Echoing our sentiments last September when ‘Bosie The Clown’ brought in his stupid 10pm bar, pub and restaurant curfew, hardworking Jonny Lekaj has decided to put a number of posters in his windows slamming the blanket closure of restaurants nationwide as an “attack on small businesses.”

     

    Aside from highlighting the fact that multi-national, big businesses like Starbucks and McDonald’s are allowed to continue to operate, Mr Lekaj sensibly argues: “If you can close businesses at will, without a though for anyone’s livelihood, why not close junk food producers? If junk food, alcohol and cigarettes kill 21 million people ever year… Why are those items constantly available?”

     

    He is also correct to highlight the greed of landlords at this time and the uselessness of the government and of them remarked: “Landlords aren’t negotiating with us in RENT, open or closed they want their money! Neither is the GOV helping us with it.”

     

    We salute the management of The Chelsea Corner and urge our readers to stand with them and other small businesses against this shameful business wrecking Tory government.

     

    The Chelsea Corner, 451 Fulham Road, London, SW10 9UZ remains open for takeaway. Telephone: +44 (0) 20 3055 0088.

     

    Pictured top: One of The Chelsea Corner’s notice with, rather ironically, a police car to the left on Sunday 10th January.

     

    A Chelsea Essential – The Chelsea Corner protests against Lockup 3.0 – Management of Fulham Road Italian The Chelsea Corner share their anger at the British government with protest posters against Lockup 3.0 and restaurants being branded “non-essential.” The Cheslea Corner, 451 Fulham Road, London, SW10 9UZ.
    Jonny Lekaj, manager of The Chelsea Corner, is right to make a stand against the ludicrous decision to force restaurants to close nationwide in Lockdown 3.0.

    The signs at The Chelsea Corner read:

    This is an attack to small businesses, our hard work and the people of this country. When is enough enough?

     

    If you are not going to pay my rent, why should I close?

     

    Closed because you’re unsafe in a restaurant where tables get cleaned for every person, where staff uses masks, where everyone uses hand sanitizers… But you are safe to shop at a big company where a product has been touched by thousands and cleaned by no one.

     

    We have a choice to make Eating and having a Place To Live or “Staying Home” as the Gov says. We can’t all do Zoom calls, we aren’t all rich and this shouldn’t be a choice we have to make.

     

    We are all essential businesses as long as we are out here trying to make a living for our children.

     

    Everyone at the Parliament got a raise of £3,000 for doing what? Zoom calls and misleading this country into depression but we the ones fighting to keep food in table are being shut down while following every GUIDELINE that came from them.

     

    Landlords aren’t negotiating with us in RENT, open or closed they want their money! Neither is the GOV helping us with it.

     

    You can go shopping in a supermarket or in a shopping centre with more than 200 people, but you can’t come and eat with your family at a restaurant with a max capacity of 50 people.

     

    Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Costco, McDonald’s, KFC, Starbucks etc can stay open. Only small businesses need to shut down because the highest risk to get infected is inside a small business.

     

    If you can close businesses at will, without a though for anyone’s livelihood, why not close junk food producers? If junk food, alcohol and cigarettes kill 21 million people ever year… Why are those items constantly available?

     

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    A Chelsea Essential – The Chelsea Corner protests against Lockup 3.0 – Management of Fulham Road Italian The Chelsea Corner share their anger at the British government with protest posters against Lockup 3.0 and restaurants being branded “non-essential.” The Cheslea Corner, 451 Fulham Road, London, SW10 9UZ.
    The Chelsea Corner is a popular neighbourhood Italian restaurant situated at the corner of Fulham Road and Gunter Grove in London, SW10.
    A Chelsea Essential – The Chelsea Corner protests against Lockup 3.0 – Management of Fulham Road Italian The Chelsea Corner share their anger at the British government with protest posters against Lockup 3.0 and restaurants being branded “non-essential.” The Cheslea Corner, 451 Fulham Road, London, SW10 9UZ.
    In another image, captured yesterday, the same police car appears to the left of yet another of The Chelsea Corner’s protest signs.

  • Going Bonkers For A Bin

    Going Bonkers For A Bin

    Auctioneers Christie’s sought to sell five waste bins for £230; they ultimately went for the astounding sum of just under £34,000

    Whilst most people would rubbish around a few pounds for a waste bin to put the junk mail we mentioned on Friday, a set of five sold for £33,900 ($43,750, €37,300 or درهم160,700) in a Christie’s auction last week.

     

    Offered with an estimate of £230 to £390 ($300 to $500, €260 to €430 or درهم1,100 to درهم1,800) to reflect that they had been supplied by the late French interior designer Henri Samuel – a man “hailed by Architectural Digest as a ‘supreme master of progressive historicism’” – the 20th century faux wood grain and cream painted bins were supplied with Italian marbelised paper linings.

     

    Plainly another deciding factor for the purchaser of these very expensive rubbish containers was their past ownership. The bins had previously been owned by the late American socialite and philanthropist Jayne Wrightsman.

     

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    Going Bonkers For A Bin – 4 waste bins sell for £33,900 at Christie’s – Auctioneers Christie’s sought to sell four waste bins for £230; they ultimately went for the astounding sum of just under £34,000.
    The collection of Jayne Wrightsman (1919 – 2019) sold for a total of £930,000 ($1.2 million, €1 million or درهم4.4 million) at Christie’s. Her waste baskets were the top performing lot in the sale.
  • An Agusta Ape

    An Agusta Ape

    1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino in 2001 – to be auctioned

    On 8th January 2001, “shop assistant turned model turned multi-millionairess many times over turned fugitive” (via a stretch in what American’s so pleasantly term ‘pokey’) Countess Francesca Vacca Agusta “disappeared” from the terrace of her Ligurian seaside home. The series of events that preceded and followed could have featured in an Agatha Christie novel or a Sherlock Holmes story.

     

    Situated dominant above the “requisite stop for billionaires” that is Portofino – a colourfully painted former fishing village now peppered with Salvatore Ferragamo and Louis Vuitton stores – Villa Altachiara became the residence of the “embodiment of La Dolce Vita” Francesca Graffagni after she met the “helicopter entrepreneur” Count Corradino Agusta in the 1960s.

     

    Graffagni saw off the business tycoon’s first wife, Pupetta Maresca, after a torrid affair and following their marriage in 1974, amongst other things, became chatelaine of a 40-room property complete with a helipad. It had been built in 1870 by George Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon – whose death was attributed by amongst others Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to the “curse of King Tut” – as his holiday home and during the 1970s and 1980s guests to “jet-set parties” given at the house by the socialite Countess were ferried back and forth from their dock in Portofino harbour in a custom built 1978 Piaggio Ape coachbuilt ‘limousine.’ This vehicle, described as a “perfect yacht tender” with its opulently patterned interior and passenger-driver intercom, is now for sale.

     

    An Agusta Ape – £50k for Piaggio Ape used by Countess Francesca Agusta (1942 – 2001) – 1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ by Pavesi used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a very wealthy woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino, Italy in 2001 – to be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s as part of their ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 auction with an estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000).
    Countess Francesca Agusta (née Francesca Vacca Graffagni, 29th October 1942 – 8th January 2001). It is most surprising that the late Dominick Dunne did not make a television programme about her life and demise.
    An Agusta Ape – £50k for Piaggio Ape used by Countess Francesca Agusta (1942 – 2001) – 1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ by Pavesi used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a very wealthy woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino, Italy in 2001 – to be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s as part of their ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 auction with an estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000).
    Villa Altachiara (alternatively known as ‘Villa Alta Chiara’ or ‘Villa Carnarvon’) was one of Countess Agusta’s homes from the 1960s until her death in 2001; it was originally built as a holiday home for Lord Carnarvon (26th June 1866 – 5th April 1923) – the financier of Howard Carter’s explorations of Egypt’s Valley of the Kings that led to the discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb. The Carnarvon family hosted many guests during their ownership, amongst them Brooke Astor and Evelyn Waugh.

    Count Agusta died in 1989 without divorcing his second wife in spite of separating from her in 1985. At that time, in addition to Villa Altachiara, he had given her four apartments in Milan, an estate in Cuernavaca, Mexico, family jewellery and an undisclosed cash sum. With his demise, she came into yet further fortune.

     

    This by-then “very wealthy woman” hit the headlines again in 1994 when she and her new lover, a “former Portofino playboy politician [named] Maurizio Raggio,” were discovered to have been part of a corruption scandal involving Bettino Craxi, the Prime Minister of Italy from 1983 to 1987. Before police could apprehend them to charge them with amongst other things money laundering, the pair fled to Mexico and lived on her estate until 1997 as fugitives. During this period, the Countess reportedly attempted suicide at least once.

     

    Upon her return to Italy, the Countess plea-bargained and spent just three months in Milan’s Opera prison for her crimes in spite of receiving a two-year jail sentence. After “some further time under house arrest” in the Villa Altachiara, the “retired” gadabout then took up with a Mexican, Tirso ‘Tito’ Chazaro (also known as ‘Tirso Di Ricardo’ and ‘Rafael Tirso Roncado Gonzales’), and lived in the style of Miss Havisham. She was rarely seen in public and having become dependent on drink and drugs, was known for her erratic behaviour and temper.

     

    “Considerably the worse for wear and muttering she would not be coming back” on the night of 8th January 2001, the Countess supposedly told her lover and two others present that she was going for a swim, but either slipped on wet leaves or was pushed off a veranda into the sea. A search followed, but after the only traces found were the Countess’s dressing gown on the seabed close to the Villa Altachiara and her slippers on nearby rocks, press reports suggested she had either committed suicide or, given her past form, staged an “elaborate disappearing act.”

     

    Countess Agusta’s badly decomposed body washed up three weeks later on a beach at Toulon on the French Riviera. Her feet had been gnawed off by fish, her skull was smashed and her face was disfigured. She could only be identified by two rings she was wearing and her exact cause of death could thus not be determined.

     

    As an autopsy found no trace of water in her lungs, she plainly did not die by drowning, but in in 2004 the Countess’s brother, Domenico Vacca Graffagni, was quoted in the Independent as stating: “The [original] inquiry was closed in a hasty fashion because of absence of proof, relying too readily on ‘reasonable doubt’ … It was manslaughter. He [Chazaro] was always beating her. He didn’t mean to kill her. But that evening things didn’t go the way the Carabinieri said, my sister was not drunk and she did not slip on wet leaves on the veranda.”

     

    Adding further to speculation, much earlier, the Countess’s step-son, racing driver and team owner Rocky Agusta (1950 – 2018), told Corriere della Sera in 2001: “Francesca was a beautiful woman, simpatica, very rich… People have written that she inherited 500bn lire, but if it had been only 50 or 25, who commits suicide with 25bn lire set aside? … The people who were around her certainly did not help her…  It’s not up to me to formulate accusations, but Francesca was not alone that night. She was very upset. She should have been put to bed. Instead, they let her go out into a dark, wet, cold night, not even dressed.”

     

    In due course, the last of many wills left by Countess Agusta revealed Tirso Chazaro to be her sole beneficiary, but after this was challenged in court by her former lover, Maurizio Raggio, the pair split the legacy – reported to be worth as much as £165 million ($201 million, €186 million or درهم738 million) according to the Guardian in 2001 – sixty-forty between them.

     

    In 2009, the Villa Altachiara was offered for sale initially for £44 million ($54 million, €50 million or درهم198 million) and then for £30 million ($37 million, €34 million or درهم135 million) in 2014. It supposedly eventually sold for less than half that sum to a Russian billionaire a number of years later in spite of an estate agent remarking: “Some say the spirit of Countess Francesca Vacca Agusta still walks the estate looking for her husband and you can hear her shouting for him on the wind.”

     

    An estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000) for the Countess’s Piaggio Ape. Described as “sweet” and “[anything but] an Italian tuk-tuk” by RideApart, the one-off private taxi will be auctioned as part of the forthcoming RM Sotheby’s ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 online sale. One can only hope it finds a happier home than it encountered at that of its former mistress.

     

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    An Agusta Ape – £50k for Piaggio Ape used by Countess Francesca Agusta (1942 – 2001) – 1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ by Pavesi used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a very wealthy woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino, Italy in 2001 – to be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s as part of their ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 auction with an estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000).
    An Agusta Ape – £50k for Piaggio Ape used by Countess Francesca Agusta (1942 – 2001) – 1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ by Pavesi used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a very wealthy woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino, Italy in 2001 – to be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s as part of their ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 auction with an estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000).
    An Agusta Ape – £50k for Piaggio Ape used by Countess Francesca Agusta (1942 – 2001) – 1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ by Pavesi used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a very wealthy woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino, Italy in 2001 – to be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s as part of their ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 auction with an estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000).
    An Agusta Ape – £50k for Piaggio Ape used by Countess Francesca Agusta (1942 – 2001) – 1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ by Pavesi used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a very wealthy woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino, Italy in 2001 – to be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s as part of their ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 auction with an estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000).
    An Agusta Ape – £50k for Piaggio Ape used by Countess Francesca Agusta (1942 – 2001) – 1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ by Pavesi used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a very wealthy woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino, Italy in 2001 – to be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s as part of their ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 auction with an estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000).
    An Agusta Ape – £50k for Piaggio Ape used by Countess Francesca Agusta (1942 – 2001) – 1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ by Pavesi used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a very wealthy woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino, Italy in 2001 – to be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s as part of their ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 auction with an estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000).
    An Agusta Ape – £50k for Piaggio Ape used by Countess Francesca Agusta (1942 – 2001) – 1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ by Pavesi used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a very wealthy woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino, Italy in 2001 – to be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s as part of their ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 auction with an estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000).
    An Agusta Ape – £50k for Piaggio Ape used by Countess Francesca Agusta (1942 – 2001) – 1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ by Pavesi used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a very wealthy woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino, Italy in 2001 – to be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s as part of their ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 auction with an estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000).
    An Agusta Ape – £50k for Piaggio Ape used by Countess Francesca Agusta (1942 – 2001) – 1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ by Pavesi used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a very wealthy woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino, Italy in 2001 – to be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s as part of their ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 auction with an estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000).
    An Agusta Ape – £50k for Piaggio Ape used by Countess Francesca Agusta (1942 – 2001) – 1978 Piaggio Ape ‘limousine’ by Pavesi used by the controversial Countess Agusta – a very wealthy woman who either fell or was pushed to her death from her home above Portofino, Italy in 2001 – to be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s as part of their ‘Driving Into Summer’ 21st to 29th May 2020 auction with an estimate of £37,000 to £49,000 ($45,000 to $60,000, €42,000 to €55,000 or درهم165,000 to درهم220,000).
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaGavF50j98
  • A Wyatt Wonder

    A Wyatt Wonder

    “Hard head – healing hands” Welsh businessman looks to sell his £18 million Irish estate complete with a James Wyatt mansion and 1,120 acres; Sir David Davies became an Irish citizen after Brexit and has no time for Boris Johnson

    Designed by Robert Adam’s rival James Wyatt in 1773 and “clothed in the Italiante manner” in 1859 to 1860, “grand and beautifully executed” Abbey Leix in County Laois is considered “one of Ireland’s most important country houses.”

     

    Placed for sale last June for £17.8 million ($22 million, €20 million or درهم81 million), the main house on the 1,120-acre estate, Abbey Leix House – also known as ‘Abbeyleix House’ and’ Abbeyleix Castle’) – is vast and includes 26,910 square foot of accommodation. Aside from 9 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms, the classical building has amongst other things 3 major rooms on the park front, a deep hall, a music room with original Wyatt plasterwork, a library and a conservatory.

     

    A Wyatt Wonder – £18 million for Sir David Davies’ The Abbey Leix Estate, Abbeyleix, County Laois, Ireland through Sotheby’s International Realty – “Hard head – healing hands” Welsh businessman looks to sell his £18 million Irish estate complete with a James Wyatt mansion and 1,120 acres; Sir David Davies became an Irish citizen after Brexit and has no time for Boris Johnson
    Sir David Davies (born in Wales in 1940) at Abbey Leix.

    Renovated and remodeled since being sold to the Welsh born, twice divorced, father of five Sir David Davies in 1995 by its previous owners of the 250 years, the de Vesci family, Abbey Leix is described by agents Sotheby’s International Realty as a “21st century family home with an appropriate balance between comfort and informality on the one hand and grandeur for entertaining and the display of art on the other.”

     

    As well as Ireland’s oldest oak tree being within the grounds, the property also includes some of the “last surviving remnants of Ireland’s ancient woodland” and frontage to the River Nore. There is also a stud farm with 24 loose boxes, a separate farmyard with many outbuildings and 10 lodges and cottages on the estate. The present owner’s private airstrip was created because he wanted to be able to “fly from wherever in the UK straight into the estate.”

     

    Of why he is selling Abbey Leix, “superstar banker and businessman” Sir David – who has variously held senior posts at Chase Manhattan Bank, Hill Samuel, MEPC, Hardine Matheson, Hong Kong Land, Johnson Matthey and EFG Private Bank – told the Business Post:

     

    “I’m organising my whole estate for the benefit of my children… Although the children all love this place very much, none of them wanted to take it on… The typical refrain is ‘Dad, this is your project,’ and I’m lucky enough to have Killoughter House, the home of my childhood, to return to.”

     

    Though born in Wales, Sir David – whom was knighted “for his work as chairman of the Advisory Committee on Business and the Environment” in 1999 – has maintained a home in Ireland throughout his adulthood. He “proudly” became an Irish citizen after Brexit and described “inept” Theresa May as “going from one catastrophe to that leads to the next catastrophe.” Of her successor, the opera loving son of a South Wales steel mill owner went further and recently remarked: “I have no time for Boris Johnson: he doesn’t do his homework, and can’t be trusted.”

     

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    A Wyatt Wonder – £18 million for Sir David Davies’ The Abbey Leix Estate, Abbeyleix, County Laois, Ireland through Sotheby’s International Realty – “Hard head – healing hands” Welsh businessman looks to sell his £18 million Irish estate complete with a James Wyatt mansion and 1,120 acres; Sir David Davies became an Irish citizen after Brexit and has no time for Boris Johnson
    A Wyatt Wonder – £18 million for Sir David Davies’ The Abbey Leix Estate, Abbeyleix, County Laois, Ireland through Sotheby’s International Realty – “Hard head – healing hands” Welsh businessman looks to sell his £18 million Irish estate complete with a James Wyatt mansion and 1,120 acres; Sir David Davies became an Irish citizen after Brexit and has no time for Boris Johnson
    A Wyatt Wonder – £18 million for Sir David Davies’ The Abbey Leix Estate, Abbeyleix, County Laois, Ireland through Sotheby’s International Realty – “Hard head – healing hands” Welsh businessman looks to sell his £18 million Irish estate complete with a James Wyatt mansion and 1,120 acres; Sir David Davies became an Irish citizen after Brexit and has no time for Boris Johnson
    A Wyatt Wonder – £18 million for Sir David Davies’ The Abbey Leix Estate, Abbeyleix, County Laois, Ireland through Sotheby’s International Realty – “Hard head – healing hands” Welsh businessman looks to sell his £18 million Irish estate complete with a James Wyatt mansion and 1,120 acres; Sir David Davies became an Irish citizen after Brexit and has no time for Boris Johnson
    A Wyatt Wonder – £18 million for Sir David Davies’ The Abbey Leix Estate, Abbeyleix, County Laois, Ireland through Sotheby’s International Realty – “Hard head – healing hands” Welsh businessman looks to sell his £18 million Irish estate complete with a James Wyatt mansion and 1,120 acres; Sir David Davies became an Irish citizen after Brexit and has no time for Boris Johnson
    A Wyatt Wonder – £18 million for Sir David Davies’ The Abbey Leix Estate, Abbeyleix, County Laois, Ireland through Sotheby’s International Realty – “Hard head – healing hands” Welsh businessman looks to sell his £18 million Irish estate complete with a James Wyatt mansion and 1,120 acres; Sir David Davies became an Irish citizen after Brexit and has no time for Boris Johnson
    A Wyatt Wonder – £18 million for Sir David Davies’ The Abbey Leix Estate, Abbeyleix, County Laois, Ireland through Sotheby’s International Realty – “Hard head – healing hands” Welsh businessman looks to sell his £18 million Irish estate complete with a James Wyatt mansion and 1,120 acres; Sir David Davies became an Irish citizen after Brexit and has no time for Boris Johnson
    A Wyatt Wonder – £18 million for Sir David Davies’ The Abbey Leix Estate, Abbeyleix, County Laois, Ireland through Sotheby’s International Realty – “Hard head – healing hands” Welsh businessman looks to sell his £18 million Irish estate complete with a James Wyatt mansion and 1,120 acres; Sir David Davies became an Irish citizen after Brexit and has no time for Boris Johnson
    A Wyatt Wonder – £18 million for Sir David Davies’ The Abbey Leix Estate, Abbeyleix, County Laois, Ireland through Sotheby’s International Realty – “Hard head – healing hands” Welsh businessman looks to sell his £18 million Irish estate complete with a James Wyatt mansion and 1,120 acres; Sir David Davies became an Irish citizen after Brexit and has no time for Boris Johnson
    A Wyatt Wonder – £18 million for Sir David Davies’ The Abbey Leix Estate, Abbeyleix, County Laois, Ireland through Sotheby’s International Realty – “Hard head – healing hands” Welsh businessman looks to sell his £18 million Irish estate complete with a James Wyatt mansion and 1,120 acres; Sir David Davies became an Irish citizen after Brexit and has no time for Boris Johnson
    A Wyatt Wonder – £18 million for Sir David Davies’ The Abbey Leix Estate, Abbeyleix, County Laois, Ireland through Sotheby’s International Realty – “Hard head – healing hands” Welsh businessman looks to sell his £18 million Irish estate complete with a James Wyatt mansion and 1,120 acres; Sir David Davies became an Irish citizen after Brexit and has no time for Boris Johnson
    A Wyatt Wonder – £18 million for Sir David Davies’ The Abbey Leix Estate, Abbeyleix, County Laois, Ireland through Sotheby’s International Realty – “Hard head – healing hands” Welsh businessman looks to sell his £18 million Irish estate complete with a James Wyatt mansion and 1,120 acres; Sir David Davies became an Irish citizen after Brexit and has no time for Boris Johnson
    A Wyatt Wonder – £18 million for Sir David Davies’ The Abbey Leix Estate, Abbeyleix, County Laois, Ireland through Sotheby’s International Realty – “Hard head – healing hands” Welsh businessman looks to sell his £18 million Irish estate complete with a James Wyatt mansion and 1,120 acres; Sir David Davies became an Irish citizen after Brexit and has no time for Boris Johnson
    A Wyatt Wonder – £18 million for Sir David Davies’ The Abbey Leix Estate, Abbeyleix, County Laois, Ireland through Sotheby’s International Realty – “Hard head – healing hands” Welsh businessman looks to sell his £18 million Irish estate complete with a James Wyatt mansion and 1,120 acres; Sir David Davies became an Irish citizen after Brexit and has no time for Boris Johnson
    A Wyatt Wonder – £18 million for Sir David Davies’ The Abbey Leix Estate, Abbeyleix, County Laois, Ireland through Sotheby’s International Realty – “Hard head – healing hands” Welsh businessman looks to sell his £18 million Irish estate complete with a James Wyatt mansion and 1,120 acres; Sir David Davies became an Irish citizen after Brexit and has no time for Boris Johnson
    A Wyatt Wonder – £18 million for Sir David Davies’ The Abbey Leix Estate, Abbeyleix, County Laois, Ireland through Sotheby’s International Realty – “Hard head – healing hands” Welsh businessman looks to sell his £18 million Irish estate complete with a James Wyatt mansion and 1,120 acres; Sir David Davies became an Irish citizen after Brexit and has no time for Boris Johnson
    A Wyatt Wonder – £18 million for Sir David Davies’ The Abbey Leix Estate, Abbeyleix, County Laois, Ireland through Sotheby’s International Realty – “Hard head – healing hands” Welsh businessman looks to sell his £18 million Irish estate complete with a James Wyatt mansion and 1,120 acres; Sir David Davies became an Irish citizen after Brexit and has no time for Boris Johnson
    A Wyatt Wonder – £18 million for Sir David Davies’ The Abbey Leix Estate, Abbeyleix, County Laois, Ireland through Sotheby’s International Realty – “Hard head – healing hands” Welsh businessman looks to sell his £18 million Irish estate complete with a James Wyatt mansion and 1,120 acres; Sir David Davies became an Irish citizen after Brexit and has no time for Boris Johnson
    A Wyatt Wonder – £18 million for Sir David Davies’ The Abbey Leix Estate, Abbeyleix, County Laois, Ireland through Sotheby’s International Realty – “Hard head – healing hands” Welsh businessman looks to sell his £18 million Irish estate complete with a James Wyatt mansion and 1,120 acres; Sir David Davies became an Irish citizen after Brexit and has no time for Boris Johnson
    A Wyatt Wonder – £18 million for Sir David Davies’ The Abbey Leix Estate, Abbeyleix, County Laois, Ireland through Sotheby’s International Realty – “Hard head – healing hands” Welsh businessman looks to sell his £18 million Irish estate complete with a James Wyatt mansion and 1,120 acres; Sir David Davies became an Irish citizen after Brexit and has no time for Boris Johnson
    A Wyatt Wonder – £18 million for Sir David Davies’ The Abbey Leix Estate, Abbeyleix, County Laois, Ireland through Sotheby’s International Realty – “Hard head – healing hands” Welsh businessman looks to sell his £18 million Irish estate complete with a James Wyatt mansion and 1,120 acres; Sir David Davies became an Irish citizen after Brexit and has no time for Boris Johnson
    A Wyatt Wonder – £18 million for Sir David Davies’ The Abbey Leix Estate, Abbeyleix, County Laois, Ireland through Sotheby’s International Realty – “Hard head – healing hands” Welsh businessman looks to sell his £18 million Irish estate complete with a James Wyatt mansion and 1,120 acres; Sir David Davies became an Irish citizen after Brexit and has no time for Boris Johnson
    A Wyatt Wonder – £18 million for Sir David Davies’ The Abbey Leix Estate, Abbeyleix, County Laois, Ireland through Sotheby’s International Realty – “Hard head – healing hands” Welsh businessman looks to sell his £18 million Irish estate complete with a James Wyatt mansion and 1,120 acres; Sir David Davies became an Irish citizen after Brexit and has no time for Boris Johnson
  • The Rt. Hon. The Lord Sumption OBE, PC, FRHistS, FSA

    The Rt. Hon. The Lord Sumption OBE, PC, FRHistS, FSA

    Eton and Oxford educated former Supreme Court judge and historian Jonathan Sumption, as a barrister, successfully represented the billionaire Roman Abramovich against the late oligarch Boris Berezovsky. Formerly one of the highest paid legal eagles in Britain, this father of three termed his £1.6 million salary “puny” in 2001 in a letter to the Guardian and subsequently charged the extraordinary sum of £800,000 to successfully represent the UK government in what was then then the largest class actions against the state ever in 2005. The trial lasted just four weeks. Sumption speaks French and Italian fluently, owns a chateau in South West France and serves as a director of the English National Opera. He became an outspoken critic of the “hysteria” over the police reaction to coronavirus outbreak in the UK in March 2020. Of this “frightening opponent” with an “icy analytical instinct,” the Guardian’s Wendell Steavenson suggested: “Sumption is a man who cannot stop thinking” whilst the former Labour spinner Alastair Campbell more simply concluded: “Brain the size of a planet.”

  • Riccardo’s Responds

    Riccardo’s Responds

    Riccardo’s restaurant in Chelsea leads the way in showing community mindedness during the coronavirus outbreak

    Across the land small businesses are doing their bit for their communities and a case in point in Chelsea comes in the form of Riccardo’s, the popular Tuscan style Italian restaurant on Fulham Road.

     

    Riccardo’s Responds – Riccardo’s in Chelsea helps during coronavirus – Riccardo’s Italian restaurant in Chelsea leads the way in showing community mindedness during the coronavirus outbreak. 126 Fulham Road, Chelsea, London, SW3 6HU.

    Owner Riccardo Mariti, having had to close for seated lunch and dinner service, has most helpfully turned his premises into a deli and is offering a delivery service also. Not only is the restaurant selling standard items such as pizza and organic chicken from the Rhug Estate in North Wales, but they also offer lavatory roll at £2 per pack (limited to one per order), fresh milk, mixed fruit and vegetables, fresh meat and wine also. Food and other items can either be delivered or collected.

     

    Whilst many others are providing such, Riccardo’s is going one stage further and is also offering use of their maintenance crew to help with shopping and emergency repairs in the locality as well. Here, indeed, is a fine example of selflessness and here is a business that deserves to be saluted. If you’re nearby, here’s a far better solution than facing the queues at Sainsbury’s.

     

    Riccardo’s, 126 Fulham Road, Chelsea, London, SW3 6HU. Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7370 6656. To see what is available and order, click here.

     

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