Tag: Labour

  • A Cut Cost Chapel

    A Cut Cost Chapel

    Detached partly converted Victorian chapel in quaint Hampshire village goes to auction for 25% less than it sold for in 2018; it seems like a bargain, but there is, of course, a “but”…

    Vernham Dean – also known as Vernhams Dean – is a quaint village in the Test Valley in Hampshire. Nine miles south of Hungerford, Berkshire, it is best known for its well thought of pub, The George, and was the place name the controversial ex-Labour minister of state for the Middle East Elizabeth Symonds added to her name when she became Baroness Synmonds PC of Vernham Dean in October 1996.

     

    Given its sought after situation, news that a detached, freehold 562 square foot Victorian chapel is to be auctioned this week by Savills for just £75,000 initially seems surprising, but, as is often the way with “auction bargains,” comes with a number of catches.

     

    Opened originally as a chapel in October 1845 seating 108 with standing room for 12, the current structure served as a chapel from 1869 onwards. Closed for worship now for a number of years, the building was sold at auction in 2017 for an undisclosed sum and then for £99,000 a year later.

     

    In the years that followed subsequent owners have attempted to convert the building into first a two-bedroom and then a one-bedroom dwelling whilst various villagers repeatedly objected. It is now described as being “in need of modernisation” but complete with “extensive plans and reports… for change of use to a residential dwelling.”

     

    Curiously, during the Black Death in 1665, the village’s then pastor is said to have fled leaving his villagers to die. His “guilt ridden ghost” reportedly still to this day haunts the Chute Causeway, a Roman road that runs from Winchester to Cirencester, but whether the Primitive Methodist Chapel is haunted also is unknown.

     

    A Cut Cost Chapel – Chapel in Vernham Dean, Hampshire for just £75k – Detached partly converted Victorian chapel in quaint Hampshire village goes to auction for 25% less than it sold for in 2018 – The Primitive Methodist Chapel (Chapel House), Back Lane, Vernham Dean (Vernhams Dean), Andover, Test Valley District, Hampshire, SP11 0LE, United Kingdom – For sale at auction with Savills on Tuesday 2nd March 2021 with a guide price of £75,000 ($104,000, €87,000 or درهم384,000).
    The double height space inside the Victorian building has been stripped bare in preparation from conversion from D1 usage to residential. It sadly retains few original features.
    A Cut Cost Chapel – Chapel in Vernham Dean, Hampshire for just £75k – Detached partly converted Victorian chapel in quaint Hampshire village goes to auction for 25% less than it sold for in 2018 – The Primitive Methodist Chapel (Chapel House), Back Lane, Vernham Dean (Vernhams Dean), Andover, Test Valley District, Hampshire, SP11 0LE, United Kingdom – For sale at auction with Savills on Tuesday 2nd March 2021 with a guide price of £75,000 ($104,000, €87,000 or درهم384,000).
    The original mezzanine seating area of the chapel remains in situ.

    The Names & Numbers – Vernham Dean Primitive Methodist Chapel, Back Lane, Vernham Dean, Andover, Test Valley District, Hampshire, SP11 0LE, United Kingdom

    • 2nd March 2021 – To be offered for sale at auction for £75,000 ($104,000, €87,000 or درهم384,000) by Savills, a sum 32% lower than the last asking price and 25% lower than the 2018 sale price.

     

    • 10th February 2021 – Offered for sale at auction for £110,000+ ($153,000, €127,000 or درهم563,000) by Auction House London.

     

    • December 2019 – New plans were submitted to convert the building according to the Andover Advertiser. They reported that the application stated: “The property is in shell condition and requires a full programme of works. It has electricity and water supplies. The property is situated in the heart of the picturesque area of Vernham Dean in Andover close to local amenities. There is pedestrian access to the left-hand side of the property but it is possible to park at the front of the chapel.”

     

    • August 2019 – Then owner Gurdarshan Mandan told the Andover Advertiser: “We want to live there peacefully and we really don’t want to upset anyone, after all we all are neighbours and want to create a peaceful environment” after many Vernham Dean residents objected to his and his wife’s plans to first turn the building into a two-bedroom and then a one-bedroom residence.

     

    • 11th April 2018 – Sold for £99,000 ($138,000, €114,000 or درهم506,000) by Auction House London.

     

     

    A Cut Cost Chapel – Chapel in Vernham Dean, Hampshire for just £75k – Detached partly converted Victorian chapel in quaint Hampshire village goes to auction for 25% less than it sold for in 2018 – The Primitive Methodist Chapel (Chapel House), Back Lane, Vernham Dean (Vernhams Dean), Andover, Test Valley District, Hampshire, SP11 0LE, United Kingdom – For sale at auction with Savills on Tuesday 2nd March 2021 with a guide price of £75,000 ($104,000, €87,000 or درهم384,000).
    The staircase and entrance area. The building has mains water and electricity, but no sewage system is currently in place.
    A Cut Cost Chapel – Chapel in Vernham Dean, Hampshire for just £75k – Detached partly converted Victorian chapel in quaint Hampshire village goes to auction for 25% less than it sold for in 2018 – The Primitive Methodist Chapel (Chapel House), Back Lane, Vernham Dean (Vernhams Dean), Andover, Test Valley District, Hampshire, SP11 0LE, United Kingdom – For sale at auction with Savills on Tuesday 2nd March 2021 with a guide price of £75,000 ($104,000, €87,000 or درهم384,000).
    The mezzanine includes the only original remaining pews from the chapel.
    A Cut Cost Chapel – Chapel in Vernham Dean, Hampshire for just £75k – Detached partly converted Victorian chapel in quaint Hampshire village goes to auction for 25% less than it sold for in 2018 – The Primitive Methodist Chapel (Chapel House), Back Lane, Vernham Dean (Vernhams Dean), Andover, Test Valley District, Hampshire, SP11 0LE, United Kingdom – For sale at auction with Savills on Tuesday 2nd March 2021 with a guide price of £75,000 ($104,000, €87,000 or درهم384,000).
    A floor plan shows the current configuration of the detached chapel building.
  • (Yet More) Bollocks from Bailey

    (Yet More) Bollocks from Bailey

    Tedious Tory twerp Shaun Bailey’s leaflets reported to the CPS as “fraudulent” after his burglar alarm blunder and being condemned over “talking bollocks” about the finances of homeless people

    Aside from likely just polling his own campaign office and nobody else to come to the conclusion: “A majority of voters now believe Shaun Bailey will do a better job as Mayor,” the batshit bonkers Conservative candidate campaigning to run the nation’s capital has this morning again featured in the Guardian. This time, this noxious nitwit has hit the headlines for allegedly distributing “fraudulent” leaflets.

     

    Reported to the Crown Prosecution Service over junk mail that featured a fake City Hall insignia yet included no mention of the Conservative Party, bombastic Bailey was condemned by Labour’s lawyers, Edwards Duthie Shamash. They stated that his latest campaign literature represented an “attempt to attract the reader’s attention with the pretence that it is issued from the headquarters of the London mayor and the Greater London Authority, such that it is an official communication from a public authority with powers of taxation.”

     

    Previously, brazen bozo Bailey was condemned earlier this month for condescendingly claiming that homeless people could and should save £5,000 to get a home and in March 2020 for bizarrely arguing that giving out 300,000 burglar alarms to Londoners aged 65 plus would “reduce the amount of people who become career burglars.”

     

    In 2005, in a further illustration of his bizarre bigotry, Bailey claimed multiculturalism could make the UK a “crime-ridden cesspool” and argued that accommodating Muslims and Hindus was “robbing Britain of its community.” At the time, he also concluded: “It’s far easier for black people to integrate.”

     

    (Yet More) Bollocks from Bailey – Tory Shaun Bailey reported to CPS – Tory twerp Shaun Bailey’s leaflets reported to the CPS as “fraudulent” after his burglar alarm blunder and being condemned over “talking bollocks” about the finances of homeless people.
    (Yet More) Bollocks from Bailey – Lawyers acting on behalf of Labour, in their submission to the Crown Prosecution Service, called leaflets distributed by Bailey’s campaign team in December a “fraudulent device,” as described by the 1983 Representation of the People Act.
    (Yet More) Bollocks from Bailey – Tory Shaun Bailey reported to CPS – Tory twerp Shaun Bailey’s leaflets reported to the CPS as “fraudulent” after his burglar alarm blunder and being condemned over “talking bollocks” about the finances of homeless people.
    (Yet More) Bollocks from Bailey – Marina Purkiss compared Shaun Bailey’s decidedly dodgy leaflets to those of Vote Leave’s fake news NHS ones.
    (Yet More) Bollocks from Bailey – Tory Shaun Bailey reported to CPS – Tory twerp Shaun Bailey’s leaflets reported to the CPS as “fraudulent” after his burglar alarm blunder and being condemned over “talking bollocks” about the finances of homeless people.
    (Yet More) Bollocks from Bailey – An Oddschecker analysis in January 2021 puts Shaun Bailey in third position behind Sadiq Khan and Brian Rose, “a guy with a mid-Atlantic twang who hosts David Icke on his YouTube channel.
    (Yet More) Bollocks from Bailey – Tory Shaun Bailey reported to CPS – Tory twerp Shaun Bailey’s leaflets reported to the CPS as “fraudulent” after his burglar alarm blunder and being condemned over “talking bollocks” about the finances of homeless people.
    (Yet More) Bollocks from Bailey – On the 19th January, Ladbrokes Politics pointed out that the latest internal polling by Shaun Bailey’s campaign director had left “betting markets strangely unmoved.” In response, one Twitter user, Jon Ragno, remarked: “’Internal polls’ – Ben means they asked round the campaign office, doesn’t he.”
    (Yet More) Bollocks from Bailey – Tory Shaun Bailey reported to CPS – Tory twerp Shaun Bailey’s leaflets reported to the CPS as “fraudulent” after his burglar alarm blunder and being condemned over “talking bollocks” about the finances of homeless people.
    (Yet More) Bollocks from Bailey – Twitter users mocked the campaign’s ‘Shaun Bailey – A Fresh Start For London’ logo resembled an “ad for a laundry product.” One, Lewis Taylor, responded: “Bang, and the bullshit is gone!”
    (Yet More) Bollocks from Bailey – Tory Shaun Bailey reported to CPS – Tory twerp Shaun Bailey’s leaflets reported to the CPS as “fraudulent” after his burglar alarm blunder and being condemned over “talking bollocks” about the finances of homeless people.
    (Yet More) Bollocks from Bailey – Other Twitter users rounded on Bailey and suggested he is more likely to come “a very bad second” or third even in the forthcoming London mayoral elections.
    (Yet More) Bollocks from Bailey – Tory Shaun Bailey reported to CPS – Tory twerp Shaun Bailey’s leaflets reported to the CPS as “fraudulent” after his burglar alarm blunder and being condemned over “talking bollocks” about the finances of homeless people.
    (Yet More) Bollocks from Bailey – Another response to the same article suggested “Tommy Robinson would be proud of [Shaun Bailey]!” and added: “[He] should be ashamed!”
    (Yet More) Bollocks from Bailey – Tory Shaun Bailey reported to CPS – Tory twerp Shaun Bailey’s leaflets reported to the CPS as “fraudulent” after his burglar alarm blunder and being condemned over “talking bollocks” about the finances of homeless people.
    (Yet More) Bollocks from Bailey – After a recent article in ‘The Times,’ one respondent, Michael Brown, highlighted Shaun Bailey’s remarks about how “good looking [girls] tend to have been around.” He quoted the Tory wannabe mayor as having said: “The boys have got this opinion that if a girl looks clean, and that generally means she’s good looking, she appeals to them, it is less likely that she’ll have an infection… If a girl appeals to one that way, she’ll appeal to all of them… She’ll tend to have been around.” A Dr. Helga Lees responded: “It is not obvious [Shaun Bailey] is a nutcase?”
  • Moron of the Moment – Shaun Bailey

    Moron of the Moment – Shaun Bailey

    Pontificating pillock Shaun Bailey proves himself unfit to be Mayor of London after curiously claiming impoverished homeless people can and should save £5,000 to get a home

    As we pointed out last March, Rory Stewart would have made a great Mayor of London. Sadly, since he’s no longer in the running, the “inept banger-on about being the son of a bus driver” Labour incumbent Sadiq Khan is getting the bloody easiest ticket-to-ride.

     

    Aside from an especially creepy looking American YouTuber and fan of David Icke named Brian Rose as an independent, all the opposition have managed to put up is a pontificating pillock named Shaun Bailey. This self-declared “different dude” is standing for the Conservative Party in spite of bizarrely previously branding himself “gobby and dangerous.”

     

    Having declared a pointlessly ear-piercing policy of giving free burglar alarms to 300,000 Londoners aged 65 plus and shown himself as a “foolish man with pockets plainly as large as China” in 2020, bombastic Bailey has returned to the fray this week. This Tory twit has now ludicrously stated that he believes 62,670 “homeless people in the capital would be able to save up for a £5,000 deposit to buy a share in a newly-built affordable home.”

     

    Reported on this morning in the Guardian and Mirror, Bailey’s off-the-wall remarks to Inside Housing included:

     

    “I don’t think the £5,000 [deposit to secure a mortgage] will [be a problem for those currently in temporary accommodation]. The mortgage application thing might be a bit tougher … They could save for it, yeah.”

     

    Going further, the Guardian reported that this “man of gimmicks” and “malicious” moron continued with his gibberish:

     

    Pressed by the interviewer on whether he was suggesting a homeless family in bed and breakfast accommodation could afford a deposit, Bailey replied: “Not all of them, but some people could. A full proportion of people could.”

     

    He added: “I know about that situation, I sofa surfed for years. You’re right, I definitely couldn’t have come up with £5,000, but those people I’m not expecting to or asking to. We’ll provide social housing for them.”

     

    Reaction to this nitwit numbskull was unsurprisingly that of “widespread bewilderment” and of him, Lambeth Labour councillor Ed Davie tweeted:

     

    “Famously, people living in poverty usually have at least £5,000 lying around – it’s amazing that it hasn’t occurred to them to simply buy a London property, which are well known for being really cheap. Thank God senior Tories are here to give out this good advice.”

     

    Whilst Sadiq Khan’s policies – such as the extension of Boris Johnson’s bonkers bike lanes – have been equivalent to driving a bus into a brick wall, Shaun Bailey has yet again proven something else: Here, indeed, is a berk who shouldn’t be allowed to be in charge of a bus ticket, let alone Britain’s capital. It’s time, instead, that Bailey was just put back in his box.

     

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    Moron of the Moment – Shaun Bailey – Out-of-touch Tory wazzock – Pontificating pillock Shaun Bailey proves himself unfit to be Mayor of London after curiously claiming impoverished homeless people can and should save £5,000 to get a home.
    Birds of a Feather – Shaun Bailey with Boris Johnson. The fact that the pair “get on well” is proof enough that the loopy wannabe Mayor of London is unfit for office.
    Moron of the Moment – Shaun Bailey – Out-of-touch Tory wazzock – Pontificating pillock Shaun Bailey proves himself unfit to be Mayor of London after curiously claiming impoverished homeless people can and should save £5,000 to get a home.
    Birds of a Feather – Shaun Bailey with now former Prime Minister David Cameron. The smug look on this duo’s faces sums up the “f**k the rest of you” attitude of these opportunists; here is a pair whose involvement in politics has caused nothing but disaster for everyone whilst their own pockets get deeper.
    Brian Rose’s decision to stand as a candidate to become Mayor of London was understandably greeted with mockery by ‘Coffeezilla’ and described as “some form of joke” by ‘From The Hornets Nest.’
  • Flicka-ing off the Safety

    Flicka-ing off the Safety

    Conservative MP for Kensington Felicity ‘Flicka’ Buchan should be utterly ashamed of herself for voting against safety measures to prevent another Grenfell Tower disaster

    Last night, the Conservative Party disgracefully led the way to beat the Fire Safety Bill in the House of Commons by a margin of 318 to 188.

     

    Most surprisingly, leading the way against a proposed piece of legislation that would have put the “official fire safety recommendations made during phase of the Grenfell inquiry put into law” was Felicity Buchan MP – whose Kensington constituency includes the very same tower where 72 people died and 74 others were hospitalised as a result of a catastrophic fire exacerbated by flammable cladding.

     

    Summed up best last night by Evolve Politics, the perfectly sensible recommendations rejected by Buchan (‘Flicka’ to her friends) – a woman who previously said “up yours” to her 69% remain voting constituents – and her colleagues included:

     

    • Creating national guidelines for carrying out partial or total evacuations of high-rise buildings during emergencies.
    • Urgent inspections of fire doors contained in all multi-residential buildings.
    • A legal requirement for the owners or managers of multi-residential buildings to check fire doors at least every three months to ensure they are working effectively.
    • A legal requirement for the owners or managers of high-rise buildings to provide details of external walls and the materials used to the local fire service, and inform them of any changes.
    • A legal requirement for the owners or managers of high-rise buildings to provide paper and electronic versions of building plans to local fire services.
    • A legal requirement to ensure all high-rise buildings have a premises information box which includes a copy of floor plans.
    • Regular inspections of lifts required for use by firefighters and the mechanism that allows them to take control of it.

     

    The Steeple Times contacted Miss Buchan for comment via Twitter early Tuesday. Tellingly, ‘Flicka’ has yet to respond as to why she failed to support measures that – if they had been in place on 14th June 2017 – could most definitely have saved her constituents’ lives.

     

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    Flicka-ing off the Safety – Felicity Buchan votes against safety – Conservative MP for Kensington Felicity ‘Flicka’ Buchan should be utterly ashamed of herself for voting against safety measures to prevent another Grenfell Tower disaster.
    Flicka-ing off the Safety – Twitter users unsurprisingly rounded on Felicity Buchan and her Conservative colleagues over the outcome of the vote.
    Flicka-ing off the Safety – Felicity Buchan votes against safety – Conservative MP for Kensington Felicity ‘Flicka’ Buchan should be utterly ashamed of herself for voting against safety measures to prevent another Grenfell Tower disaster.
    Flicka-ing off the Safety – Nick Thomas-Symonds MP described ‘Flicka’s’ decision to vote against the recommendations as “appalling” and suggested: “Many of her constituents will feel let down and have serious questions to ask.”
    Flicka-ing off the Safety – Felicity Buchan votes against safety – Conservative MP for Kensington Felicity ‘Flicka’ Buchan should be utterly ashamed of herself for voting against safety measures to prevent another Grenfell Tower disaster.
    Flicka-ing off the Safety – Another Twitter user named Nile pointed out her behaviour was that “of a sociopath.”

  • A Tory Whip Shocker!

    A Tory Whip Shocker!

    Matthew Steeples finds himself in shock and agreeing with Jess Phillips MP after she calls out Tory hypocrisy over their failure to withdraw the whip from an unnamed MP arrested for alleged sex crimes

    A cataclysmic and likely one-time only event occurred last night: I found myself agreeing with the normally bombastically bonkers Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley, Jess Phillips.

     

    Speaking to the Times Radio after the arrest of an as yet unnamed Tory MP, Phillips commented:

     

    “In any other organisation, were this investigation to be going on, this police investigation, somebody would be suspended while the investigation was taking place.”

     

    She is entirely right and given the Conservatives recently stripped the whip from Julian Lewis MP after he beat Chris Grayling to the intelligence chair role and they previous withdrew it against the now convicted “naughty Tory” sex pest Charlie Elphicke, why hasn’t the governing party taken the same course of action against the newly arrested MP?

     

    Meanwhile elsewhere, with news that Boris Johnson’s crony Crispin Odey – a man until now best known for spending the ludicrously ostentatious sum of £150,000 on a chicken shed and giving over £870,000 to support the campaign for Brexit – has been charged with assaulting a women aged over 16, comes further bad headlines for the Prime Minister.

     

    Though Mr Odey denies the allegation, “will strongly contest this matter” and deserves to be subject to the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, the mere fact that so many Conservatives are even being accused of such crimes is proof only that this once great party has sunk deeper into the quagmire of sleaze than it did even in the days of John Major.

     

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    A Tory Whip Shocker! Matthew Steeples finds himself in shock and agreeing with Jess Phillips MP after she calls out Tory hypocrisy over their failure to withdraw the whip from an unnamed MP arrested for alleged sex crimes. Crispin Odey, Charles Elphicke, Natalie Elphicke.
    Jess Phillips MP got it right in calling out the shocking hypocrisy of the Conservative Party in failing to withdraw the whip from the unnamed Conservative accused of a number of alleged sex offences. The same unnamed MP’s constituency party has also come out and announced they will support said individual.
    A Tory Whip Shocker! Matthew Steeples finds himself in shock and agreeing with Jess Phillips MP after she calls out Tory hypocrisy over their failure to withdraw the whip from an unnamed MP arrested for alleged sex crimes. Crispin Odey, Charles Elphicke, Natalie Elphicke.
    Natalie Elphicke MP – whom replaced her husband as the member for Dover – stood by her husband Charlie Elphicke during his trial. She suggested she did so because she feared he might “kill himself,” but frankly that she plainly knew he was guilty is proof of her hypocrisy.
    A Tory Whip Shocker! Matthew Steeples finds himself in shock and agreeing with Jess Phillips MP after she calls out Tory hypocrisy over their failure to withdraw the whip from an unnamed MP arrested for alleged sex crimes. Crispin Odey, Charles Elphicke, Natalie Elphicke.
    Tory supporter Crispin Odey remains innocent until convicted, but the fact that there are so many allegations floating around only helps portray Boris Johnson’s government as one of sleaze.
  • Cheaper Than Fiction – A Bargain in The Boltons

    Cheaper Than Fiction – A Bargain in The Boltons

    Cheapest, smallest house on the best side of one of London’s most sought after streets, The Boltons, comes up for sale; the tardis like building was home to novelist-politician Jeffrey Archer and his scientist wife Mary in the 1970s

    • No. 24a The Boltons is one of the smallest houses on “the fourth most expensive street in Britain,” but it is still anything but insubstantial at 3,123 square feet.
    • The tardis-like Victorian townhouse is wedged between two mansions and was converted from a coach house for Aston Martin racing team driver Noël Cunningham-Reid in 1960.
    • Novelist-politician Lord Archer and his scientist wife Dame Mary owned the property between 1972 and 1976.
    • The couple were forced to sell the house after Jeffrey Archer supposedly “lost over £400,000 in a bad investment” in the summer of 1974.
    • Jeffrey Archer subsequently made a fortune as a novelist and then after a glittering career in politics, was jailed in 2001 for perjury and perverting the course of justice.
    • The house was sold again subsequently for £3.8 million in 2007 and is now for sale for £6.5 million; the average price of houses on the street is £32.5 million according to Zoopla.
    • Other residents of The Boltons have variously included Arab royals, Madonna and Sir William Gilbert, one half of Gilbert and Sullivan.

    In May 2017, we featured 6 The Boltons after its asking price was slashed from £39.5 million to ‘just’ £30 million, whilst in April 2015, a more modern house at the upper end of the street named One Boltons Place sold for £51 million on an asking price of £55 million. More recently in January 2018, when 22 The Boltons was sold to a British family for £40 million that sale was described as “one of the biggest deals in the last 12 months… a notable one.” Its asking price had been an even more punchy £57.5 million.

     

    The Boltons was developed in the 19th century by the architect George Godwin (1813 – 1888) on 11.5 acres of land previously used as market gardens. The oval shaped street consists of 13 Italianate style houses on the “favoured” western crescent and 15 more in addition on the “less sought after” eastern side. In the centre, there is a communal garden and the church of St Mary The Boltons and whilst many residents employ private security, a number of the mansions are locked up, unloved and unoccupied also.

     

    Now, an opportunity has arisen for someone to not “buy the worst house on the best street,” but instead “buy the cheapest house on the best side of the best street” in the form of what initially appears as a narrow townhouse wedged between two very much larger semi-detached villas. No. 24a The Boltons is actually deceptive as it not only widens as it goes backwards, but also provides a very surprising 3,123 square foot of usable accommodation over four floors.

     

    Cheaper Than Fiction – A Bargain in The Boltons – Cheapest, smallest house on the best side of one of London’s most sought after streets comes up for sale; the tardis like building was home to novelist-politician Jeffrey Archer and his scientist wife Mary in the 1970s – 24a The Boltons, London, SW10 9SU, Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, United Kingdom for sale for an asking price of £6.5 million ($8.2 million, €7.3 million or درهم30 million), a figure 71.1% higher than the 2007 sale price through estate agency Knight Frank.
    The entrance hall opens into a library area and a feeling of space is provided by a glass enclosure around the upward staircase.
    Cheaper Than Fiction – A Bargain in The Boltons – Cheapest, smallest house on the best side of one of London’s most sought after streets comes up for sale; the tardis like building was home to novelist-politician Jeffrey Archer and his scientist wife Mary in the 1970s – 24a The Boltons, London, SW10 9SU, Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, United Kingdom for sale for an asking price of £6.5 million ($8.2 million, €7.3 million or درهم30 million), a figure 71.1% higher than the 2007 sale price through estate agency Knight Frank.
    The drawing room space beyond has a vast window looking out westwards onto the gardens of the houses of The Little Boltons beyond.
    Cheaper Than Fiction – A Bargain in The Boltons – Cheapest, smallest house on the best side of one of London’s most sought after streets comes up for sale; the tardis like building was home to novelist-politician Jeffrey Archer and his scientist wife Mary in the 1970s – 24a The Boltons, London, SW10 9SU, Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, United Kingdom for sale for an asking price of £6.5 million ($8.2 million, €7.3 million or درهم30 million), a figure 71.1% higher than the 2007 sale price through estate agency Knight Frank.
    The lower ground floor dining kitchen is surprisingly bright and has a double height ceiling in part.

    Laid out currently to give 3 reception rooms, 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms, the “highly unusual house with off-street parking” includes a 50-foot long interconnecting entrance hall, library and reception space on the ground floor. At the rear, that opens to a partially double height dining kitchen below measuring 36-feet in length.

    Originally used as a coach house to No. 24, in 1960, a year after the main house was converted into five flats, No. 24a was extended and turned into a house in its own right. Two storeys were added to the designs of architects Knapton & Deane on the instructions of an Aston Martin racing team driver named Noël Cunningham-Reid (1930 – 2017) and what resulted was a three-storey, two bay residence.

     

    No. 24a was home to Jeffrey and Mary Archer in the 1970s and the street features in the spectacularly successful novelist’s 2008 bestselling work A Prisoner of Birth and his 2015 ‘Clifton Chronicles’ series novel Mightier than the Sword. It was whilst living here that the couple’s two sons were born and they supposedly only sold what Dame Mary later described to a court in 2001 as their “lovely” home after “hugely incautious” investments almost bankrupted them. “We’ve explored the further reaches of ‘for better and for worse’ than most couples,” the solar power conversion expert subsequently added.

    Agents Knight Frank seek £6.5 million or £2,081 per square foot for 24a The Boltons and whomever buys it will certainly be able to laud that they live in one of the best addresses in London without it being a work of fiction. In Hyacinth Bucket-esque fashion, however, they won’t, of course, bring up that they actually live in the cheapest and smallest house there.

    The Names & Numbers – 24a The Boltons, London, SW10 9SU, Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, United Kingdom

    • July 2020 – For sale for an asking price of £6.5 million ($8.2 million, €7.3 million or درهم30 million) through estate agents Knight Frank, a figure 71.1% higher than the 2007 sale price.
    • March 2007 – Sold for £3.8 million ($4.9 million, €4.2 million or درهم17.6 million).
    • 1972 to 1976 – Home to Lord Archer and Dame Mary Archer DBE, then known as Mr Jeffrey and Dr Mary Archer. Their sons, James and William, were born during this period in 1972 and 1974.

     

    Other Notable Residents of The Boltons

    Between 1999 and 2006, Madonna owned a house in The Boltons and other well-known residents have included Sir Julian and Dame Paddy Ridsdale.

    • 8 The Boltons – Douglas Fairbanks Jr.  KBE (1909 – 2000), actor, lived there in the 1950s with his wife Mary Lee Hartford, former wife Huntington Hartford, the A&P supermarket heir.
    • 14 The Boltons – Otho Stuart (1863 – 1930), Shakespearean actor-manager, lived there, exact dates unknown.
    • 19 The Boltons – The Rt. Hon. Anthony Crosland (1918 – 1977), Labour Party politician, author and one-time lover of Roy Jenkins, lived there, exact dates unknown.
    • 20 The Boltons (also known as ‘The Grove’) – Colin MacInnes (1914 – 1976), author, lived there, exact dates unknown. For a time in the 20th century, the building also served as Our Lady’s Convent along with 21 The Boltons.
    • 24 The Boltons – Sir William Gilbert (1836 – 1911), playwright and one half of Gilbert and Sullivan, lived in the house between 1877 and 1884 and wrote  six  of  his  best  known  comic  operas  there beginning  with The Sorcerer in 1877, HMS Pinafore in 1878, The Pirates of Penzance in 1879, Patience in 1881, Iolanthe in 1882 and Princess Ida in 1884. Gilbert moved from No. 24 The Boltons in 1884 to a newly built house nearby at No. 39 Harrington Gardens.
    • 29 The Boltons – Used as an infant school for fifteen years after the Second World War.

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    Cheaper Than Fiction – A Bargain in The Boltons – Cheapest, smallest house on the best side of one of London’s most sought after streets comes up for sale; the tardis like building was home to novelist-politician Jeffrey Archer and his scientist wife Mary in the 1970s – 24a The Boltons, London, SW10 9SU, Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, United Kingdom for sale for an asking price of £6.5 million ($8.2 million, €7.3 million or درهم30 million), a figure 71.1% higher than the 2007 sale price through estate agency Knight Frank.
    The kitchen itself is dominated by a central island unit.
    Cheaper Than Fiction – A Bargain in The Boltons – Cheapest, smallest house on the best side of one of London’s most sought after streets comes up for sale; the tardis like building was home to novelist-politician Jeffrey Archer and his scientist wife Mary in the 1970s – 24a The Boltons, London, SW10 9SU, Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, United Kingdom for sale for an asking price of £6.5 million ($8.2 million, €7.3 million or درهم30 million), a figure 71.1% higher than the 2007 sale price through estate agency Knight Frank.
    A lower ground floor room described as a “snug” is used presently as a space to watch television.
    Cheaper Than Fiction – A Bargain in The Boltons – Cheapest, smallest house on the best side of one of London’s most sought after streets comes up for sale; the tardis like building was home to novelist-politician Jeffrey Archer and his scientist wife Mary in the 1970s – 24a The Boltons, London, SW10 9SU, Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, United Kingdom for sale for an asking price of £6.5 million ($8.2 million, €7.3 million or درهم30 million), a figure 71.1% higher than the 2007 sale price through estate agency Knight Frank.
    The first floor consists of a master bedroom suite with a bedroom with an undemised balcony, a dressing room and a shower room.
    Cheaper Than Fiction – A Bargain in The Boltons – Cheapest, smallest house on the best side of one of London’s most sought after streets comes up for sale; the tardis like building was home to novelist-politician Jeffrey Archer and his scientist wife Mary in the 1970s – 24a The Boltons, London, SW10 9SU, Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, United Kingdom for sale for an asking price of £6.5 million ($8.2 million, €7.3 million or درهم30 million), a figure 71.1% higher than the 2007 sale price through estate agency Knight Frank.
    The dressing room itself.
    Cheaper Than Fiction – A Bargain in The Boltons – Cheapest, smallest house on the best side of one of London’s most sought after streets comes up for sale; the tardis like building was home to novelist-politician Jeffrey Archer and his scientist wife Mary in the 1970s – 24a The Boltons, London, SW10 9SU, Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, United Kingdom for sale for an asking price of £6.5 million ($8.2 million, €7.3 million or درهم30 million), a figure 71.1% higher than the 2007 sale price through estate agency Knight Frank.
    One of two bedrooms on the second floor.
    Cheaper Than Fiction – A Bargain in The Boltons – Cheapest, smallest house on the best side of one of London’s most sought after streets comes up for sale; the tardis like building was home to novelist-politician Jeffrey Archer and his scientist wife Mary in the 1970s – 24a The Boltons, London, SW10 9SU, Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, United Kingdom for sale for an asking price of £6.5 million ($8.2 million, €7.3 million or درهم30 million), a figure 71.1% higher than the 2007 sale price through estate agency Knight Frank.
    The other second floor bedroom.
    Cheaper Than Fiction – A Bargain in The Boltons – Cheapest, smallest house on the best side of one of London’s most sought after streets comes up for sale; the tardis like building was home to novelist-politician Jeffrey Archer and his scientist wife Mary in the 1970s – 24a The Boltons, London, SW10 9SU, Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, United Kingdom for sale for an asking price of £6.5 million ($8.2 million, €7.3 million or درهم30 million), a figure 71.1% higher than the 2007 sale price through estate agency Knight Frank.
    There are two bathrooms and two shower rooms in the house.
    Cheaper Than Fiction – A Bargain in The Boltons – Cheapest, smallest house on the best side of one of London’s most sought after streets comes up for sale; the tardis like building was home to novelist-politician Jeffrey Archer and his scientist wife Mary in the 1970s – 24a The Boltons, London, SW10 9SU, Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, United Kingdom for sale for an asking price of £6.5 million ($8.2 million, €7.3 million or درهم30 million), a figure 71.1% higher than the 2007 sale price through estate agency Knight Frank.
    The floor plan shows how the tardis like building gets bigger as you go further back into it.
    Cheaper Than Fiction – A Bargain in The Boltons – Cheapest, smallest house on the best side of one of London’s most sought after streets comes up for sale; the tardis like building was home to novelist-politician Jeffrey Archer and his scientist wife Mary in the 1970s – 24a The Boltons, London, SW10 9SU, Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, United Kingdom for sale for an asking price of £6.5 million ($8.2 million, €7.3 million or درهم30 million), a figure 71.1% higher than the 2007 sale price through estate agency Knight Frank.
    The situation of 24a The Boltons is on the “favoured” western crescent of this ritzy street.
  • A Massive Media Maelstrom – McCann, Mandelson and Maxwell

    A Massive Media Maelstrom – McCann, Mandelson and Maxwell

    Matthew Steeples highlights how the ‘Mandelson Media Method’ is very much in play in both the case of the Prince Andrew-Jeffrey Epstein connection and the renewed interest in the Madeleine McCann disappearance

    According to the former British ambassador to Uzbekistan turned activist and human rights campaigner Craig Murray, when Madeleine McCann went missing on 3rd May 2007 “New Labour’s No. 10 saw, in typical Blair fashion, a highly photogenic tragedy which there might be popularity in appearing to work on.”

     

    Guided by the “Prince of Darkness at the heart of New Labour” with “his dark satanic looks” and “his Machiavellian meddling,” the political party Peter Mandelson ever so brilliantly guided (in terms of electoral success) knew the value of such and they well and truly milked it in the matter of McCann.

     

    As Andrew Marr pointed out in his History of Modern Britain – screened on BBC Four last night – in his example, highlighting the case of the senseless murder of the innocent toddler Jamie Bulger by two truly evil teenagers during John Major’s premiership – Madeleine McCann’s disappearance occurred just a month before Blair left office and Gordon Brown took over. News of it dominated the media during the transition period.

     

    Defining the Brown years – during which Peter Mandelson was a government minister from October 2008 until May 2010 – in terms of the vast acres of pages devoted to the case and garnering disproportionate attention from government thus, as Murray pointed out: “British diplomatic staff were under direct instruction to support the McCanns far beyond the usual.”

     

    Mandelson had his finger on the pulse with the McCann story then and today the proof of its usefulness is still in the pudding by way of the fact that it wiped other ‘bad news’ stories off the front pages in the last week. Equally, as has been the case with the renewal of interest in Prince Andrew’s “has he or hasn’t he” cooperated with the investigations into Jeffrey Epstein in the last 24 hours, here are matters that show that the Mandelson style of media management haven’t moved on.

     

    One rather conveniently unavailable person who links the ‘players’ in these matters is still apparently missing in action. Again, this morning, we again join those asking: “Why doesn’t Ghislaine Maxwell finally come forward?”

     

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    A Massive Media Maelstrom – McCann, Mandelson and Maxwell – Matthew Steeples highlights how the ‘Mandelson Media Method’ is very much in play in both the case of the Prince Andrew-Jeffrey Epstein connection and the renewed interest in the Madeleine McCann disappearance.
    Peter Mandelson pictured trying on a belt whilst Jeffrey Epstein looks on in St Barts in 2005. They are said to have been introduced by their mutual friend Ghislaine Maxwell and there is no suggestion that Lord Mandelson knew anything of Epstein’s criminal activities.
    A Massive Media Maelstrom – McCann, Mandelson and Maxwell – Matthew Steeples highlights how the ‘Mandelson Media Method’ is very much in play in both the case of the Prince Andrew-Jeffrey Epstein connection and the renewed interest in the Madeleine McCann disappearance.
    In 2009, private investigators for Gerry and Kate McCann issued an E-FIT to the media of a woman they believed could be “potentially significant” to their investigation. She has never been found, but, speculation online (entirely unproven as accurate thus far) has regularly included: “She looks remarkably like Ghislaine Maxwell.” There is no suggestion that this is one and the same woman, but it would be ever so helpful if Miss Maxwell came forward and cleared this up for once and for all.
    A Massive Media Maelstrom – McCann, Mandelson and Maxwell – Matthew Steeples highlights how the ‘Mandelson Media Method’ is very much in play in both the case of the Prince Andrew-Jeffrey Epstein connection and the renewed interest in the Madeleine McCann disappearance.
    The no-longer so “grand old Duke of York” Prince Andrew poses for a picture with the “master of spin” and king of media relations Lord Mandelson.
    A Massive Media Maelstrom – McCann, Mandelson and Maxwell – Matthew Steeples highlights how the ‘Mandelson Media Method’ is very much in play in both the case of the Prince Andrew-Jeffrey Epstein connection and the renewed interest in the Madeleine McCann disappearance.
    Peter Mandelson worked with PR spinner Matthew Freud, the late Sir Clement Freud’s son, on the Millennium Dome. The pair have partied together on many occasions – including at Freud’s then marital home, Burford Priory, and most famously with George Osborne, Oleg Deripaska and Nat Rothschild in Corfu.
    A Massive Media Maelstrom – McCann, Mandelson and Maxwell – Matthew Steeples highlights how the ‘Mandelson Media Method’ is very much in play in both the case of the Prince Andrew-Jeffrey Epstein connection and the renewed interest in the Madeleine McCann disappearance.
    Pictured top: Paedophile Sir Clement Freud (right) lunched with Gerry (left) and Kate McCann in Praia da Luz in Portugal in July 2007, two months after their daughter’s disappearance. Mrs McCann later praised the risotto as “the best she’d ever tasted.” Pictured below: Ghislaine Maxwell pictured at the launch of a book about Sir Clement’s brother, Lucian, titled ‘Breakfast With Lucian’ in 2013 by Geordie Greig. Also in the image are Nicholas Coleridge, Piers Morgan, an unknown child, Geordie Greig and Ariadne Calvo-Platero.
  • Moron of the Moment – Dan Wootton

    Moron of the Moment – Dan Wootton

    Dominic Cummings mouthpiece Dan Wootton yet again shows himself to be a bit of a berk in attacking both ‘Tatler’ and Sir Keir Starmer in one hit in his column in ‘The Sun’

    Dan Wootton has previously been branded a “deeply unpleasant” sort and today he yet again showed his true credentials in attacking two completely unrelated entities, Tatler and Sir Keir Starmer, in his diabolically dire column in The Sun.

     

    Executive editor of the banned-in-Liverpool ‘paper’ Wootton – a New Zealander known for his “less than stellar career” according to Zelo Street – pathetically branded “dripping-with-bile” Tatler a “repulsive… bible for the elite… that makes my skin crawl” simply because it had dared to criticise the Duchess of Cambridge. He raged: “Tatler should be shunned because of the vile way it perpetuates a class system that does so much damage to society. Not Quite Our Magazine, Darling.”

     

    Moron of the Moment – Dan Wootton – ‘The Sun’s’ Dan Wootton yet again shows himself to be a bit of a berk in attacking both ‘Tatler’ and Sir Keir Starmer in one hit.
    Dan Wootton slammed the “lack of class from snobs at Tatler” on Friday in his “big exclusives, bold opinion” column.

    Turning to Sir Keir Starmer, whom thus far has shown himself as quite the stellar opposite of Jeremy Corbyn, self-declared “working-class lad” Wootton’s analysis was clear: “The same old politics from the same old Labour… Up to its old tricks.”

     

    Thanks Dan; perhaps return to upsetting “Warrington’s finest export” Kerry Katona, you were more effective at that. Next!

     

    Dan Wootton’s not-so ‘finest’ moments:

     

    On Dominic Cummings (who’d probably have preferred even Katie Hopkins as a defender): “Make no mistake, the establishment is out to get Dominic Cummings… I despair.”

     

    On footballer David Beckham and his singer turned fashion designer wife Victoria (whose fans responded with fury): “Weird and creepy.”

     

    On singer George Shelley (whose fans got equally upset): “[He’s] done a Tom Daley and come out as bisexual.”

     

    On singer Susan Boyle (whose management hit back with denial): “Volatile… Forced to shop Tesco and travel by bus.”

     

    On political activist and Novara Media editor Ash Sarkar (before he “shut her down” during a “fiery conversation”): “Grasping.”

     

    On Celebrity Masterchef winner Emma Kennedy (who reported him to Ofcom and threated to sue him with the help of Carter Ruck): “Deranged Boris hater.”

     

    On actor Johnny Depp (who sued him for defamation, outcome awaited post-coronavirus): “Wife beater.”

     

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  • Wally of the Week – Nadine Dorries

    Wally of the Week – Nadine Dorries

    Tory twerp and Twitter twaddler ‘Mad Nad’ Nadine Dorries MP deserves to be sacked (if she doesn’t first resign) after disgracefully smearing Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer

    It’s an incredibly rare thing when the Trotskyist terror Owen Jones is the one talking complete sense, but in calling for Nadine Dorries – a woman whom once ludicrously remarked: “[I’m] not an MP for any other reason other than because God wants me to be” – to be sacked after defaming Sir Keir Starmer by retweeting far-right smears about him, the author of Chavs is for once bang on the nail.

     

    Quick to demand others correct, their errors – in August 2019, for example, Dorries herself tweeted: “I hope all those who gleefully flew to the keyboard and typed out  #porkies in an attempt to traduce the reputation of our PM @BorisJohnson are as quick to bang out an apology and put the record straight” – Dorries, currently a health minister for patient safety, suicide prevention and mental health, used Twitter to share a doctored far right video. It had been falsely manipulated to make it look like the new Labour leader knew about child abuse and did nothing whilst head of the Crown Prosecution Service and though she’s deleted it, she hasn’t even issued a public apology.

     

    The woman whom branded David Cameron and George Osborne “two arrogant posh boys who don’t know the price of milk” has now been shown herself to be someone who doesn’t know the truth behind what she tweets. In December 2012, Dorries declared: “My career is not over… It’s only just beginning.” We’d now argue, it’s time for this berk to end it all; it’s time for ‘Mad Nad’ to bog off and write a few more bonkbusters.

     

    #ResignDorries

     

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    Wally of the Week –Tory twerp and Twitter twaddler ‘Mad Nad’ Nadine Dorries MP deserves to be sacked (if she doesn’t first resign) after disgracefully smearing Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer on social media.
    Shame on ‘Mad Nad’ – Owen Jones called for Nadine Dorries to be sacked on Friday on Twitter (left); the since deleted retweet in which the Member of Parliament for Mid Bedfordshire suggested a “fake news” tweet was “revealing.”
    Wally of the Week –Tory twerp and Twitter twaddler ‘Mad Nad’ Nadine Dorries MP deserves to be sacked (if she doesn’t first resign) after disgracefully smearing Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer on social media.
    Nadine Dorries where she belongs – The self-publicising MP covered in cockroaches and maggots whilst participating in I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! in November 2012.
  • Canary Claims Corbyn Still Hasn’t Croaked

    Canary Claims Corbyn Still Hasn’t Croaked

    That ‘The Canary’ is still lauding Jeremy Corbyn as “the best Prime Minister we never had” about sums up that sorry shower of a rag’s grasp on the current state of British politics

    Whilst The Steeple Times is anything but a fan of Boris Johnson and his government, we most certainly would never have welcomed Jeremy Corbyn as Prime Minister.

     

    On Saturday, however, The Canary – a far-left, arse-licking online rag that claims to have a “wider reach online than The Times – saluted Diane Abbott’s former “bedfellow” (in all senses of that word) as “someone who stands for the many, not the few” and “the best Prime Minister we never had.” They went further and concluded: “On VE Day… Corbyn reminded us of the kind of leadership we so badly need at this time of crisis.”

     

    Known for having produced many “questionable pieces” in times past, the nauseating bird that should long ago have croaked that is The Canary has hopefully finally now realised that it is now as alive as Jeremy Corbyn’s prospects of entering Downing Street. It ended its so-called “article” with a pathetic begging note that stated:

     

    “We have been fighting against an establishment that is trying to shut us down. And like most independent media, we don’t have the deep pockets of investors to call on to bail us out. Can you help by chipping in a few pounds each month?”

     

    Next!

     

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