Former Wiltshire home of ‘Lord of the Flies’ author Sir William Golding for sale for 562% more than he sold it for in 1985
The one-time home of the author and Nobel Prize in Literature and Booker Prize winner Sir William Golding, CBE (1911 – 1993) has gone on sale for £795,000 ($1.1 million, €891,000 or درهم3.9 million) in spite of needing modernisation.
Ebble Thatch at Mead End, Bowerchalke, near Salisbury was the residence of the Lord of the Flies author in 1940 and between 1958 and 1985 and it was here that he met his fellow villager, the scientist James Lovelock CH, CBE, FRS. He sold the house in 1985 on deciding to move to a Georgian mansion in Cornwall for £120,000 (the equivalent of £334,000, $441,000, €374,000 or درهم1.6 million today).
Consisting of 4 reception rooms, a kitchen with AGA, a conservatory, 5 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms the main house is described as “flexible” and “well-configured” and in addition there is a detached 1 bedroom cottage on the property’s 0.7 acre plot.
Featuring 9 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms, ‘The Owlwood Estate’ or more simply 141 South Carolwood Drive is described as “easily one of the city’s most iconic and historically significant properties.” Built in 1937 to the designs of Robert D. Farquhar in a “classic European Italian Renaissance” style, the estate was owned by Tony Curtis and Sonny Bono and Cher in the 1960s and has also been home to Joe Schenck, the first president of United Artists and a chairman of 20th Century Fox.
Now offered with designs for redevelopment by Bob Shapiro, the head of Sturmer Pippin Investments and CEO of Woodbridge Luxury Homes, the property offered also includes a sunken tennis court, a swimming pool and two guest houses.
Adam Rosenfeld of Mercer Vine is the realtor handling the sale.
The Owlwood Estate – The Numbers
July 2017 – Placed on the market for £136 million ($180 million, €153 million or درهم661 million).
September 2016 – Sold for £68 million ($90 million, €76 million or درهم331 million) to developer Bob Shapiro.
July 2012 – Placed on the market for £114 million ($150 million, €127 million or درهم551 million) by Dawn Arnall, “the widow of subprime mortgage profiteer Roland Arnall.”
2002 – Sold for £25 million ($33 million, €28 million or درهم121 million).
1999 – Listed for sale for £44 million ($58 million, €49 million or دره213 million) by Ghazi Aita complete with an adjacent property.
1978 – Sold to a “shadowy businessman” named Ghazi Aita for £3.2 million ($4.2 million, €3.6 million or درهم15 million).
1970 – Sold to Sonny and Cher for £568,000 ($750,000, €636,000 or درهم2.8 million).
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“One of Britain’s finest 20th-century country houses” has been placed for sale for £20 million; it comes with 530 acres and was built by the late businessman Sebastian de Ferranti in the 1980s
One could imagine being in the early 18th century or in Italy even on first taking a look at the Palladian style Henbury Hall, near Macclesfield in Cheshire. However, as Moliere said: “One is easily fooled by that one loves” and in reality this 12,496 square foot beauty was actually constructed between 1980 and 1986.
The vision of the buccaneer businessman and patron of the arts Sebastian de Ferranti (1927 – 2015) and based upon Palladio’s Villa Rotunda at Vizenza, the 6-bedroomed main residence stands on the site of an earlier mansion demolished in the 1950s. It was designed by the architect Julian Bicknell in conjunction with Felix Kelly and David Mlinaric, was constructed by Tarmac Construction and is faced with warm-toned limestone from north east France. The estate also includes a Grade II listed dower house, five further houses and cottages, a Grade II listed and stable block and courtyard.
The late Sebastian de FerrantiHenbury Hall during constructionA depiction of the original Henbury Hall in 1707The front elevation of the current Henbury Hall with parkland beyond
Aside from 12 acres of immaculate gardens with a series of lakes, there is a 200 year old landscaped park, woodland, agricultural land, a beautifully designed swimming pool, a tennis court and a polo field.
Selling agents Savills offer the Henbury Hall Estate as a whole for a guide price of £20 million – a world away from the £9,000 sum the estate sold for in 1872 (the equivalent of £934,000 today).
Dilapidated Grade II* listed South Yorkshire Georgian mansion Hickleton Hall for sale for a sum 25% lower than it was marketed for in 2014 but 185% more than it was valued at in 2016
Empty country houses become liabilities and in the case of Hickleton Hall in South Yorkshire, the result of years of neglect will likely be either further decline or conversion into flats.
A neglected and boarded-up Hickleton Hall, Hickleton, Doncaster, South Yorkshire, DN5 7BB in 2016
Offered for sale in 2015 for £2 million (at that time complete with its since separated stable block), this Grade II* listed Georgian stately home was built between 1745 and 1748 of limestone ashlar for a banker named Godfrey Wentworth. It was subsequently home to the Whig politician and Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Wood, 1st Viscount Halifax from 1846 to 1885 and then used by the army during the Second World War.
Converted first to a girls’ school in the 1940s, Hickleton Hall became a Sue Ryder Home in the 1960s. That closed in 2012 and in the years since fate has been anything but kind to the building. Described on a dedicated website as “eye-catching” but affected by subsidence and fissures caused by coal mining, the “asbestos riddled” structure has been targeted by vandals and thieves.
The 34,000 square foot building was valued at a sum of between £525,000 and £825,000 in 2016 but is now for sale for £1.5 million through agents Fisher German. Their marketing brochure – which uses images of the mansion in better times – lists it as now coming with just 14.72 acres of land and planning permission for conversion into 20 apartments.
Hickleton Hall – The Numbers
October 2017 – For sale for £1.5 million ($2 million, €1.7 million or درهم7.3 million) through Fisher German.
February 2016 – Valued at £525,000 to £825,000 ($693,000 to $1.1 million, €589,000 to €926,000 or درهم2.5 million to درهم4 million) by Christie & Co. Remedial work to restore the hall estimated at least £1.75 million ($2.3 million, €2 million or درهم8.5 million).
April 2014 – For sale for £2 million ($2.6 million, €2.2 million or درهم9.7 million) through Hamptons.
Derelict 18th century Oxfordshire mansion with 125 acres of land for sale for £10 million
A 125-acre Oxfordshire estate with Humphrey Repton landscaped grounds has gone on sale for £10 million ($13.2 million, €11.3 million or درهم48.7 million) in spite of being described as being “in poor order.”
The Coombe Park Estate at Whitchurch-on-Thames is situated at the end of a ¾ of a mile long private drive just 49 miles from Central London. Constructed in 1865, the original mansion was later demolished and what now remains consists of a 13,368 square foot house created from the original servants’ quarters, a coach house and an extension built in 1982.
Featuring 4 main reception rooms, an indoor swimming pool, 6 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms, Coombe Park itself “has been unoccupied a number of years” but now presents an opportunity for a buyer to unleash its “enormous potential” according to selling agents Strutt & Parker.
In addition to the main residence, there are three additional houses, an orangery, a coach house, offices, a sports pavilion, an indoor tennis court, stabling and a boat house included in the sale.
According to a blog from 2008, the estate – which was used by the American military as a rest and recuperation ‘flak house’ during the Second World War – has been in the ownership of an individual from Rotterdam since 1982. He is described as having now “sadly lost his fortune.”
Knightsbridge townhouse for sale for sum 11% lower than it sold for in 2011; it comes with a rather large hole in the garden that has been described as “almost as deep as the Führerbunker”
To the poet and wit Henry Luttrell (1765 – 1861) “eating pâté de foie gras to the sound of trumpets” was his idea of heaven. Now, a very wealthy buyer has the opportunity to acquire what some might consider the very opposite of such with the sale of his former home – complete with a 4-storey hole in its garden – in Knightsbridge.
Empty for many years and the subject of numerous critical articles about its dereliction in such titles as the Mirror and Daily Mail, Grade II listed 31 Brompton Square is on the market for £3 million less than it sold for in 2011. It was previously reportedly owned by the industrialist Lord Tanlaw and was also in the possession of the High Commission of Malaysia at some point.
Fraudster Achilleas Kallakis was undoubtedly the most controversial owner of the building
Philanthropists Dora and Mary de Beer (pictured with Esmond de Beer) were certainly more civilised residents
Baron Tanlaw of Tanlawhill reportedly owned the house for a period also
Aside from being home to the philanthropist sisters Dora and Mary de Beer (owners of the house between 1934 and 1981) and the Conservative Party politician the Hon. Michael Astor in addition, most controversially the property was bought by the now jailed businessman Achilleas Kallakis in the mid 2000s.
Kallakis – who in spite of demanding he be called ‘His Excellency’ and ‘The Don’ was actually simply “Britain’s biggest mortgage fraudster” – began work on a scheme to create what he termed a “pleasure palace” at 31 Brompton Square in 2005. He employed contractors to dig four levels down beneath what had been a pretty garden and commenced both authorised and unauthorised works to create what could still ultimately become a 22,000 square foot, 8-floor “trophy home.”
Construction stopped in 2008 after Kallakis’ arrest and in 2011, 31 Brompton Square was sold for £8 million more than sought to a Virgin Islands based company by receivers acting for Barclays Wealth. Said by locals to actually be owned at that time by a Dubai based businessman named Jonathan Hart, further planning schemes were submitted in October 2016 and now agents Savills seek £25 million for the unfinished building.
Of the sale, one near neighbour told The Steeple Times:
“This bastard of a basement has blighted this area of Knightsbridge for far too long.”
“We have feared subsidence might cause the hole to cave in since 2005 and now hope a new owner will rectify the mess left by the conman Kallakis. We simply want to be able to live out our years in peace and would like a nice, quiet family rather than a brash billionaire be the purchasers.”
September 2017 – For sale for £25 million ($33.9 million, €28.4 million or درهم125 million).
June 2016 – Predicted to be worth £50 million ($67.8 million, €56.9 million or درهم249 million) if iceberg extension were to be completed.
March 2011 – Sold for £28 million ($38 million, €31.9 million or درهم139.5 million) after a bidding war on an asking price of £20 million ($27.1 million, €22.7 million or درهم99.6 million).
An aerial view of the giant hole behind 31 Brompton Square
A closer view of the dormant site
The front elevation of 31 Brompton Square
A proposed floor plan for the building
A CGI image of a proposed design for a reception room within the existing building
A CGI image of a proposed design for a reception space in the proposed extension of the house
A CGI image of a proposed design for a reception space backing onto the garden
A CGI image of a proposed design for a swimming pool within the extension
Former San Francisco home of actor Nicolas Cage for sale for £11.4 million or 660% more than it sold for in 1996
Thrice married and an Academy Award winning actor Nicolas Cage is also known for lavish spending. Aside from once buying twenty-two cars in one hit – including a “squadron” of nine Rolls-Royce – he “wound up” owning fifteen personal residences in 2007 and now one of them is for sale for £11.4 million.
898 Francisco Street in San Francisco’s Russian Hill neighbourhood was purchased by a trust connected to Cage in 2006 for £6.9 million and sold by him in 2008 at a loss for £6.3 million. It was built in Gothic Tudor style in 1914, extends to 6,305 square foot and is spread over four floors.
The front door is an example of fine craftmanship within the house
As is the carving on this fireplace
Featuring 4 reception rooms, 6 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms, the house also has a 2-car garage and enjoys views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and the Bay Area. It has a garden to the rear and is adjoined by a further adjacent plot on Hyde Street that has potential for a further residence.
Debi Dicello of Sotheby’s International Realty has the listing and seeks either a total of £11.4 million for the entire property or £8.8 million for the main house and £2.6 million for the adjacent 40-foot by 60-foot lot.
898 Francisco Street – The Numbers
2017 – £8.8 million ($12 million, €10 million or درهم44.1 million) for the main house plus £2.6 million ($3.5million, €2.9 million or درهم12.9 million) for the adjoining plot.
2008 – Sold for £6.3 million ($8.5 million, €7.1 million or درهم31.2 million).
2006 – Bought by a trust connected to Nicolas Cage for £6.9 million ($9.4 million, €7.9 million or درهم34.5 million).
1996 – Sold for £1.5 million ($2 million, €1.7 million or درهم7.4 million).
Detached Grade II listed Georgian cottage in London, E13 for sale for just £180,000
What could be one of London’s cheapest detached Georgian houses is headed to auction.
Built in 1836 as the gate lodge to a now demolished mansion known as Bedfords and later The Willows, Grade II listed Willow Lodge in Willow Grove, Plaistow, E13 was itself originally thatched but now has a slate roof.
The rendered and whitewashed single storey freehold cottage, which provides one reception room, a kitchen, one bedroom and a bathroom, looks idyllic in close-up pictures but actually, sadly, adjoins a rather grim looking 1950s/1960s housing estate to the rear and a playground named the Valetta Grove open space to the front. It comes with a private rear garden and is described as “in need of modernisation.”
Plaistow London Underground Station is just two minutes away and a guide price of £180,000+ ($237,000+, €198,000+ or درهم871,000+) has been set by auctioneers Savills. They will sell the property on Monday 25th September at the Marriott Hotel in Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, W1.
Part refurbished Irish Georgian stately home for sale for just £136,000; it was originally built by the Fry family
What could be one of the cheapest Georgian stately homes ever has been placed on the market for just £136,000 ($179,000, €150,000 or درهم658,000).
Three storey, five bay, mid-18th century Frybrook House in the centre of the town of Boyle in County Roscommon, Ireland – the birthplace of Maureen O’Sullivan (Jane in the Tarzan movies) – stands in 3 acres of land beside the River Boyle
Frybrook House appeared to be in much better condition externally in the early 2000s
Described recently by The Times as a “hot stately home,” the 8 bedroom, 8 bathroom mansion was built for Henry Fry, a merchant from Somerset, after he established a weaving operation on the site in the 1740s. It was run as a bed and breakfast in the early 2000s and last offered on the open market for £309,000 – with additional land and properties – in 2015.
Period features include fine restored plasterwork, original cornicing, window shutters, marble fireplaces and roll top baths and though the property appears to be in some state of disrepair and dereliction, it is described as “partly restored and refurbished.” Sadly, pictures also show the setting is somewhat spoilt by a modern industrial building to the rear.
September 2017 – £136,000 ($179,000, €150,000 or درهم658,000) with 3 acres of land and various outbuildings.
July 2015 – £309,000 ($406,000, €340,000 or درهم1.5 million) with 6 acres of land, 4 houses on an adjoining street and a “period building” housing a café.
Kitsch San Francisco mansion turned private museum that houses everything from Hitler memorabilia to a portrait turned down by Prince Philip for sale for £9.5 million
The collection of a former advertising executive turned San Francisco based bon viveur named Robert C. Pritikin – better known as ‘Bob’ to his friends – includes everything from Hitler’s Swastika armband and his personal world globe (supposedly acquired by American soldiers at the end of the Second World War) to a portrait of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh of which the royal once proclaimed: “I bloody well wouldn’t hang it on the walls of Buckingham Palace.”
Pritikin houses these items – and others including a replica electric chair, a mural featuring the cult leader Jim Jones, an exact replica of Rembrandt’s ‘The Night Watch’ and an original J. M. W. Turner painting – in a totally eccentric neo-classical mansion in the Glen Park area of the city. He built the property in 1987 and though it provides 9,966 square foot of accommodation it is primarily designed as an entertaining space and museum rather than a conventional family home.
Bob Pritikin with the portrait Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh so loathedThe mansion-cum-museum Pritikin built in 1987 for his collection is now for saleArtworks in the building include a mock electric chairThere also many murals inside and outside of Chenery House
Now offered for sale for £9.5 million ($12.5 million, €10.4 million or درهم45.9 million) by the equally flamboyant realtor Joel Goodrich, Chenery House – or plain old 47 Chenery Street – has hosted guests including Liberace and Mickey Rooney. The building is dominated by a top floor swimming pool with glass retractable roof, a vast ‘showroom’ with adjoining display rooms but also comes with 5 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms. There is a 4-car carport, a garden cottage and a three unit building with two 2 bedroom units and one 1 bedroom unit.
Hidden from the street at its entrance and adjoining the Fairmount Elementary School on another, Chenery House stands on a 1 acre plot crammed to the brim with art pieces, murals and statues. It was offered by Pritikin to the City of San Francisco as an official mayoral residence in 2004 but after they declined he has since rented it for weddings and events.
In 2014, of living there, Pritikin remarked: “It’s a fun place to live. I would build the exact same house if I had to do it again, and in the unlikely event that I kick the bucket I intend to have my ashes buried here.” Though that will now unlikely happen, this true eccentric’s spirit will no doubt live on in spite of whoever eventually purchases what has to be one of America’s most whacky compounds.
