Moving on homes owned by the newsworthy – including a country house apartment in a castle currently owned by Jasper Conran and the childhood homes of Al Capone and Jackie Kennedy
Soppy Savills Fail to Salivate
https://vimeo.com/227878828
Jasper Conran OBE paid just £2.75 million ($3.43 million, €3.04 million or درهم12.61 million) for New Wardour Castle in Tisbury, Wiltshire in August 2010. The catch? He didn’t get the whole James Paine and Giacomo Quarenghi designed Palladian mansion, but as the Daily Mail’sAlexis Parr reported at that time he “captured” 23,185 square foot of a repossessed building divided into a total of ten flats. ‘Apartment 1,’ as the space the designer son of Sir Terence Conran currently owns is known as, includes 8 reception rooms, 6 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms.
Agents Savills could have enthused gushingly about the Grade I listed building and its spectacular 60-foot central rotunda, but instead they are simply seeking £3.95 million ($4.93 million, €4.36 million or درهم18.12 million) for what they underwhelmingly market as the “largest [apartment] in Wiltshire.” Conran would have done better to have appointed someone more akin to the late Roy Brooks we’d say – at least he’d have showed some flowery enthusiasm for this capacious crib.
From Electric to Insta
‘The James Seymour Mansion,’ the £37,000 ($50,000, €45,000 or درهم184,000) Gothic revival mansion in New York State The Steeple Times featured in December 2019, has finally got itself new owners after 204 submissions from across the world to buy it.
Creatively marketed by Michael DeRosa on behalf of the local authority after a property tax foreclosure, the 10-bedroom house on a 0.9-acre plot is situated in Auburn, Cayuga County – a place best known for being the gruesome location of the world’s first legal execution using an electric chair in August 1890.
Whilst the process of the death of “vegetable peddler and known alcoholic” William Kemmler (whom murdered his common-law wife in March 1888) was regarded as a “historic bungle,” all worked out well James and Katie Joynt and their seven children. The family – whom currently manage an Amish co-op in Pennsylvania – will spend around £123,000 ($155,000, €136,000 or درهم565,000) restoring the house according to New York Upstate and are going to take the crumbling house into the 21st century whilst documenting their journey on Instagram.
Going Gangsta
Of a New York “multi-family townhouse” at 21 Garfield Place, North Slope in June 2017, the New York Post quipped: “A Brooklyn homeowner hopes a mob of buyers will take a shot at this town house.” That property was sold for £1.94 million ($2.42 million, €2.14 million or درهم8.89 million) in early 2018 to an Emmy award winning television producer named Steven Kalifowitz and is now again for sale, this time for £2.3 million ($2.9 million, €2.6 million or درهم10.7 million).
Agents Douglas Elliman neglect to mention that the 2,980 square foot building – which is “currently configured as an owner’s duplex with two spacious one bedroom apartments above” – was a childhood home of the gangster Al Capone (1899 – 1947) in the early 1900s. 21 Garfield Place previously sold for a “little more than £800,000 ($1 million, €885,000 or درهم3.7 million)” according to The New York Times in July 2006 and now looks anything but like a bootlegger’s workplace; there’s even a child’s playroom in the basement.
Anything But A Discount Holiday
Those looking to escape to the Hamptons post-lockdown could do worse than purchase the childhood summer home of the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (1929 – 1994) – if they’ve got £6 million ($7.5 million, €6.6 million or درهم27.5 million) going spare.
Built in 1895, Wildmoor at East Hampton extends to 4,291 square foot and has 6 bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms. It’s on the market through Paula S. Bulter of Sotheby’s International Realty and also noteworthy is that an art studio on the property was used for many years by the Abstract Expressionist artist Adolph Gottlieb (1903 – 1974).
Gottlieb purchased the shingled house on a 0.92-acre plot in 1960, but interested buyers should note that the current décor scheme is definitely a bit passé. As Kennedy herself once said: “It looks like it’s been furnished by discount stores.”
Matthew Steeples questions why Alan Dershowitz is getting so enthusiastic in his defence of the vile paedo procurer Ghislaine Maxwell
Those of us that knew the late Claus von Bülow (1926 – 1929) and those that watched Reversal of Fortune – the superb film portrayal of his two trials in connection to his alleged attempted murder of his heiress wife Sunny in 1980 (she eventually died after having been in a coma for over 27 years in 2008) – will of course recall his association with the rookie lawyer Alan Dershowitz.
In that film, Dershowitz is portrayed as a man who fights for the underdog; he’s a hero (in spite of whom he is defending), in fact. Now, years after morphing into a fully-fledged member of the establishment, it seems, this civil libertarian has sadly moved to the ‘dark side.’
In an article for the Spectator USA, published on Thursday, titled: “The Ghislaine I Know,” Dershowitz enthusiastically droned on about how he and his wife were “introduced to Ghislaine Maxwell by Sir Evelyn and Lady Lynne de Rothschild.” He continued: “We subsequently met her… generally in the presence of prominent people such as Bill and Hillary Clinton, Nobel Prize-winning scientists, presidents of universities, and prominent academic and business people” (thus hinting that this made the paedophile procurer actually ‘respectable’).
Dershowitz – himself a man accused, but not convicted, of offences linked to Epstein and Maxwell – demanded ‘Bouncing Bob’s’ daughter be “like every other arrested person, she must be presumed innocent” (which is fair enough), but then proceeded to trash victims the monster Epstein had already been convicted of abusing.
Continuing with his “everyone should keep an open mind about Maxwell” angle, the lawyer illustrated himself to be utterly out of touch. As the financier Euan Rellie, described as “a British investment banker who knew Maxwell in both London and New York” in a Vanity Fair article about Thursday’s arrest, tweeted Friday: “This guy @AlanDersh is protesting way too much.”
Pictured top: Ghislaine Maxwell with Prince Andrew at Royal Ascot in 2000; Alan Dershowitz with Jeffrey Epstein at Harvard in 2004.
Another friend coming to the ‘Murky Mucky Madam Maxwell’s’ defence – Ghislaine Maxwell’s “friend” Christopher Mason told the ‘New York Post’ on Saturday: “Do I think she’s in danger. Yes. In a way, I can’t imagine her ever giving up Prince Andrew, but if it’s life imprisonment with no hope of parole, it might be tempting. She of all of those people knew who slept with whom and [which young girl] was assigned to whom.” Mr Mason – who has performed songs in honour of Donald Trump and Kim Kardashian’s arse – continued: “I’m sure she has access to the videos. A lot of powerful people will be more than a little worried. I hope [Maxwell won’t] end up like Epstein. I’m a little worried about that. I think she’s in danger. There is too much power involved if she really talks.”Fresh from being interviewed by ‘Vanity Fair’s’ Mark Seal about Ghislaine Maxwell on Thursday, Eton and Cambridge educated financier Euan Rellie took to Twitter on Friday in the wake of Alan Dershowitz’s ‘Spectator’ article. He quite correctly observed: “This guy @AlanDersh is protesting way too much.”A Rolodex like no other – Ghislaine Maxwell’s tentacles reached everywhere. This octopus like woman is pictured here at a dinner in Miami Beach, Florida hosted by the controversial New York real-estate tycoon Aby Rosen (centre) with the fashion designer Calvin Klein (left) amongst fellow guests.
Alan Dershowitz was played by Ron Silver in the 1990 American drama film ‘Reversal of Fortune’ with Jeremy Irons as Claus von Bülow and Glenn Close as Sunny von Bülow. The 111-minute film grossed £12.3 million at the box office and was lauded for its “exceptional performances” and “cunning script.”
After a ritzy New York penthouse goes into contract for a sum 64% lower than it sold for in 2014 during a government orchestrated fire sale, the building’s board go crackers
A 5,955 square foot penthouse in New York’s 328-foot tall Walker Tower that sold for £41.2 million in 2014 went “into contract” recently for just £14.78 million much to the chagrin of the building’s other residents. The story of this massive 64% ‘discount’ echoes that of another penthouse we featured in April – that went on the market for a sum 48% lower than in 2012.
Built in 1929 by Ralph Walker (1889 – 1973), a man described as “the architect of the century” by TheNew York Times and “the only other honest architect in America” by Frank Lloyd Wright, the Walker Tower was intended to be “as modern as the telephone activity it houses.” It originally was used by the New York Telephone Company and subsequently partly converted to provide 47 condominiums in 2013 by JDS Development Group.
With units ranging in size from 1,100 to 6,500 square feet in size, Penthouse One is one of the largest. It includes 5 bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms and aside from a kitchen that reportedly cost £200,000 to install, there are 3 wood-burning fireplaces and a 500 square foot private terrace.
Of the penthouse, during a 7:58 minute tour he conducted in April 2019, self-declared “YouTuber and adventure filmmaker” Erik Conover remarked:
“Penthouse One is widely considered to the most exclusive penthouse downtown in all of Manhattan… This [is] a one of a kind luxury apartment… You feel like the king of the kingdom here… I have no words for this place, it’s hands down my favourite apartment I’ve toured.”
Speaking to Conover, realtor Shaun Osher, CEO of Core NYC, predictably went into overdrive with gushing praise of the unit:
“The sky is the limit here… One of the great things about this apartment is that you separate public space from private space… The back of the house is not too shabby either… All of the views are protected forever… When guests come, their jaws will hit the floor.”
Now, according to Mansion Global, a “battle is brewing” over Penthouse One – which is being sold on behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice in the wake of being seized as part of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal – as other residents have sought to stop the sale and “buy the condo [themselves] for the same sum, then relist it for more.”
Speaking on their behalf, David Berkey, an attorney for the condo board, remarked:
“The contract price can only be described as steeply distressed and unrealistic and one which could adversely affect the market value of other homes at Walker Tower. The board is acting in the best interests of all Walker Tower owners by exercising its right of first refusal to ensure that its value is recognised.”
A resident of the building, Vickey Barron, added:
“We’re all scratching our heads saying, ‘How did this happen?’ What we’re talking about is almost 70% discount. It’s almost like a sample sale. Walker Tower is not a sample sale.”
Bizarrely Ms Barron, herself a realtor with the Compass Group, sold the apartment back in 2014 when she worked for Douglas Elliman Real Estate. At the time, she gushed to The New York Times: “I feel like I blinked and I sold it… This was a man [the buyer] who knew what he wanted and had the money to pay for it.” He plainly passed due diligence back then – somewhat, with hindsight, one might argue most surprisingly.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the building – which has a lobby concierge, landscaped common roof deck, yoga room, sauna and a ‘library lounge’ with a bar for the use of residents – Penthouse Two is currently listed to rent by Knight Frank. They seek £69,000 per month for the 6,700 square foot space.
Ironically, whilst Ralph Walker shot himself with a silver bullet he had forged himself in 1973, whomever next overpays for Penthouse One at Walker Tower might well be taking a bullet in terms of misfortune for their wallet.
The Names & Numbers – Penthouse One, Walker Tower, 212 West 18th Street, Chelsea, New York, NY 10011, United States of America
June 2020 – Penthouse One goes “into contract” for just £14.78 million ($18.25 million, €16.33 million or درهم67.02 million), a discount of 64% on its sale price in 2014.
April 2019 – Penthouse One marketed at a price of £28.3 million ($35 million, €31.3 million or درهم128.5 million) by Shaun Osher of Core NYC.
2013 – Units in the residential conversion are listed for sale, with the highest priced penthouse priced at £47.8 million ($59 million, €52.8 million or درهم216.7 million). According to Wallpaper in November 2013, Penthouse One sold “after less than a month on the market.” It comanded a sum of £41.2 million ($50.9 million, €45.5 million or درهم186.9 million) on an asking price of £44.5 million ($55 million, €49.2 million or درهم292 million).
2016 – Of the building, realtor Vickey Barron, who purchased a unit there herself ultimately, remarked: “You don’t need to give its address. You just say ‘Walker Tower’ like ‘the Plaza’ and people know what you’re referring to.”
2013 – Construction completed with the residential units given their own entrance at 212 West 18th Street separate from the commercial space, entered at 17th Street.
2011 – Construction commences on the scheme.
2009 – Part sold for conversion to 53 residential units, the number is later reduced to 47 in total. The buyer was Michael Stern, managing partner of JDS Development Group whilst Verizon, the sellers, kept the lowest eight floors.
In January 2016, of his buy, Stern told Multi Family Executive: “I had to be dragged kicking and screaming to see it, back in 2009, when a broker called… But I went up to the roof and was astonished by the unobstructed views. It was the tallest building in Chelsea, since it had been built before zoning limited heights… [It was the] most complex residential conversion I’ve undertaken, and ever may.”
1929 – Constructed to the designs of Ralph Walker as a telecommunications centre and offices. The building is described as “of concrete-encased steel frame” and reflecting “the importance of its era’s telephone technology.” It featured chevron-patterned brickwork and what was termed a “wedding cake setback.”
As art fraudster Inigo Philbrick is arrested and dragged onto a private plane by the FBI, his on-off lover ‘Made in Chelsea’s’ Victoria Baker Harber shows no sympathy for victims; meanwhile fellow art conwoman Angela Gulbenkian has been deservedly detained in Lisbon
‘Mini Madoff’ Inigo Philbrick, ex-Jay Jopling employee and on-off squeeze of gobby ‘Made in Chelsea’ participant Victoria Baker Harber, snared in Vanuatu, Oceania last Friday.
Philbrick had bizarrely spent his time as a fugitive from justice petting “abandoned” dogs.
Fellow socialite and art fraudster Angela Gulbenkian, whose victims include Chelsea based interior designers Percy Bass, snared on the same day in Lisbon.
She traded on her loose connections to one of the richest families in the world, the Gulbenkians. Connected foundations and museums consistently have denied any association with the German born crook.
The two con artists are unconnected in terms of their nefarious activities and victims named thus far, but their paths may likely have crossed given the social circles they operated in and around.
‘The Talented Mr Philbrick’ was how one art newspaper somewhat cornily lauded Inigo Philbrick in the wake of this dastardly double dealer being exposed as a Madoff of the art world. He was snared in Vanuatu in Oceania last Friday whilst on Tuesday in Lisbon, fellow trader-on-a-well-known-name Angela Gulbenkian was taken into “preventative detention” to be extradited back to the UK.
Speaking to The Steeple Times on Friday, Jane Morris, managing director of acclaimed Walton Street interior designers Percy Bass remarked:
“Angela Gulbenkian came to Percy Bass to get her flat decorated. We did the work, but never got paid. She forged a bank transfer note pretending to be part of the Gulbenkian Foundation. Percy Bass had a judgment against her, but she fled abroad.”
Now, in addition and facing charges relating to a £1.1 million ($1.4 million, €1.2 million or درهم5 million) Kusama pumpkin sculpture and a £115,000 ($142,000, €127,000 or درهم522,000) Warhol print of Queen Elizabeth II and the theft of £50,000 ($62,000, €55,000 or درهم227,000) from a woman named Jacqui Ball, 38-year-old socialite Gulbenkian is ludicrously still claiming to be an “art collector” and linked to what she lists as the “Gulbenkian Private Art Collection” on Instagram. She is, in fact, even by her own admission, the owner of “just three works of art” and the daughter of an optometrist from Munich, Germany.
Angela Ischwang (as this shameless swindler was born) supposedly moved to London in the early 2000s to study politics. She subsequently met and married Duarte Gulbenkian, the great-grand nephew of the one-time richest man in the world Calouste Gulbenkian, and went into the art business in around 2016.
Listing herself as someone who “brokers high end arts works” through “valuable contacts,” this crooked conwoman – whose suggestions of links to the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation have been firmly denied by the trustees of those organisations – Gulbenkian is surprisingly linked to only one dissolved company, Doctor Duve Medical Skin Care Ltd. of Southwark Bridge Road, SE1.
Charged in relation to the Kusama pumpkin sculpture and the money stolen from Ball in May last year, Angela Gulbenkian was released on unconditional bail in September 2019 after appearing at Southwark Crown Court. She then failed to appear in May 2020 and a European Arrest Warrant was issued for her arrest. Now, ‘Awful Ange’ – as an embarrassed former friend told us she now calls her – will be rightly returned to face her comeuppance and this time she’ll be unlikely to get bail.
Philbrick meanwhile – who was until recently subject to ‘Where’s Wally?’ like speculation since having disappeared off the face of the planet after last being seen with his brash Made In Chelsea motormouth on-off lover Victoria Baker Harber in Australia in late 2019 – was found last Friday in Port Vila, Vanuata, an island nation in the South Pacific.
“Grabbed” by a mix of uniformed and ununiformed cops, the “startled” 33-year-old crook and estranged son of museum director Harry Philbrick – was “hustled” into a police car and taken to the local airport reported Artnet News on Wednesday. “A large Gulfstream jet was waiting on the tarmac” and this, “under instructions from the FBI,” flew him to New York.
Facing allegations of theft, misappropriation, borrowing money against artworks he did not even own and selling overlapping shares of artworks, Ponzi-like pillock Philbrick had supposedly been hiding out in a “house of an expat who died in a tragic accident.” Bizarrely, he had been busying his days helping “abandoned” dogs and of him one local remarked: “He was always calling me about an animal he found.”
Now in chains for his crimes against amongst others the Reuben family, Philbrick faces not only a real-life trial but also further exposure in the media. One-time friend, but ultimately a victim of the shameless scammer, art writer, curator and dealer Kenny Schachter this week wrote:
“I have no doubt that Inigo will capitalize on our collective financial misfortune and turn it into a multimedia bonanza for himself. As far as my own movie and documentary projects, for which deals will be announced shortly, all I want and/or expect is that they make good on part of the money Inigo took from me.”
Meanwhile last Sunday, dippy dope Victoria Baker Harber showed no regret for her association with Philbrick – a man who ferried her around in a private jet at the expense of others – in retweeting an attack on Schachter by someone named ‘Koogs’ on Twitter on 14th June. They opined: “Who quotes themselves?? Get over it! Your wife is a billionaire! Are you crying about cash or cock?”
Though at around £16.2 million ($20 million, €17.9 million or درهم73.5 million) Inigo Philbrick’s total scam is far bigger than Angela Gulbenkian’s, the effects are the same for the victims of these high society crooks: May the authorities now chuck the book at this rotten pair of ratbags.
Pictured top – Con artist Angela Gulbenkian appeared at Southwark Crown Court in September 2019 “in a blue dress decorated with silver stars and black Christian Louboutin high heels” according to ‘Metro’ (right); art fraudster Inigo Philbrick poses looking startled as television screen loving terror Victoria Baker Harber attempts to look sexually provocative.
Aided by their surnames –Inigo Philbrick duped the art world and the use of the surname he shares with his estranged art curator father certainly aided him in his ‘endeavours’; Angela Gulbenkian traded on her connections to the legendary art collecting, billionaire Gulbenkian family also.You’re snared! – A newspaper frontpage chronicling Inigo Philbrick’s detainment; social media users mocked the former fugitive with one joking: “OK bye now!”The ultimate deceiver – In March, Angela Gulbenkian posted an image accompanied by the caption: “Life is art!” on her Instagram page. She hashtagged it with amongst other things #letsgofar and #successfulwomen, but neglected to add the truth about herself: “My life is the art of deception!” is what it should have read.No sympathy for Philbrick’s victims – Victoria Baker Harber took to Twitter on 14th June to retweet an unpleasant comment mocking one of her on-off lover Inigo Philbrick’s victims, Kenny Schachter.Living the high life – Inigo Philbrick liked private jets and swilling champagne in the company of amongst others Victoria Baker Harber; he’s now getting used to porridge.
Crumbling Northamptonshire estate Lilford Hall – where the little owl was introduced to Britain – for sale for £10 million, a sum £35 million lower than in 2014
Grade I listed Jacobean mansion with 13 chimney stacks for sale for £10 million; it was for sale last for £44.9 million in 2014 in spite of being listed on English Heritage’s ‘At Risk Register.’
Lilford Hall – parts of which have not been occupied since 1947 –is currently owned by a businessman who tried to sell burial plots in the grounds for £1,250 a pop and shares in a yacht loosely associated with Frank Sinatra for £23 each.
The 321-acre estate includes not only overgrown parkland, but also a zoo with cages that formerly housed bears and a lake for flamingos.
From 1711 until 1990, Lilford House was the seat of the Powys family – the 4th baron is credited with introducing the little owl to the UK.
More recently, in 1969, the “sexual mystic” artist Penny Slinger used the at-the-time derelict mansion in one of her best-known works.
A 32,406 square foot Grade I listed Jacobean mansion 82 miles from Central London has gone on sale for £10 million – or the equivalent of just £308 per square foot.
On this basis, Lilford Hall – set in 321 acres near Oundle – seems a comparative bargain when considered against the £4,786 per square foot sought for a Lennox Gardens, Knightsbridge triplex flatThe Steeple Times featured in May, but buyers need to remember this – parts of this crumbling building, most notably the major state rooms, have not been used since 1947.
Marketed last in 2014 for the even more punchy sum of £45 million, the “exceptional residential and amenity estate located on the River Nene,” is now offered by agents Savills. The “wonderfully proportioned” U-shaped mansion itself is constructed of grey limestone and includes over 100 rooms and amongst them are 7 “impressive” reception rooms, a ballroom, a ‘great chamber’ and 9 bedrooms. In addition, there are two Georgian pavilions that were formerly coach houses and stabling, three cottages, a former zoo, the oldest private softball court in the world, a former flamingo enclosure and a deer park.
“Impressiveness in the chief attribute of Lilford Hall as a specimen of architecture” claimed County Life in 1990 and as the seat of the Powys family from 1711 until 1990, it became not only a Downton Abbey-esque entertaining pad, but also housed nurses in the Second World War. Here, indeed, is an English country house that has seen lavishness and decline and thankfully here is an example that thankfully escaped the wrecking ball wrought so disgracefully on such houses in the 1950s and 1960s.
Fascinatingly in the 1880s, Thomas Powys, 4th Baron Lilford filled his aviaries on the estate with rheas, kiwis, pink-headed ducks, free-flying lammergeiers and it was from here that he also introduced the little owl into the UK. There are said to be around 5,700 breeding pairs today, but sadly, according to the RSPB, their numbers are now in decline.
More recently, in 1969, “sexually erotic” performance artist Penny Slinger took over the by then “derelict” mansion in conjunction with the filmmaker Peter Whitehead. Their resulting work, titled An Exorcism, was exhibited internationally and in 2004, after the current owners, Charles and Aziza Micklewright, acquired the house, they did something equally avant-garde; they attempted to sell burial plots in the grounds to Americans by citing the estate’s connections to the founder of the Brownists, Robert Browne – a man better known as ‘The Father of the Pilgrims’ and ‘The Grandfather of the Nation’ (of the United States of America).
Whilst Mr and Mrs Micklewright were lauded for their considerable efforts towards the “huge task” of restoring Lilford Hall, they came to the attention of Historic England in May 2019 when the building was listed on the At Risk Register. At that time, the Oundle Chronicle reported: “The roof covering is in poor condition leading to water ingress and distress to the upper storeys. The front bays require structural attention. A schedule of urgent repairs has been identified but not implemented, and no long-term solution has been agreed.”
Now, someone with very, very deep pockets is required to restore this gem. It would be helpful if they liked erotic art, bears, squash and owls also.
The Names & Numbers – The Lilford Hall Estate, Lilford, Oundle, Peterborough, Northamptonshire, PE8 5SG, United Kingdom
June 2020 – The estate is listed sale for £10 million ($12.5 million, €11.1 million or درهم46 million) through Savills. It includes 321.31 acres, of which 148.17 acres are pasture land whilst 157.48 acres are woodland. The majority of the estate is held on a freehold title, whilst the remaining 127.6 acres – known as ‘The Linches’ and ‘Lilford Woods’ – are held on a lease with 91 years remaining.
2015 – Promoted as ‘The National Memorial Gardens,’ burial plots in the gardens of the hall were offered “available to any UK resident or national for an outstanding price of only £1,250 ($1,568, €1,393 or درهم5,758)” by Mark Bailey of Harley Investments. Around the same time, a website dedicated to Lilford Hall marketed “a piece of the formal gardens” for sale for £299 ($375, €333 or درهم1,377) to include “an officially certified ‘Squire of Lilford’ [title] … with this little piece of history.”
March 2014 – The Irish Times reported that the asking price for the estate had been increased to £44.9 million ($56.3 million, €50 million or 206.8درهم million). They claimed the agents Coldwell Banker blamed “confusion over currency conversion rates and new instructions from the owner.”
April 2014 – The Lilford Hall Estate is listed for sale through Coldwell Banker on MyHome.ie for £33.7 million ($44.2 million, €37.5 million or درهم155 million) on behalf of “an English gentleman.”
2004 – The estate is acquired by the Micklewright family. Little information is available online about the Old Framlingham Charles Micklewright (born July 1958), but he is described as a “patent attorney” on Companies Houses pages. The businessman is mentioned also as a publisher and trustee of the Marsh Christian Trust elsewhere, whilst his Singaporean born wife, Aziza (born 1964), was a director of Lilford Properties Limited from 2013 to 2018.
A website operated by Sign of the Times Limited, a Hong Kong company of Lilford Hall, Lilford, Oundle, Northamptonshire, PE8 5SG, currently offers shares in a yacht named ‘Sinatra the Voice’ for £23.91 ($29.99, €26.64 or درهم110.14) per share. The boat was built in 1956 and is tenuously linked to Frank Sinatra by the fact that a one-time owner, Beale Poste, loaned it occasionally to the crooner between 1968 and 1974 in West Palm Beach, Florida.
1990 – The estate is closed to the public.
1980s – The house is used as a location in the BBC English Civil War inspired historical drama series By the Sword Divided.
1970s – Aviaries on the estate restocked by George Powys, 7th Baron Lilford (1931 – 2005). He “opened [the estate] to the public as a leisure park” and housed more than 350 birds of 110 species there. It remained thus for around 20 years and included a restaurant and shop. The aviaries and the 1,896 square foot restaurant building remain present still today.
1969 – 1970 – American British “sexual mystic” artist Penny Slinger (born 1947) and Liverpudlian filmmaker Peter Whitehead used the “derelict mansion” as the setting for their works An Exorcism and Lilford Hall. They are lauded as a “photo romance” and exhibited at the Blum and Poe Gallery in Los Angeles in 2014, at the Haywood Gallery in London in 2015 and at the Fortnight Institute in New York in 2019.
1949 – Stephen Powys, 6th Baron Lilford (1869 – 1949) died without having married or having had children. His properties aside from Lilford – a house in Mayfair, Bank Hall in Lancashire and the Bewsey Estate in Cheshire – passed to his second cousin twice removed.
1947 – The estate is sold to a company named Merchant Ventures by the Powys family (though they remain present on the estate until 1990).
1939 – 1945 – During the Second World War, the parkland of the estate was used as a military hospital for nearby airfields. From 1949 to 1954, some of the buildings constructed during this period were then used as a Polish school.
1923 – First-class Northamptonshire cricketer Major John Powys, 5th Baron Lilford (1863 – 1945) built the first private softball court in the world in the grounds of the hall. It is now in disrepair and the roof has fallen into the inner court.
1909 – 1910 – The hall was extended in the Edwardian manner including the provision of a new master bedroom with dressing room and bathroom by William Dunn and Robert Watson of Dunn & Watson.
1901 – The estate surrounding the hall reaches its largest size and totals a vast 8,000 acres of land. Around this time, Queen Mary, wife of King George V, is said to have visited the gardens.
1880s – Ornithologist and expert on the fauna of the Balearics Thomas Littleton Powys, 4th Baron Lilford (1833 – 1896) introduces the little owl into England on the estate. His aviaries were said to “feature exotic birds from all around the world” and a species of European lizard, the Lilford’s wall lizard (Podarcis lilfordi), is named in his honour. The 4th baron is repeatedly mentioned in the works of Charles Darwin for his contribution to the study of the science of evolution.
1840s – Further changes to the building are orchestrated by the architect William Gilbee Habershon (circa 1818 – 1891). The Campaign to Protect Rural England described these Victorian extensions as “sensitive” in 2006 – a rare accolade given most additions to English country houses during this period were simply brash and vulgar.
1740s – The Palladian architect Henry Flitcroft (1697 – 1769) adds “outstanding” Georgian interiors whilst “respecting the hall’s Jacobean exterior.” He “softened and brightened” the building as a result and also “constructed the Georgian pavilions and additional storeys to the east end of the two wings.” Other works by Flitcroft can be seen at Bower House in Essex, Wentworth Woodhouse in Yorkshire and Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire.
1711 – Lilford Hall is sold to the judge and Tory politician Sir Thomas Powys (1649 – 1719), Attorney General to King James II. Powys is best remembered for conducting the prosecution of the Seven Bishops in 1699. He is buried at Lilford.
1630s – Construction of the main exterior of what to this day remains Lilford Hall as a “Jacobean-style gentry house” by William Elmes (the younger).
1473 – The land that forms the estate is acquired by William Browne (1410 – 1489), a wealthy wool merchant and landowner from Stamford, from the estate of Baron Welles (who was beheaded by King Edward IV for treason). In 1495, “in a Tudor style,” he built a hall on the site and it passed to Robert Browne (1550 – 1633), the founder of the Brownists, ‘The Father of the Pilgrims’ and ‘The Grandfather of the Nation’ (of the United States of America).
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
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?”
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.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.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.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.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.
White woman Kris Schatzel caught posing with a ‘Black Lives Matter’ sign in a “slutty” outfit is exposed as a clickbait crazy ‘Protest Barbie’
“Stop treating the protests like Coachella pt. 17” raged ‘Influencers in the Wild’ of a white woman posing for her personal photographer with a ‘Black Lives Matters’ sign on a Zebra crossing. She was wearing what The Independent far too generously termed a “black floaty gown” in a video of the incident, posted on Twitter on Friday.
The woman’s dress – which most certainly “looked more like a slutty slapper’s sloppy seconds” and left little of her cleavage to the imagination – attracted great interest from the 157,000 followers of the account. With 15.7 million views, 400,000 likes and 6,600 retweets within 24 hours, here was an example of the social media loving millennial generation at its very worst.
This morning’s Mirror subsequently named and shamed the “model” as Kris Schatzel and the photographer as Mila Voyna. The paper claimed the Russian had generated “mass outrage” and then after declaring: “This is a huge misunderstanding!!! Later I will explain everything an [sic] apologise!” Schatzel unsurprisingly decided she wanted privacy and deleted her Twitter account.
“Clickbait crazy” is the only description suitable for this abhorrent woman and her ridiculous behaviour. May she now please disappear permanently.
Observations about Kris Schatzel elsewhere online included:
“The opposite of feminism. Go read a book.”
“Put some clothes on hoe!”
“What an ugly woman. In all senses.”
“She’s not an influencer. She’s an ignoramus.”
“She’ll be making merchandise branded with ‘Black Lives Matters’ on it next.”
“Send her back to Putin. Or give her to Donald. Both like Soviet trollops.”
“A shame for her Jeffrey Epstein isn’t still around. Just his type. Get her on the Lolita Express.”
“Is that Ghislaine Maxwell hiding behind that camera? Now we know where you’ve been Ghis!”
“She needs attention. Attention in the mental asylum. Lock her up and throw away the key!”
“Shop her. She’s probably an illegal. Get her back on a boat to Russia. Mind you, they would probably just send her back too.”
“Oh no…. oh no. Look at her. Uh-uh. This is bulls**t.”
“Her parents must be insanely proud of what they’ve produced.”
“Did she consider looking in a mirror before going out in that filthy piece of rag?”
“She is absolute trash… Kris Schatzel should be cancelled.”
“I think Kris Schatzel will need to find a new ‘career’ after this. Any brands associated with her from now on need to get dragged.”
“I hope she has talents other than posing, pouting and getting her tits out cause she is gonna need to a find a real job after this.”
“Protest Barbie… She needs to get a little lesson in oppression.”
“Her face needs to be seen… Just horrible… She’s not an influencer… She’s a loser with no respect for others.”
“Kris Schatzel, you’re a jackass. ‘I speak four languages, none of which is empathy’ sums her up.”
Pictured top: Kris Schatzel flashes her leg whilst posing with a ‘Black Lives Matters’ sign indicating utterly no interest in anything other than promoting her sorry self as genuine protestors look on in shock.
Kris Schatzel – The girl in the video has now made her Instagram account private. On its introduction she boasts: “Made in Russia, influencer/youtuber/model, I’m Kris and I speak 4 languages.” One of them is most certainly not tact.In this image, Miss Schatzel seems keener on getting her bra out than on in the cause in hand.Twitter user @Amelia_mcJ rightly summed up how people should react: “I dare say Kris Schatzel is CANCELLED!”
Entitled Hamptons brat Jonathan Davis exposed for allegedly squatting during the coronavirus lockdown; it turns out he’s a realtor with NestSeekers
Jonathan Davis is the founder of the Hamptons Brewing Company and the son of a self-declared “power broker” realtor named Tim Davis. Aside from also being a property agent and claiming to have been “born and raised” in the summer colony that the wealthy of New York flock to, on Friday, he was exposed as something else – Mr Davis has now been outed as a pesky squatter who allegedly doesn’t pay his rent and goes around wrecking other peoples’ homes.
In March, Davis, a graduate of Lynn University “with a passion for business,” featured in an interview with Fox Business in which he bragged about how much business he was doing because of the coronavirus pandemic. In the typically brash style expected of a privileged preppy prat and speaking on behalf of his bosses at the NestSeekers brokerage, he declared:
“Rental season is starting earlier now. Instead of Memorial Day, it’s 1st April… It’s a very proactive time… There is just more room to breathe out here and families feel safer… It’s not a bad environment to be quarantined.”
According to Inside Edition, completely modest to his core “like father, like son, greatness never dies” Davis – whom according to his broker profile has sold properties priced as high as £9.3 million ($11.5 million, €10.3 million or درهم42.2 million) and pompously lauds himself as a “well-regarded agent” selling “a lifestyle, not just a dream home” according to posts on his Twitter handle – has himself taken advantage of the pandemic at the expense of someone who rented him a house.
The “prominent real estate agent” and “alleged squatter,” the syndicated news-magazine reports, rented a 3-bedroom property in Sag Harbor from Paula Rosado and now “refuses to move out.” Davis is alleged to owe £12,100 ($15,000, €13,500 or درهم55,100) and has supposedly allowed his two German Shepherd dogs to “tear apart” the building and urinate all over her rugs and “couches” [sic]. Windows are reported broken also and of the situation, Rosado moaned: “It’s horrific. It really is just horrific… This has been a complete nightmare for us, for our family emotionally and financially.”
When confronted by Inside Edition’s cameras, Davis refused to comment. His lawyer, meanwhile, angrily stated: “I’ve got no comments except: GET ORF THE GROUNDS!”
The Steeple Times contacted Jonathan Davis and his bosses at NestSeekers – CEO and founder Eddie Shapiro, Bridgehampton salesperson Dylan Eckardt and associate broker Peggy Zabakolas – for comment on Saturday. They all failed to respond by 11am GMT Monday and thus provided illustration of the “ethics, integrity, loyalty, education, ingenuity and courage” by which Shapiro’s firm operates by. Allow NestSeekers into your home at your peril.
Pictured top: Jonathan Davis looking annoyed alongside his ritzy Land Rover Discovery and a police officer.
The home rented to Jonathan Davis by Paula Rosado.The gardens of the Sag Harbor property now resemble something inhabited by Stig of the Dump. They were supposedly immaculate prior to Jonathan Davis moving in.Property owner Paula Rosado spoke to ‘Inside Edition’ to share her frustrations.On the Instagram page for his brewing company, Jonathan Davis declares: “A good time starts here.” As can be seen from this image, a good time is not being had by his caged dogs.Jonathan Davis’ unnamed legal representative made quite a scene, when asked for a comment.Mr Davis, however, surprisingly for a mouthy realtor, had little to nothing to say.Davis does like to brag about his supposed successes on his NestSeekers broker profile though. One Hamptons local we approached commented: “I wouldn’t trust him with a garden hoe.”
Rare photograph of Winston Churchill dining with Edward VIII to be sold as part of a sale on the eve of the 80th anniversary of him becoming Prime Minister
Offered as part of the ‘Churchill in Charge – 80th Anniversary’ sale that concludes tomorrow, Wednesday 20th May, Sotheby’s New York is auctioning online a photograph signed by both Winston Churchill and Edward VIII.
Part of a collection built up over 37 years by Chartwell Booksellers, the independently owned Manhattan bookstore “home to the world’s finest selection of rare Churchilliana,” the framed 10-by-8-inch image was taken on the 28th February 1925 at a farewell dinner for Frank Kellogg, the retiring American Ambassador to Great Britain at the Hotel Victoria, London.
In a reversal of roles, Edward, Prince of Wales is the one whom appears to be scowling in the picture whilst Winston Churchill, for once, is the one smiling.‘The Steeple Times’ has previously featured items of Churchilliana available at auction. In January 2014, an unsmoked cigar and a cigar stub collected by Sir Winston Churchill’s care nurse whilst he was in the Middlesex Hospital in London in July 1962 sold for £812 ($993, €906 or درهم3,648).
Also in the image alongside ‘Our Smiling Prince’ (as Edward, Prince of Wales – as he then was – was nicknamed) and ‘Our Scowling PM’ (as the then Chancellor of the Exchequer Churchill became known) are Ambassador Charles Kellogg (US ambassador from 1924 to 1925) and William Grenfell, Baron Desborough.
Of the lot and the evening the photograph was taken, Sotheby’s remark:
The dinner was convened by The Pilgrims of Great Britain society, whose motto appears on a framed sign behind the table: “Hic et Ubique” (“Here and Everywhere”). The Pilgrims society was founded in 1902 “to promote good-will, good-fellowship, and everlasting peace between the United States and Great Britain.”
Winston Churchill was serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer to Conservative Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin at the time of this photograph. Baron Desborough was an athlete of renown in Great Britain, as well as a politician, and the president of the Pilgrims society. His wife, known as “Ettie,” was one of England’s great society hostesses, a leading figure in the social group “The Souls,” entertaining luminaries at their country house, Taplow Court, such as H.G. Wells, Vita Sackville-West, Oscar Wilde, and, of course, the Prince of Wales and Winston Churchill. The couple lost two sons in the trenches during World War I, including Julian Grenfell, a noted war poet.
The Prince of Wales would ascend to the throne upon the death of his father, King George V, in January 1936. He and Winston Churchill were longtime friends. Churchill almost destroyed his own political career attempting to ward off abdication and save Edward’s crown. In the end, he failed. Edward VIII renounced the throne on December 9, 1936 to marry his commoner love, Wallis Warfield Simpson.
A starting bid of £12,245 ($15,000, €13,695 or درهم55,088) has been set for the photograph along with a high estimate of £19,588 ($24,000, €21,907 or درهم88,140). As of this morning, there have been no bids for the lot.
Private island just 75 miles from New York for sale for just £650,000; it could make an ideal downsize from Necker for Sir Richard Branson
Created from pink granite bedrock that once formed hilltops prior to the last ice age, the 365 islands that form The Thimbles in Connecticut are mostly uninhabited rest stops for migrating seals.
With 81 houses across the 23 inhabited islands, 14 of those isles have only a single residence on them and now someone with £652,000 to spare can join past residents who’ve counted President William H. Taft and purchase one named Jepson Island.
An aerial shot of Jepson Island.
Only accessible by boat from the nearby village of Stony Creek, Branford the tiny 0.77-acre island is dominated by a 962 square foot “contemporary vacation” bungalow with two bedrooms and a bathroom. It has power from a generator and passive solar power, mains ‘city’ water and is offered for sale fully furnished.
Situated just 75 miles from New York City, Jepson Island is described by agents William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty as “the ultimate easy, nearby escape.”
The Names & Numbers – Jepson Island, Branford, Connecticut, CT 06405, United States of America
May 2020 – Jepson Island is offered for sale for £652,000 ($800,000, €737,000 or درهم1.2 million) through William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty. Two other islands available include 0.77-acre Wheelers Island at £2.4 million ($3 million, €2.8 million or درهم11 million) and the 1.04-acre Belden Island at £1.2 million ($1.5 million, €1.4 million or درهم5.5 million).
2016 – Offered for sale as part of an “eight island deal” for £63.5 million ($78 million, €71.9 million or درهم286.5 million) by owners Edmund and Christine Stoecklein.
Late 1990s to early 2000s – Christine Stoecklein, widow of John Svenningsen (president of the party goods manufacturer Amscan Holdings Inc), bought a number of the Thimble Islands for a total of £24.4 million ($30 million, €27.7 million or درهم110.2 million).
