Tag: property

A Peaceful Reduction

Designer Reed Krakoff slashes the price of his Hamptons mansion; Jackie Kennedy Onassis spent her childhood summers there

A Hamptons mansion named Lasata – meaning: “Place of Peace” in Native American – where Jacqueline Bouvier (later Kennedy and later Kennedy Onassis) spent her childhood summers has recently been reduced in price from £41.5 million to £36.1 million.

121 Further Lane, East Hampton, New York, NY 11937, United States of America

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (1929 – 1994)

Reed and Delphine Krakoff – Mr Krakoff was at one time tipped as “the next Tom Ford” but reportedly “walked away” from his eponymous brand after supposed differences of vision for it with investors

Alternatively and more simply known as 121 Further Lane, the property concerned is situated in East Hampton and currently owned by the fashion designer Reed Krakoff and his wife Delphine. It extends to 8,500 square foot and includes 10 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms and stands on a plot of 11.54 acres.

Two blocks from the Atlantic Ocean and three blocks from the Maidstone Club, Lasata was built in 1917 to the designs of Arthur Jackson and bought by Jackie Bouvier’s paternal grandfather, John Vernou Bouvier Jr. (AKA ‘The Major’), in 1935. The future President’s wife is said to have learnt to ride there and aged ten, wrote a poem about her time at the estate:

When I go down to the sandy shore

I can think of nothing I want more

Than to live by the booming blue sea

As the seagulls flutter around about me

I can run about when the tide is out

With the wind and the sea all about

And the seagulls are swirling and diving for fish

Oh-to live by the sea is my only wish

The Arts and Crafts style property was subsequently sold and most recently bought by Mr and Mrs Krakoff for £15.3 million in 2007. The pair – whose other homes have variously included residences in Paris, New York’s Upper East Side and the former New Canaan, Connecticut residence of the eccentric recluse Huguette Clark – carried out extensive renovations and are said to be selling in order to move to a more contemporary beachfront Hamptons property.

Available as a whole or in two lots, Lasata is offered by Knight Frank.

121 Further Lane – The Numbers

April 2007 – Sold for £15.3 million ($20 million, €17.2 million or درهم73.5 million).

September 2016 – Listed for £41.47 million ($53.99 million, €46.44 million or درهم198.32 million).

May 2017 – Relisted for £39.9 million ($51.99 million, €44.72 million or درهم190.97 million).

June 2017 – Reduced to £36.1 million ($47 million, €40.4 million or درهم172.6 million).

July 26, 2017
Chim Chim Cher-ee, Chim Cher-oo!

North Yorkshire mill conversion with 120-foot chimney and cast iron water wheel for sale for £975,000

A converted mill in the Yorkshire Dales National Park has gone on sale for £975,000 ($1.3 million, €1.1 million or درهم4.7 million). It has not only its original 120-foot chimney still in-situ but also an original cast iron water wheel.

Spindle Mill near Embsay was built circa 1820 and now provides a 6 bedroomed family home, two adjoining cottages and various outbuildings. It stands in walled gardens and enjoys long distance views.

Agents Harrison Boothman have the listing and describe the property as: “Imaginatively planned” and “set amidst beautiful open countryside.”

July 25, 2017
Breaking For Gold

Thatched seaside cottage in West Sussex for sale; it has a plot laid out in the style of the Chelsea Flower Show Gold Medal winning garden of 1936

A thatched seaside cottage on what has been described as “the Sussex Riviera” has gone on sale for £3.25 million ($4.19 million, €3.67 million or درهم15.39 million) through agents Savills.

Having the look of something you might also find in the Hamptons in America, The Breakers on the Willowhayne Estate at East Preston, near Littlehampton was built in 1936 in the Arts and Crafts style and restored over the last nine years by the current owners.

Providing 6,006 square foot of accommodation over three floors, the house includes 4 reception rooms, 6 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms. It stands on a 0.75-acre beachside plot laid out in the plan of the winning garden at Chelsea Flower Show in 1936 and has an outdoor swimming pool – built in 2010 – also.

A neighbouring house, owned by one of the original question setters for the game Trivial Pursuit, burnt to the ground in January 2014.

July 9, 2017
A Slumping Square

Eaton Square penthouse offered for £825,000 or 30% lower sum than it was marketed for two years ago; it comes with several catches

A penthouse in Eaton Square, Belgravia has gone on sale for £1.925 million ($2.483 million, €2.178 million or درهم9.121 million) in spite of being held on a lease with just 16 years remaining and being in a building with a Blue Plaque to the paedophile politician Lord Boothby (1900 – 1906).

1 Eaton Square was home to Lord Boothby until his death in 1986

The fourth floor lateral flat – complete with colourful wallpaper and furnishings that would make even Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen blush – on offer at 1 Eaton Square spans two buildings and was previously offered for £2.750 million ($3.548 million, €3.111 million or درهم13.029 million) two years ago. It totals 1,202 square foot and includes a reception room, a dining kitchen, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a roof terrace.

For sale through Savills, the Grade II listed, portered apartment is subject to a service charge and ground rent totaling £10,000 per annum ($12,900, €11,300 or درهم47,400 per annum) also.

July 9, 2017
One Owner From 1840

Small country house in Derbyshire that has been in the same family since it was built for sale for £2.5 million

Owned by the same family since it was built in 1840 and occupied by them since the 1930s, Nether Hall at Hathersage in Derbyshire is to be sold for the first time ever with a guide price of £2.5 million ($3.2 million, €2.8 million or درهم11.9 million) through agents Savills.

The 9,301 square foot “small country house” on offer has been Grade II listed since 1985 and comes with 54.99 acres of land. It is currently home to businessman Michael Shuttleworth and his artist wife Lizzie and is built of coursed gritstone with ashlar dressings, coped gables and a slate roof. It includes 5 reception rooms, 7 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms as presently configured and comes with a gate lodge let on a protected tenancy and a 2-bedroom barn conversion.

Aside from additional outbuildings, the estate also includes 605 metres of fishing rights on Hood Brook, a walled kitchen garden, a grass tennis court and let farmland. A clause is being applied on the uplift in value in the event of any planning permission being granted within 25 years of the date of the completion of any sale.

July 6, 2017
Virgin Virginia

Unrestored Virginia estate owned by the same family since 1740 for sale for the first time ever

A 410.18-acre estate in Virginia that has been owned by the same family since 1740 has gone on sale for £1.53 million ($1.95 million, €1.75 million or درهم7.16 million).

Completely unaltered and on the National Register of Historic Places, Spring Grove in Milford, Caroline County is listed as a “fine example of Italianate architecture”. It centres around a residence that dates to 1856, extends to around 12,000 square foot and includes 26 rooms. There are said to be 8 bedrooms and 1.5 bathrooms and though the building is currently “not livable, with the exception of a small basement apartment”, selling agents Frank Hardy Sotheby’s International Realty describe it as “an architectural treasure ideal for a buyer seeking an authentic restoration project”.

Owned by the DeJarnette family, Huguenot emigrants to Virginia, the current house is the third property to stand on the site. It was built by Daniel Coleman DeJarnette (1822 – 1881), a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, and is now being sold by his descendants.

June 26, 2017
Pricey Pickhurst

130 acre Surrey estate with gardens by Arabella Lennox Boyd for sale for £28 million (or £13 million more than it was marketed for in 2013)

A Surrey estate has gone on sale for 87% more than in was offered for four years ago.

Featured in Country Life in 2013 whilst for sale for £15 million ($19.1 million, €17.1 million or درهم70 million) and on the market now for the much higher sum of £28 million ($35.6 million, €31.9 million or درهم130.7 million), Pickhurst at Chiddingfold, near Goldalming centres around a 15,430 square foot Grade II* listed mansion.

Built by the Scottish born architect J. M. Brydon for himself in 1885 in the style of Norman Shaw and most recently refurbished by developers Royalton, the main half-timbered house was originally much larger. Reduced in size in the 1950s, after a fire devastated its service wing, it now includes not only 6 reception rooms and 6 bedroom suites, but also a vast wine cellar, a belvedere tower and a home cinema.

A further 3 bedrooms and a “hot relaxation suite” can be found in an adjoining coach house and in addition to two further 3 bedroom cottages and a Grade II listed gate lodge, there is also a stable block, machinery barn and garage. In total, internal space extends to some 30,000 square foot.

Unusually for a property just 42 miles from central London, Pickhurst comes with 130 acres of land. Divided into formal gardens partly designed by Lady Lennox-Boyd and Chelsea gold medalist Fiona Lawrenson, woodland and pasture, there is also a 1.23 acre lake, a clay tennis court and an outdoor swimming pool. A family shoot on the estate is described as “regularly having 250 bird days”.

Selling agent, Trevor Kearney of Savills, is far from modest in talking about Pickhurst. In marketing material for the property, he gushes:

“This is the very best country estate that I have ever seen. Pickhurst is a best in class offering of unquestionable style and quality”.

Of the renovation works he carried out to the house, in 2013, West Sussex based architect Ian Adam Smith, commented:

“At the outset, the house looked as if it had been more or less chainsawed in half, yet, in spite of the fact that, before the fire, it was almost twice its size, local planning regulations would only allow us to extend the footprint by 40%”.

“And, with no plans and no service wing to work with, we had to more or less create an entire new country house within a Grade II* listed building bearing in mind all the restrictions that that implies. Luckily, I was given a free hand by my very fastidious client, and we were able to build a new entrance, incorporate a modern-kitchen/family-living complex, upgrade the bedrooms and bathrooms, install acres of walnut panelling and replace the existing cherry-wood flooring with oak parquetry”.

“With more than a nod to Lutyens, Webb and, in the gardens, to Gertrude Jekyll, we also reintroduced some interesting original features, such as the belvedere from where you can look out across the roofs of the many and varied Arts-and-Crafts houses that are a distinctive feature of Chiddingfold and the other villages in this wonderful part of Surrey”.

Current pictures of the property removed at request of Claire Basing Lawson of Savills, 23rd August 2017.

June 23, 2017
Going Dutch

Vast “architecturally rich” Knightsbridge apartment for sale for £8.5 million

A Knightsbridge triplex with a truly extravagant interior has gone on sale for £8.5 million ($10.9 million, €9.7 million or درهم39.9 million).

Spread over the ground, basement and first floors of a Grade II listed portered building in Pont Street, SW1X, the apartment has an impressive drawing room, a dining room, a study, 4, bedrooms, 4 bathrooms. It extends to 3,791 square foot and benefits from its own private entrance door and internal lift.

Offered by agents Russell Simpson, the property is within a semi-Dutch, semi-Queen Anne style building that dates to the 1870s. Its architecture was later termed ‘Pont Street Dutch’ by Sir Osbert Lancaster CBE (1908 – 1986) and was also referenced as being typical of “tall sparingly decorated red brick mansions for very wealthy occupants” by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner CBE (1902 – 1983). Whether an incoming purchaser will buy-to-live or, as is so often the case in this area of money park London, buy-to-leave remains to be seen.

June 18, 2017
Peaking in Pacific Heights

Indication of booming realty market in San Francisco provided in the form of a Pacific Heights pad offered for sale for 1,503% more than it sold 20 years ago

A detached house in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights that dates to 1906 has gone on sale for a sum £9.8 million higher than it sold for in 1997.

Subject to a seismic upgrade and renovated in 2013, 2370 Washington Street is located in the popular Fillmore corridor and situated on a 50-foot wide lot.

Aside from 4 reception rooms, 2 kitchens, 6 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms, the 7,965 square foot house features a media room, a wine cellar, an elevator and a 4-car garage.

2370 Washington Street is offered for £8.2 million by agents Neal Ward Properties.

The Numbers – 2370 Washington Street, San Francisco

Sold for $655,000 in 1997 (the equivalent of $999,000, £785,000, €893,000 or درهم3.7 million today) in 1997.

Sold for $1.68 million in 2012 (the equivalent of $1.79 million, £1.41 million, €1.60 million or درهم6.57 million today).

Asking price of $10.5 million today (£8.2 million, €9.3 million or درهم38.6 million).

June 15, 2017
Empire State of Knightsbridge

Penthouse with tower in prominent Knightsbridge landmark for sale for £8.25 million

A penthouse with a tower in a Grade II listed landmark triangular ‘flat-iron’ building on the border of South Kensington and Knightsbridge has gone on sale for £8.25 million ($10.51 million, €9.39 million or درهم38.62 million).

Created in 1991 to designs by Susan Walker Architects and involving the clever merger of two fourth floor flats as part of a £1.70 million scheme (the equivalent of £3.35 million, $4.27 million, €3.81 million or درهم15.68 million today), the 3,475 square foot apartment offered overlooks the Brompton Oratory and has a vista down the Brompton Road towards Harrods. It is within a building known as Empire House that was itself built between 1909 and 1916 to designs by Paul Hoffmann and was originally used by a German firm, the Continental Tyre Company.

Currently featuring a large reception room, a dining kitchen, 5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms and a laundry on the building’s fourth floor, a tower with domed reception space from the sixth to the seventh floors and a private roof terrace on its fifth floor, the apartment comes with planning permission for internal rearrangement.

Held on a leasehold basis expiring 2142 and subject to a service charge of £20,550 per annum ($26,187, €23,391 or درهم96,211 per annum) according to agents JLL, a buyer will also have to pay a one-off charge of £12,054 ($15,360, €13,720 or درهم56,434) towards the cost of refurbishing the portered building’s lift.

June 10, 2017