Flat in Onslow Gardens, South Kensington available to rent for the same cost as a week on the Joe Wicks diet through chi-chi estate agents Knight Frank; there is, of course, a catch
In 1928, Sir Noël Coward wrote and sang: “A room with a view, Who’s fooling who?” and estate agents Knight Frank could certainly be asked that of a “lovely” raised ground floor rental apartment they are currently marketing in Onslow Gardens, South Kensington.
Sadly, however, the flat is lacking one detail most would desire: There is no private bathroom. Of such, the “painfully honest estate agent” Roy Brooks (died 1971) might have taken a different view. He would likely have suggested: “Of course, Chelsea has good public baths,” but rather than being just “a room with a view,” whoever takes this compact crib will instead just be getting “a bathroom with a queue.”
Eaton Square apartment in a Grade II* listed building that has been home to both Bond star Sir Roger Moore and aristocrat-who-went-missing Lord Lucan for sale for staggering sum given it is on a lease of just 15 years
Best known for playing the British secret agent James Bond in seven feature films from 1973 to 1985, Sir Roger Moore KBE (1927 – 2017) once remarked: “I enjoy being a highly paid actor.” He added: “It’s easy to sit in relative luxury and peace and pontificate on the subject of the Third World debts,” though in his various homes in such places as London, Monaco and Switzerland, he certainly illustrated that he took the bit about opulence seriously indeed.
Now, someone with aspirations to live like “the definitive Bond” has the opportunity to purchase an apartment in an Eaton Square building where not only he resided, but one that was also a childhood home of the most famous aristocrat to go missing ever, the 7th Earl of Lucan (born 1934, last seen alive in 1974, declared dead in 2016).
John Bingham, better known as ‘Lucky’ or Lord Lucan, is said to have returned to London from wartime exile in New York in February 1945 with his siblings to find: “As they walked past their home at Cheyne Walk, they realised the whole building had been bombed. Their other family home at 22 Eaton Square had no windows due to the blow of a bomb and rationing was in full swing.”
The apartment available now has windows complete with actual glass in-situ and is situated in what was once a single-family residence. It extends to 927 square foot and consists of a reception room with open plan kitchen, two bedrooms, one bathroom and one shower room. There are wooden floors throughout and the space has air conditioning also.
The fourth floor flat at 22 Eaton Square is offered by estate agents Ayrton Wylie at a price of £795,000 ($1 million, €914,000 or درهم3.7 million) or the equivalent of £53,000 per year ($66,700, €60,900 or درهم244,800 per year). Its lease expires on the 23rd February 2035 and an annual service charge of £6,779 per year ($8,526, €7,791 or درهم31,313 per year) is payable also.
A classic ‘rags to riches’ tale is that of Penny Streeter. Born in what was then Rhodesia, this police superintendent’s daughter came to England when she was 12 and worked on Margaret Thatcher’s Youth Training Scheme and in Pizzaland at the age of 16. She went into business with her mother at 22, went bust and after ending up living in a homeless refuge with her children, worked her way back and launched what has become A24 Group, a healthcare recruitment agency in 1995. By 2002, this hard-working woman’s company was the “fastest-growing company in the UK” and in 2019, she was listed as being worth £208 million in The Sunday Times ‘Rich List.’ Streeter and her husband now own a vineyard in South Africa and a winery in Horsham, West Sussex. We say: Cheers to her!
Manhattan mansion listed for 77% less than in 2014 as part of a “bankruptcy sale;” it is situated on a street featured in Billy Joel’s ‘Close to the Borderline’ that was once termed: “Bloody, Bloody Beekman Place: Where the Wealthy Wind Up Dead”
On 10th April 1936, Good Friday, a writer named Nancy Titterton was found dead in her bathtub at the home she shared with her husband at 22 Beekman Place in Manhattan. She had been raped and strangled by an upholsterer’s assistant, John Fiorenza, who had ironically repaired a loveseat for the couple. The case of the ‘Beauty in the Bathtub’ ended with Fiorenza’s conviction and execution at Sing Sing on 22nd January 1937, but for Beekman Place this was not the first nor last murder.
Aside from the killing of Dr Fritz Gebhardt, an industrialist and associate of Hermann Göring, by his lover Vera Stretz in a hotel in the street on 12th November 1935, on 4th January 2015, a Princeton graduate named Tommy Gilbert, Jr. shot his financier father in the head at his apartment at 20 Beekman Place. Prior to committing the murder, after a row about his monthly allowance, the 30-year old had sent his mother out to buy him a can of Coca Cola and a sandwich. As a result of these series of slayings, in January 2015, the Daily Beast ran an article about the street with the headline: “Bloody, Bloody Beekman Place: Where the Wealthy Wind Up Dead.”
The naked body of 33-year-old Nancy Titterton was discovered in her bathtub at 22 Beekman Place on 10th April 1936; “Pampered Ivy-leaguer” Tommy Gilbert, Jr. was sentenced to 30 years to life in jail in September 2019 for murdering his father, Thomas Gilbert, Sr. in his apartment at 20 Beekman Place in January 2015.Owners of 29 Beekman Place – Mary Lasker, William S. Paley and Princess Ashraf Pahlavi.
Now, for altogether different reasons, the street – whose more ‘happy’ residents have included variously not just the Second Lady of the United States, Happy Rockefeller, but also Prince Aly Khan and A&P supermarket heir Huntington Hartford – Beekman Place is making headlines once again.
Whilst the asking prices of properties are often reduced, the case of 22 Beekman Place is an extreme one. Built in 1934 for William S. Paley, the man who “turned CBS from a small radio network into the foremost radio and television network in the United States,” and owned subsequently by a philanthropist and then the twin sister of the Shah of Iran, the house was placed for sale for the plainly extremely over-ambitious sum of £40.2 million in February 2014.
In the period since, the nine floor, 12,260 square foot “trophy mansion| has yo-yoed on and off the market and now after being listed as a “BANKRUPTCY SALE!! Excellent Value – Price Reduced to Sell!!” has just reappeared for ‘just’ £9.2 million.
Described by Curbed New York as having “truly lovely architectural details” and an oval-shaped dining room that has been frequented by “heads of states and foreign dignitaries from all over the world,” the red brick and limestone property has 10 bedrooms and 9 bathrooms. Additionally, it includes 1,500 square foot of outdoor space in the form of two private terraces, a chef’s kitchen, a wine cellar, a lift and a banquet hall.
Agents Compass laud 29 Beekman Place as being “designed with grand scale entertaining in mind” and suggest it “appropriate for a private mansion, live/work, a foundation, or an ideal consulate or diplomat residence.” They add: “Do not miss this opportunity to purchase a piece of New York history,” (but unsurprisingly don’t mention any of the infamous murders in the neighbouring buildings).
The Names & Numbers – 29 Beekman Place, Midtown East, Manhattan, New York, NY 10022, United States of America
April 2020 – Relisted for £9.22 million ($11.45 million, €10.58 million or درهم42.05 million) through Compass as a “bankruptcy sale.”
September 2019 – Relisted for £11.7 million ($14.5 million, €13.4 million or درهم53.3 million) through Compass.
October 2017 – Relisted for £22.5 million ($28 million, €25.9 million or درهم102.8 million) through Sotheby’s International Realty.
January 2016 – Relisted for £27.4 million ($34 million, €31.4 million or درهم124.9 million).
May 2015 – Relisted for £30.2 million ($37.5 million, €34.7 million or درهم137.7 million) through Douglas Elliman.
February 2014 – Listed for £40.2 million ($49.9 million, €46.2 million or درهم183.3 million) through Brown Harris Stevens.
Mid 1970s – Sold to Princess Ashraf Pahlavi (1919 – 2016), the twin sister of the Shah of Iran.
1940s – After Mr and Mrs Paley divorced, the house was first rented to and then bought by the philanthropist Mary Woodward Lasker (1900 – 1994). She lived there with her second husband, advertising executive Albert Lasker (1940 – 1952), and remained there after his death until circa 1975.
1934 – Built for the “notorious womaniser” and first CEO of Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), William S. Paley (1901 – 1990) and his first wife Dorothy Hart Hearst (ex-wife of John Randolph Hearst).
Ruined Moroccan fortress fit for the most lavish of bashes for sale for £5.3 million; it may be “spectacular” but it most certainly doesn’t have Wi-Fi
Billionaires like Morocco. The late Malcolm Forbes (1919 – 1990) lavished the equivalent of £4.1 million today ($5.1 million, €4.7 million or درهم18.7 million today) holding his 70th birthday at his property, Palais Mendoub, there in 1989. Guests – many of whom arrived by Concorde even – numbered Gianni Agnelli, Mario Buatta, Betsy Bloomingdale, King Constantine of Greece, Walter Cronkite, Diane von Furstenberg, Sir James Goldsmith, Calvin Klein, Dr Henry Kissinger, John and Patricia Kluge, Robert and Dr Betty Maxwell, Lucky Roosevelt, Elizabeth Taylor and Barbara Walters and boy did the food and drink flow. Of the fat bash, the New York Social Diary gushed: “It was a party festooning in ballyhoo, in glitter and glamour and illusion, comparable to Truman Capote’s Black and White Ball twenty-three years before in New York.”
Gone are the days of lavish bashes on the scale given by Malcolm Forbes (and gone are all those pictured) – Malcolm Forbes with his ‘date’ Elizabeth Taylor and the since exposed for what he truly was ‘media monster’ (and father of the equally repugnant paedophile procurer Ghislaine Maxwell), ‘Bouncing Bob’ Robert Maxwell and his long-suffering wife Dr Betty Maxwell.The Concorde used to transport guests to Tangier has also passed on – a technological step backwards if ever there was.
Now, someone looking to throw an equivalently extravagant party once lockdown is over (and once they’ve lavished a small fortune renovating it) in Morocco, could acquire a 32,292 square foot space in what agents Kensington Properties call a “high up… striking position overlooking the River Nfis.”
Going further of the £5.3 million ($6.5 million, €6 million or درهم23.8 million) fortress, they add of Kasbah Tagountaft: “[It] is considered one of the most memorable sites of historical significance in Morocco” and was “once the home of the powerful Caid of the Goundafa tribe who vied for control of the Atlas Mountains at the end of the 19th century.”
Whilst little else is described in the marketing material for this “absolutely stunning property, full of potential,” one thing’s for sure: Anyone with a requirement for working Wi-Fi when they arrive on site, need not apply.
Duplex penthouse in The Ritz-Carlton New York Central Park for sale for £39.7 million or a sum 48% lower than in 2012; it’s currently home to an Argentine tango dancer whom moonlights as a financier and has a ‘ballroom’ in a colour scheme that would make Katie Price blush
Built in 1930 to 1931 to the designs of the Hungarian-Jewish architect Emery Roth (1871 – 1948), 50 Central Park South – a building formerly known as the St. Moritz Hotel – has been variously owned by Harry Helmsley, Donald Trump, Alan Bond and Ian Schrager. In 2002, as part of a remodelling, the building reopened as The Ritz Carlton New York, Central Park and now one of the ten apartments that subsequently were created in the upper part of the building is again for sale.
Occupying the 34th and 35th floors, a “horseshoe-shaped” unit described as ‘Penthouse 34/35’ totals 6,405 square foot including roof terraces. It was first configured as a 4 bedroom and 4.5-bathroom unit, but was reconfigured after being purchased by the Harvard educated founder of Gamechange Solar and CEO of Barron Group Holdings, Andrew Barron Worden, in 2006 into a 3 bedroom, 3.5 bathroom property with a 40-foot long ‘great room’ that has been used for “very, very frequent entertaining” and a 49-foot ‘solarium’ above.
Andrew Barron Worden and the exterior of The Ritz-Carlton New York Central Park, 50 Central Park South at the south-east corner of Sixth Avenue, Midtown West, New York, NY 10019.The main reception room of Mr. Worden’s apartment is lauded as a “grand ballroom” and measures 42” in length and 24’7” in width. If it were a person it’d be a “cross between Katie Price and Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen” and is adjoined by a library.Guests at parties in the space are said to have included Russell Simmons – the businessman and music executive now in exile in Bali (after being accused of multiple sexual assaults).
Worden, described as “a ballroom dancer – Argentine tango, to be precise” in an article in The New York Times in August 2012, supposedly spent £5.7 million transforming the space and then tried to sell it for the very ambitious sum of £77 million that year. He did not succeed and again placed it on the market for £39.7 million last August.
Other owners of the ‘residences’ at 50 Central Park South have variously included the hedge fund tycoon Scott Bommer, the financier Howard Marks and the casino mogul Steve Wynn.
Agents Christie’s International Real Estate are currently marketing the “fully soundproofed” penthouse and describe it as an “heirloom unit” that could be “easily converted back as per the approved architectural plans.”
The Numbers – Penthouse 34/35, The Ritz-Carlton Residences, 50 Central Park South, New York, NY 10019, United States of America
August 2012 – Listed for sale for £77 million ($95 million, €88.1 million or درهم349 million) by Dianne Weston of Halstead Property. At the time, she claimed the owner “understands the metrics of the market.”
“Late 2000s” – Supposedly underwent a “renovation” costing £5.7 million ($7 million, €6.5 million or درهم25.7 million). Of this, The New York Times remarked: “[The apartment was subject to a] complete renovation, designed by the architectural firm Gustavson/Dundes, which gave the space a very contemporary look, including a sleek steel and glass staircase with treads that can be lighted from below.”
2006 – Sold to Andrew Barron Worden for £16.2 million ($19.95 million, €18.5 million or درهم73.4 million).
The dining room is said to have “magnificent views.”There is a chef’s kitchen also.The 35th floor ‘solarium’ leads onto a vast 700-square-foot terrace beyond.A view of the ‘residences’ at 50 Central Park South from Central Park.The floor plan “as is.”The floor plan of the 34th floor “as could be.”
Empty Gothic church in Kelso, Scotland for sale for just £130,000; it was home until 2006 to the conspiracy theorist Dean Warwick – who collapsed and died on stage at a UFO conference in Blackpool mid speech
“Alternative energy pioneer” Dean Warwick (1944 – 2006) believed 9/11 was a “farce.” This controversial crackpot claimed he had been trained in the military to bring down the Twin Towers using satellite waves in the mid-1960s and that he also categorically knew exactly who JFK’s murderer was.
Whilst “going on and on and on” at Probe International’s paranormal conference in Blackpool, Lancashire on 7th October 2006 about these matters and “children having their skin eaten whilst they were still alive in the New Forest” and about how he knew who the “real” killers of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were also, Warwick supposedly announced: “Bear with me for a moment.” He then “leaned with his left elbow on a nearby table with his right arm across his body, and then fell flat on his face. Shortly afterwards he was pronounced dead.” Fellow conspiracy cranks (including David Icke) later claimed: “This was an Intelligence agency ‘hit’ using an ELF (Extremely Low Frequency) weapon,” but this was never ultimately proven true.
Warwick had, for about twenty years, lived in the heart of the national hunt racecourse town of Kelso in the Scottish Borders. Here, along with his actress wife Jean, he occupied in a Gothic church and now that building, North Trinity Church is once again for sale.
After Dean Warwick collapsed on stage in Blackpool, Lancashire on 7th October 2006, one fellow conspiracy theorist present observed: “When Dean collapsed on the floor a woman witnessed a man with dark hair slip out of the hall. She followed this man who then proceeded to walk down the stairs whistling merrily to himself, get into a car and make a phone call. He was then seen laughing down the phone to whoever he was speaking to. Who walks out of a hall whistling happily to themselves and then starts laughing down the phone after a man has just collapsed and stopped breathing on stage?”Bulgarian businessman Kirk Kirchev paid £80,000 for North Trinity Church, Kelso in November 2018 and intended to use £35,000 of his mother’s savings to restore the building.
Recorded as having changed hands in August 2014 for the sum of £45,000, the 6,877 square foot building was again sold in November 2018 for about £80,000 to a Bulgarian businessman named Kirk Kirchev. Of his purchase, in December 2019 talking to Borders TV, the camping tent manufacturer turned face mask retailer remarked:
“I saw the church online and thought this is amazing… It was very cheap, nobody wanted to touch it, the windows were boarded up… When I got in, it was dark, scary with pigeons circling in the main hall, but I could see that it had the soul, the spirit, the sort of magic, that, that bought me.”
“I’ve done 90% of the work I needed, I’ve made it usable. It’s still retaining its derelict and magical look… People think I’m crazy: It’s a given, but I think this place needs someone crazy to take it on because otherwise it will simply fall apart.”
“[When it’s finished” I hope it’ll be a great venue and the focal point of the town. It has a lot of potential as a gathering place for people. I am kind of surprised why people don’t see this because it’s right in the middle of town, it’s got car parks all around, it’s great for a venue and all it needs is a little bit. I think people like the character and all it needs is to be made safe and legal and certified and all that.”
Standing on a site extending to 0.4 acres, Mr Kirchev plainly has decided not to proceed further with his project to find another use for this former religious building. North Trinity Church is now on the market for £130,000 through agents Ballantynes and could be used for residential or commercial purposes. No doubt, however, local residents very much hope another Dean Warwick type doesn’t turn up with yet another conspiracy theory; that, indeed, would be even worse than the shameful local councillors who proposed pulling down this beautiful Category B listed building last November.
The Names & Numbers – North Trinity Church, East Bowmont Street, Kelso, Roxboroughshire, Scotland, TD5 7JH, United Kingdom
April 2020 – For sale for £130,000 ($163,000, €150,000 or درهم597,000) through agents Ballantynes.
November 2018 – Sold to Bulgarian born Kirk Kirchev for £80,000 ($100,000, €92,000 or درهم367,000).
December 2017 – Offered for sale as a “development opportunity” for £75,000 ($94,000, €86,000 or درهم344,000) by Edwin Thompson.
August 2014 – Sold for £45,000 ($56,000, €52,000 or درهم207,000).
2011 – A community organisation, The Future Kelso Group, attempted to convert the church into a community hub. These plans did not come to fruition.
2006 onwards – The building “fell into disrepair” after the death of the New Zealand-born conspiracy theorist Dean Warwick during a UFO conference in Blackpool on 7th October 2006 aged 62. The building had been home to him and his actress wife, Jean, for “over 20 years.”
1885 – 1886 – Built to the designs of architect John Starforth for use as the Kelso United Presbyterian Church on the site of a previous church that was built in 1788. Prominent features are said to “include a four-stage angle buttressed tower over the gable porch to the southern end of the building; lanceted belfry; gabled transepts: and decorative detailing to ridge tiles to main roof. The tower is flanked by two-storey circular stair towers with slated conical roofs, each with side entrances.”
Famous ‘Seven Sisters’ cottage in Montauk for sale for 30% less than in 2016; the ‘Gilded Age cottage’ was designed by Stanford White, an architect whose murder famously led to the ‘Trial of the Century’ from 1907 onwards
Montauk has variously been associated with part-time residents such as the playwright Edward Albee, the world’s largest Ponzi scheme operator Bernie Madoff and the artist Andy Warhol. It was a place that the Algonquian speaking Montaukett Native American tribe called home until one Arthur W. Benson (circa 1798 – 1889), the president of the Brooklyn Gas Light company, came along in 1879 and purchased 10,000 acres there for just $151,000 from the American government.
“Land baron” Benson soon after sold half his acreage to the Long Island Rail Road for $600,000 and then set about turfing out the natives and creating a “playground for the rich.” As part of his plan, he ordered the construction of seven “shingle-style” homes that came to form a 100-acre compound for use as a “private hunting and fishing retreat for him and his friends.” They became known as the ‘Seven Sisters’ and one of them is currently for sale through Sotheby’s International Realty.
Designed by Stanford White (1853 – 1906) – a “lauded architect” whom became more famous for being shot and killed by the deranged railroad heir Harry Thaw (1871 – 1947) – the property offered is said to be known as ‘Andrews House.’ It is more commonly listed, however, as 153 Deforest Road and its date of construction has been put at as early as 1879 and as late as 1888. The ‘cottage’ reportedly first belonged to Benson’s friend, a writer and one of the founders of both the bibliographic Grolier Club in Manhattan and the Society of Iconophiles, William Loring Andrews (1837 – 1920).
William Loring Andrews, architect and murder victim Stanford White and Harry Thaw in a ‘gilded’ jail cell.The Andrews House, 153 Deforest Road, Montauk, New York, NY 11954, United States of America – a ‘Seven Sisters’ cottage that has seen its asking price reduced from £14.8 million in 2016 to £10.4 million in 2020.
Remodeled and expanded in 1992 by the well-known Hamptons architect Francis Fleetwood (1946 – 2015) and updated yet again in the 2010s, 153 Deforest Road today extends to some 3,800 square foot in total. The house stands on a plot of 2.3 acres and accommodation includes a sunken living room, dining room, library, 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms and a second floor veranda “with mesmerising views that always inspire.”
In 2016, when priced at £14.8 million, Mansion Global remarked: “The property comes with plans for a future expansion by [the renowned classical] architect Allan Greenberg,” but plainly such has made little difference to attracting interest. Four years later, 153 Deforest Road’s asking price has been slashed to ‘just’ £10.4 million and rather strangely its interior colour scheme is entirely in a depressing shade of grey.
The artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel, comedian and talk show host Dick Cavett are amongst others to have lived in ‘Seven Sisters’ houses. One, Tick Hall, was destroyed by a fire in 1997 and then completely rebuilt; what happens to the ‘Andrews House’ remains to be seen.
The Names & Numbers – The Andrews House, 153 Deforest Road, Montauk, New York, NY 11954
July 2019 – It is further reduced to £10.4 million ($12.995 million, €11.9 million or درهمX47.7 million) through Sotheby’s International Realty.
June 2018 – It is reduced to £12 million ($14.995 million, €13.7 million or درهم55.1 million) through Sotheby’s International Realty.
February 2018 – It is relisted for £13 million ($16.25 million, €14.9 million or درهم60 million) with Sotheby’s International Realty.
August 2016 – The house is listed for sale for £14.8 million ($18.5 million, €17 million or درهم67.9 million) with Douglas Elliman.
2012 – 153 Deforest Road is sold to a limited liability company for £5.6 million ($6.995 million, €6.4 million or درهم25.7 million).
1992 – 153 Deforest Road is renovated and remodeled by the Chilean born architect Francis Fleetwood (1946 – 2015) – a man described as a “popular East Hampton, New York–based architect [of] romantic country houses” by Architectural Digest in April 2015. Fleetwood’s well-known clients numbered Lauren Bacall, Calvin Klein and Paul McCartney and of them, he once told The New York Times: “They’d all love to be born into a grand old house that had been handed down through the generations… [And, he added, surely with a grin]… So would I.”
Between 1879 and 1888 – 153 Deforest Road was built as a home for the writer and librarian William L. Andrews (1837 – 1920). It formed part of a group of houses known as the ‘Seven Sisters’ and was known as ‘Andrews House.’
1879 – Arthur W. Benson (circa 1798 – 1889) successfully bids $151,000 or the equivalent of £3.2 million today ($4 million, €3.7 million or درهم14.7 million today) for 11,000 acres of land around Montauk in an auction. He then cleverly sold half the land for $600,000 or the equivalent of £12.8 million today ($16 million, €14.7 million or درهم58.8 million today) to the Long Island Rail Road and kept the remainder as his “private playground.” The legitimacy of the ownership of Benson and others of Montauk remains the subject of legal actions by the Montaukett Native Americans to this date.
Blow to British racing as Sheikh Fahad places his Longholes operation in Newmarket, Suffolk up for sale for £6 million to spend more time in California
Billed as a place for “preparing champions” and run by a “dedicated team” focused on pre-training and rehabilitation, Longholes was founded by the Accrington born “playboy” textile heir and racehorse breeder Sir George Bullough (1870 – 1939) in the 1920s and bought by Sheikh Fahad in 2013.
Sheikh Fahad Bin Abdullah Al Thani chats with David Redvers in 2016.Sheikh Fahad wiht his brothers Sheikh Hamad, Sheikh Suhiam and Sheikh Khalifa.Sheikh Fahad and his wife Sheikha Melissa with the late Roaring Lion.Sheikh Fahad won the Corinthian Challege at Leopardstown on the Gordon Elliott trained Brutal in October 2017.
Comprising of 217 acres of paddocks, schooling grounds and a 6-furlong gallop, the “renowned Newmarket stud farm” – which is 16 miles from Cambridge and 70 miles from London – includes not only 88 boxes, but also what has been described as a state-of-the-art “feel good factor” spa with hydro and water treadmill facilities amongst other things. There is a stud manager’s house, a guest cottage, a pair of staff bungalows and a pair of workers’ log cabins also.
“Sheikh Fahad purchased Longholes in 2013 with a view to turning the attractive and historic stud farm into a state-of-the-art pre-training and rehabilitation establishment servicing the requirements of his own Qatar Racing and also the wider training centre of Newmarket. Seven years later and Longholes boasts an incredible array of modern facilities, an outstanding team of committed and highly trained professional staff and a client list that boasts many of the most recognised names in horse racing, eventing and show jumping.”
“Sheikh Fahad is proud of what has been achieved at Longholes but a change in his own personal circumstances means that the farm’s exciting future now needs to be in another’s hands.”
Speaking to Nick Luck of Racing TV in April 2019, Sheikh Fahad remarked:
“We love horses, we’ve grown up with horses, me and my brothers. The idea was always to build something for the future, hopefully the long-term future, for generations to come. I’d like to see my kids grow up into a dynasty of breeding operations, of racing operations that they can take on from there.”
“I watched I think, my early memories… I watched Channel 4 Racing, I think the Cheltenham Festival. It was very different to racing back home. We only had one racetrack and it was flat racing and they go round in the circle. My dad was the leading Arab racehorse owner in the country, so he won everything. It seemed like it was that easy to do and I started watching racing here and I saw all the different racecourses and National Hunt. And we don’t have National Hunt back home, so I was very curious about the whole industry. I wanted to learn as much as possible from every angle of it.”
“I think the quality of racing, as you watch racing around the world, the biggest quality of racing is in England and Ireland in terms of top-class racing… It is good for the breed, it shows the best horses to breed onwards. The classics in Britain always prove to be the best source of that.”
Of the flaws of British racing in general and perhaps hinting at a move to spending more time participating in American racing, the Sheikh continued:
“It needs to up its game. It needs to find ways to attract more people into the sport. At the moment we are very grateful for the Sheikh Mohammeds in the business… Without Sheikh Mohammed [Bin Rashid Al Maktoum], this year would have been a disaster for a lot of people. The thing is that British racing needs to find more ways to attract quality. I think quality is very important.”
“If you look at, for instance, Japanese racing, they have got a two-tier system. They have the JRA and the NRA. The JRA is the elite class of racehorses and horse racing and I think if you don’t break your maiden as a three year-old, then I think, that horse is not allowed to run in the JRA anymore. They have to go down to the NRA. Why can’t that some way be explored in British racing? We can’t be racing, I think you’re asking people to race for two grand or three grand… whilst in Australia they have Saturday races with a minimum of a hundred grand a race. And in America, maidens are worth a hundred grand. And in California, I’ve got horses, and it seems ridiculous that, if you are taking a business point of view of racing and you open your books, that it would be ridiculous to have horses [in Britain] in comparison to there. The only reason we’re racing here is for the quality and prestige that we have at the moment, but you can’t rest on that. You have to change.”
Later, in September 2019, the Sheikh’s Californian trainer, Simon Callaghan, told TheRacing Post:
“Sheikh Fahad is upping his interest in racing in America. He’s spending more time in California, so he wants to go after some of these high-end colts and go down the road of the Derby, we hope… I think his Californian wife has something to do with it.”
Agents Windsor Clive seek £6 million ($7.5 million, €6.8 million or درهم27.4 million) for Longholes and offer it as a whole or in two lots. For the firm, George Windsor Clive remarked: “We’re still bringing Longholes to the market in these strange times [in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic] so that buyers can react quickly once restrictions are lifted.”
For now, the other European racing operations of the Sheikh and his brothers and their Qatar Racing Ltd. company – which includes a presence at the David Redvers owned Tweenhills Farm in Gloucestershire and their own Spring Lodge stud farm in County Limerick – remain unaffected.
Vast “fairytale” château in France’s Loire Valley for sale for ‘just’ £28 million in spite of having had £80 million spent already on its renovation; it was most famously owned by Madame de Pompadour
In 2017, a Lebanese-born, Monaco-based property developer named Edmond Baysari placed what selling agents Sotheby’s International Realty describes as the “most beautiful and majestic castle in [the] Loire Valley” on the market. It’s so big and so costly to maintain that it remains for sale still today.
Harvard educated Mr Baysari purchased the 102,257 square foot château for about £4.3 million in 1983 from the Parisian glassmakers Saint-Gorbain. It had been used as their company retreat from 1939 and had earlier belonged to Jeanne Antoinette Poisson – the official chief mistress of Louis XV from 1745 to 1751 and a woman better known as ‘Madame de Pompadour’ – in the years prior to her premature death from tuberculosis in 1764 aged just 42.
Providing “regally appointed” accommodation so vast that it is not even described in detail that includes around 50 bedrooms and a wine cellar capable of housing 30,000 bottles amongst other things, Château de Menars – or the ‘Palace Pompadour’ as some have nicknamed it – costs around £800,000 per year to run. In total, some £80 million has been spent renovating it “using the same methods” that the king’s mistress originally employed.
Of why he is selling, the heirless businessman’s lawyer, Jack Anderson, told Reuters in 2017: “[Mr Baysari] realises destiny is going to take him… His goal is to know that it’s in the hands of someone who’s going to continue the beauty of the chateau and maintain it.”
The 104 acres of grounds that surround the château includes vineyards yielding pinot noir grapes, “elegant” geometric grassed lawns and more than a mile of frontage to the River Loire. Classical sculptures and gazebos abound and there is, according to Reuters, “a cobbled courtyard large enough to land a helicopter” also.
During Baysari’s ownership guests at Château de Menars have supposedly numbered Prince Charles, Mikhail Gorbachev, Mick Jagger and President Ronald Reagan. Now, Sotheby’s International Realty point out: “We think this could be perfect for the creation of a luxury hotel complex… Or for the acquisition of an extraordinary and very large private property.”
His “English spoken” [sic] agent, Jean-Pierre Piganiol, seeks £27.6 million and according to Forbes, “several nine-figure offers from Russian and Middle Eastern billionaires looking for a trophy home” have already been turned down.
The Names & Numbers – Château de Menars, Loire Valley, Blois, 41000, France
1983 to 2017 – The sum said to have been spent on restoration of the Château de Menars is said to have been £80.1 million ($100 million, €91.4 million or درهم367.3 million). Annual upkeep costs are said to be £801,000 million ($1 million, €914,000 million or درهم3.7 million).
1983 – Sold to Edmond Baysari for 5 million francs or the equivalent of £4.3 million ($5.4 million, €4.9 million or درهم19.7 million).
1949 – Declared an Historic Monument of France.
1939 – Sold after his death by Mr Allard’s daughters, Blanche Lasserre, Yvonne Arnodin and Jeanne Goirand, to Saint-Gobain, the Parisian glassmakers, for use as their company retreat.
April 1912 – Acquired for 700,050 francs (about £27,400 at that time) by Félix Allard, a “contractor for public works.” He modernised the château and added mains water, hot air heating, gas lighting and electricity and features including a large gallery area.
1760 – Purchased by Madame de Pompadour (1721 – 1764) for 1 million livres (about £75,000 at that time). She “sold some pearl bracelets to meet the first payment” and commissioned the architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel to build two new wings on either side of the two existing pavilions on the property. Sadly for her, she never saw it completed as she died from tuberculosis in 1764.
1728 to 1732 – Stanislas Leszcynski (1677 – 1766), the King of Poland, stayed at Château de Menars whilst in exile as a guest of the Charon family.
1669 – Jean-Jacques Charon (1643 – 1718), son of Jacques Charon, “added two unequal wings to the chateau and considerably enlarged the estate.”
1646 – Commencement of the construction of a castle on the site by one Jacques Charon. It “composed of a main building and two symmetrical pavilions.”
