Tag: Second World War

The Harem Saloon

1931 Bentley Tourer nicknamed ‘The Harem Saloon’ because of its first owner’s penchant for taking spins with his lady friends for sale for £1.15 million

A 1931 8-litre Bentley Tourer that got the nickname ‘The Harem Saloon’ because it was first used by a Chinese Mau owner to take his girlfriends to the races in Singapore is on sale at a price of £1.15 million ($1.54 million, €1.30 million or درهم5.67 million).

The magnificent machine, which was subsequently kept in a mine during the Second World War and then eventually rebodied as a gentleman’s tourer in 2002, retains its original bonnet and scuttle but has effectively been completely rebuilt.

Described as having “very good long legs on the motorway and also around the country lanes without the need of an overdrive,” the car is said to have “behaved impeccably with no problems” on “numerous trips down to Le Mans” and is now offered by Richard Biddulph of Vintage & Prestige Classic Cars of Grays, Essex.

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November 29, 2017
Lotti Henley (born Princess Windisch-Graetz of Austria)

In spite of being born in 1925 in a castle in Austria, West London based mother of two Lotti Henley spends days feeding the homeless and destitute. Enthusiastic and dedicated to “caring for food,” this nonagenarian community heroin co-founded the Plan Zheroes charity in 2011 as part of her “vision of a world where no one will be living in food poverty.” A refugee and nurse herself in the Second World War, Henley was forced to suck stones to trick her stomach into thinking it was full and now her motto is: “Too blessed to be stressed and it’s true… I’ve never forgotten hunger… Do not waste food, pass it on to a charity geographically close… It doesn’t take an awful lot and it’s awfully fun… 39% of all in landfill is food and it’s all good food.” A truly wonderful lady working for a sadly ridiculously necessary cause.

November 12, 2017
A Derelict Doer-Upper

Derelict 18^th century Oxfordshire mansion with 125 acres of land for sale for £10 million

A 125-acre Oxfordshire estate with Humphrey Repton landscaped grounds has gone on sale for £10 million ($13.2 million, €11.3 million or درهم48.7 million) in spite of being described as being “in poor order.”

The Coombe Park Estate at Whitchurch-on-Thames is situated at the end of a ¾ of a mile long private drive just 49 miles from Central London. Constructed in 1865, the original mansion was later demolished and what now remains consists of a 13,368 square foot house created from the original servants’ quarters, a coach house and an extension built in 1982.

Featuring 4 main reception rooms, an indoor swimming pool, 6 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms, Coombe Park itself “has been unoccupied a number of years” but now presents an opportunity for a buyer to unleash its “enormous potential” according to selling agents Strutt & Parker.

In addition to the main residence, there are three additional houses, an orangery, a coach house, offices, a sports pavilion, an indoor tennis court, stabling and a boat house included in the sale.

According to a blog from 2008, the estate – which was used by the American military as a rest and recuperation ‘flak house’ during the Second World War – has been in the ownership of an individual from Rotterdam since 1982. He is described as having now “sadly lost his fortune.”

October 17, 2017
A Romantic’s Tower

Tower house on Isle of Man that was home to the Romantic artist John Martin for sale for £3.95 million

Described as “the most sublime and extraordinary pictures in the world” by critic Simon Wilson and “the most popular painter of his day” by fellow artist Sir Thomas Lawrence, English Romantic painter John Martin (1789 – 1854) is renowned to this day for fantastic compositions and such works as The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Destruction of Tyre and The Plains of Heaven. He was born in Haydon Bridge, Northumberland and died in the Isle of Man and now a castellated tower house there, where he lived from 1851 to 1853, is for sale for £3.95 million ($5.32 million, €4.50 million or درهم19.56 million).

A portrait of John Martin and his own painting “The Plains of Heaven”

The view out to sea from the castellated roof terrace of Harold Tower

Of the Gothic style and dating to circa 1833, Harold Tower in Douglas was allegedly named after either Harold Harefoot (Harold I, King of England from 1035 to 1040) or Harold Godwinson (Harold II, King of England in 1066). It was constructed in a hexagonal shape, was described as a “lately erected villa” in 1856 and used as a hotel during the Second World War.

Set within 3 acres of formal gardens, Harold Tower was renovated between 2009 and 2012. It is laid out over 5 levels and includes 3 reception rooms, a cinema, a wine cellar, 3 bedrooms suites with truly lavish bathrooms and an octagonal office with a roof terrace with sea views above. In addition, a 3 bedroom guest house and a 2 bedroom guest cottage are located within the grounds along with an outdoor swimming pool.

Harold Tower is being marketed by Shane Magee of agents Chrystals.

September 26, 2017
Martin Gets Madder

Convicted former pharmaceuticals executive Martin Shkreli offers a bounty for Hillary Clinton’s hair and threatens to smash up a £1.5 million work by the Wu-Tang Clan

Martin Shkreli is getting madder and madder. Convicted of securities fraud in August and awaiting sentencing, the troubled former drug company executive took to Facebook on 4^th September to offer a bounty of £3,800 ($5,000, €4,200 or درهم18,400) per lock of Hillary Clinton’s hair obtained and is also attempting to auction or destroy the one and only copy of a Wu-Tang Clan album on eBay for £1.5 million ($2 million, €1.7 million or درهم7.3 million).

After 324 bids, the Wu-Tang Clan’s Once Upon A Time In Shaolin album – which Shkreli purchased, he claims, “as a gift to the Wu-Tang Clan for their tremendous musical output. Instead I received scorn from at least one of their (least-intelligent) members, and the world at large failed to see my purpose of putting a serious value behind music” – has already reached a price of just over £759,000 ($1 million, €832,000 or درهم3.7 million).

Accompanying the eBay listing, Shkreli brashly adds:

“At any time I may cancel this sale and I may even break this album in frustration. I will donate half of the sale proceeds to medical research. I am not selling to raise cash–my companies and I have record amounts of cash on hand. I hope someone with a bigger heart for music can be found for this one-of-a-kind piece and makes it available for the world to hear.”

Both the Wu-Tang Clan and Hillary Clinton stunts may backfire. Last Thursday, prosecutors told a court in New York: “[Shkreli is engaged in a] pattern of threats and harassment” and sought for his bail to be revoked. In response, Benjamin Brafman for Shkreli, commented:

“We take the matter seriously and intend to address the issue responsibly… However inappropriate some of Mr Shkreli’s postings may have been, we do not believe that he intended harm and do not believe that he poses a danger to the community.”

Other assets in the multi-millionaire’s possession are said to include a Picasso and an original ‘Enigma’ machine from the Second World War. We jolly well hope he doesn’t threaten to smash them up too.

September 10, 2017
Pritikin’s Folly

Kitsch San Francisco mansion turned private museum that houses everything from Hitler memorabilia to a portrait turned down by Prince Philip for sale for £9.5 million

The collection of a former advertising executive turned San Francisco based bon viveur named Robert C. Pritikin – better known as ‘Bob’ to his friends – includes everything from Hitler’s Swastika armband and his personal world globe (supposedly acquired by American soldiers at the end of the Second World War) to a portrait of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh of which the royal once proclaimed: “I bloody well wouldn’t hang it on the walls of Buckingham Palace.”

Pritikin houses these items – and others including a replica electric chair, a mural featuring the cult leader Jim Jones, an exact replica of Rembrandt’s ‘The Night Watch’ and an original J. M. W. Turner painting – in a totally eccentric neo-classical mansion in the Glen Park area of the city. He built the property in 1987 and though it provides 9,966 square foot of accommodation it is primarily designed as an entertaining space and museum rather than a conventional family home.

Bob Pritikin with the portrait Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh so loathed

The mansion-cum-museum Pritikin built in 1987 for his collection is now for sale

Artworks in the building include a mock electric chair

There also many murals inside and outside of Chenery House

Now offered for sale for £9.5 million ($12.5 million, €10.4 million or درهم45.9 million) by the equally flamboyant realtor Joel Goodrich, Chenery House – or plain old 47 Chenery Street – has hosted guests including Liberace and Mickey Rooney. The building is dominated by a top floor swimming pool with glass retractable roof, a vast ‘showroom’ with adjoining display rooms but also comes with 5 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms. There is a 4-car carport, a garden cottage and a three unit building with two 2 bedroom units and one 1 bedroom unit.

Hidden from the street at its entrance and adjoining the Fairmount Elementary School on another, Chenery House stands on a 1 acre plot crammed to the brim with art pieces, murals and statues. It was offered by Pritikin to the City of San Francisco as an official mayoral residence in 2004 but after they declined he has since rented it for weddings and events.

In 2014, of living there, Pritikin remarked: “It’s a fun place to live. I would build the exact same house if I had to do it again, and in the unlikely event that I kick the bucket I intend to have my ashes buried here.” Though that will now unlikely happen, this true eccentric’s spirit will no doubt live on in spite of whoever eventually purchases what has to be one of America’s most whacky compounds.

September 9, 2017
Trevor Hemmings CVO

Reclusive yet charming “leisure entrepreneur” Trevor Hemmings owns over 100 racehorses, lives primarily on the Isle of Man and generously funded the SAFE centre to help victims of sexual violence in Preston, Lancashire.

This “publicity averse” self-made father of four’s Grand National winning horses have included Ballabriggs, Hedgehunter and Many Clouds and other assets in his collection have variously numbered Blackpool Tower and Preston North End Football Club. He also harbours a love for vintage Rolls-Royces and was considered a “surrogate son” by the equally shrewd late businessman and holiday camp owner Sir Fred Pontin (1906 – 2000).

Of his success, in a rare interview in 2015, this cloth capped “earthy” gent modestly remarked:

“In my business life I’ve had to climb the business and financial ladder by doing better next year than I did last year and that’s what life’s about. You have to work longer hours than everybody and you have to be on site seven days a week. Today I’m available seven days a week, people contact me seven days a week, let’s put it like that”.

Pictured above: Trevor Hemmings with Grand National winners Hedgehunter and Ballabriggs at Ballaseyr, Andreas.

June 4, 2017
Lady Ridsdale DBE (1921 – 2009, née Victoire Bennett)

Dame Paddy Ridsdale, as she generally known, was an intelligence operative, secretary to Ian Fleming during WW2 and the inspiration for the Bond character Miss Moneypenny.

A Conservative Party stalwart and married to Member of Parliament for Harwich from 1954 to 1992 Sir Julian Ridsdale CBE (1915 – 2004), Dame Paddy – or Vicky, as she was known to some – is best known for her role in ‘Operation Mincemeat’, a “famous caper” concerning a “man who never was” in 1943.

In the war, Dame Paddy wrote love letters and telegrams that were planted on the body of ‘Major William Martin’, an invented, drowned naval officer, that was floated in the ocean off Spain. The body carried fictitious plans of a purported Allied invasion of Sardinia and Greece and formed part of a plot designed to deflect attention from the Allied landings in Sicily. Of it, she later remarked: “I was sent to buy clothes in all the best men’s shops and had to pose as his girlfriend. I had to go to post offices and rather loudly send this telegram to ‘my boyfriend’, hoping of course that somebody would overhear me”. In due course, the body was indeed found, the Axis powers completely taken in and “Mincemeat swallowed whole, hook, line, and sinker”. A BAFTA winning film directed by Ronald Neame, The Man Who Never Was, made about the deceptive scheme in 1956.

Dame Paddy was known as a “political hostess in the style of a bygone era”, lived in a mansion “sandwiched between a sheikh and a Saudi prince” in The Boltons for the majority of her adult life and is buried in the grounds of the church there. She had one daughter, became Lady Ridsdale when her husband was knighted in 1981 and was appointed Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE) in her own right, for political services, in 1991.

Of her relationship with her one-time employer Fleming, she concluded: “Ian had so many girlfriends that I was not tempted to become one of them”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xemGlAV6TAw

May 13, 2017
Narrow in Knightsbridge

Tiny 2.5-foot deep Knightsbridge “corridor house” sells for £810,000 at auction

Yesterday, at an auction in London, a 2.5-foot deep (at its minimum) and 3-foot deep (at its maximum) mews house sold for £810,000 ($1 million, €936,000 or درهم3.7 million) despite being nothing more than a very long corridor.

Extending to 275 square foot in total and 65-foot long, 1B Ennismore Gardens Mews needs “complete refurbishment” but has potential for a first floor extension. The single-storey freehold property, which was owned from the 1950s to 2010 by a lady named Linda Wildoner, is certainly one of the smallest houses in Knightsbridge and could definitely be described as a curiosity.

Linda Wildoner (1916 – 2010) outside 1B Ennismore Gardens Mews, Knightsbridge, London, SW7 1HX with Sir Martyn Poliakoff CBE (born 1947)

Miss Wildoner, an Austrian who moved to London after the Second World War to take care of Sir Martin Poliakoff and his family, died in 2010 and yesterday’s sale was carried out at the behest of her executors.

Of this extraordinarily weird property, Chris Coleman-Smith of auctioneers Savills told the Mail Online:

“You see narrow houses, but this is something completely different… It is on a prime, crème de la crème mews on Knightsbridge. It is a superb, picturesque mews. One of the top addresses”.

“It is very basic and will need a complete refurbishment. It is brilliant. It is weird and wonderful and I’ve not come across anything like it. Someone will create something fantastic here. In a cobbled mews in Knightsbridge it is a great opportunity”.

March 30, 2017
The Baloney of Brexit

Summing up Britain beginning its road to Brexit and an amusing take on the Prime Minister’s letter to Donald Tusk

Yesterday, Theresa May found her date with destiny and triggered Article 50. With no more restrictions on bendy bananas (a total myth) and the start of a long goodbye, Britain reached a “historic moment” from which there can be – as the shoe loving Prime Minister herself put it – “no turning back”.

As Sky News suggested 56% of those they polled were happy with what is about to occur, Mrs May met with her cabinet in Downing Street. Bumbling Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson was the last to arrive at the gathering and the first to leave and later the well-known CV exaggerator turned Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Andrea Leadsom announced she was “very happy” with what had been discussed.

May was unsurprisingly subsequently heckled in Parliament when she announced: “We know we will lose influence… The world needs the liberal, democratic values of Europe” and was met with disdain from Lord Heseltine also. He commented:

“The letter represents the biggest sacrifice of British sovereignty that I can remember… All the stuff about gaining sovereignty will be exposed for the hypocrisy that it was… It is the biggest sacrifice of self-interest I know of”.

Whilst the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker remarked of the biggest victory for nationalism since the Second World War: “I’m deeply sad”, we’ll leave the final word with the President of the European Council Donald Tusk. He added: “Thank you and goodbye”.

An amusing take on Theresa May’s letter, shared widely on social media, to Donald Tusk follows:

March 30, 2017