The Steeple Times

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  • ‘Bathtub Bonk Pad’ Back On Market – Ghislaine Maxwell London Home For Sale (Again) For Bonkers £3.25m Price

    ‘Bathtub Bonk Pad’ Back On Market – Ghislaine Maxwell London Home For Sale (Again) For Bonkers £3.25m Price

    WORLD EXCLUSIVE – Ghislaine Maxwell’s notorious London home –the very pad that caused Prince Andrew to pay out £12 million over sexual cavorting allegations relating to a “bathtub bonk” in 2001 – is astoundingly back up for sale for a bonkers sum nearly 100% higher than she ‘sold’ it for just 3 years ago; much of the mucky madam’s furniture bizarrely remains

    Just as the meddling mate of the mendacious mucky madam and her pension pot plundering papa that is Peter Mandelson has been ‘anointed’ in Game of Thrones style as Keir Starmer’s ambassador to the United States of America, it can be revealed that the infamous former London home of Ghislaine Maxwell is back on the market.

     

    Whilst properties, however sordid their histories, come up for sale now and again – for example, when we featured five of the worst ‘murder location houses’ offered for sale in November 2022, we were inundated with further suggestions – the totally unsurprising detail in the current Chestertons listing for 44 Kinnerton Street, Belgravia is that there is no mention of this mews house’s infamous past owner-occupier.

     

    Interestingly, however, the agency’s ‘current’ photographs of what The Steeple Times mocked in January 2022 as “Randy Andy’s Bathtub Bonk Pad” – given what allegedly went on between the Duke of York and a then 17-year-old then going by the name Virginia Roberts in the first-floor, full-sized bathtub of the residence on the 10th March 2001 – show a property that still includes free-standing furnishings that were present when representatives of the then incarcerated Miss Maxwell sold on 19th April 2021 for £1.75 million against a far more punchy initial asking price of £2.6 million. Indeed, it does seem most curious that the ‘purchasers’ decided to keep a set of naff 1970s tables and chairs that presumably belonged to the convicted sex trafficker – especially given they decided to throw out an equally gaudy pair of velvet curtains from the house that have now ended up on display in a Bristol art gallery as part of exhibition of all sorts of odd things that is rather appropriately titled Grey Unpleasant Land.

     

    In January 2022, ‘The Steeple Times’ was the first publication to share a photograph of the then unrenovated bathroom at 44 Kinnerton Street where Prince Andrew and Virginia Roberts (now Virginia Giuffre) allegedly bonked in the tub. The image we shared (top) provided proof that the tub was of a standard size and not “too small for any kind of activity whatsoever,” as Ghislaine Maxwell had stated during a 2015 defamation civil case brought after Maxwell called Giuffre a liar. The case was settled in 2017 in favour of Virginia Giuffre and at that time Ghislaine Maxwell was forced to pay damages. The same bathroom photographed in 2024 (bottom). The flooring and fittings all remain; the tiles have been changed, as have the bath taps.
    In January 2022, ‘The Steeple Times’ was the first publication to share a photograph of the then unrenovated bathroom at 44 Kinnerton Street where Prince Andrew and Virginia Roberts (now Virginia Giuffre) allegedly bonked in the tub. The image we shared (top) provided proof that the tub was of a standard size and not “too small for any kind of activity whatsoever,” as Ghislaine Maxwell had stated during a 2015 defamation civil case brought after Maxwell called Giuffre a liar. The case was settled in 2017 in favour of Virginia Giuffre and at that time Ghislaine Maxwell was forced to pay damages. The same bathroom photographed in 2024 (bottom). The flooring and fittings all remain; the tiles have been changed, as have the bath taps.
    When asked about what occurred on the night of 10th March 2001 in the first-floor bathroom at her Kinnerton Street mews house, Ghislaine Maxwell responded: “[Virginia Roberts] then characterized [sic] things took place in my bathroom in the bathtub itself. The tub is too small for any kind of activity whatsoever.” The picture of that very same tub used in marketing material by Wellbelove Quested and more recently Chestertons proved exactly to the contrary.
    When asked about what occurred on the night of 10th March 2001 in the first-floor bathroom at her Kinnerton Street mews house, Ghislaine Maxwell responded: “[Virginia Roberts] then characterized [sic] things took place in my bathroom in the bathtub itself. The tub is too small for any kind of activity whatsoever.” The picture of that very same tub used in marketing material by Wellbelove Quested and more recently Chestertons proved exactly to the contrary.
    A floor plan shared by the likes ‘The Daily Mail’ and ‘The Sun suggested the first-floor bathroom at 44 Kinnerton Street to be 7-foot, 4 inches by 7-foot, 2-inches. Floor plans shared by Wellboved Quested suggested that the room is actually 8-foot, 4-inches by 8-foot, 2-inches. Either way, there was most definitely plenty of room for two (and whatever activities might have gone on between that particular two-some)…
    A floor plan shared by the likes ‘The Daily Mail’ and ‘The Sun suggested the first-floor bathroom at 44 Kinnerton Street to be 7-foot, 4 inches by 7-foot, 2-inches. Floor plans shared by Wellboved Quested suggested that the room is actually 8-foot, 4-inches by 8-foot, 2-inches. Either way, there was most definitely plenty of room for two (and whatever activities might have gone on between that particular two-some)…
    Then and Now – The ground floor reception room of the house (top) as it was in “doctor’s waiting room” style in January 2022 (top) and as it now is in December 2024 (bottom) opened up to the kitchen. Note that though a wall and fitted furnishings have been removed and the flooring replaced, the somewhat naff dining table and chairs remain.
    Then and Now – The ground floor reception room of the house (top) as it was in “doctor’s waiting room” style in January 2022 (top) and as it now is in December 2024 (bottom) opened up to the kitchen. Note that though a wall and fitted furnishings have been removed and the flooring replaced, the somewhat naff dining table and chairs remain.

    Laughably lauded by Chestertons as “charming” and “wonderfully bright,” the 1,477 square foot three-storey building has admittedly been knocked around a bit during the current ownership. Gone is a clapped-out kitchen that grubby groper Ghislaine likely never cooked her vegan nosh in and gone also is the wall between that room and the adjoining former “dentist’s waiting room-style” reception room where Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein’s London victims were likely lined-up for the vilest forms of sexual abuse. Also replaced are the fittings in the primary bathroom in what would have been the ‘Mucky Madam Master Suite’ on the top floor, but what is beyond bizarre is that the house’s most horrid bit of history survives for posterity virtually intact. The very same first floor full-sized bathroom where sexual relations allegedly occurred that caused Prince Andrew to allegedly pay £12 million to the aforementioned Virginia Roberts Giuffre (without any admission of guilt) remains virtually unaltered.

     

    In that very bathroom, next to the very landing where the ‘killer’ photograph of Miss Maxwell, Miss Roberts and the late Queen Elizabeth’s favourite son were so inconveniently snapped on 10th March 2001, the very same full-sized shower and the very same full-sized bathtub that The Steeple Times proved Ghislaine Maxwell lied about during her April 2016 deposition at the law offices of Boies Schiller & Flexner in New York in an article we published in January 2022 remains in-situ. Yes, the walls have been retiled and the taps have been changed, but every other element of the room’s grotty days of old remain as a kind of Miss Havisham-esque horror memorial.

     

    When asked during the videotaped and subsequently transcribed 2016 deposition, which was given before one Leslie Fagin, a court reporter and notary public in the State of New York, about the photograph and sexual activities in the first-floor bathroom, Maxwell went full ‘porky-pie’ about her ‘standard’ five-foot-six-inches length bathtub and snapped:

     

    “What I’m representing is that [Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s] entire ludicrous and absurd story of what took place in my house is an obvious lie… She claimed things took place in my bathroom in London. Her characterizations [sic] is just not possible… She then characterized things took place in my bathroom itself. The tub is too small for any type of activity whatsoever.”

     

    Clearly buyers are not flocking to purchase a pad of which Maxwell lied about and one of which Loyd Grossman might ask: “Who the hell would want to pay £3.45 million to live in a pugnacious pad like this?” In spite of spending less than a month on the market, Ghislaine Maxwell’s former lair – complete with its historical bonking bathtub – has just had its price slashed by a not-so-insubstantial £200,000 to ‘just’ £3.25 million.

     

    Editor’s note – Unlike as is the case in many publications, this article was NOT sponsored or supported by a third-party. Follow Matthew Steeples on Twitter at @M_Steeples and watch his shows on YouTube at @mjs2781/streams.

     

    A message from our editorial team – Thank you for reading this article. We’re more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus and the cost-of-living crisis impacts our advertisers. If you haven’t already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by supporting our work via Patreon.

     

    Then and Now – The somewhat decrepit kitchen, as it was in January 2022 (top), and as it now is, after being opened into the adjoining reception room (bottom) in December 2024.
    Then and Now – The somewhat decrepit kitchen, as it was in January 2022 (top), and as it now is, after being opened into the adjoining reception room (bottom) in December 2024.
    Then and Now – The ‘Mucky Madam Maxwell Suite’ at the top of the house as it was in January 2022 (top) and now is (bottom) in December 2024.
    Then and Now – The ‘Mucky Madam Maxwell Suite’ at the top of the house as it was in January 2022 (top) and now is (bottom) in December 2024.
    The house under renovation in July 2021 and November 2023.
    The house under renovation in July 2021 and November 2023.
    The curtains binned during the renovations were featured in a review by ‘The Guardian’ in November 2024 of a new exhibition that debuted at the Spike Island gallery in Bristol. Amongst the items shown in ‘Grey Unpleasant Land’ are a set of sun-bleached red velvet curtains. Of them, the paper’s Evan Moffitt observed: “Described as having been acquired from the 2020 clearance of 44 Kinnerton Street, Belgravia. A Google search will tell you that the house belonged to Ghislaine Maxwell, convicted associate of sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. It’s understandable why the artists chose not to name her, though without the extra effort, the drapes are a mysterious stage prop. Throughout, the show poses questions about how objects accrue value and meaning, which often comes down to how much or how little they’re framed. Maxwell is very much the elephant in the room alongside items from the same class as the person she set up with underage girls.” One could instead argue that it is curtains for sanity in Britain when Ghislaine Maxwell’s stained curtains are considered worthy as “art exhibits.”
    The curtains binned during the renovations were featured in a review by ‘The Guardian’ in November 2024 of a new exhibition that debuted at the Spike Island gallery in Bristol. Amongst the items shown in ‘Grey Unpleasant Land’ are a set of sun-bleached red velvet curtains. Of them, the paper’s Evan Moffitt observed: “Described as having been acquired from the 2020 clearance of 44 Kinnerton Street, Belgravia. A Google search will tell you that the house belonged to Ghislaine Maxwell, convicted associate of sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. It’s understandable why the artists chose not to name her, though without the extra effort, the drapes are a mysterious stage prop. Throughout, the show poses questions about how objects accrue value and meaning, which often comes down to how much or how little they’re framed. Maxwell is very much the elephant in the room alongside items from the same class as the person she set up with underage girls.” One could instead argue that it is curtains for sanity in Britain when Ghislaine Maxwell’s stained curtains are considered worthy as “art exhibits.”
    A floor plan of 44 Kinnerton Street prior to the renovations that came after the April 2021 sale.
    A floor plan of 44 Kinnerton Street prior to the renovations that came after the April 2021 sale.
    A floor plan of the house illustrating the changes to the ground floor layout.
    A floor plan of the house illustrating the changes to the ground floor layout.
    In July 2021, ‘The Steeple Times’ shared an image of an open door at 44 Kinnerton Street when the house was undergoing external repainting. The bannister pictured clearly is exactly the same one featured in the March 2001 image of Prince Andrew, Virginia Roberts and Ghislaine Maxwell on the first-floor landing of the property.
    In July 2021, ‘The Steeple Times’ shared an image of an open door at 44 Kinnerton Street when the house was undergoing external repainting. The bannister pictured clearly is exactly the same one featured in the March 2001 image of Prince Andrew, Virginia Roberts and Ghislaine Maxwell on the first-floor landing of the property.
    In 2019, Shaun Attwood of ‘Shaun Attwood’s True Crime Channel’ interviewed a lady who answered the door at 44 Kinnerton Street. In the footage he subsequently uploaded to YouTube, the bannister is again seen still in-situ.
    In 2019, Shaun Attwood of ‘Shaun Attwood’s True Crime Channel’ interviewed a lady who answered the door at 44 Kinnerton Street. In the footage he subsequently uploaded to YouTube, the bannister is again seen still in-situ.

    The Names & Numbers – ‘Mucky Madam Ghislaine Maxwell’s Bathtub Bonk Pad’ – 44 Kinnerton Street, Belgravia, London, SW1X 8ES, United Kingdom

    • Late December 2024 – £200,000 is slashed off the listing price of the property, taking the asking price to £3.25 million ($4.09 million, €3.92 million or درهم15 million), a sum 86% higher than the April 2021 selling price.

     

    • Early December 2024 – 44 Kinnerton Street is again listed for sale, this time by Chestertons. It is priced at £3.45 million ($4.34 million, €4.16 million or درهم15.94 million), a sum 97% higher than the April 2021 selling price, but is now available on a freehold instead of leasehold basis.

     

    • 18th November 2023 – The Sun’s Jane Matthews reported that 44 Kinnerton Street was “getting a major revamp” and was “covered in scaffolding.” Matthews suggested “the new owners” were thought to be a developer and quoted a management accountant named Wendy Howard, “who has worked on Kinnerton Street for ten years,” as saying: “I know [representatives of Maxwell] sold the property fairly quickly and for a discount. I’m surprised, it’s not really the type of house anyone would want to buy. It really has the wrong associations. Personally, I thought the whole situation was seedy and very disappointing… You do see some tourist groups going past, but it’s not very well known that Maxwell used to live around here. Sometimes you see people filming or making documentaries, so sometimes people ask about the house, but not too often.”

     

    • 19th October 2022 – The MailOnline’s Stewart Carter reported that “locals refuse to talk about the black spot on their street” in an article that also suggested the house “has not been lived in since Maxwell sold it… to pay her legal fees in 2021” and added: “It is collecting cobwebs and dust as locals grow increasingly frustrated about its eerie past.” Maxwell’s ‘friend’ – who was meant, but ultimately did not give in evidence in her trial, Kevin Moran, was referenced also. He stated: “It’s all investment – nobody lives here.”

     

    • 14th January 2022 – Property website TheMoveMarket.com values the house at £2.11 million ($2.88 million, €2.53 million or درهم9.75 million), a sum 19% lower than the current asking price for the unrenovated property.

     

    • January 2022 – Estate agents Wellbelove Quested offer the mews house for £2.6 million ($3.6 million, €3.1 million or درهم1 million), an extraordinary increase of 49% on the sale price just 270 days earlier. The house is offered on a lease of 127 years that commenced on 24th June 2014 and previously on their website Wellbelove Quested had marketed the house for a higher price of £2.75 million ($3.738 million, €3.283 million or درهم13.731 million).

     

    • July 2021 – The Steeple Times reports on repainting work to the outside of the house being underway. An open door reveals the infamous staircase bannister to still be in-situ.

     

    • 19th April 2021 – Records confirm the house to have been sold for £1.75 million ($2.39 million, €2.09 million or درهم79 million). Details about the beneficiary of the sum from this sale are not publicly available.

     

    • March 2021 – Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyer offered cash from the “pending sale of her £1.45 million ($2 million, €1.74 million or درهم28 million)” home as part of a package when they sought bail for the mucky madam for a third time, the Daily Mail reported. This sum was 44% lower than the September 2020 asking price and 400% higher than the January 1997 purchase price.

     

    • March 2021 – A Knightsbridge estate agent told The Steeple Times: “Knowing the street as I do, 44 is one of the smaller houses which I assume it to be a little over 1,000 square foot in size. Depending on the condition, I estimate the freehold value to be circa £1.8 million to £2 million ($2.5 million to $2.7 million, €2.2 million to €2.4 million or 9درهم million to درهم10 million).”

     

    • December 2020 – Members of the Maxwell family attempted to raise finance on the property but are not successful, The Steeple Times learns from a financier with connections to the Maxwell family and their representatives. They were rejected on the basis of the “toxicity” of their familial name.

     

    • September 2020 – Estate agents Aylesford list 44 Kinnerton Street for sale for £2.6 million ($3.6 million, €3.1 million or درهم1 million) on (it was claimed) a freehold basis, a sum 797% than the January 1997 purchase price. They subsequently later reduce the asking price to £2.1 million ($2.9 million, €2.5 million or درهم10.5 million) “according to a leading property expert.”

     

    • August 2019 – According to Insider, a woman with “long hair [who] appeared to be in her 60s” was seen entering the property. She “denied that the socialite owns or lived in the house, claiming instead that the elusive socialite lived elsewhere down the street.”

     

    • 10th March 2001 – Prince Andrew allegedly had sexual relations with 17-year-old Virginia Roberts in a bathroom in the property. He continues to deny this occurred whilst claiming that a photograph of himself with Miss Roberts and Ghislaine Maxwell on the first floor of building is a fake also.

     

    • 22nd January 1997 – Ghislaine Maxwell paid £290,000 ($396,000, €347,000 or درهم5 million) for the three-storey leasehold mews house. It is situated at the heart of the Duke of Westminster’s Grosvenor Estate.

     

    • 1989 to 1995 – Ghislaine Maxwell is known to have resided at 69 Stanhope Mews East, South Kensington, London, SW7 5QT. Her father bought it for her two years before his mysterious death and she reportedly “groomed and befriended Minor Victim 3 in London, England, between approximately 1994 and 1995… Maxwell introduced Minor Victim 3 to Epstein and during those interactions, Maxwell encouraged Minor Victim 3 to massage Epstein, knowing that Epstein would engage in sex acts with Minor Victim 3. During those massages, Epstein sexually abused Minor Victim 3” at that very property. It was sold for £267,000 ($365,000, €320,000 or درهم3 million) on 15th March 1995 and then again for £1.75 million ($2.39 million, €2.10 million or درهم8.77 million) on 30th August 2019.

     

    Further images of the house (as presented in December 2024) illustrate internal redecoration has occurred, but that not much has been done with the external roof terrace…

    Second bedroom 2024
    Master bedroom 2024 1
    Master bathroom 2024
    Roof terrace 2024

    THAT 2001 Photo STILL NOT PROVEN A FAKE – The 10th March 2001 photograph of Prince Andrew, Virginia Roberts and Ghislaine Maxwell at 44 Kinnerton Street, Belgravia

    10th March 2001 44 Kinnerton Street Ghislaine Maxwell Virginia Roberts Prince Andrew

    The photograph, taken supposedly by Jeffrey Epstein on the first-floor landing at 44 Kinnerton Street, Belgravia, London, SW1X 8ES, United Kingdom, has been shared by the world’s media in hundreds of thousands of articles and analysed countless times by countless experts.

     

    In November 2019, the Daily Mail’s Inderdeep Bains called it: “The photograph that WON’T go away” and it, as of date, has NEVER been discredited. Amongst evidence suggesting it to be perfectly real is that:

     

    • The setting of the photograph has been confirmed as genuine by the Maxwell family. Of it, in March 2021, Ian Maxwell told Radio 4’s Today programme: “I do recognise that setting.”
    • The window in the picture has the same features as the front first floor windows of 44 Kinnerton Street.
    • The width of the first floor landing is accurate to the measurements shown in the floor plan of the sales brochure prepared on the 14th October 2021 by estate agents Wellbelove Quested.
    • Though he claimed to be “at a loss to explain this particular photograph” during the 2019 BBC interview, the Duke of York has admitted to having visited 44 Kinnerton Street. He stated: “I don’t think I think ever went upstairs… The dining room and everything was on the ground floor.” Contradicting the royal, sources have claimed that the room behind him, Roberts and Maxwell in the photograph was used as a sitting room.
    • The heights of all three individuals in the picture look to be accurate proportionately.
    • Prince Andrew’s “chubby fingers” are clear to see. The Queen’s second son’s fingers are clearly “chubby fingers” and these very same “chubby fingers” have been seen hundreds of thousands of times in hundreds of thousands of other photographs.
    • Prince Andrew has claimed he only ever goes out in London in a suit and tie. Images of him in open necked shirts in the capital – including one of him leaving the nightclub Chinawhite – prove to the contrary.
    • Prince Andrew has claimed he does not “do” hugs and and embraces in photographs. Images of him taken in St Tropez embracing the US socialite Chris Von Aspen in July 2007 suggest the alleged non-sweater is wrong also on that score.
    • The outfit worn by Virginia Roberts – a woman who has already received financial settlements from Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell – has been seen on her in photographs of her at Naomi Campbell’s 2001 birthday party in France. In spite of some suggestions that a lady only wears an outfit once, we counter that a lady in Miss Roberts’ unfortunate situation would be forced to wear what she was told appealed to those in control of her wished her to wear.
    • Matthew Steeples of The Steeple Times and Shaun Attwood of Shaun Attwood’s True Crime Channel have both seen inside 44 Kinnerton Street and the stair rail shown in the photo remains in place and is thus genuine to the setting. Attwood subsequently released film footage of this on his YouTube channel and The Steeple Times shared its most recent image of the open front door with the stair rail beyond in July 2021.
    • Many experts have repeatedly stated photo manipulation was in its infancy at the time that this image first surfaced.
    • The FBI have never questioned the authenticity of the image.

     

    The TRUE FAKE PHOTO – The August 2019 photograph of Ghislaine Maxwell at an In-N-Out Burger restaurant

    Ghislaine-Maxwell-In-N-Out-Burger-fake-photo

    It must be remembered that the now convicted mucky madam sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell was likely involved in leaking that infamous “too perfect” photoshopped image of herself at an In-N-Out Burger restaurant in Los Angeles in August 2019. Aside from this wicked woman – whom bangs on about being vegan constantly now – “planting herself for a double-double” burger, that image was subsequently debunked by The Cut. For them, Bridget Read stated:

     

    “The intrepid Daily Mail checked out the location of the burger joint in Hollywood where Maxwell was allegedly spotted by a regular last week and found some odd discrepancies. Notably, a bus stop in the background of the shot shows an advertisement for the movie Good Boys – which the company that operates the ad space said has never been there. The bus stop currently displays an ad for a local hospital, which it says has been there since July 28. Maxwell was supposedly photographed at the In-N-Out on August 12.”

     

    “Questions about Maxwell’s lunch outing have fed into the already robust set of conspiracy theories around Epstein, his high-profile acquaintances, and his death. Why was a second smartphone on the In-N-Out table? Why did Maxwell never stick a straw in either her soda or her shake? Why did the diner who supposedly photographed her have such a nice camera, with a lens that took a very clear photo? It doesn’t help that the In-N-Out employees at that location have been forbidden, supposedly by their employer, to talk about Maxwell’s visit.”

     

    “If [family friend and attorney Leah] Saffian did indeed leak the photo of Maxwell, it was likely to try and throw the FBI off her scent… If the In-N-Out photo is indeed doctored, Maxwell could be anywhere and could show up anywhere she pleases. What’s next? Some predictions: eating a hot dog on the steps of the Met, posing with a cactus at Joshua Tree, riding a unicycle at Burning Man, or painting her nails on the C train.”

     

  • Bargain Basement Bernie – Price Of Bernie Ecclestone’s £30m Gin Palace Yacht ‘Petara II’ Slashed To ‘Just’ £16m

    Bargain Basement Bernie – Price Of Bernie Ecclestone’s £30m Gin Palace Yacht ‘Petara II’ Slashed To ‘Just’ £16m

    As he faces a £400 million fraud trial, coffin dodging skinflint Bernie Ecclestone has slashed the price of one his gin palaces, Petara; the 190-foot yacht is now on sale for the bargain basement price of ‘just’ £16 million

    Previously valued at a rather punchy sum of £30 million ($37.32 million, €34.50 million or درهم137.6 million), ex-F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone’s 190.9-foot motor yacht ‘Petara II’ – named using a combination of the names of his two daughters by ex-wife Slavica Radić, Petra and Tamara – is now been hawked for ‘just’ £16.95 million ($21.09 million, €19.50 million or درهم77.46 million) with EU VAT paid.

     

    Offered by Burgess Yachts, the diminutive, dwarf-like businessman’s ‘gin palace’ was built in 2005 by Protesksan Turquoise in Turkey and is described as having “one owner from new” and subject to “very light private use only.” It has six cabins for upto twelve guests and includes a large full-beam garage complete with a hydraulic car lift, city car, toys and tenders.

     

    ‘Petara’ is capable of a maximum speed of 18 knots and has a range of 5,000 nautical miles; it has a crew of fourteen and currently lies in the West Mediterranean under a United Kingdom flag.

     

    92-year-old Ecclestone – whose family supposedly nicknamed him ‘The Grinch’ – currently awaits trial for allegedly orchestrating a £400 million ($497 million, €460 million or درهم1.8 billion) fraud against His Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC). It is due to begin in London on 15th November 2023.

     

    Editor’s Note – Unlike as is the case in many publications, this article was NOT sponsored or supported by a third-party. Follow Matthew Steeples on Twitter at @M_Steeples.

     

    This morning on Twitter, Matthew Steeples asked: “In reducing the price of his £30m yacht ‘Petara’ to ‘just’ £16m, is skinflint Bernie Ecclestone playing an ‘ace’ card or is he showing desperation as he prepares for his £400m HMRC fraud case on 15th Nov 2023?” By 11:30am on Thursday 18th May 2023, the majority of respondents favoured the answer: “Yes; time is up jail next.”
    Petara II 1
    Petara II 2
    Petara II 3
    Petara II 4
    Bernie Ecclestone
    92-year-old Bernie Ecclestone arriving at court on 19th April 2023; the bungling buffoon and apologist for the evil tyrant President Vladimir Putin looked in worse condition than even at his last appearance back in January 2023.
    Fabiana Flosi Ecclestone
    92-year-old Bernie Ecclestone’s third wife and latest ‘baby mama’ Fabiana Flosi-Ecclestone accompanied him that day; the current Mrs Ecclestone curiously chose the name ‘Ace’ for her child – one is left wondering if the billionaire former F1 chief will be hoping for an ace in the pack when he faces his trial for allegedly orchestrating a £400 million fraud against His Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) on the 15th November 2023.
    Bernie-Ecclestone-Prince-Andrew
    In February 2020, ‘The Steeple Times’ reported on croaked paedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s chum (and his wife Sarah, Duchess of York’s financial sponsor) Prince Andrew having Bernie Ecclestone over to Royal Lodge, Windsor to celebrate his birthday. Whether this man “with qualities that would make Leona Helmsley look generous” brought Sloppy Giuseppes from Pizza Express (Woking branch) for the bash remains still unknown and whether he has entertained the Duke of York on ‘Petara’ is unknown.
    Bernie-Ecclestone-Ghislaine-Maxwell-Flavio-Briatore-Virginia-Roberts-Giuffre
    At the 31st birthday party hosted for Naomi Campbell by her then lover Flavio Briatore on 19th May 2001 in St Tropez, France, Bernie Ecclestone (pictured top right) got to hang out on a gin palace with not only the since convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell but also the woman Prince Andrew paid £12 million to in spite of having never met – Virginia Roberts (now known as Virginia Giuffre). The now former F1 boss and alleged fraudster featured in the infamous address book credited to Epstein but most likely was actually a contact of the mucky madam Maxwell primarily.
    Vladimir-Putin
    The 91-year-old father of four and son of a Suffolk fisherman has previously been quite rightly deservedly slammed for his support for the world’s worst living leader, President Vladimir Putin. Calling such a tyrant “a good guy” and someone he’d “take a bullet for” about sums this nasty little piece of toerag up for what he is – an utter braindead berk.

    BOG OFF BERNIE! BERNIE ECCLESTONE’S WORST MOMENTS

    A poisonous penny-pinching dwarf and well-known as a “coffin dodger,” Bernie Ecclestone – a bestie of the man who paid £12 million to a woman he claims never to have met Prince Andrew – couldn’t give a damn about anything other than money. He’ll mouth off in support of anyone who might help him get just a little bit more, but really should just be told to bog off!

     

    On President Vladimir Putin:

    “[He] should be running Europe… He should be in Brussels running Europe… We should get rid of Brussels and he should just be in charge.”

     

    “Honestly, I think the guy who be running Europe, impressed me more than anything, is Mr Putin because he’s a guy that says he’s going to do something and does it… [He’s] a first-class person.”

     

    “He does what he says he’s gonna do, he gets the job done. I mean people don’t understand exactly what he wants to do… He wants to put Russia back to what it was.”

     

    “I was with [Putin] after the [2014 Sochi Winter] Olympics on the top of the bloody mountain… We had a meeting, just the two of us, and we came out and we were walking along and people were coming up to him asking for an autograph… That’s what people think of him.”

     

    “If someone had a machine gun and was prepared to shoot Putin, I would stand in front of him because he’s a good guy. He’s never done anything that isn’t doing good things for people.”

     

    On President Putin’s intolerance to gay people in Russia:

    “When I was at school, if you did something wrong, the teacher used to say: ‘Go and get the punishment book and the cane. Go to your headmistress and get a few whacks or something.’ That’s what he does.”

     

    On President Donald Trump:

    “I think he’d be fantastic [as President of the United States of America]. I’m sure he’s much more flexible than most of them. If he’s made a mistake, he’s more likely to say: ‘It was a good idea at the time.’”

     

    “He has done a lot of good things for the world.”

     

    On Adolf Hitler:

    “Apart from the fact that Hitler got taken away and persuaded to do things that I have no idea whether he wanted to do or not, he was in the way that he could command a lot of people, able to get things done… He wasn’t a dictator.”

     

    On Jewish people:

    “They have a lot of influence everywhere.”

     

    On black people:

    “In a lot of cases, black people are more racist than what white people are.”

     

    Of democracy in the United Kingdom:

    “If you have a look at a democracy it hasn’t done a lot of good for many countries – including this one.”

     

    Of his crackpot suggestion that the now late Max Mosley, son of the late Fascist Oswald Mosley, might have been Prime Minister of Great Britain:

    “[He would have done] a super job… I don’t think his background would [have been] a problem.”

     

    On Brexit:

    “I’m 100% an outer.”

     

    On his wealth:

    “I’ve got enough I can do with my money.”

     

    On following the rules:

    “I never stopped breaking the rules.”

     

    Asked if immigrants had made a contribution to the UK:

    “They have not.”

     

    On who is worth speaking to:

    “Anyone who doesn’t speak English isn’t worth speaking to… I’d rather get to the 70-year-old guy who has a lot of cash.”

     

    On journalists:

    “I can’t remember a single occasion when I have been kind to a journalist.”

     

    On social media:

    “I think the change that is currently taking place is very short-lived, as these social media people are starting to think it is not as good as they thought.”

     

    On waiters and prostitutes:

    “Waiters are like hookers, never around when you want them.”

     

    On women:

    “You know, I’ve got one of those wonderful ideas… Women should be all dressed in white like all the other domestic appliances.”

     

    “What I would really like to see happen is to find the right girl, perhaps a black girl with super looks, preferably Jewish or Muslim, who speaks Spanish.”

     

    On women participating in Formula 1:

    “I don’t know whether a woman would physically be able to drive an F1 car quickly, and they wouldn’t be taken seriously.”

     

    On Lewis Hamilton:

    “I don’t find him particularly engaging… He’s not particularly you would say black.”

     

    On the corrupt criminal and disgraced banker Gerhard Gribkowsky:

    “Dear old Gribkowsky… I don’t blame him because I would have probably done the same if I could have done it. He found the weak spot, found some leverage and used it. You can’t blame somebody for doing that.”

     

    On the individuals who kidnapped his mother-in-law:

    “If I get upset, how could it help?”

     

    On his business career and his family’s Bambino Holdings offshore trust:

    “I’ve got the highest position there is. So high that when I look down, I can’t see anything.”

     

    “Maybe the most serious thing I regret was giving my shares to my ex [Slavica Radić], because when she them all in a trust for her and the kids, I lost control.”

     

  • The Crackpottery of Coronavirus

    The Crackpottery of Coronavirus

    Coronavirus has become the go-to excuse for just about anything that goes wrong and it is ridiculous suggests Matthew Steeples

    “Coronavirus” and a shrug is now the equivalent of “leaves on the line.” Used  when anything at all goes wrong in this weird new era, this unfortunately completely overused response to any situation has become beyond irritating.

     

    When I telephoned a car hire firm yesterday to simply extended a booking in France, I was told that under new rules because of “coronavirus,” I would have to go to a specific office in St Tropez. I got there and found it “closed due to coronavirus.”

     

    Sent next to another location at a private airport by a call centre operative, I was told there that they could not help as they’d reduced their operation “due to coronavirus.”

     

    Though I eventually sorted the problem by going to yet another location many miles away, this situation is far from rare. When any mishap occurs right now, people just pin it on coronavirus in spite of the fact that many problems have utterly nothing to do with such.

     

    The likes of Marks & Spencer and Pizza Express are operations that have failed to move with the times, yet they blame their decline on a pandemic rather than their bad management. It’s the easy way out and it’s become the go-to get out clause.

     

    Equally, crazy people are spreading messages that coronavirus is a creation of billionaires seeking to profit from us – one society sort ludicrously told me that it was “made” by Bill Gates whilst another, claiming in all seriousness it to be fact, announced that Barrack Obama had put it on a plane and sent it around the world. Here in coronavirus we have a new bonkers and sadly it has also brought with it the phrase “the new normal” also. The sooner such (and the virus itself) disappears into the ether, the better.

     

    Facebook: @TheSteepleTimes

    Instagram: @TheSteepleTimes

    Twitter: @SteepleTimes and @M_Steeples

     

  • Magnificent Madeleine

    Magnificent Madeleine

    Matthew Steeples suggests the utterly charming Chez Madeleine as the best place for seafood in Saint Tropez, France

    To those that aspire to be Mary Berry, Saint Tropez is famous for its Tarte Tropézienne – created in a bakery in the main square in the 1950s by Alexandre Micka, a young Polish baker, and made famous by Brigitte Bardot’s obsession with it subsequently in the 1960s – and to the flash with wads of cash, this is a summer spot that is all about hedonism and high fashion.

     

    If you want Celine, Dior, Hermès, Loro Piana or Louis Vuitton, in Saint Tropez you will find yourself in your idea of heaven and in terms of dining, the coastal town is primarily divided between restaurants that cater to tacky tourists and dining destinations that pander to the cravings of the super, super ultra rich. However, for those desiring something a little more authentic there’s a wonderful little oyster bar hidden behind a small fish market named Chez Madeleine that you simply just couldn’t fail to fall in love with.

     

    Owned and operated by a delightful lady named Garance Fonquerne and her family since December 2019, Chez Madeleine is certainly petite. With just a few bar stools, it’s a quick pitstop for some but, if you linger, you’ll soon discover the charm of this dining destination is based upon its atmosphere and jolly staff.

     

    Garance is thoroughly French, but her father runs a hair salon in London’s Gloucester Road. She was educated partly in South Kensington and as such has an ability to click with her international clientele. Here, indeed, is a hostess exceptionnelle and someone whose dining spot is deservedly buzzy.

     

    Featuring primarily a menu of oysters including the Josephine and the Gillardeau – both famously farmed by the family of the latter name since the 19th century. As you sit observing these delights being shucked, you’ll soon realise the truth of Andrew Carnegie’s quote on this most delectable of shellfish: “The first man gets the oyster, the second man gets the shell” as you then witness the suave staff of the ‘have yachts’ arrive to collect stunningly presented takeaway baskets of such for their masters to consume on their nearby gin palaces.

     

    Offered here also is king crab, prawns, salmon and caviar and washed down in the sunshine with a bottle of rose, you’ll also realise you’ve found the best thing in life in Chez Madeleine: A simple, yet utterly glorious culinary paradise.

     

    Chez Madeleine, 14 Place aux Herbes, 83 990, Saint Tropez, France. Telephone: +33 (0) 9 52 04 39 47. Instagram: @la.fine.equipe.chez.madeleine

     

    Pictured top: Garance Fonquerne outside Chez Madeleine.

     

    Facebook: @TheSteepleTimes

    Instagram: @TheSteepleTimes

    Twitter: @SteepleTimes and @M_Steeples

     

    Magnificent Madeleine – Review of Chez Madeleine, France – Matthew Steeples suggests the utterly charming Chez Madeleine as the best place for seafood in Saint Tropez, France. Chez Madeleine, 14 Place aux Herbes, 83 990, Saint Tropez, France. Telephone: +33 (0) 9 52 04 39 47.
    Magnificent Madeleine – Review of Chez Madeleine, France – Matthew Steeples suggests the utterly charming Chez Madeleine as the best place for seafood in Saint Tropez, France. Chez Madeleine, 14 Place aux Herbes, 83 990, Saint Tropez, France. Telephone: +33 (0) 9 52 04 39 47.
    Magnificent Madeleine – Review of Chez Madeleine, France – Matthew Steeples suggests the utterly charming Chez Madeleine as the best place for seafood in Saint Tropez, France. Chez Madeleine, 14 Place aux Herbes, 83 990, Saint Tropez, France. Telephone: +33 (0) 9 52 04 39 47.
  • Hannah, Soleil and Winter Strafford-Taylor

    Hannah, Soleil and Winter Strafford-Taylor

    Narcissist and “yummy mummy” Hannah Strafford-Taylor describes herself as “Instagram’s most stylish mum” to her 8,600 followers. Mocked as a “plastic clichéd fool using her bizarrely named daughters [Soleil and Winter] as accessories”, Mrs Strafford-Taylor told the Mail Online: “My husband says I have my own unique currency of holidays. I compare everything to the price of a holiday. My favourite place in the world is the Maldives” in January 2017. Of her one commentator remarked: “Well, she loves herself a bit too much” whilst another concluded: “Another bragging Brit, we can all do that”.

     

  • The word ‘rich’ is relative

    The word ‘rich’ is relative

    Website of the Week: Rich Kids of Instagram

     

    The Rich Kids of Instagram website is an Internet phenomenon that has come to illustrate the gulf between the haves and the have nots.

      (more…)

  • Timo Weber

    Timo Weber

    This affable German’s address book spans continents and cultures. A graduate of the Cass Business School and the University of Madrid, Weber’s projects have variously included The Cuckoo Club, Salon Club and Wanted Gallery. Here’s a gent who knows how to combining partying and business and one whose invites are most definitely like gold dust.

  • Patricia Kluge (née Rose)

    Patricia Kluge (née Rose)

    The rise and fall of the “wealthiest divorcee in history” has been extraordinary. A former nude model for her first husband’s Knave magazine and star of adult films such as “The Nine Acres of Nakedness,” Patricia Kluge is the daughter of an Englishman and a Scots-Iraqi. She married her second husband, the late John Kluge, chairman of Metromedia and once the richest man in America, in 1981 after belly dancing for him at a dinner party in New York. As part of her plan to dovetail herself into the top drawer of American society, the couple built a 24,000 square foot mock 18th century English-style mansion, Albermarle, in Virginia and stuffed it full of Chippendale furniture. She got this as part of her $100 million divorce settlement in 1990 and wisely invested part of the payoff in a highly successful business trading football cards but then vanity struck. The Kluge Estate Winery project that she started with her third husband, William Moses, bankrupted the pair in June 2011 and the Bank of America foreclosed on her properties. A lifeline came from “longtime friend” Donald Trump who purchased the vineyard and employed her, but even he’s now uttered the words: “You’re fired!” and sent her packing. Of her newfound predicament Kluge commented: “What did we lose? Material things, nothing too important. When something like this happens you really see who your friends are, those you can rely on, and we have many friends.” Here is a lady with fortitude that can only be described as admirable. It’s probably best, however, to keep her away from the cash register.

  • The perils of fusion

    The perils of fusion

    Christian Huhnt reports on recent changes at Cassis restaurant

     

    As I work in the arts and also collect wines, I find Cassis Bistro in South Kensington most comfortable as here I find myself surrounded by great works by Julian Opie, Gary Hume and Henri Matisse alongside as a humongous and well-stocked wine rack at the back of the restaurant. Cassis is part of Marlon Abela’s restaurant group, Marc, which also includes The Greenhouse, Umu, Morello Bistro and Morton’s.

     

    Cassis Bistro’s decor cleverly combines wine and art

    Party guests at Cassis Bistro, 232 – 236 Brompton Road, London, SW3 2BB

    It was with anticipation, therefore, that I accepted an invitation to celebrate the arrival of Cassis’s new head chef, “le nouveau moteur de cuisine,” Massimiliano Blasone. Wait a minute: “Blasone”? That doesn’t sound to French to me. And indeed, he isn’t. This Italian chef made his name at Heinz Beck’s Michelin-starred Apsleys at The Lanesborough Hotel on Hyde Park Corner.

     

    The first thing that I asked myself was: “What is an Italian chef doing in a French kitchen?” More importantly: “What is an Italian chef doing in a restaurant that has made its goal,” according to their own marketing material, “to deliver: The finest Provençal cuisine in London?”

     

    A leaflet promoting the “Provençal” cuisine on offer at Cassis

    After consulting the restaurant’s PR she told me the new idea is to “cook Provençal cuisine with an Italian influence.” What the heck? Why not add a Nigerian limbo dancer making sushi or a Muslim serving pork pies?

     

    Continuing, she told me that the former chef had left as he’d decided to open his own restaurant. I recall once having a delightful lunch when that particular chef was still at Cassis, roughly one year ago, and remember how tasteful and typically Provençal it actually was.

     

    Starting, as ever, with the drinks, I let the waiter choose my first one. He gave me a “Cassis Collins” which is supposedly the house cocktail. A mix of gin, crème de cassis soda, blackcurrant purée and lemon juice. Sadly, I could only really taste the lemon and overall it was too watery. It tasted as if it had been mixed 30-minutes prior to my arrival.

     

    Jessica Patterson and Steffen Timm at Cassis

    I quickly changed to an Italian classic, a Negroni, which was strong but cool. This was far more impressive. Steffen Timm, my companion and food connoisseur, went for a non-alcoholic cocktail with the notion to spare his palate for tasting the food later on, but while sipping at it he almost got a sugar shock and therefore turned to the booze too.

     

    While sat at the bar, I found myself surrounded by some delightful locals and regulars. Things were most definitely on the up. After nibbling one grissini after another, finally the food arrived, but it came at such a speed that I struggled to keep up. Not even finished with a typically Italian dish of tagliatelle con tartufo bianco, the kind waiter offered me some superb raw tuna served in a Middle East Asian style with bulgur. Having barely swallowed this, the next dishes presented to me were a pumpkin tortellini with truffles, followed by oysters with sour cream and cucumber. Quail’s eggs with truffles, a lamb saddle with ratatouille (which was probably the only ‘kind-of-Provençal’ canapé) and finally some perfectly made risotto with yet more truffles brought things to a crescendo. My love affair with truffles is well known and some readers may recall my sharing that with you in my review of Honky Tonk. I must say, however, that this particular dish was more reminiscent of something that one might find in a chic restaurant in St Tropez than in the Provençal settings I am used to.

     

    Provençal-style lamb saddle with ratatouille

     

    Although Cassis is delightful and I enjoyed an evening of conversation and company, sadly, this new kitchen seems to have lost its ethos and now lacks the authentic Provençal character that made it so good. I urge the management to return to the quintessentially rustic and traditional roots that first made the place so appealing.

     

    Cassis Bistro, 232 – 236 Brompton Road, London, SW3 2BB. Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7581 1101. Website: http://www.cassisbistro.co.uk

     

  • How the mac ’n’ cheese met the truffle oil

    How the mac ’n’ cheese met the truffle oil

    Christian Huhnt recounts an evening of rock ‘n’ roll at the opening party for Hollywood Road’s latest venue, Honky Tonk

     

    When you hear about the opening of a London-based “underground NYC inspired rock ‘n’ roll restaurant,” the last thing you expect is to find it in the very heart of an area that estate agents now call “Little Chelsea.”

     

    Honky Tonk, 6 Hollywood Road, London, SW10 9HY

    So, my companion Steffen and I headed off to determine what this mystery may be, and to learn what the owner, who is supposedly involved in The Supper Club, was willing to reveal that night. As soon as I arrived, I found myself sipping a chilled drink, while listening to some Screamin’ Jay Hawkins vibes. “The Gringo,” a mix of tequila, juice and wheat beer is described as “a delectable intertwining of Mexican and British” on Honky Tonk’s drinks menu and it is just such.

     

    As I was pushed deeper into the venue, away from the bar at the entrance, I felt I had been left alone in the middle of Shoreditch, with a 60s-inspired retro-American “highway diner” flair interior of unrendered walls, raw lightbulbs, Formica tables, and pierced and tattooed modern-hippy looking 20-somethings; only the pretty waitresses reminded me, that I was in fact not in a greasy US-diner, but at an opening in Chelsea, West London.

    Guests enjoying Honky Tonk’s opening bash

    Honky Tonk’s bar staff creating cocktails

    One of Honky Tonk’s waitresses serving cocktails

    When it came to the food, served as canapés, it again became clear, that I was in SW10. The “not” fried chicken, as the waitress educated me, is only coated with a “special recipe” and then oven-baked. It has as much crispy pleasure as it would have had fried, but it is far healthier and plainly designed so as not to dispossess the figure conscious guests of this elite neighborhood.

     

    Almost finished with this delight, I tasted the next dish on the menu: New England crab cakes in a chili-mayo sauce, followed by little potato skins loaded with chilli con carne and sour cream. As I wasn’t sure anymore if this food could be solely called “good old-fashioned American bites,” the next dish was most definitely the tip of the iceberg: the macaroni cheese, apparently the “Baked Beans of America,” the synonym of cheap grub, the epitome of total culinary absence. Here at Honky Tonk, though, they controversially served this with a porcini béchamel and truffle oil sauce, along with roasted wild mushrooms. Believe it or not, it worked and it was bloody good.

     

    While getting in the mood with another fancy drink, one of my favorites by the way, I tried a rum and ginger beer concoction topped with a slice of lime and listened to Elvis Presley’s Mystery Train playing in the background. Whilst enjoying this, I realise that the Chelsea boys and girls have arrived and are mingling with the hip East London crowd. I have seen this lot at many other openings and can’t assume they were shipped in, but nonetheless the spot is suddenly buzzing and a great evening follows.

     

    Examples of the humour of Honky Tonk’s management adorn the venue’s walls

    Honky Tonk promises to deliver the New York vibe, bringing cool Blues, Jazz and Rockabilly tones with regular live music to the heart of posh Chelsea. Well done so far.

     

    Rock on!

     

    Honky Tonk, 6 Hollywood Road, London, SW10 9HY. Telephone: +44 (0) 207 351 1588. Website: http://www.honkytonkchelsea.com.