The Steeple Times

Tag: SW3

  • A Blank Canvas

    A Blank Canvas

    Chelsea “studio with living rooms” built for Augustus John and later owned by Dame Grace Fields DBE available to rent

     

    Though the Pembrokeshire born artist, bohemian and pacifist Augustus John (1878 – 1961) was best known for his portraits of Lawrence of Arabia and Dylan Thomas, he is also said to have fathered as many as 100 children over the course of his life. A Grade II listed “Dutch farmhouse-style” studio he built and occupied for twenty years in Chelsea, London is currently available to rent.

     

    A Blank Canvas – 28 Mallord Street, Chelsea, London, SW3 6DU – To rent for £9,500 per week ($11,800, €11,100 or درهم43,500 per week) through Aylesford – Built for artist Augustus John (1878 – 1961) and later home to Dame Gracie Fields OBE (1898 – 1979)
    This vast studio room is the most impressive feature of 28 Mallord Street, Chelsea, London, SW3 6U

     

    Built in 1913 to 1914 from designs by a Dutch architect named Robert van ’t Hoff and Grade II listed, 28 Mallord Street cost an estimated £2,200 to build (the equivalent of £233,000, $291,000, €272,000 or درهم1.1 million today). It includes features influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright and was described by Augustus John as “my new studio with living rooms” on completion. He lived there until 1934 and though initially delighted by the building’s “solidity and tautness”, ultimately termed it “this damned Dutch shanty” and moved to a new, purpose-built ferro-concrete at Fryern Court in Fordingbridge, Hampshire.

     

    Owned by the thrice married actress and singer Dame Gracie Fields OBE (1898 – 1979) – who described it as “feeling like home” and “a love nest” – in the 1930s and sold for £5.4 million in 2009 (the equivalent of £6.6 million, $8.2 million, €7.7 million or درهم30.2 million today). 28 Mallord Street is now available to rent for £9,500 per week ($11,800, €11,100 or درهم43,500 per week) or £494,000 per year ($616,000, €576,000 or درهم2.3 million per year) through Aylesford International.

     

    A Blank Canvas – 28 Mallord Street, Chelsea, London, SW3 6DU – To rent for £9,500 per week ($11,800, €11,100 or درهم43,500 per week) through Aylesford – Built for artist Augustus John (1878 – 1961) and later home to Dame Gracie Fields OBE (1898 – 1979)
    Augustus John OM, RA was celebrated for brilliant figure drawings, and for a new technique of oil sketching; his work was often favourably compared with Gauguin and Matisse
    A Blank Canvas – 28 Mallord Street, Chelsea, London, SW3 6DU – To rent for £9,500 per week ($11,800, €11,100 or درهم43,500 per week) through Aylesford – Built for artist Augustus John (1878 – 1961) and later home to Dame Gracie Fields OBE (1898 – 1979)
    A Blue Plaque commemorating the artist was installed on the building in 1981
    A Blank Canvas – 28 Mallord Street, Chelsea, London, SW3 6DU – To rent for £9,500 per week ($11,800, €11,100 or درهم43,500 per week) through Aylesford – Built for artist Augustus John (1878 – 1961) and later home to Dame Gracie Fields OBE (1898 – 1979)
    28 Mallord Street in 1981
    A Blank Canvas – 28 Mallord Street, Chelsea, London, SW3 6DU – To rent for £9,500 per week ($11,800, €11,100 or درهم43,500 per week) through Aylesford – Built for artist Augustus John (1878 – 1961) and later home to Dame Gracie Fields OBE (1898 – 1979)
    Actress and singer Dame Gracie Fields OBE took up occupancy of the building soon after Augustus John sold it

     

    Expanded to provide 5,109 square foot of accommodation over five levels, the house is dominated by a 38’3” by 25’2” studio reception room with a ceiling height of 18’4” and also includes upto 6 bedrooms, 2 kitchens and a temperature controlled wine cellar with Hermès wallpaper.

     

    Aylesford describe 28 Mallord Street as “a true family home, the ultimate blank canvas and ideal for any art collector”. They offer it on an unfurnished basis.

     

    A Blank Canvas – 28 Mallord Street, Chelsea, London, SW3 6DU – To rent for £9,500 per week ($11,800, €11,100 or درهم43,500 per week) through Aylesford – Built for artist Augustus John (1878 – 1961) and later home to Dame Gracie Fields OBE (1898 – 1979)A Blank Canvas – 28 Mallord Street, Chelsea, London, SW3 6DU – To rent for £9,500 per week ($11,800, €11,100 or درهم43,500 per week) through Aylesford – Built for artist Augustus John (1878 – 1961) and later home to Dame Gracie Fields OBE (1898 – 1979)A Blank Canvas – 28 Mallord Street, Chelsea, London, SW3 6DU – To rent for £9,500 per week ($11,800, €11,100 or درهم43,500 per week) through Aylesford – Built for artist Augustus John (1878 – 1961) and later home to Dame Gracie Fields OBE (1898 – 1979)A Blank Canvas – 28 Mallord Street, Chelsea, London, SW3 6DU – To rent for £9,500 per week ($11,800, €11,100 or درهم43,500 per week) through Aylesford – Built for artist Augustus John (1878 – 1961) and later home to Dame Gracie Fields OBE (1898 – 1979)A Blank Canvas – 28 Mallord Street, Chelsea, London, SW3 6DU – To rent for £9,500 per week ($11,800, €11,100 or درهم43,500 per week) through Aylesford – Built for artist Augustus John (1878 – 1961) and later home to Dame Gracie Fields OBE (1898 – 1979)A Blank Canvas – 28 Mallord Street, Chelsea, London, SW3 6DU – To rent for £9,500 per week ($11,800, €11,100 or درهم43,500 per week) through Aylesford – Built for artist Augustus John (1878 – 1961) and later home to Dame Gracie Fields OBE (1898 – 1979)A Blank Canvas – 28 Mallord Street, Chelsea, London, SW3 6DU – To rent for £9,500 per week ($11,800, €11,100 or درهم43,500 per week) through Aylesford – Built for artist Augustus John (1878 – 1961) and later home to Dame Gracie Fields OBE (1898 – 1979)

  • Overheard – 31st March

    Overheard – 31st March

    Clangers overheard and snippets spotted by readers of ‘The Steeple Times’

     

    Ferry & Yah

    A PR maven at the Chiltern Firehouse loudly spoke into her mobile. She speedily told the person at the other end of the line: “Bryan Ferry is amazing. Yah. Super yah… I saw his son in 5 Hertford Street. That was a triple yah… Becks and I had such a laugh coming up in the car. That was a yah, a cheers and yah… I didn’t try and talk to Bryan Ferry’s son. That wouldn’t be a yah”. She put the phone down, quaffed her cocktail and dialled her next yah-ing victim.

     

    Milton to Walton

    At the bar of The Enterprise in Walton Street, Chelsea, a chubby woman from the Midlands summoned a waitress. She exclaimed: “I want a table now. Outside. This is war. I want one now. Who do those bloody people sat there think they are? We’ve come all the way from Milton Keynes”. Another customer mumbled: “We’d rather you go back there”.

     

    Storming Doris

    “What is it with these storms?” asked a middle-aged estate agent at the bar of the since closed restaurant La Brasserie in Brompton Road, SW3. His equally bright friend answered: “Storm Doris: I thought it was a terrorist incident”.

     

    Blairing Blackpool

    At lunch at Sexy Fish in Berkeley Square, W1, a pair of businessmen debated their worst ever mistakes. The winner? “I paid £1,500 to meet Tony Blair’s son for lunch once. What a waste. I wish I’d bought a flight to Blackpool instead”.

     

    A Need for Pecorino

    “Pecorino, I need some Pecorino”, remarked a woman with an expensive looking pram in a deli in Marylebone. An elderly gent tapped her on the shoulder and asked: “Who do you and your kid think you are? Wallace and Bloody Gromit?”

     

    The Richness of Wholefoods

    On Facebook, Matthew Cranwell posted: “When I see a rich bitch in Wholefoods, I pretend I need help and ask: ‘Excuse me, do you work here?’ Just to keep things real”.

     

    Submit comments you hear to [email protected]. We publish amusing and ridiculous chatter we receive and sometimes we change names and locations to protect the identities of the vain and the vacuous.

     

  • The Community Conundrum

    The Community Conundrum

    Chelsea locals bemoan the loss of their community gathering point

     

    Last night at The Enterprise in Walton Street, a group of bereft locals gathered to hold a wake in honour of the demise of their favoured meeting spot, La Brasserie.

     

    No one present denied the fact that there are plenty of other bars and restaurants where one can go for a drink, but what all agreed was that they had lost was the community spirit of what was literally their “spiritual home”. What they had taken from them was a place where one could walk in happy or sad and find a friendly face and someone to chat to.

     

    Bars like, for example, those at The Botanist and Colbert are perfect for tourists and business assignations, but given their crowded nature and design, they don’t have the ambience that made La Brasserie the perfect meeting spot for friendly banter. It will be missed and now the question on everyone’s lips is this: “Where will Chelsea’s answers to Cheers go next?”

     

  • The Loss of La Bras

    The Loss of La Bras

    The closure of La Brasserie in Chelsea should send a signal to greedy landlords; their avarice is killing London

     

    There are restaurants that come and go and there are ones that become institutions. La Brasserie fell into the second category but sadly, yesterday, after 45 years in business, this popular dining spot closed its doors for the very last time.

     

    A great loss to the neighbourhood and a firm favourite of everyone from Mary Quant to Mickey Rourke, this Brompton Road restaurant and bar was considered a home-from-home by its loyal staff and rambunctious regulars. Never did one pass through its doors without encountering a plethora of familiar faces and never did one leave without having been part of something akin to an episode of Cheers.

     

    Opened originally in 1972 and run by its charming and able proprietor Peter Godwin since 1972, the sad demise of ‘La Bras’ (as it was endearingly known) came about after a six figure rent increase resulted in continued trading being utterly unsustainable. Joining many other restaurants in the area to have departed – including Elistano on Elystan Street, Itsu on Draycott Avenue, Poissonnerie on Sloane Avenue and Toto’s on Walton Street – soaring business rates did not help either but one can certainly attribute far more blame to the not-so-charitable landlords grasping to achieve an extra buck.

     

    In a statement, issued via Facebook on Wednesday morning, a representative for La Brasserie remarked:

     

    Peter Godwin the proprietor of La Brasserie, announces with deep regret the closure of the restaurant after 45 years, due to insurmountable increases in overheads and operating costs.

     

    Peter would like to thank all the wonderful hard working staff, many of whom have worked here for over 20 years and have become a real family. He would especially like to thank his right hand man for 42 years Majid Barka, he says he could not have done it without him. He would also like to thank the fabulous management team, Suzie Cooke, Ross Armitage, Cesar Salinas, Carlos Marques, Elodie Bourges, Juan Lousada and Anna Milescu . Also the fantastic team Jose Dantes, Angelo Saavedra, Teodosio Candeias, Manuel Nascimento, Juan Carlos Moreno, Maria Hernandez, Anca Stroia, Edyta Grzesik, Ferran Rodriques, Alessandro Mazziotto, Alhaji Kanu, Anastasios Andreadis, Carlos Teotonio, Hasmik Gevorgyan, Iveta Sudova, Karla Pestana de Barros, Manon Fouquet, Marion Vialle and Monica Cassiano. Last but definitely not least our amazing kitchen team, Head Chef Jamie Smith, Christian Cheregi, Antonio Filipe, Jose Marquez (Pepe), Alexandro Fratini, Desmond Cowan, Jason Whiskey, Jonathan Lincango, Kwacu Owusu, Leopaldo Alvarado, Nanis Dimitrakis, Salar Samyani, Silviu Manole and Stephan Mendes.

     

    It’s a huge disappointment that we had to close, but we have exhausted all possible options to remain in operation. Thank you for all your support, we have enjoyed 45 years of trading and serving you, our customers. As you well know, you have become our friends and extended family. We hope you and your family have enjoyed it as much as we have and we wish you all the best for your future.

     

    Please forgive us and remember the good times!

     

    Peter and all the team at La Brasserie.

     

    Of this sad development, Matthew Steeples, editor of The Steeple Times, commented:

     

    “Chelsea’s character is being torn from its soul by greedy commercial property owners wanting to replace long established businesses with chain stores and luxury goods brands as they believe they’ll pay higher rents”.

     

    “Given the number of empty shops and restaurants peppering the locality, however, the strategy of landlords is plainly not working. These charlatans are killing the area and all that will soon be left is a near empty money park”.

     

  • Dine With Donald

    Dine With Donald

    Matthew Steeples suggests readers reject Donald Trump’s desperate plugs for an opportunity to win dinner with his own very sorry self

     

    In the past twenty-four hours I’ve received four messages begging me to buy my way in to being in with a chance of winning a dinner with Donald Trump on Tuesday 21st March in Washington, D.C.

     

    In the series of email missives, ‘The Donald’s’ representative boast that the winner of this “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” will get to “attend the annual March dinner for FREE”. They list the benefits and amongst them are:

     

    A trip to D.C.: FREE

     

    A stay in TRUMP Hotel: FREE

     

    A dinner with President Trump: PRICELESS

     

    Though “making a contribution does not increase your chances of winning” nor likely your time getting to share “alternative facts” with Kellyanne Conway, entrants are urged to donate $10 to get one entry, $20 to get 4 entries, $50 to get 10 entries or $100 to get 50 entries. Whoever wins will be “President Trump’s guests of honor [sic] at the BIGGEST Republican event of the year”. Lucky them.

     

    In London, a manager of a Chelsea restaurant, on hearing of the “opportunity” to share an over-cooked steak topped with ketchup with the 45th POTUS, remarked: “I’d rather go with one of the local tramps than dine with that old mutt”.

     

    An embarrassed American, sat nearby, laughed and added: “I’d rather eat wasps, nails and paving stones”.

     

    If you really do desire an evening with a lunatic, click here to be in with a chance to win dinner with Donald Trump.

     

    Twitter: @M_Steeples

     

  • Pint Sized

    Pint Sized

    Chelsea’s smallest stand-alone house for sale; it is situated on the same street at two pubs

    What could quite possibly be the smallest stand-alone house in Chelsea is for sale for £600,000 ($750,000, €705,000 or درهم2.8 million).

     

    20 Britten Street extends to just 290 square foot in total and is situated next to St Luke’s Gardens and between two public houses, The Builder’s Arms and The Sydney Arms. The property is in need of “complete modernisation” and features a reception room, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom.

     

    Selling agents Douglas & Gordon remark: “This is a proper Chelsea gem that is available to the market for the first time in almost 50 years”.

  • Nigel Farage: ‘Man of the Elite’

    Nigel Farage: ‘Man of the Elite’

    Nigel Farage joins the elite and moves to a large period property in Chelsea, London

     

    Until recently Nigel Farage claimed he was the leader of the “people’s army”. He presented himself as a man living in a “small semi-detached house in the country” and someone who had “no regrets about being poor”. He targeted working class voters, sought out the “ordinary man” and championed bringing down the “elite”.

     

    This pint-loving politician, it now transpires, has now taken up residence in a large period house in Elystan Street, Chelsea. Situated next door to My Hotel Chelsea, the white painted property is “owned by a businessman” according to the Mail on Sunday. Mr Farage is allegedly using it as his weekday “bolthole”, the paper adds, but does not declare if he is paying rent.

     

    Spotted recently dining at upmarket eatery Bibendum – accompanied by four burly security guards – also, Farage is as entitled to make money and live the high life as much as the next man. In doing so, however, he can no longer claim to be a ‘Man of the People’. Instead, it’s time billionaire Donald Trump’s new ‘British Best Friend’ admitted what he now is: Meet Nigel Farage – ‘Man of the Elite’.

     

  • Cupboards by Harrods

    Cupboards by Harrods

    Two studio flats near Harrods for sale for extraordinary sums offer ideal homes for pint-sized people

     

    A typical London Underground carriage provides about 464 square foot of space. In Knightsbridge and just seconds from Harrods, a property offering just over half that area has just come on sale on a short lease for £450,000 ($553,000, €525,000, درهم2.03 million).

     

    The 258 square foot raised ground floor ‘cupboard-like’ property in Jefferson House at 11 Basil Street is offered at a price that equates to £1,765 per square foot ($2,170, €2,050 or درهم7,965 per square foot) consists of a single room decorated with Austin Powers-esque wallpaper, a kitchen with, the selling agents boast, the luxury of “an electric hob” and a shower room. Carter Jonas point out that the lease on the studio is extendable but neglect to detail what that will cost.

     

    For pint-sized people with a larger budget, Beauchamp Estates have also just launched a slightly larger third floor studio to the west of Harrods in Beaufort Gardens, SW3.

     

    Priced at a much more punchy £1.65 million ($2.03 million, €1.92 million or درهم7.45 million) or £3,061 per square foot ($3,760, €3,570 or درهم13,815 per square foot), the 539 square foot flat is within a redeveloped building of nine properties and features an open plan sitting, dining and kitchen area with a corridor to a separate sleeping area. It has a full-sized bathroom and lift access.

     

    Pictures and plans of the Basil Street studio:

    Cupboards by Harrods – Two studio flats near Harrods in Knightsbridge, London, SW3 for sale for extraordinary sums offer ideal homes for pint-sized people – January 2017 – Carter Jonas and Beauchamp Estates – Raised ground floor at Jefferson House, 11 Basil Street at £450,000 ($553,000, €525,000, درهم2.03 million) – Third floor at Beaufort Gardens at £1.65 million ($2.03 million, €1.92 million or درهم7.45 million) Cupboards by Harrods – Two studio flats near Harrods in Knightsbridge, London, SW3 for sale for extraordinary sums offer ideal homes for pint-sized people – January 2017 – Carter Jonas and Beauchamp Estates – Raised ground floor at Jefferson House, 11 Basil Street at £450,000 ($553,000, €525,000, درهم2.03 million) – Third floor at Beaufort Gardens at £1.65 million ($2.03 million, €1.92 million or درهم7.45 million) Cupboards by Harrods – Two studio flats near Harrods in Knightsbridge, London, SW3 for sale for extraordinary sums offer ideal homes for pint-sized people – January 2017 – Carter Jonas and Beauchamp Estates – Raised ground floor at Jefferson House, 11 Basil Street at £450,000 ($553,000, €525,000, درهم2.03 million) – Third floor at Beaufort Gardens at £1.65 million ($2.03 million, €1.92 million or درهم7.45 million) Cupboards by Harrods – Two studio flats near Harrods in Knightsbridge, London, SW3 for sale for extraordinary sums offer ideal homes for pint-sized people – January 2017 – Carter Jonas and Beauchamp Estates – Raised ground floor at Jefferson House, 11 Basil Street at £450,000 ($553,000, €525,000, درهم2.03 million) – Third floor at Beaufort Gardens at £1.65 million ($2.03 million, €1.92 million or درهم7.45 million) Cupboards by Harrods – Two studio flats near Harrods in Knightsbridge, London, SW3 for sale for extraordinary sums offer ideal homes for pint-sized people – January 2017 – Carter Jonas and Beauchamp Estates – Raised ground floor at Jefferson House, 11 Basil Street at £450,000 ($553,000, €525,000, درهم2.03 million) – Third floor at Beaufort Gardens at £1.65 million ($2.03 million, €1.92 million or درهم7.45 million)

    Pictures and plans of the Beaufort Gardens studio:

    Cupboards by Harrods – Two studio flats near Harrods in Knightsbridge, London, SW3 for sale for extraordinary sums offer ideal homes for pint-sized people – January 2017 – Carter Jonas and Beauchamp Estates – Raised ground floor at Jefferson House, 11 Basil Street at £450,000 ($553,000, €525,000, درهم2.03 million) – Third floor at Beaufort Gardens at £1.65 million ($2.03 million, €1.92 million or درهم7.45 million) Cupboards by Harrods – Two studio flats near Harrods in Knightsbridge, London, SW3 for sale for extraordinary sums offer ideal homes for pint-sized people – January 2017 – Carter Jonas and Beauchamp Estates – Raised ground floor at Jefferson House, 11 Basil Street at £450,000 ($553,000, €525,000, درهم2.03 million) – Third floor at Beaufort Gardens at £1.65 million ($2.03 million, €1.92 million or درهم7.45 million) Cupboards by Harrods – Two studio flats near Harrods in Knightsbridge, London, SW3 for sale for extraordinary sums offer ideal homes for pint-sized people – January 2017 – Carter Jonas and Beauchamp Estates – Raised ground floor at Jefferson House, 11 Basil Street at £450,000 ($553,000, €525,000, درهم2.03 million) – Third floor at Beaufort Gardens at £1.65 million ($2.03 million, €1.92 million or درهم7.45 million) Cupboards by Harrods – Two studio flats near Harrods in Knightsbridge, London, SW3 for sale for extraordinary sums offer ideal homes for pint-sized people – January 2017 – Carter Jonas and Beauchamp Estates – Raised ground floor at Jefferson House, 11 Basil Street at £450,000 ($553,000, €525,000, درهم2.03 million) – Third floor at Beaufort Gardens at £1.65 million ($2.03 million, €1.92 million or درهم7.45 million)

     

  • Itsu’s Over

    Itsu’s Over

    EXCLUSIVE – Chelsea restaurant Itsu set to close its doors for the final time

     

    Itsu in Walton Street, Chelsea is set to close its doors shortly for the last time shortly due to rocketing rents.

     

    Described by The Telegraph as a “timeless social hot spot for women in fur boots who can’t move their foreheads”, the restaurant was the original restaurant in the chain and opened in 1997. It was the brainchild of Pret a Manger founder Julian Metcalfe and businessman Clive Schlee and is currently one of over 60 locations that form part of the Asian-inspired food chain.

     

    Prior to becoming Itsu, the Walton Street location was amongst other things the site of an “upmarket eatery” named Walton’s. That restaurant was bombed by an IRA unit named the Balcombe Street Gang on 18th November 1975. Two diners died and 23 others were injured.

     

    Itsu’s Over – Exclusive – Chelsea restaurant Itsu set to close its doors for the final time, Itsu, 118 Walton Street, London, SW3 3AE
    The aftermath of the bombing of Walton’s on the corner of Walton Street and Draycott Avenue

     

  • Old and New – Sloanes

    Old and New – Sloanes

    New series contrasting the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ begins with Sloane Rangers

     

    Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Lady Diana Spencer used to drink at The Admiral Codrington whilst Sloanes named Perdita and Peregrine downed gin like it was water in The Australian in Milner Street.

     

    Loud braces and yellow cords sold like hot cakes and Peter York was king of all he surveyed. Now, in a new era, this socially elite set of characters have had to evolve and though the majority of Kensington and Chelsea is now colonised by wealthy foreigners, Sloane Rangers are still be found braying in Kings Road, SW3.

     

    Old and New – Sloanes – New series contrasting the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ begins with Sloane Rangers