Coachbuilt 2018 Range Rover ‘Adventum Coupé’ for sale for an eye-watering sum; it comes with two umbrellas with handles made of the same leather as the interior
Niels van Roij is a Dutchman who has set about reviving the craft of the coachbuilders of the early 20th century. Aside from having the work of his award-winning eponymous automative studio exhibited at the London Transport Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum, this autodidact car adapter has developed shooting brakes based on the Tesla Model S and the Range Rover.
Now, the very first example of this talented designer’s Land Rover adaptations – named the Adventum Coupé – has become available for sale. The vehicle in question, converted from a 2018 5.0-litre supercharged V8 Range Rover to a “two door model based on the world’s best SUV,” is priced at £256,300 ($318,000, €290,400 or درهم1.2 million) including VAT and available through the Classic Youngtimers Consultancy based in Uden in Noord-Brabant, Netherlands. It has covered about 8,000 miles.
Presented with its hand-beaten aluminum body panels in Arctic white with a Nappa red leather interior and black piano lacquer dashboard, the car features flooring of handmade teak from the front seats to the trunk. Two hand-stitched black and red umbrellas can be found in the boot complete with handles made of the same leather as the interior.
Speaking generally of the Adventum Coupé range he intends to craft – the build run of which will be limited to 100 vehicles only – van Roji commented:
“The bespoke Adventum Coupé is a real design statement with a distinctive, custom-made aluminum bodywork, built by coachbuilder Bas van Roomen. Unique personal ideas can also be added to the hand-produced exterior, such as subtle ventilation openings in the fender and the bonnet. The interior can be equipped with the finest materials. In a co-design process with the future owner, we shape exterior and interior. We process the finest materials, such as tweed, teak and lambswool. We make it so personal that even the favourite pinstripe from the owner’s suit can be incorporated into the interior.”
“If desired, each Adventum Coupé can have striking materials and colour schemes for both interior and exterior: Everything is possible: from unique fuel filler caps, duotone exterior paints, highly polished wood on the dashboard, personalised tread plates to colour-matched leather in chic patterns. Even refined embroidery is a possibility.”
“Because: form follows function. This new look visually extends the car. The shutlines of the door actively contribute to a more elegant side view. The interior has also been largely redesigned due to the major changes to the exterior.”
Whilst we’d never urge anyone to buy a Range Rover in white (unless you were planning to use it in a country such as Kuwait), here is a future classic and a car that’ll most certainly stand out from the many other Rangies parked outside the pubs of the Cotswolds on a Sunday afternoon.
Second apartment in South Kensington’s famous ‘Thin House’ comes to the market after another has languished for sale for four years; the two could potentially be merged to make a truly spectacular artist’s studio in the sky
In May 2016, The Steeple Times featured a 603 square foot third floor artist’s studio flat in a building known as ‘The Thin House’ (or ‘The Skinny House’) in Thurloe Square, South Kensington. Priced then at £895,000 ($1.1 million, €1 million or درهم4.1 million), this apartment is surprisingly still for sale for the same sum and complete with the same furniture four years later. Now, however, it is no longer offered by the defunct agents W. A. Ellis and is instead available through agents Rokstone.
The third floor space for sale through Rokstone for £895,000 has been on the market since 2016, yet has never been reduced in price.
A reason this flat may not have ‘moved’ in the period is not only that the building in which it is situated is not only of an “architecturally weird shape,” but also because it directly backs onto the District and Circle line. With trains running from around 5.30am to 12.30am each day, it is undoubtedly noise affected.
Constructed on the remaining land of five neo-classical houses demolished to make way for the underground in the 1860s, red brick 5 Thurloe Square – just six foot wide at its narrowest point – was the brainchild of a local builder named William Douglas. Fitting into a “meagre” triangle, he designed and built seven artists’ studios between 1885 and 1887 and some of them are still in use by creatives to this day.
As well as the aforementioned share of freehold third floor property, a studio on the second floor of the building is also on the market. Offered by Winkworth for £875,000 ($1.1 million, €980,000 or درهم4 million), the 676 square foot space features a 21-foot by 16-foot studio with a small kitchen and bathroom off and a 13-foot by 7-foot mezzanine bedroom over. The agents describe the property as offering “exceptional space” and “the most magnificent view over the treetops of Thurloe Square towards the Victoria and Albert Museum.”
Subject to planning, imagination and deep pockets, an inspired individual could perhaps purchase and merge both apartments into one. The resulting 1,279 square foot creation would not only be thin, it could potentially be spectacular.
Images and floor plans of the third floor artist’s studio follow.
A pioneer of both the Art Deco style and the functionalist Modernist movement, bisexual Irish aristocrat Eileen Gray was best known for designing the Bibendum chair and the E.1027 table. This great tastemaker lived primarily in South Kensington, Paris and the South of France and another of her creations, once owned by Yves Saint Laurent, the ‘Fauteuil aux Dragons’ armchair, sold for £19 million at auction in 2009.
Extremely private, Gray once remarked: “The art of the engineer is not enough… A house is not a machine to live in. It is the shell of man, his extension, his release, his spiritual emanation. Not only its visual harmony but its organisation as a whole, the whole work combined together, make it human in the most profound sense.”
A stunning example of Eileen Gray’s work, an S-bend chair, is on display in Room 135, The Dr. Susan Weber Gallery at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
Eileen Gray also designed the ‘E.1027’ house at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, overlooking the Bay of Monaco in Franc as a gift for her lover, Jean Badovici, the editor of ‘L’Architecture Vivante’. ‘E’ is for Eileen, ‘10’ for the tenth letter of the alphabet, ‘J’ for Jean, ‘2’ for ‘B’ for Badovici and ‘7’ for ‘G’ for Gray. The building was completed in 1929.
The E-1027 table was designed for the eponymous house in 1927.
Penthouse with tower in prominent Knightsbridge landmark for sale for £8.25 million
A penthouse with a tower in a Grade II listed landmark triangular ‘flat-iron’ building on the border of South Kensington and Knightsbridge has gone on sale for £8.25 million ($10.51 million, €9.39 million or درهم38.62 million).
Created in 1991 to designs by Susan Walker Architects and involving the clever merger of two fourth floor flats as part of a £1.70 million scheme (the equivalent of £3.35 million, $4.27 million, €3.81 million or درهم15.68 million today), the 3,475 square foot apartment offered overlooks the Brompton Oratory and has a vista down the Brompton Road towards Harrods. It is within a building known as Empire House that was itself built between 1909 and 1916 to designs by Paul Hoffmann and was originally used by a German firm, the Continental Tyre Company.
Currently featuring a large reception room, a dining kitchen, 5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms and a laundry on the building’s fourth floor, a tower with domed reception space from the sixth to the seventh floors and a private roof terrace on its fifth floor, the apartment comes with planning permission for internal rearrangement.
Held on a leasehold basis expiring 2142 and subject to a service charge of £20,550 per annum ($26,187, €23,391 or درهم96,211 per annum) according to agents JLL, a buyer will also have to pay a one-off charge of £12,054 ($15,360, €13,720 or درهم56,434) towards the cost of refurbishing the portered building’s lift.
Matthew Steeples asks Conservative candidate for Kensington Lady Borwick five questions; he put the same to the Liberal Democrats Annabel Mullin also whilst Labour’s Emma Dent Coad failed to respond
In the final hours of the 2017 General Election campaign, I asked the Conservative candidate for Kensington, Lady Borwick, five questions I considered relevant to voters in one of Britain’s most wealthy constituencies. I publish below her answers in full and unedited form and beneath also include the responses of the Liberal Democrat candidate, Annabel Mullin, to the same questions.
Emma Dent Coad, Labour’s candidate, was also given the opportunity to answer but failed to respond to several requests.
The five questions to Lady Borwick (initially and then more generally to Annabel Mullin and Emma Dent Coad) were:
Hidden homeless: “What will you do to help the ‘hidden homeless’ of Kensington?”
Money park Kensington: “How will you help local businesses counter such decline if re-elected?”
Brexit: “How, going forward, will you credibly represent the 48% who voted to ‘remain’, as someone who went on the phones to support ‘leave’?”
Answering constituents: “How will you improve your pathetically low 18% response rate to constituents’ correspondence, as registered on TheyWorkForYou.com if re-elected?”
Ivory: “Will you continue to lobby Theresa May about ivory in spite of such being highly unpopular with constituents and others such as Deborah Meaden?”
Pictured above: Annabel Mullin campaigning, Lady Borwick during the Brexit referendum and Emma Dent Coad
Pictured above: Annabel Mullin campaigning, Lady Borwick during the Brexit referendum and Emma Dent Coad
Victoria Borwick, Conservative Party
What will you do to help the ‘hidden homeless’ of Kensington?”
In Parliament, the Homeless Reduction Bill was recently passed –which was almost the last bill to be “signed off” before Parliament broke for the election. This puts pressure on local councillors to provide a range of early intervention solutions.
Current local services – There are a number of local churches who are working in this sector such as St Cuthbert’s (who I visited earlier this week) and our local charities.
From my previous work at the GLA, I know that although there is a hostel place for everyone that is not enough. People need more and longer-term help which is why there are some good charities working locally, for example the Glass Door Project and Homeless Link. I have also worked with several of the veterans’ charities whose aim is not “no second night out” but “no first night out”.
The situation with those that are “street homeless” – these are the people who, for a complex number of reasons, spend time living on the streets. Some do have somewhere to sleep at night, but spend the day on the streets and some live on the streets full time, including overnight.
The first port of call for street homeless people is a hostel and these fall into two categories. “Direct access” and those that require a referral from an agency. These agencies provide not only shelter but some way to address the terrible loneliness, mental health and other problems that most street homeless people feel. We need to look at the provision of hostels, but also work with the organisations that provide longer term support, to help people get over their crisis and get back on their feet – and this can take months, and sometimes longer.
There has to be short-term accommodation but also ways of dealing with the causes of street homelessness. There needs to be “move on” accommodation, for those that have managed to get themselves into a stable state, and where they are becoming independent, but may still need some ongoing support. I have visited services where they have a range of provision in the same location, I.E. those in immediate crisis and those that are more capable.
We need to provide services to help people with drug and alcohol problems which causes so many people to become street homeless, and also with the mental health problems that afflict so many of these people. The council’s Public Health Department has made this a high priority. I particularly welcome the changes to our mental health laws that the Prime Minister has pledged to bring in. These should make a big difference for homeless people with mental health problems.
Money park Kensington: “How will you help local businesses counter such decline if re-elected?”
I have grown up in Kensington and lived here all my life, with my family.
Supporting our small and medium sized local businesses is very important for all of us in Kensington. Local businesses are the backbone of our economy and provide employment and opportunities in our community.
Firstly we have to stop losing small independent businesses, as you have refereed to, so that people do not lose their opportunity to be working locally and also to start business locally. RBKC has continued with our planning exemptions, otherwise across London small businesses were being turfed out of their premises. Many local restaurants have sadly closed.
I have lobbied the Chancellor, and if re-elected will continue to lobby the Chancellor against the rash of additional regulations for small business – the proposed quarterly reporting, the apprenticeship levy – should be for larger firms, the pensions levy and of course the revaluation which has negatively impacted on our shops – and not on the out of town warehouses for mail order.
I recently undertook a survey of many local shops and businesses, either in writing or by visiting in person. On the basis of the response, I wrote to the Treasury, as indeed did the Borough, and also raised it personally with the Chancellor to see if there is any other way of looking at the rates – so that rateable value could be examined to take into account factors such as turnover, size of premises, whether the shop is independent or a chain of premises and so on. If re-elected, I shall continue to raise these concerns with other central London MPs as they affect us all.
I will continue to support local businesses by supporting any legislation in Parliament which will promote businesses and support our local economy.
Buy to Leave – This is a real issue in Central London, and this is something that, as an MP, I discussed with other Central London MPs from all parties. As we are aware this is “investment purchasing” where investors buy, usually a new property, and then do not live in it, and treat it as “money in the bank” which is why they don’t want it to be lived in as they want to keep it new.
When discussing this and researching what is actually happening – RBKC undertook a survey, as have Westminster Council on this topic. There is a pocket of properties where this is very prevalent, however there is not overall interest in this because it affect so very few nationally.
That does not make it any less of a problem – the previous Mayor tried to address this by saying that properties have to be marketed in the UK first, but we are often used to getting a mortgage first and these overseas buyers are cash buyers so naturally they can jump in. The new Mayor is also examining what measures can be taken.
There are examples in Switzerland and Australia where they have tried to tackle this issue. Buy to leave homes have a very negative effect on the community as there are less “eyes on the streets” less community activity and it is difficult for local business to survive.
By continuing to have schools and local amenities it brings together a community and encourages homes for families.
Brexit: “How, going forward, will you credibly represent the 48% who voted to ‘remain’, as someone who went on the phones to support ‘leave’?”
I previously worked for Open Europe which was working with the previous administration on renegotiation, which was my preferred stance. I had hoped that the EU would and could use this time to examine its own processes and undertake reform. I realise the result of the referendum is not the outcome for which everyone might have hoped. My chief concern was accountability, and it became clear there was little that could be done to persuade the Commission towards greater transparency.
As a country we voted to leave the EU. Parliament has voted on two occasions to implement the result, with cross-party support. All sides have agreed to respect the referendum and to get on with the re-negotiations. The Lib Dems may have also offered a second referendum on the result of the negotiations. Theresa May has said she will bring the final agreement to Parliament for a vote.
For Kensington, if re-elected, my role will be to lobby for reciprocal rights for all our long-term residents. Over 50% of the residents in Kensington were not born here and many have made Kensington their home for many years. We should continue to make sure they are welcomed and can continue to play an active part in our community. Many are also great contributors to voluntary and charitable works.
I will represent the views of Kensington in Westminster if I am re-elected; working closely with Ministers to make sure they understand the complexity of Kensington.
The choice for everyone is: “Who should be leading the Brexit negotiations?” Which team do you want? I am supporting Theresa May and her team. I support the PMs ambition to strive for a good outcome for the country.
Answering constituents: “How will you improve your pathetically low 18% response rate to constituents’ correspondence, as registered on TheyWorkForYou.com if re-elected?”
I have always prioritised urgent casework when responding to the vast amount of correspondence my office receives. I receive referrals and pleas for help from individual constituents, charities, churches, the mosque and other religious groups, along with organisations such as the Citizens Advice Bureau and free legal advice clinics. We have helped several thousand families over my time in Parliament. These referrals, usually from someone in crisis, do not come through “They Work for You” thus they are not logged in this way.
People tend to write to us on “They Work for You” if they are asking for our views on a particular campaign. If the campaign has nothing to do with Kensington residents, then I put my views on the website, so that people can see my opinion. However, I try not to comment on things that are not directly relevant to the majority of Kensington residents.
As a team – my priority is casework and dealing directly with residents, and meeting residents each week. I try to avoid “lobbying emails”. Obviously with complex cases we need to see the residents a number of times, and help them with their various meetings with officers or officials and if appropriate I also work with their local councillors (from any party) to make sure they are not left without support.
A Member of Parliament is often the last resort for people on housing, immigration and benefits. I have been able to help a great many residents since elected and I hope to continue to do this if re-elected.
Ivory: “Will you continue to lobby Theresa May about ivory in spite of such being highly unpopular with constituents and others such as Deborah Meaden?”
I supplied a full response to Deborah Meaden who said she was content with my response and why I am representing the antiques trade in Kensington and our great museums. She kindly offered to send my response to others who were concerned. I have offered to meet her should I get re-elected.
I support the current proposals which are to make sure we enforce the ban on trading in modern ivory.
No antique dealer wants to kill elephants; no antique dealer supports poaching. The only ivory that can be sold in this country is antique and carved. However, there are countries, including those in Europe who still permit the trading of tusks, although this is shortly to be outlawed – not before time.
We can and should preserve works of art that are our shared cultural inheritance for future generations, while at the same time doing everything in our power to ensure that these terrible assaults on wildlife do not continue. The next generation need to be able to grow up in a world with healthy herds of elephants. However, these are not mutually exclusive positions. This is a view expressed by some of our leading museums, such as the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum.
As you will be aware many musical instruments contain ivory “tinkling the ivories – playing the piano” comes to mind as well as significant treasures in our churches. In our area we have three magnificent museums – the Natural History, V&A and Science Museums – and they all have ivory – antique and old ivory.
Both elephants and our shared cultural inheritance are there for us all; we need to work together to look after both, and I have no doubt that this is possible.
Annabel Mullin, Liberal Democratic Party
What will you do to help the ‘hidden homeless’ of Kensington?”
Rough sleepers and the homesless have had a very tough time of late. Funding has dried up, centres have closed and specialist help has become less frequent. We need to provide holistic care – that means that we must look at social care with mental health for these individuals alongside.
Money park Kensington: “How will you help local businesses counter such decline if re-elected?”
I would like to bring a private members’ bill to fundamentally change business rates as they are killing our local businesses.
Brexit: “How, going forward, will you credibly represent the 48% who voted to ‘remain’, as someone who went on the phones to support ‘leave’?”
As a passionate European and Remainer who feels we are best placed in the European Union, I will fight especially for being in the single market (not just access) and to protect the rights of all EU citizens and their freedom of movement.
Answering constituents: “How will you improve your pathetically low 18% response rate to constituents’ correspondence, as registered on TheyWorkForYou.com if re-elected?”
It has been an absolute pleasure getting to know people in and around Kensington over the last nearly seven weeks. It would be a privilege to serve Kensington and communicate with everyone.
Ivory: “Will you continue to lobby Theresa May about ivory in spite of such being highly unpopular with constituents and others such as Deborah Meaden?”
I find it incredible that China has a ban but the current MP for Kensington does not support it.
Emma Dent Coad, Labour Party
Emma Dent Coad (pictured with Gina Miller of Best For Britain)
Ms Dent Coad failed to respond to repeated requests from The Steeple Times to answer the five questions. They were put to her via email.
PR man of fat Australian Clive Palmer who wanted to rebuild RMS Titanic goes broke; appropriately his surname is ‘Crook’
In 2013, a larger-than-life Aussie gave a press conference at The Ritz, London after hanging out with a now deceased jailbird Astor scion in New York. He tastelessly announced he was rebuilding the RMS Titanic and when I asked him: “Will it sink it the same place?” he furiously had me banned from his party later that evening at the Victoria & Albert Museum.
That the fat man and failed politician Palmer got nowhere with his boat is one thing but that his sorry old henchman filed for bankruptcy is another. Crook, 50, of Brisbane, is said to have debts of AU$800,000 (£472,000 or $594,000 or €557,000 or درهم2.2 million). Who’s got that sinking feeling?
The Steeple Times’ Matthew Steeples and ‘photographer to the stars’ John Stoddart review South Kensigton’s The Adria Hotel and are pleasantly surprised (despite the lack of alcohol)(more…)
This Brazilian firecracker and rising star of the fashion world loves spending time at 5 Hertford Street and the National Art Library at the Victoria & Albert Museum. (more…)
A stunning example of Eileen Gray’s work, an 
Eileen Gray also designed the 
The E-1027 table was designed for the eponymous house in 1927.
