Tag: W1

  • All That Glitters… Jim Davidson Should Apologise Over Sickening Gary Glitter Remarks

    All That Glitters… Jim Davidson Should Apologise Over Sickening Gary Glitter Remarks

    Matthew Steeples suggests Jim Davidson should admit he got it wrong in suggesting returned to jail paedophile Gary Glitter was a “remorseful’ man who “looked ready to start a new life”

    This morning, the washed-up wazzock and all-round scumbag that is Jim Davidson OBE was trending on Twitter after an interview with the ‘Mouth of the Sewer’ that is GB News’ Dan Wootton last night.

     

    Whilst Davidson – a foul-mouthed ‘5×3’ (five kids by three of his five wives) – used the interview to bang on about “smug” Gary Lineker and how he “never particularly felt welcome” at the BBC, he neglected to comment on his thoughts on the real trending news, that of the filthy paedophile Gary Glitter being returned to jail after just 38 days in a bail hostel after breaching his licence terms.

     

    Glitter – who was caught and photographed by another bail hostel resident using a smartphone to access the ‘Dark Web’ via something called ‘The Onion’ to attempt to snare further victims – had been visited by Davidson at the Isle of Wight prison where he was then housed by the former supermarket shelf-stacker Davidson in 2019.

     

    Afterwards, in June 2021, Davidson shockingly and rather casually shared of his child abusing ‘chum’:

     

    “I spoke to Paul [Gadd, AKA ‘Gary Glitter’] when I visited The Verne [prison] two years. He’s remorseful and he looked ready to start a new life.”

     

    Instead of remarking on this very, very clear ‘error of judgment,’ speaking to Dan Wootton on GB News yesterday regarding the BBC’s #GaryGate debacle, Davidson raged:

     

    “My political interest was cast upon me way before at Thames Television when I had The Jim Davidson Show and a man called John Howard Davis, who was a BBC producer, turned up and got rid of me and Benny Hill overnight.”

     

    “And then, about a year later, I got a little cassette, a VHS, dropped on my desk by my manager and it [sic] said: ‘The BBC want you.’”

     

    “I said: ‘What’s that?’ They [sic] said: ‘They want you to do this, it’s some rotten show about snooker, so me and John Virgo went and did that show and I never particularly felt welcome there.”

     

    “I was a smell under peoples’ noses and then one day Bruce Forsyth went sick and I stepped in and did The Generation Game. I replaced him just for a day and I wasn’t particularly good, but it made Bruce get better very quick.”

     

    “When he went to do his new deal, they said: ‘No, we’ve got Jim Davidson’ and I did The Generation Game for seven years. I did The Big Break for twelve seasons and seven seasons of The Generation Game.”

     

    “Now look at the BBC. I’m totally erased; I am the statue that’s thrown into Bristol Docks… They gave me a million quid to go away. I had a contract with a million quid’s worth of wages and they said: ‘We’ll give you a million quid if you go away; please don’t tell anyone,” but I told you ‘Danny Boy’ [Dan Wootton].”

     

    “I was worse [than anything else] because I was a working-class Tory. I was a traitor and I like to mess about and have a laugh and be rude and stuff on the rehearsals and it was all pretty much frowned upon.”

     

    “They’re more concerned in being woke and ticking boxes. You know, ticking boxes; the man said to me: ‘We have to have 8.9% ethnic minorities on every show’ and so if you couldn’t get anybody that wanted to come on Big Break who was of non-white persuasion, you had to go out and kidnap some poor bugger and throw him in.”

     

    “You know, err, it was daft and do you know what I learnt there, and I’ve been in the business forty-seven years… I’m nearly one-hundred… So, you learn a thing or two about the BBC and it’s full of people that don’t know how to make programmes. I had to tick a box and I had to be silly.”

     

    “Now, I wouldn’t have thrown Lineker off like that and having a boss called Tim. Now come on, how scary is a Tim?”

     

    “Now, anyway, you wouldn’t throw someone off; just turn them off. I can understand that it’s taxpayers’ money and I hate the BBC with a passion. It’s a toss-up between them and the NHS who I hate the most, but I, you know, I wouldn’t have got rid of him because now Tim’s shown himself as lily livered.”

     

    “[Lineker] can now say what he wants, can’t he? He’s won and he’s going to be even smugger. Smug, smugger.”

     

    “It’s upto Tim and all those silly people [what the BBC does next] and now they want to get rid of the chairman ‘cos he arranged some loan or helped Boris [Johnson]. Now, everyone’s just picking on one another. I think the BBC have lost the public; they’ve lost the dressing room.”

     

    “You know, who do we watch now? GB News, anything but BBC. What does the BBC stand for? ‘Bring Back Corbyn,’ ‘Bring Back Communism.’”

     

    “You know, it is a joke and we have to pay for it whether we like it or not. You know, let’s scrap it and watch GB News all day long.

     

    Responding, this morning on Twitter, I asked:

     

    “As Jim Davidson trends, should he apologise for his June 2021 remark: “I spoke to Paul Gadd [Gary Glitter] when I visited The Verne [prison] two years ago. He’s remorseful and he looked ready to start a new life” given the paedo has been recalled to prison after being caught on Dark Web?”

     

    Other Twitter users took up the mantle and amongst comments were:

     

    “I wonder if Jim Davidson still believes that Gary Glitter is remorseful and ready to start a new life?”

     

    “Remember when Jim Davidson was funny? Me neither.”

     

    “Fun Fact: For years the BBC didn’t give a flying sh*t about their right-wing so-called ‘comedian’ Jim Davidson’s racist/misogynistic stage show when he was hosting their flagship Saturday night show ‘The Generation Game’ #IStandWithGaryLineker.”

     

    All that Glitters is not gold; all that is Jim Davidson is utterly toxic and now it is time for the latter to apologise for getting it well and truly wrong about one of the most evil men ever to set foot on this planet.

     

    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.

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGGBmDZbfgE
    TRAILER – Matthew Steeples will be ‘live’ with Shaun Attwood to discuss his views on Gary Glitter being returned to the clink after breaching his licence terms whilst in a bail hostel on Wednesday 15th March at 6pm GMT. Please do tune in and please do ask away.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylQ6N-_gPRQ&t=0s
    FULL EPISODE – This will be ‘live’ for the first time at 6pm GMT on Wednesday 15th March 2023. View here.
    This morning on Twitter, Matthew Steeples asked: “As Jim Davidson trends, should he apologise for his June 2021 remark: “I spoke to [Gary Glitter] when I visited The Verne [prison] 2 years ago. He’s remorseful and he looked ready to start a new life” given the paedo has been recalled to prison after being caught on Dark Web?” He gave the options: A) “Yes, disgraceful remark”; B) “No, second chances matter”; C) “Cancel Davidson and Glitter” and D) “Couldn’t care less.” By 11:30am on Wednesday 15th March 2023, the majority of respondents favoured the idea of the cancellation of this noxious pair of grifters.
    Dan Wootton Jim Davidson
    GB News is about the only channel that will now accept the weird warblings of these two utter berks.
    Gary Glitter Jim Davidson
    A pair of toerags forever linked by a hashtag.
    Nonce Defender
    Twitter users have rightly mocked the ‘entertainer’ over his decision to visit a disgraced ‘singer’ who abused children as young as 10 years old in prison. What on earth was it about the paedophile-nonce-monster Gary Glitter that attracted Jim Davidson to visit him in prison? An answer is required. The public should be told.
    Jim Davidson Jimmy Savile
    Those that think Gary Lineker was WRONG to tweet about politics whilst working for the BBC should be reminded that both Jim Davidson and the late paedophile Sir Jimmy Savile openly campaigned for the Conservative Party and that both men also worked for the BBC. It is pure hypocrisy to call out Mr Lineker on this basis.
    It is very clear that Dan Wootton has no nous when it comes to questioning Jim Davidson. Mr Wootton is clearly not a journalist prone to drilling into real stories; he just PR peddles for his chums.

    Deserved “Public Hate Figure” Jim Davidson OBE’s Worst Moments…

    On Great Yarmouth:

    “Full of fat children of all colours.”

     

    On London and the UK:

    “I am never coming to London again… I may as well go to Dubai and be an ethnic minority there than wait five years till I become one here.”

     

    On former UKIP leader Nigel Farage:

    “The Jim Davidson of the political world.”

     

    On beating up one of his four ex-wives:

    “We’re like a couple of boxers. On the first occasion, I poked her in the eye by accident. I actually went for the mouth… The second time I gave her a shiner. I threw a bunch of keys which whacked her in the eye. Just for a giggle she kept blackening it up to make it look worse.”

     

    “I took the wife out last night; one punch!”

     

    On supposedly giving up on making jokes about black people:

    “I can’t do impressions of Frank Bruno or Ian Wright? That’s racist, is it? But I can do Sven-Göran Eriksson?”

     

    “I’m not going to get on my knee, and I’m not going to go ever black person I see, ‘hail you.’ I’m not going to apologise for the past; the past was the past.”

     

    On Black Lives Matter protestors:

    “Pondlife… F**king stupid.”

     

    Of his thoughts about his chum Boris Johnson:

    “Don’t listen with mother.”

     

    On Piers Morgan (after he was paid to appear on his Life Stories programme):

    “You don’t deserve to listen to anyone’s life story because you don’t f**king listen.”

     

    On the BBC and the NHS:

    I was a smell under peoples’ noses… I’m totally erased; I am the statue that’s thrown into Bristol Docks… They gave me a million quid to go away.”

     

    I hate the BBC with a passion. It’s a toss-up between them and the NHS who I hate the most.”

     

    Proving himself the ultimate ‘Brain of Britain’:

    “People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die.”

     

    After being declared bankrupt:

    “My problem is money.”

     

    On himself:

    “I could cure Aids and give £1 billion to womens’ groups and people would still think I was a racist, sexist twat”.

     

    “I’m a homophobic arsehole.”

     

  • Fergie’s Teabag Debts

    Fergie’s Teabag Debts

    As it looks like Sarah, Duchess of York won’t be able to help Carrie Johnson with wallpaper, her teabag operation plunges £262,000 into debt and leaves her in further hot water

    After having been exposed for having taken £232,000 ($314,100, €274,300 or درهم1.2 million) in “loans” from “Chinese investors” in January 2020 and repeatedly failing to declare whether she ever repaid the £15,000 ($20,300, €17,700 or درهم74,600) “loan” and “further assistance” she took from the since croaked paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, Sarah, Duchess of York yet again finds herself in boiling hot water regarding her teabag flogging company.

     

    Highlighted in The Mail on Sunday this morning, Ginger & Moss, a company that the chaotic car crash that is the live-in ex-wife of Prince Andrew is one of five active directors of has recently filed accounts showing it to be £262,063 ($354,782, €309,868 or درهم1.3 million) in debt.

     

    Sarah, Duchess of York controlled “75% or more” of the shares in the company between April 2016 and April 2018, but since April 2018, the only active party listed as having “significant control” is a firm named Solamoon Limited – a firm that has just one director, Sarah, Duchess of York.

     

    The Mail on Sunday’s showbusiness editor Katie Hind reported that Ginger & Moss has “cut its range to four products, including a box of 80 teabags for a staggering £20 ($27, €24 or درهم99)” and stopped selling other items including “earrings, bed linen and high-end toiletries.”

     

    Whilst clearly 62-year-old ‘Fergie’ – a cringeworthy creature forced also to “pause” the Fergie & Friends YouTube channel where she bizarrely read about farting and monsters – thinks the nation still needs her extremely expensive tea, she’s also given up on selling “luxury textiles, homeware and wallpaper.” Lulu Lytle is one person who will be relieved; Carrie Johnson will still have to stick with her for the £840 a roll stuff.

     

    Pictured top – Sarah, Duchess of York poses in an odd costume prior to reading from a book about farting (left) and right on the London Underground with a bag featuring the faces of her daughters.

     

    Sarah Duchess of York tea flogging
    Sarah, Duchess of York has been listed as a director of Ginger & Moss since 13th March 2015. The other active directors of the company are Amanda Jane Lockley and Ian Wallace Tyson listed at 17 Old Park Lane, London, W1, Nicholas John Redwood Robinson of Frogmary Green Farm, South Petherton, Somerset and Mary Kate Waddington of Beacon Farmhouse, Oxenwood, Wiltshire. An additional director, Geoffrey Stanton Morrow, also listed at the 17 Old Park Lane address, tellingly resigned in December 2021. Over the years, the somewhat intellectually challenged ex-wife of the Queen’s second son has repeatedly tried to sell tea and tea related ephemera without thus far any notable success.
    Sarah Duchess of York domestic 1
    When not off her skull or on a bender (left and right), ‘Fergie’ has been known to attempt domesticity and in April 2020 posed mopping floors (centre) at Royal Lodge, Windsor in photos shared on her assistant Antonia Marshall’s Instagram account. ‘The Sun’ labelled said images – which were captioned: “It’s chore time” – “bizarre.”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNYktvml-d8
    In January 1999, Sarah, Duchess of York and Oprah Winfrey teamed up to drink tea and make scones on the ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show.’ She guffawed as Winfrey mixed up the ingredients for the scones and poured tea in what was termed “Duchess-like” fashion.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFThVZ4HzUM
    In 2019, Sarah, Duchess of York planned to launch a range of hampers containing scents and teas. Unsurprisingly given pathetic past performance being a guide to her feckless future, the right royal embarrassment’s intentions resulted in yet another disaster. Whatever became of the items produced remains unknown, but most likely lonely and isolated Prince Andrew has enjoyed keeping himself entertained with the leftovers.
  • Celebrating The Doggy Bag

    Celebrating The Doggy Bag

    Nikolay Kalinin celebrates the ‘Daily Mail’s’ campaign to encourage restaurant customers to take doggy bags home with them and joins those slamming Wetherspoons decision to refuse to participate

    Food waste is a big problem in today’s society, not only because it’s damaging to the environment – a fifth of Britain’s gas emissions come from food waste – but also because it’s highly inconsiderate to waste food when an increasing number of Brits find themselves homeless and hungry.

     

    Fortunately, the Daily Mail has set up a campaign to help tackle this issue called ‘War On Food Waste,’ which has been led by many prominent restaurants such as Pizza Express and Wagamama. The campaign’s mission is to normalise taking home leftovers as part of the eating out routine.

     

    Despite 81% of the British public supporting restaurants offering bags for taking leftovers home as standard, an investigation conducted by The Mail on Sunday – which analysed more than 20 dining chains – concluded that the venues were failing to encourage people to take leftover food home.

     

    One of the worst examples of such malpractice is Wetherspoons, which refuses to allow taking leftovers home at all. According to a spokesperson from the company, there “isn’t a demand from customers” for such an option, which, in my view, is absolute tosh.

     

    They further added: “The only takeaway packaging is for pizza, though a customer would have to ask for this. Doggy bags are not appropriate for all pubs and restaurants as they create a large amount of packaging waste.”

     

    In contrast, Ellie Besley-Gould of the somewhat ritzier steak chain Hawksmoor enthused about customers taking away what they don’t consume whilst dining out and remarked: “It’s brilliant that The Mail on Sunday is taking on food waste. For lots of people it is half the treat to know you’ve got a steak sandwich for lunch the next day. Many of our customers even come with actual dogs in mind – taking home bones for their canine friends.”

     

    By contrast, in the US, such practices have been in place for years, with takeaway bags going back to the Second World War. In France meanwhile, it will be required from July 1st for all restaurants, cafes and bistros to supply bags for taking away leftovers if requested.

     

    This campaign very much reminds me of Lotti Henley, an Austrian-born philanthropist who created Plan Zheroes, an organisation linking businesses with charity organisations in order to provide food for those in need, and who was the subject of a feature in The Steeple Times back in 2017.

     

    It’s honestly great to see the Daily Mail, for once, contributing to a good cause instead of sharing misleading headlines such as Didsbury being a ‘no go’ area for white people, and I really hope that more restaurants join a scheme that everybody other than the ghastly windbag Tim Martin quite rightly supports.

     

    Tim Martin
    One can always rely on the total twerp Tim Martin to go against any sensible campaign.
    34 takeaway
    Richard Caring, owner of some London’s grandest dining spots, has encouraged takeaway for years. At 34 in Mayfair, he even went to the length of getting the artist Tracey Emin to design the box such food could be taken away in. Whilst the slapdash, plain stupid ‘Loose Women’ presenter Janet Street Porter remarked of takeaway boxes: “I look down slightly on people who [ask for one],” whilst the revered restaurateur Russell Norman suggested those that are embarrassed “just lie and say it’s for your dog.”
    The ‘Daily Mail’ deserves credit for encouraging diners to takeaway food they haven’t eaten and restaurants really should encourage it. Including a note on menus mentioning such and the training of staff to mention takeaway of leftovers as perfectly feasible is something that will harm nobody and benefit everybody.
  • Ghislaine Maxwell in the 1980s

    Ghislaine Maxwell in the 1980s

    EXCLUSIVE – Kirby Sommers shares another chapter from her latest book ‘Ghislaine Maxwell: An Unauthorized Biography’ with readers of ‘The Steeple Times’ and this time explores the currently incarcerated socialite’s life in London in the 1980s

    Chapter Seven. Ghislaine in the 1980s.

     

    Annabel’s is a private members’ only club in Mayfair located West of London. It was founded in 1963 by Mark Birley then married to Lady Annabel Vane-Tempest-Stewart after whom he named it. Annabel would later marry Sir Jimmy Goldsmith, rumored to be a spy, and who, in the early 1970s became a friend of Jeffrey Epstein’s.

     

    It was the first of its kind – a club for the very affluent, the very powerful or the very famous. Their clientele included the royal family. Charles, Prince of Wales who everyone believed would be King in short order and his younger brother, Prince Andrew. It was the only club that Queen Elizabeth ever attended. In later years it became the go to club for younger royals like Princes William and Harry.

     

    The entrance was lined even from the earliest days with the rich, the powerful and the beautiful where streams of the upper-class descended into the basement to party. Journalists were never admitted and the entertainment included The Rolling Stones, Diana Ross and in earlier days Ella Fitzgerald. Joan Collins was in the club dancing one evening and a photographer from the Sun had managed to get himself into the club. He snapped a photo of her and was immediately plucked off the dance floor by two burly men who left him lying on the pavement outside sans the film in his camera.

     

    Annabel's Berkeley Square entrance

    After tumbling down the stairs into the poshest basement on the planet one is welcome into a den of hedonistic indulgence. The rooms were covered in wild wallpaper along with paintings by Picasso and racy nude drawings. The bathroom sinks were in the shape of golden swans and the walls a sensual floral pink. A life size gorilla sitting on a chair stood guard at the end of the hallway. It was over the top eccentric, but most of all it was posh.

     

    In the 1980s Ghislaine Maxwell was one of the ‘somebodies’ along with her friends from Oxford. As with the debutantes of days long gone Ghislaine would murmur, “Take me to Bel’s” to the man of the moment. And, one of her ‘men’ in the 1980s was David Faber – a future MP. 

     

    Annabel’s was the sort of place where anything went and where “smooching” in one of dozens of its nooks and crannies was as much a part of the experience as kicking off one’s shoes or one’s clothes and losing oneself to the pulsating euphoria of the music on the infamous wooden dancefloor.

     

    David Faber is a descendent of several British politicians. He also happens to be the great-grandson of the founder of MacMillan Publishing.

     

    More tidbits about David include that his uncle, Maurice Macmillan, worked with Sir Edward Heath during the time he was Prime Minister. Heath is alleged to have sexually abused children commencing in 1961. He served for 51 years as a member of Parliament and died in 2005.

     

    It should be noted that MacMillan was taken over by Robert Maxwell in November of 1988 for $2.6 billion. Although Maxwell claimed he had no plans to dispose of the company’s assets, one month later he sold a piece of it, Intertec, to an investment group led by Rothschild, Inc – the same company that served as his adviser in the purchase. Robert S. Pirie the Co-Chairman and CEO of Rothschild North America was his advisor in the transaction. In 1993 Pirie went on to became the Senior Managing Director of Bear Stearns & Co.

     

    I thought it interesting that all the people in the Maxwell world circled around to those in Epstein’s world and so I tracked down an old New York Times article. It states, “Bear Stearns hired Mr. Pirie as a senior managing director. The firm, known primarily for trading, is trying to increase its banking business.”

     

    Below is a photo of David dragging a disheveled and unbalanced 22-year-old Ghislaine while holding up her arm attempting to keep her steady on her feet at Annabel’s.

     

    David Faber and Ghislaine Maxwell in the 1980s

    While Annabel’s always maintained a “no photo” policy banishing any member who breached protocol, nowadays with the advent of social media, their house rule has morphed into: “Photography within the club and posting to social media should be discreet and not involve or feature other members and their guests.”

     

    Ghislaine and David began their romance while both at Balliol College, Oxford University. There is a second photo of Faber with Maxwell at the Chelsea Arts Ball during the club’s extravagant New Year’s Eve party on December 31, 1985. And there were probably many more before all things Maxwell began to get scrubbed off the internet after Jeffrey Epstein’s second arrest on July 6, 2019.

     

    David Faber Ghislaine Maxwell Chelsea Arts Ball

    Ghislaine’s father, Bob, who had already cozied up to the Royal family and was fond of having his photo taken with Prince Charles, Princess Diana and the Queen would have been delighted to know Ghislaine was dancing up a storm and rubbing elbows with the royals. Prince Andrew was also a frequent guest at Annabel’s which is an 8-minute drive to another one of his favorite clubs: Tramp.

     

    Prince Andrew Tramp

    The Chelsea Arts Club is another private members’ club established in 1891. To be considered as a member one needs to be sponsored by two current members. It was known for its hedonism where literally anything was allowed. Nudity, sex, homosexuality at a time when it wasn’t the norm – everything happened behind the ever-changing murals hand-painted by their resident artists.

     

    Chelsea Arts Club

    Ghislaine wasn’t the only woman David romanced. While at Oxford he also dated Sally Gilbert, a leggy blonde, who is said by a contemporary of his to have “pursued him with great determination – he didn’t have a chance.” She became a television weather girl and they married in 1988.

     

    Sally Gilbert

    By 1992 Sally had fallen out of love with David finding him to be lacking in warmth and found herself being comforted by the world’s most celebrated cad, James Hewitt. Faber when filing for divorce cited James Hewitt as co-respondent.

     

    Major Hewitt, it should be noted, was Princess Diana’s riding teacher and in the Household Cavalry when tasked to give her riding lessons. Hewitt, while romancing Farber’s soon to be ex-wife, revealed himself as having a five-year affair with Princess Diana that began in 1986. To avoid getting caught Diana used the codename ‘Julia’ when sending mail to Hewitt.

     

    Hewitt told the world, via a book co-authored with British journalist Anna Pasternak, that he was Princess Diana’s lover in 1994 when she was still married to Prince Charles, the future King of England. Diana was bitterly hurt and devastated when she learned he had shopped around the story of their affair. Although there are claims she continued to see him afterwards up to several months before her untimely death in Paris on August 31, 1997.

     

    Ghislaine Maxwell was not considered a good student during her time at Oxford, not by her professors and not even by herself. She did however earn the nickname “Good Time Ghislaine.” This suited her just fine.

     

    From the awkward looking teenager Ghislaine had grown into an adult. She seemed taller than her height, perhaps because of her heels, or how she carried herself. She was thin with broad shoulders and thick black layered hair. Her complexion was pale and according to people who knew her at the time she had “an intense sexuality, an almost androgynous allure.”

     

    Ghislaine learned to use her sexuality to get what she wanted. And what she wanted the most was to marry a wealthy man. This appeared, however, to be out of reach for the girl who had everything.

     

    Robert Maxwell was fond of saying, “I have a “beautiful daughter who is just like me.”

     

    © Kirby Sommers, 2021.

     

    Author, sex abuse survivor and advocate Kirby Sommers previously exclusively revealed the previously unknown name of the 9-year-old child sat on the lap of Jeffrey Epstein on his private jet to ‘The Steeple Times’ in February. To order her latest book ‘Ghislaine Maxwell: An Unauthorized Biography’ click here.

     

  • Moron of the Moment – Gordon Ramsay

    Moron of the Moment – Gordon Ramsay

    That Gordon Ramsay thinks it acceptable to start selling burgers at £80 a pop at a time of economic meltdown confirms him as a cretin

    When he was not offensively mouthing off on our telly boxes during the last lockup, Gordon Ramsay spent the summer in Cornwall pissing off permanent residents during the coronavirus lockdown. Now, at a time of complete economic meltdown, this petulant prat and prized pillock has gone one stage further and has announced he’s going to sell burgers for the staggeringly stupid sum of £80 each.

     

    Deservedly flung out of Claridge’s in February 2013 and responsible for wrecking the late, great Foxtrot Oscar by ripping out its heart and soul in 2007, rotten ratbag Ramsay now ludicrously plans to sell his utterly overpriced bits of beef in a bap in Harrods from the 4th December.

     

    Announcing the plans for ‘Gordon Ramsay Burger’ on Instagram, the completely out-of-touch with reality chef and all-round cretin stated: “I’m really excited to announce, I’m bringing the Gordon Ramsay Burger to Harrods in Knightsbridge for the first time ever.”

     

    The alleged philanderer continued: “Trust me, this is going to be a burger experience like no other as we’ve really elevated our patties using the most incredible mix of the UK’s best cuts of meat.”

     

    Chips are not even included in Ramsay’s con: They will set you back an extra £8 per portion whilst onion rings can be had for the ‘bargain’ sum of £7 a pop. Do note, they are at least “beer battered.”

     

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    Previously in April, Gordon Ramsay banged on about cooking burgers for frontline NHS workers. How on earth does he think they’d afford his ridiculous £80 a bap offering?
  • Buckle Up! Barking Baker Harber Has Bitten Back

    Buckle Up! Barking Baker Harber Has Bitten Back

    Victoria Baker Harber has sent Kenny Schachter a “cease and desist” letter in the wake of her on-off conman lover Inigo Philbrick being snared by the FBI

    Washed-up, leftover lump from the tepid TV show Made in Chelsea Victoria Baker Harber – the one-time squeeze and sharer of a private planes paid for by victims of the now very much deservedly in-the-clink Inigo Philbrick – has supposedly sent a ‘cease and desist’ letter to one of his victims, the anything-but-shy raconteur Kenny Schachter.

     

    Asked by The Steeple Times on Friday evening on his Instagram TV channel about Miss Baker Harber having turned her social media channels ‘private’ and ‘off’ in some instances, very wealthy art collector and writer Schachter responded: “She’s sent me a letter about memes.”

     

    Poor dear Vicky might do better to do something else: The simple, dear darling could go and pleasure herself with a colouring book; she might actually do less damage in that department.

     

    Facebook: @TheSteepleTimes

    Instagram: @TheSteepleTimes

    Twitter: @SteepleTimes

     

    Buckle Up! Barking Baker Harber Has Biten Back – Victoria Baker Harber has sent Kenny Schachter a “cease and desist” letter in the wake of her on-off conman art dealer lover Inigo Philbrick being snared by the FBI.
    The Odd Art Couple – Inigo Philbrick pictured with the mother of his daughter, fellow art dealer Francisca Mancini. Their relationship did not last and subsequently conman Philbrick moved on to attention-seeker Baker Harber.
    Buckle Up! Barking Baker Harber Has Biten Back – Victoria Baker Harber has sent Kenny Schachter a “cease and desist” letter in the wake of her on-off conman art dealer lover Inigo Philbrick being snared by the FBI.
    Sexing It Up – Victoria Baker Harber posing provocatively with her now in-the-clink lover Inigo Philbrick at the C London restaurant in Davies Street, Mayfair, W1.
    Kenny Schachter having a chat about Inigo Philbrick amongst other things. One thing is for certain about the husband of Ilona Rich Schachter (daughter of the late Marc Rich and Denise Eisenberg Rich)  – he’s anything but reticent about sharing his opinions about his former friend.
    In an episode of ‘Made In Chelsea,’ a ‘participant’ labelled Victoria Baker Harber “a prostitute.” She then went a bit mental (unsurprisingly).
  • Made In Deception – Gulbenkian and Philbrick

    Made In Deception – Gulbenkian and Philbrick

    As art fraudster Inigo Philbrick is arrested and dragged onto a private plane by the FBI, his on-off lover ‘Made in Chelsea’s’ Victoria Baker Harber shows no sympathy for victims; meanwhile fellow art conwoman Angela Gulbenkian has been deservedly detained in Lisbon

    • ‘Mini Madoff’ Inigo Philbrick, ex-Jay Jopling employee and on-off squeeze of gobby ‘Made in Chelsea’ participant Victoria Baker Harber, snared in Vanuatu, Oceania last Friday.
    • Philbrick had bizarrely spent his time as a fugitive from justice petting “abandoned” dogs.
    • Fellow socialite and art fraudster Angela Gulbenkian, whose victims include Chelsea based interior designers Percy Bass, snared on the same day in Lisbon.
    • She traded on her loose connections to one of the richest families in the world, the Gulbenkians. Connected foundations and museums consistently have denied any association with the German born crook.
    • The two con artists are unconnected in terms of their nefarious activities and victims named thus far, but their paths may likely have crossed given the social circles they operated in and around.

    ‘The Talented Mr Philbrick’ was how one art newspaper somewhat cornily lauded Inigo Philbrick in the wake of this dastardly double dealer being exposed as a Madoff of the art world. He was snared in Vanuatu in Oceania last Friday whilst on Tuesday in Lisbon, fellow trader-on-a-well-known-name Angela Gulbenkian was taken into “preventative detention” to be extradited back to the UK.

     

    Speaking to The Steeple Times on Friday, Jane Morris, managing director of acclaimed Walton Street interior designers Percy Bass remarked:

     

    “Angela Gulbenkian came to Percy Bass to get her flat decorated. We did the work, but never got paid. She forged a bank transfer note pretending to be part of the Gulbenkian Foundation. Percy Bass had a judgment against her, but she fled abroad.”

     

    Now, in addition and facing charges relating to a £1.1 million ($1.4 million, €1.2 million or درهم5 million) Kusama pumpkin sculpture and a £115,000 ($142,000, €127,000 or درهم522,000) Warhol print of Queen Elizabeth II and the theft of £50,000 ($62,000, €55,000 or درهم227,000) from a woman named Jacqui Ball, 38-year-old socialite Gulbenkian is ludicrously still claiming to be an “art collector” and linked to what she lists as the “Gulbenkian Private Art Collection” on Instagram. She is, in fact, even by her own admission, the owner of “just three works of art” and the daughter of an optometrist from Munich, Germany.

     

    Angela Ischwang (as this shameless swindler was born) supposedly moved to London in the early 2000s to study politics. She subsequently met and married Duarte Gulbenkian, the great-grand nephew of the one-time richest man in the world Calouste Gulbenkian, and went into the art business in around 2016.

     

    Listing herself as someone who “brokers high end arts works” through “valuable contacts,” this crooked conwoman – whose suggestions of links to the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation have been firmly denied by the trustees of those organisations – Gulbenkian is surprisingly linked to only one dissolved company, Doctor Duve Medical Skin Care Ltd. of Southwark Bridge Road, SE1.

     

    Charged in relation to the Kusama pumpkin sculpture and the money stolen from Ball in May last year, Angela Gulbenkian was released on unconditional bail in September 2019 after appearing at Southwark Crown Court. She then failed to appear in May 2020 and a European Arrest Warrant was issued for her arrest. Now, ‘Awful Ange’ – as an embarrassed former friend told us she now calls her – will be rightly returned to face her comeuppance and this time she’ll be unlikely to get bail.

     

    Philbrick meanwhile – who was until recently subject to ‘Where’s Wally?’ like speculation since having disappeared off the face of the planet after last being seen with his brash Made In Chelsea motormouth on-off lover Victoria Baker Harber in Australia in late 2019 – was found last Friday in Port Vila, Vanuata, an island nation in the South Pacific.

     

    “Grabbed” by a mix of uniformed and ununiformed cops, the “startled” 33-year-old crook and estranged son of museum director Harry Philbrick – was “hustled” into a police car and taken to the local airport reported Artnet News on Wednesday. “A large Gulfstream jet was waiting on the tarmac” and this, “under instructions from the FBI,” flew him to New York.

     

    Facing allegations of theft, misappropriation, borrowing money against artworks he did not even own and selling overlapping shares of artworks, Ponzi-like pillock Philbrick had supposedly been hiding out in a “house of an expat who died in a tragic accident.” Bizarrely, he had been busying his days helping “abandoned” dogs and of him one local remarked: “He was always calling me about an animal he found.”

     

    Now in chains for his crimes against amongst others the Reuben family, Philbrick faces not only a real-life trial but also further exposure in the media. One-time friend, but ultimately a victim of the shameless scammer, art writer, curator and dealer Kenny Schachter this week wrote:

     

    “I have no doubt that Inigo will capitalize on our collective financial misfortune and turn it into a multimedia bonanza for himself. As far as my own movie and documentary projects, for which deals will be announced shortly, all I want and/or expect is that they make good on part of the money Inigo took from me.”

     

    Meanwhile last Sunday, dippy dope Victoria Baker Harber showed no regret for her association with Philbrick – a man who ferried her around in a private jet at the expense of others – in retweeting an attack on Schachter by someone named ‘Koogs’ on Twitter on 14th June. They opined: “Who quotes themselves?? Get over it! Your wife is a billionaire! Are you crying about cash or cock?”

     

    Though at around £16.2 million ($20 million, €17.9 million or درهم73.5 million) Inigo Philbrick’s total scam is far bigger than Angela Gulbenkian’s, the effects are the same for the victims of these high society crooks: May the authorities now chuck the book at this rotten pair of ratbags.

     

    Pictured top – Con artist Angela Gulbenkian appeared at Southwark Crown Court in September 2019 “in a blue dress decorated with silver stars and black Christian Louboutin high heels” according to ‘Metro’ (right); art fraudster Inigo Philbrick poses looking startled as television screen loving terror Victoria Baker Harber attempts to look sexually provocative.

     

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    Made In Deception – Gulbenkian and Philbrick – As art fraudster Inigo Philbrick is arrested and dragged onto a private plane by the FBI his on-off lover ‘Made in Chelsea’s’ Victoria Baker Harber shows no sympathy for victims; meanwhile fellow art conwoman Angela Gulbenkian has been deservedly detained in Lisbon.
    Aided by their surnames –Inigo Philbrick duped the art world and the use of the surname he shares with his estranged art curator father certainly aided him in his ‘endeavours’; Angela Gulbenkian traded on her connections to the legendary art collecting, billionaire Gulbenkian family also.
    Made In Deception – Gulbenkian and Philbrick – As art fraudster Inigo Philbrick is arrested and dragged onto a private plane by the FBI his on-off lover ‘Made in Chelsea’s’ Victoria Baker Harber shows no sympathy for victims; meanwhile fellow art conwoman Angela Gulbenkian has been deservedly detained in Lisbon.
    You’re snared! – A newspaper frontpage chronicling Inigo Philbrick’s detainment; social media users mocked the former fugitive with one joking: “OK bye now!”
    Made In Deception – Gulbenkian and Philbrick – As art fraudster Inigo Philbrick is arrested and dragged onto a private plane by the FBI his on-off lover ‘Made in Chelsea’s’ Victoria Baker Harber shows no sympathy for victims; meanwhile fellow art conwoman Angela Gulbenkian has been deservedly detained in Lisbon.
    The ultimate deceiver – In March, Angela Gulbenkian posted an image accompanied by the caption: “Life is art!” on her Instagram page. She hashtagged it with amongst other things #letsgofar and #successfulwomen, but neglected to add the truth about herself: “My life is the art of deception!” is what it should have read.
    Made In Deception – Gulbenkian and Philbrick – As art fraudster Inigo Philbrick is arrested and dragged onto a private plane by the FBI his on-off lover ‘Made in Chelsea’s’ Victoria Baker Harber shows no sympathy for victims; meanwhile fellow art conwoman Angela Gulbenkian has been deservedly detained in Lisbon.
    No sympathy for Philbrick’s victims – Victoria Baker Harber took to Twitter on 14th June to retweet an unpleasant comment mocking one of her on-off lover Inigo Philbrick’s victims, Kenny Schachter.
    Made In Deception – Gulbenkian and Philbrick – As art fraudster Inigo Philbrick is arrested and dragged onto a private plane by the FBI his on-off lover ‘Made in Chelsea’s’ Victoria Baker Harber shows no sympathy for victims; meanwhile fellow art conwoman Angela Gulbenkian has been deservedly detained in Lisbon.
    Living the high life – Inigo Philbrick liked private jets and swilling champagne in the company of amongst others Victoria Baker Harber; he’s now getting used to porridge.
  • Lavish Living and Little Owls at Lilford Hall

    Lavish Living and Little Owls at Lilford Hall

    Crumbling Northamptonshire estate Lilford Hall – where the little owl was introduced to Britain – for sale for £10 million, a sum £35 million lower than in 2014

    • Grade I listed Jacobean mansion with 13 chimney stacks for sale for £10 million; it was for sale last for £44.9 million in 2014 in spite of being listed on English Heritage’s ‘At Risk Register.’
    • Lilford Hall – parts of which have not been occupied since 1947 – is currently owned by a businessman who tried to sell burial plots in the grounds for £1,250 a pop and shares in a yacht loosely associated with Frank Sinatra for £23 each.
    • The 321-acre estate includes not only overgrown parkland, but also a zoo with cages that formerly housed bears and a lake for flamingos.
    • From 1711 until 1990, Lilford House was the seat of the Powys family – the 4th baron is credited with introducing the little owl to the UK.
    • More recently, in 1969, the “sexual mystic” artist Penny Slinger used the at-the-time derelict mansion in one of her best-known works.

    A 32,406 square foot Grade I listed Jacobean mansion 82 miles from Central London has gone on sale for £10 million – or the equivalent of just £308 per square foot.

     

    On this basis, Lilford Hall – set in 321 acres near Oundle – seems a comparative bargain when considered against the £4,786 per square foot sought for a Lennox Gardens, Knightsbridge triplex flat The Steeple Times featured in May, but buyers need to remember this – parts of this crumbling building, most notably the major state rooms, have not been used since 1947.

     

    Marketed last in 2014 for the even more punchy sum of £45 million, the “exceptional residential and amenity estate located on the River Nene,” is now offered by agents Savills. The “wonderfully proportioned” U-shaped mansion itself  is constructed of grey limestone and includes over 100 rooms and amongst them are 7 “impressive” reception rooms, a ballroom, a ‘great chamber’ and 9 bedrooms. In addition, there are two Georgian pavilions that were formerly coach houses and stabling, three cottages, a former zoo, the oldest private softball court in the world, a former flamingo enclosure and a deer park.

     

    “Impressiveness in the chief attribute of Lilford Hall as a specimen of architecture” claimed County Life in 1990 and as the seat of the Powys family from 1711 until 1990, it became not only a Downton Abbey-esque entertaining pad, but also housed nurses in the Second World War. Here, indeed, is an English country house that has seen lavishness and decline and thankfully here is an example that thankfully escaped the wrecking ball wrought so disgracefully on such houses in the 1950s and 1960s.

     

    Fascinatingly in the 1880s, Thomas Powys, 4th Baron Lilford filled his aviaries on the estate with rheas, kiwis, pink-headed ducks, free-flying lammergeiers and it was from here that he also introduced the little owl into the UK. There are said to be around 5,700 breeding pairs today, but sadly, according to the RSPB, their numbers are now in decline.

     

    More recently, in 1969, “sexually erotic” performance artist Penny Slinger took over the by then “derelict” mansion in conjunction with the filmmaker Peter Whitehead. Their resulting work, titled An Exorcism, was exhibited internationally and in 2004, after the current owners, Charles and Aziza Micklewright, acquired the house, they did something equally avant-garde; they attempted to sell burial plots in the grounds to Americans by citing the estate’s connections to the founder of the Brownists, Robert Browne – a man better known as ‘The Father of the Pilgrims’ and ‘The Grandfather of the Nation’ (of the United States of America).

     

    Whilst Mr and Mrs Micklewright were lauded for their considerable efforts towards the “huge task” of restoring Lilford Hall, they came to the attention of Historic England in May 2019 when the building was listed on the At Risk Register. At that time, the Oundle Chronicle reported: “The roof covering is in poor condition leading to water ingress and distress to the upper storeys. The front bays require structural attention. A schedule of urgent repairs has been identified but not implemented, and no long-term solution has been agreed.”

     

    Now, someone with very, very deep pockets is required to restore this gem. It would be helpful if they liked erotic art, bears, squash and owls also.

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cii3VlgfVy0
    Lavish Living and Little Owls at Lilford Hall, Northants – £10 million ($12.5 million, €11.1 million or درهم46 million) for The Lilford Hall Estate, Lilford, Oundle, Peterborough, Northamptonshire, PE8 5SG, United Kingdom through estate agents Savills – Crumbling Northamptonshire estate Lilford Hall – where the little owl was introduced to Britain – for sale for £10 million, a sum £35 million lower than in 2014.
    The artwork created by Penny Slinger and Peter Whitehead at the house has been exhibited internationally.

    The Names & Numbers – The Lilford Hall Estate, Lilford, Oundle, Peterborough, Northamptonshire, PE8 5SG, United Kingdom

     

    June 2020 – The estate is listed sale for £10 million ($12.5 million, €11.1 million or درهم46 million) through Savills. It includes 321.31 acres, of which 148.17 acres are pasture land whilst 157.48 acres are woodland. The majority of the estate is held on a freehold title, whilst the remaining 127.6 acres – known as ‘The Linches’ and ‘Lilford Woods’ – are held on a lease with 91 years remaining.

     

    2015 – Promoted as ‘The National Memorial Gardens,’ burial plots in the gardens of the hall were offered “available to any UK resident or national for an outstanding price of only £1,250 ($1,568, €1,393 or درهم5,758)” by Mark Bailey of Harley Investments. Around the same time, a website dedicated to Lilford Hall marketed “a piece of the formal gardens” for sale for £299 ($375, €333 or درهم1,377) to include “an officially certified ‘Squire of Lilford’ [title] … with this little piece of history.”

     

    March 2014 – The Irish Times reported that the asking price for the estate had been increased to £44.9 million ($56.3 million, €50 million or 206.8درهم million). They claimed the agents Coldwell Banker blamed “confusion over currency conversion rates and new instructions from the owner.”

     

    April 2014 – The Lilford Hall Estate is listed for sale through Coldwell Banker on MyHome.ie for £33.7 million ($44.2 million, €37.5 million or درهم155 million) on behalf of “an English gentleman.”

     

    2004 – The estate is acquired by the Micklewright family. Little information is available online about the Old Framlingham Charles Micklewright (born July 1958), but he is described as a “patent attorney” on Companies Houses pages. The businessman is mentioned also as a publisher and trustee of the Marsh Christian Trust elsewhere, whilst his Singaporean born wife, Aziza (born 1964), was a director of Lilford Properties Limited from 2013 to 2018.

     

    A website operated by Sign of the Times Limited, a Hong Kong company of Lilford Hall, Lilford, Oundle, Northamptonshire, PE8 5SG, currently offers shares in a yacht named ‘Sinatra the Voice’ for £23.91 ($29.99, €26.64 or درهم110.14) per share. The boat was built in 1956 and is tenuously linked to Frank Sinatra by the fact that a one-time owner, Beale Poste, loaned it occasionally to the crooner between 1968 and 1974 in West Palm Beach, Florida.

     

    1990 – The estate is closed to the public.

     

    1980s – The house is used as a location in the BBC English Civil War inspired historical drama series By the Sword Divided.

     

    1970s – Aviaries on the estate restocked by George Powys, 7th Baron Lilford (1931 – 2005). He “opened [the estate] to the public as a leisure park” and housed more than 350 birds of 110 species there. It remained thus for around 20 years and included a restaurant and shop. The aviaries and the 1,896 square foot restaurant building remain present still today.

     

    1969 – 1970 – American British “sexual mystic” artist Penny Slinger (born 1947) and Liverpudlian filmmaker Peter Whitehead used the “derelict mansion” as the setting for their works An Exorcism and Lilford Hall. They are lauded as a “photo romance” and exhibited at the Blum and Poe Gallery in Los Angeles in 2014, at the Haywood Gallery in London in 2015 and at the Fortnight Institute in New York in 2019.

     

    1949 – Stephen Powys, 6th Baron Lilford (1869 – 1949) died without having married or having had children. His properties aside from Lilford – a house in Mayfair, Bank Hall in Lancashire and the Bewsey Estate in Cheshire – passed to his second cousin twice removed.

     

    1947 – The estate is sold to a company named Merchant Ventures by the Powys family (though they remain present on the estate until 1990).

     

    1939 – 1945 – During the Second World War, the parkland of the estate was used as a military hospital for nearby airfields. From 1949 to 1954, some of the buildings constructed during this period were then used as a Polish school.

     

    1923 – First-class Northamptonshire cricketer Major John Powys, 5th Baron Lilford (1863 – 1945) built the first private softball court in the world in the grounds of the hall. It is now in disrepair and the roof has fallen into the inner court.

     

    1909 – 1910 – The hall was extended in the Edwardian manner including the provision of a new master bedroom with dressing room and bathroom by William Dunn and Robert Watson of Dunn & Watson.

     

    1901 – The estate surrounding the hall reaches its largest size and totals a vast 8,000 acres of land. Around this time, Queen Mary, wife of King George V, is said to have visited the gardens.

     

    1880s – Ornithologist and expert on the fauna of the Balearics Thomas Littleton Powys, 4th Baron Lilford (1833 – 1896) introduces the little owl into England on the estate. His aviaries were said to “feature exotic birds from all around the world” and a species of European lizard, the Lilford’s wall lizard (Podarcis lilfordi), is named in his honour. The 4th baron is repeatedly mentioned in the works of Charles Darwin for his contribution to the study of the science of evolution.

     

    1840s – Further changes to the building are orchestrated by the architect William Gilbee Habershon (circa 1818 – 1891). The Campaign to Protect Rural England described these Victorian extensions as “sensitive” in 2006 – a rare accolade given most additions to English country houses during this period were simply brash and vulgar.

     

    1740s – The Palladian architect Henry Flitcroft (1697 – 1769) adds “outstanding” Georgian interiors whilst “respecting the hall’s Jacobean exterior.” He “softened and brightened” the building as a result and also “constructed the Georgian pavilions and additional storeys to the east end of the two wings.” Other works by Flitcroft can be seen at Bower House in Essex, Wentworth Woodhouse in Yorkshire and Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire.

     

    1711 – Lilford Hall is sold to the judge and Tory politician Sir Thomas Powys (1649 – 1719), Attorney General to King James II. Powys is best remembered for conducting the prosecution of the Seven Bishops in 1699. He is buried at Lilford.

     

    1630s – Construction of the main exterior of what to this day remains Lilford Hall as a “Jacobean-style gentry house” by William Elmes (the younger).

     

    1473 – The land that forms the estate is acquired by William Browne (1410 – 1489), a wealthy wool merchant and landowner from Stamford, from the estate of Baron Welles (who was beheaded by King Edward IV for treason). In 1495, “in a Tudor style,” he built a hall on the site and it passed to Robert Browne (1550 – 1633), the founder of the Brownists, ‘The Father of the Pilgrims’ and ‘The Grandfather of the Nation’ (of the United States of America).

     

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  • The Ever So Dry Land of No Milk & No Honey

    The Ever So Dry Land of No Milk & No Honey

    Jonathan Downey, owner of London’s Milk & Honey bar, takes to social media to share news he won’t be reopening without a rent holiday; it is likely he is set to head a wave of similar announcements

    Just as happened to venues like Keith McNally’s Lucky Strike in New York, a wave – perhaps, excuse the pun, even a flood – of closures of bars and restaurants is likely coming in London and across the rest of the UK. As a result of coronavirus most recently and due also to landlord’s charging extortionate rents and council’s levying excessive business rates in the years prior, we could soon sadly end up with far ‘drier’ high streets.

     

    On Wednesday night on Facebook, in an impassioned plea, the owner of the Soho institution that is Milk & Honey – a “prohibition-style speakeasy cocktail bar” where ‘house rules’ include: “Gentlemen will remove their hats. Hooks are provided. Gentlemen will not introduce themselves to ladies. Ladies, feel free to start a conversation or ask the bartender to introduce you. If a man you don’t know speaks to you, please lift your chin slightly and ignore him” – Jonathan Downey shared news that post the coronavirus lockdown ending, his venue might “never reopen.”

     

    In his post, multiple venue owner-operator Mr Downey stated:

     

    This is Milk & Honey in Soho. A very special place that was 18yrs old last week. It’s been the ‘World’s Best Bar’ (a few times) and the making of so many great bartenders, but we may never re-open. Our annual rent is £210,000 but, despite the current closure and no hope of re-opening for months, our landlord won’t allow any deferral or rent free. He expects payments to be made upfront. He’s got no chance.

     

    One of three things will happen (in most likely first order):

     

    – We give the keys back.

    – We get a 9 month #NationalRentFree and re-open paying rent for another 18yrs.

    – The landlord backs down/sees sense.

     

    I’ve written back to our landlord. I don’t expect we’ll get anywhere and without a #NationalTimeOut, we won’t be able to re-open Milk & Honey. Including VAT, we’ve paid more than £3.9m rent in 18yrs.

     

    Going further, Downey shared the letter he’d written to his landlord. It read:

     

    We won’t be paying any rent on this site again this year. I’m sorry but you’re kidding yourselves if you think otherwise. We have no income.

     

    We have been paying rent there for 18 years, totaling in excess of £3m. We have no idea when we may be allowed to re-open. Even when we are allowed to re-open, we won’t because fear of the virus and physical distancing will mean we will be loss-making. The best (and possibly only) time we can expect to re-open is once a vaccine becomes widely available. Until then, zero income = zero rent.

     

    I have been campaigning for a #NationalTimeOut for tenants and landlords, which includes a 9 month #NationalRentFree. If we get this, then there may be a way through for all of us. Otherwise, we’ll be giving back the keys and surrendering the very valuable 03:00 licence.

     

    I am happy to discuss if you want but that’s our position and we don’t have any other.

     

    The Dry Land of No Milk & No Honey – Milk & Honey Soho likely to close – Jonathan Downey, owner of London’s Milk & Honey bar, takes to social media to announce he won’t be reopening without a rent holiday.
    Jonathan Downey (right) shared his sentiments on the future of the bar he set up in 2002, Milk & Honey, 61 Poland Street, Soho, London, W1F 7NU in a Facebook post on Wednesday.
    The Dry Land of No Milk & No Honey – Milk & Honey Soho likely to close – Jonathan Downey, owner of London’s Milk & Honey bar, takes to social media to announce he won’t be reopening without a rent holiday.
    Mr Downey also published the text of a letter he had sent to his plainly thus far unsympathetic landlord.

    Previously, in an interview with The Caterer earlier this month, Downey commented:

     

    The best thing for most people in our industry is a National Time Out – nine months rent-free, with a matching debt repayment holiday for our landlords. Understandably the pubcos don’t like it, but it is being supported by UKHospitality.

     

    We can’t each negotiate 150,000 separate agreements with landlords. We need a national arrangement that everybody falls in line with, that the government decides and legislates on.

     

    We should get the rest of this year rent-free – for most businesses it’s the biggest single cost apart from staff – and extend loan terms for landlords, because if they can’t get their rent for nine months, they can’t repay the debt for the premises. If they have borrowed, they should get a nine-month repayment break. It should be pushed back onto the banks – they can handle nine months of not having loans repaid.

     

    Of the longer-term, he added:

     

    I don’t see anybody doing well. Nobody will do well out of the crisis. I think there will be even more empty high street sites. My next business will probably have to be something outside the hospitality industry. Certainly, the business I’m in – large-capacity venues – I don’t see coming back until there’s a vaccine, which is a year or maybe 18 months away. Maybe I’ll take a year off and come back in the way that music festivals will have to. We needed a shake-up as an industry, but we didn’t need one so brutal.

     

    That, to a large extent, the business model of a lot of hospitality businesses is hopelessly flawed. It’s ridiculously fragile, the margins are far too slim and it’s just not sustainable. We were fucked after 10 days to two weeks of no and low income.

     

    I think there’s going to be a lot of reflection and soul-searching and realising that, despite these brilliant things we do as individuals and businesses, if the business model doesn’t stack up, you’ve got to find another way or find something else to do.

     

    We can’t pay people what we need to pay them, we can’t pay the rent, we can’t deal with business rates at this level and with VAT at 20%. It’s just insane. Everybody wants something for nothing. In hospitality we always try to deliver, but this has made us realise we can’t deliver the impossible or the unsustainable.

     

    Since its inception, The Steeple Times has advocated the premise of ‘use it or lose it’ for bars and restaurants and today we join Jonathan Downey in calling for #NationalRentFree and #NationalTimeOut. Now, we must all unite in coming together to support our favourite establishments as otherwise, just like many of us found with the closure of the very much missed La Brasserie in South Kensington in March 2017, we’ll again be left crying into our caipirinhas with nowhere to go.

     

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  • A Set fit for a Peacock

    A Set fit for a Peacock

    Unmodernised ‘set’ in “rule-ridden” Albany, Piccadilly that was the London home of eccentric antiques dealer and ‘King of Chelsea’ Christopher Gibbs for sale; tour the home of the man who got Princess Margaret high on hash

    Expelled from Eton “for being generally totally impossible,” antiques dealer Christopher Gibbs (1938 – 2018) was not a man one would have imagined would have liked the idea of living in a place with archaic rules. This “peacock pied piper to society in the Swinging Sixties” whose “drug consumption awed even Keith Richards,” however, surprisingly chose as his London base Albany in Mayfair and now his former residence is for sale.

     

    “A hermitage; quiet as a lagoon, secluded from the roar of Piccadilly” according to the author Sheila, Countess of Birkenhead in her 1958 tome Peace in Piccadilly, Albany – which is only ever referred to as ‘The Albany’ by the extremely ill-advised – quintessential dandy Gibbs lived in the building for “more than half [his] life.” Whilst also owning properties including Davington Priory in Kent – which he later sold to Bob Geldoff – and a “mystic hangover” home in Tangier, it was here that this ‘King’ of “distressed bohemian” style found a place that offered him: “Perfection for a singleton, an oasis of serenity in the frenetic heart of West London.”

     

    This curious “cloistered world” has numbered Sir Isaiah Berlin, Alan Clark, Lord Byron, William Gladstone, J. B. Priestley, W. Somerset Maugham and Terence Stamp amongst those who have passed its vetting committee of trustees and Gibbs – a man who legendarily got Princess Margaret so high on marijuana that she had to go to hospital – even embraced its “no pets, no children, no whistling, no noise and absolutely no publicity” policy.

     

    A Set fit for a Peacock – £925,000 for Albany ‘set’ of Christopher Gibbs – Unmodernised ‘set’ in “rule-ridden” Albany, Piccadilly that was the London home of eccentric antiques dealer and ‘King of Chelsea’ Christopher Gibbs for sale – £925,000 for L6 Albany, Albany Courtyard, Piccadilly, Mayfair, London, W1J 0AZ, United Kingdom through GreenHunt.
    Antiques dealer Christopher Henry Gibbs, (29th July 1938 to 28th July 2018), son of The Hon. Sir Geoffrey Gibbs KCMG and Lady (Helen) Gibbs CBE, was called the ‘King of Chelsea’ due to his ability as the ultimate connector. He put the Rolling Stones together with Prince Rupert Loewenstein (whom became their business manager) and he persuaded his friend John Paul Getty, Jr. to donate £50 million to the British National Gallery in 1985.
    A Set fit for a Peacock – £925,000 for Albany ‘set’ of Christopher Gibbs – Unmodernised ‘set’ in “rule-ridden” Albany, Piccadilly that was the London home of eccentric antiques dealer and ‘King of Chelsea’ Christopher Gibbs for sale – £925,000 for L6 Albany, Albany Courtyard, Piccadilly, Mayfair, London, W1J 0AZ, United Kingdom through GreenHunt.
    Christopher Gibbs by Robert Mapplethorpe and with Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull.
    A Set fit for a Peacock – £925,000 for Albany ‘set’ of Christopher Gibbs – Unmodernised ‘set’ in “rule-ridden” Albany, Piccadilly that was the London home of eccentric antiques dealer and ‘King of Chelsea’ Christopher Gibbs for sale – £925,000 for L6 Albany, Albany Courtyard, Piccadilly, Mayfair, London, W1J 0AZ, United Kingdom through GreenHunt.
    Christopher Gibbs pictured in his bathroom at L6 Albany, Albany Courtyard, Piccadilly, Mayfair, London, W1J 0AZ; the bathroom as it is today is in need of “some updating” according to agents GreenHunt.
    A Set fit for a Peacock – £925,000 for Albany ‘set’ of Christopher Gibbs – Unmodernised ‘set’ in “rule-ridden” Albany, Piccadilly that was the London home of eccentric antiques dealer and ‘King of Chelsea’ Christopher Gibbs for sale – £925,000 for L6 Albany, Albany Courtyard, Piccadilly, Mayfair, London, W1J 0AZ, United Kingdom through GreenHunt.
    ‘Set L6’ circa 2013, as furnished then by Christopher Gibbs.

    Photographed there by the curmudgeonly Victor Watts on a daybed that allegedly belonged to Lord Tennyson, described the home he created in an article for The New York Times’ ‘Style Magazine’ in April 2013:

     

    “I had the place to myself and proceeded to make it my own in the accustomed style: sober mahogany, Oriental rugs, family pictures. I’ve continually reordered these rooms, distilling, paring, pruning, as chaste as my voluptuous nature allows.”

     

    “So enraptured with my Albany life did I become that, reason deserting me (not for the first or last time) I gave up a spacious Bond Street gallery where I had my antiques shop and took one at the back of Albany, a small if elegant space with an entrance into the building, another onto the street and best of all a door into the underground passage – a quiet, invisible stroll home.”

     

    “I love returning from Morocco, where I now spend much of my time, seeing the friendly porters at the door, hearing the clip-clop of feet on the Rope Walk, seeing the old-timers sitting in the little ivy-lined garden, sunning themselves by the little bronze statue of Antinous and the fountain, regularly invaded by the ducks from St. James’s Park – and enjoying sudden glimpses into other people’s lives through uncurtained windows, the hours marked only by the clock chimes of St. James’s Church, accompanied by the more uptempo tinkling of the clock at Fortnum & Mason, our local grocers.”

     

    “At this point, when I am in London, I can’t imagine staying anywhere but Albany – all the more reason, perhaps, to clam up, maintain the longstanding omertà (or I should say discretion) that has held sway for centuries now, and count my blessings.”

     

    Gibbs’ former home, ‘Set L6,’ is situated on the second floor in Albany’s Courtyard. It extends to some 1,178 square foot and includes a hall, reception room, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom. On the third floor, a separately accessed studio space has a shower room and kitchenette and of the property, the selling agents remark: “Whilst capable of immediate occupation, [it] does require the bathrooms being upgraded.”

     

    Sold for just £60,000 ($75,000, €69,000 or درهم275,000) leasehold in March 2019 (presumably the term must have been very much towards its end), agents GreenHunt listed ‘Set L6 Albany’ on Zoopla first in May that year. Now, in April 2020, it remains for sale, but is instead listed on Primelocation. They seek £925,000 ($1.2 million, €1.1 million or درهم4.2 million) and offer it on a new 20-year leasehold with an upfront premium and a peppercorn ground rent.

     

    Living in the building is not just the preserve of those with deep pockets. Peviously, in 2014, we featured ‘Set A5 Attic Albany’ – which was just £395 per week ($494, €454 or درهم1,800 per week) – whilst for those looking for something grander currently, a second and third floor freehold set is currently available through Sotheby’s International Realty for £4.95 million ($6.19 million, €5.69 million or درهم22.73 million). It extends to 1,890 square feet, is described as “meticulously refurbished” and includes an especially impressive drawing room.

     

    Christopher Gibbs quoted:

     

    “[I’ve always attracted] the grand and the raffish and the fast and the chic.”

     

    “[I am] monumentally narcissistic.”

     

    “I am a bit snooty… I do make exceptions, but very few.”

     

    “We are here to learn, and my goodness I have a lot to learn.”

     

    “[I was expelled from Eton for] Rabelaisian antics – illicit drinking, pantry raids of other boys’ rooms – that sort of thing.”

     

    “Taste is something you catch – like measles or religion.”

     

    “I like things in their natural state – people especially. As life goes by, that’s what I admire: objects and people that are unmonkeyed with, that are themselves, not trying to be something else.”

     

    “I’m not interested in creating a dazzling impression of richness. We can make do with surprisingly little in life. It is best to have a few things which are really nice. I don’t approve of the mean look, but I do approve of the spare look, where every little bit is telling.”

     

    “Being a shopkeeper, I used to sell things, sometimes.”

     

    “I definitely suffer from the blown-mind syndrome… The only thing I’ll say in my favour, is that I was practically the only person I knew who actually went to work at nine o’clock in the morning, whether I’d been up to eight o’clock or not, because I had a job, my own business, and I realised that, if I didn’t, I wouldn’t have any of those things.”

     

    “[I] help people make nice cosy homes where they are going to live happy, beautiful lives.”

     

    “[I] encourage friends to dig into their heirlooms, to wear old clothes, to turn their backs on ugliness and conformism.”

     

    “Collectors today want a good car, a good sound system, and a huge pink heart painted by Damien Hirst with dying butterflies on it which costs £400,000. Yet for much less you could buy something completely fascinating made 300 years ago.”

     

    Quotes about Christopher Gibbs:

     

    “Taste is difficult to define, but his is absolute perfection” – Min Hogg, founding editor of World of Interiors.

     

    “[He was] like an 18th century English parson who knew more about Etruscan vases than anyone at the British Museum” – Sir John Richardson, July 2018.

     

    “I’m here to learn how to be a gentleman” – Mick Jagger of his then neighbour Christopher Gibbs whilst at a dinner party at his house.

     

    “He was very flash… Sometimes he just wore tight jeans or fancy dress, like the others; but mostly his tastes were elaborate; suits with double-breasted waistcoats and cloth-covered buttons, and velvet ties, and striped Turkish shirts with stiff white collars, and cravats. Above all, he had a passion for carnations and was forever buying new strains, pink-and-yellow, or green-ink, or purple with red flecks” – Nik Cohn, author of Today There Are No Gentlemen, January 1971.

     

    “Part Montesquieu, part Beau Brummel, and part Baudelaire… [Christopher Gibbs was a] well-born Renaissance man with an unmatched eye for aesthetics and a talent for friendship and the mot juste” – Hamish Bowles, international editor at large for Vogue, July 2018.

     

    “Christopher was almost single-handedly responsible for making English antiques, and English heritage, look ‘cool’ again” – James Reginato of Vanity Fair, July 2018.

     

    “A connoisseur of the weird and the wonderful” – Christopher Mason of The New York Times, September 2000.

     

    “[He was an] acid-tripping ex-roué once known as the King of Chelsea” – Bitter words from the ex-Daily Mail ‘journalist’ and poison pen James Delingpole, executive editor of Breitbart.

     

    “[The] avatar of Swinging London” – A more kind description from Sam Roberts of The New York Times.

     

    “The arbiter of bohemian style” – Mitchell Owens of Architectural Digest Pro, July 2018.

     

    “Christopher Gibbs: the man who brokered £50 million Getty grant to the National Gallery – and fed Princess Margaret hash brownies” – Huon Mallalieu of The Art Newspaper, July 2018.

     

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    A Set fit for a Peacock – £925,000 for Albany ‘set’ of Christopher Gibbs – Unmodernised ‘set’ in “rule-ridden” Albany, Piccadilly that was the London home of eccentric antiques dealer and ‘King of Chelsea’ Christopher Gibbs for sale – £925,000 for L6 Albany, Albany Courtyard, Piccadilly, Mayfair, London, W1J 0AZ, United Kingdom through GreenHunt.
    The entrance hallway of ‘Set L6’ has a fireplace.
    A Set fit for a Peacock – £925,000 for Albany ‘set’ of Christopher Gibbs – Unmodernised ‘set’ in “rule-ridden” Albany, Piccadilly that was the London home of eccentric antiques dealer and ‘King of Chelsea’ Christopher Gibbs for sale – £925,000 for L6 Albany, Albany Courtyard, Piccadilly, Mayfair, London, W1J 0AZ, United Kingdom through GreenHunt.
    The master bedroom of ‘
    A Set fit for a Peacock – £925,000 for Albany ‘set’ of Christopher Gibbs – Unmodernised ‘set’ in “rule-ridden” Albany, Piccadilly that was the London home of eccentric antiques dealer and ‘King of Chelsea’ Christopher Gibbs for sale – £925,000 for L6 Albany, Albany Courtyard, Piccadilly, Mayfair, London, W1J 0AZ, United Kingdom through GreenHunt.
    Looking into the reception room.
    A Set fit for a Peacock – £925,000 for Albany ‘set’ of Christopher Gibbs – Unmodernised ‘set’ in “rule-ridden” Albany, Piccadilly that was the London home of eccentric antiques dealer and ‘King of Chelsea’ Christopher Gibbs for sale – £925,000 for L6 Albany, Albany Courtyard, Piccadilly, Mayfair, London, W1J 0AZ, United Kingdom through GreenHunt.
    The somewhat basic kitchen is definitely in need of an upgrade.
    A Set fit for a Peacock – £925,000 for Albany ‘set’ of Christopher Gibbs – Unmodernised ‘set’ in “rule-ridden” Albany, Piccadilly that was the London home of eccentric antiques dealer and ‘King of Chelsea’ Christopher Gibbs for sale – £925,000 for L6 Albany, Albany Courtyard, Piccadilly, Mayfair, London, W1J 0AZ, United Kingdom through GreenHunt.
    The view from the set.
    A Set fit for a Peacock – £925,000 for Albany ‘set’ of Christopher Gibbs – Unmodernised ‘set’ in “rule-ridden” Albany, Piccadilly that was the London home of eccentric antiques dealer and ‘King of Chelsea’ Christopher Gibbs for sale – £925,000 for L6 Albany, Albany Courtyard, Piccadilly, Mayfair, London, W1J 0AZ, United Kingdom through GreenHunt.
    Albany’s famous ‘Rope Walk’ – Of it, Gibbs commented: “So ingrained is the sense of decorum that even to utter a friendly hello to a neighbor as we pass on the stone stairs or the covered outdoor canopy, known as the Rope Walk, might be violating a taboo, as if a few words of small talk could break the spell of privacy we Albanians prize so deeply. (A nod suffices, a hat raised to a lady.)”
    A Set fit for a Peacock – £925,000 for Albany ‘set’ of Christopher Gibbs – Unmodernised ‘set’ in “rule-ridden” Albany, Piccadilly that was the London home of eccentric antiques dealer and ‘King of Chelsea’ Christopher Gibbs for sale – £925,000 for L6 Albany, Albany Courtyard, Piccadilly, Mayfair, London, W1J 0AZ, United Kingdom through GreenHunt.
    Residents have access to the most peaceful outside spaces.
    A Set fit for a Peacock – £925,000 for Albany ‘set’ of Christopher Gibbs – Unmodernised ‘set’ in “rule-ridden” Albany, Piccadilly that was the London home of eccentric antiques dealer and ‘King of Chelsea’ Christopher Gibbs for sale – £925,000 for L6 Albany, Albany Courtyard, Piccadilly, Mayfair, London, W1J 0AZ, United Kingdom through GreenHunt.
    The third floor space included in the sale is arranged as a long, thin studio room.
    A Set fit for a Peacock – £925,000 for Albany ‘set’ of Christopher Gibbs – Unmodernised ‘set’ in “rule-ridden” Albany, Piccadilly that was the London home of eccentric antiques dealer and ‘King of Chelsea’ Christopher Gibbs for sale – £925,000 for L6 Albany, Albany Courtyard, Piccadilly, Mayfair, London, W1J 0AZ, United Kingdom through GreenHunt.
    It has a small kitchenette.
    A Set fit for a Peacock – £925,000 for Albany ‘set’ of Christopher Gibbs – Unmodernised ‘set’ in “rule-ridden” Albany, Piccadilly that was the London home of eccentric antiques dealer and ‘King of Chelsea’ Christopher Gibbs for sale – £925,000 for L6 Albany, Albany Courtyard, Piccadilly, Mayfair, London, W1J 0AZ, United Kingdom through GreenHunt.
    And a somewhat dated shower room.
    A Set fit for a Peacock – £925,000 for Albany ‘set’ of Christopher Gibbs – Unmodernised ‘set’ in “rule-ridden” Albany, Piccadilly that was the London home of eccentric antiques dealer and ‘King of Chelsea’ Christopher Gibbs for sale – £925,000 for L6 Albany, Albany Courtyard, Piccadilly, Mayfair, London, W1J 0AZ, United Kingdom through GreenHunt.
    A plan indicating how ‘Set L6’ is currently arranged.
    A Set fit for a Peacock – £925,000 for Albany ‘set’ of Christopher Gibbs – Unmodernised ‘set’ in “rule-ridden” Albany, Piccadilly that was the London home of eccentric antiques dealer and ‘King of Chelsea’ Christopher Gibbs for sale – £925,000 for L6 Albany, Albany Courtyard, Piccadilly, Mayfair, London, W1J 0AZ, United Kingdom through GreenHunt.
    A plan of the third floor studio space.