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LONDON’S BIGGEST AND MOST-READ PROPERTY GUIDE

Victoria’s secret is out Page 4 ALAMY London’s best property search website: homesandproperty.co.uk 2 WEDNESDAY 21 AUGUST 2013 EVENING STANDARD

Homes & Property Online homesandproperty.co.uk with This week: homesandproperty.co.uk news: Property For sale: live in Lord Prescott’s in partnership with former home — for £120m search

London buy of the week pale and interesting in W2

£750,000: prime Notting Hill territory is where you’ll find this Chepstow Road garden flat, just off Westbourne Grove. White wood floors and pale walls provide the perfect canvas for bright pops of colour in the two-bedroom home.

ALAMY High-spec sound insulation ensures you won’t be bothered ONE of London’s most famous landmarks is to be turned by noise, while the master bedroom has ample storage and into a 100-bed luxury hotel — with a private 16,856sq ft the neat kitchen has French doors to a lovely patio garden. apartment that could sell for £120 million-plus. Through John D Wood. Currently vacant, Grade I-listed Admiralty Arch stands at the top of The Mall with views of Buckingham Palace O Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/buynottinghill and Trafalgar Square. The building was sold by the Treasury on a 125-year lease last October to Spanish developer Rafael Serrano for a reported £60 million. Once the home of the First Sea Lord, the building’s last Out of town buy of the occupant was former deputy prime minister John week into the White House Prescott, who had a grace and favour flat there.

O Read Ruth Bloomfield’s full story at homesandproperty.co.uk £749,950: Great Alne, beside the River Alne in Warwickshire, could be just the get-away-from-it-all spot you’ve been looking for. The White House sits in an enviable plot of sweeping gardens next to glorious open countryside. hot homes: Plenty of family space is on offer, including a generous sitting room with a log burner, a separate dining room, an going under the hammer impressive kitchen/breakfast room laid with stone tiles and with granite worktops, plus four bedrooms, two dressing Guide £300,000: rooms and an en suite to the master bedroom. Through a three-bedroom Sotheby’s. bungalow at Hope Cove, O Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/outalne Devon O Visit homesand property.co.uk/ Life changer ponds and a playhouse penlea for your new start in East Farleigh BUYING a home at auction is very exciting. The range of £850,000: this family home in the large kitchen with Aga, a sun room and property on offer at potentially bargain prices is ancient Kent village of East Farleigh a conservatory, plus four bedrooms and attracting an increasing number of home hunters. We’ve would make a wonderful base for your two bathrooms. There is also a one- put together our Top 10 tips for buying in the sale rooms expanding business, or a new start as a bedroom annexe you could let from day just in time for the September auctions, which are set to B&B. Its grounds contain two large one. Through Geering & Colyer. be packed with buying opportunities — from renovation ponds, a fairytale playhouse and a projects in London to seaside gems on Devon’s attractive variety of outbuildings that could be O Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/ coastline. converted. The main house has lifekent 3,000sq ft of space that includes a Faye Greenslade O For more sale room news, visit homesandproperty.co.uk

Editor: Win a stylish crescent rocker Janice Morley Or buy one in our shop for only £99.99 with free delivery

VISIT homesandproperty.co.uk/rules THIS beautiful Honeyman rocking TO ENTER TO BUY the Honeyman rocker for for details of our usual promotion sun lounger offers stress-free comfort For a chance to £99.99 with free delivery, visit rules. When you respond to thanks to its sturdy, crescent-shaped win a Honeyman homesand property.co.uk/shop promotions, offers or competitions, frame — made with tough Russian rocker, visit We also have one lounger to give the London Evening Standard and its larch, a wood renowned for its homesand away. To enter, see panel. sister companies may contact you resistance to rot. It comes with a property.co.uk/ with relevant offers and services hard-wearing Textilene bed, a offers before that may be of interest. Please give comfortable head-rest and requires the end of your mobile number and/or email little annual maintenance. The light September 1 address if you would like to receive coffee-coloured satin varnish finish such offers by text or email. can be over-stained, varnished, oiled Editorial: 020 3615 2524 or painted in the colour of your Advertisement manager: choice. It is also available in cream or Mark Wood black finishes. Advertising: 020 3615 0527 The dimensions are 212cm by 68cm Homes & Property, Northcliffe by 85cm (6ft 11½ins by 2ft 2¾ins by House, 2 Derry Street, Kensington, 2ft 9½ins), and the rocker weighs London W8 5TT. 24kg (just under 53lb). Simple home assembly is required (tools supplied). Usual rules apply, see homesandproperty.co.uk/rules for details.

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London’s X factor, Homes by Nicole

É NICOLE SCHERZINGER is gossip flat hunting in Kensington. The By Amira Hashish Hawaii-born pop diva, who has fallen for the capital, is filming the new X Factor series and É MILKWOOD STUDIOS, searching for a new so named because Welsh And now for home, but has yet to poet and writer Dylan something confirm whether she Thomas penned some of wants to rent or buy. his works in the completely Work keeps her in the neighbouring house in city but there is a love Camden Town, were different. . . interest too, with on/off purpose-built for Monty boyfriend, Formula One Python in the Eighties. a patio garden, two Buy Robin and Lucienne Day’s home driver Lewis Hamilton. When John Cleese (of the courtyards and five Making the most of the Ministry of Silly Walks, bedrooms. But it is the É WE OWE a lot to Robin and without her iconic designs.” The good weather, Scherzinger pictured below), Michael eye-catching floor-to- Lucienne Day. The textile specialists couple’s work was as practical as it tweeted: “Dang this town is Palin, Terry Gilliam and co ceiling glass that puts transformed British style after the was jazzy and the polypropylene gorg-oire when the sun is moved out, the 10,000sq ft this home in a league of Second World War — he with new stackable chairs they invented shining! #London.” And the space became home to its own. materials and inexpensive furniture, (above) can still be seen in schools, former Pussycat Doll has film companies. Now it At £12 million the asking she with wild, vibrant pattern. hospitals, airports and restaurants discovered a new way of is a super-swanky New price is no joke — but the “Day was the first woman who really the world over. Now their former commuting. She snubbed a York-style loft home with funnymen’s former understood art for the people,” said four-bedroom house in Chichester is chauffeur-driven car to accommodation over two factory is certainly a living designer Orla Kiely. “No modernist for sale at £725,000 through Jackson- hop on a rickshaw to floors. Set behind a gated space to lust after. home of the Fifties was complete Stops & Staff. the ITV studios. entrance, the NW1 wonder O Visit homesand comes with roof terraces, property.co.uk/monty Got some Bathing with gossip? the fishes at Tweet Kanye’s place @amiranews

É
NEW dad Kanye West is struggling to sell his bachelor pad, a minimalist home in the Hollywood Hills. The rapper is now focusing on family life with reality TV star Kim Kardashian (left) and their baby girl North West (yes, really), so he has taken £333,333 off the £2.2 million asking price to attract buyers after a quiet five months on the market. The hip-hop star has put his own stamp on the place mind you — including huge murals of The Flintstones cartoon characters and a bath with a built-in fish tank.

REX FEATURES Who could resist? PA BBC 4 WEDNESDAY 21 AUGUST 2013 EVENING STANDARD

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New destiny: plans to transform Victoria coach station are driving wider change

HE Queen has done rather Goodbye blighted well out of Buckingham Palace. When she came to the coach station — hello throne in 1952 the one-time cultural quarter, a townhouse of the Duke of TBuckingham, built in 1705, with its £2 billion makeover 830,000sq ft of living space and 40 acres of landscaped gardens,was worth and Belgravia Bling. £11 million. Today it has a value of £1 billion. That’s a 9,000 per cent jump, Victoria’s secret is according to the Nationwide Building Society. finally out, reports The Palace gardens sit behind high security walls along Buckingham Palace David Spittles Road, a surprisingly dreary street. Traffic jams and souvenir shops have lowered the tone of this busy thorough- fare dividing workaday Victoria from super-rich Belgravia, and probably nowhere else in London is there such a value gap either side of a main road. The Victoria side of Buckingham Pal- ace Road has always always been judged the wrong side of the tracks. Novelist Anthony Trollope understood this well: one of his fictional heroines was advised by a worldly guardian liv- Yours — a room with ing in Belgravia to “avoid anywhere south of Eccleston Square”. Common, a huge regeneration area near TRY OUT KATE’S ‘B&B’ Goring was where Kate Middleton Now Victoria and Pimlico, on one side Wormwood Scrubs prison, has been Palace View, at 21 Buckingham Palace repaired with her sister Pippa and of Green Park, and St James’s and Bel- mooted. Old Oak is earmarked to Road, is a new development of 14 flats mother Carole to spend her last night gravia on the other, are about to become a new super-transport hub including a three-bedroom penthouse, as a single woman and a commoner, become one — with listed Victorian integrating Crossrail and the proposed with roof terraces facing the royal before her wedding to Prince William commercial buildings in Victoria being HS2 high-speed rail project. mews. Priced from £1.25 million. Call in April 2011. converted into prestigious homes. Properties close to Buckingham Jones Lang LaSalle on 020 7201 6699. The transformation is being driven Palace are already scrubbing up well. When Grosvenor Gardens House CHOOSE SUPER NOVA by the redevelopment of Art Deco Uninviting “pie and a pint” Victorian was built in 1867, it was Britain’s first A £2 billion facelift, spearheaded by Below: Cardinal Place, the snazzy new Victoria coach station. Landowner pubs are upgrading to gastro status serviced apartment block. It later property company Land Securities, is shopping and dining complex housed Grosvenor is keen to turn the 10-acre while St James Theatre, in nearby became offices and is now being trans- smartening up the area around Victoria in a new-age glass capsule, is part of site in Buckingham Palace Road into a Palace Street, is central London’s first formed into 42 flats, complete with a train station. Victoria Street has been the grand transformation of Victoria new “city quarter”, with homes, shops newly built theatre for 30 years. swimming pool, private library and transformed, notably by the arrival of and cultural venues. “Until recently the price disparity cinema, underground parking, plus Cardinal Place shopping precinct, and Transport for London owns the depar- between Victoria and Belgravia was 24-hour concierge services provided the focus is on a blighted cluster of Below centre and right: the De Savary ture hall and has a short lease on the rest astonishing, easily 50 per cent on aver- by neighbouring five-star hotel The buildings forming a 5.5-acre island Group’s 46 St James’s Place, with views of the coach station. Grosvenor has age and in individual cases much Goring. moments from the Palace. to Piccadilly Circus, has £3.5 million appointed consultants to find an alter- more,” said Tom Hawkins of estate Holder of a Royal Warrant and known Called Nova, the redeveloped site will flats and a £10 million penthouse native site for the station, and Old Oak agent Hamptons International. affectionately as “the royals’ B&B”, The bring five fresh buildings, including 205 EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 21 AUGUST 2013 5 homesandproperty.co.uk with New homes Homes & Property

From £1.25 million: above and left, 14 flats and a penthouse at Palace View with views over Buckingham Palace mews from the roof terrace. Call 020 7201 6699

Handsome red-brick Edwardian man- sion blocks alongside Westminster Buy a flat next to St James’s Cathedral are the equal of anything in Palace sentry boxes, or in a Kensington or Chelsea and are a reminder that Victoria was a coveted gated development you don’t address in its pre-First World War have to be royal to afford heyday. Resales cost from about £700,000. St James’s Gateway project, 20 Jermyn Heritage houses in streets closer to Street consists of one- and two-bed- the Palace are prized. A six-bedroom room flats built behind a listed façade, townhouse on Catherine Place in the with the cachet of a 125-year Crown Birdcage Walk conservation area is for Estate lease. Prices from £1.85 million. sale at £4.45 million — call Knight Frank The apartments at 15 Jermyn Street are on 020 3324 8051. for rent, starting at £700 a week. Call WA Ellis on 020 7306 1654 THE CAPITAL’S SMARTEST Private developers are also unlocking ADDRESS: ST JAMES’S sites. The De Savary Group, best known St James’s occupies the precious rec- for its luxurious St James’s Club resorts, tangle of land between the Palace and is launching a project at 46 St James’s Piccadilly, Trafalgar Square and Green Place. The building has been gutted to Park. Arguably the capital’s smartest create three two-bedroom apartments address and certainly the most quintes- priced at £3.5 million each, plus a sentially English, it is discreet — but not £10 million penthouse. A ground-floor as expensive as some buyers expect. shop unit is also for sale, and the whole The Crown Estate, the area’s major building can be purchased for landowner, has unveiled plans for a £22.3 million. Call Knight Frank on 020 a royal mews view gracious revamp that will double the 7861 5487. number of homes over the next 10 Coming soon to imposing 88 St flats, and create a new pedestrian link gets, Victoria has room for improve- called Abell & Cleland on Page Street. years. Of the estate’s four million James’s Street, next to the St James’s between a refurbished Victoria train ment,” added Hawkins. “This is why Call Berkeley Homes on 020 7720 square feet of property in the area, only Palace sentry boxes, are 10 apartments station and the Royal Parks. Up to 800 we’re attracting City money. People 4000. 2.5 per cent is residential. The objective by the Carlyle Group hedge fund. new homes are being built in the wider know they are not buying at the top of Douglas House, backing on to Vincent is to push up values beyond £2,500 a Hobhouse Court, one the few new area. Kings Gate, formerly Westminster the market.” Square, which has 13 acres of private square foot to match the best homes in gated developments, proves you do council town hall, will have 100 flats Despite this, prices have raced ahead playing fields owned by Westminster Mayfair and Belgravia. not have to be the Duke of Buckingham priced from £740,000. Call 020 7413 during the last three years, reaching School, has been split into apartments The first of these new developments to afford St James’s. Apartments cost 9000. £1,600 to £1,700 a square foot for new priced from £1,495,000. Call Hamptons are at 15 and 20 Jermyn Street. Form- from £745,000, or £450 a week to rent. “Whereas Belgravia is as good as it builds, such as apartments at a scheme International on 020 7717 5315. ing part of the larger mixed-use Call GLP on 020 3324 6099.

Discover Temple Fortune’s best kept secret Carmel Gate is a prestigious new development in Temple Fortune NW11, with a selection of exclusive two and three bedroom apartments, cottages, courtyard mews houses and seven bedroom detached villas. This gated development offers a concierge, parking and beautifully landscaped gardens incorporating a unique courtyard with water feature. Carmel Gate, Bridge Lane, Temple Fortune, London NW11 Developed by • Apartments from £575,000, stc • 2 bedroom cottages from £950,000, stc Marketing Suite • Spacious 3-4 bedroom triplex courtyard T: 020 8731 9890 houses from £1.45m, stc E: [email protected] Sole Selling Agent W: www.carmelgate.com • Villas – Price on Application Show Home Now Open • Show Home now open by NEW HOMES appointment Monday to Friday: 10am to 5pm Sundays: 11am to 4pm 020 8731 9500 www.glentree.com • Available from Autumn 2013 By appointment 6 WEDNESDAY 21 AUGUST 2013 EVENING STANDARD

Homes & Property Renting homesandproaty.co.uk with

£475 a week: Dexters has a £635 a week: Knight Frank has this two-bedroom apartment available to smart period terrace house (left) rent on the third floor of this with three bedrooms in Pepys Road, well-maintained period building, left, Raynes Park. The house is an easy in Cromwell Crescent, SW5. walk from the station.

O Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/ O Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/ rentcromwell rentpepys

More than half of Londoners now rent

£375 a week: Carter Stones has a Renting is no longer two-bedroom apartment with a balcony, parking and concierge, just for carefree plus an on-site gym, in a gated twentysomethings development (left) overlooking Limehouse Marina in Poplar but for couples O Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/ and families, too, says rentlime Ruth Bloomfield

HE recession has turned and Edwardian, arranged in quiet, London into a city of leafy streets. John Wagstaff, owner of renters. According to the estate agent Petty Son & Prestwich, latest census results, more says new arrivals tend to be young than half the capital’s couples and families priced out of Tpopulation now pays rent rather than areas such as Islington, London a mortgage, bringing us closer to the Fields and Shoreditch, or those who European model. This figure is set to believe that Wanstead is a better increase due to high property prices, place to bring up children. “It is demands for huge deposits and the really a family area and has a really shortage of new homes. nice pace of life,” he said. In the past, renting was what you He estimates that renting a three- did with multiple flatmates for a few bedroom house would cost from hectic years in your twenties before £370 a week, with a four-bedroom settling down. house from £415 and a two-bedroom Today, a rented home can be for ALAMY flat from £275 a week. different stages of your life — from being single, to being in a river as they feel they cannot afford RAYNES PARK partnership, to being a parent. So to live in prime central London — but FOR FAMILY LIFE where should you look? they will be surprised what they can As the average age of a first-time find.” And, of course, the whole area buyer in London drifts from late ZONE 1 RENTING is in line for an £8 billion thirties to early forties, many have FOR SINGLES AND SHARERS regeneration project that will see young families to consider. Debbie Being central with an affordable rent hundreds of new homes built. Work Pinkham, of Knight Frank, suggests remain the priorities for most young begins in the autumn. Raynes Park as the idea place to people, said Marc von Grundherr, house hunt. She said: “It has a great director of Benham & Reeves’s RENTING ON A BUDGET vibe and some lovely independent residential lettings department, who FOR SAVERS shops and restaurants.” is constantly on the lookout for A recent study by homeless charity Last year a study by the London homes for singles and sharers keen to Shelter showed London couples with Data Company, which monitors be in the thick of things. children face 21 years of saving for a empty shops across the UK, named His solution is Earl’s Court. The deposit, while single people face an Raynes Park, as the best-performing area is shrugging off its reputation as eye-watering average of 30 years of high street in London, helped by a grubby hang-out for Australian saving. They also want to live chains such as Waitrose and

backpackers. It has culture, including somewhere decent. REX FEATURES Starbucks, as well as firmly the award-winning Finborough Benham & Reeves’s Von Grundherr established local businesses. Theatre, and good restaurants believes that Poplar is the place to Christchurch Green, Wanstead: if URBAN VILLAGES All this, says Pinkham, means the abound. Its location is highly look. Its strength is in its location: Hampstead is outside your rental FOR YOUNG LONDONERS area is a magnet for families and it convenient and it offers a wide range less than a mile and a half from the budget, try the much cheaper option The classic “London village” easily passes the green space test. of rental property, from modern pubs, restaurants and cobbled of Wanstead and the parks of E11 locations, such as Hampstead and Cottenham Park has a good apartments to mansion blocks, as streets of Limehouse, and handy for Wimbledon, are out of the question playground and tennis courts, while well as conversions within period the Olympic Park and Westfield shoddy. A familiar local landmark is for most cash-strapped renters. But Wimbledon Common is within stuccoed homes. shopping centre at Stratford. The the condemned Seventies council Wanstead, in E11, is a much cheaper walking distance. Rents are, says Von Grundherr, expanse of Mile End Park is nearby block Robin Hood Gardens. The high option. Its high street is full of delis, Andrew Clements, head of Savills between 20 and 30 per cent lower and it’s even walking distance to street is useful but pretty grimy. independent cafés and gastropubs, Wimbledon, says young families like than in Kensington, which is only a Canary Wharf. Homes for rent tend Chrisp Street Market is a traditional and cute traditional shops. Its the schools: “The well-regarded mile and a half away. He estimates to be in modern developments with old-school East End market — about eponymous park covers 140 acres primary schools of St Matthew’s and that a two-bedroom flat in the area good-quality flats. Transport links as far from trendy Spitalfields as you and even has a golf club. And it is on Hollymount provide an excellent would cost from £500 a week. are good, and Poplar’s in Zone 2. can imagine, though many would say the fringes of the real countryside, education. Rental values increase Nicky Chambers, the manager of Von Grundherr estimates that a they prefer its authenticity. with Epping Forest only a mile away. closer to the school gates.” agent Douglas and Gordon’s Chelsea typical one-bedroom flat in the area Tyler Lowther, senior sales There are good Tube services into For commuters, trains from Raynes office, agrees that Earl’s Court would cost about £270 a week, or negotiator at Alex Neil Estate Agents, London (three stops to Stratford, and Park to Waterloo take just 21 minutes. provides excellent value — in part £320 a week for a two-bedroom estimates that one-bedroom flats in 20 minutes to the City). Pinkham estimates that renting a because of an oversupply of flats to home. But low prices come with a the area rent at about £250 a week Parents will like the local schools. three-bedroom house in the area let. She said: “This is because the compromise — Poplar is not pretty. and two bedrooms at about £300. Our Lady of Lourdes RC Primary would cost about £575 a week, while majority of renters looking at this The area was badly damaged in the “Poplar is one of the most School is rated “outstanding”. a four-bedroom property would cost price range tend to look south of the Blitz and the postwar rebuild was affordable parts of E14,” he said. The houses are mainly Victorian about £690 a week. EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 21 AUGUST 2013 7 homesandproperty.co.uk with Affordable homes Homes & Property

HILE living in From £113,700: the capital’s central for a share of an districts is beyond the apartment at budget of most first- Roseberry Place, time buyers, conven- the final stage of Wiently located cheaper homes on the the Dalston fringes of the West End, City and Square Canary Wharf — the main employment regeneration areas — are available to buy and rent, project in keeping the property dreams of young Hackney Londoners alive. Start your search in Zone 2, just beyond the congestion charge bound- ary, where it is still possible to find good-value pockets, some very much on the up. Areas falling into this catch- ment include Whitechapel, Shadwell, Kilburn, Finsbury Park, Dalston, Deptford, Bethnal Green, Bow, Bermondsey, Rotherhithe, Walworth, New Cross and Stockwell. Most people are happy to walk to work if it takes no more than 30 min- utes — quicker if jogging or on a Boris bike. You can get fit and save on com- muting costs at the same time. Several new schemes in fashionable parts of east London have been unveiled.

DALSTON SQUARE HACKNEY Roseberry Place is the final phase of the ambitious Dalston Square regen- eration project which has created a buzzing new town centre and a key Fringe benefits start in Zone 2 transport interchange on the east Lon- don line extension that has opened up BACK IN THE SPOTLIGHT mined locals fighting off developers Hackney. You can still find good value a 30-minute BOW AND MILE END and Hackney council’s disposal of com- The station links into the superb new The area “arrived” about 10 years ago mercial buildings. Overground orbital train network walk from the West End and City if you when development rippled out from Broadway Market, which runs from around the capital stretching from know where to look, says David Spittles nearby Docklands. Then, builders tar- London Fields to Regent’s Canal in West Croydon to Wembley, and from geted derelict canalside buildings and Haggerston, has changed with the Richmond to Stratford. old industrial sites. Fancy new flats times but retains some of its old down- Modern-design apartment blocks attracted buyers from pricier parts of to-earth, street-trader character: frame the town square, the largest built town, while eager gentrifiers discov- Cooke’s pie and mash shop now serves in London for more than a century. A ered great-value period houses. summer cocktails and survives along- public library, cafés and shops help More recently, the emphasis has been side gastropubs and delis. animate the space, and there’s a popu- on the area’s council estates, with hun- Check out the Towpath Café, on the lar on-site gym. dreds of homes being renovated. canal, and Street Feast, London’s first Shared-ownership options are avail- Fielder Apartments are part of the “night food market”, with stalls, bars, able on one- and two-bedroom flats, Bow Trinity estate renewal, close to Bow the odd celebrity chef, art exhibitions with prices starting at £113,700 (full Church DLR. Prices from £260,000. Call and film screenings. The venue is price, £379,000). Telford Homes on 020 3538 3457. Dalston Yard, on Hartwell Street. Call Family Mosaic housing associa- The area is attracting singles and tion on 020 7089 1315. A PLACE TO WATCH couples priced out of Shoreditch. City HAGGERSTON Mills is the largest new development Sandwiched between bar-packed Hox- here — 350 apartments, many with From £260,000: Fielder Apartments, ton to the south and Islington to the splendid views of the City skyline. Two- part of the revamp of the Bow Trinity north, the pace of gentrification has bedroom flats are priced from estate, close to Bow Church DLR been slower here, with some deter- £390,000. Call 0844 406 9289. 8 WEDNESDAY 21 AUGUST 2013 EVENING STANDARD

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UK buyers love this manicured Channel resort for its big beach, fresh air and yearly helping of

Hollywood, says Toby Rose ALAMY

EAUVILLE is a small town festival-deauville.com). This mani- sold in the quayside market there. Film stars’ in keeping with its reputation as the This is a crammed with big names. cured Channel resort has glossy, high- Frenchmen used to joke that they kept favourite: well-heeled ‘21st arrondissement’ of Celebrities flock to its end big-city shopping with smart their wives in Deauville, and their the magnificent Paris. But as the prices have softened small town annual American Film names such as Hermès. Coco Chanel mistresses in less-classy Trouville. Atlantic beach there is a chance to get more for your used to Festival, and the esplanade opened her first boutique in Deauville Should you be making your way at Deauville budget. The euro crisis downturn is hasD been trodden by countless in 1913. across the River Toques with the inten- having its affect on this chic resort. being Hollywood stars, from John Travolta Dominating the town are the seafront tion of snapping up a catch of the day “It is true the downward pressure on crammed to Liz Taylor. Normandy and Royal hotels which, at in Trouville, you will pass in front of prices is even being felt in Deauville with big Even hotel suites are dedicated to big the turn of the last century, put the the most ambitious new construction — though it remains sought after. Not movie names. Guests from Clint East- resort firmly on the map. You can play site since the marina was built. only is there the film festival, but there names, and wood to Harrison Ford are happy to the casino tables, or frequent the are many other cultural events during the high-end pose for a photo to dedicate a suite in famous racecourse. Deauville has a RESIDENCE DE L’HORLOGE the year. Nicolas Sarkozy even hosted their honour. The festival runs for a long association with the turf — watch IS IN THE PERFECT SPOT the G8 summit here in 2011.” shops glitzy 10 days at the end of August. Take thoroughbred horses exercising on the The first tranche of the Residence de Catherine Boitard from Deauville’s include tea in the hotel lobby of the Royal or beach, ready for the next meeting. l’Horloge (jb-boitard.com) will be oldest local estate agency, JB Boitard, the likes walk the seafront and you might find Now all this can be reached directly ready for occupation by winter next agrees. “The number of sales has yourself coming face to face with George from City airport with CityJet, which year. Strategically positioned between dropped, prices remain steady, but let’s of Hermès Clooney or Sharon Stone. has begun one-hour flights, four times the train station, the sea and town say there is room for negotiation.” This was the tiny town, with a big a week (from £101 return). centre, it will initially offer a selection dollop of glamour, where Michael Of course, the seafront is pivotal to the of two- to six-room apartments — the UDREY DUCROCQ at estate Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones first town and the stylish marina is the bus- majority with balconies. agents Guy Hoquet says met, and Douglas is back this year to tling jumping-off point for local boat There is still availability. Also under the market has reversed open the festival with his movie Behind folk. Working boats land their catches construction are 15 houses with gar- £686,552: a over the past year. “I have The Candelabra, about the life and a short walk across the bridge in the dens leading down to the riverside. five-bedroom been working here for nine times of Liberace, on August 30 (visit twin town of Trouville and the fish are Prices start from £262,000 for a one- renovated years,”A she said. “In the past 12 months, bedroom flat to £1.2 million for the 16th-century for the first time, there are more sellers most prestigious apartments with five manor house than buyers.

or six rooms. Buyers can register their (below, left) very “This means that those wishing to buy interest at deauvillepresquile.com close to Deauville are being more demanding and taking Visit homesand their time. Prices remain on average 
  MORE FOR YOUR MONEY property.co.uk/ around £5,100 a square metre rising to Expat Barbara Dent, who lives in Paris, deauville £6,000 for sea views. is seeing Deauville in a new light. “I “Town-centre pieds-à-terre can be

 have had my eyes on Deauville recently Classics: glorious found for around £170,000 and three- as it is becoming more affordable,” she private villas bedroom houses are on the market for    said. “For a long time it has been priced along the beach £600,000.” ESHomesAndProperty

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HE “WRONG” end of Fit to print: King’s Road is reinventing modern prints at itself as the Chelsea Design the Trowbridge Quarter, with some very Gallery, right. glossy names. At George Smith, TSmart new shops offer rugs, sofas, left, upholstery tiles, chairs, cabinets, lighting and is made by hand beds. “We’re like a glamorous in the north of department store strung along a England street,” says Hermione Kennedy, of George Smith, where upholstery is made by hand in the north of England. “We’ve got five stores for lighting, the same for rugs, numerous Photographs:: furniture stores, and three stone Emma Lewis specialists. Decorators’ address books are stuffed with us.” The windows of Best & Lloyd have show-stopping lamp bases in Venetian glass. Inside, classics, including the Thirties Bestlite table Follow Barbara lamp (even Churchill had one). Over Chandler the road is purist hi-tech John Cullen, @sunnyholt with an all-white room — the “pod” — for lighting demos. Christopher Wray’s lighting (Victorian glass and brass) is now stocked by several shops, including Leather Chairs of Bath, where the smell is deep-buttoned. Christopher Wray itself, in new hands, is behind And So to Bed, where vast displays include Vi-Spring mattresses — “handmade with finest British Chelsea fleece”. More sleep merchants are Savoir Beds and Simon Horn. Gatley kitchens are British wood and the design crew Italian stainless steel, with more kitchens at Eggersmann and Chalon. For rugs, there’s Woven Ground; Paul By Barbara Chandler Smith at The Rug Company, and Deidre Dyson. For surfaces, try stone and tile wizards Decorum Est, and De Let it shine: Ferranti. Tatiana Tafur has zebrawood Tatiana Tafur, furniture, plus shagreen and lacquer. left, specialises Opium Chinese cupboards are a fine in zebrawood find, as is Channels furniture, cool furniture, and modern. Elegant Interio shines shagreen and with mirror, lacquer and chrome, and lacquer. Interio, Be Modern lives up to its name. right, offers Established shops include mirrors and Guinevere, celebrating 50 years, and chrome, and the the Trowbridge Gallery. And stroll wide choice of down Lots Road past stone-masters flooring options Lapicida, to the new Imperial Wharf includes Paul station, and Zaha Hadid’s curvy Smith at The Rug showroom for Roca bathrooms. Company, far right O For more pictures and shop details visit homesandproperty.co.uk/cdq EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 21 AUGUST 2013 11 homesandproperty.co.uk with Shopping Homes & Property Eat the pastries, then buy the plates CAKES AND SALES Dual purpose: antiques, lighting and furniture are The couple behind available to buy as well as food restaurant Les Trois and drink at Maison Trois Garçons are selling Garçons homeware in their new cosy café, says Photographs:: Amira Hashish Matt Writtle

HE smell of fresh pastries, a 12 years ago as a warehouse for Abdul- sofas will be about £3,500 with fabric. dalmatian curled up on the lah, Lasserre and their business part- We will have a very quick lead time and floor and half-read newspa- ner Stefan Karlson (the third Garçon) our furniture will be made by a family- pers on the dining table — to store their furniture. But locals who run Portuguese company that has been Shoreditch’s latest hotspot peeped through the windows would doing it for three generations.” isT surprisingly homely. Maison Trois ask whether they could buy the items. If there is one piece of advice they Garçons, a shop-cum-café in Red- Before branching into restaurants and would give interiors novices, it is “buy church Street, is a new venture for bars, the garçons were antiques dealers less but buy good”. You can purchase Hassan Abdullah and Michel Lasserre, — with stalls in Camden Market, then a reproduction sofa for £600 instead who founded Les Trois Garçons — the Alfies, followed by shops in Kensington of £2,600 for the original but if you take chandelier-strewn restaurant beloved Church Street, Westbourne Grove and the original to auction, you get your of celebrities — and the neighbouring Islington’s Upper Street — so they money back. east London cocktail bar, Lounge couldn’t resist turning the front section Their homes in London and France Lover. of the Redchurch Street property into are filled with treasures. The Shoreditch an antiques shop. “It worked well but flat above Les Trois Garçons “was once URBAN APPEAL the building was really decrepit so we a derelict pub squatted by 30 people”. Surrounding the Maison dining area is decided it was time for a complete Now it is a four-storey, three-bedroom a mix of antiques, accessories, lighting overhaul.” wonder with planning permission to and contemporary furniture — all avail- build another floor. Their Château de able to buy. It’s a simple but smart EVER-CHANGING la Goujeonnerie in south-west France concept: why sell only cake when cus- They stripped the walls to reveal five is “more grown-up”. It previously tomers might also want to take home further layers of paint and the floors belonged to a family with eight children the plate on which it is served? were levelled but left “unfinished look- but it has been turned into an 11-bed- “People think our projects are very ing”. The outside will be ever-changing. room castle that can be rented as a high-end and glamorous so we wanted “We want it to look different every time holiday home. to reveal our rugged, urban side,” says people come in,” says Abdullah. So where in London do they seek their Malaysian-born Abdullah, who moved Much of their homeware is sourced style inspiration? “Museums and galler- to London to study law before switch- from trade fairs, antiques dealers and ies,” says Lasserre. The Soane Museum, ing to interior design. He is sitting in a markets in Newark, Stockholm, Gothen- the V&A, the Wallace Collection, the space that resembles a chic living room burg or the south of France. Paris, they British Museum and the National Por- in Maison Trois Garçons, on a turn-of say, is too expensive. They also seek cool trait Gallery are favourites. And “there’s -the-century Swedish sofa next to his but commercial pieces from young something quite beautiful” about the business and life partner Lasserre. A designers and are animated to show me Turbine Hall at Tate Modern. neon “BABY” sign glows behind them a Calf & Half jug with “udders”, Stuart “The capital is always reinventing and a candy-coloured light installation Gardiner’s hand-shaped oven gloves itself,” adds Abdullah. And so, it seems, hangs from the ceiling. Modern pieces and a nifty adjustable candlestick with are the garçons. offer a striking contrast, from red velvet a springy arm by Suck UK. French period chairs to custom-made Next month, they launch their debut O lestroisgarcons.com/shop Portuguese-tiled tables, Thirties furniture collection as part of London O For the full version of this interview butterfly mirrors and Sixties vases. Design Festival. “We want to make the and more pictures, visit The building was purchased nearly Outside the café: Hassan Abdullah, Michel Lasserre and their dalmation, Gaspard prices accessible,” says Abdullah. “Our homesandproperty.co.uk/garcons

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City safari: take a trip to Streetwires and bag a beaded lion’s head, zebra or giraffe

Wall of colour: Cape Quarter’s Pierre Cronje displays tables with bright tops of paintbox weaves

Lounge living: find ultra- modern furniture at Jo Carlin’s showroom on Waterkant Street, such as this striking leather recliner

OVE over, Milan: Cape Town, chosen as World Design Capital for 2014, is the go-to city to give your home a contemporary edge.M Like Table Mountain, which looms above it, Cape Town’s style is big, bold and spectacular, and as a shopping destination — currently with a keen 15-plus rand to the pound — it offers design paradise at dream prices. “People still want gorgeous, but they want something more than catalogue Cape labels from Italy,” said Adam Court, the creative force at OKHA, a Cape Town- based interior design and furniture firm. Design classics at its Hatfield Street show- capital of style room include the simple, perfect Stix side table, with clean-cut ash poles bound with a band of polished steel. Over in Woodstock, the creative quar- Cape Town has become a world leader in ter, furniture designer Haldane Martin dreams up furniture-as-artwork, such interior design and now thanks to favourable as his iconic Baba Papa lounger of recy- cled wire loops; newest are the brass exchange rates it’s a British bargain-hunter’s cut-out Hex coffee tables that can be arranged in hexagonal patterns. dream, too, discovers Pattie Barron Visit Woodstock on Saturdays, when the Old Biscuit Mill hosts the buzzy Neighbourgoods organic foods market. Browse homeware stores such as Clem- entina, the showcase for Clementina van der Walt’s Africa Café ceramic tableware, hand-painted in bright patterns; Con- tinuum, Cape Town’s equivalent of Petersham Nurseries offering vintage Street’s two Tribal Trends stores, tradi- shop the extensive mall sprawl. Decor garden merchandise, and Abode, with tional beading is worked into modern stores include Carrol Boyes for kitchen funky furniture and quirky lighting. magic: patterned wall hangings in tur- ware that tops Alessi’s for imagination, Go big-game hunting in the city and quoise and tobacco, or armchairs uphol- and Avoova, for preposterous but fabu- bag a beaded wall trophy — a life-size stered entirely in beads of wide lous ostrich feather chandeliers, as well lion’s head with golden glass mane — at blue-and-white yachting stripes. This is as coffee tables of milky-pale ostrich egg- Streetwires, on Short Market Street. the place to order the dinner service to shell mosaic — Roman Abramovich With simpler appeal, large, bulbous outglam Versace’s — animal-print plates bought five for his yacht. You’ll find bowls crafted from wired beads in earth edged in silver or gold, and outsize charg- Carole Nevin is the stop for gorgeous tones, by any one of the formerly unem- ers edged with cowrie shells. A delectable printed table linens in splashy prints. Her ployed 120 artists in Streetwires’ work- small cushion of apricot suede, trimmed Botanical line showcases South Africa’s shops, make striking centrepieces. in apricot ostrich feathers, is the ideal native protea, pincushion, agapanthus, While you’re at Short Market Street, size for tucking into hand luggage. calla lily and bird of paradise plants. drop into Karoo Classics in Market House, At the visually stunning Victoria & For high-class design stores, head for and fall for mohair throws in luscious Alfred Waterfront, in Cape Town’s his- the small mall with big ideas that is Green Harbour: Table Mountain forms a powerful and alluring backdrop to Cape Town shades from peach to indigo. At Long toric harbour, you’ll need roller skates to Point’s Cape Quarter. It spills out down
EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 21 AUGUST 2013 21 y.co.uk with Shopping Homes & Property

SHOPPING FOR A HOME

Luxe living: Cape Town cool is captured in this home above the ocean, designed by award-winning South African architectural firm SAOTA and furnished by OKHA

From THE perfect storm has hit Cape Town for £1.9 million: five British house hunters, writes Cathy top-end villas Hawker. After four years of recession have been built the South African rand has weakened on Camps Bay substantially — good news for anyone along a sandy with sterling seeking a Cape home. beach BUYING IN THE CITY CENTRE Cape Town began an ambitious five- year plan last year to make the city more inclusive, modern and well-run. This, along with a slowdown in large- scale residential development and an influx of workers, has led to a marked upturn in property fortunes, said Pieter Story of Chesterton Humberts, adding: “After five years of almost no sales things are moving again.” The V&A Waterfront welcomes 23 million visitors each year. It is a mix of shops, restaurants, museums, aquariums and live entertainment in a historic and fully operational harbour. Alongside hotels are 500 modern and generous-size apartments. One- bedroom flats on the inner canal start from £427,000 rising to £2,233,700 for a three-bedroom penthouse overlooking the yacht basin — all through Chesterton Humberts.

BUYING BY THE ATLANTIC According to estate agents Seeff most foreign property sales last year were along the Atlantic Seaboard in residential seafront villages below the Twelve Apostles mountain range. Windy, west-facing and chic Camps Bay is a favourite, said Seeff’s Ian Slot, Alfresco with average sales prices of £550,000 glamour, far left: last year. It is 15 minutes by car to the Carole Nevin’s city centre and Cape Town airport is splashy animal- 30 minutes away. print tablecloth A two-bedroom apartment at the top with bird of of Camps Bay is £193,800 and one paradise napkins closer to the beach with a private terrace and pool is £262,725. A three- bedroom townhouse with pool and garage is £328,420 all through Seeff. Vibrant display: Smart choice: Camps Bay Beach is a collection of primitive V&A Waterfront five newly built villas beside the long, patterns in has one-, two- sandy beach. The three-bedroom sumptuous and three- private homes have open-plan shades rule at bedroom interiors, infinity pools and access to Clementina, apartments, the beach. Prices start at £1.9 million. right; turquoise plus shops and hand-blown glass restaurants O Camps Bay: campsbaybeach.net vase from David within a O Chesterton Humberts: 020 7201 Reade, left short walk 2071; chesterton-international.com

trendy Waterkant Street, where you will silk-scarf lampshades. The luscious glass SHOPPING TIPS find dynamic fashion, interiors and fur- bottles, bowls and vases at David Reade’s O South African Airways offers return niture designer Jo Carlin’s showroom, as are like outsize fruit drops, but for larger flights to Cape Town from London well as chunky, hand-stitched weather- glass artwork, check out The Lisa King Heathrow from £841.99. Visit flysaa. proof rugs at The Verandah Collection. Gallery, which specialises in South Afri- com or call 0844 375 9680. Nap Living — where the mantra is “Believe can contemporary fine art. O The five-star Taj Cape Town hotel on in Homegrown” — is the place to kit out Zimbabwean Margie Murgatroyd, at Wale Street is a 10-minute stroll from your home with driftwood mirrors, Cape Quarter’s Africa Nova, pulls together V&A Waterfront. Rooms from £115 per hessian cushions and felt ball lights. exquisite telephone-wire baskets in night (tajhotels.com; +27 21 819 2000). More Capri than Cape Town, new store Missoni-esque random patterns, cowrie O The Grand Daddy Hotel is boutique- Resort Lifestyle is owned by mother and shell figures in mouthwatering mint and style, in the town centre on Long Street daughter team Leigh Samson and Danela apple green, hand-made ceramics in with an Airstream Rooftop Trailer Park. Conti who vow to “capture the essence glorious colours, and markings that Rooms from £95 per night. Visit of holiday living 365 days of the year”, illustrate how South Africa’s tribal crafts grandaddy.co.za or call +27 21 424 7247. and they succeed, with butterfly-print have been turned and twisted, to make O These firms can ship goods: u-bag. cushions, outdoor sofas and Italian print them cutting-edge contemporary. com; personaleffectslogistics.co.za
22 WEDNESDAY 21 AUGUST 2013 EVENING STANDARD

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1 AQUALISA ILUX DIGITAL 6 SHOWER With four different memorised settings, each family member can have their perfect shower, using eight litres of water a minute. A pause 7 button stops the water while you shave or shampoo, then resumes at the same temperature. From £1,012. Visit aqualisa.co.uk 2 KRÜSHR KITCHEN UNIT This kitchen unit sorts and squashes your recycling. Built-in compactors crush everything from cans to cardboard to take up a quarter of the space. Available in three base unit sizes from 250mm to 600mm, from £699. Visit johnlewis.com 3 XI3 MODULAR ECO-COMPUTER This tiny computer saves energy, space and waste. It’s the size of your hand and uses up to 95 per cent less with a standard washing cycle. Its power than a full-size desktop PC. It “steam action” cycle makes ironing is also easily upgraded to give more easier and will freshen even “dry power or add new features. From clean-only” clothes. £699. £399.95. Visit energysavingpc.co.uk Visit Panasonic.co.uk

4 ETON SOULRA XL BOOMBOX 6 ROWENTA DW6010 This boombox for iPhone and iPod ECO-FOCUS IRON Touch has a solar panel to power This iron has an eco-mode that uses your music and, on a sunny day, targeted steam to remove creases. If you’ll generate enough juice to you hit a really stubborn crease, a recharge your phone at the same boost mode gives extra steam. time. Great indoors or out, the Strangely, it doesn’t have auto handbag-style design looks as good shut-off but this iron only uses two as it sounds and protects your phone. thirds of the usual energy. £69.99. £139.95. Visit nevadaradio.co.uk Visit rowenta.co.uk 5 PANASONIC NA-140VS4 7 PLUMEN 001 LIGHT BULB WASHING MACHINE This energy-saving bulb looks so This machine saves 30 per cent more good you’ll find it used in high-end energy than required by the highest chandeliers. The bulb saves 80 per eco-rating of A+++, while on “eco- cent on energy and lasts eight times mode” it cuts energy use by half and longer than conventional bulbs. water use by 30 per cent compared £19.95. Visit plumen.com EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 21 AUGUST 2013 23

homesandproperty.co.uk with Outdoors Homes & Property GAP PHOTOS/JONATHAN BUCKLEY/DESIGN: SARAH RAVEN BUCKLEY/DESIGN: GAP PHOTOS/JONATHAN

Bowl of bounty: HEN you’ve eaten all Season’s eatings: Pippa Greenwood you can grow the beans and cropped grows veg right through the year salad leaves all the courgettes, do through winter — you cover up the veg tape, which wraps easily around raised provided you plot or pack up the pots beds and containers. choose the forW another year? Not on your life. There are some lettuces that will with- right varieties This is the time when you clear the stand prolonged winter cold, but Green- ground, replenish the soil — and set wood’s trials on her windy hillside yourself up for winter and early spring garden in Hampshire found that all- pickings. rounder Little Gem does very well, and “The great thing about growing veg provides that lovely, buttery taste. “Win- over winter is that you get fewer pests, ter Density forms a good heart, Valdor puts on good growth when conditions are miserable and Navara is a survivor: Pattie it’s a deep red, oak-leaf lettuce, so adds Barron colour and shape. Keep your lettuces going for longer by taking leaves from

GAP PHOTOS/RICHARD BLOOM GAP PHOTOS/RICHARD the outside of the plant.” Staunch survivor: purple-sprouting broccoli is among brassicas that are happy to weather the cold Heavy London clay soil suits brassicas — purple-sprouting broccoli, cabbages and cauliflower — as they like to be firm in the ground. “If you have light soil, add some organic matter. Pigeons can be a menace, so use fleece or netting.” Winter’s almost here: no worries Garlic is an increasingly popular, and easy, edible to grow. Elephant garlic Veg growing in the ‘off season’ means fewer pests and weeds — and cabbages for Christmas sounds promising, but Greenwood isn’t sold. “It’s a leek with a swollen bottom you have less watering and there is enjoyed, provided you choose hardy Robust rosette: and wimpy flavour. My choice is UK- little weed growth, so there is varieties: lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower, pak choi, tasty in bred Early Purple Wight, which has a altogether less maintenance,” said purple-sprouting broccoli, Tuscan stir-fries, will pretty purple tinge.” Gardeners’ Question Time regular and kale, onions, shallots and garlic, as well thrive through Many people make the fundamental edibles expert Pippa Greenwood, who, as Oriental leaves such as pak choi and severe weather mistake of planting the whole garlic bulb, as part of her Grow Your Own veg Japanese mustards such as mizuna. If in the ground or which results in a fountain of greenery, plants range, has developed a ready- you’re quick off the mark, you can also in containers but no bulbs. “You need to split the bulb to-plant, winter-through-spring collec- sow carrots, rocket, land cress, chard into cloves, then plant each six to eight tion after repeated requests. and radicchio. inches apart, with their noses just pro- “Customers would say, ‘What’s next?’ Greenwood’s secret weapon against truding,” said Greenwood. “If the soil After growing veg all summer, and see- the worst of winter weather is simply gets too wet they can suffer, so plant ing — and eating — the results, people a couple of layers of fleece, either them on a Toblerone-shaped ridge and get hooked, and don’t want to stop. And pegged into the ground or in the form DON’T MISS they’re unlikely to suffer waterlogging. in the off-season the sense of self-satis- of a collapsible cloche that concertinas follow Pattie Harvest when the foliage starts to yellow. faction is even greater, as you’re able to out to cover your crops. Snails, thank- Barron’s Considering they’re Mediterranean, enjoy Oriental leaves at Christmas or fully, go to bed for winter, but biologi- gardening blog they’re very hardy, just like other edible crop cabbages as early as February.” cal control Nemaslug works well for at homesand alliums, onions and shallots — I’ve seen The range you can grow is smaller, about six weeks, and Greenwood property.co.uk/ foliage coming up through the snow.”

but there are lots of tasty edibles to be enthuses about sticky-backed copper blogs TUSON GAP PHOTOS/PAT READER OFFER: GROW YOUR OWN: WINTER TO SPRING COLLECTION Pippa Greenwood’s selection, being buy it sent out next month, comprises five lettuces each of Valdor, Winter Density, Navara, Little Gem; five See it: the Brogdale Cider Festival Buy it: the preserver’s bible purple-sprouting broccoli Claret; five cauliflower, five cabbage Frostie, five SAMPLE artisan ciders and perries at STORE summer in a jar, pickled or cabbage Spring Hero, 25 shallot Brogdale’s Cider Festival this weekend, preserved, to savour through winter, Escalotte Griselle, a bulb of garlic including London Glider Cider — made with garden expert Alys Fowler’s new Early Purple Wight and 250g onion from unwanted apples and pears book, Abundance. You can learn how to sets Radar. The collection includes growing in the city’s gardens. The Wild bottle your tomatoes for homemade monthly emails of advice from Food Tent offers tips from foragers passata, freeze your herbs for a handy Greenwood and costs £29 including Michael White and Lucia Stuart, pesto, dry your produce to make fruit postage and packing. Homes & walking and tractor tours will run all leathers and kale crisps, as well as Property readers can also have free weekend and local produce will be on make the simplest raspberry jam and packs of Nantes carrots, rocket and sale. Live music acts include disco folk berry concentrates for delicious mixed lettuce seeds by writing H&P quartet Famous James and the cordials. Fowler even suggests a way to in the Provide any Further Details Monsters, and the kids can enjoy face use up superfluous jars of chutney, by box at pippagreenwood.com painting, story telling and rides on the dumping the contents of an entire jar Offer closes August 31. Faversham Miniature Railway. into a stew or tagine. Abundance (Kyle Saturday and Sunday, 10am-5pm; Books) costs £16.99, but you can buy it adults £8, children £4, family £20. More for £14 incl p&p by calling 01903 Gardening problems? details at ciderfestivalkent.co.uk 828503 and quoting code KB AB/HP. Email our RHS expert at: [email protected] 26 WEDNESDAY 21 AUGUST 2013 EVENING STANDARD

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HE story of how a convicted Sicilian mafia boss, Domenico Rancadore, lived undetected for nearly 20 years in a quiet suburban Spotlight streetT in the unremarkable west London suburb of Uxbridge has all the makings of a Hollywood blockbuster. His neighbours knew him as Marc Uxbridge £575,000 Skinner and apart from a minor alterca- A FOUR-BEDROOM house with tion about a hedge he was described as beams and balcony in Old Mill Close the best possible neighbour. overlooking a communal garden and Rancadore’s unmasking this month the Frays River. Through Savills. is arguably the most exciting thing to homesandproperty.co.uk/oldmill happen in Uxbridge since Charles I The mafia in O negotiated in the early months of 1645 with his parliamentary opponents at Place House, a fine early 16th-century home, now the Crown and Treaty pub, Metroland — on the Oxford Road. Uxbridge enthusiasts might also point out that the Battle of Britain was co- ordinated from a bunker in the town, and that the Profumo Affair’s Christine what would Keeler was a local girl. Uxbridge is 20 miles west of central £359,950 London. The town is reached via the THIS Victorian house in Culvert Lane M40 but is still within the boundary of has three bedrooms, front and rear the M25. Its fine Tube station, which Betjeman have gardens and a summer house. For opened in 1938, with its lofty concrete sale through Gibbs Gillespie. pillars and curved brick façade, was O Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/ designed by Charles Holden, one of culvert London Underground’s most gifted made of it? architects. It is the final terminus for the Metropolitan and Piccadilly lines. As well as its impressive station, archi- Uxbridge’s recent shattered peace would tectural students still make the journey to Uxbridge to study Hillingdon civic have greatly entertained the former centre, a late Seventies hulk of a build- ing constructed with 2.8 million red Poet Laureate, says Anthea Masey bricks and 750,000 tiles. Uxbridge grew up at the point where Cola based here, there are many incom- currently for sale locally is in The Drive the ancient London to Oxford road ing as well as outgoing commuters.” in Ickenham. Estate agents Robsons £309,950 crosses the River Colne. The western (01923 835355) and Knight Frank A THREE-BEDROOM family home in edge of the town has a peaceful WHAT THERE IS TO BUY (01494 675368) are selling The Retreat, Tachbrook Road, within easy network of rivers that once powered Uxbridge has roads of mainly Thirties an eight-bedroom Thirties house, for walking distance of the town centre. watermills — flour milling was its major detached and semi-detached houses £2.5 million. More typical of the area is Through Bennett Residential. industry for many years. and bungalows. There are a few streets a five-bedroom semi-detached house O Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/ The town grew in prosperity after the of Victorian semi-detached and terrace in Swakeleys Drive, close to the park tachbrook arrival of the Grand Union Canal in houses in The Greenway conservation and Vyners School, being sold by villages. Hamptons (01753 720151) is 1793, and then again after the arrival of area south of the town centre, where Swakeleys Estates (01895 677100) for selling a four-bedroom, double-fronted the Tube. houses have sold recently for between £579,950, or a three-bedroom semi- Georgian house in Village Road, The poet John Betjeman romanticised £285,000 and £411,500. being marketed by Gibbs Gillespie Denham for £985,000. Uxbridge as part of what he dubbed There are period houses in the centre (01895 272742) in Cotswold Close for The area attracts: Clive Edwards at “Metroland” — the London suburbs that of suburban Ickenham and in the £324,950. Gibbs Gillespie said the market in grew up around the Metropolitan line. nearby villages of Denham and Iver. For those who fancy life on the water, Uxbridge is dominated by local buyers, Estate agent Clive Edwards, at the Denham is the dream chocolate-box Arron James Karis (01895 235599) is though there are incomers from places local branch of Gibbs Gillespie, said village where film legend John Mills selling a two-bedroom converted such as Ealing and Acton who are Uxbridge has come up in the last 10 to lived, next to the church on the green narrowboat on the Grand Union Canal exchanging flats for houses. 15 years. “A new shopping centre was and opposite the Swan pub, great for at Cowley for £89,950. House hunters Staying power: once children are £895,000 built and with companies such as Coca- food. The most expensive home in search of period homes head for the settled in schools, families tend to stay IN LONG LANE, Ickenham, a recently — although many move within the area, renovated five-bedroom house, swapping a house in a less-desirable close to the village centre shops neighbourhood for one near Swakeleys and good transport links, is for sale To find a home in Uxbridge, visit Park, or in Ickenham. through Orchard. Renting: Uxbridge is a strong rental O Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/ area with more flats for rent than long homesandproperty.co.uk/uxbridge houses for sale. There is an active let- to-let market, with families who need

Glassy: The Pavilions covered market Journey through time: the Thirties Tube station offers excellent connections Work of art: Anticipation, a sculpture by Anita Lafford, outside the Tube station EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 21 AUGUST 2013 27

homesandproperty.co.uk with Property searching Homes & Property

CHECK THE STATS

■WHAT HOMES COST: BUYING IN UXBRIDGE (Average prices) One-bedroom flat £170,000 Two-bedroom flat £364,000 Two-bedroom house £342,000 Three-bedroom house £412,000 Four-bedroom house £628,000 Source: zoopla.co.uk

RENTING IN UXBRIDGE (Average rates) One-bedroom flat £837 a month Two-bedroom flat £1,446 a month Two-bedroom house £1,114 a month Three-bedroom house £1,381 a month Four-bedroom house £1,635 a month Source: zoopla.co.uk

GO ONLINE FOR MORE O The best schools O The best shops and restaurants O The most expensive streets O The latest new housing developments O The up-and-coming areas to watch O Smart maps to plot your property search

For all this and more, visit homesand property.co.uk/ spotlight/uxbridge

What do you like about Uxbridge? Have your say at ESHomesAndProperty

a larger house renting out the property Best roads: these are The Drive and Still waters: Drayton. The Hillingdon Sports and they own in order to rent a larger one Swakeleys Drive in Ickenham, and the Grand Union Leisure Complex in Gatting Way has a themselves. Brunel University is based Village Road and Tilehouse Lane in Canal offers 50-metre indoor pool as well as an south of the town centre and there is Denham. peaceful walks athletics stadium. Golf is popular and demand for student houses, with Open space: Fassnidge Park is a pop- and the chance well catered-for, with the Uxbridge Golf sharers paying about £100 each for a ular town-centre park with tennis to walk, jog Club in The Drive, Stockley Pines Golf room. Houses in the Ickenham area courts, bowling green, playground and and explore Club in Stockley Park, and Hillingdon attract the highest rents. a bandstand. There are peaceful walks Golf Club in Dorset Way. Denham has Orchard (01895 623626) has a newly along the Grand Union Canal. The two golf clubs — the Buckinghamshire, refurbished five-bedroom, five-bath- Colne Valley Regional Park runs from which is home to the Ladies British room house in St George’s Drive, Staines to Rickmansworth, passing Masters, and the Denham. Ickenham for £3,000 a month. A two- close to Uxbridge. The Chilterns Area Travel: Uxbridge is on the Metropoli- bedroom cottage with a large garden of Outstanding Natural Beauty is a tan and Piccadilly Tube lines; the in Harefield Road is available through short distance away, beyond the M25. station is in Zone 6 and an annual TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE Turbervilles letting agents (01895 Leisure and the arts: the Odeon travelcard to Zone 1 costs £2,224. There 201777) for £1,200 a month. Imax cinema in Uxbridge town centre will be Crossrail stations nearby. What connects a canalside pub Postcodes: Central Uxbridge and is a multiplex. There are two local arts Council: the London Borough of in Uxbridge with a bank note and Cowley are in UB8, Denham is in UB9 centres both housed in historic build- Hillingdon is Conservative-controlled, a current diplomatic spat? and Ickenham is in UB10. The latter two ings: the Compass Theatre in Ickenham and Band D council tax for the Photographs by: There is a clue in the picture — find the postcodes are the most desirable. and Southlands Arts Centre in West 2013/2014 year is £1,415.93. Graham Hussey answer online

Lying low: the unassuming bungalow of mafia boss Domenico Rancadore

Have we visited your area? Tweet your suggestion for a place to Spotlight to: @homesproperty

And thank you to @FreddyFontannaz Pouring power: team leader Angie Mackay at Uxbridge Harris + Hoole coffee shop Flying high: balloon seller at The Pavilions shopping centre and others for nominating Uxbridge 34 WEDNESDAY 21 AUGUST 2013 EVENING STANDARD

Homes & Property Inside story homesandproperty.co.uk with

definitely nicer being an agent in the Diary of a lettings agent summer. The afternoon is quite quiet on the phones so I take the opportunity to follow up on some renewals, which mainly involves being the go-between Enjoying a glass for landlords and tenants, trying to negotiate rent increases and agree works to be done. It’s mostly successful and while the in the sun — but majority of the increases are going for RPI or slightly above, we achieve one of 19.5 per cent, as the current rent is we’re still getting still so far beneath market value after years of renewals with no increase. the work done FRIDAY We often have a rush on a Friday, but cases it starts paying off almost immedi- it seems most people have packed up MONDAY ately: this afternoon we receive a number and left town, for the weekend at least. While everyone is away on holiday it of enquiries through online property King’s Road is eerily quiet. One bit of gives us a chance to ensure all paper- portals. good news though — a flat which has work is in order — my least favourite been on multi-agent has serious inter- job. I start the day dreading calling TUESDAY est from the occupant below. various landlords with properties we We have just taken on the most beauti- He is due to do some major work on need to cut the price on. ful flat in Onslow Square, one of those his flat and would like to rent the one Unfortunately quite a few of these properties that, even as an agent, grabs we are marketing for 12 months while landlords have been following their me and makes me wish it was mine. having seen the house or the quality of another’s offices to grab keys on multi- it’s going on. In our eyes this is an abso- friends’ advice rather than the advice The owner has presented it so beauti- finish he hopes for. A blind valuation agent properties, but we rarely get to lute win-win situation. It would be of agents, and are being a bit too fully that my team will undoubtedly be is always an interesting challenge and sit down for a relaxed chat and see how tough to let the place with big works punchy on values. falling over themselves to do viewings it is thrilling to see how close you come everyone is finding the market. So this downstairs, and we know he will look It’s a good market, but rental proper- because it’s so stunning. once you reassess the valuation upon is an informal way to make sure every- after the flat. ties must be presented beautifully and, It is so important at the moment that presentation of the finished project. one is advising landlords and tenants With two second viewings today on most importantly, must be on at the properties look incredible, as we are I hugely look forward to this one but correctly. And it’s a nice excuse for a a house that is due for a price reduction right price level. in a slightly slower month with every- it will probably be nine months away. glass of wine in the sun. on Monday, it looks like an asking price Thankfully the phone calls all go body away on holiday. offer will come forward over the week- smoothly and I am able to provide This afternoon I have an interesting WEDNESDAY THURSDAY end. Happy days. landlords with enough market research discussion with a gentleman who is We’re having a drinks party for the One of my negotiators is away sunning to agree reductions with them — in the hoping to purchase a very large house local letting negotiators from other herself so I do a couple of viewings for confidence that their properties locally and do a full refurbishment agencies at our head office. We bump her today. It’s lovely to get out and O Alice Umfreville is head of lettings will soon start generating more throughout. He wants my opinion as into each other buzzing about to valu- about in the sunshine and see the flats in the Chelsea office of Strutt & Parker interest from potential tenants. In some to potential rental value, without my ations and viewings, and race into one looking so bright and airy. It is (020 7589 9966).

A home in one of London’s trendiest postcodes

Dalston Curve Kingsland High Street, Dalston, London E8 2NS

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Homes & Property Letting on homesandproperty.co.uk with

NE OF the most £750 A ludicrous things I’ve ever WEEK read is a statement on In King’s Road, Mayor Boris Johnson’s A Boris Badge Chelsea, SW3 website that declares a John D Wood has Onew scheme he launched last month a refurbished for private landlords will “trigger a second-floor massive increase in accreditation and furnished standards in the capital”. won’t improve mansion block Steady on, Boris — I think you’re flat with three getting a little carried away. bedrooms For those of you who haven’t heard available to of the Mayor’s new London Rental rent. Standard (who has?), it is a voluntary bad landlords scheme for landlords and letting O Visit homesand agents that lays out best practice for Victoria Whitlock property.co.uk/ both, including transparency on says most people will rentkings agency fees, maximum response ignore the Mayor’s new voluntary scheme times for carrying out emergency repairs and deposit protection. All very worthy and much-needed says: “If you sign up, you will be part major public awareness campaign; think they’ll be rushing to sign up to in the capital, but note the word of the Mayor’s campaign to promote maybe then tenants will select any “development” courses and I “voluntary”. Letting agents and The good standards in London’s private landlords with the kitemark, but I don’t think many of their tenants landlords can join the scheme if they rental market.” Well, whoopdee-doo! still rather doubt it. Even if they do, I care about kitemarks of quality. Most like, but I think the majority of accidental Landlords who comply with the can’t see how this will raise of them probably think they’re lucky landlords will give a collective shrug London Rental Standard by standards. just to have a roof over their heads. of their shoulders and ignore it. landlord becoming an accredited member of The only landlords who will bother In my book, this scheme won’t lead It seems that to join you have to one of the above schemes will be to go along with this scheme will be to even a minuscule increase in the become an accredited member of given a kitemark for quality, already the decent sorts who already provide quality of rental accommodation, let one of four existing schemes, the Association. I’m sure there are plenty being dubbed the “Boris Badge”, and good-quality accommodation and do alone a “massive” one. So you can largest of which is the UK Landlord of good reasons to sign up to any one the Mayor’s office reckons it won’t be the right thing by their tenants. keep your badges, Boris — I’d rather Accreditation Partnership, and you of these organisations — they provide long before tenants will start looking These aren’t the landlords who are have Blue Peter’s. are required to complete a one-day heaps of useful advice and support for out for this sign when renting. creating problems. development course — probably at an landlords. But those of us who have I think they’re wrong. Tenants will This scheme will do nothing to rid Mother-of-two Victoria Whitlock lets inconvenient location — at a minimum managed without them so far aren’t continue to look out for affordable, the city of all the slumlords, who will three properties in south London. To cost of £79.80, agree to comply with a going to join now unless someone, be quality accommodation and they continue to let out fleapits and cram contact Victoria with your ideas and code of conduct and certify you are a it Boris or the Government, makes won’t give a stuff about whether the illegal immigrants into sheds. I don’t views, tweet @vicwhitlock “fit and proper person”. membership compulsory. landlord happens to be sporting a The National Landlords Association To try to encourage landlords to get shiny new badge. Find many more homes to rent at runs a similar accreditation scheme, on board his bandwagon without the Maybe this will change if, as as does the Residential Landlords need for legislation, Boris’s website promised, Boris goes ahead with a homesandproperty.co.uk/lettings 38 WEDNESDAY 21 AUGUST 2013 EVENING STANDARD

Homes & Property New homes homesandproperty.co.uk with New homes — and Sadler’s The word on the street Wells is your village hall David Spittles SmartSmartmoSmart moo Tyburnia is back in the swing of it FEW London districts have the authentic village-like LOST neighbourhood charm of the conservation area surrounding Amwell which was once a Street, EC1. Once the heart of now-defunct Finsbury gruesome site for borough, by the Nineties the area lost much of its identity, public executions is eclipsed by regeneration in King’s Cross and Clerkenwell. becoming a top The pendulum has started to swing, though full-blooded ALondon address. gentrification is still some way off, meaning this is a place “Tyburnia”, named after the to look if you want to live in an improving central London river that used to flow through the location with a family-friendly infrastructure — church, Marble Arch area, was the place of primary school, Sadler’s Wells Theatre (pictured), a newly the Tyburn tree gallows, where built health centre and small independent shops. mass hangings took place in the Amwell Street was built in the 1820s as part of the Lloyd Middle Ages — creating a daily Baker Estate, a quaint enclave of flat-fronted brick spectacle for Londoners. terraces and fine garden squares. New River, an artificial Sandwiched between Bayswater waterway that supplied London with drinking water, and Marylebone, the district terminated here. The imposing former headquarters of includes the Connaught Square landlord, Portman Estate. £1.7 million: redeveloped Seymour Thames Water has been split into flats, while in River conservation area, where Tony Seymour Place is the hub of this Street apartments, above and left Street, six townhouses with basement and roof terrace, Blair lives, and Portman Village — revitalised neighbourhood, where sitting in a gated mews, are being built. Prices from a 110-acre enclave being given a tasteful new streetscaping has fashion boutiques and art galleries. £1.8 million. Call Thomson Currie on 020 7226 0000. makeover by its aristocratic enabled alfresco dining amid the Redevelopment of buildings at    
  

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PREMIER PADS OXSHOTT ON TARGET THE Premier League season kicked back and rumours of a Wayne Rooney off only last Saturday and already transfer to the Blues, local estate property ripples are being felt in the agents are licking their lips. “Golden Triangle”, the area formed by In the Sixties, the area was dubbed Oxshott, Cobham and Esher. the stockbroker belt; in the Seventies it During his first tenure as Chelsea FC became the “Rockbroker” belt. Now manager, José Mourinho issued an agents call it “Superbia” because it is a edict that players live within four celebrity-strewn area with some of the miles of the club’s Cobham training highest property prices in the UK. complex. John Terry is one of several Number One Oxshott is the latest players who have put down roots in launch — a 10-apartment scheme the area, and with the Special One of characteristically neoclassical architecture, close to the high street From £1.25 million to £1.7 million: and train station, with 35-minute trains new apartments at Number One to Waterloo. There is also secure Oxshott. Call 01883 621120 basement parking for the Bentley.

EAST ANGLIA is gaining in popularity with London commuters. Commuters enticed by eastern promise Property is cheaper than in the western home counties, with the cluster of technology companies Liverpool Street to Norwich line around Cambridge. attracting most interest, according to Upgrading of the A11, the main estate agent Bidwells, which reports a arterial road into the county, will be spike in buyers using its website to completed next year and is set to search for a home in the region. generate more than £1 billion of Despite the higher commuting business growth around Norwich. costs, more than a third of buyers Norwich city-centre schemes purchasing a main home in Suffolk or include The Ivory Building, final Norfolk work in London. phase in the conversion of the former “Norfolk has idyllic villages, Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, with 62-64 Seymour Street has created Tyburnia is the cheapest West End medieval market towns, fine schools, £329,950: Wentworth Gardens, Norwich, homes from £159,950, while in the 10 modern apartments priced district, the only one where values wonderful rural and coastal where detached homes are available select suburb of Eaton, developer from £1.7 million, plus offices and are less than £1,000 per square landscapes and is far less populated Charles Church is selling detached retail space for designer stores. foot, according to estate agent than Surrey or Berkshire,” said major economic growth area, a houses at Wentworth Gardens Contact CBRE on 020 7182 2477. Wetherell. Bidwells’ Guy Jenkinson. It is also a beneficiary of the “Silicon Fen” from £329,950. Call 01603 229428.