London's elite streets

Drink to the launch of our luxury channel

6

NEW HOMES, NEW SCHOOLS P6 BUDGET BARKING P10 NEW YORK, NEW YORK P12 SPOTLIGHT ON BATTERSEA P40

Homes&Property

Wednesday 3 September 2014

London’s elite streetsPage 8

4 WEDNESDAY 3 SEPTEMBER 2014 EVENING STANDARD

By Faye Greenslade

This week: homesandproperty.co.uk

VISIT homesandproperty.co.uk/rules for details of our usual promotion rules. When you respond to promotions, offers or competitions, the London Evening Standard and its sister companies may contact you with relevant offers and services that may be of interest. Please give your mobile number and/or email address if you would like to receive such offers by text or email.

Editor: Janice Morley

Editorial: 020 3615 2524 Advertisement manager: Mark WoodAdvertising: 020 3615 0527Homes & Property, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, Kensington, London W8 5TT.

news: housing threatens to gobble up London green belt

Read Ruth Bloomfield’s full story at homesandproperty.co.uk

1,000 pairs of Olympia tickets worth up to £34 to give away

GREEN BELT land around London faces unprecedented development pressure with proposals for building almost 18,000 homes on virgin countryside.

Residents of Letchworth, Hertfordshire, are fighting plans for a 1,000-home extension to the garden city on green belt land — a proposal being considered by North Hertfordshire district council. In Surrey, Waverley borough council is consulting on plans for 8,500 new homes on green belt around Farnham, Godalming, Cranleigh and Haslemere, while Chiltern district council is considering declassifying part of its green belt as it tries to find sites for up to 2,900 homes in the next 12 years.

Homebuilding Show tickets

£595,000: complete with a holiday lodge set around large, south-facing gardens that guests will love, this 18th-century three-bedroom cottage in Buckland Monachorum village, West Devon, has a beamed, vaulted ceiling and wood burner in the drawing room and flagstone floors and a range in the kitchen/breakfast room. There’s a further reception room, a study and a conservatory. Through Jackson-Stops & Staff.

£3.75 million: for grand entertaining space, this imposing Victorian home opposite King George’s Park in West Hill, SW18 fits the bill. The four floors cover 5,000sq ft, with seven bedrooms, six bathrooms, a self-contained flat with two bedrooms for the housekeeper, glamorous sitting and dining rooms leading out to a terrace, and an open-plan kitchen/breakfast room. At the end of a long, manicured lawn a decked terrace features a hot tub opposite a “man cave” with game space and a shower room. Through John D Wood.

TO ENTER Visit homebuildingshow.co.uk/es. Promotion closes September 14, or when all 2,000 tickets are allocated, whichever is the sooner. Entrants must be 18 or over. Usual rules apply, see homesandproperty.co.uk/rules

Trophy buy of the week for parties in the man cave

London buy of the week catch the arty, foodie buzz in Battersea

Life changer dream Devon cottage with a guest lodge

WHETHER you’re planning to build your own house, add a new kitchen or an extension, landscape the garden or just update the décor, a visit to the new London Homebuilding & Renovating and Home Improvement Show, sponsored by Anglian Home Improvements, is a must.

From September 26-28 Olympia London will be a one-stop centre for home improvers, where you can meet Piers Taylor from BBC2’s The House that £100K Built and Charlie Luxton from More 4’s Building the Dream, and get insider tips from Homebuilding & Renovating magazine contributors. You also get free access to more than 50 seminars and masterclasses and one-on-one sessions with self-build,

legal and home improvement experts. We have 1,000 pairs of tickets worth up to £34 per pair to give away on a first come, first served basis. See the panel below for entry details.

Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/buyoftheweeklavender

£425,000: this newly converted chain-free flat on the second floor of a Victorian building is just moments away from Lavender Hill and the foodie haunts and bars of Clapham Junction. Wood floors, white walls and a high-spec, streamlined kitchen work well in an open-plan reception/dining space that’s bright and airy thanks to

large windows. Sleek, muted tones continue in two carpeted double bedrooms and the stone-tiled bathroom. Battersea Arts Centre is on the doorstep for some of the best off-West End shows. Through Winkworth.

Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/lifechangerbuck

Property search

Under pressure: campaign groups are fighting development in many rural areas as councils struggle to find sites amid a shortage of homes

Facebook: ESHomesAndProperty • Twitter: @HomesProperty • Pinterest: @HomesProperty

Homes & Property Online homesandproperty.co.uk with

Visit our new online luxury section

HomesAndProperty.co.uk/luxury

Visit homesandproperty.co.uk/trophywimb

ALA

MY

EVENING STANDARD WEDNESDAY 3 SEPTEMBER 2014 5

Homes & PropertyNewshomesandproperty.co.uk with

Covent Garden flat’s had the Dickens of a modern makeover

Got some gossip? Tweet @amiranews

JAMELIA has been spotted looking for an apartment in Stratford’s East Village. The singer-turned-television presenter, right, a regular panellist on ITV’s Loose Women celebrity gossip and current affairs show, is keen to rent in the former 2012 Olympic Athletes’ Village.

The fledgling E20 neighbourhood is becoming a cultural hotspot, with community-themed attractions on offer. Recently the village hosted the East End Film Festival, a free open-air cinema and street art shows.

Mother-of-two Jamelia, who also models for lingerie brand Boux Avenue, has been living in Birmingham, her home city, but growing work commitments in London now make a base in the capital a must for her.

LITTLE EASTON MANOR in Essex, right, for sale at £5 million with Carter Jonas, has The Barn Theatre — founded in 1913 — in its grounds, where “Little Tramp” Charlie Chaplin and Gracie Fields starred. The eight-bedroom manor comes with three cottages.

homesand property.co.uk/easton

THE former office and lodgings of Charles Dickens is for rent. It has had a modern makeover but you can still walk in the footsteps of the great writer, below. The one-bedroom flat, above, is at 30 Tavistock Street, WC2, a blue plaque building in the heart of Covent Garden with the Royal Opera House and the Royal Ballet on your doorstep.

On the market with CBRE for £475 a week, it would make an ideal pied-a-terre for cultured financial workers based in nearby Fleet Street.

homesandproperty.co.uk/dickens

Feel the drama at Little Easton Manor

Good sport Jamelia is heading for E20

KATIE HOLMES, right, former wife of Tom Cruise and mother of the Mission: Impossible superstar’s daughter, Suri, has moved from New York to California.

After months of renting in the Big Apple, the Batman Begins actress has splashed out £2.29 million on a new mansion in the affluent, glitzy city of Thousand Oaks in the Greater Los Angeles area, where reality TV sisters Kourtney and Khloé Kardashian also live.

Holmes reportedly believes her new neighbourhood will benefit eight-year-old Suri, because there are plenty of children of her age living locally.

The swish 6,000sq ft house has six bedrooms and an outdoor pool.

The star is getting to know the neighbours but in a somewhat sad way — she is making a plea for help to find Suri’s beloved pet dog, which recently went missing.

What Katie did next was move to LA

By Amira Hashish

Part of Circle Housing

REX

REX

GET

TY


Homes & Property New homes homesandproperty.co.uk with

New schools and homes will ease battle over catchment areasAt least 90,000 more school places are needed by 2016. Central and local government are promising new homes with on-site schools to create communities for inner-city families, writes David Spittles

FINDING a home you can afford near the best state school for your children is a dispiriting task for most families. As many London parents are

only too aware, property in the most coveted catchment areas is typically 34 per cent, or £173,000, more expensive than homes elsewhere in the same bor-oughs, according to research by estate agent Savills.

State education can be cheaper than private by as much as £20,000 per year per child, but paying the catchment-area property premium still doesn’t guarantee your son or daughter a place in a state school. Competition for places is intensifying because of a baby boom, while a record shortage of places has left many schools oversubscribed, says the Local Government Association. In London alone, at least 90,000 more places are needed by 2016.

As a result, school catchment areas are shrinking, often measured in yards rather than miles. With the educational goal posts continually changing, house builders and estate agents are less inclined to boast about homes being in catchment areas.

Councils are clamping down on cheat-ing parents who pretend to be churchgo-ers to get their children into faith schools, and others who give a false address, or even rent a flat they don’t intend to occupy in a catchment area, just to qualify. Central and local govern-ment are also bringing school building to the top of the agenda. Their focus is on less-wealthy inner-city districts where politicians are keen to attract more middle-class families, part of a strategy to create so-called “balanced communities” that take pride in their neighbourhood.

This goes hand in glove with the deci-sion to create new housing develop-ments with many more family homes and new on-site schools in the mix. These include 850-home Chobham Manor, at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, where four-bedroom townhouses cost from £765,000. Call Taylor Wimpey on 020 3435 9269. Pur-pose-built Chobham Academy opened last September and specialises in the performing arts.

The Plimsoll Building, the latest phase of King’s Cross Central, incorpo-rates a new academy and nursery with

a walled playground and a podium gar-den on the lower floors of the develop-ment, while above are new apartments. Prices from £995,000. Call Knight Frank on 020 3691 3969.

New schools are also springing up alongside new homes in prime central boroughs, including at 375 Kensington High Street, a mega development of luxury homes priced from £908,000 to £7,722,500. Call St Edward on 020 7118 0375.

GET IN THE ZONECricklewood, Croydon, Tottenham Hale, Barking and Enfield are among 10 new “housing zones” designated by the Mayor where schools will be built. All are relatively low-value areas of London. Boris Johnson is freeing up public land for 11 schools with up to 7,300 places.

New schools include Harris Primary in East Dulwich; The Olive School, Hack-ney; Mossbourne, at the Olympic Park, and Canary Wharf College, Isle of Dogs.

East London is where most housing growth will take place in future decades, and is also where good schools are cur-rently in shortest supply. Wood Wharf, with 3,100 homes, is one of several new neighbourhoods being built in Dock-lands and will include a new primary school and community facilities, with the aim of encouraging finance-sector workers to put down roots in the area rather than commuting from more family-friendly districts in north, south and west London. The Government

hopes the expansion of free schools in urban areas will hasten gentrification and the establishment of balanced communities.

DO YOUR HOMEWORKThere are still areas where state second-ary schools perform outstandingly well, but where house prices are not yet inflated. While it costs a premium of 245 per cent to live in the catchment area of Southgate School in Cockfosters, homes close to high-performing Haberdashers’ Aske’s — among the country’s most oversubscribed state secondaries — and Prendergast Hilly Fields, both in Lewi-sham in Zone 2, are less than 19 per cent above the borough average.

Streatham’s Graveney School is rated “outstanding” by Ofsted, yet homes around it are about 40 per below the Wandsworth borough average, partly because City money has not yet arrived in the area.

Hammersmith is among cheaper west-central locations with top schools, including Latymer — the independent secondary where old girls include Nigella Lawson and actress Kate

New neighbourhood: Wood Wharf, with 3,100 Docklands homes, will include a new primary school to bring in families

From £908,000: flats at the 375 Kensington High Street scheme, which includes a new school

From £1,295,000: family-size loft-style apartments carved from a former office block at 55 Victoria Street, Westminster

From £73,750: 25 per cent shares are available for new apartments in the Greenwich Square development

Industrial and Provident Society 30441R exempt charity. Details correct at time of going to print 9/14. Your home is

at risk if you fail to keep up repayments on a mortgage, rent or other loan secured on it. Please make sure you can afford

the repayments before you take out a mortgage. £80,000 income is the maximum income allowable to purchase a

3 bedroom Shared Ownership property. FOR FULL TERMS & CONDITIONS please see www.lqgroup.org.uk/pricedin for details.

CGI is representative of L&Q @ Greenwich Sqaure.

www.lqgroup.co.uk/pricedin


Homes & PropertyNew homes

School, Kingston, is another of the capital’s best-rated grammars. Homes at nearby Kingston Riverside are priced from £740,000. Call Redrow on 020 3581 2003.

PERFECT GRAMMARMore families are leaving London to buy better-value family homes near good schools. The home counties are hotspots for parents willing to commute for the chance to send their children to gram-mar schools offering a top education that is free, reports the Good Schools Guide.

Particularly good for grammar schools are Buckinghamshire, with Beaconsfield High and Dr Challoner’s in Amersham; Kent, with Sevenoaks and Tonbridge schools, and Essex, with Colchester Royal Grammar and King Edward VI in Chelmsford.

Cranbrook School, a co-educational grammar in Kent, looks like a public school and has the same brand of academic success, ethos and sporting facilities. The only difference is that entry is free to children who live within 5.2 miles of the school gates.

Tunbridge Wells has three grammar schools, and Knights Wood, on the edge of the town, is a rare new-build housing development of scale there, with 550 homes in 200 acres of wood-land. Prices from £365,000 for a three-bedroom detached house with garage. Call 018925 12006.

Kings Hill, a former Royal Air Force base at West Malling in Kent, is an 800-acre estate designed in the style of an old Wealden village, with schools, golf course, cricket pitch, country park, convenience stores, a Waitrose super-market, pub, vet and restaurants.

Signature, the latest launch at the site, has houses with up to five bedrooms priced from £325,995. Call Bellway on 0845 548 3041.

Beckinsale — and Cardinal Vaughan, a Catholic school with an “outstanding” rating. Also check out Brackenbury Village, which since the Nineties has moved from up-and-coming to fashion-able, boasting small family houses which are just about affordable, plus a well-regarded local primary school, smart restaurants, gastropubs and a park.

In King Street, which is Hammer-smith’s high street, a former car park is being transformed into Sovereign Court, with 418 new homes plus offices, shops and restaurants, 160 yards from the Tube station. Prices from £964,950. Call St George on 020 8741 2400.

Brewery Gate in Twickenham includes 28 townhouses and is in the catchment area of a number of highly rated schools. Prices from £1.25 million. Call St James on 020 3002 9457.

Halstow Primary School in Greenwich has an “outstanding” Ofsted rating. New homes nearby include 38 four-bedroom townhouses at Greenwich Square. Prices from £799,950. Call 0800 077 8177. The Grey Coat Hospital in West-minster is one of the top state schools

for girls in London, popular with parent politicians including former education secretary Michael Gove, who sends his daughter there. Family-size flats are for sale moments away at 55 Victoria Street, in an office block remodelled into 54 loft-style homes. Prices from £1,295,000. Call 020 7318 4677. Tiffin

From £995,000: apartments at The Plimsoll Building, King’s Cross Central, are above a new academy and nursery on the lower floors with a walled playground and a podium garden

From £325,995: homes with up to five bedrooms at Kings Hill, West Malling, Kent


Homes & Property homesandproperty.co.uk with

The best of the bestBuyers will pay a premium to live in the finest street in their favourite area. In the first part of a new series for the launch of our online luxury channel, Kristy Gray finds the capital’s Elite Streets

NOTTING HILL

KENSINGTON PARK GARDENS, W11

Average property value: £3,117,977Property profile: 160 properties; 15 per cent are housesMarket history: 31 sales recorded since 2004; 90 per cent of sales were flats

NOTTING HILL has become one of the world’s most exclusive neighbourhoods. Many of its prestigious streets

could easily claim the title of W11’s grandest address, with neat rows of elegant Victorian townhouses and white stucco mansions.

However, it is Kensington Park Gardens, nestled between Ladbroke Grove and the area’s famous Portobello Road, that quietly holds the trump card, in the shape of one of London’s largest private communal gardens. Ladbroke Square Garden covers seven acres of coveted green space in this west London enclave, with tennis courts, a children’s play area, winding paths and spacious lawns. It is truly a piece of country in the city. “There are very big houses on the south side of the

street with their own gardens backing directly on to Ladbroke Square,” says local estate agent Winni Medd, of John D Wood & Co. “The houses are of grand proportions with long, elegant balconies. On the north side there are smaller, north-facing homes and gardens.”

In London, any street with direct access to a private communal garden will always command a premium. Anthony Payne of property data company Lonres says average prices per square foot in Kensington Park Gardens have increased by 228 per cent during the last decade, outperforming the W11 postcode as a whole, where values have risen by 126 per cent. “So far this year, homes in Kensington Park Gardens have averaged £2,282 a square foot.”

There are four properties currently for sale in Kensington Park Gardens. The three flats on the market range from £1.25 million to £1.75 million, with a large house currently arranged as four flats being sold as a development opportunity for £8.5 million.

Sources: Lonres, VOA, Zoopla. This analysis was carried out by property data company Lonres which works in association with the property analytics business, Dataloft.

£8.5 million: a Grade II-listed seven-bedroom house in Kensington Park Gardens, currently arranged as flats, with Ladbroke Square Garden access homes andproperty.co.uk/kenpark


Read more: visit our new online luxury section


ST JOHN’S WOOD

AVENUE ROAD, NW8

Average property value: £2,902,861Property profile: 328 properties; 14 per cent are housesMarket history: 88 sales recorded since 2004; 82 per cent of sales were flats

HOUSE prices continue to rise in St John’s Wood, and rise even higher in Avenue Road, where rows of multimillion-

pound mansions line this main corridor into central London.

These large plots of land originally had much smaller homes on them which, over the years, have been replaced by luxurious mansions with large basement extensions housing indoor leisure complexes, state-of-the-art home cinemas, hairdressing salons, spas and massage rooms.

“It’s a Billionaires Row,” says local estate agent Richard Bernstone of Aston Chase. Entrepreneurs Richard Branson and James Caan have had large homes in this prestigious north-west London district, as have

supermodel Kate Moss, Paul McCartney and Rolling Stone Keith Richards. As a rule, these sought-after trophy homes rarely come up for sale. Unusually, however, 10 mansions came to the market last year in Avenue Road, with prices ranging from £15 million to a staggering £65 million.

With 10,000-25,000 square feet of living space, they arguably represent greater value than property in the heart of prime central London, according to Bernstone.

Anthony Payne, of Lonres, adds: “So far this year, houses on Avenue Road have averaged £29.7 million. Over the last 10 years, average prices per square foot have increased by 126 per cent, outperforming the wider NW8 postcode which has still seen average prices rise by 101 per cent.”

There are three houses and 18 flats currently for sale in Avenue Road. The flats range from £795,000 to £5 million, while the three houses have prices ranging from £15.5 million to £25 million.

BATTERSEA

PRINCE OF WALES DRIVE, SW11

Average property value: £909,735Property profile: 925 properties; less than one per cent are housesMarket history: 480 sales recorded in the last decade; just three were houses

THE dramatic transformation of the Battersea waterfront is one of the capital’s most exciting regeneration

stories, with Montevetro and Albion Riverside, the two gleaming residential towers designed by starchitects Richard Rogers and Norman Foster, now commanding the highest prices per square foot in this south-west London district on the Thames.

The area’s star attraction for home buyers is Battersea Park, a

landscaped 200-acre green space on the south bank of the river, with a boating lake, children’s zoo, art gallery, café and running tracks.

The spacious, late-Victorian red-brick and stucco mansion blocks that line Prince of Wales Drive overlook the park, leading up to Chelsea Bridge — with King’s Road and Sloane Square, that glittering mecca of boutiques and bistros, just a few minutes away.

The best flats are on the first and second floors and come with secure parking. Anthony Payne of Lonres confirms: “Prince of Wales Drive is one of Battersea’s most sought-after streets, close to Battersea Park and Chelsea just across river.”

Property prices here have outperformed the wider area. “Over the last decade, average prices in Prince of Wales Drive have increased by 131 per cent, compared to 101 per cent across the SW11 postcode as a whole,” adds Payne. “So far this year, flats sold in Prince of Wales Drive

£19.75 million: a 6,395sq ft, seven-bedroom gated home in Avenue Road homesandproperty.co.uk/ave

have averaged £1,082 per square foot.” There are 18 flats currently for sale in Prince of Wales Drive, with prices ranging from £545,000 to £1.95 million

£1.95 million: a three-bedroom flat in Overstrand Mansions, Prince of Wales Drive homesandproperty.co.uk/over

Homes & Propertyhomesandproperty.co.uk with

Homes & Property homesandproperty.co.uk withAffordable homes

Study economy at the Academy Rent-to-buy flats in a new east London community could be the key for young Londoners grappling with mortgage lenders’ demands for hefty deposits, says Ruth Bloomfield

MUCH has been written about London’s “deposit trap” created by the impossible sums banks sometimes expect first-

time buyers to come up with. Even those eligible for affordable housing schemes can find themselves tripping over the fact that the average shared-ownership deposit in the capital is £13,000.

Given sky-high rents and ever increas-ing public transport fares, this can push even supposedly “affordable” options out of reach.

An alternative is to opt for a rent-to-buy scheme, like the deal on offer at the new Academy Central develop-ment, being built at the former campus of the University of East London in Barking.

Housing association L&Q is offering 53 one- and two-bedroom flats that will be let at subsidised rates — about £800 a month for one-bedroom homes and £1,000 a month for the two-bedroom properties. This, calculates L&Q, is 20 per cent below local market rates.

The idea is that lower rents will give tenants a breathing space to save for a deposit and eventually buy a property of their own. How much they save is up to them — their finances are not monitored while they are living in the property. The homes will be available later this month, and there is no time limit on the scheme — residents are free to continue renewing their leases indefinitely.

Other than the financial incentive there is much to admire about Acad-emy Central, not least its elegant, airy design by Assael Architecture. Each flat has its own balcony or terrace, and interiors are contemporary.

“The key selling point with Academy Central is that it is a new community,” says Olivia Scrimshaw, assistant direc-tor of marketing at L&Q. “It’s newly landscaped, well-maintained, and there are no hereditary problems in the area.”

The development is sandwiched between Goodmayes Park and Mayes-brook Park, so there’s lots of local green space, and the nearest Tube is Barking, in Zone 4, which gets you into the City in half an hour. The shops in Barking itself are rather dull. However, the glittering Westfield Stratford City retail mecca isn’t far away, and the

ongoing Barking Riverside develop-ment, with more than 10,000 homes, could stimulate some new arrivals.

Culture comes from the Broadway Theatre and Eastbury Manor House, a National Trust-owned Elizabethan merchant’s home which has a pretty garden and tea room. But as Scrimshaw admits, the relatively far-flung location will deter some buyers, even though there is a lot of regeneration going on.

Even subsidised rents such as those at Academy Central are not peanuts in London. “It is still quite expensive,” says Scrimshaw, who agrees that buy-ers considering saving for a deposit from scratch could have a very long wait to get on to the ladder.

Visit lqgroup.org.uk

From £800 a month: flats at Academy Central in Barking will be let at subsidised rents, about 20 per cent below market rates according to housing association L&Q, to help first-time buyers save a deposit

Elegant, airy design: each Academy Central flat has its own balcony or terrace, left

Nearest hub: Barking Town Hall, far left. The town is Academy Central’s closest point for shops and the Tube



Homes & Property Homes abroad homesandproperty.co.uk with

Downtown is growing up

Manhattan is reborn as a magnet for media, fashion and tech firms, with new stunning skyscraper homes to match. By Cathy Hawker

DOWNTOWN Manhattan is the place to be this autumn as our favourite American city shifts its focus to the south. Seven miles below

Central Park, a brisk 90-minute walk from the high-style boutiques of Fifth Avenue, Lower Manhattan is changing from a soulless financial district of sharp-suited New York bankers into a family-friendly residential area.

Thirteen years after that clear Septem-ber morning when the world watched the Twin Towers fall, Lower Manhattan is now rebuilt and regenerated.

In November, media giant Condé Nast will relocate its 2,500 New York staff from Times Square to the Freedom Tower, One World Trade Center. They will occupy 25 of the 104 floors of the newly completed tallest skyscraper in the Western hemisphere.

Condé Nast publishes Vogue and where Vogue leads, fashionistas follow. Design, publishing and tech firms, restaurateurs and luxury fashion retail-ers including Hèrmes, Tom Ford and Ferragamo are all heading Downtown. One and a half million square feet of retail space is set to open in the West-field and Brookfield Place malls.

A £2.5 billion transport centre, the Port Authority Transit Hub, opens next year linking the malls, pedestrian walk-ways and the Trade Center site with 12 subway lines, six ferry landings and

trains to New Jersey. “The biggest change going on in New York is Down-town,” says Howard Lorber, chairman of estate agents Douglas Elliman. “Going back a few years it was deserted after 5pm and at weekends but now it is alive and people want to move there.”

These changes were kick-started by tax incentives encouraging businesses and residents to move to the financial district. Long-term investment and regeneration mean that Lower Manhat-tan with its 18 parks, attractive river walkways and cutting-edge apartment buildings is redrawing the Manhattan skyline. Families already love Battery Park and more are coming.

NEW HOMES BOOM“Downtown is New York’s fastest grow-ing residential neighbourhood,” agrees Phillip Hegarty of London-based sales company JP Knight & Partners.

“Property sales in Lower Manhattan in the first quarter of this year were up 22 per cent year on year, and with an additional 50,000 new employees expected by next year, demand for homes will only increase. The best new buildings are providing exceptional facilities.”

A perfect example of the new Down-town is 50 West Street, a 780ft-tall curved glass skyscraper that JP Knight is selling. On completion in 2016 it will have 191 flats over its 64 floors including

four floors devoted to swimming pools, a 600sq ft gym, restaurant, observation deck and cinema. Contemporary inte-riors by Danish designer Thomas Juul-Hansen feature 20ft-high ceilings and top-quality stone, marble and wood, while the full-height windows provide stand-and-stare views over the Hudson and East Rivers towards the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

One- to five-bedroom apartments at 50 West Street start from £965,000 with typical monthly service charges and property taxes of £1,750. Says Hegarty: “Downtown is New York’s

new good-value neighbourhood.” Already completed and occupied, The W Residences Downtown has sold 129 of 159 flats with views over the World Trade Center site. In the same building as the W Hotel, one- and two-bedroom homes start from £814,000 for 750sq ft, also available through JP Knight. Once furnished, these rent for £3,000 to £4,800 a month, with monthly service charges of £620.

The Beekman, a 10-storey office building, dates back to 1883. With a full-height atrium and fairytale turrets, it was once New York’s tallest building.

It became a historic monument in 1998 and is now being converted into a 287-room Thompson Hotel combined with a new 51-floor, 600ft tower. The 68 one- to three-bedroom apartments at The Beekman have full use of the hotel gym, restaurants and bars. Prices start from £723,500.

CONTACTS

W Residences Downtown and 50 West Street: JP Knight & Partners (jpknightandpartners.com; 020 7336 6777)

The Beekman: thebeekman.com

From £723,500: flats at The Beekman, a historic building being converted into a hotel, with a new 51-storey tower

From £965,000: 50 West Street has apartments with one to five bedrooms and views towards Statue of Liberty

Freedom Tower: One World Trade Center, the West’s tallest tower, near 9/11 site



LENDING DEPOSITS WEALTH MANAGEMENT SECURITIES closebrothers.com

Merchant banking has a long history of supporting entrepreneurial spirit. At Close Brothers, we combine responsible management of our clients’ wealth and support for enterprise. Experience tells us that real value is to be found backing the makers of things, fuelling growth in the economy and confidence amongst our investors.

Close Brothers champions the makers, risk takers and entrepreneurs. That’s Modern Merchant Banking.


Delectable collectablesMore than 100 lots at the latest Christie’s interiors sale are from Christopher Hodsoll, designer to royalty and the Rothschilds, reports Philippa Stockley

Homes & PropertyAuctionhomesandproperty.co.uk with

HOW often do you get the chance to buy a limited- edition plate designed by Picasso (lot 275, £1,200-£1,800) alongside gilded

dessert plates once owned by royalty (lot 301, £1,200-£1,800), or two silver “nefs” — salt cellars shaped like old sail-ing ships — with wheels to trundle up and down the table (lot 154, £1,300-£1,500)? That’s just a taste of the big sale of 469 items, including furniture, paint-ings, carpets, ceramics and delicious small collectables, next Tuesday at Christie’s in South Kensington.

The first 133 lots come from antiques dealer and interior decorator Christo-pher Hodsoll. He is known for elegant taste that can put old with new, or old with even older, and come up with a result that works, but also for a sense of mischief that prevents his interiors, however grand, from looking starchy.

One early job was for the Rothschilds in Paris — “they were much grander than the English royal family,” he

recalls. Another high point was kitting out a tent as a country house for Prince Philip’s 70th birthday with carpets, mirrors and paintings.

Now in his late fifties, Hodsoll, who since 1997 has also co-run exclusive bespoke design company Soane Brit-ain, has had a downsizing clearout. Many items from his own home are in the first part of the sale. Among quite grand furniture, from chairs to con-soles to mirrors to tables, there are also more eclectic items.

There’s a wonderful painting of a belligerent parrot by a follower of 17th-century artist Jakob Bogdani, estimated at £1,000-£1,500 (lot 25). There’s also a fine portrait of a better-tempered 18th-century gentleman in a blue coat, lot 53 (£1,500-£2,500). In the later part of the sale, interesting paintings include lot 429, John Bratby’s View of the Sea, which is collectable, on for

£1,000-£1,500. Bratby, who began the “Kitchen Sink” school, died in 1992.

Once Hodsoll’s lots are over you are spoilt for choice. The remaining lots are particularly strong in ceramics. A set of 1882 Wedgwood cream-ware includes 29 dinner plates and much more besides for £800-£1,200 (lot 374); a pair of big Meissen golden orioles from the first half of the 20th century are priced at £1,200-£1,800 (lot 385), and a superb jug shaped as a yellow-crested cockatoo, in Brownfield majol-ica from 1880, is on for a high estimate of £1,200-£1,800.

A cheeky silver cigarette case enam-elled with four pairs of feet inside a four-leaf clover, illustrating a courtship. is one of several small decorative items that are highly prized for their beauty, interest and skill.

Christie’s Interiors sale, including Christopher Hodsoll The London Interior (Part I) is on September 9. Visit Christies.com for more details.

Above: View of the Sea by John Bratby (£1,000-£1,500); left, silver salt and pepper “nefs” (£1,300-£1,500), and Le Picador by Picasso, a plate in a limited edition of 500 (£1,200-£1,800)

Feathered friends: pair of Meissen golden orioles (£1,200-£1,800)

Magic carpet: a 12ft-long Ushak runner estimated at £700-£1,100 (Lot 237)

Saucy smokers: an early 20th-century silver and enamel cigarette case with racy illustrations (£600-£800)

LOAFINGLY LOVELY FURNITURE


Homes & Property Luxury homesandproperty.co.uk with

KitchenluxuriesLondon’s top chefs tell Pattie Barron what luxury kitchen equipment they would most like to have in their homes

TOM HERBERT of the Fabulous Baker Brothers covets the multipurpose Prohibition Kit copper home distiller, left, (morackini.com). “When not making spirits, it can water plants or prepare a fondue. Bonus!”

NUNO MENDES, head chef at the hottest restaurant in town, Chiltern Firehouse in Marylebone, raves about Electrolux’s Infinite Plancha Grill, below left, an affordable £155.99 (see electrolux. co.uk for details).

“The results from cooking seafood and fish on the plancha are amazing,” says Portuguese-born Mendes.

ELECTRIC SUPER-GRILL LIGHTS NUNO’S FIRE

TOM’S BOOZY FONDUE

PRACTICAL Skye Gyngell, who launches Spring restaurant, her first solo venture, at Somerset House next month, would love a set of copper pans.

“Not just for their rustic beauty — copper’s ability to transfer heat exceptionally makes it wonderful to cook with and they last a lifetime.”

BRIGHT COPPER PANS... MY FAVOURITE THINGS


Homes & PropertyLuxuryhomesandproperty.co.uk with

A JUICER WOULD BE HEAVENMARTIN MORALES of Peruvian restaurants Ceviche, Soho, and Andina, Shoreditch, says the Super Angel 5500 cold-pressed juicer (£845, coldpressedjuicer.com) is “built like an ox, but shaped like a Peruvian beauty queen. All you gotta do is whistle.”

STAY COOL, ERICMASTER PÂTISSIER Eric “Cake Boy” Lanlard would like a Home Blast Chiller (from £1,529, fridgefreezer direct.co.uk). “It saves so much time lost while waiting for my cakes to cool down before being decorated.”

HOME’S A SMOKING ZONEMIKE DENMAN, executive chef at Plum + Spilt Milk, King’s Cross, wants a home smoker (£149.99, bbq-barn.co.uk). “It means I don’t have to light an open fire on my balcony.”

A PECK OF PEPPERDAMIEN LEROUX, head chef at Rivea London in Knightsbridge, would like a constant supply of fresh green Sichuan pepper. The berries are only found in spring for a few short weeks.

ICE CREAM AND SORBET MAKERANDREW TURNER, executive chef at Hotel Café Royal in Regent Street, would go for a Pacojet (from £2,550, cheftools.co.uk), to make ice cream and sorbet from frozen fruit and veg. “I could make all my ice creams and sauces in bulk and freeze them.”

LEONID JUST WANTS TO WIND DOWNRESTAURATEUR Leonid Shutov of Bob Bob Ricard, Soho, dreams of installing a White Spiral wine cellar (£22,800 from spiralcellars.co.uk) beneath his kitchen.

CHUCK A GREEN EGG ON THE BARBYON HIS balcony, Joseph Woodland, executive chef at Barnyard, Oliver Dabbous’s latest venture in Charlotte Street, would be happy to find room for a Green Egg BBQ (£700, biggreenegg.co.uk/shop). “The charcoal smokes a lot, but the flavour you get is incredible. Even broccoli tastes wonderful.”

SPACE ROCKET COFFEE MACHINERUSSELL NORMAN of the Polpo group of restaurants lusts after a classic brass and copper Elektra coffee machine, left, (£1,240 from coffeeitalia.co.uk).

“The iconic model looks like a shiny space rocket with a brass eagle on top and has Murano glass studs as one of the lavish details. I would get a great deal of pleasure using it daily for my morning espresso macchiato.”

CHARCOAL OVEN FOR FLAVOURTHE perfect oven is high on many a chef’s wish list, and Bruno Loubet, above, of Grain Store in King’s Cross, is no exception — he wants a charcoal Josper Oven, right: “We have one at the Grain Store and it’s wonderful.”

Ben Tish, head chef at Salt Yard tapas bar in Goodge St, would prefer a double-door convection Wolf cooker, and Michael Chow of Mr Chow in Knightsbridge wants a charcoal-burning, real Beijing duck oven.

For more luxury in the kitchen, visit homesand property.co.uk/kitchenluxury



NIG

EL H

OW

AR

D

DA

NN

Y EL

WES


Best of British bargain shutters THOMAS SANDERSON is offering readers three beautiful, British-made shutters for the price of two, including £100 off.*

From country cottages to period homes, and colonial charm to urban chic, Thomas Sanderson has a bespoke shutter to suit every room in your home. The shutters are stylish and functional, allowing you to control light, shade, heat and privacy.

To request a free brochure or book a free design consultation, call 0800 051 7711 and use code R3736 before September 21.

*Terms and conditions apply.

Alison Cork

The companies

listed here

are wholly

independent of the

Evening Standard.

Care is taken to

establish that they

are bona fide but

we recommend

that you carry out

your own checks

prior to purchases

and use a credit

card where

possible. To offer

feedback on any of

these companies,

email homesand

property@

standard.co.uk

with “Bargain

News” in the

subject line.

For more

bargains, visit

alisonathome.com

or homesand

property.co.uk/

offers.

Homes & Property Reader promotion homesandproperty.co.uk with

HIGH-QUALITY hand-crafted wooden furniture comes at reasonable prices from Lock Stock and Barrel. The company’s entire burr walnut Hampton range — which includes everything from filing cabinets to bookcases — is discounted by 30 per cent, reducing this pedestal desk, below,

in walnut to £995 — a £430 saving. Featuring an inlaid leather top and solid brass handles, this luxurious piece measures H77cm x W150cm x D90cm, with other sizes available.

To view the full range, visit lockstockandbarrel-uk.com or call 01531 633 333 before September 30. Delivery is £50.

WRAP yourself in luxury with this set of four bath sheets from One Regent Place, reduced from £69.95 to just £26.99.

These lush towels are made with 100 per cent combed Egyptian cotton and are available in 12 beautiful colours including white, charcoal, ivory and navy. An essential addition for any home, each towel measures a generous 145cm x 96cm and features a contemporary header bar detail.

To order, visit oneregentplace.co.uk before September 8. While stocks last.

Clean up with bath sheets

THE Phoebe occasional chair sits perfectly anywhere in the home.

Available in lime, below, powder blue, ruby, aubergine or dove grey, it is upholstered in a cotton/linen mix and finished with dark wood legs. This mid-century inspired chair is

sprung for extra comfort and costs £195. However, readers receive an extra £15 discount, reducing the Phoebe to just £180.

To claim the offer, visit alisonathome.com/phoebe or call 0800 472 5533 and use code PH93 before September 17.

Sitting comfortably with Phoebe A pair of elegant chairs in a colour of your choice: £120

Quality walnut at a superb price

FEATURING button detailing, the Wing chair, right, from My Furniture is available in beige and grey linen-effect fabric.

My Furniture can also reupholster any chair in your choice of fabric at an extra cost, so you can make the perfect choice for all rooms.

Homes & Property readers can buy any two Wing chairs for £120. To order, visit my-furniture.co.uk or call 0800 092 1636 using code MFWI120 before September 30.


buy itSee it: Wisley Flower Show Buy it: RHS container collection

Pattie Barron

The strata strategy for pots of pizzazzPack containers with layers of bulbs to triple your space and create a colour sensation

THE National Dahlia Society offers a spectacular display, the UK’s leading flower arrangers are providing inspired floral art and medal-winning nurseries are exhibiting plants for sale, all at the RHS Garden Wisley Flower Show, from now until Sunday. You can also enter a dahlia competition by taking a single stem to the Dahlia Marquee by noon, and admire more than 60 sculptures dotted around the gardens by the Surrey Sculpture Society. Open 9am-6pm, Sunday 9am-5pm. Normal garden entry applies — see rhs.org.uk/wisleyflowershow for details.

LAYER up a 30cm-diameter pot with a Royal Horticultural Society collection of 40 spring-flowering bulbs and you will have a fabulous display of anemones, hyacinths and tulips blooming in succession from March to May.

The collection comprises Tulipa China PInk, which has elegant, pointed petals, grows to 50cm, flowers in May, supplied as 10 bulbs; Hyacinthus orientalis Delft Blue, with violet-blue, densely packed flowerheads, 30cm tall, flowers in April and May, supplied as five bulbs, and Anemone blanda, seen right, which has purple-blue, daisy-like flowers from March to April, grows to 15cm, supplied as 25 bulbs. The collection costs £12.50. Buy two collections for £24.99 and receive 50 free Muscari armeniacum bulbs, worth £5. This robust grape hyacinth grows to 20cm and will give an extra layer of spring colour, with conical clusters of mid-blue flowers in April and May. Readers can have an extra 15 per cent discount by entering code 300914 online at rhsplants.co.uk. Offer ends midnight September 30.

Prize blooms: dahlias take centre stage at Wisley this weekend

Homes & Property Outdoors homesandproperty.co.uk with

FOR real punch, spring-flowering bulbs need to be planted in large groups. Nobody is going to wax lyrical over a trio of golden

daffodils, or a few tulips here and there. However if you don’t have space for bulk planting, you can still create a springtime sensation — in a container.

You can’t pack many bulbs in a six-inch terracotta pot, so instead, go for a few pots in large sizes. One large trough, or even a large rubber tub trug, will deliver a pool of colour that will have far more impact than a handful of bulbs scattered around the border. It could hold an eye-arresting host of golden daffodils, which would look even more charming in the form of deep golden Peeping Tom, with long, narrow trumpet and swept-back petals, or Velocity, which has a contrasting rich orange cup.

You could create a small-scale tulip field with a classic goblet tulip such as deep purple Ronaldo, strike a formal note with lily-flowered White Triumphator or make a thrilling Dutch painting with a mixed bag of flamed Rembrandt tulips. Blue bedding hyacinths look stunning in a

large group, especially when set off with sheeny metal or dull zinc containers. Try Delft Blue or, luscious alongside Apricot Beauty tulips, beetroot-coloured Woodstock. For one generous tub or trough, three or four dozen bulbs bedded into potting compost should do nicely, depending on size.

Be even smarter with your use of space, doubling up on it — even tripling it — by planting bulbs in layers so you have a succession of flowers, extending the show by as much as several weeks. It’s as easy as planting in a single layer, with the same principles: a base of drainage material, burying the bulbs in potting compost, a covering of grit to make a clean finish and a hand-scrunched cage of chicken wire over the top if marauding mice and squirrels are a problem.

You can plant bulbs more closely in a container than you do in the ground, so long as they don’t touch

each other or the sides of the pot. The larger bulbs, such as bedding hyacinths or tulips, go in first, and the smaller, earlier-to-flower bulbs —Anemone blanda, grape hyacinth, crocus, dwarf daffodils, which are more suited to layered planting — go on top, with a couple of inches of

potting compost in between them. You could also make a colourful spring pot with a double layer of tulips, so you have earlier dwarf tulips such as scarlet Red Riding Hood flowering ahead of a taller, later-flowering tulip such as deep maroon Black Hero, waiting in the

wings, at the lower level. When I have planted one layer, I mark each bulb’s position with a pea stick so I don’t position the next layer’s bulbs in the same spot directly above them, but even if you do, the shoots will always find a way through, miraculously pushing their way up to daylight.

READER OFFERBULB MASTERCLASSLearn how to plant bulbs in layers, and discover the best shrubs and perennials for autumn colour, at an exclusive masterclass at Clifton Nurseries, Little Venice, by plant supremo and Clifton’s managing director, Matthew Wilson. The evening is on Thursday September 11 and starts at 6pm with a glass of Prosecco and canapés on arrival. The talk and demo will begin at 6.30pm, and last about an hour, with a Q&A afterwards. You can also buy top-grade bulbs and plants at a 20 per cent discount. Tickets cost £15. Places are limited, so book early at clifton.co.uk or call 020 7432 1852.

Bulb bouquet: triple the impact by layering bulbs and enjoy a longer and fuller display

Great effects: daffodils look best when massed in large groups

Tulip tango: mix clashing colours together for a vibrant fashion show

GA

P PH

OTO

S/JO

NAT

HA

N B

UCK

LEY/

DES

IGN

: CA

RO

L KL

EIN

GA

P PH

OTO

S/JO

NAT

HA

N B

UCK

LEY/

DES

IGN

: SA

RA

H R

AVEN

, PER

CH H

ILL

RH

S


This is the strapped for cash styleMoney was tight after Shani Beadle and her husband bought their first home. So they used sledgehammers, scoured junk shops and made a vintage budget look, says Ruth Bloomfield

Homes & Property Our home homesandproperty.co.uk with

SHABBY CHIC may have defined the Noughties, but the pared-down Scandi style that followed was made to suit the recession. Today, this is

already being replaced by a fascination for all things mid-century and modern. Shani Beadle’s style is a strangely effective blend of all three.

Her Walthamstow house is filled with a mix of favourite pieces collected since she and her husband, Andreas, bought their first home in London more than a decade ago. But the unifying factor — linking everything from the painted industrial closet in the bedroom to the handmade origami streamers in the living room — is that Beadle buys on a budget.

Take, for example, the lovely chest of drawers in her bedroom. The piece, with more than a dozen drawers of dif-ferent shapes and sizes, looks like it cost a fortune but in fact it came virtu-ally free. A friend who is a set designer built the carcass and Beadle tracked down suitably vintage drawers — think Forties library index card holders and bureau drawers, as well as some that are homemade from offcuts of metal and timber. Part of the reason for this

thrifty, creative furnishing is that when Beadle and her husband, now both 40, bought their three-bedroom house three years ago, money was tight.

The couple had been living in a one-bedroom flat in Leyton, but after the birth of their daughter, four-year-old Atlee — named in memory of the pho-tographer Simon Atlee, a close friend, who died in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami — they needed more space.

They made a profit of about £60,000 when they sold the flat for £200,000, but affording their £305,000 house was still a stretch. Their new home needed renovating but despite having little spare cash, the couple took on much of the building work themselves, tear-ing down all the ground-floor walls to turn three small rooms into one large living room/kitchen. Professionals were called in, however, to add steels to the building to stop it collapsing.

A run of glass doors was installed leading out to the garden, and a new kitchen was put in, with white tiles and stainless steel surfaces. The couple painted the floorboards black, clad the walls in tongue-and-groove which they painted in Farrow & Ball’s Cornforth White, and stripped the render of the

brick fireplace. The project — including redecoration throughout — cost about £30,000, and thanks to Waltham For-est’s stellar price rises over the last year or two, the house is now worth between £500,000 and £600,000. “We couldn’t afford to buy it now,” says Beadle, whose interior design and textiles company, Étoile Home (etoile-home.com) featured at this year’s Clerkenwell Design Festival.

To keep costs down, the staircase and upstairs walls and floors were painted white — a pure, simple backdrop for displaying Beadle’s antiques collection from fairs, junk shops and auctions.

“I am not a purist,” she explains. “I have done shabby chic and I like mid-century a lot, so I mix everything up.”

The mid-century wooden desk in the living room was sourced at Spitalfields Market, while the modern prints on the wall behind it were bought at the E17 Art Trail and teamed with an old oil painting from the Ardingly Antiques

Eye-catching storage: the look in Shani Beadle’s home is shabby chic meets pared-down Scandi meets mid-century and modern

Photographs:: Ingrid Rasmussen

Room for the family: Shani Beadle with daughter Atlee, four. Atlee’s arrival prompted Beadle and her husband Andreas to buy their three-bedroom home in Walthamstow


Homes & PropertyOur homehomesandproperty.co.uk with

and Collectors Fair in West Sussex, along with a couple of plates from Caravan vintage store in Hackney.

The origami bunting threaded on string was made by Beadle and a friend, and though the pine dining table came from Ikea, it has been stained and has acquired a patina, thanks to “a million dinner parties and craft sessions”.

It is paired with Fifties wood-and-vinyl Ben chairs bought from a junk shop for about £30. You could try eBay for something similar.

School locker-style cupboards pro-vide brilliant storage in the living area, while the leather club chairs were a purchase from Les Couilles du Chien in Golborne Road, west London.

THE bench in the hall, painted egg-yolk yellow, was another Ardingly find, as was the turquoise-painted metal cabinet which doubles as a

wardrobe in the master bedroom. Ardingly is also great for French antiques, although for fans of Danish design, Beadle says the regular sales at Newark in Nottinghamshire, staged by the same company, are well worth a visit, as is a more local venue,

Blackduke & Cashman in Walthamstow Village, where she picked up mid-cen-tury ceramics and glassware.

Other cheap-chic touches include the roughly painted white louvre doors fixed behind the bed to add wall texture.

The house remains a work in progress. Beadle and her husband, who works with autistic children in the borough, ensured that the steels they had installed when they knocked the ground floor through would be strong enough to support a loft extension, which is on the agenda.

TREASURE HUNTER’S DIARYThe E17 Art Trail is an annual event

which runs during the first two weeks of June. Visit e17arttrail.co.uk. Art trails are a brilliant way to meet local makers and pick up work at a fraction of the price you would pay at galleries. Art Trail Wanstead, for example, is scheduled for September 6-21. Alternatively, view and purchase work by graduating students from the Royal College of Art at the college’s annual graduate shows in Kensington and Battersea throughout June. Visit rca.ac.uk.

Les Couilles du Chien, for unusual antiques and decorative pieces, is in Golborne Road, Notting Hill, W11. There are stalls on Saturdays, and it’s less tourist-heavy than adjacent Portobello Road (lescouillesduchien.com).

For offbeat interiors try Caravan in Hackney, which is open by appointment only (caravanstyle.com).

Shani Beadle recommends Blackduke & Cashman in increasingly trendy Walthamstow Village as a mid-century hunting ground (blackdukeand cashman.com).

Old Spitalfields antiques market is held on Thursdays. Be there by 8am to get the pick of the bargains.

Ardingly International Antiques and Collectors Fair, West Sussex, has 1,700 dealers. See iacf.co.uk for details. The same organisers hold events at Newbury in Berkshire, Shepton Mallet in Somerset, and Newark, Notts.

On-trend styling: glass doors, white tiles and stainless steel warmed by vintage wood in the kitchen, above; design detail in clock, lighting and dark grouting, top right; clever storage and an egg-yolk yellow hall bench, centre; carrying the look into the garden, right


Homes & PropertyDesignhomesandproperty.co.uk with

From cool Clerkenwell to ultra-smart Chelsea, make a note in your diary of the capital’s design spectacular this month, says Barbara Chandler

London Design Festival

NEXT weekend is kick-off for the London Design Festival, running from September 13-21. This year’s festival, the

twelfth, is more ambitious than ever, with more than 300 events.

Start with the excellent website, londondesignfestival.com, honed by past experience into an efficient way to find your way around. Follow the festival on Twitter @L_D_F, and contribute, using the hashtag #LDF14

Head for the Victoria & Albert Museum in South Kensington, crammed with special features. Get its free map at the information desk.

DAILY TALKS AND WORKSHOPSThemes for each day/weekends, with workshops, talks, seminars and demos are: graphics (September 13-14); architecture (September 15); futures (September 16); illumination (September 17); interactive (September 18); London (September 19), and finally, digital design (September 20-21).

Festival London is neatly parcelled

into “design districts”, each with events within walking distance. Among the most impressive are the upmarket Brompton Design District (bromptondesigndistrict.com) and the über-cool Clerkenwell Design Quarter (clerkenwelldesignquarter.com). Clerkenwell has its own architecture and design film festival, and the maverick Designersblock group show at the Old Sessions House, Clerkenwell Green (September 18-21; verydesigners block.com).

The Chelsea Design Quarter oozes luxury from posh décor showrooms at the far end of King’s Road (chelsea designquarter.co.uk), while the Shoreditch Design Triangle has an easy East End charm (shoreditch designtriangle.com). New this year are the Islington Design District, and the Queen’s Park Design District based in Lonsdale Road, NW6.

MUST-SEE BIG SHOWSThe big shows are the annual set pieces, running roughly between September 17-21 — dates vary slightly. These are 100% Design, SW10 (100percentdesign.co.uk); designjunction, WC1 (thedesign junction.co.uk); and Tent London, E1 (tentlondon.co.uk). Check for opening times, ticket prices and admissions policy.

These shows are followed, from Sunday September 21, by Decorex (decorex.com), now in Syon Park, as it was in its early days, and Focus, Chelsea Harbour’s massive decorfest in SW10 (dcch.co.uk).

See how it’s done: at the Glass Lab open workshop, designer Diana Simpson, left, turns Soho’s used glass bottles into hand-crafted hexagonal tiles. From September 13-21 at 19 Greek Street, W1 (19greekstreet. com; golondrina design.com)

Right: meet the four new “designers in residence” at the Design Museum, including Torsten Sherwood, pictured, co-hosting a “Disruptive Late” party with Time Out to launch the festival. See and hear how “disruptive innovation” can produce new and unexpected ideas. Saturday, September 13, 6.30-10pm, Shad Thames, SE1. Tickets £12.50 (designmuseum.org)

Left: take tea from the new TOPO tea set, with its designer, award-winning Shin Azumi in his studio. The nearby Plaid studio, specialist in museum events, will show models and prototypes. From Sept 17-20 at Units 11a and 13, Bickerton House, Bickerton Road N19 (shinazumi.com; plaid-london.com)

Raphael Gallery at the V&A: goggle at the vast reflective revolving ceiling, left, where silvered, curved metal mirrors give views of spectators and the famous tapestries. It’s another triumph for London designers Barber Osgerby, creators of the 2012 Olympic Torch. From September 13 to October 24

DISCOVER MORE | LONDONDOCK.CO.UK | 020 7971 7880 LONDON DOCK SALES CENTRE, VAUGHAN WAY, LONDON E1W 1YY

THE FIRST RELEASE OF THE CAPITALS MOST VIBRANT NEW PLACE TO LIVE


£2.95 MILLIONNEXT to Battersea Park, this end-of-terrace house in Beechmore Road has five bedrooms (Foxtons).

homesandproperty.co.uk/beech

£1,895,000CLOSE to Clapham Junction, this renovated four-bedroom house is in Eland Road (Douglas & Gordon).

homesandproperty.co.uk/eland

£950,000A THREE-BEDROOM terrace house with a south-facing garden on the Shaftesbury Estate (John D Wood).

see homesandproperty.co.uk/ash

£400,000A FIFTH-FLOOR flat with a balcony and two bedrooms in Henty Close, SW11. Through John D Wood.

homesandproperty.co.uk/henty

To find a home in Battersea, visit homesandproperty.co.uk/batterseaFor more about Battersea, visit homesandproperty.co.uk/spotlightbatterseaF

Homes & Property Property searching homesandproperty.co.uk with

SpotlightBattersea

Family favourite is powering into the futureBattersea Power Station’s new homes, shops and park are lighting a fire under the market south of the river, says Anthea Masey

FAMILIES have stayed put while Battersea’s face has changed, imbuing this district south of the Thames with an enduring sense of community. Over the

last 20 years most of its industrial water-front has been swept away, the chemical works, candle and starch factories now almost a distant memory, while the riverbank from Albert Bridge to Wands-worth Bridge has been transformed by modern flats, public walkways, new restaurants and bars.

Pretty 18th-century St Mary’s Church is now dwarfed by the arresting Richard Rogers-designed Montevetro building in Battersea Church Road, the street that winds through the heart of the old vil-lage to cobbled Battersea Square with its cafés, bars, and Gordon Ramsay’s London House restaurant. The redevel-opment of Battersea Power Station, meanwhile, will add 3,400 new homes, shops and a riverside park to the mix — the first 800 homes have been snapped up — while a Northern line extension serving the area is planned.

In the 1830s the arrival of the railways shifted the heart of Battersea half a mile inland to what is now called Clapham Junction. Long-standing Battersea residents constantly remind newcom-ers they live in Battersea, not Clapham. There was outrage recently when the

big branch of Asda in Lavender Hill started calling itself the Clapham branch. Now it calls itself the Clapham Junction branch. However, a mixture of old and new is creating a positive buzz in one corner of the neighbour-hood — the area north of Parkgate Road between Albert and Battersea Bridges, which is now being called the Battersea Creative Quarter. Around Ransome’s Dock, in a mixture of modern and con-verted warehouses, thriving architec-ture, fashion and entertainment businesses have found a home.

Top architects firm Foster + Partners has its sleek, glass riverside office block in the area, while Victoria Beckham’s fashion empire sits conveniently close to her management company, Simon Fuller’s XIX Entertainment. Clapham resident Vivienne Westwood’s head-quarters is here, along with architect Will Alsop’s Testbed 1 art space, while the Royal College of Art has an outpost in Battersea Bridge Road.

WHAT THERE IS TO BUYBattersea has a mix of modern riverside apartments, spacious mansion flats around 200-acre Battersea Park, Vic-torian terrace houses and estates of social housing.

Flats in two modern blocks designed by two of the country’s top architects

— Richard Rogers’s Montevetro and Norman Foster’s Albion Riverside — are priced at £1,200 to £1,700 per square foot, and sometimes more. The most expensive flat currently for sale is a three-bedroom Montevetro home, on the market for £7.5 million (see homesandproperty.co.uk/monte). The most expensive house is a red-brick Victorian terrace with six bedrooms in Albert Bridge Road, at £3.75 million (see homesandprop-erty.co.uk/albert).

The most expensive mansion flat, at Albany Mansions in Albert Bridge Road, has four bedrooms and is on sale for £2.85 million (homesandproperty.co.uk/bridge). The most sought-after mansion flats have views of Battersea Park and are on the first and second floors, as only York Mansions has a lift,

although Overstrand Mansions, which has secure parking, is also popular. Price per square foot in these two blocks is about £1,500. Other mansion flats start at about £1,000.

The cheapest Battersea period houses are on the Shaftesbury Estate off Latch-mere Road. Built as social housing in the 1870s by the Artizans, Labourers & General Dwellings Company, the estate is now owned by the Peabody housing association, and many of the homes are owner-occupied. A two-bedroom house in Birley Road is for sale for £650,000 (homesandproperty.co.uk/birley). It is possible to get a former right-to-buy flat on a social housing estate for under the stamp duty thresh-old. One in Pennethorne House, Wye Street, is bang on the limit at £250,000 but needs renovating.


CHECK THE STATS

The best schools

The best shops and restaurants

The latest housing developments

How Battersea compares with the rest of the UK on house prices

Smart maps to plot your property search

GO ONLINE FOR MORE

For all this and more, visit homesand property.co.uk/ spotlightbatterseaTEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

What links Battersea’s Shaftesbury Estate with Battersea Power Station?Find the answer at homesandproperty.

co.uk/spotlightbattersea

■WHAT HOMES COSTBUYING IN BATTERSEA (Average prices)One-bedroom flat £449,000Two-bedroom flat £719,000Two-bedroom house £730,000Three-bedroom house £1.37 millionFour-bedroom house £1.57 million

Source: Zoopla

RENTING IN BATTERSEA (Average rates)One-bedroom flat £1,611 a monthTwo-bedroom flat £2,104 a monthTwo-bedroom house £2,014 a monthThree-bedroom house £2,903 a monthFour-bedroom house £3,905 a month

Source: Zoopla

NEXT WEEK: Haggerston. Do you live there? Tell us what you think @HomesProperty

Homes & PropertyProperty searchinghomesandproperty.co.uk with

Touch of the east: part of the Buddhist Peace Pagoda in Battersea Park

OPEN SPACEFor many people, and not just south Londoners, Battersea Park is their favourite green space in London. Carefully restored 10 years ago at a cost of over £11 million, the former Festival of Britain fountains with 50 jets of water are a breathtaking sight. The

park has many other highlights, includ-ing a boating lake and café, a riverside walk of more than half a mile, a

children’s zoo, an art gallery and the famous Buddhist Peace Pagoda.

LEISURE AND THE ARTSBattersea Arts Centre in Lavender Hill is a leading fringe venue with a history of developing shows which go on to become West End hits. Theatre503,

above the Latchmere pub on the corner of Latchmere Road and Battersea Park Road, is also a fringe venue.

The nearest cinema is the Cineworld multiplex in the Southside shopping centre in Wandsworth town centre. The Latchmere Leisure Centre in Burns Road houses the local council-owned swimming pool.Travel: Battersea residents rely on Clapham Junction station with frequent trains to Victoria, journey time six minutes, and Waterloo, with a journey time of eight minutes. There are also trains from Battersea Park to Victoria in four minutes, and from Queenstown Road to Victoria in 18 minutes and Waterloo in 11 minutes. All stations are in Zone 2 and an annual travelcard to Zone 1 costs £1,256.Council: Wandsworth council is Conservative-controlled, and Band D council tax for the 2014/2015 year stands at £681.77.

Battersea Bridge: linking to Chelsea north of the river

Prince of Wales Drive: one of Battersea’s finest streets

Family fun: Battersea Park, above left. Battersea Dogs & Cats Home’s Louise Taylor, above, with terrier Tammy, who has a new home, and the power station

Photographs: Graham Hussey

Just browsing: antique shopping in Battersea Bridge Road


WHAT’S YOUR PROBLEM?IF YOU have a question for Fiona McNulty, please email [email protected] or write to Legal Solutions, Homes & Property, London Evening Standard, 2 Derry Street, W8 5EE.We regret that questions cannot be answered individually but we will try to feature them here. Fiona McNulty is a partner in the residential property, farms and estates team at Withy King LLP (withyking.co.uk).

These answers can only be a very brief commentary on the issues raised and should not be relied on as legal advice. No liability is accepted for such reliance. If you have similar issues, you should obtain advice from a solicitor.

More legal Q&As Visit: homesand property.co.uk

The mystery of the missing walls

Q WE ARE buying a flat that is Grade II-listed. When we checked the lease and the plans attached to it we

noticed that the current layout of the flat is different. A couple of walls have been removed between the sitting room and kitchen to make it open-plan and a wall has also been knocked down to make the bathroom and loo into one big bathroom. Our conveyancer says all is fine as there is a building regulations completion certificate. Is this correct ?

A LISTED building consent is required for any works involving demolition, alteration or extension to a

listed building, and for works which affect its character as a structure of special architectural or historic interest.

The removal of walls is likely to have required such consent and if the seller cannot produce it, you should ask them to obtain it retrospectively, or to provide, at their expense,

indemnity insurance for the lack of it. However, if you intend to carry out more work to the flat that is likely to require listed building consent, do note that indemnity insurance may not be appropriate, as the cover may be affected in such circumstances.

If you buy the flat and unauthorised works have been carried out, you become liable for any listed building enforcement action in connection with those works — although only the

person who carried out the works, or caused them to be carried out, could be found guilty of a criminal offence.

In addition, under the terms of the lease it would be usual for there to be a covenant requiring the prior written consent of the landlord for the internal alterations.

If this consent was not granted it could be given retrospectively, or the seller can provide, at their own expense, indemnity insurance for breach of covenant.

Q MY grandmother lives in a ground-floor flat with access to a garden through the French windows in her sitting room. The garden is just a lawn that is cut regularly by the

gardener for the building. Gran would like to plant some flowers to brighten it up. Can she do this?

A IT DEPENDS who owns the garden. The fact that the gardener for the building cuts the grass suggests the space is communal and forms part of the freehold title. Check the position by looking at

your grandmother’s lease.Where a building has been divided into flats, a garden

sometimes forms part of the freehold title. It may be part of the general communal area, so none of the flat owners will own any of it. In such circumstances the landlord will often grant the leaseholders a right to use/have access to the garden and there will be covenants or regulations in place governing how it is to be used.

Alternatively, a garden may be divided up and some flat owners may own parts of it, or may have been granted exclusive use of distinct areas of it. If the garden area forms part of your grandmother’s property, she should be able to plant flowers — but do remember that there may be restrictions in her lease about maintenance of her garden. If she has only a right to use the space, she is unlikely to be allowed to plant in it.

It would be worth contacting the freeholder or the managing agents to see whether they will permit flowers to be planted. After all, it should enhance the garden for the benefit of all concerned.

Fiona McNultyOUR LAWYER ANSWERSYOUR QUESTIONS

Homes & Property Ask the expert homesandproperty.co.uk with

*Comfort cooling to kitchen/breakfast room, living room & master bedroom only. Price correct at time of going to press. Show home interior.


Find many more homes to rent athomesandproperty.co.uk/lettings

The accidental landlord

Please don’t bring your work home As tenants get the right to run a business at their rented accommodation, Victoria Whitlock is set to ban firework salesmen and child minders

£600 A WEEKThis two-bedroom flat has a private balcony overlooking the Thames in Thames Crescent, Chiswick. It’s available to rent through John D Wood & Co.

See homesand property.co.uk/rentchis

SINCE A tenant threatened to sue me for loss of income because the wifi I had provided kept crashing, I have been conscious of the

potential risk to landlords of tenants running a business from home.

Of course, I told this particular tenant not to be so ridiculous, the wifi was intended for domestic use only and if he wanted a better connection he had better sort it out himself.

I also pointed out that he was forbidden under the terms of his tenancy agreement to work from the flat. I certainly wasn’t aware he was intending to do so when he moved in.

I am sure there are thousands of tenants who work from their kitchen tables and I would have turned a blind eye to this guy running his business from home, but when he threatened to sue I was grateful to have a clause in the contract that made it clear the property was for residential purposes only.

However, the Government is now planning to change the law to give new tenants an automatic right to work from their rented accommodation. From next spring, landlords won’t be able to prevent tenants starting up a business at home, other than in “exceptional circumstances”.

It hasn’t specified what those exceptional circumstances might be, but I would hope that landlords would be able to refuse permission for, say, a self-employed pyrotechnics

salesman to keep fireworks in the living room.

Even if a tenant only intends to do clerical work from home, I would suggest landlords take steps to protect themselves, including making it clear that any pre-installed phone lines and internet are not intended for business use.

Landlords should also make sure that these services are transferred to the tenant’s name, so if it transpires that they are running an illegal online business the landlord won’t be held

responsible. Also, landlords should not include the energy bills in the rent, as anyone working from home is likely to keep the heating on all day. I once ended up with a gas bill four times bigger than I was expecting when tenants left the heating on 24/7 through the winter.

Landlords will also have to inform their insurance company if the tenant is working from home, and should probably insert a clause in the tenancy agreement stating that they cannot be held liable if for any reason the tenant can no longer carry out their business from the premises.

Apparently, the Government will have a model tenancy agreement available online from next month, which landlords will be able to download, but the powers that be haven’t said yet whether this will protect landlords from being sued for

loss of income. If a property is leasehold, landlords will need to check that the freeholder doesn’t prohibit the property from being used partly for business purposes. Often the head lease prevents leaseholders from any commercial activity on the premises.

A Department for Business spokesman told me the wording of existing long-term leases will not have to be changed until the leases are renewed. However, they also said it is the Government’s hope that freeholders will not withhold permission for tenants to work from home. I think quite a few will.

Landlords need to think about the possible additional wear and tear on

their properties, too. It’s one thing to have someone working on their laptop, but what about a child minder bringing several destructive toddlers into the home? Or a freelance hairdresser colouring and bleaching on the premises?

I expect this change to the law, while good news for some, will make landlords choosier about their tenants in the future — and many might avoid letting their property altogether to any budding entrepreneurs out there.

Victoria Whitlock lets three properties in south London. To contact Victoria with your ideas and views, tweet @vicwhitlock

Homes & PropertyLetting onhomesandproperty.co.uk with


MONDAYOur new advertising wall is up and it’s already attracting lots of interest on social media and from local residents and business owners. We have the whole side of a newsagents to showcase our homes. We decided to highlight that it’s Charlotte Street, not Wall Street, and emphasis the alfresco coffee shop/restaurant culture that makes this part of the West End so different to Manhattan. People have played around with areas of central London and tried to tie them in with New York, for example calling Holborn “Midtown” and Fitzrovia “Noho” but London is unique and we do not need Americanisms to promote it. TUESDAYThe summer months can be quieter for sales but lettings have reported a huge surge in activity recently, as overseas students descend on London ahead of the new university year. We have enough stock for now but at the rate

we are agreeing lets we will soon need to replenish stock levels from land-lords. At this time of year, landlords can get upwards of 20 per cent more rent for their homes compared to the quieter months of December and January. We tell them to be aware of any break clause requests around this time, as it could lead to a void period when there are fewer tenants looking and rents are reduced. WEDNESDAYMy colleague Will is out with some clients looking at an office space. This quirky animation agency is a breath of fresh air with so much youthful energy.

After searching for many months it seems we have found them some-where. The questions clients normally ask are: “Where do we put the servers, the meetings rooms, the coffee machine?” But the group from this company ask: “Where do you think the zip wire and the fireman’s pole should go?” Cue an initial blank face from Will

and then a smile as he realises that they aren’t joking. THURSDAYI receive an email asking us to sign up to the London Rental Standard, a charter of how to act with consideration towards tenants and landlords, which is being championed by Mayor Boris

Johnson and handled by the Association of Residential Lettings Agents. This is great news, except being members of the association means we are a licensed agent, which already makes us account-able and ensures our past dealings with customers and their money — deposits, for example — have been handled with-out a fault. Hudsons pays a considerable amount to ensure our clients’ money is protected but too many landlords and tenants still lose thousands of pounds through unlicensed agents. It seems the problem is lack of awareness by the people these schemes are meant to protect. I am starting to feel a little disillusioned with yet another scheme. I need to know how well-publicised this will be before I sign up. FRIDAYAfter being gazumped on my own property purchase last month, I am starting to look again. The market has slowed a little since my previous offer so it’s nice to feel I can take a bit more time without fearing it will either shoot up, or that I will miss out on a property. Many buyers put their purchases on hold when confidence in the market drops, or talk of a bubble hits the news. It’s funny how people often just follow the crowd and buy in an upward mar-ket when prices are rising monthly and decisions are rushed. Surely it’s better to buy when the market is quieter? That’s my tip for the month.

Diary of an estate agent

We find clients a new HQ to put their company in pole position

Jonathan Hudson is director of Hudsons Property, based in Charlotte Street, W1 (020 7323 2277).

Homes & Property Inside story homesandproperty.co.uk with


Homes & Property homesandproperty.co.uk with

Smart movesBy David Spittles

Fabulous flats in listed splendour

LOFT LIVING IN THE RAG TRADE’S HISTORIC HOME

KENSINGTON remains the location of choice for the rich and powerful, just as the Victorians intended it. With much of the

Royal Borough listed and with conservation groups keeping guard, there appear to be few opportunities to squeeze in modern homes. However, resourceful developers are still managing to unlock sites.

Vicarage Gate House, right, is a scheme of 13 lateral apartments in

the sought-after Cherry Tree conservation area close to Kensington Palace.

Designed by leading architect Eric Parry, these light-filled homes of up to 5,209sq ft have full-height windows and big terraces looking over private courtyard gardens.

Residents get 24-hour concierge services, on-site gym and parking. Prices from £6 million. Call Savills on 020 7016 3860.

BERNERS STREET in Fitzrovia used to be at the heart of the rag trade but while a few garment stores remain, the area marches relentlessly upmarket, with chic fashion boutiques opening alongside cool bars and hotels such as the Sanderson. A slender

listed building directly opposite the Sanderson has been transformed into seven loft-style apartments priced from £1,975,000 to £4.5 million for the duplex penthouse with roof terrace.

Call Harrods Estates on 020 7225 6700 for more information.

From £1,975,000: loft-style apartments in Berners Street


Homes & Property

The town meets country lifestyle

Live like royalty in a home designed by a viscount

A “HIDEAWAY” conservation area between Strand and Victoria Embankment is once again becoming a top address.

Surrounding the Royal Society of Arts, which has been in John Adam Street since 1774, are a number of delightful Georgian townhouses that were converted into offices after the Blitz and are now back to residential splendour.

One of these is Nineteen Buckingham Street, a five-

storey mansion split into 11 spacious and crafted apartments, designed from top to bottom by David Linley, the Queen’s nephew.

Trademark features include walnut-and-nickel mail boxes in the entrance hall, plus lacquered cabinetry, luscious leatherwork and hand-made kitchens.

Prices from £3.35 million. Call Jackson-Stops & Staff on 020 7644 6649.

HAMPSTEAD —that polished London village — boasts a wide variety of homes, from alleyways of cottages to mansions, all benefiting from being close to the 800 rolling acres of the Heath, which the locals consider their “back garden”.

The area has more millionaires within its boundaries than anywhere else in Britain. It appeals to old and new money alike, attracting Premiership

footballers and pop stars, culture vultures and business tycoons, all in pursuit of the perfect town-and-country lifestyle.

Belsize Park, further down the hill, forms part of this area and is regaining its cachet. The stucco mansions that were split into bedsits in this once-elegant Victorian suburb are being returned to single residences.

One such property is a six-bedroom townhouse built in

1860, now gutted and revamped into a classic-contemporary heritage home.

A grand entrance hall and staircase sit beneath an oval-shaped glass skylight. There are four reception rooms including a double-height ballroom, plus a library, cocktail bar, 16-place dining room, marble-lined bathrooms, swimming pool, gym and underground parking. Priced £10.45 million. Call Galliard on 020 3740 4972.

£10.45 million: a six-bedroom townhouse in Belsize ParkFrom £3.35 million: flats at Nineteen Buckingham St, WC2



Proud to be a member of the Berkeley Group of companies

Wimbledon Hill Park Sales & Marketing Suite

0203 581 [email protected] apartments from £1,150,000

www.wimbledonhillpark.co.uk

London's elite streets

Documents

Transcript of London's elite streets