KCW Today October 2016 Compendium

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compendium KENSINGTON CHELSE A & WESTMINSTER TODAY • OCTOBER 2016

featuring propertytoday

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To help you settle down in London and Paris choose the smart ones. From both shores.

SaleS & lettingS • PariS & london 280 Fulham Road, SW10 9EW • 020 7351 6308 breteuil.co.uk / breteuilimmo.com 2

compendium featuring property today october 2016


contents

KC &W

Produced and distributed by: Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today Published by: Kensington & Chelsea Today Limited 80-100 Gwynne Road London SW11 3 UW T: 020 7738 2348 news@kcwtoday.co.uk www.kcwtoday.co.uk Kensington & Chelsea Today Limited does not accept any responsibility for advertising or editorial content.

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Never the Twain

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Urban Landscapes

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River Revolution

London living

Gardening in the City

Yesterday, today and tomorrow

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Intelligence Squared

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Artinvest

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Leading culture destinations

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Going, going, gone

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The modern aesthete

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Rural Retreats

The art of debate

Fast cars, fast women and slow horses

Oscars for Museums

Arty-Facts: The A-Z of Auctioneering

Time and the written word

‘Nature never did betray/the heart that loved her’ William Wordsworth

Front cover pcture courtesy of Battersea Power Station Development Company

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compendium featuring property today october 2016


never the twain By Derek Wyatt

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he “Buy land they’re not making it anymore” quote sounds like it could have come from Spike Milligan. He was a poet, writer and well meaning gooner who managed to have etched on his gravestone in Gaelic “I told them I was ill”. Instead, the “Buy land” quote came from the remarkably talented Mark Twain, an American thinker, writer and humorist. He was a better and earlier version of the New York socialite Dorothy Parker. I still find myself chuckling at his “The lack of money is the root of all evil”. Twain today would probably agree that such is the shortage of land he would have had to add: “Except Up”. “Up” are the new palaces of London. Upstairs is the new land. See how it is fashioning this great city; we even give them names we like them so much, viz: the Gherkin, the Shard, the Walkie Talkie and the Cheese Grater. Shudder then when you learn that over 400 more upstairs applications are making their way through our Byzantine planning rules. It is not all fine and dandy. See how it is, as Tom Sharpe almost said: “A blot on the landscape” too. Walk across Lambeth Bridge towards the nugget

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which is Lambeth Palace and look right. It is a site of indiscriminate half rise and high rise buildings designed by grubby builders and architects and approved by even grubbier planning departments. Ditto Vauxhall Bridge which hurts the eye it is so ugly and is saved only by Terry Farrell’s quixotic MI6 building. At least there is a substantial change of mood across Chelsea Bridge with the biggest development in Europe on the Battersea Power Station plot. I hope it is successful, especially as the great Frank Gehry is building his first major building in Britain in his inimitable style. I saw his two-bed show flat and lusted after it. Once the new tube station is open, all the facilities are completed and the US Embassy is bedded down (the Chinese now want to move theirs and allegedly asked for a building ten times as big) it will profoundly change the area. There is definitely something moving in the waters of the Thames. Families, couples and millennials are re-reconsidering how they want to live and where. It is a hunch but my guess is that Remainers not already here will slowly drift to this great, global city and live soon in their 3D printed polymer houses and flats. A revolution in house

compendium featuring property today october 2016


Photographs courtesy of Battersea Development Company

“Buy Land. They’re not making it anymore” building is just around the corner. Others seem to want to stay in town and yet stay away at the weekends. Then there are those tired by the rubbish served up by the likes of Southern Rail; tired by the cancellations, tired by the quality of service and tired by the ever increasing cost of season tickets and pondering what to do. 5

They look at the developments at King’s Cross (45 minutes from Cambridge), London Bridge (fancy a small flat close to The Shard?) and shortly Paddington and round the corner Waterloo. A new model is developing of living Monday to Thursday in a 2 bedroom flat with the family and in a four bedroom house with a garden in the country at weekends. As an example, in mid Suffolk, closer to Bury St Edmunds, a five bedroom house will set you back £400k. Soon that will not buy you a flat anywhere in town. But, with pensions declining and savings suffering, house buying in London becomes a critical part of a family’s portfolio. Better a flat in London increasing at 5% p.a. than five bedrooms in the country making barely 1%. This is the crux. Or maybe better to buy and rent a flat here as rents have climbed faster than house prices. I gave up commuting just under twenty years ago and bought a flat. I was leaving home at 6.30am and returning just after 11 or 12 at night. Occasionally, I would fall asleep and end up in Canterbury or worse Dover. I never saw my children and at weekends I was asked to sign the visitor’s book. I still toss and turn about wanting

to have the best of both worlds by having a house here and a house there somewhere. But not for the moment. At a certain age you need the NHS! Living in this fabulous city which is in the middle of yet another of its renaissances is worth the hassle. Its fashion, its comedy, its food, its people, its galleries, its Chelsea Arts Club, its How to Academies, its Intelligence Squared and Meet Ups are the very best: no city is our equal. So, of course, there have been recent blips in the market: the blessed increases in stamp duty on the buyer not the seller (how mad is that?) have not helped. The wretched EU referendum and the subsequent jitters have held back buyers. These matters are sometimes cyclical, sometimes confidence, sometimes fear but prices have always recovered. It may take another 18 months and a stamp duty holiday for prices to rise above their 2014 high but rise they will. My sense is London will be the major beneficiary of Brexit. We will be first to see the opportunities and first to exploit them. It is in our nature. It is the EU that is under pressure especially Germany. Once, we all pull together, watch house prices move!

compendium featuring property today october 2016


urban gardening in cityscapes

LONDON

RHS

plants and urban gardening products, providing inspiration and highlighting new trends in horticulture and technology. Whether you are an amateur or a professional gardener, informal clinics will provide you with everything you need to know about urban gardening and house plants, whether you want help selecting the best type of plant for your space, guidance on how to care for your plants or advice on how to get started. There will also be talks by top

speakers on a range of topics including city growing, social media and gardening, urban agriculture, indoor plants, the RHS Greening Grey Britain campaign and current gardening trends. For the budding interior designer, a number of workshops will give you the opportunity to try your hand at one of the creative new trends which are transforming everyday houseplants into beautiful sculptural objects, from the art of Kokedama and Terrariums to Macramé. A preview party will be held on the evening of Friday 11 November. As well as giving Londoners the chance to enjoy all that the show has to offer and a free drink with entry, there will be DJs, a choice of botanical cocktails and handcrafted beer from one of London’s newest breweries, Brixton Brewery. Pop-up vegan food vendors will also be on hand serving up culinary treats throughout the show. For more information on the RHS London Urban Garden Show and to buy advance tickets visit: www.rhs.org.uk/londonshows

Friday Late 6 –10pm

RHS Urban Garden Show Sat 12– Sun 13 November, 10am –5pm (Friday Late 11 November, 6 –10pm)

RHS Registered Charity no: 222879/SC038262

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aving a garden comes at a premium in any city, but a lack of private outdoor space need not prevent city dwellers from growing their own plants and produce. The Royal Horticultural Society is working with Cityscapes on a brand new show dedicated to Urban Gardening and the exciting possibilities available to those with limited or no green space. Taking place in the heart of Westminster, this contemporary two-day urban garden festival will feature an enticing selection of plants that are suited to a variety of different city situations, whether it is for the home or for small outdoor spaces such as balconies and courtyards. House plants are currently enjoying a renaissance with a number of specialist shops cropping up across the city, the majority in trendy East London. These florists and house plant boutiques will be coming West for the show and will be joined by a host of nurseries and independent businesses selling a wide range of

• Purchase houseplants to suit every home • Buy outdoor plants perfect for city living • Talks and advice from experts • Hands-on workshops • Botanical cocktails and delicious food

SHOWS Royal Horticultural Halls St James’s Park London Victoria Public entry £6 in advance, £9 on the door, Friday Late £5, RHS Members free

rhs.org.uk/londonshows 6

#RHSLondon

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compendium featuring property today october 2016


liquid history By Max Feldman

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he River Thames name derives from the Latin word Tamesis meaning dark or murky, a name it earned when Julius Caesar’s legions gave up and sailed away from what they viewed as a cold enigmatic and impenetrable wilderness. Far from living up to its name however, throughout British history the Thames has been at the white hot heart of progress for both London and England itself. When London first came into being as a walled town roughly the size of Hyde Park named Londinium in AD 43, its position was chosen purely due to the global trade possibilities offered by the Thames. Capital and river have flourished in a symbiotic relationship ever since. London’s early history was a turbulent and unstable period characterised by invaders sailing up the Thames with motives that tended more towards rape and plunder than gentrification. London Bridge (which was the first bridge built across the Thames) did indeed ‘fall down’, but that was more because that the Viking king Olaf II ordered his longboats to pull the bridge into the river during a raid in 1014 (‘fair ladies’ would not have been advised to stick around to watch). However as

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England became more secure from invaders, the idea of pillaging hordes sailing into London faded into legend (though the Dutch navy didn’t get that memo and launched the infamous Raid on the Medway in 1667 where they burned the fleet at anchor; one of the Royal Navy’s greatest defeats). Whilst London owes its existence to the snaking waters, the city has shaped the river almost to the same degree. When London Bridge was rebuilt in 1209 (it remained the only bridge across the Thames until 1750), it had the unexpected side effect of serving as a barricade and barrage for the river, slowing its flow enough that the waterway began to freeze over during exceptionally cold winters. Londoners (who have historically never met a weather condition they can’t make a party out of) soon began hosting ‘Frost Fairs’ on the ice, huge circuses where a misstep could lead as easily to a broken neck as a scuffed boot. Sadly for event planners keen for a spectacular winter finale, it’s unlikely that we’ll see their return as the building of the embankments once again recalibrated the river’s speed so it moves faster than the ice can form. Although the Thames in the present day is one of the cleanest rivers in Europe (its murky colour

compendium featuring property today october 2016


“The feculence rolled up in clouds so dense that they were visible at the surface… ” comes from the sediment being kicked up by the aforementioned newfound speed of the river) for large portions of its existence it was less charming and more Chernobyl. From as early as the 1300s the Thames role as London’s gateway to the ocean had been expanded into the slightly less glamorous status of ‘open sewer’. As London’s population exploded, all of its effluence, from animal waste from slaughterhouses, to human discharge were poured into the waters of the Thames (Historian Peter Ackroyd noted “a public lavatory on London Bridge showered its contents directly onto the river below, and latrines were built over all the tributaries that issued into the Thames.”). In a Royal proclamation in 1357 Edward III went as far as to describe the state of the river as a morass of: “... dung and other filth had accumulated in divers places upon the banks of the river with... fumes and other abominable stenches arising therefrom.”, not the kind of reading material you want to find in a tourist guide. In spite of the fact that swimming in the river at this point would be roughly the equivalent of sinking into a hot-tub full of nuclear waste, the Thames (and London) thrived and by the 16th and 17th centuries. The Pool of London was thick with seagoing vessels while naval dockyards were built at Deptford. Barges travelled daily from Oxford to London carrying timber, wool, foodstuffs and livestock. The river was like a mains cable that plugged London into the teaming industry of England, any product needed could be brought to the capital within days. Even the stone used to rebuild St Paul’s Cathedral after the Great Fire in 1666 was brought all the way down from Radcot. The Thames provided the major route between the City of London and Westminster and was lorded over jealously by a clannish guild of watermen who ferried Londoners from landing to landing and tolerated no outside interference (the bodies of outsiders trying to muscle in on their territory tended to wash up on the river banks come low tide…). By the 18th century, the Thames was one of the world’s busiest waterways and London became the centre of the vast, mercantile British Empire. Progressively over the next century the docks spiderwebbed outwards through the Isle of Dogs and beyond. The river swarmed with boats of all types and efforts were made to resolve the navigation conflicts upstream via the introduction of locks along the Thames. Even for non-sailors the river exerted a powerful pull over the lives of Londoners. Through the late 18th and 19th century an underclass known as Mudlarks, who scavenged for tradeable goods through the waste and detritus on the riverbanks, became so well established that ‘mudlark’ was 9

accepted as a legitimate profession until 1904. Unfortunately for the Mudlarks however, the river had never been so polluted. The dumping of raw sewage into the Thames combined with the proliferation of the flush toilet choked the river leading to cholera outbreaks which killed tens of thousands of people between 1832 and 1865. In 1855, scientist Michael Faraday attempted to discern the opacity of the water in the Thames, and discovered that, “the feculence rolled up in clouds so dense that they were visible at the surface… the whole river was for the time a real sewer.” Conditions worsened until, in the summer of 1858, temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit made the already foul smell of the Thames unbearable. Charles Dickens called it a smell “of a

most head-and-stomach-distending nature.” The newspapers, knowing a good headline when they heard one, announced the crisis as “The Great Stink.” Predictably, Parliament’s first reaction was to attempt to deny any responsibility in fixing London’s failed sewers. However considering that the stink was pervading every inch of Parliament it was rather more difficult for politicians to ignore. Civil servants soaked the building’s curtains in lime chloride to block out the smell (which didn’t work) and even considered moving the seat of government to Oxford or St Albans. The government were eventually reduced to spending £1,500 a week dumping lime into the river in a futile attempt to cover up the smell. A concerted effort to contain the city’s sewage by constructing massive sewer systems on the north and south river embankments followed, under the supervision of engineer Joseph Bazalgette. Meanwhile, similar huge undertakings took place to ensure the water supply, with the building of reservoirs and pumping stations on the river to the west of London, slowly helping the quality of water to improve. Nowadays several species of fish thrive in waters that previously had more in common with sulphuric acid than H20, and London has become a standard-bearing city of the new millennium. The liquid history of the Thames ensures that we are never far from our past.

compendium featuring property today october 2016


a river revolution: the future By Emma Flynn

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ince 2012 swimming has been banned between Putney Bridge and the Thames Barrier without prior consent from the harbour master. The Port of London Authority reasons that the busy inland waterway, with its strong tides and eddies is too dangerous for a human swimmer. Not that many of us would complain about this missed opportunity. Despite being heralded as the cleanest metropolitan river in Europe, fears of pollution prevent many from even imagining a swim in its waters. This wasn’t always the case. In the book Downstream: A History of Swimming the River Thames, author Caitlin Davies, documents 400 years of bathing in the capital’s river. “From Victorian times to the 1930s, we had floating baths, temporary lidos, pontoons and even water slides all the way along the Thames. The river was much more filthy then, so it’s strange that we’re worrying about pollution now.” Despite the dirt, river swimming was at its peak in the Victorian era, when floating ‘bath palaces’ filled cities’ rivers

around the world, including a 135ft x 25ft facility by the Hungerford Bridge, Charing Cross. The craze continued until the First World War put river swimming on hold, and the growth of municipal baths further drew people away from the river. Bombing during the Second World War damaged the sewer system, allowing waste to pour into the river once again, and by the 1970s, local authorities began banning swimming considering the pollution to be too dangerous. Many historic swimming spots were closed, and we turned our back on the Thames in favour of indoor pools. This continued into the Nineties, despite water quality improving considerably. In the last ten years we have began to return to the Thames with many swimmers choosing wild swimming over the indoor pool. Mass events at sites such as Windsor, Eton, Hampton Court and the London Docks attract triathletes in wetsuits from around the world. River swimming still has some way to go to compete with the Victorians, but it is back. The River Thames is becoming what Kate

Photograph and above opposite courtesy of StudioOctopi/Picture Plane

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Rew, founder of the Outdoor Swimming Society, calls “a swimming super highway”. While London developers are fighting to maximise every bit of available land, the river remains neglected in terms of accessible public facilities. Heatherwick’s Garden Bridge will do much to bring an estimated 30,000 visitors across the river, however it will not fundamentally alter the way people interact with the river or bring them closer to the water below. With this in mind, a new wave of proposals are emerging in response to this renewed desire to engage with the river. Aiming to re-connect us with the historic lifeblood of the city, they are re-activating the public realm along waterfronts, and blurring the divide between water and land. Thames Baths, a Community Interest Company, campaigns for the formal reintroduction of swimming in the River Thames. Their vision is to 11

inspire people in cities around the world to reclaim their rivers for swimming and increased public use. They aim to launch a series of natural swimming baths, which can be replicated and licensed in cities across the UK and worldwide, enabling people to enjoy swimming safely in their own rivers. Starting with a proposal for the Thames Baths floating lido, designed by architects, Studio Octopi, the CIC aims to playfully reconnect the River Thames to the city. The floating swimming pool is designed as a pontoon of three freshwater pools located beside Temple underground station. The group admits that it will be a long time before the Thames water will be clean enough to use directly. However, working with marine engineer Beckett Rankine they have developed a process to filter and heat Thames water to ensure clean water for swimming. Nevertheless London finds itself behind the trend. There are a number of cities already with similar projects. The proposal is reminiscent of Berlin’s Badeschiff, a pool converted from the hull of a vessel moored on the River Spree. The Badeschiff opened in the summer of 2004 as an art project to enliven city life along a long-neglected stretch of the river. Copenhagen currently has four crystal-clear outdoor swimming areas in the inner city. The first opened in 2002, designed by Bjarke Ingels and Julien de Smedt, but these ‘harbour baths’ were not instantaneous. They were part of a city-wide clean-up programme lasting over a decade. Growing out of the city’s focus on human wellbeing, they formed part of a strategy to increase outdoor public space, where people could be active and connected to nature.

Despite the concept not being new, the current inclination for urban swimming is contagious. There are now plans for a cross-shaped floating pool in New York, which is currently being successfully crowd funded. This latest scheme, takes the idea of the floating pontoon even further, proposing an innovative method of filtering the water of East River through the walls of the pool itself. In the last few years in London we have seen a number of new proposals for urban open water swimming areas. The King Cross Pond, which opened last year, was the UK’s first ever manmade fresh water public bathing pond. A piece of innovative land art, wild swimming was introduced within a working construction site area of Argent’s King’s Cross development. The 40m long, natural, chemical-free pond is the creation of Ooze Architects and artist Marjetica Potrc. The water is purified through a natural, closed-loop process process using wetland and submerged water plants to filter the water and keep it clear. Last year the Royal Docks, near London City Airport and the ExCel Centre, opened to allow both casual and competitive swimmers to swim in open water. Swimmers are tagged to make sure nothing goes wrong and qualified coaching is available for anyone who feels thrown in the deep end… The tide is changing in London. These projects are helping to rekindle an interest in wild swimming in the heart of the city, and are placing new value on our historic river. With the Thames cleaner than ever before, we need projects that start engaging with the main artery of the city. It’s time for London to take the plunge.

compendium featuring property today october 2016

Photograph courtesy of dezeen Plus Pool by Family and Play Lab

“A swimming superhighway. It’s time for London to take the plunge”


the river today By Ione Bingley & Polly Allen

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oday, threading its way through central London, the Thames flows with the cultural lifeblood of the city. Its banks, bursting with activity, are wallto-wall with attractions and bobbing on its ‘rippled jade’ are houseboats, galleons, warships, taxis, bars, restaurants and tour boats. Whether you’re considering an alternative life on the Thames, or just fancy a jaunt down to the riverside, let us be your guide.

Boating If you’ve ever dreamed of snuggling down in a cosy houseboat on London’s famed waterway, zipping up and down in a sexy speedboat or gracefully gliding through the city on a yacht, you could make it a reality so long as you’re ready to stump up the mooring costs. Cabin boats from £13.54 per metre per month Unpowered open boats from £3.39 per metre per month Powered open boats from £4.06 per metre per month

Rowing Those of you who have been inspired by the Oxford-Cambridge boat race and are looking for a workout might consider joining the Thames Rowing Club in Putney. Founded in 1860 and renowned for being London’s ‘friendliest’ rowing club, they welcome rowers of all ages and all abilities, from beginners to elite athletes. http://thamesrc.co.uk/

Cruise into Work Ferries are ideal for the world-weary commuter, promising fresh air, no Tube strikes and some impressive views. They’ve been a licensed form of public river transport since 1510 (thanks to Henry VIII). There are several weekday routes available on the MBNA Thames Clippers: Find the full timetable at www.thamesclippers. com/route-time-table. Pay less with your Oyster, contactless card, or the official app: an All Zones single trip is £7.20 instead of £8.20. An All Zones season ticket is £50.40 per week or £193.55 per month.

Travel Like a Rock Star

You will also need to register your boat with the Environment Agency. All prices are from the Environment Agency. For more information: http://buff.ly/2cWFo8P

Reach the O2 Arena in a VIP private boat charter – a Venetian Water Limousine, no less, with Thames Limo (www.thameslimo.co.uk). Prices from £1,200, including butler service.

We’ve all dreamed of the classic, timeless, wooden yacht and then seen that dream fizzle out at the thought and price of the upkeep, mooring, cleaning, the list goes on.

Yacht Charters

The Chelsea Yacht Club, based at Chelsea’s Cadogan Pier, appears to provide the perfect solution to our boating aspirations. By becoming a member of the exclusive club you are given free reign of their two magnificent yachts. Membership cost: £1500 per annum www.cyc.london 12

If you’re an experienced yachtsman or woman looking for likeminded enthusiasts and are partial to some long standing history, you might think about joining the Royal Thames Yachts Club. Founded in 1775 with its swanky ‘land base’ located in Knightsbridge complete with ‘cabins’ to stay in, the RTYC boasts a fleet of racing yachts and fantastic connections with other clubs across the seven seas. www.royalthames.com

Alternatively, Maritime Yacht Charters (www. maritimeyachtcharters.com/O2Arena.html) offer VIP O2 arena access and champagne, for up to 10 passengers, from several London piers. From £650, vessel dependent.You can also enjoy a 3 hour bespoke charter with nibbles and drinks from £3000.

RIB Experience To increase your adrenaline, charter a Thames RIB(www.thamesribexperience.com). Prices start at £294 for 20 minute ‘blast’ adventures, rising to £550 for a 75-minute Thames Barrier trip.

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Unorthodox Tours Mudlarking, foraging for archaeology finds on the shoreline, has become immensely popular in recent years. Take a private two-hour foreshore walk with Thames Explorers (www.thames-explorer.org. uk/foreshore-walks, £205) with up to 30 people: locations include Fulham Palace, the Millennium Bridge and Southwark.

Special Occasions The ultimate showstopper has to be Her Majesty’s Secret Service, a hedonistic half-day experience involving a Rolls Royce Phantom, a private helicopter following any route, and a Sunseeker yacht cruise to take you to the speedboat featured in The World Is Not Enough.Yours for £10,000 (plus VAT) and upwards through Diplomat Cruises (www.diplomatcruises.co.uk).

Silver Service Lastly, to ring in 2017 in style, the family-run Silver Fleet (http://www.silverfleet.co.uk) offers two luxury New Year’s Eve river cruises with a four course menu, unlimited drinks, a live DJ and the all-important Laurent-Perrier toast at midnight. The Silver Barracuda, from the London Bridge City Pier, costs £355pp; the Silver Sturgeon, from the Savoy Pier, costs £435pp. Silver Fleet chairman and owner Alan Woods is the Queen’s former appointed Waterman and his Thames Watermen family legacy dates back to 1866.

Riverside Living There are several property companies specialising in riverside options. Through River Homes (http:// www.riverhomes.co.uk/) you can find your perfect waterside house or houseboat. There is something to be said for the freedom up upping sticks and moving your house for a change of scene and a houseboat comes in at considerably less than a house ‘moored’ in the same area. Battersea Power Station If a riverside view is wet enough for you, Nine Elms connecting Battersea to Vauxhall is a hive of exciting development activity with new builds popping up all along the river. The ambitious sixphase Battersea Power Station development is a veritable playground complete with roof gardens, chimney lift, riverside village and a host of cuttingedge buildings designed by the celebrated Frank Gehry. www.batterseapowerstation.co.uk www.bpsestates.co.uk Embassy Gardens Also on Nine Elms and opposite the funky, new US embassy, Embassy Gardens is another hotspot for 13

luxury seekers to get their claws into. Developed by the Ballymore Group, it will feature the world’s first clear, rooftop ‘skypool’ suspended between two of the buildings allowing residents to swim between them and to view the street below. www.embassygardens.com

WATERSIDE DINNER & DRINKS Mondrian London Head to London’s newest design museum, Mondrian London in the Sea Containers building. The interior of the hotel, cleverly designed by celebrated British engineer, Tom Dixon, places you in the mighty hull and the rooftop bar with a panorama river view, inspired by the Bright Young Things exudes decadent elegance. https://www. morganshotelgroup.com/mondrian/mondrianlondon

The River Café The River Café on the Thames at Hammersmith promises to delight. Owned by Ruth Rodgers and designed by her husband, top British architect Lord Rodgers, both the minimalist interior and the Michelin-starred food are exquisite. http://www. rivercafe.co.uk/

Hutong Like to keep your head above water? Take a tour round the top of the Shard before grabbing a dizzying bite at Hutong on the 33rd floor. The award-winning restaurant takes its inspiration from dishes served in the imperial palaces of Peking and is sister to the original restaurant in Hong Kong. With views all the way to the Thames barrier, sultry interior and sumptuous fare, Hutong exudes luxury. http://hutong.co.uk/

Tamesis Converted 1930 Dutch Barge, Tamesis is a riproaring, after work hotspot. The floating pub is a one off in London and hosts live music events, karaoke nights and pub quizzes to name just a few of the myriad excitements. Adorned with shimmering lights and awash with colour, this pub is certainly unique. http://www.tdock.co.uk/

Pont de la Tour For a luxurious riverside experience with iconic views try Le Pont de la Tour. Located next to Tower Bridge, the riverside spot evokes the Parisian chic of the 1930s with a glossy interior, innovative French cuisine and stunning views of the City. http://www.lepontdelatour.co.uk/

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intelligence ² By Henry Tobias Jones

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he cornerstone of British civilisation has been entrenched in the art of debate. We may now be living with issues like Brexit, immigration, and terrorism, but Alfred the Great had his “Viking problem” and Chamberlain couldn’t quite make up his mind whether to appease his “Hitler issue” or not. From the Celts debating whether or not to welcome in the Romans to the Victorians struggling over Darwin’s dangerous idea, our civilisation has been shaped by our ability to debate. The forthcoming Clinton v Trump debate in November is predicted to have the highest ratings for TV audiences recorded to date

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t is perhaps from this climate that, “Intelligence Squared (IQ2)” acknowledging the importance of debate to society, took the story to the stage, and have become the world’s premier debating company. Founded in 2002 by two old friends from Cambridge, John Gordon, a media entrepreneur, and Jeremy O’Grady, the Editor-in-Chief of The Week magazine, IQ2 was a pipe dream to stage Oxbridge debates in London, for a paying audience. When the idea finally got off the ground in September 2002, the first event was for the motion: “Hunting with hounds should be banned”, giving you some sense of how long ago that really is. The first debate took place in the Royal Geographical Society, on Kensington’s Exhibition Road, and audiences were literally being dragged in off the streets. However, the events soon developed a real cultural cachet and before long tickets were selling out as fast as they could think up new monthly events. Today,IQ2 is a global phenomenon, with bureaus all over the world, including: Hong Kong,

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Athens, Sydney, and New York. Their debates host world-class speakers and sell out in minutes. While it is very much a team project, inspired by the guests and motions they deliver at each event, the success of IQ2 is in no small way inspired by the producers. As the executive producer of IQ2, Hannah Kaye is an instrumental part of the think tank behind the successful ideas that define and stage the companies’ debates. Her role includes ensuring her guest speakers such as Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Stephen Fry, and Germaine Greer deliver. The story of IQ2’s meteoric rise included Hannah working on much-loved debates like Greece vs Rome, with Boris Johnson arguing for Greece and Mary Beard for Rome and many others. On October 4th she introduced Jeremy Paxman with John Humphrys in the interrogating chair. Paxman bemoaned “the lack of satire on TV, and celebrity journalism” he stated that “a reporter’s role was to draw back the curtain of truth” and” to question the role of a PR rigorously”. However, he also quoted

compendium featuring property today october 2016


FORTHCOMING EVENTS

Monday 14th November Emmanuel Centre No backsliding on Brexit: Britain should prioritise controlling its borders over staying in The European Single Market

Thursday 20th October RiGB Don’t give them what they want: Terrorists should be starved of the oxygen of publicity Monday 31st October RiGB Let Them Eat Meat: There’s nothing wrong with rearing and killing animals for human consumption Saturday 5 November 2016 RGS The Intelligence Squared Festival

Monday 21st November Emmanuel Centre Politics and the Rise of Populism Tuesday 29th November Emmanuel Centre Ian Fleming vs John le Carré

Photographs courtesy of Intelligence Squared/ Tim Bowditch

“We are all made of crooked timber and we do the best we can” Hannah Kaye’s work, alongside her colleagues at IQ2 has made it undoubtedly one of the very best public intellectual forums. Her pride in IQ2’s mission to educate, entertain, and challenge audiences all over the world is not only deserved, it is urgently needed. Enter, Nick Pisani and the BBC. If Hannah’s job is vital to keeping the physical events show on the road, Nick Pisani is, to quote Hannah’s glowing praise: “our vital link to the BBC, he is the man who keeps the televised debates on the BBC world news.” Nick Pisani has been at the centre of British media for well over three decades, with a six year stint as the Editor of BB1’s Question Time, where he helped to bring the BBC panel debate format into the modern world. Pisani’s tenure left an indelible mark on the show thanks to his decision to change the format from four to five guests to ensure at least two were not parroting party lines. He also moved the show out of studios and took it to places it had never been to before with outside broadcasts. Pisani’s changes were rewarded by seeing the audience double. He took the show to Australia for the debates over its referendum on becoming a republic in 1999. Working on a joint BBC and ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) edition of ‘Question Time’ in Sydney, 15

co-hosted by David Dimbleby, Nick was watching Australia struggling with almost exactly the same issue Britain encountered on June 23rd. As Nick explains “Australia has a written constitution, and to change it you have to have a referendum in which the majority of people and a majority of the states have to vote to change - I think it’s only ever been changed three times.” Arriving in Australia, Nick told the public “I think the Republican vote isn’t going to pass.” Putting it mildly, many Australians disagreed. “People said to me: ‘You’re mad!’ and ‘you are completely wrong!’ and even ‘why are you coming over here saying that, it’s going to win!’” In the referendum all six states voted against. He also staged the head to head debate between David Davis and David Cameron over the leadership of the Tory party in 2005, which led to Cameron inviting him to be his head of Presentation and Events which he accepted for a brief tenure. He is now back at the ‘BBC World News’ where he is proving to be the conduit linking the premier debating events of ‘Intelligence Squared’ with the BBC’s 85 million worldwide viewers. Having worked as CEO of IQ2 and using his experience at Question Time for the BBC he has spent almost 10 years producing IQ2 debates for BBC World News via his production company W11 Media Ltd. They are watched by 80million plus

With his deeply entrenched roots in UK politics, Nick is truly tuned into the sense of a “national debate”. However, rather than shaping the public opinion from the stage like a politician, Nick has been in a position to shape the very form of the argument itself, from behind the scenes. He has to translate the Oxbridge style debates, not just for a partisan intellectual elite in London, but for the millions of viewers around the globe, often using highly controversial subjects to help form public opinion. Hannah, Nick, and the rest of IQ2 are a rare island of civilization is what seem to be the rising waters of angry refusal to talk to each other about our problems, let alone listen to one another. As Nick eloquently says: “I really believe in the Reithian values of educate, entertain, and inform and that’s what the ‘Intelligence Squared’ debates try to do.” At the beginning and end of various debates, audiences are asked to vote on the motion. What is fascinating about every debate is not so much who wins or loses, but rather whether or not there is a swing in the number of voters who have listened to reasoned, impassioned rhetoric and changed their minds. This is part of the real value of what IQ2 stands for and delivers. Hannah, Nick, and the IQ2 team are the vital people who are keeping the flame of our civilization lit by regularly using the principle tools capable of maintaining it: debate.

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Picture © Roulande Institute

artinvest By Don Grant

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t is a sobering thought that some of the most expensive pictures ever sold, at auction, or privately, were painted by Vincent van Gogh, and yet he only sold one, or possibly two, in his lifetime. One was The Red Vineyards, painted in oils on burlap or hessian and bought by a Belgian painter and collector Anna Boch for 400 Belgian francs. The cost of the raw materials, paint, canvas and stretcher, would have been a fraction of that, and yet the Portrait of Dr Gachet, the man who cared for him in the village of Auvers north-east of Paris after he left the asylum in Saint-Rémy, went for $152m in 1990, breaking all records at the time. Since then, prices have gone stratospheric, with the front-runner currently being Paul Gauguin’s Tahitian When Will You Marry, sold to the Qatar Royal Family for an eye-watering $300 million. They also bought Paul Cézanne’s The Card

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Players for an estimated $259 million in 2011. Three other names appear in the best-seller list, namely Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol and Francis Bacon, but Renoir’s delightful Le Moulin de la Galette, was bought by a Japanese paper magnate for Ryoei Saito for $78 million. Such was his astonishing display of greed and selfishness, he wanted the painting to be cremated with him, along with Portrait of Dr Gachet, which he also owned. However, karma intervened when the company went into a financial nose-dive, and they had to be sold as collateral. Art is not exempt from Capital Gains Tax, as it is not deemed as ‘wasting assets,’ unlike wine, clocks and watches and classic cars. The latter are also categorised as being passenger vehicles, and as long as one does not start buying and selling Ferraris and E-type Jaguars, in other words, trading, one is exempt from both income tax and CGT. Classic car prices have soared nearly 400% in 10 years, while the FTSE 100 rose around 94% over that same period. Racehorses are also in that category, although even more risky with four legs rather than four wheels, and only one horsepower. Many is the punter whose lives have been changed for the worse by ‘fast cars, fast women and slow horses’. Fine wine is ‘perishable’, generally reaching maturity after 25 years, although port is excluded. Wasting assets are items classed as having a normal predictable life of less than 50 years, although there are some misguided collectors who buy 50 year old single malt whiskies for ridiculous sums of money, little realising that the optimum time in the barrel is at

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most twenty years. After that, it takes on impurities from the quercus alba (American oak) barrels, and, as once in the bottle it doesn’t mature any further. Asking £16,000 for a bottle of 50 year old Bowmore is like standing in the middle of Prince’s Street in Edinburgh with a tricorn hat and a couple of flintlock pistols. Buying art is a risky business as well. According to Charles Saatchi, he ‘made’ Damien Hirst back in the late 1980s and 1990s, although he would deny that vehemently, and they fell out heavily when the adman started to unload his collection. Hirst has since been trying to buy back his work, and has succeeded in securing a dozen pieces. ‘I’m not Charles Saatchi’s barrel-organ monkey,’ he later said. ‘He only recognises art with his wallet . . . he believes he can affect art values with buying power, and he still believes he can do it.’ Re-sale value in Hirsts have been dropping recently, after he peaked at Sotheby’s in 2008, when he unloaded $200 million of his work in one ‘garage sale’ as the financial world was collapsing all around, with Lehman Brothers going bankrupt and Merrill Lynch, AIG, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, HBOS, Royal Bank of Scotland, Bradford & Bingley, Fortis, Hypo and Alliance & Leicester all coming within 17

a whisker of also doing so and had to be rescued. I was at the viewing of the Sotheby’s show, and there were the same honed, buffed and perma-tanned Eurotrash in Armani and Chanel as there are now at Masterpiece, otherwise known as the ‘Unaffordable

Art Fair’, treating art as investment and nothing to do with aesthetics. Galleries and longtime collectors were appalled to see the market flooded with Hirsts all for the sake of one big cash payout. Julian Schnabel, a New York painter, who combined broken ceramics in his canvases, was championed by Saatchi in the 1980s, but found his popularity decline after he unloaded a number of his works. His collectors saw their ‘investments’ decline, never to recover. He abandoned painting and re-invented himself as a film-maker, making the acclaimed The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and a biopic of the painter Jean-Michel Basquiat. The same fate befell Arman, a French artist who was popular in the 1960s. Collectors attempted to showcase at auction, in hopes of seeing a bump in his prices, but the moves didn’t pay off and Arman never reached the heights of his peers like Yves Klein. Apart from these casualties, the global art market is booming. Two years ago sales reached a record $68 billion, nearly double the level of 2009 according to the European Fine Art Foundation. Another record was broken when an American paid £30m for a painting by Gerhard Richter, a record for a living European artist. On average, prices for contemporary and post war art have risen by 19% over the past year. Institutional investors first entered the art market in the 1970s as a hedge against inflation. The pension fund of British Rail put £40m, or about 3% of its holdings, into oil and canvas. Unlike many other real assets, such as farmland or property, art is also movable, which is handy for buyers who do not plan to tell the taxman about it. It is not just art that is attracting investors, however. Antiquarian books are in high demand, anything from a first edition James Bond with iconic cover by Richard Chopping for a few grand, to Audubon’s Birds of America for quite a few million. Manuscripts, such as Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex Hammer, bought by Bill Gates for $30 million in 2007, was digitally scanned and released to the public in an act of philanthropy, unlike our miserly Japanese businessman. Watches can command enormous prices, such as a Vacheron Constantin wristwatch, featuring a faithful reproduction of the entire Chagall ceiling of L’Opéra de Paris painted in enamel on the face, but the makers are coy about its cost. Another model, Tour de L’ile, is priced at $1.5 million, which may give one a clue. In a famous case recently Lord Howard claimed that a Reynolds painting he sold for £9m was exempt from CGT because he maintained it was ‘plant’, hanging as it was in his stately home, and one wonders how many financial wizards will be advising their clients to invest in ‘plant?’

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Pictures © Neath Inc.

“fast cars, fast women and slow horses”


leading culture destinations award Winners 2016 announced

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he winners of the Leading Culture Destinations Awards, “The Oscars for Museums”, were announced on September 30 at a star-studded ceremony at The Langham, London. Leading Culture Destinations is a platform created to explore, recognise and promote the world’s best destinations for cultural experiences. Set up by Florian Wupperfeld and Bakul Patki, together with a team of art and travel enthusiasts, it aims at sharing knowledge and recommendations from a global network of leading professionals from the arts, fashion, music and film. The company aims to support both emerging and existing arts institutions and travel destinations, highlighting the practices and solutions that raise the standards of the

cultural sector worldwide. The Leading Culture Destinations Awards are sponsored by Bang & Olufsen.

Quotes, facts and figures about the global growth of cultural institutions and the impact of culture: • “All department stores will become museums, and all museums will become department stores.” Andy Warhol • “Four out of five visitors state that ‘culture, art and heritage’ are their main reasons for coming to London. Indeed, cultural tourism generates £3.2 billion a year for the local economy and supports around 80,000 jobs through 17 million visitors in the capital alone.” Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, 2014 • The most-attended art exhibitions of 2013 were not in Europe or North America, but in Taipei and Rio de Janeiro. The Economist’s ‘Emerging Economies and the Culture Boom’ report • China alone will open more than 2,000 museums within the next five years. The Economist, 2014

The Broad Museum, Los Angeles

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Art Hotel of the Year Durslade Farmhouse, Hauser & Wirth, Somerset, England

• The arts and culture sector is worth £7.7bn gross value added GVA to the UK economy. The Arts Council Report, 2015 The Leading Culture Destinations Award winners were chosen by a jury of eleven established cultural gurus from around the world. The scheme, now in its third year, celebrates museums and cities for their dedication to cultural vitality with winners chosen based on the quality and reach of their contributions to the international cultural sphere. The awards, sponsored by Bang & Olufsen, recognise institutions, organisations, and cities that have provided exemplary contributions to local cultural life and showcase emerging destinations. The judges review everything from audacious programming and management structures, to cross-sector collaborations and Michelinstarred restaurants, late night openings and music performances, with an overarching focus on a visionary approach to these cultural initiatives. The winners were presented with a trophy designed by United Visual Artists.

themselves. The Langham, London in partnership with Chez Roux offers guests Private Dining by Roux for special events and occasions including The Leading Culture Destinations.

The Leading Culture Destination of the Year Award winners: • Exhibition of the Year: Proportio, at Palazzo Fortuny,Venice, curated by Axel Vervoordt and Daniela Ferretti • Museum Architecture of the Year: The Broad Museum, Los Angeles (architect Diller Scofidio + Renfro) • Museum Shop of the Year: Louisiana Museum, Copenhagen • Restaurant of the Year: LouLou, Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Paris • Digital Museum of the Year: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Also new to the Leading Culture Destinations Awards this year was a unique opportunity for guests to experience the world’s first interactive museum exhibit, brought to the ceremony by Inception VR.Viewers were able to see paintings from The Dali Theatre-Museum in Figures from both inside the museum and inside the paintings 19

• Best Soft Power Cultural Activation Award: The Cultural Spring, Sunderland • Best Soft Power Cultural Organisation Award: The Canadian Museum of Human Rights, Manitoba • Best Soft Power Cultural District Award: La Ponte Ecomuséu,Villanueva de Santo Adriano, Spain The Leading Culture Destination 2016 overall winner: • The Broad Museum, Los Angeles For more details about the awards contact: #lcdawards #lcdtravel #lcdcities #oscarsformuseums www.lcdawards.com

The Jury:

Best New Museum of the Year Award winners: (opened in the last 15 months):

The introduction of the Soft Power Destination of the Year Awards indicates a cultural growth trend towards the global periphery as traditional artistic hubs such as London and New York no longer have the same draw for artists, and as emerging nations such as Brazil and India seek social development to match their growth in industry. However, the award winners for Leading Cultural Destination of the Year demonstrate that western countries have not completely lost their edge, and continue to work towards maintaining a wealth of cultural activity.

Soft Power Destination of the Year Award winners:

• Europe: Tate Modern Switch House extension, London • North America: The Broad Museum, Los Angeles • Central and South America: Museu do Amañha, Rio De Janeiro • Africa: Sinthian Cultural Centre (THREAD), Senegal (highly commended) • Asia Pacific: Design Museum Dharavi, India

The Traveller’s Award winners: • Cultural City of the Year: Québec City • Art Hotel of the Year Durslade Farmhouse, Hauser & Wirth Somerset, England

• Ngaire Blankenberg, Principal Consultant, Director Europe, Lord Cultural Resources • Aric Chen, Curator of Design & Architecture at M+ Museum, West Kowloon • Robert Tomei, Financier and Art Patron • Aida Dellal, Owner of Fawley Court, Cultural Engineer and Art Patron • Sarah Miller of Sarah Miller & Partners, former editor in chief of Condé Nast Traveller • Johannes Torpe, Founder and CEO of Johannes Torpe Studios and former Creative Director of Bang & Olufsen • Victoire de Pourtalés, Gallerist and entrepreneur • Marc Sasserath, Executive Chairman of UDG United Digital Group and former Head of Strategy, Publicis • Ross Urwin, CEO of Infrastructure Hong Kong, former creative director of Lane Crawford • Laurent Vernhes, CEO of Tablet Hotels • Tommy Rönngren, Private museum owner and founder of Fotografiska photography museum, Stockholm

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going, going, gone By Tim Epps

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ot it! That surge of fist pumping adrenaline; you beat that portly, programme waving gentleman in the corner and the elegant nodding blonde at the back.Yes! That desirable ceramic/painting/muzzle loader/country estate/ painting/ Bentley/Art Deco clock/racehorse is yours. Sold to the gentleman/lady by the door. And at a knock-down price. Ah, but don’t forget the buyer’s premium. What’s that, you ask, full of post winning-bid euphoria (actually you needed to know this before setting foot in the place!). This is the auction house’s charge for making the sale. Sotheby’s currently charge 25% on the first £200,000 up to and including £3,000,000 and 12% on anything above that! This could take the gilt off the gingerbread if you’ve just reached into your undoubtedly deep pockets for that Gauguin you’ve always coveted for the boardroom or bedroom wall. (see Don Grant’s piece on page 16). At £300,000,000 that could seriously test your financial mettle. No wonder everyone claps when a piece reaches a new world record price. That could be their next year’s bonus right there and then. My calculation makes it £4,314,000 more than the hammer price had it been sold at Sotheby’s, (and assuming no other deals were to be done). Other auction companies may have different rates. Christie’s, for example is structured slightly differently. Christie’s Amsterdam seems to be the top performer with 30.3% up to €50,000, 24.2% on €50,001 to €1,600,000 and 14.5% on €1,600,001 and above. Other rates will apply. Let’s hope the joy of ownership was worth it. The clever principle of the auction is a trade where the curves of desire to possess, resources available and competition with others meet. Auctions have a long history, having been recorded as early as 500 B.C, though more straightforward haggling was also available and simpler. In Rome, around the time of Christ, auctions were popular for selling family estates and the proceeds of war. One of the most significant historical auctions occurred in 193 A.D. when the Praetorian Guard put the entire Roman Empire up for auction. A flying start for an ambitious, budding dictator! Over time, auction houses sprang up in Europe. Founded in 1674 by Baron Claes Rålamb, Stockholm’s Auktionsverk is the oldest auction house still in business. In 1744 Samuel Baker, founder of Sotheby’s, held his first auction, the sale of the library of Sir John Stanley. 22 years later Christie’s were founded. This start grew into the plethora of ways of going to auction we know today, including online auctions. These have transformed many peoples lives and the financial landscape for owners,

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“A flying start for an ambitious, budding dictator!”

purchasers and auction houses. Other than the method of starting at a high price and coming down to reach the market equilibrium (where cupidity and cost kick in again) auctions retain the same time honoured formula. The best bid gets it. The experienced auction goer will no doubt counsel caution; know how much you can spend on any individual lot and don’t be tempted to go higher in the heat of the moment; want the item bid for. (I still hanker after the beautiful officer’s dress sword that went for peanuts in a small country sale in the Cotswolds. But what would I do with it? It’s probably illegal to possess a blade of that length in central London and I was looking for Persian carpets, anyway), and don’t forget the buyers’ premium. There’s an auction out there for virtually any collector, so get going, going, gone. 21

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auction listings A

Antique Arms, Armour & Militaria Thomas Del Mar, 25 Blythe Rd 7 December British and European Art Bonhams, Knightsbridge 25 October Asian Art Bonhams Edinburgh 16 November

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Fine Books & Manuscripts Bonhams, Knightsbridge 9 November

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British & European Ceramics & Glasss Bonhams, Knightsbridge 3 November Fine Chinese Paintings Bonhams, Hong Kong 29 November 29

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Design Sotheby’s, New Bond St 15 November

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Edo to Post War: 500 Years of Japanese Art & Design Christie’s Online 3 – 17 November From Earth to Fire Sotheby’s, New Bond St 25 October

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Film Posters & Memorabilia Bruce Marchant, 25 Blythe Rd Online 17 – 20 October Fashion & Glamour

Christie’s Online 22 November – 1 December

Bonhams, New Bond St 10 November 10

Christie’s, King St 18 October

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Jewellery Bonhams, Knightsbridge 23 November 23

Old Master Paintings Bonhams, Knightsbridge 2 November

Fine Chinese Jades Sotheby’s, New Bond St 9 November 9

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The Greek Sale Bonhams, New Bond St 7 November

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Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds Christie’s, King St 20 October 20

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Kenzo Kagami Collection of Postwar Japanese Art Christie’s, King St 11 October 11

International auctions Australian & Aboriginal Art Bonhams Sydney November 23 Bugatti Sale Christie’s, Paris November 22 European Decorative Arts Sotheby’s, New York 18 October Fine Jewellery Bonhams, New York 14 October Henri Chwast: Une collection à l’abri des regards Sotheby’s, Paris October 20 Impressionist & Modern Art Bonhams, New York 16 November

Magnificent Jewels & Noble Jewels Sotheby’s, Geneva 16 November

The Khosrovani- Diba Collection Sotheby’s, London 19 October

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Lebanese Art Bonhams, New Bond St 12 October Latin American Art Christie’s, New York 22 November

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Motorcycles of Important Collectors Bonhams, Staffordshire County Showground 16 October Marine & Scientific Antiques Charles Miller, 25 Blythe Rd 8 November Music & Manuscripts Sotheby’s, New Bond St 29 November

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Photographs Christie’s, Paris 10 November

The Julius & Arlenne Katchen Collection of Fine Netsuke Bonhams, New Bond St 8 November

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Fine Japanese Art

Oriental Rugs and Carpets

Prints & Multiples Bonhams, New Bond St 16 November

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The Russian Sale Bonhams, New Bond St 30 November Rugs & Carpets Sotheby’s, New Bond St 1 November

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Scottish Art Bonhams, Edinburgh 12 October Science & Natural History Christie’s, South Kensington 19 October

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Arts & Textiles of the Islamic & Indian Worlds Christie’s, South Kensington 21 October Travel, Atlases, Maps & Natural History Sotheby’s, New Bond St 15 November

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Fine and Rare Wines Christie’s, King St 10 November Important Watches Christie’s, Geneva 14 November

Compiled by Ione Bingley


lots road auctions For all things authentic, alternative, eclectic and magnificent

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very Sunday, since 1979, Lots Road Auctions, situated in the heart of Chelsea, has invited its customers to escape everyday life and bid on a selection of

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stylish curiosities. Whether you are interested in filling your home with modern design classics, art or antiques, they offer something for every taste. Almost every month a specialist sale is held for the avid collectors and the intrigued, featuring selections of the following; Fine Antiques, Continental Furniture, Lighting and Mirrors; Silver and Vertu; Fine Carpets and Rugs; Tribal Artefacts, Russian Art and Icons; and Designer Handbags and Fine Jewellery. Highly regarded for providing an excellent service to the creative industry, Lots Road Auctions is an essential source for both trade and private collectors and interior designers thanks to the value for money and variety it offers each week. Idle visitors are given the opportunity

to pursue and view the eclectic mix of sale items for four full days and one evening throughout the course of the week. For those who are drowning in busy schedules and constant business meetings the fully illustrated catalogue is available online from Thursday 6:30pm.

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watch technology By Jonathan Macnabb

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hose boffins at Omega have done it again! Not content to remain satisfied with the design of their “Moon watch” or Speedmaster which has for over 45 years graced the arms of sportsmen, aviators and motorists, in a radical re-think they have re-designed both the movement and the case. The acquisition by the Swatch Group of a patent from Liquid Metals of California, introduced a hybrid alloy of stainless steel to the watch industry. Liquid metal is defined by the molecular ability to form a stainless steel alloy which, when cooled,

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does not harden into a crystalline molecular setting, The metal remains amorphous with randomised combinations of molecules which eliminates the formation of fissures. These are the threadlike fissures which are sometimes seen on the cases of vintage stainless steel watches. The other particular advantage is that the alloy combines well with vitreous enamel which is generally associated with gold case-work. The movement of the latest Speedmaster is a departure from the earlier upgraded Valjoux and later chronograph, to a newly designed Omega calibre 9904 which has the added addition of a moon-phase calendar automatic winding and a Co-Axial escapement. This watch closely resembles the original and emphasises a finer finish throughout. In the Rolex armoury lies the perfection of years of experimentation in the latest version of ceramic technology. This has been welcomed as a new classic in the upgrading of the GMT Master II. Since 2005,progress has been made in stabilising an enamel which, combined with platinum particle bombardment and smoothed by diamond polishing has resulted in a bezel insert which is seemingly scratchproof and extremely stable. The designs available in black or blue have since 2014 been superceded by the remarkable achievement of seamlessly producing the two original colours of red and blue for which the Rolex GMT’s are renown.The earlier ones being made of anodised aluminium. The latest Daytona Chronograph and the YachtmasterII also sport an up to date bezel. Rado have for a couple of decades produced a striking array of watches in a hard ceramic case combined with a shatterproof glass in various shapes. The difference in their technology is the colours are at present monochrome as they have been for a couple of decades.They are a brand that has a strong traditional following in the Far East. The resilience of carbon fibre has not been lost on Hublot, their latest launch features the Big Bang MECA 10 All Blacks. This watch has a case of Carbon fibre coated Aluminim which along with titanium cases is just one of their wide range of sporting watches. These watches are produced in partnership with many different teams and Sports Personalities.and the aim of the Brand is to combine their designs with extreme durability. For the traditionalist with a more economic and practical approach, Casio have launched the Pro Tech,The Watch that Never Breaks! It has a durable plastic case with a digital quartz movement. Funtions include altimeter and barometer, temperature, alarm and stopwatch, in fact virtually everything for the explorer, except the “Get me out of here!” button.

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the pen is mightier... By James Douglas

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Above left: Mont Blanc Tolstoy Above right: Parker Duo-fold Prestige Centennial Below: Jack Row

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ullied into decent handwriting at sixteen, mine became ironic adolescent rebellion. Old friend Andrew Shaw reminisced recently over lunch, describing how my schedules would have a mistake crossed out; a shake of the head, page screwed up, started over. In those days it was the original Waterman CF (in the early seventies, proper exotica), heavily supported by the best functional pen, yours for £1.99, the Pilot Hi-Techpoint 0.5. Fittingly, PilotNamiki is the Japanese equivalent of Mont Banc. Daughters Hannah and Kirsten have the same exquisite stainless-steel version of the Waterman CF, with 18 karat white gold nibs, in their memory boxes. CF stands for Cartridge and Fountain convertor, launched in the fifties, presumably to try and stem the rise of the ballpoint. Waterman claim to have invented both, and it was a Mr Waterman who invented the traditional filler (effectively the modern fountain pen) when his eyedropper blotted costing him an insurance sale. On black or blue: if you’ve got anally neat handwriting you might as well show it off in black. Scruffs should use forgiving blue. Beware of looking like Galloway in a hat if you use anything else. The problem with the Waterman CF (a nineteenth Christmas present from the most indulgent of mothers, sadly stolen, ironically left safely in a drawer at work prior to a night out) was the feed was less than perfect.Vintage Watermans are amongst the most beautiful objects created by man, but as frustrating as a Lamborghini Miura on a winter morning in Moscow. Of about ten CFs, three have got decent nibs, secretly rotated; all the casings are exquisite. Avoid the Japanese lacquer. Stunning, but it chips just for the hell of it. Once you’ve found the right nib, a Waterman CF, rivalled only by its contemporary competitor the Parker 51, is the perfect pen. Its semi-hooded nib, sleek lines and rarity ooze the glamour and functionality of a red-lined Honda Fireblade. My Waterman’s have been and gone, but the best was an eighties Executive, which together with a fabulous Le Man, was the victim another office total extinction event. A very pretty blue lacquer (still-used) Preface replaced them. The elegant redlacquered Carenne took its styling cues from the CF, echoing them in the feed. The 51 was a splendid gift from Plus One Colin. A classic, sitting alongside the Watermans, swapping stories like a Luftwaffe ace having a post-war beer in Biggin Hill. They know they were kings of

the page in their day. The others include lovely Mont Blancs. The steel and rubber ones date from when the then lord of the files kept breaking, a resin Pelikan M800 (all in black, with gold trim, and most exotic of all the nibs: none are better or more beautiful than a Pelikan. It looks like what it is: a pen). The Mont Blanc Starwalkers look so tough they’d as soon spit at you as blot. Cartridges ditched, the pen’s been transmuted into an eye-dropper with pan-galactic range. Occasionally defending the occasional maverick non-taxpayer, first meeting, always use what the aficionados call a 149 (the massive cigarshaped Mont Blanc Meisterstuck). The firm’s strap line is “accountancy with swagger and attitude” and nothing swaggers with attitude like a 149. Redolent of power and establishment, it’s designed to make the client feel in safe hands, and think we’re going to ring 10 bells out of the revenue. (Privately, HMRC are all right; their Exchequer masters are the real villains.) Pelikan might be considered the thinkingscribe’s Mont Blanc, as at a similar price, the style, detailing and performance of the lesser brand is exquisite. The Lawyer was annointed with a delicate M600 Souverain with green striations. It’s not really a pen, more an engagement ring. Accept a pen from me … caveat receptor. In what is a tool-shed rather than a collection, Gollum-like the Aurora Optima Riflesi (derided by the splendid CEO of the Opera Studio, Emily Gottlieb as an Aurora Zafira Hatchback …impressed someone as sophisticated knew the word Zafira) lurks in its walnut veneered box, rarely exposed, probably the best pen that’s ever been or going to be made. It’s not the cost of the replacement. I’ve only ever seen three Auroras. It’s built to different tolerances, including the understated nib, which looks like chromed steel but is in fact rhodiumplated 18 karat gold … because we’re worth it. Quirkier still is the Franklin-Christoph Pocket 40 Clipless Smoke and Ice Eye-Dropper with Michael Masuyama hand-turned italic nib. If you’re thinking about a proper pen and fancy something reasonable and different go no further than: www.franklin-christoph.com So it’s down to an Aurora if you can find one, or your choice of the exquisite new-kid on the block, the Franklin-Christoph. First to email me with “Smoke and Ice” in the subject title will get a Pilot Hi-techpoint V5 in black. No you can’t have my Pocket 40. They’ve been discontinued and, of all them, it’s probably the only one that’s properly collectible. If you ask nicely you can have a picture. douglas@jamesdouglas.tv

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into the green By Mark Titman

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imes away from London spent in the country, offer a more physical reality. The opportunities for social times with friends and family or even moments of selfish stillness offer more intimate elements of delight when the country house has architectural moments of engagement, such as: window seats, nooks, winding stairs to sit on, fireplaces and hearths, porches and verandahs. Such examples can add to one’s well-being.Victorians incorporated such domestic delights in their houses. Not for practical reasons but for the more romantic fashion of pastoral life which demanded small constructions for the handing over of posies, exchanging sweet words and delighting in moonlit moments. The Christmas card clichés of dogs and rocking chairs have never disappeared, they have simply been replaced by Italian slim-line leather furniture and stainless steel hearths. The shabby chic of countrified urbanites reveals similar touchstones of tradition and it is this acceptance of timeless designs that can make the architectural small moments of country houses a delight. It seems that many of my clients now wish to have something more intimate and delightful. A re-emergence of a degree of romance within the countryside is now returning to replace the more timely trends. It is not only better value because these designs last, both mentally and physically, but also the materials can be locally sourced and offer a robust character. Designs of extensions, porches, pavilions, summer-houses, can all have small simple elements of delight modestly designed into them. These better allow families and guests to engage with the house and each other. The poetry of the space in any good house design should be created by the poetry of how people use, touch and act in its spaces. The enjoyment of sitting in a window

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seat in the morning sun is much enhanced if the cat’s cushion is nearby and a tree with a bird feeder is within view of the sitter. These three elements combine to make sitting in the simple window seat a really great moment. This is not a memorable experience. But such quiet moments definitely balance one’s self in a way modern houses and city life cannot. Similarly, an open kitchen with island and foldable façade onto the terrace and lawn can be that much better when the floor and island continues outside, and the height of the opening allows for the eye to see the clouds above the trees and for the sun to go deeply into the kitchen. Likewise, a poolside or bathroom bathing or showering experience can be that much more delightful if the materials chosen are locally sourced and roughly prepared. The robust and sensual experience denies the clinical urban bathing experience and reminds one of early bathing experiences of beach, river or pond. The local timber or stone can be cheaper and more roughly treated than the London masons elegantly cut imported marble. The social aspect of greeting in winter is yet another of many delightful small moments worth enhancing with the magnifying glass of architecture. In past times the porte-corchère offered a space we now know as being like a red carpet moment. The guests were the stars and they were received with great respect. So too, the humble cottage, with the small porch of thatch or tiled lean-to over the front door step. The combination of wood and wellie storage, deliveries shelf, postbox, light and doorbell are all important parts of the threshold engagement of greeting and fare-welling. In conclusion, next time you visit the countryside, identify yourself as being inside the physical world. As you leave London you are not entering a state of voided life but in fact a richer, more experiential, physical opportunity for engaging in the landscape, home, family and friendships. Less intellectual experiences can, with constituent architecture, heighten rare moments of engagement and ultimately bring subliminal refreshment that is not simply about rest. Any additional small spaces of social, familial or quiet delight can offer us a reflection of our deeper selves, by allowing us to engage in the newness of the architecture of our homes away. Consider how your homes in the country, give you joyfulness due to a nearby outside view at a field’s scale; or also the delightful and romantic intimate details of engagement inside, at the furnished scale. Not only is the grass greener, but it is best seen close-up whilst lying on the lawn or peered at through a circular window as the pheasant wanders over the field at dusk.

compendium featuring property today october 2016


test bed Pictures courtesy of Don Grant

By Don Grant

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orget about the rod, the reel, the dizzying array of dry-flies, a priest, landing net, nippers, zinger, hat, sunglasses and forceps, the most important piece of the equipment on any fishing trip is a corkscrew.

The most important thing about fishing, after all, is the picnic. Check list: one bottle of chilled Mâcon-Lugny (in a sleaver from the freezer); one bottle of Provençal rosé (as before); one bottle of Gigondas (or any other big Rhône, as one may be able to grab a few lower case zzzz’s under the tree, when the fish take their siesta at around about the same time); half a dozen Peronis (to be opened only in an emergency, usually at about eleven o’clock); olives (a mixture of French with anchovies and Greek with herbs, previously from an Italian deli on the Fulham Road, the most expensive shop in London, apart from Jack Barclay); mixed salted nuts (M&S Luxury, pretty much the best); a mélange of salamis and prosciutto di San Daniele; plum tomatoes, celery and salad, with basil and rocket; cheese (lump of Montgomery, slice of Vignotte); fruit (whatever was in season). Nowadays, I tend to do a one-stop shop at Waitrose. If anything is forgotten, or left behind in the fridge, there is always a chance to stop off en route to the river. I like Stockbridge, and the wide old sheep drover’s High Street reminds me of those Western towns, with horse rails outside the saloon. Today, it’s all 4x4’s. The Grosvenor Hotel, with its Georgian facade and grand porte-cochere, stands elegantly in the middle of the town. There is an excellent deli, Thyme and Tides, which sells a variety of fresh-baked bread and even better olives than those thieving Italians. One is also tempted by a pork pie, something which only feels right on the riverbank, and pickled onions. There’s a Thermos of 27

coffee, with rich, dark chocolate for accompaniment and a hip-flask of Talisker for those awkward moments when a long way from the hut. Also in the hamper are enamel plates; cutlery, napkins, table-cloth, sharp knife, small chopping board, rubbish bag, plastic glasses (if that is not a contradiction); another corkscrew (even though one was put in the kit-bag, there is always the potential danger of a malfunction); aquarelle pencils, Shmincke water colour box and Arches water colour block (these are possibly the most important items of the whole trip; well, apart from the food, wine, corkscrew and fishing rod). The first time I was taken fishing on a chalkstream a few years ago, I took my painting equipment, just in case I didn’t catch anything, and I could slope off and do some sketching. Wet-in-wet, English pastoral watercolours, with willows trailing their fingers into the slow-moving stream, that sort of thing. My friend and tutor Robert was most patient in trying to teach me how to cast, unhooking flies from blackthorns on the back-cast, untangling the most intricate knots that no-one couldn’t have tied blindfold in pitch black and and gave me the best piece of advice about casting; this was to imagine there was an apple stuck on the end of my rod, and I was trying to flick it over to the other bank, keeping my wrist absolutely rigid, with the minimum of effort. In between watching the river and casting, we were grazing and sipping the rosé. Then it was time for lunch. The rosé done, the Gigondas did what it said on the label, and, as there was no activity on the river, we both dozed in the dappled shade of a beech tree. It was late afternoon when we ventured out along the bank, and immediately noticed some activity on the far side of a pool under an elder. On about the third or fourth cast, a fish came

up quickly from the shadows and took my mayfly. I am not sure who was the more surprised, the fish or myself. Robert was delighted, but somewhat nonchalant, as he continued to instruct me as how best to land it, keeping it out of the reeds, not pulling it in too fast, letting it go downstream, but all the time, keeping the pressure on. I had landed my first ever catch, a beautiful brownie. There it lay, twitching on the grass, a sleek, shiny, one and three-quarter pounder, all cadmium oranges, burnt yellow ochres, dark purples and browns with red dots. It juddered when I whacked the poor thing over the head and then it lay still. I filled my water holder from the stream, took out my pad, and knelt on the bank where I arranged the fish just above it. I quickly drew the outline lifesize with a fine water-based Pentel pen, then laid on some colours, dark at first, letting the pen bleed into it, and quickly building up the streamlined shape with body colour, leaving an iridescent reflection along the length of its body. I then let it dry, and added more detail of the fluted fins and tail with the pen, and again smudged it with more water, to give it a ‘fluid’ look. I then annotated the drawing with the weight, the fly with which it was taken, the beat and the stream, and the date. My friend caught two more, but mine was to be my only catch. Then it was too dark to fish, or paint, so we took our catch home. I sketched his second fish in the kitchen, prior to gutting it, and was amazed to see how dull it had become, compared to the one I painted on the bank fresh from the river. I had the paintings framed, gave Robert one he caught, and sold the other two. Pricing was not a problem. I would charge by the pound; a hundred pounds a pound was a bit of a conceit, but that would do for a quarter of an hour’s work. At least, until I land a twenty pound salmon, and then I might have to re-structure my pricing.

compendium featuring property today october 2016


second home hotspots By Arabella Youens

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he market for second or weekend homes in the countryside is in buoyant spirits. Arabella Youens highlights some key areas to look at within easy distance of central London

Winchester and surrounding area Once a rather unremarkable cathedral town, Winchester’s star has risen considerably of late thanks to its good connections to London Waterloo (fastest connection takes just under the hour) and a recent growth of attractive shops, restaurants and cafes in the city centre. There is plenty of other 28

entertainment going on in the city, too, including theatres, the arts festival, choral music concerts in the cathedral, an art house cinema and as well as an extremely popular farmer’s market. It’s also well known for its excellent schools including preps such as Twyford, The Pilgrims and Princes Mead as well as senior schools Winchester College and St Swithun’s–not to mention Peter Symonds which is a very popular sixth-form college that regularly gets students into Oxbridge. But with its rise in popularity comes an inevitable gain in house prices–some suggest as much as 10% since 2008. For an alternative, the market town of Stockbridge, which lies just south of the A303 is another option. It has a high street full of shops and delis and restaurants, you can still catch trains to London from

compendium featuring property today october 2016


“Set in the South Downs and is picture-perfect with its active cricket club, excellent village shop and one of the best pubs in the area” Winchester and you’re the right side of town to reach another very popular school, Farleigh. FOR SALE, £825,000 (Below Right) Rookley Cottage in Up Somborne, near Stockbridge, dates from the 17th and 19th centuries. Standing in a garden of 0.7 acres the house had four bedrooms, an eat-in kitchen and a spacious garden room/study. Strutt & Parker (01962 869999)

Haslemere halo With its fast connections to London Waterloo (52 minutes), Haslemere is a classic first stop choice for anyone considering a move from south-west London to the countryside. The town boasts a pretty high street, a monthly farmer’s market and some good shopping, but the real gems lie just outside. Milland, which stands on the Surrey/ Hampshire/West Sussex border just seven miles south of Haslemere, is, according to Katherine Watters of The Buying Solution (07918 560700), now firmly on the radar of country house buyers thanks to the opening of the Hindhead Tunnel back in 2011 which has eased a historic traffic headache on the A3. According to James Grillo of Henry Adams in Haslemere (01428 644002): “The ‘weekend’ market, that is to say pretty houses in exceptional positions at less that £1.5m is very strong as not only are there London based buyers looking at the West Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire borders area being both pretty and well connected with some fabulous local amenities.” The Haslemere, Midhurst, Petworth triangle has long been recognised as a property hotspot and within that you’ll find the pretty villages of Lurgashall which is set in the South Downs and is pictureperfect with its active cricket club, excellent village shop and one of the best pubs in the area, the Noah’s Ark. For anyone wanting to be a bit closer to the action, Petworth is worth a look. Once it used to be known for its antique shops, lately things have become more interesting with the opening of a deli/cafe, the Hungry Guest, the Leconfield restaurant as well as the interiors emporium Augustus Brandt which agents agree have ‘breathed new life into Petworth’. The town hosts an annual festival in July as well as a literary festival in November but if that’s not enough, it’s within easy distance of all the activity at the Goodwood Estate as well as the summer polo season at Cowdray Park. FOR SALE, £700,000 (Far Left) Goldenfields House in Liphook, Hampshire, was formerly a major wing of a substantial Arts-andCrafts house. It has three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a large, open plan kitchen. 29

landscaped and is set in just under half an acre. Carter Jonas 01635 592 354

£700,000 through Henry Adams (01428 644002)

Hungerford If the M4 is behaving itself, the pretty market town of Hungerford and its neighbouring villages lie within an easy drive of central London and offer what many believe to be one of the best areas of beautiful countryside within the commuter belt. The Kennet Valley villages that lie between Hungerford and Marlborough, including Chilton Foliat and Ramsbury, have a good number of pretty Georgian houses while over in the Lambourn Valley, both East Garston and Eastbury stand out for having attractive architecture and popular pubs. Great Bedwyn, which lies at the end of line with services to London Paddington, is another option. It’s a busy village positioned between Hungerford and Marlborough and has two pubs, a Post Office and a village shop. Also on the same line lies Kintbury. As well as a village shop and pub, there is a butcher Mildenhall & Bullock which sells good-quality meat, game and poultry as well as boasting deli counters with locally-sourced honey, eggs and other things. Prep schools including Cheam, Elstree and Horris Hill draw buyers out of London while there are excellent senior schools in the area including Marlborough College, St Mary’s Calne and Down House. St John’s Marlborough is a mixed secondary academy school which is an extremely popular state option. FOR SALE, £795,000. (Top Left) This 4-bedroom cottage in Inkpen has four bedrooms, a smart kitchen breakfast room and an large entrance hall which would be a good entertaining space. The garden is attractively

Daylesford Triangle For one of the best served villages in the Cotswolds, look no further than Kingham. One of the very few with its own mainline train station (services to London Paddington 1h30 mins), it’s also a gastronomic haven with two excellent pubs: the Wild Rabbit (owned by Carole Bamford of Daylesford fame) and the Kingham Plough. The primary school was awarded ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted in 2010 and there are some other good private prep options nearby including Bloxham and Kitebrook, and, if you can handle the traffic in the morning, all the Oxford schools. The Village Stores is a well-stocked shop with a Post Office counter and the village has a lively community spirit organising harvest suppers and duck races. Ex-Blur bassist Alex James organises The Big Festival on his farm nearby every August. The challenge is finding a property for sale in the village; many agents report that when something comes to the market it’s quickly snapped up. Other popular villages nearby include Great Tew, home to Soho Farmhouse and the Cornbury Music Festival, Swerford (for good access to Banbury station which has services to London Paddington that take just one hour) and the small market town of Charlbury. FOR SALE, £475,000. (Left) This pretty, Grade II listed cottage in Swerford has three bedrooms, two reception rooms and a well-designed kitchen. There is a west-facing cottage garden including a paved area for outside entertaining. Savills (01295 228000)

compendium featuring property today october 2016


breathing new life into old buildings

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he increasing demand for more housing is inevitably having an impact on the countryside and increasing demand on green-field sites as developers clamour for more land. It is therefore all the more important that existing buildings, within a village envelope, that have become redundant should be brought back to life. This becomes even more essential if the property is a listed building and part of the country’s built heritage. A typical case in point is Manor Farm Barn (Above left) in the picturesque hilltop village of Wingrave close to the Buckinghamshire/ Hertfordshire county boundary. The village has fought hard to protect its infrastructure and still has not only a parish church but a village store, local inn and Church of England Combined School, which has a good Ofsted rating. The 17th century tythe barn in the heart of the village ceased to be used for agricultural purposes and was sympathetically converted into two dwellings in the 1990s. The major portion which includes a magnificent double height drawing room (Above), a spacious kitchen/ breakfast room, 2 further reception rooms and 4 bedrooms together with garaging and a mature garden is currently on the market for offers in excess of£750,000. A far more challenging proposition was the

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former Archbishops’ Palace in the village of Charing in Kent. For years the local residents and the owner of this historic group of buildings, which are listed Grade I and form a Scheduled Ancient Monument, had been championing their cause. These wonderful properties which date from the 13th century have a rich history and visitors include both Henry VII and Henry VIII who stayed at the Archbishops’ Palace with Catherine of Aragon and his retinue of 5,000 courtiers and servants on his way to the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520. Taking on the restoration of a Grade I property, let alone the complications and restrictions relating to a Scheduled Ancient Monument, is not for the faint hearted. After much dialogue work has commenced and the Spitalfields Historic Buildings Trust have nearly completed the restoration of the first of the buildings, 2 Palace Cottages. (Middle and bottom left) At 1,800 sq ft and with a large kitchen/dining room, 3 reception rooms and 3 bedrooms each with an en-suite bath or shower room, a separate studio and parterre garden this is more of a house than a cottage. Most Grade I buildings are either large stately houses or ancient churches, this may be more modest in size but for those fascinated by historic buildings it is something of a jewel box. Asking price £700,000. For more information contact Jackson-Stops & Staff 020 7664 6646. london@jackson-stops.co.uk

compendium featuring property today october 2016


VEEDON FLEECE NEVER THE SAME, ALWAYS UNIQUE

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EEDON FLEECE carpets are hand made in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal to exacting standards of quality craftsmanship.

Employing the traditional hand knotted technique, they are constructed to order in many different fine yarns from fascinating muga, pashmina, silk, the highly acclaimed veedon and Best Tibetan wool. They own one of the largest carpet looms which is capable of weaving carpets to a size of 8m by 20m. Their client base of leading interior designers looking for the individual or different for that special commission is international.

Working in both the contemporary and classical sectors of the interior design oeuvre. Careful client consultation is carried out before carpets are produced, samples are made and budgets approved. VEEDON FLEECE holds a large archive of designs, historic and contemporary and the latest brochure can be viewed at www.veedonfleece.com

HANDMADE BESPOKE CARPETS 31

WWW.VEEDONFLEECE.COM compendium featuring property today 01483 575758

october 2016


Knightsbridge 66 Sloane Street, London SW1X 9SH 020 3504 5901 | knightsbridge@struttandparker.com

Queen Anne’s Gate, Westminster SW1

Guide Price £22,000,000

A grand, newly refurbished and substantial family house with views over St James’s Park 7 bedrooms | 7 bathrooms | 4 reception rooms | Freehold | Garden | Air conditioning Roof terrace | Balcony | Lift | 8,543 sq ft (793 sq m) James Forbes Knightsbridge Office | 020 3504 5901 | james.forbes@struttandparker.com 32

/struttandparker

@struttandparker

struttandparker.com

60 Offices across England and Scotland, including prime Central London.

compendium featuring property today october 2016


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