Tasteful friends: Knightsbirdge, London, a duplex apartment, £15M for "persons of standing"
21 Ennismore Gardens: A duplex apartment incorporating as its private entrance the original front door, main stair, and the principal parts of the raised ground floor and first floor of a house developed 1868-1874 by the Earl of Listowel together with the private park across the street for "persons of standing." It is just under 3000 square feet and with 3 or 4 bedrooms, two large reception rooms, and 3 bathrooms. Ceiling heights are 4.11m (14.5 feet.) At the front of the house the bowed bay of the ground floor is arranged as a reception room/dining area and above it on the first floor is another reception room, rectangular, with tall French doors that open to a balcony/terrace of 140 square feet that overlooks Ennismore Gardens, "a five minute walk from Hyde Park, The Albert Hall and Harrods" with transport links close by at Knightsbridge, South Kensington and Sloane Square. A monument in the park commemorates former resident Ava Gardner who lived at No. 34.
The big black bookcase/TV cabinetry in the two large front rooms are a case of love/hate I suppose. In my case I don't love them, but don't altogether hate them either. I would live with the for a while and think about it. The historic features of the entrance, hallway, stairs, and the two principal rooms are the real prizes; the bedrooms, bathrooms, and kitchen are more of a mixed bag. I would keep the two upper bedrooms (nicely each on its own level) as such, and turn the larger bedroom ("D"on the plan) on the entry floor into a library/office and make the tiny cabin of a bedroom ("F") into a coat room/store room/something more useful. It's just an apartment that makes more sense as a luxurious 2-bedroom, than a cramped or awkward 4- or 3-bedroom space.
It's hugely expensive, but I love the two big front rooms on different floors, the plan is good, the space is big without being enormous, and having the original entrance for your private use gives the feel of a house. And the smoker's balcony and the huge windows overlooking Ennismore Gardens are great.
| by Anonymous | reply 15 | December 14, 2022 2:14 AM
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Why doesn’t one of you wealthy Yanks buy it and shut up about it, then? That’s what you’re doing with most of our property atm.
Tone deaf to post about this when there’s a crippling recession in Britain, and quite a few Brits not of means post here.
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | December 2, 2022 1:13 PM
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If it's tone deafness about expensive and sometimes unusual property you seek, look no further, R2. Tasteful Friends is your place, a venue for your whinging about insensitivity to the "not of means" Brits atm.
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | December 2, 2022 1:24 PM
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Where is the RICH RIFF RAFF coming from to pay these prices?
Now that the UK has left the European Union London has declined in economic terms of importance. It was the most important city in the world up until 2016.
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | December 2, 2022 1:27 PM
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The underlying building is beautiful. The furnishings, lights, and everything else that has been done to it since... isnt. I dont need to think about those black cabinets, they'd go, and I'd remodel the kitchen in a much more period style in fitting with the building, but the lights in there can go first, they are especially hideous and cheap looking. The bathroom I could live with. New curtains, wallpaper, rugs, paint, lights and furniture all in the style and period of when this was built would transform this place for the better. Those sconces on the staircase are OK though.
Oh fuck me its fucking Leasehold!! 15 mil and its leasehold on top, thats a hard pass for me
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | December 2, 2022 2:05 PM
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Personas non grata need not apply, for reasons well known to them!
| by Anonymous | reply 7 | December 2, 2022 2:12 PM
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R7 - I'm not so sure about nowadays with the level of desperation there is to unload these things, but there are definitely circles there where 'non grata' means pop and sports stars. I know what they call a 'club secretary' from one of the most famous of all of those, and he's like 'not a snowball's chance' would they ever let someone like that in.
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | December 2, 2022 2:19 PM
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Didn’t Ava Gardner live in Ennismore Gardens?
| by Anonymous | reply 9 | December 2, 2022 9:06 PM
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R8 presumably reality stars or the young bougie rich on social media are also PNG?
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | December 2, 2022 9:10 PM
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Michael Caine once commented on the brutal class system of England. The 1950s were particularly bleak. But there were so many post-WW2 babies and other young people that the snooties eventually just had to unlock the gates.
| by Anonymous | reply 11 | December 2, 2022 11:05 PM
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Could Bedroom 3 be any smaller?
| by Anonymous | reply 12 | December 2, 2022 11:41 PM
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R10 R11 - I'm R8 ... There are still plenty of locked gates, unfortunately. You're right, it's not as bad as it used to be, but still plenty enough to run into them on a regular basis.
| by Anonymous | reply 13 | December 3, 2022 1:34 AM
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[quota] I'm not so sure about [re R7's comment that "persona non grata need not apply"] nowadays with the level of desperation there is to unload these things, but there are definitely circles there where 'non grata' means pop and sports stars. I know what they call a 'club secretary' from one of the most famous of all of those, and he's like 'not a snowball's chance' would they ever let someone like that in.
[quote]There are still plenty of locked gates, unfortunately.
With the £15M price tag come the keys to the locked gates on the fenced Ennismore Gardens (open to the public for a few hours on Sunday afternoons.) It's a situation repeated many times around London where 100s of private gardens exist that might be mistaken for public spaces but for the high fencing and locked gates, a legacy of their private development in the 18th and 19th Centuries.
Buying No. 21A Ennismore Gardens is no more or less difficult than putting up the £15M or an agreed to sum. It's not like buying "an Albany set", there's no residents' committee to exclude children under 14 and sub-letting and to vet the buyer's character. It's not like seeking club membership at White's where the joining and annual fees are the very least part of worrying about being black-balled. The only cabal is a banker or maybe a mortgage lender.
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | December 3, 2022 2:39 PM
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R12 With the mattress taking up nearly the entirety of Bedroom 3, it appears to have been designed to be a wall-to-wall fuck pad and/or at least a place to stash this season's hot manservant, since you can get into his room via the connected bathroom.
| by Anonymous | reply 15 | December 14, 2022 2:14 AM
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