Posts tagged ‘Brighton’
Brighton Pier for sale
This is a legacy post from the findaproperty.com blog which is now maintained as an archive within the Zoopla blog. Links have been preserved.
Findaproperty.com was instantly taken back to childhood seaside memories of helter skelters, rock candy and deck chairs when we heard that Grade II listed Brighton Pier was for sale for the first time in 25 years.
Other than boasting water views that put other seaside properties to shame, this English icon boasts rides, arcades and a winter garden. Oh, and Heston Blumenthal has called it ‘the spiritual home of fish and chips’.
Ewan McGregor, Grace Kelly and David Cameron are just a few of the famous faces who have been spotted walking its boards over the years, while the pier itself is regularly featured in books, films and most recently in Vogue’s cover shoot starring none other than David Walliam’s squeeze Lara Stone.
As if that wasn’t enough, Brighton, aka ‘London on Sea’, has over eight million visitors a year and is bursting with trendy boutiques, contemporary hotels and bars. The city attracts a younger more affluent resident compared to other seaside towns, and whoever buys the pier will be in good company – broadcaster Zoë Ball, actor Denise Van Outen and rocker Nick Cave will all be among their neighbours.
Current owners the Noble Group bought the pier in 1984 and have since invested £35 million making it the UK’s largest privately funded conservation project. David Biesterfield, Noble’s development director, says, “we anticipate a great deal of interest in the sale of this world renowned asset”.
So far, everyone’s being silent on asking price although we can only guess they won’t be accepting payment in rock or ice cream. More fool them.
Why is a Brighton Grand Design being sold so soon?
Fans of Channel 4 TV show Grand Designs will recognise this super-shiny new modernist home in Brighton, which featured on our screens in April last year. But I’m surprised it’s on the market – for £3.5 million – quite so soon as I had thought the creators – local couple Barry and Julie Surtees – were going to live in the thing rather than sell it off.
The sale is also a surprise given the levels of pain the couple went through in front of the Channel 4 cameras (and Kevin McCloud’s withering wit) to get the project finished.
But is it a liveable space? I have to admit that many of these ultra-clever, uber-contemporary properties leave me a bit cold – they just don’t seem particularly homely – but there are some pleasingly quirky elements that do tickle my Bauhaus-style fancy.
Take the fourth-floor living area called ‘the pod’, for example, with its brightly coloured, super-sized sofas and that motorbike on the wall; although I’m not sure if Kevin McCloud would have approved of such ‘mass market’ frivolity.
But it’s the wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling windows that I really love – and I’m astonished that Surtees can bear to leave those incredible views behind.
For more information, call Hamptons International (Brighton and Hove) on 0843 2816 026.
Cate Blanchett’s Former Home For Sale
When Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett moved to Brighton a few years ago, she had to close off a whole street in order to have her enormous stone bath winched into the house.
Blanchett later sold the Grade I Listed Regency townhouse to songwriter Richard Stannard, who has worked with U2, Kylie Minogue, Will Young and Little Boots.
He added to the property by building a sound-proof music studio and recording booth in the basement, but is now selling up with an asking price of £3.1 million.
Blanchett’s famous bathtub is still here, as is the funky red metal staircase she installed.
Other features include suede covered walls in the master bedroom (!); a top-notch home cinema; and a tunnel under the seafront road to seven acres of private gardens.
You’ll be wanting a peek inside, we know, so here are some pictures. Not bad, is it?!
(Click on pics for full details)
£3.1m, five-bed house, Lewes Crescent, Brighton, Savills (Tel: 0843 2822 019)
£3.1m, five-bed house, Lewes Crescent, Brighton, Savills (Tel: 0843 2822 019)
£3.1m, five-bed house, Lewes Crescent, Brighton, Savills (Tel: 0843 2822 019)
£3.1m, five-bed house, Lewes Crescent, Brighton, Savills (Tel: 0843 2822 019)
£3.1m, five-bed house, Lewes Crescent, Brighton, Savills (Tel: 0843 2822 019)
David Walliams’ New Home in Hove
The mortgage computer has said “Yes” to Little Britain laydeez-man, David Walliams, who’s just had an offer accepted on a beachside property in the exclusive Western Esplanade in Hove.
Known locally as Millionaires’ Row, David’s new neighbours in the street include an impressive cast of celebs, among them Norman Cook and Zoe Ball, Heather Mills and Nick Berry.
Fortunately, these upmarket homes are safely tucked away in a private access road, meaning the risk of a media kerfuffle from prying paparazzi is minimal.
But we reckon an even bigger draw for Walliams – who famously swam the English Channel a few years ago – is that all of the properties have their own stretch of beach, so keeping up his training will be a doddle.
Here are a few pics of David Walliams’ new house in Hove:
Cool Pub Conversion
Here’s a property I came across the other day – a quirky pub conversion in Brighton.
The upside, obviously, is that staying in can become the new going out. When time is called, you just stumble up the stairs and pour yourself into bed.
The downside, though, is that the exterior still looks like a pub so there’s always the prospect of drunken idiots banging on the door at 2am demanding pints of absinthe and pork scratchings.
There are some nice period details here, including the original double doors from the pub, and the whole thing has been very well done.
So while I’m sad to see a good old Victorian boozer shut down, I’ll happily raise a glass to the current owners for making a fine job of a building that’s been variously used as a pub, a bookshop and a corkscrew factory.
Cubbit & West (Tel: 0843 3635 462)
