Tuesday, February 26, 2008

In Other London Property News...

UPDATE LATER SAME DAY: Well kids, as you've all noted in the comments section, this alleged purchase by Simon Cowell was some kind of a dirty hoax perpetrated on all the good real estate gossips and Your Mama is pissed. The only thing true about the report is the Mister Cowell already owns a house in Holland Park. Blah, blah, blah. Sorry to feed the children rotten food, but sometimes we get poopy information.

...It is being reported that resident American Idol sourpuss Simon Cowell dumped a huge wad of his reality television moolah on a posh house in the hotsy totsy Holland Park area of West London. In addition to the on the decline American Idol, Mister Cowell has a piece of several other lucrative pies including the original signing contest Pop Idol, as well as The X Factor and Britain's Got Talent.

Apparently Scowlly Cowelly coughed up £40,000,000 for the Grade-II listed home and has embarked on a significant renovation that includes installation of or work on a swimming pool, spa, kitchen, car park and something called an underground extension. Is that a basement, or is that some kind of James Bond style underground tunnel that will allow Mister Cowell to enter and exit his pricey pad without being seen by the other stinking rich millionaires in his new hood?

Stateside, Mister Cowell has spent the last few years on a full scale renovation of a 9,335 square foot mansion on N. Palm Drive in the Bev Hills flats.

Thanks to the good people at Glitterati Gossip for hooking us up to this one.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

He's lived in Holland Park for many years. I'm not sure how accurate the linked article is - All the broadsheet property sections would have picked it up, especially considering the price.

An underground extension is exactly that. Planning permission is hard to get & usually neighbors object & many properties in the U.K are in conservation areas or the buildings themselves are listed meaning they can't be altered on the outside. So, many super expensive architects dig deep & extend 1, 2, 3 + stories underneath the property & regularly underneath the rear / front gardens ...

http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/interiors/article2270960.ece

Anonymous said...

Sorry, link didn't post correctly ...

http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/
property/interiors/article2270960.ece

Anonymous said...

I would take anything i read in "Heat" with a very large pinch of salt. This magazine makes the Enquirer look like a classy read ! If it is true mind you... i wouldnt mind a looky look at the pics.

Anonymous said...

Something doesn't sit right with this report...I'm sure Simon has bucket loads of cash but 40 MIL GBP seems alittle out of his league

Anonymous said...

In the Times annual rich list he has a fortune of £110M ... Spending £40M on a new London home sounds a bit suspicious - £40M for Holland Park also sounds a bit suspicious. Richard Branson sold his Holland Park home not that long ago for £28M & it was absolutely stunning & would be hard to top in that area so I'm highly dubious about the Simon story.

Anonymous said...

As the first commenter said, planning permission for underground extensions are hard to get. For a while, they were all the rage because even houses that weren't listed often had nowhere to expand. So many of them are attached, like the brownstones in New York, and are not allowed to add more than one or two stories on top. But not very long ago, a construction worker was killed when the house above an excavation gave way. Now it takes much longer, and involves much more review, before planning permission is granted. Personally, I'd be a little sketchy about spending time in an addition added that way.

ms_wonderland said...

Holy Moly says this story is a big fat lie.

http://www.holymoly.co.uk/news/28/uk-papers-run-story-on-simon-cowells-new-house-except-they-made-it-up-2583.html

Anonymous said...

^

The house pictured in the newspaper article sold recently for around £20M - where the hell did they get £40M? It has been on the mls for over 12 months at the same price! - Puff Daddy / P Diddy / Sean Combs looked at it a year or two ago [likely a publicity stunt by him] ... It had planning permission to build an underground garage & leisure complex - seriously, the tabloids are idiotic ... Simon Cowell lives pretty close by, they probably just pulled his name out of a hat!

Anonymous said...

£40M from Simon?

I think not.

As for the permissions from the planning commission, maybe he made one of them cry . . .

Anonymous said...

simon's BH remodel is looking fab! Beautiful courtyards and what looks to be BH's biggest front door and grandest entry!

Anonymous said...

Anon 9:20, your comment reminds me of LA Story, when Steve Martin says "You're really nobody in LA unless you have a really BIG front door." lol.

I love Holland Park. It is a beautiful neighbourhood. 40m GBP seems incredibly high, though.

This whole underground extension business makes me feel claustrophobic. How are they lit? Skylights in the garden? It seems that would go against heritage rules. Not sure I would spend all that money for bunkers under my gardens.

Anonymous said...

Bentley,

My understanding of underground construction is that they use light catchers, much akin to the wind catchers found in ancient Arabian and Persian architecture, to illuminate the space.

This may involve a small structure in the garden which could easily be disguised as a gazebo, tea house, etc.