EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Geri Horner beats sceptics on home expansion as she wins battle to add another bedroom to her country mansion
A victory for girl power? I hear that former Spice Girl Geri Horner has won her battle to add a sixth bedroom to her country home.
Ginger Spice and her husband, Formula 1 team boss Christian Horner, have one son, and each has a daughter from a previous relationship. They want to knock through a wall of their 18th-century home to create a new floor over an existing service wing.
But they needed consent from South Northamptonshire Council as the former vicarage is Grade II-listed. Officials initially had concerns about the proposed gable roof being too close to the 17th-century range of stables. A hipped roof has now been given the green light.
A VICTORY for girl power? I hear that former Spice Girl Geri Horner has won her battle to add a sixth bedroom to her country home
Officials initially had concerns about the proposed gable roof being too close to the 17th-century range of stables
AS PRIME ministerial residences go, it lacks the stately prestige of 10 Downing Street, or the 16th-century splendour of Chequers. But Boris Johnson, once more on the backbenches, has good reason to be very happy with the four-bedroom house in South London that he and Carrie snapped up in 2019.
I can reveal that it is under offer only a month after going on the market for £1.6 million — £400,000 more than they paid for it three years ago.
The windfall profit will be especially gratifying for the Johnsons given that they resisted the temptation to redecorate the three-storey property, still less adorn it with the Lulu Lytle gold wallpaper that Carrie favoured during her controversial £112,000 refurbishment of their Downing Street flat.
This time, she appears to have opted for minimal (and much less costly) changes. Gardeners planted trees in front of the house and got to grips with the 100 ft garden at the rear.
Inside, Carrie’s influence seems to have been limited to the kitchen, whose storage units — previously a rustic brown — now boast white veneers, with plain, brushed steel handles.
It’s debatable whether that will be enough to earn the house a blue plaque, as it seems probable that the Johnsons, who bought it with a buy-to-let mortgage, never spent a single night there. That’s a stark contrast with the property they previously shared: Carrie’s South London flat about a mile away.
While there, neighbours called the police after hearing screaming late at night and, allegedly, Carrie shouting: ‘Get off me!’
That contretemps is believed to have started after red wine was spilt on a sofa.
Neither of the Johnsons — who are said to be mulling over a move to Herne Hill, a leafier South London enclave — responded to requests for comment.
Let’s hope they manage a toast to a successful sale . . . without spillage.
The Princess of Wales has published some charming photos over the years to mark significant occasions, such as the birthdays of her three children. But celebrated royal photographer John Swannell says she is denying others the opportunity to make their name.
‘All the work I got with the royals really elevated my career; nowadays, someone like me just won’t have the chance,’ he tells me at a party to celebrate 185 years of Brown’s Hotel in Mayfair, with a special viewing of his work. ‘Those chances should be given to young English photographers.’ But he adds: ‘In some ways, though, Kate is probably right to do it herself. She’s not a great photographer, but she just snaps away, and with kids it’s easier if you know them.’
THE Princess of Wales has published some charming photos over the years to mark significant occasions, such as the birthdays of her three children
THIS might not go down well with the King, who once described onshore wind farms as a ‘horrendous blot on the landscape’. I hear that plans have been submitted by renewable energy firm RES to build one of the tallest onshore wind farms in Britain just 30 miles from Balmoral Castle. At 820ft, the turbines would be visible from Aberdeenshire, Moray and Angus. ‘We have had many contacts from local people concerned about the impact the proposed Hill of Fare wind farm will have on their visual amenity and the noise,’ says Graham Lang, of campaign group Scotland Against Spin.
Before Peaky Blinders star Helen McCrory died of cancer last year aged 52, she urged her husband, actor Damian Lewis, to find a new girlfriend, telling him: ‘Love isn’t possessive.’
And Homeland star Lewis, 51, who had two children (now teenagers) with McCrory, seems to have found happiness with American rocker Alison Mosshart, 43 (pictured together). She couldn’t avert her gaze from the Eton-educated actor at a music bash at Koko in Camden, North London.
Lewis is thought to have taken a hiatus from acting to focus on his singing career, with an album planned for next year.
Homeland star Lewis, 51, who had two children (now teenagers) with McCrory, seems to have found happiness with American rocker Alison Mosshart, 43 (pictured together)
Although pop superstar Ed Sheeran has made more than £220 million from his own talents, trying to earn a crust from other people’s music is proving tough.
He set up his own record company seven years ago to root out emerging talent, but the firm has just reported big losses. He said he launched Gingerbread Man Records because he always ‘loved endorsing acts from the very beginning’. But newly filed accounts disclose that it made a loss of £754,708 in 2021, compared with the modest profit of £145,406 it made the previous year.
ALTHOUGH pop superstar Ed Sheeran has made more than £220 million from his own talents, trying to earn a crust from other people’s music is proving tough
Disgraced media magnate Conrad Black hasn’t wasted much time after the Queen’s death to have another crack at the monarchy. Only seven months before Elizabeth II passed away, he said she was ‘not a spectacular monarch’ and called her ‘a disgrace’ for ‘abandoning’ Prince Andrew over the Jeffrey Epstein sex scandal. Now, he has declared: ‘A non-residential monarchy such as Canada is an anachronism and anachronisms do not continue indefinitely.’
Instead, he proposes a power-sharing deal between King Charles and a newly appointed Canadian president. Does Black fancy himself for the presidential role?
Tensions are rising between the hosts of Radio 4’s flagship Today programme. Amol Rajan’s criticism of ‘accent bias’ and ‘posh’ voices among BBC news presenters prompted his Today colleague Justin Webb to highlight online that Rajan is a graduate of Downing College, Cambridge, while Webb went to the London School of Economics (where punting on the River Cam is not on the curriculum). ‘The oddness of chaps pickled in punting telling us who’s in charge and who isn’t,’ Webb remarked.
He has since deleted his comment.
Amol Rajan’s criticism of ‘accent bias’ and ‘posh’ voices among BBC news presenters prompted his Today colleague Justin Webb to call him out
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