Contents Boris’s


favourite buildings


Issue 3 Q4 2014


CHELSEA FORWARD INSIDE THE CADOGAN ESTATE


ST JAMES’S


NEW STYLE ELEGANCE AND EXCITEMENT


BORIS


SIX OF THE BEST


04


THE MAYOR’S FAVOURITE LONDON BUILDINGS


PUBS, POETS AND PENTHOUSES


FITZROVIA


Boris’s favourite buildings The Mayor names his six favourite London buildings


08


Fitzrovia special feature One of London’s most bohemian locales is undergoing a transformation


FITZROVIA:


THE ONLY LONDON NEIGHBOURHOOD TO TAKE ITS NAME FROM A PUB, FITZROVIA IS UNDERGOING A RENAISSANCE LED BY NEW DEVELOPMENT. WE TALKED TO SOME OF THE DEVELOPERS WHO ARE BRINGING OPULENCE AND OFFICES TO THIS BOHEMIAN CORNER OF THE CAPITAL.


WRITING A NEW CHAPTER AT FITZROY PLACE


THE POET, DYLAN THOMAS, FOUND FITZROVIA SOMETHING OF A PERSONAL BERMUDA TRIANGLE. THIS WAS LARGELY DUE TO HIS PROFOUND PENCHANT FOR PUBLIC HOUSES.


In 1936 he wrote: “When I come to Fitzrovia, bang go my plans in a horrid alcoholic explosion that scatters all my good intentions like bits of limbs into the saloon bars of the tawdriest pubs in London”.


Nearly 80 years later there is still much that Thomas would still recognise. The Fitzroy Tavern – from which the area takes its name – is still doing a roaring trade in the middle of Charlotte Street although its clientele today are more likely to be web developers, TV producers and advertising executives than writers, actors and musicians.


The King & Queen on Foley Street still has the occasional music night but is unlikely to play host to anyone quite as iconic as Bob Dylan who made his London debut there.


From a commercial property perspective, the area bounded by Euston Road, Oxford Street, Tottenham Court Road and Great Portland Street has been steadily attracting more office occupiers – particularly from the TMT sectors – but is now about to undergo a step change through major development.


On the site of the former Middlesex Hospital, a joint venture of Exemplar, Aviva Investors and Kaupthing is building Fitzroy Place – a massive development encompassing nearly 1 million sq ft of offices, shops, restaurants and homes. The challenge for the developers is to create an environment that incorporates the special ambience of Fitzrovia whilst providing the space that business and residents want.


Exemplar’s Daniel Van Gelder is conscious of the opportunity:


“One of things that really attracted us to Fitzrovia is the fact that it’s not a carbon copy of everywhere else in London. It’s independent and unique – the word ‘bohemian’ gets batted around a lot but Fitzrovia really is. Unlike most of the West End, its identity hasn’t been defined by a single person or a single estate.


14


Turning the tables We put Estates Gazette Editor, Damian Wild, on the spot


Damian Wild is Editor of Estates Gazette – the weekly magazine that has been reporting on the UK property market since 1858. After nearly fi ve years of fi ring questions at the property great and good, we turned the tables and asked him to answer ours.


If you could change one thing about the property business what would it be?


That test is about to come, and it’s as much a test for the fi nance business as it is for the property business. Property can be visionary, responsible and genuinely engaged with stakeholders. Sometimes, like the fi nance industry, it can be short- termist, cavalier and blinkered.


Favourite holiday destination?


Somewhere in South East Asia. I spent five years as a child in Singapore and worked on the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong during the handover. I love going back to the region. Last year’s trip to Borneo and Cambodia will be hard to top.


What makes you laugh?


Twitter. And the latest Viz annual every Christmas morning. Yes, still.


You look like a fi t bloke: how do you keep in shape? Genetic luck.


Who’s there when you get back home?


Why journalism?


The slightly glib answer is that many years ago it dawned on me that it was easier to ask questions than answer them, but I think it was always there in the back of my mind. My dad was a journalist and that planted the seed.


What difference does Estates Gazette make to our business?


I think – I hope – it provides information that helps keep property’s wheels turning. That said, news of what’s happened is no longer enough. We have to provide the context and explain the consequences of the news. And we have to do this accessibly. Our words describe, our data informs while images, infographics, video and audio explain. Our main competitor is people’s time, and we mustn’t forget that.


Will it still be a printed magazine in fi ve years’ time? Yes. It will be a different magazine but it will still be there in printed form, backed


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up by a more intuitive tablet edition, website and perhaps other formats not even yet conceived. Continuous evolution is the way forward.


Your proudest achievement?


Putting together a really strong edition of the mag each week is still a cause of collective celebration. Making it available each week on iPad 36 hours before print lands is also an achievement I’ve been pleased to see acknowledged. Going back a little further I have stood up for journalism twice in the High Court and won. I’m not looking for a third visit.


Any property heroes?


I’m not sure I’ve ever had heroes. There are plenty of people I admire. In this industry those who survived the downturn and have genuinely learned lessons should be the next generation of heroes. They may be few in number, I fear.


There was too much of the latter in the last boom, there needs to be more of the former this time around.


It’s holiday time: are you a beachcomber or cultural explorer?


I’m not very good at lying on a beach for long, though I do like to try. Culture, colour and heat is my ideal holiday.


Two children, a glass of wine and the guilty feeling that I can’t rely on genetic luck for much longer. So to tick another box on the middle-aged male stereotype checklist, I’ve bought a bike.


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