Tower of power
The controversial Pinnacle may not actually have been built – but that hasn’t stopped hopeful parties from placing bets on its eventual appearance on the London skyline.
The original helter-skelter design was spotted by Diary last week as part of an artistic mural of London buildings at East Croydon train station (right). And if that wasn’t endorsement enough, the building also made an appearance on the BBC reality show Hair, which documents the journey taken by 10 hairdressers battling it out to be crowned amateur stylist of the year.
Episode one saw our scissor-wielding artistes creating styles around the theme of architecture. One chap went all out on the ambition front and announced that he would be creating the Pinnacle – in human hair. Lovely. He collected trimmings of varying colours and lengths from his friends (yes, we thought it was gross too) in order to create the perfect wraparound headpiece which, when balanced on a model’s head, did vaguely resemble the non-existent building.
He won. Which either says a great deal about his skills or his competitors’ relative lack thereof.
How many hands high?
Thanks to strict weight limits, jockeys are typically of small stature. Trust our industry, then, to rewrite the rule books.
At least two competitors in the Property Race Day charity race last week were responsible for lifting the average height of the field by some distance.
We especially applaud the winner, Savills’ Tom Faber, who blew the norm right out of the park with his willowy 6ft 5in frame and, by some miracle, avoided taking his eyes out with his knees. Also representing the vertically endowed was Freddie Jackson, a solicitor at Cripps and a Women in Property committee member, who stands at a statuesque 6ft 1in.
Both came under the 12-stone weight requirement, which, as the tall people of this world will attest, is no mean feat. Faber said he prepared with a “punishing regime of squats and other awful things in the gym”. We trust neither of them will be unhappy if they never see scales again.
Re-settling the settled
City gossips have determined that the market really must be flying after perennial teases Deutsche Bank and Thomson Reuters both finally agreed terms on major new London offices. One agent quips that his first instruction in the City way back in 1992 was to show Thomson Reuters some options for a big potential consolidation.
But Tuckerman’s latest instruction advising Currey & Co shows that the sudden burst of leasing life from some of London’s dustier tenants is not confined to the City. The law firm’s recent relocation to 33 Queen Anne Street, W1, brings to an end its 86-year occupation of 21 Buckingham Gate, SW1.
Keith Harris, director at Tuckerman, said: “The client was quite clearly very well settled at their old premises, and finding a new office was clearly not an undertaking they took lightly. We are pleased to have found them a new home, and while they are delighted with their new address, they have not committed to an 86-year lease.”
Fiery encounter with dragons
Fans of Dragons’ Den will have enjoyed the extra entertainment factor if, like us, they spent a lazy Sunday afternoon in front of the box watching the new series of the BBC programme.
It came courtesy of Frazer Fearnhead, founder of crowd-funding platform The House Crowd. The budding entrepreneur walked onto the famous set to ask the five dragons for a £1m investment into his business in return for a 5% stake, and left with a thorough dressing down. Their investment, he told them, would go into buying, renovating and reselling properties and as the company grew “like a surfer on a wave, gathering momentum…” the spoils would be theirs to enjoy.
Fearnhead’s opening gambit was to go in for the sympathy vote, the “had everything, lost it all in the crash” story. But the wheels fell off his pitch when he put the value of the company at £20m, and as swiftly as the number tripped off his lips, it was blasted as baloney. Confessing that the company had not made a profit in the past 12 months did not help matters, either.
Oh, and then there was the part when he told the entrepreneurs that their money was merely an “option” for him anyway. Are times that good again?
Headline-grabbing splash
Next week sees the first JLL Property Triathlon North – and it looks set to be a headline-grabber.
As the triathlon at Dorney Lake near Eton, Berkshire, has grown to epic proportions over the past nine years – 3,500 took part earlier this month (visit www.estatesgazette.com/videos to watch) – JLL this year decided to team up with Manchester’s Peel Holdings to host an extra event.
And the contest, taking place at Media City in Salford, Greater Manchester, is certainly making the news. BBC Breakfast’s Louise Minchin will take part, fresh from being on the telly, with her husband and brother.
With an age group qualification for the ITU World Triathlon Championships – in Chicago in September – under her belt, Diary wonders if Minchin will be taking on JLL-sponsored athlete (and two-time triathlon world champ) Helen Jenkins…
Spaces are still available. Visit www.propertytriathlon.com for details.
