Student life’s still a bitch
Student living is tough. Or at least it used to be.
While some of us have fond memories of living in prison-like cells which still had the same lick of paint they’d been given in the 70s, things are a little different for some of today’s students living in one of the increasing number of plush digs in the UK’s top university cities.
Diary heard how one young whippersnapper recently asked the receptionist at his new block whether £200,000 was enough to live off for a week as a student?
Then he asked whether she would like to go to the cinema with him, because he was bored, to which she politely declined, explaining she had a job to do. “Not even for £100?” he asked.
Frustrated at his lack of company, he went out and bought himself a chihuahua, complete with diamond necklace, to be his companion until term started.
It’s just a pity that he didn’t check with his high-end digs before shelling out for the jewel-encrusted pooch – the block has a strict no-pets policy.
The spirit of place making
Revellers at a recent Berkeley launch event found themselves being chastised rather loudly by occupants at a nearby student housing block.
Perhaps not up to the noise and late night antics of the property industry, which had gathered to celebrate the launch of Goodman’s Fields in Aldgate, E1, they did their best to derail the speeches by shouting some choice anecdotes from their rooms.
But it will take more than a few four-letter protests to faze Tony Pidgely. Clearly understanding the student population, the Berkeley boss invited the hecklers down for a drink.
High-rise howler
Has Skyscrapernews unearthed the ultimate carbuncle?
Its article, Catching up with 150 Leadenhall Street, opened with the bold statement: “6-8 Bishopsgate and 150 Leadenhall Street form part of my bum…”.
At the time of publication the line remains in situ, so perhaps we should assume the statement is, in fact, entirely correct. Diary is yet to discover whose bum, however.
Make ours a double
Allied London’s commitment to making Spinningfields an attractive leisure spot has been well documented. But Diary recently learned that chief executive Mike Ingall has put a personal shoulder to the wheel to keep nightlife in the district buzzing.
While enjoying a snifter at trendy office-top night spot Manchester House, we spotted a personal liquor cabinet dedicated to catering for Ingall’s tipple of choice – featuring a small hoard of exclusive rum and whiskies.
It’s good to know Diary frequents the same watering holes as the property elite, but it does raise the question as to why the more lively elements of the EG newsdesk have yet to receive the same honour.
Wash day blues
Developers report numerous hurdles when trying to convert agricultural buildings to homes via permitted development rights.
But Indigo Planning’s Guy Maxfield tells Diary the story of a – sadly unidentified – planning officer visiting a site to check whether a building was solely in agricultural use and finding a washing machine on the premises.
Apparently the offending item was stored there for one day only, en route from farmhouse to rubbish tip.
Nevertheless, the officer decided the building was not solely in agricultural use. Conversion denied…
Award winners get the hugging bug
Everyone was a winner at last week’s Property Marketing Awards.
But none more so than the evening’s host, BBC Breakfast presenter Steph McGovern, who appeared immensely gratified by her cunning plan to inject frivolity into proceedings by making everyone hug the person next to them.
With clients on one side and bosses on the other, some guests found themselves in quite a predicament deciding whom to offer the first embrace. Others were far more opportunistic and launched themselves at peers sat in completely different rows.
But the audience had the last laugh, since an hour-long procession of winners announced to the stage each went in for a clinch with the presenter.
