Famed not just for his ability to bring the gavel down but also for his love of vintage cars, Allsop’s Duncan Moir has been fittingly immortalised in cartoon form by fellow auctioneer Gary Murphy’s son, Will. Diary could go on, but how about we leave it to you to have a go at captioning the caricature? Best suggestion wins our finest lot… a bottle of plonk. Tweet us @estatesgazette using #moircartoon or e-mail us at jess.harrold@estatesgazette.com
Wanted: a hole in the ground
Diary isn’t just in this job for the snide remarks, laboured puns and sideways glances. Sometimes it likes to consider itself a public service – or indeed a patron of the arts. Artangel, the UK’s leading commissioner of contemporary art in unexpected locations, is seeking what it says is its most ambitious site to date, to act as temporary home for a new work that “promises to be the highlight of London’s cultural landscape this summer”. So, what do they need from you? A site with large excavated pit, 20m x 30m or larger, minimum 9m deep, ideally somewhere with good transport links, from May until July this year. If you have a suitable plot available this summer and think it’s crying out to have a major statue part buried in it, please drop us a line at jess.harrold@estatesgazette.com, and we’ll put you in touch with Artangel – maybe you can be its ace in the hole…
Theresa’s den
Fancy cars, expensive gifts and salubrious entertainment are some of the many perks that come with being prime minister. But a roof over your head? Well, that’s not guaranteed. You see, 10 Downing Street is included in a register of publicly-owned sites compiled by the London Land Commission to identify brownfield sites for housing development. So, if the housing crisis gets really bad, then Mrs May might have to squeeze in a few more tenants. Diary would make a lovely housemate…
White paper blues
Diary is, though we say it ourselves, ruthlessly efficient at absorbing information, though even we were stretched with the amount of content received for last week’s housing white paper. Alongside reading the 104-page document and associated consultations, we also managed to churn our way through more than 100 e-mails offering comment, opinion and analysis. But clearly even our capacity for processing complex material lags behind the 20 or so people and agencies that sent us comment within seconds of the paper being released. Their skim reading must be on levels not previously recorded. Either that or they were very well informed indeed.
Axing a lot
You have to admire the property industry for its zeal for a physical challenge. Not least Adventure in Architecture, which this year has proposed a series of events for its clients and consultants, including curling, snow tubing, tug-of-war, sailing, climbing, axe-throwing and a weekend on a tall ship. And because that doesn’t sound enough, it will also be throwing in a couple of networking expeditions, too. Company owner Jonathan Beswick – that intrepid soul who rode a penny-farthing to Propski in January – announced the plans on LinkedIn. However, the enthusiasm from his peers was slightly muted. “Can I just watch please? Scared by axe-throwing,” was one responses. “All at once?” was another. It should be noted that these plans came on the back of a hard-core week of networking at Propski, which left a cohort of industry professionals, those respondees included, in a tender state. They’ll soon come round.
How to cut a ribbon
Inland Homes knew exactly who it wanted to perform the official opening of its flagship Meridian Waterside development at the site of the former Meridian TV Studios: much-loved broadcaster Fred Dinenage MBE (pictured). Diary remembers Dinenage well from his informative-yet-entertaining children’s show (the ‘90s version How 2, it hastens to add, not the long-running ‘60s original How) But it turns out that the long-time ITV Meridian news anchor’s five-decade ITV career began at the old studios back in 1964. Fred said: “It has saddened me over the years to see this site, which has so many memories and so much potential, lie empty for so long. Inland has an exciting regeneration project planned here and I can see why so many people have decided to buy-in early.” And that’s how you do PR.
