Property for sale

I have noticed the garage conversion project in Hook Road from time to time, perhaps for the first time at reference 2 and most recently at reference 3. It has now turned up at Bernard Marcus at reference 1.

Possibly due to some quirk of the postal system rather than error, it has been assigned to the next-door Chase Road rather than to Hook Road proper. But more important, I have learned that it is an upside-down house, with most of the bedrooms downstairs and the living area (with balcony) upstairs.

Described as new-build, while in gmaps today it is still rather old-build, with the image there being dated 2022 and looking very like that from 2020 to be found at reference 2. This last being a day which was notable for dropping the BH car key in a muddy car park (without noticing at the time) and then going back some time later to find that it was still there.

The bend in the road rail hasn't changed!

PS 1: there is a kind, if rather depressing, review of the book by Rory Stewart noticed at reference 5, in the New York Review of Books at reference 4, marking the publication of the US edition. Is the sort of decent, representative, party politics which served us well enough during the second half of the 20th century falling apart in the new one? Not least under the onslaught of digital rubbish and worse?

PS 2: and I had thought that the Greens were a bunch of duffel-coat wearing, middle-aged eco-warriors. But it turns out that they are really a bunch of nimbies, dropping leaflets through doors about how awful it is that Epsom want to build some more houses. But there is not much to reference 7 and it does not seem to contain the offending leaflet.

PS 3: next to the piece about Stewart in the NYRB, there was a piece about the 19th wheat business in Algeria, giving me the impression that France was a big importer of Algerian wheat at that time. However, other sources, including references 8 and 9, suggest that while pre-colonial Algeria was self-sufficient in food, that has ceased to be the case and Algeria is now a big importer of wheat, a lot of it Russian. On the other hand, the Algerians did step up to the plate when France had serious trouble with its vines in the late 19th century. Perhaps part of the story is the ruler of Algeria, the Dey, nominally subordinate to the Sultan in Constantinople, was selling wheat from his lands to the French, at the expense of his own people, who went hungry. To be fair, there are now a lot more of them.

PS 4: I learn this evening that LSO St. Luke's is going to shut for getting on for a year for a major refit. Given that I quite like the place as it is, I do hope that they know what they are doing. I remember a correspondent who used to get in quite a wax about how it was easy enough to get funds for capital projects for the arts - but next to impossible to get funds to help meet running costs. So will they be able to afford to put on decent lunch time concerts in their shiny new venue? Will they dare push ticket prices up a bit - from their current rather low levels? And what am I going to do about the fine bacon sandwiches to be had from the Market Restaurant in Whitecross Street?

References

Reference 1: https://www.barnardmarcus.co.uk/properties/20078519/sales/EPS109053.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/01/herald-copse.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/11/trolley-741.html.

Reference 4: A feigned reluctance - Jonathan Freedland, NYRB - 2024. Freedland is a journalist with the Guardian.

Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/10/politics-on-edge.html.

Reference 6: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-places-in-between.html.

Reference 7: https://molevalley.greenparty.org.uk/.

Reference 8: Is wheat self-sufficiency in Algeria a myth? - Bahia Bouchafaa, Hanya Kherchi-Medjden, Khaled Rouaski - 2023. To be found at  https://armgpublishing.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/5_SEC_1_2023-1.pdf.

Reference 9: Invading the Village Common: the Origins of Algeria’s Modern Rural Crisis, 1870-1914 - Peter Von Sivers - 1987. University of Utah. A rather different sort of study. To be found at https://www.persee.fr/doc/mom_0295-6950_1987_act_2_1_3788.

Reference 10: https://www.lso.co.uk/about-us/lso-st-lukes/future-ready/.