Frank Lampard develops a passion for property
Frank Lampard is trying his hand at property developing.
Kensington and Chelsea council is due this week to approve his project to create a modern new house despite local objections.
The 33-year-old Chelsea player, who earns £130,000 a week, plans to demolish a vacant two-storey clothing warehouse in Uverdale Road, Chelsea, and replace it with a four-storey house, with an office complex and courtyard in the basement.
Lampard and TV presenter Christine Bleakley, 32, who met in 2009 and got engaged last month, are renovating their own £8.8 million townhouse close to the Uverdale Road site.
Their six-bedroom house is undergoing a major £800,000 refit complete with the addition of an underground swimming pool.
The new three-bedroom house is described as being "a contemporary design with simple bold openings and the use of high quality materials" - handcrafted bricks, bronze and huge windows.
Council officers describe the building, which will have a flat roof planted with grasses, trees and small shrubs, and a courtyard garden with hardwood decking, as "bold and unconventional" but also "well balanced and refreshing".
The front windows of the property will be sandblasted with a "floral pattern" which, say Hogarth Architects, "give privacy to neighbours and the occupants themselves".
A spokesman for the firm said Lampard owns the site but the application has been made in the name of his father, Frank Lampard snr. If planning consent is granted they hope to start
the build immediately.
The building will be decorated with a series of bronze panels, and the front door and windows will also be framed in bronze. Council officers liked the use of metal on the building, describing it as having "a fine sculptural quality".
However the Chelsea Society has objected, claiming the new design is "very assertive" and inappropriate in a street with mainly Edwardian buildings.
It also wants to preserve the original warehouse building, arguing that "it is more important for Chelsea to continue to offer work premises to a wide variety of design, commercial and professional users" than to create another large house.
Soho House founder Nick Jones is selling his Notting Hill home less than five years after it was completely renovated.
The businessman, who is married to Desert Island Discs presenter Kirsty Young, has put the eight-bedroom Victorian house on the market for £8 million. It is near The Electric in Portobello Road, one of Jones's members' clubs.
Jones, 47, and Young, 42, who have two children, bought a £4 million nine-bedroom 17th-century home in Oxfordshire last year.
