黑洞社区

Trump鈥檚 walls

With the US election too close to call as 黑洞社区 went to press, the wags at London estate agents Thorgills decided to find out the winner of a different Trump v Clinton contest. They鈥檝e crunched the numbers on UK house prices, and it turns out over the past five years, average property prices on streets with 鈥淭rump鈥� in the name have increased in value by 37.9%, compared with a 27.2% boost for streets with 鈥淐linton鈥� in the name. The biggest riser? Average property prices in Trumpington Road in Waltham Forest have increased 56.6% in five years, to 拢361,583. See, there鈥檚 much more at stake in this election than just truth, democracy and liberty.

Good pub-licity

Differences over sport notwithstanding, the English and Australians are coming together, I see, over pubs. Last April, a public house in Westminster called the Carlton Tavern was knocked down when it shouldn鈥檛 have been. The council served an enforcement notice on the developer telling it to rebuild it 鈥渂rick by brick鈥�. A few months later, and 10,000 miles away, the Carlton Inn in Melbourne suffered the same fate - with the same result. Authorities there are telling the owners to rebuild that pub as well. Westminster鈥檚 deputy leader Robert Davis says: 鈥淚 hope that when both of these historic pubs are rebuilt they will stand as a symbol for the power of local communities to stand up for the special heritage of their much-loved public houses.鈥� I鈥檒l drink to that.

Wet wet wet

Developers are often accused of glamming up their schemes when sending out press gumpf. So I was rather surprised to be greeted with a CGI 鈥� that鈥檚 a digial image of what the scheme is supposed to look like to you and I 鈥� that didn鈥檛 show the standard-issue perfect blue sky and the sun beating down. The picture was to accompany a recent design gong won by architect JTP for a housing scheme, and showed slate grey skies, homes by a spray-drenched waterfront and rain hammering relentlessly down. The winning design is called 鈥淎 Home for all Seasons鈥�. Glad to know JTP chose the British summer for its image, then.

Off the map

Lumiere Developments, a revolutionary developer, the PR puff says, is busy promoting the green credentials of a 17-storey tower it is planning. Except it wasn鈥檛 the bits about solar photovoltaic panels and ground source heat pumps that caught my eye, as impressive as that it is. No, it was where it is being built. 鈥淟ocated in Hemel Hempstead, just 24 minutes from London Euston 鈥︹�� I look forward to future 鈥淟ondon鈥� developments appearing - perhaps in Cambridge (just 46 minutes) or why not Cardiff (just 126 minutes) 鈥�

Flying visit

The Duke of Edinburgh was visiting the University of Hertfordshire recently, which was celebrating the opening of its new science building. Built by Bouygues and designed by Sheppard Robson, the duke鈥檚 visit last week was the fourth time he鈥檚 been to the Hatfield campus following previous visits in 2003, 1997 and way back in 1952. I鈥檓 told his latest visit was rather more low-key than 1997 when the duke unveiled a bronze statue of aviation pioneer and aircraft engineer Sir Geoffrey de Havilland. That prompted a fly past of 40 - count them, I say - de Havilland aircraft in tribute.