Ben Fogles house... (purely nosey & invasive but still...)

[Polew]

To be shocked its Bizarrely... full & verry verry expensive

Rightmove listing

I suspect that Fogle is renting out his house at such an outrageous price

I looked up rental prices for a five bed in the area he lives in. Range was from £22,000 to £28,000 a month! Some of the crazy price may just reflect the crazy distorted London housing market.

Poor old Ben. Should have started a Go Fund Me, or had a Mumsnet whip-round, so that he could afford a gardener for his tiny London garden whilst away on his trips. I'll never forgive him for having astro turf in his garden - hideous, hideous stuff.

It is very much NOT Oka, which emphasises clean lines and simplicity. I have quite a bit of Oka furniture and furnishings because I like the style. At least one piece looks like Graham and Green to me, which is an entirely different decorating style.

it's just a load of expensive tat trying to masquerade as old money decor.

Some things look like Oka, but some of it looks 'industrial'/'shabby chic'.
Plenty of quirky things but too much of it.

It is dreadful. I opened the link prepared to see something quirky but tasteful. I was shocked. I couldn’t bear to live in it.

The frequent combination of pink and green is bad for a start.

I actually really like it. But £26,000 a MONTH????

Just to add to above, this house v nearby is on for £23,800 a month. It looks more airy with more light but is actually a 1000sq feet smaller. So it seems they are the prices for that area. Crazy housing market.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/134706176#/?channel=RES_LET

I used to live in the next street to this house - can't believe the rental price! Its not the nicest part of London and I found it quite soulless - although the houses themselves are lovely.

It's exactly as I expected as he's posh.

the artificial grass thing is really common in multi million pound homes in London.

It looks brilliantly crazy, but there is a very telling sign there that makes me think it is all smoke and mirrors.. with that level of clutter in the house, how is it that the books are organised by colour??? Tsk tsk

All that clutter & mess is dreadfully expensive & has been interior designed.

I have about a thousand cookbooks sorted by colour, they take up a 4m by 7m wall of the living room and look lovely. Occasionally I have to google the cover of the one I'm looking for to remember what colour the spine is, but not often. Other books in less prominent places in the house are sorted by category and then alphabetically. Am I a psychopath or not I wonder?

When I lived in W11 many of us had half furnished our houses out of skips. It's nice to see the practice has survived.

Your ideas about umc are funneh.

There’s no law against buying Oka furniture without copying their style, even - astonishingly putting it next to something from Graham & Green.

Alan Johnson, ex MPand Minister, grew up in poverty, very near to Mr Fogle's over priced house. How times change. "This Boy". Its a remarkable story. It would be difficult for anyone to follow a similar career path today.

Another vote for 'This Boy' by Alan Johnson. It's a well-written and enjoyable memoir even if you aren't into political memoirs.

This Boy: A Memoir of a Childhood by Alan Johnson – review | Autobiography and memoir | The Guardian

This one's far nicer while also being in the same sort of colourful/nick Nack style (& a little Scandinavian

😄

Agree. Similar vibe but much less overpowering.

No you are not

This MN story is now on the Sun. Free publicity thanks to this thread. I guess some people know what they are doing.

The Sun? Not sure the average Sun reader is a £26k a week rental target 😂

Yet, here we are discussing it on MN where very few posters - if any - could afford to rent a house for £26,000 a month.

This one is soulless to me. Bland . Different strokes for different folks.