AUTHOR’S NOTE – IF THIS PIECE IS USED BEFORE 1.1.2000, MODIFY THE REFERENCE

IN THE LOW DOWN SECTION REGARDING THE 600TH ANNIVERSARY OF CHAUCER’S DEATH.

City of London Hot Spot

Aldgate Triangle is an impressive new luxury apartment block near

Spitalfields which, with its 235-unit heavily marketed units, won’t vanish

even if you want it to.

The Bermuda Triangle is a geographical abstraction in which ships

disappear,

supposedly in numbers which are disproportionately and mysteriously high.

Permit me to introduce the CityGate Triangle, making its debut in this

column.

Draw three lines connecting the Tower, Monument and Liverpool

Street Station, and encompassing Broadgate, Aldgate, Billingsgate and other

assorted gates . Many residential buyers overlook this area, considering

it,

reasonably enough, as exclusively commercial. In fact, it contains a

substantial number of residential developments, many of them modest in size

and reputation, and some in surprising locations. Marldon's handsome 49

Monument Street, for

example, is in the shadow of the Monument itself.

The credit for reshaping this part of London usually goes to the Luftwaffe,

but the area has a long history. The Monument itself commemorates the Great

Fire of 1666, and 300 years earlier, Mr and Mrs Chaucer looked for an area

des res enough to raise little Geoffrey in, and Thames Street fit the bill.

The technological demands of modern buildings are among the forces

propelling further change. The fate of an office building that has outlived

its usefulness is subject to political, structural and financial

considerations. Relevant factors include the attitude of local planners,

the

nature of the structure itself and the relative value of commercial versus

residential properties at the time.

"The big City office to residential conversions like the Lexington has

stopped, but small office blocks are not efficient commercially and they

will continue to be converted to residential," says estate agent Frank

Harris. "It is no longer best value to convert to residential. These large

commercial properties will remain commercial. And it will probably remain

that way for the indefinite future unless commercial property declines

catastrophically."

Financial considerations notwithstanding, "some office buildings don’t have

the floorplate for modern offices," notes Tim Craine of London Residential

Research. Nevertheless, some flats are being sold with columns or other

structural features that ideally should be elsewhere.

With its transient work force, the City has always attracted investors, and

international property consultants Knight Frank monitor local rental

values.

In their 1999 annual review, Knight Frank partner Robert Orr-Ewing finds "a

glut of properties to rent, particularly smaller units, and a weakness in

demand which has resulted in no significant rent increases in 1999. A large

number of people invested in rental property with the result that supply

went up by 50% at the same time as demand weakened. The City has seen a

number of international mergers and acquisitions and this has meant some

international corporate tenants have been sent home. Since September we

have

begun to see supply being used up at the top end of the market and larger

3-4-bedroom properties are scarce."

Bulls, however, needn’t feel baited: "We believe that balance will come

back

into the London rentals market next year," says Orr-Ewing. "London is

dependent on the City and the City is healthy and optimistic. It looks as

if

the market will firm up and start growing modestly, perhaps by up to 5% for

the best properties."

THE LOW-DOWN

Transport

If you must be near Gatwick or Heathrow every day, then Crawley and

Hounslow

are for you. But if you have an equal-opportunity attitude toward the four

airports, the City is roughly equidistant to all, including the growing

Stansted and London City Airports.

Aldgate Triangle

This Ballymore development designed by noted architects CZWG (Campbell

Zogolovich Wilkinson Gough) is on Commercial Road, E1, near Aldgate and

Aldgate East tube stations. The architects have included a tenth-floor roof

deck, private gym and fitness centre. The first release was in October with

prices from £125,000, and two-bed flats are currently being advertised at

£199,000.

Quiet Neighbours

The Lexington on City Road has virgin and second-hand units available,

including a two-bed duplex for £255,000. The sales bumpf understandably

mentions proximity to the Honourable Artillery Company grounds but the true

next door neighbour is the wonderfully archaic Bunhill Fields cemetery.

The Blues Done Got Me

East of Citygate Triangle are two developments in E1 attracted to blue.

Laing’s Blue

House is on Calvin Street and consists of 22 flats, nine of which are

live/work units, all priced between £175,000 and £200,000. Copthorn’s Blue

Gate Mews on Cable Street near Shadwell station has 16 flats – 14 two-bed

flats and two three-bed maisonettes - in two Georgian-style buildings. It

is

in the St George’s Town Hall conservation area, adjacent to Hawksmoor’s St

George in the East. Prices from about £160,000.

Spitalfields

The former wholesale fruit and vegetable market now hosts a posh retail

market, weekdays (11.30-3.30) and Sunday, with locally-owned stalls selling

organic food, second-hand books and records, antiques and new and used

clothes. Permanent traders include Frockbrokers (end-of-line designer wear

from London Fashion Week), Immaculate House (bathrobes, soap, etc), Queens

(camp costumiers), and Stagestruck (fancy-dress hire shop).

On the Bone?

Spitalfieds eateries include Meson Los Barriles, Pizza Pomadoro, Café

Mediteraneo, Canadian Grill, Ploy Pilin, Arkansas Café, Sweet Basil, Thai

Hut, Csaba’s Delight, Pacific Paradise, and Tandoori Hut.

The Judgement of Solomon

A recent Salomon Smith Barney property industry report notes that

commercial

"demand is healthy and the speculative development pipeline remains

limited.

In the City of London there is estimated to be 7.6m sq ft of active demand

for office space. Against this there is just 5.6m sq ft of available space

(of which around half is classed as Grade A quality) and while there is

6.6m

sq ft of office under construction, nearly 65% is pre-committed."

No Need to Split Heirs

In their most recent report, London Residential Research notes that

planning

permission was granted for 335 residential units during the first half of

1999 but "nearly all these units relate to applications made during 1998,

and new residential applications have become a rarity." LRR does not think

that this slowdown "heralds the end of the City’s brief flirtation with

residential. But the rate of residential development will slow down for at

least a year or two."

Mammon and Milton

The 17th-century non-conformist Bunhill Fields landed the remains of John

Bunyan, Daniel Defoe and William Blake before giving up its own ghost in

the

early 1850s. Bunhill Row was the stomping ground for a time of John Milton,

spending eternity in the nearby St Giles Cripplegate at the Barbican.

Chaucer’s tomb is in Westminster Abbey. He was born in 1340, give or take a

few years, and died, we can say this year, precisely 600 years ago.

Contacts:

Aldgate Triangle, 07000 701701; Copthorn Blue Gate Mews, 01277 262 422 or

selling agents Hadley Cooper, 020 7363 1144; Frank Harris, 020 7600 7000;

Hurford Salvi Carr, 020 7250 1012; Laing Blue House, 020 7375 1646:

Stirling

Ackroyd 020 7729 7763.

End