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Tenants are happy to pay dearly for a top-of-the-range interior, says Paula Hawkins

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Selling point: Pierre Brahm's strikingly modern flat in South Eaton place illustrates the standard expected for properties let at the top end of the market
 

The problem with renting a property is that you are stuck with the landlord’s taste in interior design. If you rent a furnished flat, you are stuck with his or her furnishings as well. More often than not, the landlord last decorated in the Seventies and on the cheap. But living with your landlord’s taste can be a blessing – if he is Pierre Brahm, chairman of Brahm at Henry & James, which owns a portfolio of beautiful, cutting-edge London apartments.

Brahm’s latest apartment is a three-bedroom pied-à-terre in South Eaton Place, Belgravia. The neighbours are glamorous (Joan Collins, Roman Abramovich), the shopping is fantastic (you are five minutes’ walk from Sloane Street and ten minutes’ stroll from Harvey Nichols), and the Tube is near by should you need it – black cabs are in plentiful supply in this part of town.

 
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But the real selling point of this flat is what is inside. Designed by Julian Land, one of the UK’s most fashionable design consultants, the apartment is a “homage to Hicks”, using patterns by the late David Hicks and furniture designed by his son, Ashley. The reception room, with pale grey walls and a walnut floor, is dominated by a few select Hicks pieces: a chaise longue, two armchairs and comfortable sofas. The main bedrooms, which have a Seventies’ feel, are decorated in blues, browns and faux fur; the third bedroom, which also serves as a study, is striking in reds and pinks. Heavy silk drapes hang upstairs, while in the hallway a red Pierre Frey curtain, made up of 80 per cent metal and 20 per cent silk, conceals the lift entrance.

This kind of style does not come cheap. The three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment in South Eaton Place is on the market at a rental price of £2,000 a week. This may sound astronomical to the likes of you and me, but it is a fairly good price by the standards of London’s very exclusive lettings market.

In Old Church Street Knight Frank is letting a house for £15,000 a week, although for this you get five bedrooms, all en suite, a kitchen and breakfast room and a separate two-bedroom staff flat, plus a swimming pool and a media room.

While a media room might prove popular with some clients, installing the latest gadgetry, saunas, steam rooms and expensive hi-fi equipment is not necessary to let out a property at the top level. Clients tend to focus on the fundamentals. “Most importantly, the basics have to be right,” says Mark Turnstall, of Chesterfield, a Knightsbridge-based agent. “The property should be bright, well configured, well finished and well located. These factors are ultimately far more important than plasma screen televisions and trendy washbasins.”

Indeed, Brahm, who spent about £150,000 converting, decorating and furnishing his South Eaton Place flat, says he decided against using the most expensive materials: “We could have put limestone floors into the bathrooms, but you are talking about adding several thousand extra pounds to the cost, and it is not worth it for a rental flat.”

As it is, the flat has beautiful, dazzling white bathrooms with stand-alone showers, twin sinks and plenty of space, but they cost a relatively modest £10,000.

Good-sized family homes are highly sought after. Tim Hyatt, head of lettings at Knight Frank, says that large kitchen/dining areas, spacious living rooms and bedrooms and outside space are very important for senior staff relocating to London. “A lot of clients from overseas are shocked at the small size of properties in London,” he says.

As well as providing light and spacious living areas, you need to focus on technology, rather than clever gadgets.

 

“Tenants paying between £3,000 and £4,000 a week are less concerned about having the latest cappuccino machine and more concerned about being able to connect to the internet from every room in the house,” says Mary Ryan, of Property Vision, which helps tenants to find top-of-the-range London rentals. “Landlords often forget about technology until it is too late. We had a Brazilian client who wanted to be able to watch Brazilian TV. This very reasonable request caused a huge amount of problems and the equipment proved very costly to install.”

Properties should be decorated beautifully and in neutral colours and landlords must be prepared to pay for professional management if they wish to let them at the highest level.

“The sophisticated tenant at this level will expect the property to be professionally rather than landlord-managed,” says Ryan. “They will want to be able to contact someone 24 hours a day, should any problems arise.”

Many properties at the higher end of the lettings market are sought by American families. “Americans are used to very high standards of customer service,” says Hyatt. “They are not accustomed to living in old, draughty Victorian houses.”

Properties must be properly maintained to attract the highest rents; minor inconveniences such as leaky roofs or windows that do not close properly might be endured by ordinary tenants but will not be tolerated by clients renting a home for thousands of pounds a week.

 

 

 

MEALS

Vocabulary

 

Active Vocabulary

 

Nouns and Noun Phrases

 

appetizer   1. что-л. возбуждающее аппетит, придающее вкус; 2. закуска в начале обеда
course the first ~ the main ~ meat ~ a three- ~ dinner   блюдо первое блюдо второе блюдо мясное блюдо обед из трех блюд
cutlery   столовые приборы
dish   1. блюдо, тарелка, миска; чашка; посуда; 2. блюдо, кушанье
food fast ~ junk ~   пища, питание продукты быстрого приготовления быстрая и вредная еда
habit to be in the ~ of   привычка, обыкновение; обычай иметь обыкновение
helping ~ of smth   порция
meal   принятие пищи; еда
pickle   рассол; маринад
poultry   птица (домашняя)
snack to have a ~(bite)   легкая закуска закусить, перекусить
speciality   отличительная черта, особенность
waiter   официант

Verbsand Verb Phrases

 

help ~ yourself ~ oneself to smth   раздавать, угощать, передавать (за столом) берите, пожалуйста (сами), не церемоньтесь; предлагать (кому-либо что-либо)
mash mashed potatoes   разминать пюре
offer   предлагать
pickle   солить, мариновать
roast   жарить(ся); печь(ся); греть(ся)
serve   подавать (на стол)
steam   варить на пару
stew ~ed fruit   тушить(ся), варить(ся) компот
treat ~ smb to smth   угощать угощать (кого-либо чем-либо)

Adjectives

delicious (syn tasty)   очень вкусный
spicy   1. пряный, ароматный; 2. пикантный, острый
substantial   существенный

Passive Vocabulary

Nouns and Noun Phrases

beef   говядина
broth   суп, мясной отвар, бульон
crockery   посуда (глиняная, фаянсовая)
garnish   гарнир
lamb   мясо молодого барашка
liver   печенка, ливер
oven   печь
pork   свинина
savoury   пряное, острое блюдо
slice   ломтик, ломоть; тонкий слой чего-л.
steak beef - ~   кусок мяса или рыбы (для жаренья) бифштекс
veal   телятина

Verbs

peel   снимать кору, кожицу, шелуху; очищать (фрукты, овощи)
stuff   начинять, фаршировать

Adjectives

nutritious   1. питательный; 2. диетный
savoury   1. вкусный; 2. острый, пикантный
slim   тонкий, стройный

I. 1. Look through the statements/ proverbs and try to outline the problems to be discussed.

1. Eating is one of the greatest pleasures available. In the modern world we tend to eat too quickly and not well enough.

2. Tastes differ.

3. Dry bread at home is better than roast meat abroad.

4. A very popular pastime today is eating out.

2. You’ve got some information about eating habits of young people. Say why some people eat so much junk food nowadays and what junk food is. Replace the words in bold type by the synonyms given in the box.

In today’s fast-moving world, people have less and less time to spend eating, let alone cooking. It is probably for this reason that junk food has become so popular, and there’s no doubt that it’s here to stay.

So what exactly is junk food? Basically, it is anything that is high in calories but lacking in nutrition. Hamburgers, crisps, chocolate bars and hot dogs fall into this category. Pizzas, although they can have vegetables and cheese toppings, are also included as they contain a lot of fat.

Why have our eating habits changed? “It’s lack of time and loss of tradition”, says one expert. He explains that people are too busy too cook and eat proper meals, so they grab whatever is available – and that is usually junk food. Also, the style of life represented on TV, especially in music videos, is fast. Young people pick up the idea that speed means excitement, whereas anything traditional is slow and boring. As a result, they turn down traditional food and go for junk food instead.

 

have a bite; make food; have meals; absence; appropriate; have a snack; fast; usual; prepare meals; making food

 




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ABOUT MYSELF | Culture shock | Dialogue 2 | HOUSE AND HOME | Tell your friend about the most traditional types of housing in Great Britain choosing the right preposition from the brackets. | Each noun and each verb in the boxes relates to one or more of the chores in the table below. Group them together by listing the words in the most relevant column. | Getting Kids to Clean is a Chore | Renting a Flat. | Continue this list. | Work in pairs. Continue the dialogue between two friends according to the logical scheme offered below. |


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