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City boys are back on the hunt for places they can blow their cash on, according to estate agents, as the bonus culture returns and the property market appears to be bottoming out.
They will no doubt be scrabbling to get their hands on this three bedroom apartment at 17 Upper Grosvenor Street, new to the market, which justifiably describes itself as the ultimate bachelor pad.
The period frontage of the £8.75 million, second and third floor flat masks an ultra-modern interior fit for James Bond's younger brother. Decorated with the current owner's 21-year-old son in mind, its centrepiece is a bespoke metal-and-glass staircase that appears to be suspended perilously in mid-air, decorated with dangling leather bodices worn by Madonna in the film Die Another Day.
On the facing wall, the same eye-popping article of clothing is celebrated in a giant black-and-white print, near which stand two chairs lovingly cast in its shape.
They set the tone for a male fantasy in black and silver, in which everything is taken to man size and beyond.
In the reception room, an impertinently big, black-velvet sofa strewn with fur throws and cushions (furniture is included for a fee) waits to receive a rowdy gang of post-bar-hopping friends and entertain them with the help of the antique-mirror and granite wet bar or the enormous flat-screen TV. Movies and music are, of course, all operated by wireless touchscreen, as are the Venetian blinds, which whiz up to reveal a large, black-granite terrace onto which the party can spill. It comes complete with bar, barbecue – and border of miniature trees to obscure bad behaviour from the neighbours.
In the tsunami kitchen – more black-granite floors and surfaces – a generous amount of storage space is naturally devoted to wine fridges, icemakers - and a freezer currently containing only vodka.
When it's time to play dinner party host, the dining room next door aims to impress the friends with its huge, round, black-lacquer table, leather-studded chairs and ostentatious, black, Murano-glass chandelier. Downstairs, the master bedroom is definitely decorated with boys in mind, with black-and-white photos that are only just the right side of arty, heavy wooden floors, an entire wall of leather and chrome headboard and an antique brown marble bathroom that boasts its own sauna. And there's enough space in the adjacent dressing room for a lifetime's collection of designer suits.
The guest suite on the other side is less butch – it has a silk headboard and light grey carpet – but it's more than compensated for by the third bedroom, currently set up as a study, which has dark-leather
tiled floors and an imposing black, mock-croc leather desk.
It's enough to make any aspiring alpha male proud.
Flat 3, 17 Upper Grosvenor Street is available through Wetherell - click here for full details.
This article was published by the Mayfair Times September 2009. Please click here to view the full PDF.
