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The smug world of the Notting Hill set
The death of the Notting Hill set is all but assured, regardless of what happens in the election.
Grant and Roberts in Notting Hill: their characters' flaws still infest the area
(Image credit: Credit: AF archive / Alamy Stock Photo)
Whatever happens in the election in less than a week's time, we will have seen the "welcome death of the Notting Hill set", reckons Peter Oborne in the Daily Mail. These "youngish, media-savvy and metropolitan" group of politicians "mainly lived in or around Notting Hill [in] West London".
Like the characters in the 1999 film of the same name, starring Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts, they were "self-obsessed and smug" and "their charm and polish was matched only by a moral vacuity and lack of principle". They also were "incapable of understanding what life was like for hard-working families who did not live in the more comfortable parts of central London and the Home Counties".
That reflects how well the area in which they lived (and most still do) has done compared with the rest of the country. Over the last half century "it has transformed from an edgy area with densely packed social housing into a sought-after hotspot", notes the Evening Standard's Anthea Masey. Terraced houses have "now returned to family homes with front doors in Farrow & Ball colours and price tags in the millions". Of course, the most desirable residences are "its large stucco terraces facing garden squares" with "the entry price for a whole house in one of the garden squares now about £5.5m".
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Indeed, house prices in the area are so astronomical that even bankers "are now at the bottom of the Hill's pecking order", novelist Isabella Davidson (real name Maigaelle Moulene) tells Julia Llewellyn Smith in The Sunday Times. Davidson is the author of Notting Hill Yummy Mummy, a blog that details social life among the local jet-setters.
She was inspired to start the blog after "overhearing one of these individuals remarking in the confines of a private members' club that costs £5,000 a year with £10m you are poor'". While her first reaction was to think "what world do I live in?", she quickly realised that such "really funny" behaviour provided a unique opportunity to fulfil her dream of being a writer.
Some of the tales of "horribly materialistic" excess are indeed outrageous. In order to get their children into the best local primary schools, "parents go to such lengths as bribing teachers with holidays on their yacht in their desperation to bag places". Similarly, "three-year-olds receive party gifts from Tiffany and Harrods", while "fathers buy daughters Ferraris for their 16th birthdays, even though they're too young to drive". One hotel recommended to her by a friend turned out to cost "£26,500 a night that's more than £200,000 for a two-week holiday".
Davidson isn't quite in the oligarch league "by the standards of her neighbours" her life is "mundane", says Llewellyn Smith. She has "no chauffeur, chef or butler", while her house has "no gift-wrapping room or zipwire in the garden, now considered essential". Indeed, Davidson claims that the only reason she's able to live in the area is because "my husband made a wise investment during the property crash of 2009". However, she isn't exactly starving either. She freely admits that her family has been "to Barbados more times than I care to discuss". In any case, having sampled all the delights that W11 has to offer, she "couldn't live anywhere else".
Tabloid money a walking fashion spread
The most important quality in business is to believe in yourself, says Saira Khan in The Sunday Mirror. Entrepreneur Charles Rolls has demonstrated that "in spades" while creating "posh" tonic water brand Fever-Tree, from which he has just earned £70m by selling some of his shares in the firm. Entering a market dominated by Schweppes would make many of us think: "How can a tiny unknown take on a big multinational like that?". But Rolls believed in himself and offered something nobody else did in top-quality flavourings and quinine. "I raise my G&T and say: Cheers Charles, you're an inspiration!"
"Was there ever a first lady as fashion savvy as Melania Trump", asks Vanessa Feltz in the Daily Express. Even Jackie Kennedy "wasn't a patch" on her. Visiting Sicily last week, Melania stepped out of the car "rocking a Dolce & Gabbana collarless jacket festooned with multi-coloured 3D flowers (price $51,500)" and sporting the matching clutch bag adorned with a bejewelled clasp ($1,630). "She is a living commercial, a walking, talking fashion spread." She may not have taken up any charitable work, or said anything of note. "But goodness how that woman loves dressing... up!"
The one thing nobody has said of Roger Moore, who died last week, is that he was a great actor. That's because he wasn't, despite a long and successful career in which he played James Bond, the Saint and other iconic roles, says Jeremy Clarkson in The Sun. "As Roger himself said, acting means getting up early, saying your lines and not tripping over the furniture'." In every role, Moore played himself. Yet for all that, "he was my favourite Bond" for the humour he brought to the part unlike Daniel Craig, who is forever "wrestling with his inner demons".
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