Houses

1961: 1 Philbeach Gardens, Earls Court

This was on the corner of Warwick Road, right next to the exhibition centre. I got it from my first term at King’s College. My father gave me £10 a week, and the rent was £3-10s. The landlady was Mrs Arico, and she provided breakfast every morning, though I never had it. There was a gas ring in the room on which I could cook. Prim came in with me, though for propriety’s sake and her parents sake she had a room and paid for it but never used it. Every other Saturday night a car would crash head on into the bollard in Warwick Road, just above my head in the basement.

1963: Nevern Square, Earls Court

After Prim and I got married we had a basement flat in Nevern Square. I remember that there was a 6penny slot machine for the electricity, and I broke into it because I had no 6p s, and then carried on doing so. But I did confess to the landlord.

1965: Perham Road, West Kensington

We got a larger flat in West Ken, which was near Queens Club.

1967: 72 Duke Road, Chiswick W4

We bought this for 4,950, with a small deposit, a mortgage, and 1,000 loan from my parents, which we never paid back.

1975: 3 Flanchford Road, W12

We bought it for £21,000.

Neighbours were:

5 Cyn and Paresh Desai

2 William and Bridget

We rented it out in about 2005. They were a well-to-do young family, and I think they had just decided that renting was better than buying (not a very good idea). It was a bit of a drag, really, with them always wanting stuff.

Eventually, after I had my stroke, I decided that being a landlord was too much for me, and I sold it. There was a good deal of aggro from potential buyers. It was then that I decided that if sufficient money was at stake, even apparently correct people could justified themselves in behaving badly. Anyway, I sold it for £1,200,000. The mortgage was £600,000. The solicitor was a Malayan lady, unknown to me but reputedly OK, with a proper Legal Society guarantee. Then the mortgage company was saying that I still owed them the money, which should have been passed on to them by the solicitor. I was in touch on and off with the solicitor, then we realised that she had done a bunk and gone back to Malaysia. I think (no evidence, though this sort of thing does happen) that some criminals had her somehow by the short and curlies, and she had to pay them a whole pile of dosh and then disappear and give up her established career in UK. Then we had a very stressful year, helped by Iain's solicitor friend ???, at getting the bastard Legal Society to admit liability for the solicitor's insurance, and eventually we got it all minus £50,000 back. It was at that time that I started my habit of going to bed with a smart-phone and earphones to listen to podcasts when I couldn't get to be asleep because of the worry. It was one of those things that was an enormous worry at the time, and then now I hardly think about.

1973: Ebblebank, Bishopstone, Wilts

Prim and I spent many weekends looking for a cottage in the west country, and eventually found Ebblebank, in Bishopstone, in the Chalke Valley near Salisbury.

2001: Old Corn Mill, Damerham, Hants

2003: 47a Rylett Crescent, W12

When I left Prim and the Corn Mill, I came to the flat in Rylett Crescent. It had belonged to George and Wanda, but I had bought it from them - can't remember why, or whether it was just empty, or whether it had been rented out. George and Wanda were already living in Salisbury at the time. George had bought it or 32 years ago for £214,000, and I bought it from him for £240,000.

2005: 36 St Andrews Road, Acton W3

2009: Humberto Primo 507, San Telmo, Buenos Aires

At the end of our 9 week trip to Argentina, we started to look at flats.

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2019: Juan de Garay 612, 13E, San Telmo

2018: Faith's house 16 Ardleigh Road, Hackney