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| Lifestyles of the rich and famous | Lifestyles of the rich and famous |
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| Loft extensions are for ordinary citizens. When the property market gets tough, the wealthy dig down to create the ultimate den, says Clive James in his weekly column. | Loft extensions are for ordinary citizens. When the property market gets tough, the wealthy dig down to create the ultimate den, says Clive James in his weekly column. |
| London is not the whole of Britain, and sometimes the rest of Britain has reasons to be grateful, because there are things that happen to London that shouldn't have happened to Sodom and Gomorrah. | London is not the whole of Britain, and sometimes the rest of Britain has reasons to be grateful, because there are things that happen to London that shouldn't have happened to Sodom and Gomorrah. |
| Elsewhere in the country, if you have any money left after recent developments in the world financial market, you might have some hope of building your house higher if you want to, or even adding a bit on to it. In London that's harder, but it's still possible to build downwards. You can put some extra floors under your house instead of on top. | Elsewhere in the country, if you have any money left after recent developments in the world financial market, you might have some hope of building your house higher if you want to, or even adding a bit on to it. In London that's harder, but it's still possible to build downwards. You can put some extra floors under your house instead of on top. |
| Bunkers, a wartime necessity | Bunkers, a wartime necessity |
| In the past week I was startled to find out not only that this could be done, but that there were people still wealthy enough to do it. They don't want to sell their houses because the property market is so depressed that there is nobody to buy their houses. But they do want to improve their houses, as a sure-fire investment against the day when the international financial market recovers the buoyancy which the rest of us once found such a source of inspiration that we believed the previous Chancellor of the Exchequer when he said London was where it was all happening. | In the past week I was startled to find out not only that this could be done, but that there were people still wealthy enough to do it. They don't want to sell their houses because the property market is so depressed that there is nobody to buy their houses. But they do want to improve their houses, as a sure-fire investment against the day when the international financial market recovers the buoyancy which the rest of us once found such a source of inspiration that we believed the previous Chancellor of the Exchequer when he said London was where it was all happening. |
| Then he was promoted to the position of Prime Minister and it all happened. But just how big a disaster has it been, when so many of the wealthy still have enough cash to improve their houses? | Then he was promoted to the position of Prime Minister and it all happened. But just how big a disaster has it been, when so many of the wealthy still have enough cash to improve their houses? |
| They find it hard, however, to improve their houses by building them higher, or by adding bits on to them. They could do that more easily in, say, Aberdeen. But in London they can improve their houses with least trouble to themselves by adding bits underneath: by sinking extra levels into the earth, building basements under basements, and extending these subterranean levels sideways under their back garden, if they happen to own one, or under the house next door, if they happen to own that too. | They find it hard, however, to improve their houses by building them higher, or by adding bits on to them. They could do that more easily in, say, Aberdeen. But in London they can improve their houses with least trouble to themselves by adding bits underneath: by sinking extra levels into the earth, building basements under basements, and extending these subterranean levels sideways under their back garden, if they happen to own one, or under the house next door, if they happen to own that too. |
| Some of these guys own the whole block, so we are talking about hidden developments on a vast scale, leaving the house itself, lavishly appointed though it may be, a mere pergola on top of an invisible palace. They're not just building swimming pools down there. One character is building a diving pool. How can you build a diving pool underground? Well, how can you build an indoor ski slope in Dubai? You do it with money. | Some of these guys own the whole block, so we are talking about hidden developments on a vast scale, leaving the house itself, lavishly appointed though it may be, a mere pergola on top of an invisible palace. They're not just building swimming pools down there. One character is building a diving pool. How can you build a diving pool underground? Well, how can you build an indoor ski slope in Dubai? You do it with money. |
| Up and down | Up and down |
| The applications for planning permission to build downwards are a tip-off that not all the rich have suddenly got poor. | The applications for planning permission to build downwards are a tip-off that not all the rich have suddenly got poor. |
| Lakshmi Mittal, not to be confused with... | Lakshmi Mittal, not to be confused with... |
| The latest Sunday newspaper rich list supplement, an annual pornographic round-up in which men with large amounts of money perform the same emblematic function as women with large breasts, reveals that the steel mogul Lakshmi Mittal has indeed lost almost two-thirds of his money since he stopped going out with Salman Rushdie. (My secretarial staff has just passed me a note saying that I have got Lakshmi Mittal mixed up with Padma Lakshmi, but my figures are correct.) | The latest Sunday newspaper rich list supplement, an annual pornographic round-up in which men with large amounts of money perform the same emblematic function as women with large breasts, reveals that the steel mogul Lakshmi Mittal has indeed lost almost two-thirds of his money since he stopped going out with Salman Rushdie. (My secretarial staff has just passed me a note saying that I have got Lakshmi Mittal mixed up with Padma Lakshmi, but my figures are correct.) |
| Mr Mittal has indeed lost more than £16bn. But since he has almost £11bn left, he is only relatively impoverished. | Mr Mittal has indeed lost more than £16bn. But since he has almost £11bn left, he is only relatively impoverished. |
| And there are other men of untold wealth, such as Mr Mahommed Al Fayed, who have actually got richer in the past year. All of the Duke of Edinburgh's schemes to render Mr Fayed penniless having failed, Mr Fayed has gained in wealth by 17%. Strangely enough, he is not yet among those who have applied for permission to build downwards. | And there are other men of untold wealth, such as Mr Mahommed Al Fayed, who have actually got richer in the past year. All of the Duke of Edinburgh's schemes to render Mr Fayed penniless having failed, Mr Fayed has gained in wealth by 17%. Strangely enough, he is not yet among those who have applied for permission to build downwards. |
| ... Padma Lakshmi, Salman Rushdie's ex-wife | ... Padma Lakshmi, Salman Rushdie's ex-wife |
| There has been no application to build extra floors under Harrods, perhaps because the Egyptian tradition is to build upwards, with the building coming to a point, instead of downwards, with a secret chamber below the Food Hall, the secret chamber joined by a tunnel to Buckingham Palace so that ninja-clad operatives of Mr Fayed's elite security staff can place listening devices in order to be apprised in time of the Duke of Edinburgh's plans to release moths in the men's wear department. | There has been no application to build extra floors under Harrods, perhaps because the Egyptian tradition is to build upwards, with the building coming to a point, instead of downwards, with a secret chamber below the Food Hall, the secret chamber joined by a tunnel to Buckingham Palace so that ninja-clad operatives of Mr Fayed's elite security staff can place listening devices in order to be apprised in time of the Duke of Edinburgh's plans to release moths in the men's wear department. |
| But not very far away from Harrod's there is a startling application for subterranean construction from Mr Jon Hunt, who founded the Foxton's estate agency and made £370m when he sold it in 2007, which, in retrospect, was a good year to sell. Indeed, in retrospect, 1066 would have been a good year to sell, or any other year except late last year, when suddenly there was nobody to sell anything to. | But not very far away from Harrod's there is a startling application for subterranean construction from Mr Jon Hunt, who founded the Foxton's estate agency and made £370m when he sold it in 2007, which, in retrospect, was a good year to sell. Indeed, in retrospect, 1066 would have been a good year to sell, or any other year except late last year, when suddenly there was nobody to sell anything to. |
| But Mr Hunt sold at the right time, which is the whole art of getting rich, and now he wants to improve his property in Kensington Palace Gardens, that exclusive part of London in which members of the British royal family, if they have the right credentials, are allowed to live among people from all over the world who have more money than the entire populations of the countries they come from. | But Mr Hunt sold at the right time, which is the whole art of getting rich, and now he wants to improve his property in Kensington Palace Gardens, that exclusive part of London in which members of the British royal family, if they have the right credentials, are allowed to live among people from all over the world who have more money than the entire populations of the countries they come from. |
| Mr Hunt wants to improve his already very large property by going downwards. Among the many other rooms and galleries he wants to build down there, he wants to build a museum in which he can display his collection of classic sports cars. On his planning application it says that the museum will provide an ideal display space for these treasures, but it doesn't say that the public will be invited in to see them. | Mr Hunt wants to improve his already very large property by going downwards. Among the many other rooms and galleries he wants to build down there, he wants to build a museum in which he can display his collection of classic sports cars. On his planning application it says that the museum will provide an ideal display space for these treasures, but it doesn't say that the public will be invited in to see them. |
| I suspect the public will not be invited. The display of classic cars will be for the delectation of Mr Hunt's dinner guests. But, on the whole, it is wise to avoid invitations from the kind of host who wants to impress his guests with what he owns. | I suspect the public will not be invited. The display of classic cars will be for the delectation of Mr Hunt's dinner guests. But, on the whole, it is wise to avoid invitations from the kind of host who wants to impress his guests with what he owns. |
| Next stop, Downing St? | Next stop, Downing St? |
| I myself, on the few occasions when I am invited as a guest to the dinner party of a rich host, do not find it impressive if - when the easy banter is flowing like the wine on the subject of, say, the later poetry of WB Yeats or Joanna Lumley's obvious qualifications to be the next prime minister - I do not find it impressive if the host breaks into the conversation to insist that all his guests accompany him three flights downwards towards the centre of the earth so that he can show them his collection of classic sports cars. | I myself, on the few occasions when I am invited as a guest to the dinner party of a rich host, do not find it impressive if - when the easy banter is flowing like the wine on the subject of, say, the later poetry of WB Yeats or Joanna Lumley's obvious qualifications to be the next prime minister - I do not find it impressive if the host breaks into the conversation to insist that all his guests accompany him three flights downwards towards the centre of the earth so that he can show them his collection of classic sports cars. |
| Especially if, when we all get down there and are looking with feigned interest at a Ferrari Testiculone upholstered in tiger skin for the Shah of Persia, the host suddenly holds up his hand and says "Hear that rumble? It's the Bakerloo Line." | Especially if, when we all get down there and are looking with feigned interest at a Ferrari Testiculone upholstered in tiger skin for the Shah of Persia, the host suddenly holds up his hand and says "Hear that rumble? It's the Bakerloo Line." |
| Canny move | Canny move |
| Anyone who examines my own application to further excavate under my office building in London will soon conclude that I won't be trying to impress my dinner guests. | Anyone who examines my own application to further excavate under my office building in London will soon conclude that I won't be trying to impress my dinner guests. |
| On levels minus one to minus four of my underground complex will be an assembly shop for a space vehicle designed to travel to a planet beyond the reach of reality TV Hear Radio 4's A Point of View | On levels minus one to minus four of my underground complex will be an assembly shop for a space vehicle designed to travel to a planet beyond the reach of reality TV Hear Radio 4's A Point of View |
| I have a larger and more humanitarian aim in mind. I wasn't on the recent rich list because I knew who to pay off so that I could preserve my anonymity. But I feel that I can reveal here, among friends, that on the day before Lehmann Brothers crashed and the world economic crisis got irreversibly under way, I just happened to sell my Costa Terribla mass luxury housing complex in Spain for a trainload of US dollars to a consortium of foreign ministers from sub-Saharan Africa who had diverted the economies of their own countries through a Russian money laundry in the Cayman islands. | I have a larger and more humanitarian aim in mind. I wasn't on the recent rich list because I knew who to pay off so that I could preserve my anonymity. But I feel that I can reveal here, among friends, that on the day before Lehmann Brothers crashed and the world economic crisis got irreversibly under way, I just happened to sell my Costa Terribla mass luxury housing complex in Spain for a trainload of US dollars to a consortium of foreign ministers from sub-Saharan Africa who had diverted the economies of their own countries through a Russian money laundry in the Cayman islands. |
| A certain amount of capital accrued, which I have since been putting to constructive use. On levels minus one to minus four of my underground complex will be an assembly shop for a space vehicle designed to leave the solar system looking like a dot in the distance, and travel to a planet beyond the reach of reality television. | A certain amount of capital accrued, which I have since been putting to constructive use. On levels minus one to minus four of my underground complex will be an assembly shop for a space vehicle designed to leave the solar system looking like a dot in the distance, and travel to a planet beyond the reach of reality television. |
| For a suitable fee, anyone can book a seat on the first flight. Anyone, that is, who shares my belief that civilization might be coming to an end. | For a suitable fee, anyone can book a seat on the first flight. Anyone, that is, who shares my belief that civilization might be coming to an end. |
| The chief evidence for this is that people with enough money are starting to dig. It is always an interesting psychological turning point when people with power develop a bunker mentality. | The chief evidence for this is that people with enough money are starting to dig. It is always an interesting psychological turning point when people with power develop a bunker mentality. |
| Wagner, Hitler's preferred composer | Wagner, Hitler's preferred composer |
| Hitler began tunnelling only a few days after World War II started; during the course of the war he had dug-outs all over Europe. And by the time the war ended he was occupying more floors under the Reich Chancellery in Berlin than there had even been above ground before it was bombed to rubble. He was down there with his Wagner records, the musical equivalent of a sports car collection. | Hitler began tunnelling only a few days after World War II started; during the course of the war he had dug-outs all over Europe. And by the time the war ended he was occupying more floors under the Reich Chancellery in Berlin than there had even been above ground before it was bombed to rubble. He was down there with his Wagner records, the musical equivalent of a sports car collection. |
| And as with the bad guys, so with the good guys. In the United States, the CIA started to go south as an intelligence gathering organization when it began digging new levels under its headquarters at Langley, Virginia, and finally there was far more of Langley below ground than above. | And as with the bad guys, so with the good guys. In the United States, the CIA started to go south as an intelligence gathering organization when it began digging new levels under its headquarters at Langley, Virginia, and finally there was far more of Langley below ground than above. |
| Conspiracy theory | Conspiracy theory |
| Can anyone doubt that the world is being manipulated from this international network of underground hideouts? It's no use looking for the men behind the men in power. We should be looking for the men below the men in power. | Can anyone doubt that the world is being manipulated from this international network of underground hideouts? It's no use looking for the men behind the men in power. We should be looking for the men below the men in power. |
| What's built up is also built down | What's built up is also built down |
| In my testament, which I'm currently dictating to my secretarial staff, deep beneath the earth, I explain it all. Signals from below the soil have corrupted the world's media to the point where you can't believe anything any more. How can we believe that man-made global warming is going to raise the level of the sea by 30 feet if the people who own the newspapers that say so are digging holes under their houses instead of heading for the hills? | In my testament, which I'm currently dictating to my secretarial staff, deep beneath the earth, I explain it all. Signals from below the soil have corrupted the world's media to the point where you can't believe anything any more. How can we believe that man-made global warming is going to raise the level of the sea by 30 feet if the people who own the newspapers that say so are digging holes under their houses instead of heading for the hills? |
| It's just been revealed that in a recent advertisement for the province of Alberta in Canada they used a picture of people on a beach in Northumberland in the UK because Alberta doesn't have a coastline. How could anyone have paid for that advertisement or run that advertisement or even looked at that advertisement and still believed that anything in any publication might be true? | It's just been revealed that in a recent advertisement for the province of Alberta in Canada they used a picture of people on a beach in Northumberland in the UK because Alberta doesn't have a coastline. How could anyone have paid for that advertisement or run that advertisement or even looked at that advertisement and still believed that anything in any publication might be true? |
| What can we be sure of except that nothing we read about or even hear about is certain? Except for one thing, and to this belief I cling, and so should you. | What can we be sure of except that nothing we read about or even hear about is certain? Except for one thing, and to this belief I cling, and so should you. |
| If anyone is rich enough to build himself a bunker under London, he's got enough money to pay his taxes. | If anyone is rich enough to build himself a bunker under London, he's got enough money to pay his taxes. |
| Here is a selection of your comments. | |
| Didn't Dr Strangelove foretell this occurence,especially the collecting of cows and beautiful women as an incentive to burrow?Anthony Davidson, Trenton NJ USA | |
| Desperate times call for desperate measures. What better place for a desperate man to keep his most prized possessions than in a big hole in the bottom of his garden. The basic bank. A very down to earth idea.Toni King-Stewart, St John's, Newfoundland, Canada | |
| Down is the way to go - to maintain reasonable temperatures. Invest in those who build liveable basements. More than a metre below ground is very stable - cool in summer and reasonable in winter.Mac, Montreal, Canada | |
| I'd also draw your attention to Denver International Airport which covers a greater area underground than at ground level, with restricted access to it. I've often wondered why there was such an increase in building down amongst the rich and powerful when, if climatologists are to be believed, those subterranean dwellings will be flooded pretty quickly.Jennifer Brand, Scotland | |
| One glaring omission to this amusing item, most of us will end up in subterranean quarters, about six feet down.Meira, Israel | |
| What's the elevation in those areas? I'm wondering how expected sea level rise may affect the entrance to those bunkers. I'm sure the construction is adequately water proofed but if the house on top is subjected to periodic flooding you could end up trapped in a very large stationary submarine wondering if you should swim for it at the expense of your valuables or try to wait out the flood.Wilder, Seattle, USA | |
| Building beneath your home is certainly not a new idea, and has been going on for many years. However the complexities and potential pitfalls of building beneath your property are immense. Smaller systems are available to construct a wine cellar or similar, which are possible on a more modest budget, but you would probably be better off buying a new and bigger property when the market improves. William Anstey, Chelmsford, UK | |
| I live in a mobile home, raised off the ground, so the concept of digging down is even more interesting. I would have a nice little level of open air living, albeit being unable to stand up, or even sit. But then I could dig even further down and have all the luxuries outlined in Mr James' fascinating article, - except that I can't afford them, so it would be "au naturel" all the way down. Is planning permission required for this underground living? | |
| I quite fancy life amongst the mole population of south Devon. I'm quite old now, so my family could save by not bothering about a funeral for me. I could just lie there with the moles and worms in my underground world when I expire.Jan, Bovey Tracey, Devon, UK |