BIG LAND PURCHASE

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 287, 7 November 1925, Page 7

BIG LAND PURCHASE

SLICE OF CENTRAL LONDON. SHIRRING A 1 AGNATE'S DEAL. About 40 acres of Central London has been sold to a company, ol which Sir. John Ellcrmaii, the shipping magnate, is a director, by Lord Howard do Walden. Great Portland street, the centre of London's motor world, is one of the many well-known sine s included in the deal, which is said (o he one of about £3,000.000, or about £75,000 an acre. Tho purchasing company, the Aiidlev 'Trust, is a ready the owner of considerable city properties. A remarkable feature of the deal is the secrecy with which it was carried through and the secrecy which still surrounds tho circumstances of the huge transaction, : says tho Daily Chronicle.

A man who has bought and sold land in London oil a coloss.il scale since the war, and is well acquainted with the principal estate agents, stated that not a whisper of the deal had reached him. interviewed at a South Coast resort, Colonel Blount, agent lor the. estate, said: “J. have no ; nether information to give. 1 cannot divulge the price paid for the land.” The Portland Estates, ol which the 40 acres arc a portion, brought liieir owner an annual income of £250,000 a year before the war. To-day the tents are TOO pur cent .higher than beioio the war, particularly in Great Portland street, one of the principal centres of London motor dealers. Sir John Ellernian, who was born at Brough, near Hull, in 1862, lias had a highly successful business career. Today he holds a leading position in the shipping industry, having direct control of the Ellernian Lines, and he is also interested in tho management of many important enterprises. He is a director of several companies. His daughter, Annie Winifred, in 1921 married in romantic circumstances Air Robert McAlmon, a poor American poet and athlete. Aliss Ellernian was making a tour of America, and the marriage was.said to have taken place after a courtship of but three days. Lord Howard dc AYahlen, the late owner of the land, is a romantic rather than a business figure. He is one of the richest men in Britain, has been a soldier and lias written operas and plays.’ He is 45 years of age. Alany pcoplo will remember his thrice-pro-duced opera, “The Children of Don,” of which he wrote the libretto, and which cost him £20,000. He has also dabbled in cricket, racing, motoring, motor-boating, big game hunting, aviation, fencing and heraldry; lias travelled extensively, and visited many cutaway parts of the world. Besides his London property, Lord Howard do Walden owns extensive lands in Ayrshire. His residences have included the historic Audloy End. near Saffron Walden, Essex, and liis country address is now given as Chirk Castle, Denbighshire. Sea lord House, Ji is town mansion, is celebrated l’or its onyx staircase, supported by alabaster columns, and the fact that its owner once said it reminded him of a railway station.