I went to London for the last week in January to report on the UK’s unbelievably extensive use of Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) to watch out for (or simply wach) its citizens.
On the first day I visited the flat of a friend who lives on Palace Green, which is part of the Crown Estates associated with Kensington Palace. As one might expect, Palace Green is a gated community, heavily protected by Metropolitan Police at both the Kensington Road side and Notting Hill Road side. The road is lined with magnificent mansions built by various earls and dukes in order to place them in proximity to whatever majesty happened to be holding court there. Many of the mansions now serve as embassies–Russia, Sweden, Israel, France, the Czech Republic, and maybe others, but many are owned by individuals. Lakshmi Mittal, global steel magnate and fourth richest man in the world, has a great house, bought from Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone in 2004 for £57 million (US$128 million), making it the world’s most expensive house, at that date. At least that’s what the published reports say. In conversation, the price is pegged at £75 million. What’s also incredible is that the place sounds good–church bells, horses’ hooves. Above left is an oil painting of the place I visited, which was executed because street photography is forbidden. At right, a view from the second floor window. The palace is in the distance, at right.