We all know that Chiswick is culinary capital but who knew the fashion world would be following suit? It has been revealed that none other than flamboyant fashion designer Jasper Conran was the buyer that broke Chiswick's house price record when he set his sights on Walpole House.

With a price tag of £7,250,000, the illustrious Chiswick Mall home that once provided the setting for Miss Pinkerton's Seminary for Young Ladies now provides a place for Conran Jr to lay his head.

Set on Chiswick’s most expensive road and with a panorama of the Thames both upstream and downstream, Walpole House takes its name from the Hon Thomas Walpole (nephew of Sir Robert Walpole, England’s first Prime Minister) who lived there from 1798 till 1803.

Jasper, son of design guru Sir Terence, had been searching for a new home for almost a year and reportedly settled on Walpole House because of its huge double garage which provides plenty of room for his classic car collection.  He drives a Bentley Convertible, which he likes to describe as "a work of art".

But works of art are a sore subject for Jasper after Sotheby's was forced to reimburse the fashion designer £78,000 after a pair of portraits sold as 16th-century originals were revealed as 18th-century fakes. 

The refund came after Sotheby's, David Moore Gwyn, misdated the works when they were put into an auction in 2005, even though other experts claim to have seen "at first glance" that they were pastiches and renders them, in the words of one respected dealer, "complete tat and worth a few grand at best as decoration" but clearly not decoration fit for Walpole House.

November 23, 2006