You have to love a home where a giant flatscreen television shares the same room with a suit of armor. Nightingale house in the Mayfair area of London is a classic home which has been given a recent renovation to make it elegantly livable. In its current condition it is cluttered but deliciously so, featuring fine antiques in many of the high-ceilinged reception rooms. Bedrooms, and even a bathroom, contain fireplaces with carved marble mantlepieces. The home has a roof terrace, four bedrooms but only garage enough for one large car. It is listed at a Freehold Guide price of £12,000,000.

Today's home in London is significant both for its architecture and its age. The home is the sole residential survivor of the development of the ground of St. Bartholomew-the-Great, initiated by Robert, third Baron Rich, in 1583. The house stands on the part of this early development known as the Square in Launders Green, edged by Cloth Fair on the south, by Cloth Court on the west and north and by Sun Court on the east. This block is described in the survey of 1616 as containing eleven houses with a court in the middle. Of these eleven houses only the property known as 41 and 42 Cloth Fair survives; the original structure much unchanged since its first lease of occupation of 1614 with the pre-Elizabethan well walled in on the north east corner of its basement.

By 1929 all other Elizabethan and Jacobean properties had been demolished by the City Corporation as part of their sanitary scheme. This property was also to be demolished having received a dangerous structure notice by the City Corporation. Luckily it was saved, made secure and lovingly restored by John Seely and Paul Paget to become their residence and architectural studio. They owned the property from 1930 to 1978. In 1979 the property was sold and converted into offices and became much neglected and in need of major repairs. In 1995 it was purchased by the current owners and extensive restoration and repairs took place to the property. The rear half-timber wall which the Royal Commission of Historic Monuments reckoned to be earlier than 1614 and has been put at circa 1597/98 was discovered and restored. All the works were authorized and supervised by the Royal Commission of Historic Monuments, English Heritage and the City of London Corporation. The property has now been restored to a beautiful home which received the City Heritage Award in 2000 as the finest example of building refurbishment contributing to the enhancement of the environment of the City of London.

The Grade II listed home has been featured in many books, publications and guides. It has plenty of entertaining space as well as six bedrooms, two terraces and a garage over 6,110 square feet and one of the most beguiling kitchens I have seen in a while. It is listed at £5.95 million.

Experience more lush living in luxury homes and mansions or see the stars living large with celebrity homes galleries at AOL Real Estate.

Squatters seem to have become a huge problem in London and the targets are some of the city's most expensive homes. Homes owned by rich foreigners have been left unattended in the wake of the economic crisis which has transformed the global economy. The London Times has an interview with a professional squatter who is living in one of London's most expensive homes on The Bishops Avenue, a street often known as "Billionaires' Row." The squatter, who lives just a few doors down from one of the homes owned by one of the world's richest men Lakshmi Mittal, says that the owners do not mind because the squatters are looking after the home. In fact, they have taken on home renovations, repairing things and doing the gardening.

Right now around 2.5 percent of all homes in London are empty, according to the Empty Homes Agency, a nonprofit that looks to put empty houses back in use. Those who job it is to tend to these homes are quite busy. The Wall Street Journal recently profiled Paul Palmer who is the Westminster City Council's empty-property officer. He investigates vacant homes and tries to find their owners. Some homes have been abandoned but others are paid up but still vacant. In some cases if a property is empty without effort on the owner's part to occupy, rent or renovate it, there is a system in British law which forces the owner to give up possession. At this point many owners sell the homes but if no owner comes forward the house can still be sold with the funds ending up in a local court where they can wait for up to seven years for the original owners to claim their money. Palmer seems to be more on the side of the squatters than the owners. The end of the Journal article has him talking about going in and having tea with one set of squatters. Is it just me or do London's home squatters sound a bit more polite than the ones we hear about in the U.S.?

High-tech houses full of computerized everything and robotized everything else are all the rage these days, but back in the 60's most people hadn't even dreamed of having remote-operated bathtubs and automatic dumbwaiters. Sir Stirling Moss did, however. Renowned as the "greatest driver never to win the world championship", Sir Stirling retired as one of the most distinguished racing drivers in the world. Having retired after a crash put him into a coma, Moss built himself a swanky townhouse in Mayfair, London, and packed it with all the gadgets and gizmos he could shake a titanium rod at. The best feature could very well be the one-of-a-kind carbon fiber elevator which was built especially for him by the Williams F1 team.

Seem a bit much? Moss certainly doesn't think so: the octogenarian is building himself a new house on a 2,300 square-foot plot along the river in the the retirement community of Deerfield Beach, Florida, complete with all the environmentally-friend credentials you'd expect. Click on the link below to view The Sunday Times video tour of the Moss residence in Mayfair.

Last spring I wrote about William & Son (above), the boutique London luxury goods firm founded by William Asprey after Asprey of London, the family business, was sold off back in the '90s. While William & Son hearkened back to the traditions established by Asprey in days gone by, including a bespoke gun department taking the place of Asprey's own which was closed down, William has conceded to a bit of modernization. His firm's Mayfair premises have just been revamped while the business as a whole has been "re-branded." The store's interior has been redone in an "elegantly modern" style, wihtout detracting from the classic and timeless nature of the firm's beautiful offerings, from diamond rings to 12-gauges. See the gallery for pix.

If you travel a lot it having nice places to stay can get really expensive. The May Fair Hotel in London is looking attract those types of travelers by offering them a way to defray those costs a little: buy one of their hotel suites for an entire year. Of course the price tag is not cheap at $585,000 but it does represent a savings of 60% compared to their regular nightly rates.

It might be nice to be able to leave some things in the suite and treat it like an apartment of sorts (an apartment that includes a daily maid and room service!) but you'd really have to travel a lot to make the cost economical.
What do you think, would you do it?

Just a week ago, we mentioned the opening of the Beatles hotel in Liverpool, for those with more cash and a deeper case of Beatlemania you can own a flat once rented by the Beatles in London for £1.75 million (around $3.415 million). The top floor property on Green Street, Mayfair is notable because it is the only home in which all four Beatles lived together. The four shared the property for a few months in the autumn of 1963. An early publicity photo of the Beatles peering over a banister was taken at the top of the property's communal stairwell. The property is now a two-bedroom apartment that includes a large living area, master bedroom and guest bedroom and it doesn't look anything like it did when the Beatles lived there.

[Thanks, Lana]

Ah, to be Madonna. Need more room for your many minions, just buy the house next door. According to The Sun, Madonna has paid around $1.6 million on a second London home to accommodate her large staff. She already owns other property next to her house as well as multiple homes in the U.S. She now has a significant slice of the posh Mayfair area giving her plenty of room to play lady of the manor.