Daily Mail - 01.08.2019

Page 27

life

Daily Mail, Thursday, August 1, 2019

IN THE PINK >>

THE Johnsons moved

to a home in Princess

Road, Primrose Hill,

in 1970, and, two years

later — after fourth

child Jo was born —

to a nearby house in

Regent’s Park Road

(right). The next-door

house was bought

around four years ago

for £13.5 million by

the fashion designer

Stefano Gabbana.

HELLO

BRUSSELS!

THE family

moved in 1973

to the EU’s

capital city,

where Stanley

worked for the

European

Commission.

It was here

that Boris

began to

fashion his

views about EU

bureaucracy

in relation

to condom

sizes, bendy

bananas

and prawn

cocktail crisp

regulations.

NOTTING HILL HIGH JINKS

SHoRTly after Boris was sent to Eton,

his parents divorced. His mother moved

to a top-floor maisonette in Elgin Crescent

and her children followed in 1979.

Boris’s sister Rachel has recalled how

her brothers ‘played endless percussive

games of cricket and darts in the

upstairs passages’. Johnson honed his

debating skills during dinner parties

with Establishment figures such as

future Times editor Simon Jenkins.

YOUNG MARRIEDS

HAVING been sacked by

The Times for fabricating

quotes from his godfather,

newlywed Boris and Allegra

lived first in a flat in Sinclair

Road (above) on the

borders of Holland Park

and Shepherd’s Bush.

In 1989, they moved to

Brussels as he took up a

post as EU correspondent

for the Daily Telegraph.

They lived above a dentist’s

in the Flemish suburb of

Woluwe-Saint-Pierre.

OFF TO ISLINGTON

AFTER the quick collapse of

his marriage, Boris married

his second wife, barrister

Marina Wheeler, in 1993.

They settled in the one-

time Socialist Republic of

Islington. From 1996 to 1999,

they lived in a four-bedroom

terrace house in Calabria

Road, valued at £387,000

when they moved there and

today worth £1.9 million.

Johnson’s journalistic career

was by then flourishing and

he became The Spectator’s

editor in 1999.

TUMULT IN ‘MEDIA GULCH’

THE Johnsons moved in 2000 to a five-

bedroom semi in Furlong Road, also in

Islington. Nicknamed ‘Media Gulch’, its

residents variously included TV boss Ian

Katz, columnist Tony Parsons, FT writer

Kate Kellaway and Left-wing polemicist

David Goodhart. While he was here, Boris’s

affair with Petronella Wyatt was revealed.

Wife Marina threw him out and changed

the locks, but later took him back.

SOMERSET’S INDIAN SUMMERS

THE scene of Boris’s ‘first known literary
work’, according to his father Stanley

was ‘Boo to grown-ups!’ written on a

wall in the family farm around 1969.
Johnson’s paternal grandfather was

a hill farmer on Exmoor and Boris spent

much of his childhood on the farm.

‘It’s the one place I truly call home,’ he
has said. ‘All other places have changed,

but not this one.’ He currently part-

owns a property in Somerset.

... AND THE

ADDRESS HE

HAS ALWAYS

WANTED

NUMBER 10 is

a Grade I-listed

building with

around 100 rooms

that has been

home to Prime

ministers since

1735. A Ministerial
      Code sets out that
      residence here is
      largely tax-free
      but Boris is
      expected to pay
      council tax while
      other costs such
      as lighting,
      heating and
      redecoration will
      be taxable.

CARRIE

AND THAT

NOISY ROW

HoME for a

short period

was in Carrie

Symonds’s flat

in Camberwell,

South london,

worth £675,000

(left) until they

moved out in

June after police

were called by a

neighbour after

a blazing row

over a spillage

of red wine on

the sofa.

The couple

recently bought

a £1.3 million

three-storey,

four-bedroom

Victorian town-

house (right)

elsewhere in

Camberwell —

believed to

be with a joint

mortgage.

Picture research: LORNA AINGER

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