The Times - UK (2020-08-03)

the times | Monday August 3 2020 1GM 3

News

David Hockney’s secret to feeling
young is to have an invigorating artistic
project and “a few nights of nice sex”.
The artist, who turned 83 last month,
said that painting was vital to him.
“When you realise you’ve got some-
thing really good to do, at my age, you
get very, very excited,” he said in previ-
ously unused footage, filmed as part of
a documentary that came out in 2010.
“It made me feel a lot younger, fitter,”
he said. “I realised: that’s a stimulant.

For sale: remote maritime citadel
suitable for wealthy investor with
fantasies of living like a Bond villain.
Not suitable for anyone who likes to
drop in on neighbours unannounced
because there aren’t any — at least
none accessible by land.
The three 19th-century forts in
the Solent have been, variously, a
much-derided part of Britain’s
defences, army barracks, hotels and
venues for events. Now their owner is
selling them as private homes.
Mike Clare, the founder and former
owner of the bed company Dreams, put
the forts on the market two years ago to
be run as hotels. This year, however, he
was granted permission from Ports-
mouth and the Isle of Wight councils,
the two local authorities in which the
properties sit, to convert them into pri-
vate homes. He then decided to remar-

ket them. “A lot of people want them as

a wacky home,” he said, adding that the

forts would represent the ultimate “iso-

lation station” in case of further lock-

downs. “You feel very secure when you

are out there, a bit like a Bond villain.”

The forts — Spitbank, No Man’s and

Horse Sand — are situated between

Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight. Spit-

bank is about half a mile off the main-

land coast, with No Man’s two miles

away and Horse Sand nearly three.

Spitbank and No Man’s, priced at

£4 million and £4.2 million, have been

refurbished and are used as hotels and

event venues. Horse Sand is derelict and

on offer for £750,000. The three can be

bought individually or as an entire lot.

James Mackenzie, of the estate

agency Strutt & Parker, who is handling

the sale, said that he had already

organised viewings and received inter-

est from hoteliers and international

private investors. “We had much more

interest from very wealthy families

looking at them as potential play-

grounds during lockdown,” he said.

Mr Clare, 65, who bought the forts

between 2010 and 2012, has spent about

£8 million on renovations. “It’s so much

more expensive when you’re in the

middle of the sea,” he said. The forts are

scheduled monuments protected by

English Heritage, which imposes re-

strictions on the refurbishment works.

The renovations took almost five

years because works were conducted

mostly in the summer. Gun stations

were converted into apartments, while

a lighthouse was turned into a suite

with a glass ceiling. “We tried to be im-

aginative,” Mr Clare said. “We convert-

ed an old massive gun emplacement in-

to a pool, while we turned another one

into a huge fire pit.”

The enterprise has been challenging.

“They have been like a very expensive

mistress,” Mr Clare said in 2018.

The largest property, No Man’s,

covers 99,000 sq ft. It features restau-

rants, themed bars, hot tubs and a sun-

deck that can accommodate 20 people,

and three helicopter pads. It has 23 bed-

rooms, which can be rented out individ-

ually. Spitbank comprises 33,000 sq ft

over three floors and has nine bed-

rooms. Its courtyard features two de-

commissioned missiles from the 1970s.

“They don’t have the warheads now

though,” Mr Clare said.

Only Spitbank and No Man’s were

renovated because they had been refur-

bished in the past. Horse Sand, in

contrast, is “a blank canvas”. Mr Clare

said: “It was completely as it was in the

Second World War. There are no

generators, no wiring and no piping.

But still it’s a hugely solid granite struc-

ture that can be converted into flats.”

The fort, which spans 99,000 sq ft,

previously had planning permission,

now lapsed, to convert it into 14 flats

with a courtyard. “It just needs a few

millions spent to do it up,” Mr Clare

said. “But people can take inspiration

from what we did with the other two

forts. That shows it’s not impossible.”

Leading article, page 27

Three 19th-century

Solent forts are up for

sale from £750,000 to

£4.2 million, reports

Emanuele Midolo

No Man’s fort covers 99,000 sq ft and has 23 bedrooms, having been developed as a high-end hotel. Its smaller counterpart, Spitbank fort, top left, is priced at £4 million. A third fort, Horse Sand, is derelict

Live lockdown like a Bond baddie

ANNA KUNST PHOTOGRAPHY; ALAMY

Behind the story

T

he three forts

were

commissioned in

the late 1850s by the

prime minister Lord

Palmerston, below, as

defences against a

potential French

attack (Emanuele

Midolo writes).

The structures,

part of a series of

fortification

clusters

on the

Hampshire

coast, the

Isle of

Wight

and the

used for their original

purpose they became

known as Palmerston

follies.

They later came

into use during the

world wars but were

decommissioned in

1956 after the

abolition of coastal

artillery, and lay

neglected until the

1980s. They were then

sold off by the

Ministry of Defence.

St Helens, a fourth,

smaller fort near the

Isle of Wight, has

been privately owned

since 1983.

Solent, were intended

to defend Portsmouth

harbour. Designed by

a captain in the Royal

Engineers, they cost

more than a million

pounds and were

completed in

1880, when the

threat of an

invasion from

France had

faded. Because

of the

enormous

cost and

the fact

that they

were

never

You’re living. Life is exciting, interest-

ing, thrilling.”

Hockney told Bruno Wollheim, the

documentary maker, that his life con-

sisted of “reading and painting and a

few nights of nice sex”. He said that he

David Hockney, 83,

said having an art

project was vital

The secret to feeling young? Painting and sex, says Hockney

Jack Malvern no longer cared for living in London
and the artistic politics that went with
it. At the time he was living in Bridling-
ton, East Yorkshire, at a house where
his mother lived until her death in 1978.
He has recently been living in Lisieux in
the Calvados region of France.
“I take the small paintings downstairs
[to my bedroom at night]. I put them on
the wall. I look at them last thing at
night and first thing in the morning so
I instantly know what to do. So it’s like
living in the studio. In London there’s a
few too many distractions,” he said.

Wollheim, whose David Hockney: A

Bigger Picture was nominated for an

Emmy, said that Hockney appeared ten

years younger when he was invigorated

by a project. The film-maker, who fol-

lowed the artist for five years, also said

that Hockney had unfairly gained a

reputation as a hedonist because of

paintings he made in Los Angeles in the

1960s and 1970s. “In reality, his life is

closer to an exhausting Calvinist work

ethic,” Wollheim wrote in The Art

Newspaper. “He would point out that he

depicted his friends and lovers asleep

because they had been out partying and

he had been up since dawn.

“The Hockney I got to know over the

30 years of our friendship is someone

who needs a project, sometimes in the

grip of mania and possessed by a deter-

mination not to squander his creative

gift. He gets on a roll. Towards the end

of the Yorkshire project, I received this

text: ‘Have been in bed two days very

exhausted, and sleeping most of the

time, it’s a pattern in my life. I push

myself too much and then just crash.’”

How to restore your sex life, Times