During June and July this year, our business started to creep back into our wonderful capital city.

With this resurfacing, I had to dig deep in the cupboards at home for an ironed shirt, some trousers that fit, and cufflinks. I had forgotten what cufflinks were, never mind what little draw I kept them in all those years ago! After collecting all of those, I needed a pair of shoes to transport me to town.

Thankfully, I have always been a proud shoe wearer, so they were tidy in a cupboard. A little dusty maybe, and needed plenty of shine, but ready to go – until I pulled out the selected pair. Shock, horror, there was a hole in the sole! I then had to cast my mind back to early 2019 when I was last wearing them and question myself – was I walking around town with a hole in my shoe?

I looked through my photo app and searched for clues and there was the answer! Before lockdown, I had been on a property walk around London, but all meetings had been postponed, so I took advantage of the situation and went for a long walk. Rather than the usual snaps of St Paul and Big Ben, I honed in on some back streets in Marylebone behind Marble Arch. Below is my favourite snap from the day!

I am a big fan of mixing the old with the new, and here you can see the new building immediately adjacent to a more traditional London townhouse which is most likely being used as offices, judging by the CCTV and air conditioning unit on the façade. The building to the right was completed for The Portman Estate and was on the site of a former police station. It now provides residential, office space and dining experiences. As this photo was taken just before lockdown, I suspect the sales of the residential units would initially have been slow and the office take-up would have taken a dive.

However, I would hope these districts and pockets of London that are investing heavily in the regeneration and infrastructure will soon be thriving again.

Regarding my most recent trip to London, it pained me to change my entire outfit to match another pair of shoes. As imagined, I headed straight to the local cobblers.”

No doubt I will be able to share more compelling stories in next month’s webinar: Property Development Finance: To what extent has development finance increased to 70% LTV?  Join us Tuesday 5th October at 08:30 BST by registering here.