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Supernova Heights

1990s in LondonBelsize ParkHouses in the London Borough of CamdenOasis (band)

Supernova Heights is a house on Steele's Road in the Belsize Park district of the London Borough of Camden. The house was occupied by the musician and songwriter Noel Gallagher of the rock band Oasis and his wife Meg Mathews between 1997 and 1999 and became renowned as the scene of social gatherings and narcotic induced ribaldry among celebrities and the Primrose Hill set. Gallagher bought the house on Steele's Road in early 1997, and owned it for two and a half years. Gallagher subsequently described it as a "big, fucking heavy house". The house became the constant site of paparazzi photographers during Gallagher's occupancy. Fans of Oasis would regularly hang out outside the residence and the house became notorious locally for raucous parties. Gallagher described the house at this time as like a "bad advert for drugs if you went inside it". Gallagher's wife at this time, Meg Matthews, remembered one of the members of the band The Charlatans falling down the house's limestone staircase and breaking his leg. The supermodel Kate Moss lived at the house for several weeks. Sean Rowley interviewed Gallagher at the house for his BBC Radio programme, "All Back to Mine", that was broadcast on Christmas Day in 1997. Gallagher had soundproofing put in the house which led his neighbour Bob Hoskins to describe him as the "quietest neighbour in Europe".In a 2000 interview, Gallagher said that the house had "turned into a nightclub...The bar was always open, the door was always open, there were more people coming in and out than I ever got to know" and recalled "wasted years sitting there with the curtains closed" talking about conspiracy theories. An epiphany at the house in 1997 led to Gallagher's sobriety. Gallagher looked around the living room and realised that "20 to 30 people were there all the time. And none of them were my mates". Gallagher initially stopped drinking alcohol and taking recreational drugs for a week, which then became six weeks, and described himself as becoming "addicted to getting sober". He described the period between 1995 and 1997 as "mental and great. But unsustainable". The house was named in allusion to Oasis's song "Champagne Supernova".It was sold by Gallagher to the actress and denizen of the Primrose Hill set Davinia Taylor in 1999 "on the strength of a drunken early morning conversation" as described by Kate Moss's biographer Laura Collins, and was later bought by the comedian and writer David Walliams in 2005 for £3.2 million. Walliams planned to take a year to renovate the house and joked that he wanted to call the house 'Superduper Heights'. Walliams restored the facade of the property and created "double-and-triple-storey spaces". He put the house up for sale in 2018 for £5.35 million.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Supernova Heights (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Supernova Heights
Steele's Road, London Belsize Park (London Borough of Camden)

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N 51.5454 ° E -0.1595 °
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Supernova Heights

Steele's Road 8
NW3 4SE London, Belsize Park (London Borough of Camden)
England, United Kingdom
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Chalk Farm Tavern
Chalk Farm Tavern

The Chalk Farm Tavern was a public house located in what is today Regent's Park Road in Primrose Hill, London. The first inn was located on Primrose Vale close to the historic Chalk Farm that gives its name to the area. It was a popular stop on the route for Londoners returning from a day out in Hampstead on weekends and holidays. It had spacious rooms for entertainment as well as a pleasure garden. In 1837 a crowd of eight thousand was reported for a wrestling match.The area became notorious for duelling during the Regency Era, as it was located, like Putney Heath, beyond the outskirts of the city. In 1806 the poet Thomas Moore and Francis Jeffrey met at Chalk Farm, but the authorities arrived to arrest both men before shots were fired. A famous duel took place on 16 February 1821, when John Scott, the editor of The London Magazine, was fatally wounded by the barrister and literary critic Jonathan Christie. Scott was carried back to the tavern, where he died nine days later. Christie was tried at the Old Bailey for murder but was acquitted.Over the following decades the rural nature of the area disappeared, as it was increasingly built up by the Victorian era, served by the nearby North London Railway station. The street it stood on was renamed from Primrose Vale to Regent's Park Road. The tavern was rebuilt in 1854 on a smaller scale, allowing its gardens to be redeveloped and turned into new houses towards Chalcot Square. In the twentieth century it was rebranded as a Lotus-themed bar before closing as a public house in the early 1990s. It subsequently became a Greek restaurant.