RESIDENTS living in the UK’s ‘poshest’ place rub shoulders with celebrities and royals – while the local corner shop sells wine for over £4,000.
On average, flats around Battersea Power Station, in South West London, cost a whopping £1.2million – but those that can afford it may get a view of TV adventurer Bear Grylls doing pull ups on the roof.
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The Wild Weekends star reportedly knocked three properties into one to build a staggering £20 million mega-apartment.
And locals boast of spotting other famous faces – including singer Sting – every day following a £9 billion transformation of the area.
Power station worker Kasea told the Sun she works for a number of the world’s richest – but was remaining otherwise tight-lipped.
She said: “I can’t tell you who I work for but it’s someone pretty famous but there are a lot of famous people who live here, especially in the power station.
“I even see one of them every single day. I also see Bear Grylls, and Sting.
“I’m lucky to work around people who are really from the first pages, even the Queen’s family as well.”
Kasea described spotting Grylls, 50 – who lives with wife Knight and their three kids – getting sweaty above his luxury abode.
She said: “Yesterday he was doing pull ups on the roof, which I could see really clearly.”
Meanwhile, the pull of the area means even those who have since moved away keep coming back.
One such fan is 21-year-old Olivia Frostwick who lived in Battersea for six months while undertaking an internship at brokerage firm Edmiston Super Yachts.
She has since upped sticks to Chelsea but comes back to meet friends and take dog Toby for a stroll.
Olivia warned away from the redeveloped spot surrounding areas are a little less affluent.
“I was the other side of the park and where I was I didn’t feel particularly safe – it was borderline near Clapham,” she said.
CORNER SHOP WINE
Taking full advantage of the wealthy clientele is The Battersea General Store, with MD Raj Bathia claiming he has even served world leaders.
The 46-year-old’s pride and joy is his curated wine selection, which brought a glitter to his eyes when asked about it.
And why not – some of it’s priced up at £4,250 a bottle.
Going into his expert spiel, Raj explained: “You’ve got to swirl it. Let it open, it’s been in a bottle. It’s compressed, it’s been in there tight.
“Give it a chance to breathe at least. Literally, let it breathe. Then you swirl it, you enjoy it. Smell it. Give anything a bit of attention and you’ll start to see it in a beautiful way.”
He went on to explain he sees famous people “on a daily basis because a lot live here”.
“And then you have a lot that come and visit us specially,” he continued.
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“They’ve heard about us. We’ve seen them in the store, we had the ruler of Dubai in the store recently.”
Raj said they sell the £4,000 bottle of Petrus – kept locked in a temperature-controlled fridge – every few months to a wide range of people.
The high-end store sports solid oak, cracked tiling, and bottle green decoration.
It’s all been years in the making.
Other items include popcorn for £24.99 and a Kinder egg for £8.
Back outside, we spoke to another visitor, American Philippa Couvillion, 75.
She lived in Battersea in 1967 and said it’s changed from when she was a youngster.
We live in the ‘Beverly Hills of Britain’ home to Hollywood stars
THOSE living in the “Beverly Hills of Britain” have told how they rub shoulders with Premier League footballers and Hollywood actors.
Just a stone’s throw away from Chelsea Football Club training ground, homeowners in the sleepy villages of Oxshott and Cobham spot stars, flanked by 24/7 security, on the daily.
Peter Crouch, Jorginho and Raheem Sterling are just some of the players calling the Surrey area home, along with former Hollywood veterans Stanley Tucci and Antonio Banderas.
Tree lined roads and protective gates give privacy to the mansions worth millions of pounds.
Oxshott has just a few shops, including a luxury coffee house and a fancy butchers – with owners spotting blacked-out Bentleys and Jaguars cruising past.
In nearby Cobham, the high street is filled with pilates studios and juice bars.
Read the full story here
“It wasn’t a desirable area – I mean, there was nothing here,” she said.
Philippa couldn’t recall how much a bottle of wine would’ve costed back then, but was certainly a world away from current prices.
One local even described his favourite wine bar – a dispensary where you could pop your card in and it was self-serve by the glass.
He said: “You just help yourself, you just push the button and put your card in and then the wine comes out – it’s great.”
Another resident, who we approached while he was lounging on a deck chair, when asked about the price of the local shop’s wine replied: “Well, it is London.”
Lastly, were digital marketer Marina Prykhodka, 27, and House DJ Anastasia Belgian, 33, who both also work as models, and briefly lived around the area.
Read more on the Scottish Sun
The pair came over from Ukraine and were taking photos for their thousands of followers during our visit.
They said they missed their home country but if pushed to pick anywhere to live in the UK it would be at the luxury station site.
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