Clarke goes for the gut

Celebrity crimper Nicky Clarke has paid £2.1 million through Bargets for a five-bedroom property in St John's Wood. While builders undertake a £500,000 renovation he is at his old house in Tufnell Park."To say that I'm gutting my new home is an understatement," says Nicky, whose clients include Elizabeth Hurley. "My master bedroom suite will occupy one floor." Clarke's children, Harrison and Tellisa, live five doors away in the old family house with his ex-wife Lesley. "Luckily we both now get on well," he adds.

TV chat-show host Graham Norton has sold his three-bedroom East End home for £465,000 through Foxtons. The converted Victorian school in Bow, with a mezzanine master bedroom overlooking the reception area, has sad memories for him: he lived there with his ex-partner Scott Michaels. The sale coincides with Norton's new £5 million American TV contract. The Cork-born comedian owns a £2 million town house in Manhattan, as well as a £200,000 flat in West Cork and a £350,000 holiday home in Cape Town.

City tycoon Sir Martyn Arbib has sold his eight-bedroom Grade ll listed farmhouse near Henley-on-Thames for £4.6 million through FPDSavills. The 31-acre property includes six reception rooms and a swimming pool. An adjoining 170-acre lot, with a four-bedroom house and farm buildings, is available at £900,000. The newly knighted racing fanatic, who is worth £279 million, is selling because his four children have grown up. His presence will live on in Henley, where he has erected a statue to commemorate Olympians Sir Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent.

Calling all vendors of mansion block flats in Westminster. Elizabeth Aitken wants to sell her two-bedroom, three reception-room mansion flat in Chelsea and buy a more central property. "The trouble is we have seven children between us and need more space," the ex-wife of actors Rex Harrison and Richard Harris says. "If we want to have a Sunday lunch for everyone my present dining room is too small."

The West Sussex childhood home of Tory backbencher Francis Maude (right) is for sale at £1.5 million through Jackson-Stops & Staff. The Grade II listed property is currently subdivided into three separate areas: the five-bedroom main house, the twobedroom second floor and the "northern wing" of office space. Architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner once described Daintrey House as "the most ambitious house in Petworth" because of its imposing Queen Anne facade and spaciousness.