Holly hits the Beach

Pop diva Holly Valance has rejected the cool environs of Notting Hill and Holland Park. Perhaps lured by the hip clubs, bars and restaurants of Fulham Road's "Beach" she has instead chosen Chelsea for her London base. The tab, believed to be around £1,200 a week for a coolly furnished two-to three-bedroom pad, is being picked up by her record company, WEA. The teenage former Neighbours star, who was raised in the Australian city of Melbourne, recently viewed a £500,000 flat in Canary Wharf. "But Holly has not yet decided whether she wants to settle permanently in Britain," says WEA.

Well-heeled literary types might fancy living in a £2 million blue-plaque property in Bracknell Gardens, Hampstead. The rambling Edwardian semi-detached was the family home of Brave New World novelist Aldous Huxley and his siblings, biologist Sir Julian Huxley and Nobel Prize-winning scientist Andrew Huxley. "The house is in an unmodernised state," says FPDSavills. "But when renovated would make a stunning eight-bedroom, four-reception room family home."

If you can stand the loud music why not move into the same 18th century Marylebone mews as pop singer Noel Gallagher? It's not quite as grand as his former north London home, Supernova Heights, but Kay & Co has a two-bedroom, three-storey house for rent at £830 a week, complete with garage. The roistering Mancunian guitarist, who also has a Buckinghamshire mansion near Chalfont St Giles, would certainly make a quieter neighbour than his younger brother Liam.

Chard Lettings has the ideal pad for a press-shy Hollywood star to rent at £1,050 a week in Belgravia. It belongs to Arsenal player and reformed soccer bad boy Ray Parlour. His three-bedroom Lower Belgrave Street basement flat has a secret rear entrance in Wilton Mews. "You just drive into the garage and walk in through the back door," say the agents. "It's very handy for smuggling in girlfriends or boyfriends. There's also a huge safe dating from when the building was all one house."

Actress Deborah Sheridan-Taylor, who played feisty Saskia in BBC1's EastEnders, has paid £155,000 through Holden Matthews for a one-bedroom Sixties penthouse overlooking Highbury Fields. "I've bought it as a rental investment with my partner, actor Jonathan Broom," she says. "Highbury is a bit like Primrose Hill without the hill, and has great Tube connections." Meanwhile, Deborah, star of BBC1's drama series Murphy's Law, has rented a Kentish Town flat while she looks for a three-bedroom apartment to buy.