West wins Emilia's heart

Irish eyes are smiling
Ballykissangel actress Victoria Smurfit has finally sold her two-bedroom Chelsea maisonette near Lots Road, for £465,000 through Lane Fox. She had originally put it on the market at £550,000, 18 months ago. But Vicky, who starred opposite Hugh Grant in About a Boy, will not be sobbing into her Guinness. Her father, Irish paper and packaging magnate Dermot Smurfit, is worth an estimated £1.6 billion. Now based in Dublin, she is married to marketing and advertising executive Doug Baxter.

Pad with political sway
Former prime minister Baroness Thatcher's daughter, Carol, has refurbished her Southwark loft flat, and it is now ready for rental at £800 a week through Mountgrange Heritage. The one-room, open-plan property in the Bankside Lofts development was let to TV host Graham Norton until Christmas. "The flat has views over the Thames and St Paul's Cathedral," say the agents.

House with Churchillian stature
FPDSavills have sold one of Belgravia's most historic buildings, 112 Eaton Square; a dilapidated six-storey, white stucco Regency mansion. It was in the mansion that Tory grandee Leo Amery held a meeting that resulted in Sir Winston Churchill replacing Neville Chamberlain as prime minister in 1940. Having paid around £6.35 million, the purchaser will need to spend around £2 million on modernisation and a further £1.75 million on buying the freehold as the property has only a 42-year lease.

Gucci interior glamour
You would be hard-pressed to find better taste than in the Chelsea home of American fashion designer Tom Ford. Now that he has resigned from Gucci he has put it up for sale, at an asking price of around £5 million. Like many celebrities, the Texan-born guru is not selling his four-bedroom double-fronted house on the open market, but through contacts in the property business. He and his partner, magazine editor Richard Buckley, plan to divide their time between homes in Paris, Los Angeles and Santa Fe.