Diary: Return of the Kong

Forget that image you have of King Kong, swatting away planes while cradling Fay Wray and clinging on to the Empire State Building. More iconic for some is the 18-foot tall fibreglass statue of the troubled gorilla which once stood in Birmingham’s Manzoni Gardens. Both are long gone – the gardens beneath the Bullring Shopping Centre and the statue to its later owner’s garden in Cumbria. But, just like in the movies, King Kong is back. Or at least he could be. Act one – Chung Ying Plaza is a proposed 50-storey building providing 487 residential apartments. Act two – developer Cordia Blackswan wants to bring Nicholas Monro’s 1972 work of art back to its spiritual home as part of the scheme. And what of the development itself, you ask? A sky garden, a 360-degree observation deck named “The Peak”, commercial space, 487 rented apartments. King Kong looks great living it up in a courtyard in the CGIs… but is there no way he could be suitably scaled up and placed on the roof, in the clouds, where he truly belongs? Bizzle means business Remember Lethal Bizzle? The British rapper and entrepreneur emerged into the mainstream after forming grime collective More Fire Crew in 2000. His most high-profile side hustle has been clothing brand Stay Dench, which bizarrely led to him rapping with the actor Dame Judi Dench. But Diary hears he has other irons in the fire. In a recent episode of BBC podcast How We Hustle with Yianni, Bizzle talked about his first major property investment: a development of stunning-looking luxury flats by Capemay Properties in Ghana’s capital, Accra. Branded the Signature, amenities will include swimming pools (one on the roof), cinema, bowling alley, ballet and yoga studio and karaoke studio. Bizzle, who is of Ghanaian heritage, is audibly proud of his involvement. He also shares some sound financial advice – ever since he bought his first car, a Fiat Uno, for £100 as a student and got stung by parking fines, he has stuck to his “skint gang theory”: if you can’t afford to buy something three times over, then you really can’t afford to buy it. That could be a good mantra for the property sector too, no? Little Dorries Confession time. Although we claim no responsibility for this, Nadine Dorries is Diary’s MP, commanding a share of the vote that verges on the inconceivable. Despite the obvious local fervour, it is rare that we find ourselves truly sympatico with the culture secretary, but this week provides an exception. Stopped clocks and all that. No, it’s not that Diary proudly downstreams films and enjoys a bit of serve-and-volley on the municipal tennis pitches. It’s that, this time, Dorries has taken issue with Jacob Rees-Mogg’s indictment of civil servants working from home (see last week’s Diary and, it seems, pretty much everywhere else). Likening his passive aggressive note left on the desks of absent colleagues to A Christmas Carol, with “images of burning tallow, rheumy eyes and Marley’s ghost”, she said: “There’s a whiff of something Dickensian about it. Why are we measuring bodies behind desks? Why aren’t we measuring productivity?” Quite right too, though perhaps a different comparison might have been more cutting. After all, surely Rees-Mogg is the only man who could take “Dickensian” as a compliment. With great power… … there must also come… no responsibilities?! While we’re on the topic of Rees-Mogg, the official government web page for the minister for Brexit opportunities is oddly insightful. Under “responsibilities”, it is completely blank. Worryingly, the same is true for housing minister Stuart Andrew – doesn’t he have a crisis to deal with? Don’t they both? Meanwhile, to return to Dorries, last week the government site listed her as responsible for Covid-19. Sadly, this has now been deleted from her list – blame-shifting at its very best. On your bikes From bananas to bicycles, truly City tower 22 Bishopsgate’s commitment to the environment knows no bounds. Last week, we celebrated the building’s the Market foodhall recycling over-ripe fruit into a delicious treat, and now it has entered into a partnership with micro-mobility firm HumanForest to encourage workers to get pedalling. 22 Bishopsgate is gifting HumanForest minutes to its occupiers, with a “green bay” outside for one month, providing easy access to a healthy supply of e-bikes – all part of its initiatives to mark the recent Earth Day. According to Laura Elms, head of partnerships for HumanForest: “This partnership will help encourage 22 Bishopsgate occupiers to find environmentally friendly ways of moving to and from the building, encouraging more people to move in a sustainable, healthy and fun way.” And to work off all that banana bread. Reet good for ’ybrid The age of WFH has untethered you from London, but you don’t know where to go? We have you covered. Or rather, Uswitch does. Presumably starved of things to occupy its time now that energy deals are a thing of the past, the comparison specialist has compared 100 British towns and cities to find “the UK’s best place for hybrid working”. Ahead of Belfast in third and Edinburgh in second comes York, thanks to its superfast broadband, good schools, low crime and closeness to Leeds. There’s only one word for that: champion. Share your tales from the quirky side of the property industry by e-mailing diary@eg.co.uk Photo © Granger/Shutterstock