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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Business
Greg Pitcher

TV adventurer Ben Fogle’s eclectic Kensington home up for rent at £6,000 per week

His television career has taken him to some of the remotest locations and most stripped-back living conditions on Earth but for years Ben Fogle has returned to his family home in Kensington.

Now that quirky west London property — which bears all the hallmarks of his many adventures — is available to rent.

However, the chance to have the eponymous star of Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild as your landlord doesn’t come cheap.

Agents have listed the four-storey house, estimated to be worth £2.7 million, at £6,000 per week, or £312,000 per year, with a £36,000 to put down at the start of the tenancy.

A model ship and thick coats hung on the walls give clues to the owner’s adventurous past (Rigby and Marchant)

The five-bedroom property Fogle lives in with his wife Maria, a childbirth expert, was described in Homes & Property as “the house of a Victorian adventurer.”

The characterful decoration is “a riot of bright colours and exotic prints, decorated everywhere with knick-knacks that Ben has carried back from foreign trips.”

And a future tenant could get to enjoy the “Soho House vibe” for themselves if they wish.

It is understood that short-term tenancies from as little as two months would be considered, and the house would be left furnished or offered unfurnished for a longer-term deal.

(Rigby and Marchant)

Meanwhile the Fogles — Ben, Maria and their two children, Ludo and Iona — are said to be planning to spend more time in Oxfordshire.

They will be leaving behind a home full of personality, with a maximalist interior inspired by Fogle’s actress mother, who now runs an antique shop.

It contains a number of traveller’s curiosities, including a knitted figure of the star himself, which sits on a mantelpiece.

A huge and varied volume of artwork adorns the walls throughout, from a framed US flag to a sign for Lyons Cakes and including a number of animal prints.

(Rigby and Marchant)

Model ships appear dotted around the house, while a large map hangs at the top of the stairs.

The 3,300sq ft property has a fully equipped kitchen, garden with Fogle’s “man cave” writing studio at the end, and a large basement entertainment complex.

The ground floor reception room is currently filled with colourful and eclectic furniture and furnishings with two tiled fireplaces split by a vast floor-to-ceiling shelving unit crammed with colour-coordinated books.

This leads on to a large kitchen has wood-panelled units, a central island covered in pot plants and a long dining table beneath colourful upturned umbrellas.

(Rigby and Marchant)

Upper floors contain five slightly more restrained bedrooms, one featuring bunk beds and another bedecked in bunting, as well as three bathrooms.

As well as journeying from the Arctic Circle to the Amazon during 17 series of New Lives in the Wild, Fogle has climbed Everest and rowed across the Atlantic.

Fogle previously opened the door to the Kensington property for a 2016 feature in Tatler, a title he worked for as picture editor before his TV career took off.

This revealed a basement that combined a children’s playroom with a cinema and bar, along with a kitchen featuring no fewer than four dishwashers.

Agents Rigby & Marchant are marketing the London property.

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