With its elegant Georgian houses and scattering of cherry trees, this London street is among the capital’s most desirable locations, just a short walk from the West End, the Barbican arts centre and the City of London.
During the week bankers, lawyers and media types mingle in stylish restaurants and gastro-pubs, while a younger, hipper crowd pack the district’s trendy bars and clubs.
Such is the street’s appeal that actress Gillian Anderson, of The X-Files fame, owned a property there. A six-bedroom house she bought in 2012 for £2.89 million sold this summer for £3.6 million.
However, as the Mail reported this week, not everyone who lives here is as glamorous.
Near to Ms Anderson’s former property is the four-storey, four-bedroom house which is home to a family of Somalian refugees.
Worth an estimated £2.2 million, it is one of the most expensive council homes in the country.
The revelation has led to renewed calls for local authorities to review their holdings of property which could be sold off at vast profit and so allow investment in building or buying cheaper homes for the thousands of families languishing on waiting lists.
Muriidi Abati, 57, a cleaner, and his wife Maryan Mohamed, 44, who’ve lived on the Clerkenwell street for 15 years with their seven children, aged eight to 23, are reported to pay as little as £90 a week in subsidised rent to Islington Council. If rented privately, the house could fetch more than £5,000 a month.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ome-rented-council-Somali-refugee-family.html
