*For the time being, that is.
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=459165&in_page_id=2
(...)
Robin Ellis Construction Services, whose past clients also included David Bowie, Sir Mick Jagger and Vanessa Mae, has been placed into administration owing at least £1.5m.
The firm was one of the best known pioneers of lavish deep basement conversions in London homes of the fabulously wealthy. Its most notorious project involved the creation of a chute from a client's bedroom straight into her swimming pool so she would not have to get out of bed before her morning exercise.
Mr Ellis, 54, who founded the firm in 1984, specialised in projects ranging from £4m to £6m and was said to have a horror of 'Footballers' Wives' vulgarity. (((And who wouldn't? Oh wait, sorry, Posh.)))
At the peak of the boom last year it was said he was not worth calling for home refurbishments with a budget of less than £1m and was already taking bookings for 2010.
Sir Mick had plans for him to create a swimming pool which could be converted into a 120-seater concert hall in a project costing £5m.
One hedge fund client asked for a listed Arts and Crafts home in Chelsea to be gutted and recreated exactly as it had been before but with modern cabling and plumbing and the staircase strengthened with steel so that it did not creak.
The demise of the firm is a stark illustration of how dramatically London's wealthy have been caught out by the savagery of the financial crisis and the economic downturn....
