Supernova Heights

Supernova Heights
General information
TypeSemi-detached house
Architectural style
Victorian
Location8 Steele's Road
London, NW3, UK
Completed
1870s

Supernova Heights is a Victorian terraced house at 8 Steele's Road in the Belsize Park area of the London Borough of Camden. The semi-detached property is most known for being the home of Oasis singer-songwriter Noel Gallagher in the late 1990s and as a place of 'non-stop party' during that time. The house was named in allusion to Oasis's song "Champagne Supernova".

History

Gallagher bought the house on Steele's Road in early 1997, and he owned it for two and a half years. He subsequently described it as a "big, fucking heavy house". The home became the constant site of paparazzi photographers during Gallagher's occupancy. Fans of Oasis would regularly congregate outside the residence, and the house became notorious locally for raucous parties.

Gallagher described the home at this time as like a "bad advert for drugs if you went inside it". Gallagher's wife at the time, Meg Mathews, remembered one of the members of the band The Charlatans falling down the house's limestone staircase and breaking his leg. The supermodel Kate Moss lived at the residence for several weeks. Sean Rowley interviewed Gallagher at the house for his BBC Radio programme, "All Back to Mine", which was broadcast on Christmas Day in 1997. Gallagher had soundproofing put in the house, which led his neighbour Bob Hoskins to describe him as the "quietest neighbour in Europe".

In a 2000 interview, Gallagher said that the home had "turned into a nightclub...The bar was always open, the door was always open, there were more people coming in and out than I ever got to know" and recalled "wasted years sitting there with the curtains closed" talking about conspiracy theories. An epiphany at the house in 1997 led to Gallagher's sobriety. Gallagher looked around the living room and realised that "20 to 30 people were there all the time. And none of them were my mates". Gallagher initially stopped drinking alcohol and taking recreational drugs for a week, which then became six weeks, and described himself as becoming "addicted to getting sober". He described the period between 1995 and 1997 as "mental and great. But unsustainable". "Supernova Heights was great for the time but then there came a point when I thought, 'I need to get out of this,'" Gallagher later told the Belfast Telegraph.

It was sold by Gallagher to Davinia Taylor, an actress and denizen of the Primrose Hill set, in 1999 "on the strength of a drunken early morning conversation", as described by Kate Moss's biographer Laura Collins. It was later bought by the comedian and writer David Walliams in 2005 for £3.2 million. Walliams stated that he planned to take a year to renovate the house and joked that he wanted to call the house 'Superduper Heights'. Walliams restored the facade of the property and created "double-and-triple-storey spaces". He then put the house up for sale in 2018 for £5.35 million.

References

  1. ↑ 8 Steele's Road, Belsize Park, NW3. Parfitt Properties Limited.
  2. ↑ "Supernova Heights Noel Gallagher's legendary 90s party house". 14 June 2018. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
  3. 1 2 "Morning Stormy". The Times. No. 65986. 4 September 1997. Retrieved 13 July 2020 – via The Times Digital Archive.
  4. ↑ Collins, p. 143
  5. ↑ "An Oasis Lover's Guide to Camden". Camden Market. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  6. ↑ Rachel, p. 352
  7. 1 2 Egan, Barry (17 August 2019). "'Supernova Heights was great for the time but there came a point when I knew I needed to get out of all that...then I met Sara and that was the catalyst for everything'". The Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  8. ↑ Wazir, Burhan (28 November 1999). "Champagne is uncorked as Noel moves out of Supernova Heights". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  9. ↑ Randall, Lucian (5 November 2012). Noel Gallagher - The Biography. John Blake. pp. 92–. ISBN 978-1-78219-091-2.
  10. ↑ Odell, Michael (6 January 2008). "This much I know: Meg Mathews". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  11. ↑ Bassett, Jordan (12 June 2018). "A brief history of Supernova Heights, Noel Gallagher's legendary '90s party house". New Musical Express. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  12. ↑ Baker, Lindsay (29 January 2000). "Morning-after glory". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  13. ↑ SPIN Media LLC (October 2008). SPIN. Spin. pp. 72–.
  14. ↑ "Jude Law and Sadie Frost's painful divorce 'sparked war' among Primrose Hill set". The Mirror. 25 November 2019. Retrieved 24 December 2022.
  15. ↑ Collins, p. 222
  16. 1 2 Lucas, Matt; Walliams, David; Hilton, Boyd (2007). Inside Little Britain. Ebury Press. pp. 32–. ISBN 978-0-09-191442-4.
  17. 1 2 Hashish, Amira (12 June 2018). "Supernova Heights:David Walliams selling north London house once home to Noel Gallagher". The Evening Standard. Retrieved 13 July 2020.

51°32′43″N 0°09′34″W / 51.5454°N 0.1595°W / 51.5454; -0.1595