Kerr flat a glittering prize for someone

IT was once owned by a famous Scottish rocker who hosted parties for celebrities.

Now, the luxurious double upper flat - previously home to Simple Minds frontman Jim Kerr and Pretenders singer Chrissie Hynde - has gone on the market for offers around 430,000.

Overlooking the Forth Road Bridge and Forth Bridge, the South Queensferry property on Newhalls Road boasts five bedrooms, three bathrooms and two reception rooms.

Lisa Dransfield, who is originally from the Midlands, has lived in the flat - which is part of Bridge House - with her family for almost six years, and recently put it on the market.

In the 1980s Bridge House, which consisted of around eight flats in total, became known as the "yuppie mansion".

Kerr bought two of the flats and converted them into the one large flat which is now being sold by Mrs Dransfield. He is also thought to have lived in the flat with Patsy Kensit following his divorce from Hynde in 1990.

Unique Event's Pete Irvine, the director of Edinburgh's Hogmanay, joined forces with a business partner and an architect to convert Bridge House - which had fallen into disrepair - into flats. He sold two of them to Kerr, and another one to snooker player Stephen Hendry.

In an interview in 2009, Mr Irvine said: "To the locals, our building was known as 'yuppie mansion' because it was a prominent building and we were incomers and perceived as being loaded. Certainly Stephen Hendry and Jim Kerr, who lived there for a bit with Chrissie Hynde were at the peak of their fame and clearly not short of a bob or two.

"We did have a lot of parties. We all shared a huge bank of garden that stretched right up to the old railway line, which was the perfect place to throw parties in the summer. I used to have stewards on the door to make sure that we didn't have people sneaking in from the village."

Mrs Dransfield said she wasn't aware of the property's colourful history until her offer to buy it was accepted.

She said: "The previous owner, who had bought it off Jim Kerr, told us about its history and showed us an article in Q Magazine in August 1987. The photographs were taken here in the flat and we have still got the furniture that he's sitting on."

Claire Dalrymple, property manager at Warners solicitors and estate agents, said the fact that Kerr previously owned the flat may prove to be an interesting feature for would-be buyers.

"I suppose people are intrigued if someone famous has lived there and they want to go along and see it," she said.