From the archive: Graydon Carter’s apartment in the Dakota (1996)

MAY WE SUGGEST: From the archive: writer A A Gill’s London flat (1997)

There are antique toys everywhere: electric trains, Corgi cars, boats, and giant planes which hang from the ceiling, working scale models bought two summers ago from a former engineer at Pratt and Whitney. ‘When I was a kid, remembers Graydon, ‘my room looked just like this, and its fun for our kids too. The children, Ash, Spike, Max and Bronwen, have wonderful rooms, with triple-decker bunks for the boys; Cynthia Carter describes them as ‘apartments within apartments’. The presence of the children is everywhere. The library floor is strewn with board games and the kitchen doubles as a schoolroom, its beautiful, eighteenth-century French cherry-wood dining table serving as a desk for homework. The walls and furniture bear witness to the fact that in this apartment, knocks and breakages are taken in good part. “Everything in this place has chips on it,’ says Graydon, so it doesn’t really matter. I spend a lot of time mending things. I can fix most things – I’m serious – so when things get broken here nobody has a heart attack.’

As the editor of a major magazine, Graydon Carter has to be on call even when he’s at home, which makes his study one of the most important rooms in the apartment. It has more the feel of a den than an office. ‘We made this out of what was just a ratty little cupboard, he says. ‘It’s really the first writing room I’ve ever had.’ The walls are papered with maps from around the world, a vintage Dakota C47 divebombs the desk, and framed Vanity Fair memorabilia are including large numbers of menus from lunches and dinners thrown for visiting celebrities. Some of these are held in the apartment. ‘Every three weeks or so we will have a dinner for thirty or forty people. We empty out the library and put three tables for eight in there and, if we need them, two more tables in the front hall. The Royalton does the catering.’

MAY WE SUGGEST: From the archive (1995): Jeffrey Archer’s flat overlooking Parliament

The kitchen, which is where the family normally eats, was redesigned when the Carters moved in. With the help of Basil Walter, architect of the boys’ bunk beds, the Carters turned it back from an ultra-modern room into something that is more in keeping with the building, making use of the original glass-fronted cupboards, an eighteenth-century round dining table, copies of French chairs, which were made in Manhattan by Howard Kaplan, and, as a work table, the first piece of furniture that Graydon ever bought, an old printer’s bench from Pennsylvania.

Though the Carters’ love-affair with their apartment is self-evident, they are equally enamoured of the building as a whole. “This is just such a fabulous place to live says Graydon. ‘It’s extremely comfortable. There is a huge staff. Everything is delivered direct. For the kids, it’s a secure place, and they have such fun here. At Hallowe’en the courtyard is lined with pumpkins kids and prowl around, trick-or-treating Boris Karloff’s old place. At Christmas we have carol singers and a big, gorgeous tree. In summer, when the fountain is working, you open the windows in the kitchen and all you hear is trickling water.

But I think my favourite time is the winter when, a lot of weekends, we never get out of our pyjamas. You can order in anything locally – world-class Chinese food, all the newspapers, and videos too. Often the whole family never leaves the apartment. Those really are the best weekends of all.’