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Gordon Ramsay buys stately home to create cookery school
Benedict Moore-Bridger2 Dec 2008
Gordon Ramsay is to open an international cookery school after buying a £5 million stately home in Chertsey, Surrey.
The 42-year-old, who has been accused of having a seven-year affair with "professional mistress" Sarah Symonds, wants to add Botleys to his empire of restaurants.
He has agreed to pay £5 million for the 18th-century house, currently owned by mortgage brokers Network Data Holdings who have accepted his bid. The 30-room, Palladian-style country house was badly damaged by fire a decade ago but has since been completely restored with gold-leaf decoration, antique wooden floors and panels, marble floors and an indoor gym.
It is understood that Ramsay intends to turn it into a cookery school and possibly a restaurant.
The Grade II-listed building was built in 1765 by Sir Joseph Mawby and in the Thirties was turned into a mental institution and a hospital for Dunkirk casualties.
The deal is expected to be finalised this week.
The sale was announced late last month, with NDH calling a general meeting on 19 November to discuss the deal which is expected to raise about £1.5 million for the company. NDH will move out of Botleys and move to rented offices in nearby Chertsey.
The company was asked to sign a confidentiality agreement not reveal the name of the buyer. But a spokeswoman for Ramsay confirmed the negotiations. She said: "Gordon Ramsay Holdings are in discussion but no deal has been signed. It is our policy not to comment until a deal is signed."
Botleys is less than four miles from the Tante Marie School of Cookery, recently bought by Ramsay. Earlier this year he said he was "fed up" with the standard of catering schools in the UK.
The news comes after further allegations from 38-year-old Symonds about Ramsay and two other women in a Sunday newspaper.
Ramsay, who is married to Tana, 33, with whom he has four children, has made light of the allegations. He said: "If I was really going to cheat it wouldn't be with a complete slapper."
Reader views (3)
Chertsey is a great location for people commuting though - right next to the M25 and not too far from the A3.
- Isabel, woking, 03/12/2008 12:01
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Hope it's got overnight accommodation (because catering students are notoriously short of cash for travel, obviously ;o)
- Karli, Tottenham, London, 03/12/2008 10:34
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bad investment if you ask me. Its in Chertsey, its in a business park, next to a hospital.
- Fly, london, 02/12/2008 16:16
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