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£50m family home nearly finished after 10-year delay
Ruth Bloomfield03.08.09
One of London's grandest private residences is due to become a family home this year after a decade of delays caused by a mountain of red tape and an embarrassing law suit.
Multi-millionaire Lord Bagri, 78, who began his career as a 15-year-old apprentice metal trader in Calcutta, bought a 150-year lease on Hanover House, a Grade II listed Regency property designed by John Nash. The freehold is owned by the Crown Estate.
He hired Prince Charles's favourite architect Quinlan Terry - the classical designer who was at the centre of the row over the Chelsea Barracks redevelopment- to transform the Regent's Park property into a grand family home complete with an underground swimming pool that converts into a ballroom.
Since then Westminster council has considered more than 100 planning and listed building applications on the site and has just approved, against the advice of its planners, "embellishments" to staff quarters.
But Lord Bagri apparently felt the design was too plain, so Mr Terry added period flourishes including a timber cupola with lead roof, a decorative weather vane, pediments, two stucco bays and stucco cornerstones.
Council officers said the "over-ostentatious" additions were "historically inaccurate" and would detract from the grandeur of the main house. The St Marylebone Society also objected to "pastiche classical detailing".
Jeffery George, Lord Bagri's historic buildings consultant, said a cupola had been in the first design, but had been removed at the request of council planners.
Michael Brahams, chairman of the planning committee, explained: "Making this outbuilding grander does not detract from the Grade II listed buildings nearby as these are of historical and architectural significance in their own right and I feel the designs are in keeping with the Regency style."
Work is well advanced on the main house. Mr George said: "It has gone on a long time, but the property was in a very parlous state when it was bought, and everything has been done to the highest standards."
In 2007 Mr Terry was fined a record £25,000 for illegally demolishing two Grade II listed Regency gatehouses on the site. He said the demolition had been accidental and planning law breaches had not been malicious.
Lord Bagri is a former chairman of the London Metal Exchange. He has a wife, Usha, and two children, Arpuv, who runs Minmetco, the metal company he founded on coming to Britain aged 19, and Amita, who is married and lives in India.
