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London's biggest private home is to be created in Regent's Park with a value of more than £100 million, the Standard has learnt.
Developers have won planning permission to convert a row of seven office buildings into a vast ten-bedroom stuccoed mansion.
When completed, the 50,000 sq ft Regency terrace will claim the title of London's largest residence after Buckingham Palace. Witanhurst manor in Highgate currently holds that title.
Developer Marcus Cooper bought the John Nash-designed buildings at 6-10 Cambridge Terrace and 1-2 Chester Gate in 2007 for £23.7 million.
The buildings will become vacant when the current occupiers, Cancer Research UK, move to new offices in the Angel later this year.
Mr Cooper said the plans would restore the terrace, some of which is Grade I-listed, to its original purpose as a private residence.
The unique “super-prime” residence will have ten huge bedroom suites, all with their own bathrooms, vast entertaining spaces and two additional staff houses.
In addition to the lavish bedrooms, features will include a basement leisure complex with a cinema, gym and swimming pool, office facilities and a car park.
The pièce de résistance is a spectacular roof garden built into the eaves with a sliding roof and views overlooking the 472-acre park.
The “hanging gardens of Camden” will be 40ft long, bigger than most Londoners' ground-level gardens.
Camden Council approved Mr Cooper's plans subject to affordable housing being provided on another site.
The subterranean extension — nowadays almost mandatory for buildings of this kind — was approved on the grounds that it will have no impact on the outward appearance of the listed terrace.
If sold for more than £100 million, this project would be vying for the record of most expensive London home.
The official record was set in February 2008 when a buyer, believed to be Ukrainian businesswoman Elena Franchuk, bought a detached house in Upper Phillimore Gardens in Kensington for £80 million.
Since then, a house in Kensington Palace Gardens was said to have been bought by billionaire Lakshmi Mittal for his son Aditya for £117 million from “hedge fund king” Noam Gottesman. However, it is thought that the sale was never completed.
It is also believed that the top penthouse at the Candy brothers' One Hyde Park development fetched £100 million.
Other properties in Kensington Palace Gardens have since been valued at more than £120 million - although none has been sold for this price.
Mr Cooper himself previously vied for the record when he bought the 40,000 sq ft Witanhurst manor for £32 million in July 2007.
He announced ambitious conversion plans which, he said, would create a mansion worth £150 million in the neo-Georgian property which was once used as the setting for the BBC TV show Fame Academy.
But Witanhurst was sold later that year for £50 million to an undisclosed buyer.
Reader views (6)
Simonk and others are quite right. I don't work for CRUK but I know that (a) the interior of that building is far from luxurious (hence the development potential) and (b) CRUK has one of the lowest overheads margins of all charities in the UK - its size means that it is extremely efficient. Apolgies for detracting from Whocares' wonderful justification for not donating to charities. Thankfully, a lot of people do care.
- Anon, London, 08/02/2010 14:22
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And to "who cares" who said "if I thought that 75% would get through to ground zero I would have a change of heart", a quick look at Cancer Research UK's annual report (available on their website or via the Charity Commission) shows that last year the percentage of their funds raised that was spent on front-line activities was, erm, 80%.
So, do you want to make that donation to show that you really do care?
- Simonk, London, 05/02/2010 10:49
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Come on guys - these offices are clearly in an upmarket part of London, but have you any idea how long they've been the tenant for, actually seen the rental bill, or been in there to quantify the level of "luxury" that you feel the premises meet? I'm going to assume "no" on all counts, but would love to be corrected!
If the headline was "charity rents £100m worth of office space" I'd be with you, but it doesn't, so I'm not.
You clearly have opinions on the article, but without the facts to back them, you're offering little more than an unfounded & provocative rant at an organisation that does life-saving work. Which is helpful how?!
- Centurion, Oxford, England, 03/02/2010 20:43
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I think it is fantastic that Cancer Research and other charities are bequeathed offices by benefactors to enable them to effectively carry out their work saving lives and promoting cancer awareness without having to worry about how or where to house their offices. Great charities like this would not exist without the generosity of these people.
- June Brown, Luton, Herts, 03/02/2010 14:31
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out of curiousity when you donate money to cancer research how much goes into cancer research and how much goes into fat cats pockets and keeping them in luxury offices just exactly how much in the pound gets to resarch because looking at this office block it must be 5p its a disgrace
- Anon, leicestershire
Well said Anon.
Some of these charities overheads are nothing short of scandalous.
I virtually never give to charity for that precise reason. If I thought that 75% would get through to ground zero I would have a change of heart.
How on earth can a cancer charity Lease offices in arguably the most expensive area of London?
It makes no sense.
Ps
The Angel is no better. Sandwiched between Islington and the city. That surely must be extremely expensive as well. Why not offices in an industial estate on the outskirts of London?...Surely a whole lot cheaper.
Which would in turn, free up extra revenues for further research
- Whocares?, London, 02/02/2010 16:34
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out of curiousity when you donate money to cancer research how much goes into cancer research and how much goes into fat cats pockets and keeping them in luxury offices just exactly how much in the pound gets to resarch because looking at this office block it must be 5p its a disgrace
- Anon, leicestershire, 02/02/2010 14:24
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