Brian Claridge
The stunning house where tennis tycoon courted – and won – his young bride
IT IS the unique mock-Elizabethan house in Surrey where leisure-club entrepreneur David Lloyd has spent the past 12 years. But Cavaliers Court, which the former tennis star is now selling, also has a very romantic secret – it is where he met and fell in love with his wife, Teo.
The year was 2010 and Teo was one of the guests invited to a barbecue David was holding at Cavaliers Court. Wondering if she could offer any help, she wandered into the kitchen and found David in there cooking asparagus and bacon.
It was assistance he willingly accepted, and it was in that kitchen that David wooed her with a spectacularly forthright – some might say cavalier – romantic approach.
‘David told me that I would have to learn where everything was in the house as it may become mine one day,’ Teo says. ‘I was flattered by his direct, if somewhat unique, chatup line,’ she adds.
It also worked. ‘We started dating and were married two years later.’
Thirty-three-year-old fashion designer Teo (or Dolly, as she is affectionately known) and David, 68, now have a son, Dennis, aged four, and Teo has launched her own fashion label and opened Dolly Lloyd, a women’s boutique on London’s Fulham Road, where customers include singer and actress Holly Valance and dancer Kristina Rihanoff.
Teo, who is from Moldova, taught herself to sew at the age of six on an old sewing machine given to her by her grandmother, and learned five languages before moving to Britain and enrolling at Northumbria University, where she got a degree in fashion and merchandising.
David continues to throw parties at Cavaliers Court – and having a home where a lot of people could gather was one of the reasons he bought it.
‘I wanted a house with plenty of space for entertaining family and friends, especially at Christmas, when we all get round the piano for a sing-song,’ he explains.
The couple’s other family members include Teo’s son Chris, 18, from a previous relationship, and David’s children from a previous marriage: Scott, 41, Camilla, 36, and Laura, 34. He also has six grandchildren.
The family pet is Duke, a Hungarian Vizsla, who was a Christmas present from David to Teo.
Cavaliers Court is set in more than an acre and surrounded by picturesque countryside. ‘I loved the character of the house as soon as I saw it,’ David recalls. ‘The gardens are wonderful, with a slightly wild feel.’
Dating from 1922, Cavaliers Court, which is near Leatherhead, was designed to look older, with its beams, mullioned windows and herringbone brickwork. ‘Many of the materials used in its construction were reclaimed and date back 400 years,’ David says.
‘The property combines the warmth and homeliness of a period home with the look of a modern property, so we have the best of both worlds.’
Cavaliers Court – which is on the market for £1.8million with Chewton Rose estate agents – has a spacious drawing room with an open-plan fireplace, a dining room and study, as well as a family room and large modern kitchen/breakfast room with doors to the garden. There are three double bedrooms, each with its own bath or shower, with room for six or more bedrooms, subject to planning permission. A large annexe houses a cinema and full-size snooker table. It also has a foldaway double bed, as well as a gym, spa, sauna, steam room and shower.
The landscaped gardens round the house feature lawns, shrubs and mature trees. There is a wooden bridge over a large pond stocked with koi carp and freshwater fish, and an outdoor dining area and large heated swimming pool.
David also has a specially designed office built around a tree, which is accessed by a spiral staircase. ‘It blends in with the main house and is a peaceful and relaxing place to work from, with a built-in music system and TV,’ he says.
THE former Davis Cup team captain also counts among his assets Sugar Hill in Barbados – a residential development of more than 100 luxury properties – and he owns land in Thailand. ‘After I sold the David Lloyd clubs to Whitbread, I invested in property and new building developments,’ he says.
David, who was brought up in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, learned about business the hard way when his father’s fashion business went bankrupt. ‘The situation left me and my brothers [Tony and fellow former tennis player John] and my sister [Ann] to support ourselves and get part-time jobs. I did a paper round, then bought a machine to string rackets. At 14, I invested the money to buy rackets, which I sold in Germany because the Deutschmark was strong.’
He opened the first David Lloyd club in 1982 and sold the company in 1995. David and Teo are now planning to move to Palm Beach in Florida, where they are building a house.