New kids on the block

Exciting developments and new-builds shaking up the property world

Bayswater W2, from £1.5 million

Once one of London’s original big department stores alongside Selfridge’s, Liberty and Harrods, The Whiteley’s mammoth site (1.1 million sq ft) on Queensway is now firmly shielded by scaffolding, as renowned architect firm Foster + Partners beavers away at its landmark conversion, which will retain the Grade Ii-listed building’s façade and famous dome. Launched last year and set to complete in late 2023, it will include 139 residences ,from one to five bedrooms curated by Finchatton, some with enormous terraces and ceiling heights of 6m (19½ft), 20 new shops, cafés, restaurants, a cinema and a state-of-the-art gym, plus London’s first and flagship Six Senses hotel and spa, with 110 rooms, 14 branded residences and a members’ wellness club. The Whiteley’s reimagining will be the cornerstone of a major regeneration of Queensway and the wider Bayswater area, including a new gate into Hyde Park. (www.thewhiteleylondon.com)

Surrey, from £635,000

Arts-and-crafts Hampton Manor was built as a retirement getaway for a man called Charles Hampton Weekes, a clergyman and schoolmaster at nearby Charterhouse. It has had many reincarnations since then, hosting Canadian officers, medical students and trainee nurses from St Thomas’s Hospital, even becoming a hotel. In three acres of mature, landscaped grounds near Godalming, the manor has now been restored by Beechcroft and converted into 24 two- and three-bedroom apartments, each with its own private terrace, balcony, garden or roof garden. Hamptons (01483 905232)

London W8, from £4.86 million

Moments from Kensington Palace Gardens, the three distinct buildings of Lancer Square, by architect Squire & Partners, contain 36 residences (currently 70% sold) ranging from one to four bedrooms and three penthouses, private spa with treatment rooms and a 20-metre (65½ft) pool, secluded garden with contemporary art installations and 24-hour concierge. The handsome red-brick square’s design draws inspiration from the site’s history as part of Kensington Palace grounds and kitchen garden and, later, Kensington Barracks, housing cavalry and infantry, including the Royal Lancers. With a Kensington Church Street frontage, there’s also Grade A office space and retail units. (www.lancersquare.co.uk)

Rutland, £1.3 million

This six-acre plot of land close outside the picturesque village of Thorpe by Water (the water being the River Welland) could soon hold Seatonthorpe Hall—a six-bedroom, eight-bathroom house with a Georgian-style front and an indoor swimming pool and sauna (totalling 10,516sq ft), subject to the application’s approval, with further accommodation above a triple-garage annexe. The surrounding fields are rolling and serene and the market town of Kettering is about 12 miles south. Fine & Country (01780 750200)

Hertfordshire, from £610,000

Digs at the former Royal Masonic School for Boys at Bushey, on the outskirts of Harrow, have surely improved since noisy pupils were careering around and even since the striking neo-gothic building was regularly used as a film set, from Nuns on the Run and Lucky Jim to Monty Python’s Flying Circus and three ‘Harry Potter’ films. Dilapidated at the turn of this century, the building and its 100-acre site have been sensitively transformed by Comer Homes, which has even established a stonemason’s workshop on site, using Bath stone to repair the hand-carved staircase, Gothic window arches, fireplaces and so on. Renamed Royal Connaught Park, it now contains 300 residences—‘the epitome of contemporary luxury in perfect harmony with Victorian splendour’—starting at £610,000 for a two-bedroom apartment. (01923 222292; www.thecomergroup.com)