Prime location for ministerial meetings
AGRADE II listed six-bedroom Marylebone mansion that has hosted royalty and four British prime ministers, including Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss and Theresa May, is on the market for the first time since 1996, through Dexters and Ashton Chase. The property is currently owned by Jonathan Glanz, former Lord Mayor of Westminster and senior Conservative Party politician. Asking price is £12,950,000.
The house has a grand entrance hall with a cantilevered Portland stone staircase, a ground-floor formal dining room, a large family kitchen overlooking the private garden, two substantial “Bridgerton-perfect” first-floor drawing rooms, interconnecting mews and garaging. It was built in 1767 for MP Humphrey Minchin under the auspices of the Cavendish-Holles (now Howard de Walden) Estate by Thomas Huddle, with interiors by Georgian master plasterer James Little and painter David Williams.
The history of the house took an interesting turn in 1789 when aristocrat Richard Howard, private secretary and comptroller of the household to Queen Charlotte, required a London home for entertaining. He purchased the house because of its location, which was then the latest fashionable area for nobles wishing to live close to both the court of King George III and Queen Charlotte, and the Prince Regent.
It was in the first-floor drawing rooms of the house that Richard used diplomacy and gossip to entertain and manipulate the rival courts of Queen Charlotte and her son George, the Prince Regent. After the Regency Bill of 1789, Howard and Queen Charlotte manoeuvred behind the scenes with Pitt the Younger (said to have disliked the Prince Regent) to ensure the Queen continued to fill her role as the first lady in royal representation, with the Queen functioning as the hostess by the side of her son at official receptions.
In 1791 Howard inherited the Earldom of Effingham and in 1814 Charlotte rewarded him for his loyalty to her by making him Treasurer to the Queen. Howard’s enhanced role granted him grace-andfavour homes at court, so he sold his Wimpole Street house to Matthew Raper, a director of the Bank of England.
By the 1990s the house was serving as the offices of the William Pears Group, with false ceilings and office lighting, raised floors overlaying the Georgian originals and no family-style kitchen and bathrooms.
But in October 1996 the current owners purchased the house and began a meticulous restoration programme to return it to its original Georgian character and enjoy it as their spacious London family home, with the adjoining mews purchased in 2000 and added to the property.
Providing accommodation over lower ground, ground and four upper floors, the house gives direct access to the mews via the lower ground level which extends under the garden.
Work on the principal rooms took 24 months to complete, with false floors and ceilings carefully stripped
away and the beautiful interiors lovingly restored.
The ground floor rooms have ceilings up to 3.2m (10.5 ft) high. The Portland stone cantilevered staircase in the entrance hall rises through all the principal floors, with windows to each landing, surmounted by a stained glass skylight, allowing natural light to cascade through the stairwell below.
Off the entrance hall is the formal dining room, seating eight to ten, which has a Regency fireplace, oak flooring, pine-wood wall panelling and a “secret door”, which connects to the adjoining family kitchen. Large, bright and airy, the family kitchen and breakfast room has a central island, Sienna marble fireplace and a threewindow bay overlooking the garden and mews house beyond, with one window designed as a “hidden door”, allowing access on to the garden.
The two interconnecting drawing rooms on the first floor are like stepping on to the set of Bridgerton, with classic interiors including parquet flooring, 4.2m high (14ft) ceilings with Georgian coving and ceiling mouldings, tall sash windows, Regency fireplaces and classic Georgian pastel-blue walls and ceilings.
The principal bedroom suite occupies its own private floor on the second level of the house, with a spacious bedroom, walk-in dressing room and a main bathroom. There are four further bedrooms (one with en-suite), a further shower room and a bathroom on the two uppermost floors.
The lower ground floor offers a studio, study and family room leading to the lower level of the mews which has a cocktail bar/entertaining room, cinema, sauna with showers and a well room with an original well, providing water for the garden. The ground floor of the mews is currently used as a large open-plan office with adjoining garaging for two cars and bicycles. However, it could easily be reinstated to provide garaging for six cars, which is almost unheard of in central London and is likely to appeal to both supercar and classic car enthusiasts alike.
Mark Pollack, co-founding director of Aston Chase, says: “It is so rare to find a grand London residence in the heart of Marylebone with such architectural integrity. The beautiful Portland stone cantilevered staircase along with the exceptional principal entertaining rooms are more commonly associated with some of London’s grandest homes so it is understandable why this house has entertained royalty, prime ministers and prominent politicians over the years.
“The property provides versatile family accommodation featuring an exceptional blend of formal entertaining spaces along with extensive more informal leisure space and whilst beautifully preserved, it has extraordinary potential for a discerning purchaser wanting to put their own stamp on the property in order to create a multigenerational home.”
James Staite, director of Dexters (Marylebone & Fitzrovia) says: “Between Oxford Street and Regents Park, period houses in Marylebone offer better value than those in neighbouring Mayfair and Belgravia. The house provides substantial accommodation with immense history in a prime location.”
Substantial house with immense history in a prime location