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Decimus Burton — the architect responsible for Wellington Arch in Central London — would be astonished to learn that the des res he designed for his father in 1818 could become not just the most expensive single-dwelling property in the UK, but possibly the priciest in the whole world.
The Holme, set in four acres of Regent’s Park with views over a lake, is expected to fetch £250 million — some £40 million more than the previous record-holder, a 45-room mansion overlooking Hyde Park, owned by Chinese property billionaire Hui Ka Yan, which was sold three years ago for £210 million.
Of course, as is the modern way with new owners, whoever buys it will want to make it their own, most likely with a complete refurb costing at least £1,500 per square foot. A doer-upper on another level.
Mind you, the sale will be complicated. Currently, the house is in the hands of receivers after its Saudi Arabian royal owners defaulted on a loan of some £150 million secured against the property and other assets, according to the Financial Times.
The Holme, a beautiful Grade I listed Regency villa in Regent’s Park, London, England, UK, originally designed in 1816-18 by Decimus Burton
The Holme, set in four acres of Regent’s Park with views over a lake, is expected to fetch £250 million
It was hailed as ‘one of the most desirable private homes in London,’ by the architectural scholar Guy Williams
Prince Abdullah bin Khalid bin Sultan Al Saud is thought to be one of the beneficial owners along with other royal family members, whose housing arrangements make those of our own royals look positively pedestrian.
Quite what Saudi Arabia’s current ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, makes of this window into his family’s finances is unclear.
But what a house The Holme is. And what a triumph for Decimus Burton, who was only 18 when he designed it as a family home for his parents. It needed to be big because Mr and Mrs Burton had ten children, of whom Decimus (the clue is in the name) was the tenth and youngest.
It was hailed as ‘one of the most desirable private homes in London,’ by the architectural scholar Guy Williams, and described by the critic Ian Nairn as ‘a definition of Western civilisation in a single view’.
Today, wheeler-dealers at the top end of the property market are in a state of high excitement. They see it as evidence, if needed, that London is the most sought-after city in the world, commanding prices that outshine New York, Paris, Tokyo and, well, anywhere on the planet.
‘Make no mistake, this is big potatoes,’ says Trevor Abrahmsohn, who heads up Glentree International, the estate agent that specialises in buying and selling property for the super-rich. ‘I’m not sure it if will command £250 million status, but it won’t be far short of that.’
Mr Abrahmsohn describes it as a ‘flagship property’, possibly for a head of state or, as he puts it, ‘a crazy IT billionaire from America, of which there are quite a few’.
The strength of the dollar against the pound might encourage the latter — but presumably Mr or Ms ‘crazy IT’ won’t be unduly troubled by exchange rates.
Or rising inflation, soaring fuel bills or mortgage hikes for that matter.
Grade-II listed, The Holme has a four-column Corinthian portico and columns on a central bow overlooking the gardens — designed by Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe — that sweep down to the lake.
It’s unclear exactly how many bedrooms there are. Certainly, if you ask either Knight Frank or Beauchamp Estates, the two agents tasked with selling the property, the drawbridge goes up and you’re met with a firm ‘no comment’.
But when The Holme was sold by agents John D. Wood in 1935 to a Mrs James Field, on behalf of Lady Dance, for £40,000 (£2.25 million in today’s money), it had ‘about 20 bed and dressing rooms’.
Grade-II listed, The Holme has a four-column Corinthian portico and columns on a central bow overlooking the gardens
The Holme (a house in Regent’s Park) the home of the Hon. Mrs Peter Pleydell-Bouverie, pictured in 1940
The Grounds of the Holme, Regents Park, London
What we do know for sure from photographs that appeared in Country Life magazine five years later on April 24, 1940 — when the house was deemed worthy of a three-page feature and made the front cover — is that it has a ballroom, library and billiard room.
At that time, it was owned by the Hon Peter Pleydell-Bouverie and his wife, Audrey, who was the illegitimate granddaughter of King Edward VII via her mother. Audrey was quite a catch. She counted royalty, prime ministers and celebrities among her inner circle and jet-setted between London, Corfu, the French Riviera and New York.
Pleydell-Bouverie was her third husband and she had a penchant for doing up houses and filling them with her exquisite collection of artworks and furniture.
She was born Audrey James and grew up in Sussex, but caught the eye of two of the most famous bachelors of the day, the future Duke of Windsor and Lord Mountbatten. Yet her first walk up the aisle was with Captain Muir Dudley Coats, a wounded war hero who died five years into the marriage, after which she tied the knot with an American department store millionaire, Marshall Field III.
That was when she became a renowned society hostess, entertaining the likes of Cecil Beaton, Winston Churchill and Fred Astaire. The marriage was an unhappy one, and the couple divorced in 1934.
On her marriage to Pleydell-Bouverie, she remodelled The Holme, with the help of the French interior designer Stephane Boudin, and it became a perfect setting for her furniture and, in particular, collection of Impressionist paintings.
Years before all this, Decimus Burton had become one of the greatest architects of the 19th century. He was acquainted with the great architect John Nash through his father, who was responsible for the social and financial patronage of the majority of Nash’s London creations — especially those in Regent’s Park. But Nash found himself in a tricky position when the Crown commissioners complained that the design of The Holme was ugly, while others thought he should have opposed its construction in the first place.
After the Burtons’ tenure, the ‘villa’ — as it was referred to — was for a period taken over by Bedford College, now part of Royal Holloway, University of London, before returning into private hands.
In the past, the gardens occasionally have been visited through the National Gardens Scheme — but the new owner will be under no obligation to invite hoi polloi for a snoop.
Indeed, some buyers might think the world’s most expensive house is already a little exposed to prying eyes from the lake where you can rent a boat or pedalo — but some fast-growing leylandii should do the trick on that front.
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