Hampstead and Highgate Express Tour of the pile with the £32m price tag
Highgate mansion Witanhurst, known to millions as the setting for
BBC’s
Fame Academy talent show, is on the market for a cool £32 million. Andrew
Brightwell took a sneak viewing of the second largest private house in London
after Buckingham Palace
Click on the pictures below to see the architects' vision. [large images, open in new window]
TRAMPING through the side entrance of Witanhurst you are confronted with
nothing more than a complicated set of doorways and dark, shabby, wallpapered
rooms.
There is no inkling that it is the second largest private house in London,
with 25 bedrooms, a 40,000sq ft ballroom, kitchens and extensive terraces. But when you round a corner and are confronted by a huge hallway flanked
by two staircases hewn out of teak, you realise the full grandeur of the place. Soap magnate Sir Arthur Crosfield bought what was to become Witanhurst in
1913 with the intention of building a pad to impress the highest echelons of
British society. It was an 11-acre site, dating from 1774 with a house called Parkfield built
in the 19th century. Sir Arthur commissioned architect George Hubbard to come up with a Queen
Anne-style extravaganza, complete with eye-popping features, gasp-inducing
rooms and more plaster work than you could shake a bunch of sticks at. When he finished in 1920, Hubbard did not disappoint. Guests would drive up through a three-fingered gatehouse to meet the gigantic
house’s façade. They would then be ushered into a teak hallway so big that it would leave
even the brashest, self-important guest gasping. After a quick canapé, washed down with a glass of Krug, they would
find themselves wandering into the ballroom. A series of weighty-looking chandeliers illuminates a wood-panelled room
that must have taken a couple of rainforests to kit out. It aches with plaster and gold leaf and is lined on one side with windows
looking out over a lush lawn that disappears into a mess of now scrambled gardens. Sir Arthur’s wife took full advantage of her home. She held the absolutely-must-be-seen-at-party
before Wimbledon each year. It attracted, among others, the future Queen, Princess Elizabeth, who was
snapped heading up the steps to the house from the tennis courts in 1951. Knight Frank, the estate agent selling Witanhurst, reckons the most likely
buyer would come from the Middle East and would see it as a trophy house. They have had plenty of inquiries, but the ones from basement flats in Kentish
Town, and other less salubrious addresses have not been taken too seriously. Neither have the agents been inundated with pop stars and other celebrities,
because the £32million asking price is probably beyond even them. Whoever does get their hands on the house will be able to indulge in a frankly
ridiculous fantasy. On the first and second floors of Witanhurst you get a view of Hampstead
Heath that looks like a scene from a watercolour of rolling Surrey. It gives the impression the house is not a few minutes in the Bentley from
Sloane Square but a genuine country estate. andrew.brightwell@hamhigh.co.uk
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