Private palace: a rare Hampstead home on a private lane

Rare to the market, Frognal Way has been under the same family ownership for 70 years (Image: Archant)

Up there with the Bishops Avenue, Kensington Palace Gardens and Eaton Square, Frognal Way is one of London’s most exclusive street addresses. Highly coveted, homes on the private gated road rarely reach the market.

Indeed, it’s so exclusive that not even Google Maps allows you to walk down it on street view.

“This late age of the world’s experience had bred in them all, all men and women, a well of tears,” wrote Virginia Woolf in Mrs Dalloway.

Built in 1925, the property was conceived in that late age that also brought us Miss Marple’s Angela Lansbury, Margaret Thatcher and Ernie Wise.

Frognal Way is on the market with Marcus Parfitt for �8,350,000 (Image: Archant)

It was the year Alfred Hitchcock’s first silent film was completed whilst across the channel Benito Mussolini assumed the powers of a dictator.

Little is known about the history of the house. In the 92 years that followed, the home spent 70 years in the hands of the same family.

Detached, it stands solitary on a raised plot on a tranquil gated road just moments from Hampstead Village and boasts four double bedrooms and two bathrooms. Facing south, the house is arranged over three floors and boasts 3602 sq ft.

Internally, the property could do with a little cosmetic updating since its years of heritage have laced the walls with a 1970s air, featuring floral designs, clashing patterns and dated drapes. However, with a little modernisation the house could prove a glamorous 21st century family home.

The courtyard wraps around the back of the property and leads to a guest house (Image: Archant)

From the top floors, the expansive skyline of London’s can be seen through vast windows. If walls could talk, they would tell tales of the evolution of the city; the destructive force the blitz, the rise of the concrete towers of a Brutalist 1970s vision and the climbing glass skyscrapers of the modern City.

If watching the cranes dance over London gets you in the mood for a little home renovation of your own, the elevated plot allows for expansion outwards at ground level subject to the necessary permissions.

With just under 0.25 of an acre of land, building works won’t diminish the amount of green space that surrounds the home.

The private walled gardens run alongside the boundary of Hampstead Parish Church and are populated with ages old fig trees, delicate wisteria flowers and shrubs galore.

In addition, to the west sunbathers will find a terrace with water features accessible from the vaulted kitchen and garden room. The drawing room leads to a terrace with access to an additional guest cottage including a ground floor bedroom, en suite shower room and living area.

Frognal Way is on the market with Marcus Parfitt for £8,350,000