London’s first £250m home: A history of the In & Out One property in particular illustrates how the West End is being transformed back into a super-prime residential address, according to Wetherell’s new West End Residential Developments Report. Cambridge House at 94 Piccadilly is the first resi development in Piccadilly’s new pipeline, and, at £250m, it’s literally unprecedented. Piccadilly, overlooking Green Park and Buckingham Palace, was originally residential up until 1945. 145 Piccadilly, for example, used to be a 25 bedroom mansion (destroyed during WWII) that was the childhood home between 1927 and 1937 of HM Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret. Wetherell’s new report (which you can read all about here) tells us [/private]that after WWII, due to the lack of offices in the City of London, Piccadilly became a commercial thoroughfare and was lined with hotels, the Japanese Embassy, offices and plush clubs. Now however, booming residential values of between £3,500 to £4,500 psf are driving the transformation of the thoroughfare back into a super-prime residential address with a series of trophy residential properties and super-luxury apartments and penthouses in the pipeline. The first of these new pipeline developments is at 94 Piccadilly, Cambridge House, a grand mansion with private driveway which has survived to the present day and is named after the Duke of Cambridge, son of King George III. It was originally built for Charles Wyndham, the Earl of Egremont in 1756-1761. The Duke of Cambridge lived in it between 1829 to 1850 and from 1855 to 1865 Prime Minister Lord Palmerston lived in Cambridge House: the mansion now has a blue plaque for this resident. Between 1865 and 1999 Cambridge House was owned by the Naval and Military Club, and was known as the In and Out Club. Then entrepreneur Simon Halabi purchased the property. The mansion was acquired by Motcomb Estates in 2011 and, in April 2013, the company won approval to develop it into London’s most outstanding home, a 60,600 sq ft mansion providing 48 rooms, a 35,000 bottle wine cellar and underground swimming complex. The transformation of Cambridge House back into a private home will take 3-4 years. Wetherell points out that there is absolutely no precedent for a Mayfair mansion like 94 Piccadilly. Nothing of its size, importance, quality or historical provenance has been launched into the Mayfair market. Cambridge House will have the benefit of its own private carriage drive and gardens, plus massive state rooms and underground leisure complex, plus it overlooks Green Park – there is, says the agent, simply nothing on the marketplace like it. The only other comparable mansions in Mayfair are Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani of Qatar’s mansion Dudley House, at 100 Park Lane, valued at over £200 million, and on Curzon Street, Lombard House, another Al-Thani family residence, valued at over £180 million. A few doors along from Cambridge House, at 83-86 Piccadilly, British Land are planning to develop a 94,000 sq ft super-prime residential scheme, consisting of 36 super luxury apartments and penthouses overlooking Green Park.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Jul 2013 10:35:21 +0000