What could be described as London's most fashionable address has been put up for sale.
The former headquarters of fashion label Gucci on London's Grafton Street is regarded by brokers as the finest property currently on the market in London's prime area of Mayfair.
The lavish mansion has had some of fashion's most familiar names treading its corridors — figures such as designer Tom Ford and Alexander McQueen and former chief executive Domenico De Sole.
Originally built between 1769 and 1770, it was formerly the London home of lord chancellor Lord Brougham, where Queen Victoria and the first duke of Wellington were entertained.
Gucci relocated from Milan to the building in 1998, a few years after the head of the fashion house, Maurizio Gucci, was shot dead in the lobby of Gucci’s Milan headquarters by his former wife, Patrizia Reggiani Gucci.
The company stayed in the building until 2010, when Robert Polet, chief executive at the time, decided to relocate Gucci's headquarters to Cadempino in Switzerland.
After Gucci's exit, it was converted back into a house and now spans 1,300 square metres as an eight-bedroom property.
“The former Gucci mansion, the brand’s global HQ, is now Mayfair’s finest house currently for sale or let," said Gary Hersham, founding director of Beauchamp Estates, which is selling the property.
"Immaculately dressed, this turn-key mansion with its two floors of entertainment and leisure facilities is perfect for a family who, like Gucci, want a palatial residence in the heart of Mayfair.”
The mansion is available to either purchase for £55 million ($66.6m) or to let for £40,000 a week.
Featuring a basement, lower ground floor, ground floor and four upper floors, the mansion has a passenger lift, gym, cinema, health club with pool, plus a conservatory on the top floor.
The ground floor houses two state rooms with ornate six-metre-high ceilings, full height windows, original Georgian fireplaces and parquet flooring. Gucci used these rooms to host guests and meetings.
The dining room, which was Gucci’s main meeting room and boardroom, has a carved wood chimneypiece and built-in bookcases surmounted by busts of Alexander the Great, Caesar Augustus and Marcus Aurelius.
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