Banking on a sale: £39.5m Mayfair flat on site where Barings family lived hits the market

Clarges Mayfair property overlooks London’s Green Park

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  A sub-penthouse property in an area of London with links to banking, diamonds and royalty is up for sale, priced at £39.5m ($52m). All photos: Grant Silverman / Wetherell

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  The four-bedroom flat is in the Clarges Mayfair building at 82 Piccadilly

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  A bedroom suite with terrace

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  Children's bedroom

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  A bathroom

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  Terrace pool

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  The study and library

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  There is underground parking with car lift and automatic turning circle in the building

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  The swimming pool

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  The concierge

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  The entrance lobby

A sub-penthouse property in London with links to banking, diamonds and royalty is up for sale, priced at £39.5m ($52m).

The four-bedroom flat in the Clarges Mayfair building at 82 Piccadilly has two rooftop terraces overlooking Green Park.

The building, built as an office in the 1960s before being redeveloped in 2019 as luxury apartments, has long been a spot for extraordinary wealth.

The plot was originally the site of the Pulteney Hotel, built in 1740 for the Earl of Bath, part of the aristocratic Pulteney family, and considered one of the best in London. It was one of the first in the city to have a flushing indoor toilet which won the approval of the Russian Grand Duchess Catherine when she stayed there.

The interior of the four bedroom Mayfair sub-penthouse overlooking London’s Green Park. Photo: Grant Silverman / Wetherell

It was replaced in 1821 as a vast four-storey mansion called Bath House, the home of financier Alexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton, from the family behind Barings Bank. The bank was founded in 1762, surviving more than two centuries before it was brought down by rogue trader Nick Leeson in 1995.

Bath House was later home to the aptly named railway baron, Baron de Hirsch, who built the Orient Express line through the Ottoman Empire connecting Vienna to Istanbul.

Portrait of Alexander Baring, Lord Ashburton, owner of Bath House at 82 Piccadilly. Photo: Grant Silverman / Wetherell

It was bought in the early 20th century by South African diamond magnate Sir Julius Wernher and his socialite racehorse-owner wife Lady Ludlow, when the house was written about as “the Millionaire’s Home”.

Wernher controlled the De Beers mining and diamond company and at the time was the richest man in Mayfair. He added several floors and attic space to Bath House which at the turn-of-the-20th century was the largest mansion on Piccadilly.

When Wernher died in 1912 Bath House was inherited by his son Sir Harold Wernher who, in 1917, married Countess Anastasia Mikhailovna, the daughter of Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich Romanov of the Russian imperial family. Anastasia became known after her marriage as Lady Zia Wernher.

Portrait of Countess Anastasia Mikhailovna, later Lady Zia Wernher. Photo: Grant Silverman / Wetherell

After the Second World War, Bath House became too costly even for the Wernher family to maintain and the mansion was sold in 1960 and later demolished, replaced by the office building known as Clarges House which housed Martins Bank then the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.

It counts a Porsche showroom and the headquarters of the Kennel Club as neighbours.

The refurbished building, acquired by developer-landowner British Land in 2012, contains 34 flats and includes a 25-metre pool and a fully staffed spa. The building has three basement levels and a nine storey Portland stone facade with hand-carved stone columns designed by architects Squire & Partners.

The interior of the original Bath House. Photo: Grant Silverman / Wetherell

It has an Art Deco lobby with 24 hour concierge, and a grand hall, a 18 metre atrium which rises from the lower ground floor to the top of the building.

Other amenities offer a business suite/private dining room, cinema room and an underground car park with car lift and automatic turning circle.

The newly-listed home, spanning the entire seventh floor, has four bedrooms and provides almost 4,665 square feet of living space.

The main reception room has five full height French windows with Juliet balconies overlooking Green Park.

There is also a study/library and separate family/TV room providing access to the private roof terrace. Its interiors have been designed by design studio Martin Kemp.

Peter Wetherell, executive chairman of Wetherell, which is selling the apartment alongside Knight Frank, describes it as “one of the finest luxury apartment buildings in London”.

“The panoramic views enjoyed by the sub-penthouse are equivalent to the spectacular views over Green Park that Lady Zia Wernher enjoyed from the palatial bedroom suite at the top of the Bath House mega-mansion that once stood on the site.”