Featured property…
Hampshire House, 12 Hyde Park Place, Hyde Park, W2 - £9,250,000 ($13m)
Key details…
Luxurious lateral penthouse offering panoramic views across Hyde Park and the city of London.
The redeveloped apartment combines modern convenience with traditional appeal.
It has three large bedroom suites and is situated on the sixth floor of Hampshire House, a period building with 24-hour porters and lift access to every level.
The leasehold apartment is ideal for entertaining, featuring three contemporary reception rooms, which through floor-to-ceiling sliding doors lead on to a private terrace spanning the width of the apartment.
If entertainment is sought outside of the penthouse, it is ideally located for Marble Arch tube station and a network of travel links.
For prospective international purchasers, the Heathrow Express can be taken from nearby Paddington Station.
The backstory...
Charles Dickens lived a few doors down at 5 Hyde Park Place in early 1870 so his daughter Mary could be in town for the "London Season”.
It was here he wrote his final novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Dickens died a few months after its publication.
5 Hyde Park Place wasn’t the Victorian novelist’s only London residence. He also lived in Doughty Street, Bloomsbury, the site of the Charles Dickens Museum.
The Hyde Park setting…
Months of on-off Covid lockdowns have made Londoners thirst for wide open green spaces.
They don’t come much more expansive and green than Hyde Park, the penthouse’s de facto back garden.
Set in the heart of the capital, the sprawling land is home to the sinuous Serpentine river – mecca for cold-water swimmers – the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain and a profusion of spots in which Londoners can exercise, socialise and relax.
It also hosts, in non-pandemic times, a range of world-class events and concerts which the south-facing penthouse overlooks, meaning potential purchasers are not just getting a place to stay but a proxy all-year-round Hyde Park hospitality pass.
What the broker says...
"It was originally constructed as a five bed in the 1970s with low ceilings and wasn't particularly spectacular. However, a few years back a developer transformed it by building out on flat roof space to increase the square footage.
"Now the apartment is a 3.100 sq ft three bed with exceptionally spacious rooms and increased ceiling heights.
"The roof terrace affords the farthest reaching views in Hyde Park and you can see across to the £175 million Nick Candy development at One Hyde Park – which faces north so doesn't get the same amount of sun!
"Behind the penthouse is Connaught Village, a charming period street full of little boutique shops, restaurants and cafes.
"The area is also extremely popular with buyers from the Middle East."
Scroll through the gallery above for more pictures and details on 12 Hyde Park Place which is on the market with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices
