Two adjoining townhouses in Mayfair are being sold together, creating the opportunity to develop a mega-mansion in the heart of London.
The Grade II listed Georgian properties at 13 and 14 South Audley Street are on sale together for £35 million. The sellers believe they could be redeveloped to create a single grand home worth up to £65 million.
The properties, built in the 1730s, have both been owned by aristocrats and members of high society, but for most of the past century have been used as offices with a single owner. They sit opposite the one-time home of exiled French king Charles X and near the Egyptian embassy and The Dorchester hotel.
At the end of the Second World War they became the home of the International Music Association under president William Glock, controller of music for the BBC. Performances of Mozart, Schubert, Lizst and Chopin in the reception rooms were broadcast by the BBC.
In 1970 they became the headquarters of the Royal Photographic Society until it relocated to Bath in 1979 due to the rising costs of operating out of South Audley Street. The properties have been used for business for the past 45 years or so.
Their illustrious history dates back nearly 300 years and they have played host to four British prime ministers – Henry Pelham, William Pitt, Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain.
Bridgerton style
They were built in 1736-37 in the Palladian architectural style by prolific Mayfair builder and carpenter Roger Blagrave, with cream stucco facades and Bridgerton-style interiors by noted master craftsman William Singleton.
Number 13 was originally the London residence of the Montagu family, the custodians of the famed Beaulieu estate in Hampshire where the National Motor Museum is based.
The larger of the two townhouses, number 14, was built for Lord Galway, MP and Surveyor General of the Crown Estate, the brother-in-law of British Prime Minister Henry Pelham.
Between 1747 to 1805 it was owned by Admiral Edward Boscawen, a friend of Prime Minister William Pitt the Elder, and between 1818 to 1856 was owned by Victorian sculptor Sir Richard Westmacott, whose name features on a heritage blue plaque on the exterior wall.
In 1923, 14 South Audley Street was bought by Conservative MP and landowner Lord Donald Howard, 3rd Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal, who five years later acquired number 13 and employed architect Sydney Ernest Castle to modernise the interiors of both properties.
Number 14 became a grand mansion where Lord Howard and his wife Lady Diana (whose father Lord Wakehurst owned Wakehurst Place which is now home to botanic gardens and the Millennium Seed Bank), would entertain the dignitaries of the day.
Next door became Lord Howard’s office and a guesthouse for visitors and staff accommodation. During the 1930s, Lord Howard served as Under Secretary of State for War for prime ministers Stanley Baldwin and later Neville Chamberlain.
Conversion
Together the properties offer 15,993 square feet (1,485.8 square metres) of mixed-residential and commercial accommodation with direct access to the private South Street communal gardens.
The selling agents, Savills and Wetherell, say the mega-mansion opportunity is to convert number 14, the biggest townhouse on the street, from a mixed-use building back into one home of five or six bedrooms with five grand reception rooms. Since it was formerly a single residence, there are strong grounds for this to be allowed by planning authorities. It also has a passenger lift.
The smaller home could become a lodge house, providing further accommodation such as staff quarters and a private family office. The two houses had been connected at lower ground and ground floor level in the past, and could be again. Extensive leisure facilities and a catering kitchen could be installed.
James Donger, director of central London development land at Savills, said: “The existing mixed-use commercial and residential profile, with private communal gardens, makes this an exceptional redevelopment opportunity. We also anticipate serious interest from continued private family office use, given the rarity of adjoining freehold buildings on South Audley Street.”
Peter Wetherell, founder and chairman of Wetherell, said: “Both properties have an illustrious history that includes aristocrats, prime ministers and cultural use. There is the potential for sensitive restoration and modernisation whilst retaining the historic interiors, which could create one of the finest private residences with adjoining family office in Mayfair.”
