You’d be forgiven for thinking you’d stumbled onto the set Bridgerton inside this six bedroom Georgian mansion.
The 8,897sqft house actually sits on Wimpole Street, in the heart of Marylebone, London, and is currently on the market for £12million.
Pricey, yes. But the grade II-listed home, built in 1767 for MP Humphrey Minchin, is steeped in history. Its drawing rooms have entertained the likes of Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III, and even three 21st century prime ministers (and one much older one).
While the prospect of roaming the same halls as Rishi Sunak, Theresa May and Liz Truss may divide the crowd, the mansion itself is a dream.
The Wimpole Street house has a grand entrance hall with a sweeping staircase, a ground floor formal dining room, large family kitchen overlooking the garden and two magnificent first floor drawing rooms.
The principal rooms took a whopping 24 months to return to their original Georgian splendour after they had been covered with office flooring and harsh lighting.
Some of the ceilings are up to 4.2 metres high or 13ft – pretty impressive.
The whole mansion is light, bright an airy with original features that have been lovingly restored.
You’ll easily be able to throw dinner parties in the 10 seat formal dining room just off the entrance hall. Plus, there’s a secret door which connects to the kitchen.
Oh, and did we mention the cinema? The house is full of surprises.
You’ll feel like royalty in the principal bedroom suite which occupies its own private floor on the second level of the house. There’s a spacious bedroom, walk-in dressing room and a main bathroom.
There are four further bedrooms (one with ensuite), a further shower room and a bathroom on the two uppermost floors.
The lower ground floor offers plenty of cool features you can flex to your friends, including a cocktail bar/entertaining room, sauna with showers and a ‘well room’ with an original well, providing water for the garden.
Between 1789 and 1814 the house served as the London residence of Richard Howard, 4th Earl of Effingham (1748-1816), private secretary and comptroller of the household to Queen Charlotte, both made famous by the Netflix TV series Bridgerton.
Under the Earl the house entertained Queen Charlotte, the Prince Regent (later King George IV) and Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger, and under the current owner, other politicians including Michael Gove, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Sir Graham Brady.
By the 1990s the house was serving as the offices of the William Pears Group, with false ceilings and office lighting installed (can you imagine?)
Thankfully, it was restored to former glory when the current owners purchased the property in October 1996.
They began a meticulous restoration programme to return the accommodation to its original Georgian character and use as a spacious London family home, with the adjoining mews purchased in 2000 and added to the property.
It’s now for sale via joint sole selling agents Aston Chase and DEXTERS (Marylebone & Fitzrovia). If only we had the funds.
Here are a few more of those lust-worthy pics.
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