BRITAIN’S “White House” with 40 bedrooms, a ballroom and an underground swimming pool has been sold to a mystery buyer for £139m.
The Holme sits alone on four acres of private land in Regent’s Park, central London, and is one of the most expensive homes ever sold in Britain.
The Holme, which features dozens of bedrooms, a tennis court, and an underground swimming pool has been sold to a mystery buyer for £139 million[/caption]
The property features expansive garden space on its private four-acres of land[/caption]
The family of Prince Khaled bin Sultan al-Saud were forced to sell the home after creditors demanded repayment of a loan partially used for the lease of a private jet[/caption]
An architecture critic once described the 207-year-old three-storey residence as the “definition of Western civilisation in a single view”.
The property covers an area of 29,000 square feet and comes with 40 bedrooms, eight garages, an underground swimming pool and a tennis court.
The mansion, originally listed for a record-breaking £250m, has its internal décor adorned with millions of pounds worth of gold leaf.
Its sale price of a far lower £139m still makes it the second most expensive home ever sold in the UK.
The crown remains held by 2-8 Rutland Gate, a 20-room mega mansion overlooking Hyde Park in London that sold for £210m in 2020.
Found next to the park’s Open Air Theatre and Boating Lake, The Holme features many classical architectural designs and has a “presidential” feel.
The Grade-II listed property has a four-column Corinthian portico and columns on a central bow that overlooks the gardens and sweeps down to the lake.
Unfortunately, there are no available pictures of inside the property due to privacy and the limited number of potential buyers of the home.
Roarie Scarisbrick of Property Vision described the home as a “once-a-decade kind of property” to the FT.
The land on which the property is located had originally been stolen from the Church by King Henry VIII before Oliver Cromwell then took the land during the 1600s.
In 1806, a plan to build 50 villas in the park fell through, leaving just eight completed properties of which one, The Holme, was taken by Decimus Burton.
Following some exchanges, the family of former Saudi defence minister Prince Khaled bin Sultan al-Saud came into ownership after buying it for £34m in 1991.
In 2016, the property was used as collateral for a loan that the prince used in part to pay for the lease on a private jet.
Then, in 2017, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin-Salman ordered a crackdown on the royal family in a purge that sent some to jail.
While Prince Khaled was not among them, the clampdown coincided with a “massive” deterioration in his finances, according to advisers who spoke to the FT.
The Holme was then put back on the market in 2023 after creditors demanded repayment of a loan for a private jet.
He also sold his £70m home in Paris according to the WSJ and is thought to have sold two expensive yachts.
Luxembourg-based wealth management company Zedra’s UK subsidiary purchased The Holme for the hefty price tag, although it has yet to be revealed who will move into the home.
A source, however, told The Times they believe the home was purchased by an “American tech billionaire” to have a base in the city.
History of Regent’s Park
REGENT’S Park (officially known as The Regent’s Park) was once part of the extensive Forest of Middlesex.
After the dissolution of the monasteries between 1536 and 1540, Henry VIII acquired the Manor of Tyburn and create the Marylebone Park hunting ground, which covered almost the same area as the 400 acres of Regent’s Park today.
It remained in royal hands until the end of the Civil War in 1646, when it came under the control of the victorious Commonwealth.
Oliver Cromwell sold it off in the form of leases, to pay wages arrears to the New Model Army and more than 16,000 trees were felled during this period.
Then, in 1660, Charles II was restored to the throne and the park was returned to the Crown.
Charles reportedly executed the chief leaseholder and ignored the claims of the others, before proceeding to sell his off his own leases.
In 1668 the land was ‘disparked’ and for the next 100 years was used primarily for dairy farming and hay making.
In 1760 King George Ill surrendered the revenues from Crown Lands in exchange for the Civil List and in 1794 John Fordyce, the Surveyor General, made a new and accurate survey of the Park.
It identified the land as suitable for new development, despite the local heavy clay soil and an absence of ground wells for fresh water.
In 1806 the architect John Nash (1752-1835) and draughtsman James Morgan became joint Architects to the Department of Woods and Forests.
After the leases at Marylebone Park were reverted to the Crown, Nash was instructed in 1810 to develop a new exclusive development for the park, with the land reserved for the “wealthy and the good.”
Under the patronage of the Prince Regent, Nash planned a palatial summer residence for the Prince, 50 detached villas in a parkland setting and elegant terraces around the exterior of the park.
This was all part of an ambitious plan, to develop The Regent’s Park and lay out an elegant new street, Regent’s Street, to link it to St James’s Park and the Prince’s London residence, Carlton House.
However, a lack of profitability sunk the plans, leaving just eight completed grand villas.
Between 1826 and 1828 the Zoological Society of London established a menagerie at the northern end of the park that is better known today as the London Zoo.
The entrance sign to The Holme in Regent’s Park[/caption]
The Grade-II listed mansion is located in the heart of the park[/caption]
