£144,000 per year sought for Oxfordshire mansion that was the scene of a most curious ménage-a-trois; it is owned by the writer Sofka Zinovieff
“Tall and willowy” writer Sofka Zinovieff inherited Faringdon House in Oxfordshire at the age of 25 from her eccentric, bisexual uncle, Robert ‘The Mad Boy’ Heber-Percy, partner of the owner of the house since 1918, the 14th Lord Berners, Gerald Tyrwhitt-Wilson (1883 – 1950). She has recently placed it on the rental market at a price of £12,000 per month ($15,400, €14,200 or درهم56,700 per month) through Knight Frank.
Artist, composer and writer Lord Berners and “uninhibited” Heber-Percy occupied Faringdon House as a ménage-a-trois with the latter’s wife, Jennifer Fry, for several years and during that time visitors included everyone from the poet Sir John Betjeman to the artist Salvador Dalí, the Communist politician Tom Driberg MP and the writer H. G. Wells. Heber-Percy died in 1987 and it was at this time that the Georgian property passed to its current owner.
Two stories to keep beside you
A Hovel House
Not so miserable looking medieval cottage rather unfortunately named ‘The Hovel’ on the quaintly named ‘Duck Lane’ for sale for virtually the same price as in 2005 Described as “the only agricultural ‘hovel’ in original condition in England” when it sold for £165,000 in 1997, a truly eccentric thatched house mentioned in the Domesday Book […]
I prefer everything
Rolls-Royce originally owned by playboy Nubar Gulbenkian and later used in “Withnail & I” for sale The “flamboyantly bearded”, monocle wearing eccentric Nubar Gulbenkian (1896 – 1972) took up driving at the age of 65 and when asked what he enjoyed the most, answered: “I prefer everything”. With the sale of one of his […]
Of her home, which she has variously herself occupied and also let to “cover the impossible costs”, in May 2016, Zinovieff told House & Garden:
It’s funny how it has all worked out. The inheritance hasn’t changed me in the ways that my mother feared it might. I never wanted my identity to be bound up with my house and my life in Greece has saved me from that. No one there has ever even heard of Faringdon.
Extending to 14,510 square foot, Grade I listed Faringdon House was built between 1770 and 1785 for the poet Sir Henry Pye (1744 – 1813). It includes 5 reception rooms, 12 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms, stands in grounds that extend to 14.81 acres and comes with an outdoor swimming pool with turreted changing rooms and a lake.
Lord Berners’ gravestone is situated within the grounds and on it appears an epitaph he wrote himself. It reads:
Here lies Lord Berners
One of the learners
His great love of learning
May earn him a burning
But, Praise the Lord!
He seldom was bored
Curiously, another testament to the activities of the property’s eccentric former occupants lives on at Faringdon in the form of pigeons dyed in “jewelled hues”. Pictured in marketing literature for the house, a charity, the Pink Pigeons Trust, is named in their honour also.
Readers have their say
6 comments
Beautiful but far too big for little old pensioners like me.
It’s got an aura of charm that truly makes it special.
What a dump!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Knock it down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Immediately!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One for the magic wrecking ball……….. Build something better in glass and steel there instead!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No more sexual shennanigans either!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dirty dogs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love this house and would not have any problem living here !!!
I’ve come back to this article three or four times just to drool over the photographs. Perfect house. And if I owned it, Yolanda could come round any time for coffee and admire it professionally. Best of all, there’s no way Rod would come near it, though he’s more than welcome to go jump in the lake.
I recently read her book, and was sad to see that she has sold the property and all the contents. Now I am most curious, after all the years of making it work, she up and sold everything. I hope that she allowed family members, including her Mother to choose items to keep. If I had known about the auctions, and the estate sale of the contents, I would have purchased some items.