Tag: offices

No Gaynes
Cambridgeshire mansion used by Special Operations Executives in the Second World War and as a borstal subsequently for sale; Gaynes Hall is next to the prison that housed Max Clifford and was briefly a cannabis farm in 2019
- Grade II* listed Georgian mansion in Cambridgeshire for sale for £2.65 million in spite of being in far from perfect condition and next door to a prison housing 1,220 convicted sex offenders.
- The estate was owned by the aristocratic Duberly family from 1798 until 1940. An earlier house on the house had been home to Oliver Cromwell’s namesake and uncle.
- It was requisitioned in the Second World War by the Special Operations Executive. Hitler was so annoyed by the operations at Gaynes Hall that he supposedly nicknamed the place “the hornet’s nest.”
- After the war, the hall became a borstal and after that closed, part of the estate became HM Prison Littlehey – famous for housing PR ‘guru’ Max Clifford, victim of a miscarriage of justice Stephen Downing and Australian cricketer Alex Hepburn.
- More recently, the estate came to public attention after being discovered to be the centre of operations for drug lords. £250,000 of cannabis were seized there in 2019.
In June 2019, once ritzy Gaynes Hall at Perry, near Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire came to public attention when a drugs baron who’d turned part of the building into a cannabis farm was jailed. For his troubles, Nebir Tahiraj was relieved of £250,000 of drugs and ‘gained’ a sentence of 13 months.

Grade II* listed and built circa 1800 for Sir James Duberly (1758 – 1832), the gault brick house was originally plaster rendered. Of three storeys plus cellars and seven bays, the 20,795 square foot building is currently being marketed by agents Wilson Peacock for £2.65 million – up from £2.2 million back in 2019.

Gaynes Hall (also known as ‘Gaines Hall’ occasionally) stands in 16 acres of grounds including lakes and a moat and comes with a three bedroom cottage “requiring full modernisation and refurbishment.” It was home to the Duberly family until 1940 when it was requisitioned by Special Operations Executives (SOE) on the instructions of Winston Churchill.

Supposedly, according to the local Parish Council’s website, Hitler was so exasperated by the activities at Gaynes Park that he referenced the house “the hornet’s nest.” It was known locally during this period as a “spy school” and its master, Wing Commander Thomas Odett, was nicknamed ‘The White Rabbit’ on the basis that “he was always popping up in unexpected places.”

After the war, the mansion became the governor’s residence and administrative offices of the newly created Her Majesty’s Borstal Gaynes Hall and remained in that use until 1983 when the borstal closed. Her Majesty’s Prison Littlehey, which is best known as the place of death of the public relations ‘guru’ paedophile Max Clifford, was subsequently opened next door and residents of Perry get to hear its sirens periodically if a prisoner escapes or there is a disturbance.

In 1985, AIM Cambridge (later AIM Technology) leased the hall and from the Ministry of Defence and converted it into offices. When their business failed, the building became empty and in 1990, Gaynes Hall was sold again. In the years since, it has been in mixed use.

In need of some attention – Gaynes Hall has variously been used as a grand residence by aristocracy, requisitioned for use by Special Services Executives (SOE), served as an administrative office and governor’s house for a borstal and been converted to offices. It is currently configured in ‘mixed-use’ format and includes 20,975 square foot of accommodation.

An aristocratic drug farm – Nebir Tahiraj was imprisoned in 2019 after having turned part of Gaynes Hall into a cannabis farm. He was caught with over £250,000 of drugs on the premises after neighbours complained about the noxious smell.

Proximity to a prison – An aerial view of Her Majesty’s Prison Littlehey. Gaynes Hall is situated just to the west.

Rapists next door – Convicted rapist and ex-cricketer cricketer Alex Hepburn, Stephen Downing (whose conviction for murder was overturned in 2002 after he had served 27 years in prison) and paedophile Max Clifford (who died in the prison) are connected by having been imprisoned at the Category C male prison HM Prison Littlehey. It has a capacity for 1,200 male prisoners – who all have been convicted of sexual offences.

A once grand gentleman’s residence – Gaynes Hall in an image taken circa 1913. An earlier house on the site was leased for 21 years by Sir Oliver Cromwell (1566 – 1655), the uncle and namesake of the lord protector, from 1599.

The Names & Numbers – Gaynes Hall, Perry, Great Staughton, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, PE28 0ST, United Kingdom

December 2019 – Listed for sale by Wilson Peacock Country Homes at the increased price of £2.65 million ($3.35 million, €2.96 million or درهم12.32 million).

14^th June 2019 – 35-yeard old Nebir Tahiraj found guilty at Cambridge Crown Court of “being concerned in the production of cannabis” in his flat at Gaynes Hall and jailed for 13 months. When police raided the property, they “found more than 200 plants at varying stages of growth, growing equipment and two large bags of cannabis ready to be sold” worth circa £250,000 ($316,000, €279,000 or درهم1.2 million). He attempted to claim “he was being exploited and kept at the flat against his will,” but the National Crime Agency (NCA) discovered he had been willingly involved.

Mid 2019 – For Sale for £2.2 million ($2.8 million, €2.5 million or درهم10.2 million) through Michael Graham.

March 2019 – Fleet Assist announce they will be moving their business from Gaynes Hall to Ermine Business Park in Huntingdon.

2002 – Purchased by the Malik family (according to Wikipedia).

1994 – 2002 – Owned by the McCallion family (according to Wikipedia).

1985 – Converted to offices and used by firms including AIM Cambridge (AIM Technology) and Fleet Assist in the years subsequently. Part-let as apartments and by the room also for residential use.

1945 – 1983 – Used as the governor’s residence and administrative officers of the Her Majesty’s Borstal Gaynes Hall. ‘Boys’ who were detained there have recounted their experiences on this fascinating Facebook page; it plainly was not an especially pleasant place.

1940 – Requisitioned for use by Special Operations Executive (SOE). Gaynes Hall – under the codename ‘Station 61’ – became the headquarters for Air Liason Officers and used as a ‘hotel’ for them prior to their being dropped into occupied Europe.

1798 – 1940 – Owned by the Duberly family. The present house was constructed for them circa 1800 to the designs of architect George Byfield (circa 1756 – 1813).

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June 16, 2020
A Derelict Doer-Upper

Derelict 18^th century Oxfordshire mansion with 125 acres of land for sale for £10 million

A 125-acre Oxfordshire estate with Humphrey Repton landscaped grounds has gone on sale for £10 million ($13.2 million, €11.3 million or درهم48.7 million) in spite of being described as being “in poor order.”

The Coombe Park Estate at Whitchurch-on-Thames is situated at the end of a ¾ of a mile long private drive just 49 miles from Central London. Constructed in 1865, the original mansion was later demolished and what now remains consists of a 13,368 square foot house created from the original servants’ quarters, a coach house and an extension built in 1982.

Featuring 4 main reception rooms, an indoor swimming pool, 6 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms, Coombe Park itself “has been unoccupied a number of years” but now presents an opportunity for a buyer to unleash its “enormous potential” according to selling agents Strutt & Parker.

In addition to the main residence, there are three additional houses, an orangery, a coach house, offices, a sports pavilion, an indoor tennis court, stabling and a boat house included in the sale.

According to a blog from 2008, the estate – which was used by the American military as a rest and recuperation ‘flak house’ during the Second World War – has been in the ownership of an individual from Rotterdam since 1982. He is described as having now “sadly lost his fortune.”

October 17, 2017
Rent Like A Royal

Grade I listed house in Richmond Old Deer Park, Surrey that is owned by the Crown Estate and was originally a royal observatory to rent for £450,000 per year

A Grade I listed house set on 6.6 acres of World Heritage Site and Grade I listed land in the middle of the Royal Mid-Surrey Golf Course has been listed to rent for £37,500 per month ($48,300, €41,000 or درهم177,300 per month).

Extending to 6,157 square foot in total but quite manageable in terms of the accommodation provided, The King’s Observatory in Old Deer Park, Richmond upon Thames was designed by the Scottish-Swedish architect Sir William Chambers (1723 – 1796) and used by King George III (1738 – 1820) to house his extensive collection of scientific instruments. It features the oldest cupola in the world specifically constructed to allow astrologists to “track the rare phenomenon of Venus crossing the sun.”

Owned by the Crown Estate, the building was used as a classroom for royalty, was converted to provide a home for the Meteorological Office from 1910 to 1980 and became the offices of Hill Samuel Bank and then Autoglas until 2011. Plans were approved to convert to a single residence in 2014 but features including a cinema, games room, gym, underground swimming pool and garaging for 16 cars were not actually constructed.

The King’s Observatory – which was built in 1769 – is offered by Knight Frank and includes 5 reception rooms, 4 bedroom suites and a large roof terrace.

August 21, 2017
Anything But Liberal

Former Liberal Democrats headquarters for sale for somewhat reduced but still anything but liberal sum of £36 million (to include a Rodin)

A building that was originally the London office of the North Eastern Railway Company and the headquarters of the Social Democratic Party and then their successors, the Liberal Democrats, between 1982 and 2011 has gone on sale for £36 million ($46.9 million, €41 million or درهم172.1 million) – with all furnishings and a bronze sculpture by Rodin said to be amongst the luxury items included in the price.

Then Liberal Democratic Party leader Nick Clegg outside 4 Cowley Street in 2010

A protest outside 4 Cowley Street during the Liberal Democrats’ tenure of occupation

Offered to rent in 2011 for £225,000 per annum ($291,000, €256,000 or درهم1.1 million per annum) and then sold for around £10.8 million ($14 million, €12.3 million or درهم51.4 million), Mansion House – as it has now been rather grandly named – is situated in Cowley Street, Westminster. Constructed in 1905 and Grade II listed, this dark red brick terraced town house was designed by Horace Field and is described as being of “lavish late 17^th century style, rather out of scale with its neighbours but with fine Arts and Crafts detailing.”

Consisting of 7,000 square foot of accommodation whilst in use as offices, developers Saigol DDC have expanded the space provided to create an 11,075 square foot residence of mammoth proportions. Aside from 5 reception rooms, 7 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms, the 5-storey mansion has an 8-person lift, a wine room, an indoor swimming pool, a gym and a roof terrace.

Mansion House, which is for sale through Knight Frank, was previously listed earlier this year for the higher price of £42.28 million ($54.77 million, €48.22 million or درهم201.21 million). The effects of Stamp Duty hikes, Brexit uncertainties plainly might cause it to fall yet further.

July 4, 2017
A House of Hide

Grade II* listed Kent townhouse for sale for just £166 per square foot; a similarly sized property in Knightsbridge would set you back £2,000 per square foot

A freehold 2,500 square foot detached 15^th century timber framed house just 23 miles south of London has gone on sale for the lowly sum of £166 per square foot ($214, €191 or درهم787 per square foot).

92 High Street in the market town of Edenbridge, Kent – better known locally as both ‘Tanyard House’ and ‘Leather House’ – has been Grade II* listed since 1954 and is known to have been the site of a tannery from the 1660s until the 1960s. It was originally an open hall house, includes accommodation over three floors and comes with a garden to the front and a small courtyard to the rear.

Currently used as three office suites, planning permission was granted in February to convert the building into to semi-detached houses. This attracted much controversy at the time, but a buyer could, equally, look at creating a much grander single-family residence. The catch? The property is adjoined by a vast and rather ugly car park.

Tanyard House will be auctioned by Savills on 19^th June 2017 at the Marriott Hotel in Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, W1. An estimate of just £415,000 ($536,000, €477,000 or درهم1.97 million) has been set.

June 6, 2017
Best in Britain

EXCLUSIVE – “Nationally important” Grade II* listed Berkshire mansion in 130 acres for sale for £26 million; its interior is yet to be renovated

A Grade II* listed building capable of being reinstated as one of Britain’s finest country houses has just been placed on the market for £26 million.

Benham Park – formerly known as Benham Vallence – at Marsh Benham, near Newbury comes with around 130 acres of Grade II listed Capability Brown (1716 – 1783) designed parkland and currently extends to 27,620 square foot. It has planning permission in place to either revert to a truly epic single family mansion or to convert into a 100 bedroom ‘wellness centre’ to rival Champneys in Hertfordshire and Clinique La Prairie in Switzerland. The schemes proposed would provide between 50,000 and 140,000 square foot of accommodation and, already, businessmen Harry Marriott and Michael Fresson, owners since 2011, have restored the exterior of the building along with its gardens and park.

Built at the behest of the nobleman William Craven (1738 – 1791) to designs of the Fulham born architect Henry Holland (1745 – 1806) in 1774 – 1775, this fine neoclassical house was constructed from Bath stone and later altered by the extremely wealthy Sutton baronets during their tenure in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. The estate was sold for £1 million to the innovative computer manufacturers Norsk Data in 1983 and remained in the firm’s ownership until it was dissolved in 1992. It then became the offices of other technology companies until again being placed for sale for £6 million in 2010.

Benham Park in the era when it was used as offices; the modern buildings have now been demolished and the car park landscaped

The main mansion prior to renovation of its exterior

A view from another angle (after external renovation)

From the lake

And from its imposing entrance

One of several entrances to the estate

Another set of impressive gates

Should a buyer use the existing designs for a residential scheme, they would find themselves owning a house that would not only come with 12 reception rooms and 29 bedroom suites, but also one with a sports complex, a sculpture gallery, a 40-seat cinema and garaging for 50 cars. Aside from an existing 5-bedroom mill house on the estate’s 10 acre lake and a gate lodge, the proposals would add a further 8 additional ancillary houses also.

Of Benham Park, Crispin Holborow of selling agent Savills commented:

“[This] is a nationally important stately home so its sale presents a very exciting proposition for a future owner to oversee its transformation. The prospect of restoring a property of such magnificent proportions with excellent access to London has not arisen for many years, and we expect interest from potential buyers for either its reinstatement as a significant country residence or its repurpose into a world leading wellness centre”.

Those looking to extend the compound further have the option to purchase two separately owned properties that were formerly part of the estate. A house known as ‘Greenhouses’, for sale with Savills, is offered for £1.3 million and comes with 1.47 acres of land whilst Mill Bank House, which stands in 2 acres, is on the market through Strutt & Parker.

The Numbers – Benham Park

1771 – 1774

William Craven, 6^th Baron Craven paid Capability Brown £7,150 for works to the house and grounds. This sum is the equivalent of £989,000 today ($1.3 million, €1.1 million or درهم4.7 million).

1982

Sold to Norsk Data for £1 million (the equivalent of £3.2 million, $4.1 million, €3.7 million or درهم15.1 million today) by Sir Richard Sutton (born 1937).

2010

Placed on the market for £6 million ($7.7 million, €6.9 million or درهم28.3 million).

2011

Sold to Harry Marriott and Michael Fresson for £5 million ($6.4 million, €5.7 million or درهم23.6 million).

2017

Benham Park placed on the market for £26 million ($33.4 million, €29.9 million or درهم123 million).

Separately owned estate houses

Mill Bank House – On the market for £1.4 million ($1.8 million, €1.6 million or درهم6.6 million).

Greenhouses – On the market for £1.3 million ($1.7 million, €1.5 million or درهم6.1 million).

May 29, 2017
Wealthy in Wiltshire

Classically proportioned Wiltshire village house for sale; it’ll supposedly appeal to “your typical wealthy Briton” (whatever that might mean)

Primarily built between 1620 and 1760, a classically proportioned four-storey house in the Wiltshire village of Seend has been placed on the market this week for £4.5 million ($5.8 million, €5.2 million or درهم21.2 million).

Of ashlar and rendered stone construction and built for Mary, Dowager Duchess of Somerset in 1760, Seend Park (or ‘Seend Green House’ as it was previously known) was owned by the now retired judge Sir Mathew Thorpe from 1971 and since 1990 by its current owners. It has been Grade II listed since 1962 and was somewhat unkindly described by the architectural scholar Sir Nikolaus Pevsner CBE FBA (1902 – 1983) as: “So absolutely plain… that it looks like an institution”.

The main house, which has been modernised in recent years and extends to 11,357 square foot, includes 4 reception rooms, 11 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms. It has many original features and in addition there is a 4 bedroom, 1,994 square foot lodge and a 3,630 square foot coach house within the property’s 26.4-acre grounds.

Of the pint-sized mini estate, James Mackenzie of selling agents Strutt & Parker told The Times: “Architecturally, the house will attract your typical wealthy Briton”.

May 27, 2017
Domesticity Above A Canal

Conversion of “one of Europe’s first purpose-built office blocks” for sale; £3.5 million Grade II* listed Georgian house in Bath literally straddles a canal

Some people dream of living beside a lake or a river, but a Grade II* listed detached property recently placed on the market in Bath gives anyone with £3.5 million ($4.2 million, €4.5 million or درهم16.6 million) to spare the opportunity to literally live above a man-made waterway.

Cleveland House – originally known as Canal House – stands on top of a bridge and tunnel that straddles the Kennet & Avon Canal and in spite of being built as “one of Europe’s first purpose-built office blocks” has a look that is very much “Georgian domestic”. The limestone ashlar, three-storey building was constructed to the designs of one of Bath’s greatest architects, John Pinch the Elder (1769 – 1827), between 1817 and 1820 and served as the canal’s management headquarters until 1864.

Converted next to residential usage and then requisitioned for government use in 1939, the building again reverted to office usage. A property developer named Trevor Osborne then acquired it and commenced a transformation into what is described as “a truly exceptional Bath residence” in 2015.

Aside from 7,218 square foot of accommodation, including 5 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms, what makes Cleveland House truly remarkable are its entertaining spaces. The 30-foot long former company boardroom, complete with a 20-foot high newly repainted domed ceiling, is now the house’s drawing room and in addition there is a formal dining room and a library. Whilst a fully prepared cinema room and wine cellars are housed in the basement, other points of note are a large, newly built family room, a first floor roof terrace and garaging for four cars.

Cleveland House is offered by Carter Jonas.

May 1, 2017
Club class

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November 5, 2015
Scandal

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May 27, 2015