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Witanhurst is a large
Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
1930s Georgian Revival mansion on in Highgate, North London. It has had several prominent owners since being rebuilt by soap magnate Sir Arthur Crosfield. After several decades of increasing dilapidation, it underwent substantial refurbishment after its 2008 sale to an offshore company owned by the family of Russian businessman
Andrey Guryev Andrey Grigoryevich Guryev (russian: Андрей Григорьевич Гурьев; born 24 March 1960) is a Russian billionaire businessman. He is the former head of PhosAgro, one of the world's four largest producers of phosphate-based fe ...
.


History

The original
estate Estate or The Estate may refer to: Law * Estate (law), a term in common law for a person's property, entitlements and obligations * Estates of the realm, a broad social category in the histories of certain countries. ** The Estates, representat ...
, dating from 1774, was known as Parkfield, situated at the junction of Highgate West Hill and The Grove. The current house, built between 1913 and 1920, was designed by architect George Hubbard for soap magnate Sir Arthur Crosfield on an site. The mansion is Grade-II* listed, meaning it has been judged to be of national historic or architectural interest. English Heritage has in the late twentieth-century and early twenty-first century placed the property on its Buildings at Risk Register. Paul Crosfield sold Witanhurst to the property developer Lionel Green in 1970, but it was possessed by banks shortly after, and owned by various other property developers for the next fifteen years. Various schemes for redeveloping Witanhurst were proposed and rejected by Camden council during this period including turning the house into a hotel or apartments, and various pieces of land from Witanhurst's large estate were sold. In 1976, Witanhurst was bought by Al-Hasouwy for £1.3 million. He subsequently spent £500,000 developing the property. It was then put up for sale in 1977 for £7 million with planning permission for 63 houses. In 1984, the house was sold for £7 million by Noble Investment Corporation, a
shell company A shell corporation is a company or corporation that exists only on paper and has no office and no employees, but may have a bank account or may hold passive investments or be the registered owner of assets, such as intellectual property, or s ...
believed to have been linked to the al-Hasawi family. Additionally, a revised scheme for 24 houses to be built on part of the land was sold for more than £7 million. The buyer of the house was Mounir Developments, a company registered in the tax haven of Panama. The ultimate beneficial owner of Mounir Developments was eventually revealed in a court case to be a relation of the Assad family, the ruling family of Syria, who were then in exile in England. Somar al-Assad, a cousin of the then Syrian president
Bashar al-Assad Bashar Hafez al-Assad, ', Levantine pronunciation: ; (, born 11 September 1965) is a Syrian politician who is the 19th president of Syria, since 17 July 2000. In addition, he is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and the ...
, stated in a court case that he had not slept at Witanhurst in the previous eight years of ownership by a trust connected to the family. Witanhurst was used as the location of BBC's '' Fame Academy'' talent show from 2002 to 2004. The interior of the house was renovated to add a recording studio and gym. During its use on the show Witanhurst was on English Heritage's list of buildings "at risk". In 2002, during the first series of ''Fame Academy'', nine portable buildings, a television studio and generators were erected in front of Witanhurst without the requisite consent required for a listed building. The production company
Endemol Endemol B.V. was a Dutch-based media company that produced and distributed multiplatform entertainment content. The company annually produced more than 15,000 hours of programming across scripted and non-scripted genres, including drama, reality ...
withdrew their application to use Witanhurst for a planned third series of the show in 2004 following a critical report by planners from Camden London Borough Council. In 2007 the Assads sold Witanhurst to the British property developer
Marcus Cooper Marcus Cooper Sr. (born February 1, 1990) is a former American football cornerback. He was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in the seventh round of the 2013 NFL Draft. He played college football for Rutgers University. Cooper has also ...
for £32.5 million. Cooper subsequently repaired Witanhurst to satisfy Camden council's previous complaints, and put the property up for sale for £75 million through the estate agents Glentree Estates and Knight Frank. Witanhurst was bought by the family of the Russian billionaire
Andrey Guryev Andrey Grigoryevich Guryev (russian: Андрей Григорьевич Гурьев; born 24 March 1960) is a Russian billionaire businessman. He is the former head of PhosAgro, one of the world's four largest producers of phosphate-based fe ...
through an offshore company called Safran Holdings, located in the tax haven of the British Virgin Islands for £50 million in 2008. The owner of Witanhurst was not publicly known from its 2008 sale until the publication of a 2015 article by Ed Caesar in '' The New Yorker'' magazine. In September 2009 '' The Sunday Times'' erroneously stated that Witanhurst had been bought by
Elena Baturina Yelena Nikolayevna Baturina (russian: Елена Николаевна Батурина; born 8 March 1963) is an international billionaire businesswoman and a philanthropist of Russian origin. She is based in London. She was married to Yury Luz ...
, the wife of the former Mayor of Moscow,
Yuri Luzhkov Yuri may refer to: People and fictional characters Given name *Yuri (Slavic name), the Slavic masculine form of the given name George, including a list of people with the given name Yuri, Yury, etc. * Yuri (Japanese name), also Yūri, feminine Ja ...
, via an offshore front company. Baturina sued the newspaper's owners Times Newspapers, a subsidiary of
News International News Corp UK & Ireland Limited (trading as News UK, formerly News International and NI Group) is a List of newspapers in the United Kingdom, British newspaper publisher, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the American mass media Conglomerate (c ...
. Times Newspapers apologised for the story and paid damages to Baturina in October 2011. The redevelopment of Witanhurst has received widespread attention in the media, much of it focusing on the large basement extension to the main house that extends for two storeys below the entire footprint of the building. Over 90,000 square feet, Witanhurst is the second largest private residence in London, after
Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace () is a London royal residence and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and royal hospitality. It ...
. It is said to be worth $450 million.


Facilities

The mansion has 65 rooms spread across three floors, including 25 bedrooms. One of the largest is the ballroom, measuring long with a height of . It has oak flooring and the timber wall panels are in walnut, with carved cornices embellished with gold leaf. Other rooms are the drawing room, study, entrance hall and staircase, and most of the bedrooms are all in an opulent classical style. Other richly decorated rooms include the dining room, Chinese room, billiard room, and the gallery hallway. Access to the property is via a three-fingered gatehouse.


Filming location

Witanhurst has been used on several occasions as a filming location by various production companies including the BBC, to shoot films and television programmes such as '' The Lost Prince'', '' Tipping the Velvet'', and '' Fame Academy''.


References


External links


"Titles With Location Matching "Witanhurst House, Highgate West Hill, Highgate, London, England, UK", imdb.com
{{coord, 51, 34, 08, N, 0, 09, 10, W, display=title Grade II* listed buildings in the London Borough of Camden Grade II* listed houses in London Highgate Houses completed in 1920 Houses in the London Borough of Camden Gardens by Harold Peto Harold Peto buildings