London's finest: £100m Richmond house to rival Buckingham Palace with underground car museum and ancient floors from Pompeii for sale

The £62.5 million restoration of Doughty House will be completed in late 2019. 
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Jess Denham17 November 2017

One of London's grandest stately homes is being restored into a £100 million private palace that will rival the garden wing of Buckingham Palace in luxury and scale.

Doughty House in Richmond is on sale for the first time since developers began the most expensive restoration project for a private residence ever seen in the capital.

The former home of the Viscounts of Monserrate will be transformed into a ten-bedroom mega-mansion spanning 38,000 sq ft.

Magnificent state rooms will be kitted out with 48 chandeliers, 12 statement fireplaces and 20 different types of rare marble and stone, including ancient flooring from the ruins of Pompeii.

A health spa, bowling alley and underground car museum are among the other dazzling highlights.

The restoration part of the £62.5 million project began earlier this year, with construction set to start in January. Specialist artisans from around the world will be spending nearly 500,000 man hours working on the project, with the three-storey mansion expected to be finished in late 2019.

ROOMS FIT FOR ROYALTY

Guests will be welcomed into a palatial entrance hall with a sweeping staircase leading up to a master bedroom suite with His and Hers dressing rooms and bathrooms and a principal guest suite.

The ground floor will house a huge formal dining room fit for royal banquets as well as a music room, drawing room, library and cinema/TV room, while the former Victorian-era conservatory will be reworked into a split-level family kitchen, breakfast and informal living area.

Slice of history: this Victorian-era conservatory will become a family kitchen

Four VIP bedroom suites will be found on the top floor, the lower floor will provide a study, covered courtyard garden and extensive staff quarters and the bowling alley will be hidden in the basement alongside a seven-car complex complete with turntable and car lift.

HOST EXTRAVAGANT PARTIES

The grand two-storey gallery wing will be converted into a long gallery capable of entertaining over 150 guests downstairs and a palatial winter garden art gallery and ballroom with space for 200 upstairs.

Roman era flooring and columns brought over from the ruins of Pompeii are sure to impress, as are the planned walk-in cocktail bar, wine store and club room with 18-seat private cinema.

There will be a private heath spa on the lower ground floor of the gallery, with a concierge leading to a large swimming pool surrounded by a spa, sauna, massage room, plunge pool and loungers.

Host with the most: this garden leads off the two-storey gallery

FINDING HIDDEN GEMS

The smaller two-storey Dower House in the grounds will be converted to provide a guest bedroom suite, orangery/living area, kitchen, winter pavilion and a guest or staff suite.

A 15-metre long reflection pool inspired by Chatsworth House, home to Mr Darcy in the BBC's 1995 adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, will be found in the acre of gardens.

During the initial restoration work, developers K10 Group discovered the former owner's original Rolls Royce repair depot hidden beneath flooring in perfect condition. This find inspired them to devise plans for the car museum, which will be accessed by a special car lift and directly accessible from the main house.

Magnificent: state rooms will be kitted out with chandeliers and statement fireplaces

BACK IN TIME

Doughty House was originally built in the finest Portland stone and London brick for Sir William Richardson in 1769. It gained its name after heiress Elizabeth Doughty bought it in 1786, before wealthy industrialist Francis Cook took over in 1849.

Cook, the third richest man in England at the time, was enobled as Viscount of Montserrate by King Louis of Portugal after buying and restoring Monserrate Palace in Sintra for use as his summer residence. He was later made a British Baronet for founding art college Alexandra House.

Cook began collecting paintings and sculptures in the early 1850s and by 1876 he owned over 500 major works by the likes of Rembrandt, Rubens and Clouret.

His love of art led him to build the two-storey 125-ft long gallery onto Doughty House, inspired by the long gallery at Buckingham Palace.

Pompeii splendour: the floors and columns of the gallery are a special highlight

The Georgian mansion's high society years came with third baronet Sir Herbert Cook, whose famous guests included textile magnate Samuel Courtauld, the Earl of Crawford and Prime Ministers Ramsay MacDonald and Stanley Baldwin.

The house sadly declined under fourth baronet Sir Francis Ferdinand Cook. His seven marriages and costly divorces forced a massive sell off in 1949 to a developer who attempted to convert it into a hotel and luxury apartments.

"If a discerning buyer purchases Doughty House now, they will have the advantage of working with us over the next two years to totally customise and refine the current plans and design scheme to their personal tastes and lifestyle," said Kam Babaee, Chief Executive of K10 Group.

Contact K10 Group on 020 7753 7636 for more details.

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