Oh, for a crystal ball. It would have helped to see the future in 1993, when Grade II-listed Cloth Hill, on The Mount in Hampstead, came to the market. By the end of October, it had been sold by Savills for ‘slightly less than the asking price of £1 million,’ as Country Life reported at the time.
Now, it is for sale — with Savills again, and also this time Marcus Parfitt — at a rather more robust £18 million. And no, the price rise isn't all down to inflation: £1 million from 1993 would be little more than £2.1 million in today’s money. This house has outpaced inflation nine-fold.
Stratospheric rises aside, there is much to commend this Queen Anne house, thought to be the second oldest surviving in Hampstead — not least its history. Cloth Hill owes its name to Tudor laundry: some say the spot was where the Court launderers did their washing, others that, there, ‘the virgin heath was white with drying linen’.
The name made it the perfect place for William Beech, a Quaker cloth merchant, to buy a house in 1694. Distinguished visitors soon darkened the door of Cloth Hill, including, in 1728, Voltaire, who visited Beech’s son-in-law, Andrew Pitt. The latter then sent him the newly published Alciphron, a book by philosopher George Berkeley, but Voltaire was unimpressed: ‘In many places he is more captious and acute, than solid and judicious.’
Much later in the same century, George Romney, his health declining fast, sought Hampstead’s fresh air. Having moved in 1796, he just about managed to knock down Cloth Hill’s stables and coach house to build himself a new home (with painting room and gallery), when he became so ill that he decided to head back to Cumbria and his wife — whom he had otherwise neglected for more than 30 years. Cloth Hill passed into the hands of Thomas Rundell, most likely a scion of the goldsmith dynasty. When living there, his wife, Maria, published the culinary bestseller of the time, A New System of Domestic Cookery.
Yet it was someone who never lived there that paid Cloth Hill an artistic tribute: Ford Madox Brown painted its gate as a backdrop to his Work, complete with a sign advertising the ‘genteel family residence’ to let.
Today, much of the 6,164sq ft interior remains the same as it would have been in the 19th century — having had only three owners in 140 years has helped keep intact features such as the two original staircases, panelling and fireplaces — except now it also includes a spacious ground-floor kitchen extension.
‘It’s very rare to find a house of this scale and size in the heart of a London village and that’s a quality that makes Cloth Hill all the more special,’ says Neir Gigi of Savills.
‘Period houses will always command interest, as buyers love the sense of history, and Cloth Hill is a great example, because the current owners have done such a remarkable job in restoring and renovating it to maximise the period features.’
£18 million, Savills (020–7472 5000; www.savills.co.uk) and Marcus Parfitt (020–7431 0000; www.marcusparfitt.com)
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