£50m Witanhurst House basement expansion

Protruding into the clouds above the leafy skyline north-east of Hampstead Heath is a crane so tall it is visible for miles around. In fact, the only Londoners in N6 who struggle to make out the top of it are those living right beneath it in the equally verdant environs of Highgate village. But what they can’t see is more than made up for by what they can hear; the constant growl of the giant diggers cutting a small canyon into what has become known locally as Ground Zero and the screech and roar of articulated lorries - an estimated four an hour for six months - queuing up to remove the fresh earth. If that weren’t enough, there is the metal hoarding around part of the six-acre site, cabins emblazoned with the logo of the contractor responsible for excavating 15,000 square metres, not to mention the numerous builders, landscape gardeners, decorators, project managers, architects and engineers who will be coming and going - all in the name of making Witanhurst House, London’s largest private house (if you discount Buckingham Palace), even larger and grander. In fact, when work is completed, some time in late autumn 2012, Witanhurst House will be more than double its original size, extended by 45,000 sq ft - the equivalent of 10 very generously sized detached family homes. It will be a mere 2,000-odd square feet smaller than Buckingham Palace, which many don’t count as a private house anyway on the basis that it belongs to the taxpayer.

But although Witanhurst was bought over three years ago and work has been going on for 18 months, no one knows exactly who the new owners are.

The house was bought in 2008 for £50 million by the offshore company Safran Holdings. It was then rumoured that the real buyers of the house near the summit of Highgate West Hill, which enjoyed a brief turn in the limelight as the Fame Academy house in 2002, were construction tycoon Elena Baturina and her husband, Yuri Luzhkov, the former mayor of Moscow. The couple have repeatedly denied all such reports and have taken legal action against those who have suggested otherwise. No other names have ever emerged but the very rich are often extremely secretive. It is understood that even Robert Adam, the architect behind the £50 million expansion project, does not know who his client is. He receives his instructions via an intricate web of companies and agents that appear dedicated to keeping the secret, well, secret.

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By: Mira Bar-Hillel, Property Correspondent
21 Jun 2011