The Daily Mail London - Updown Court

March 3, 2005

GBP 70M HOUSE OF HORRORS

FROM THE AIR, IT LOOKS AS IF IT HAS BEEN TRANSPORTED FROM PLANET BILLIONAIRE AND PLONKED DOWN IN THE ENGLISH COUNTRYSIDE.

Updown Court rises high above the trees in a towering monument to wealth and excess.

But beyond the startlingly unusual exterior and the ceaselessly opulent decor, it boasts a unique attraction that no other house in the land can offer: with a price tag of more than GBP 70million, it's the most expensive house in Britain.

But as builders and craftsmen put the finishing touches to Updown Court yesterday, one question still needed a little work. Can all the money in the world really buy good taste?

The house is being advertised as the country's first stately home for the 21st century, a brazenly decadent status symbol.

There's enough marble inside to tile three football pitches, and more oak panelling than on the walls of the Old Bailey. It has five swimming pools, 22 bedroom suites, a heated marble drive, a cinema, squash court, bowling alley and gym, plus stabling for five horses.

Oh yes, and a garage big enough to take eight Rolls-Royces, plus a helipad for the chopper.

If the thought of spending that much on a house suddenly brings you out in a sweat, there's always the terror-proof panic room below the east wing.

Even before the massively ambitious project is completed, Updown Court has already attracted interest from potential buyers from Russia, Ukraine, China, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Turkey and the U.S. But not one inquiry has yet emerged from England.

So what do you get for the same kind of money that would buy more than 450 houses at the current national average price? Is Updown Court a brilliant masterpiece or a vulgar monstrosity?

When the giant oak doors swung open for me at the main entrance yesterday, my first impression was that I had walked into a World of Marble showroom. There's 250 tons around the place, mostly on the floor. It was a full 50 minutes before I spotted the first hint of carpet.

The heart of the house is a grand hallway with twin staircases flanking a central core that draws the eye towards a domed ceiling.

Yesterday it was illuminated in a slightly gaudy blue, but electronics can change the hue at the touch of a button. The twinstaircase idea was apparently borrowed from Gianni Versace's Miami mansion, and provides galleried landings designed primarily for entertaining.

THE DECOR is a curious blend of classical and contemporary. Behind some of the oak panelling that adorns most of the lower part of the walls, I detect the merest hint of MDF. The developers have also taken a further tip from the TV make- over merchants: keep the decor neutral, and paint everything beige.

Hence, much of the paintwork has that familiar magnolia tinge. Elsewhere, countless walls shimmer with great swathes of painstakingly created Venetian stucco.

And there are so many bathrooms among the 103 rooms that by the time you've seen the first 20 or so, they begin to look the same.

Running such a house doesn't come cheap, though. Experts calculate that you would probably need a staff of about 20 to run the place, while the heating bill alone (there are 40 gas boilers) is likely to top GBP 250,000 a year.

But at least you'll get a good class of neighbour. The house sits behind the main road through Windlesham, Surrey, one of the most affluent areas in the country, and has risen from the site of what was once a comparatively modest Edwardian mansion.

Developer Leslie Allen-Vercoe paid GBP 20million for it in 2002 and reckons to have spent more than GBP 30million to transform it to its present-day status.

Who will buy it now? Anyone with GBP 70 million to spare -- not forgetting, of course, the GBP 3 million in stamp duty.


Media Enquiries:
Nicki Glancey/Susan Grant
The Communication Group: 020 7630 1411
nglancey@thecommunicationgroup.co.uk
sgrant@thecommunicationgroup.co.uk


Return to press centre
Updown Court Legal Information
Design and development by Up