Luxury estate agent Rokstone has launched Havona House at 57 Pembridge Villas in Notting Hill. It’s the largest house constructed in the area over recent years, and as you can imagine, it doesn’t come cheap.
Havona House is a neoclassical-styled 8,700 sqft mansion with an abundance of entertaining space, 1,409 sqft of garden and balconies and a private spa with a 21-metre swimming pool. As mentioned in the title, it also has the distinction of being the largest house to be constructed in Notting Hill for more than a decade.
But all of this grandeur and plaudits come at a price. Let’s take a closer look at what Havona House had to offer and see if it justifies an asking price in excess of £25 million.
Now a conservation area due to its architectural importance, Pembridge Villas was built in 1845-1853, with the wide tree-lined avenue bordered by elegant Italianate stucco-fronted villas designed by architect Thomas Allason (1790-1852), built by developer James Hall for landowner James Weller Ladbroke.
Allason had visited Greece in 1814 and the architecture of Pembridge Villas was inspired by the work of John Nash in Regent’s Park as well as Greek and Italian classical architecture.
Referencing the conservation area and Allason’s love of Greek classical architecture, Albert Bridge Properties Ltd designed Havona House from first principles to provide an elegant detached neoclassical villa, combining classical architecture with a modern specification to provide a luxurious landmark residence opposite the entrance to Portobello Road. Havona, meaning ‘Plato’s world of perfection,’ is carved in lettering into the architrave above the main entrance of the house.
The double-fronted, three-storey stucco façade has a central entrance portico with Corinthian stone columns and tall first-floor windows with moulded architraves with cornices above, opening onto an Italianate balcony.
Drawing inspiration from Andronikos Kyrrhestes’ Tower of the Winds’ monument in Athens, Havona House has three modern versions of the Ancient Greek wind deities carved in limestone in the upper frieze that spans the top of the façade.
There is also a striking copper Triton weather vane on the roof, specially commissioned as a feature, recalling the famed Triton wind vane on Kyrrheste’s tower.
Inside, traditional Georgian architectural detailing has been combined with state-of-the-art smart house technology and large open living spaces to provide a unique and luxurious Notting Hill family house. Casa e Progetti has designed a bespoke furniture scheme for the house.
Benefitting from a wide and deep plot, Havona House provides generous lateral living space over the sub-basement, basement, lower ground, ground and three upper floors. Large windows to the front and rear façade allow light into the living spaces from every aspect, and a multi-storey rear bay window contains a cantilevered spiral staircase which soars from the ground to the top floor.
Superb bespoke lighting, designed by award-winning glass artist Esther Patterson, founder of Curiousa & Curiousa, dramatically cascades from the top floor down the stairwell atrium.
The ground floor opens to a generous entrance hall, spanning the depth of the house and leading to the spiral staircase and adjacent passenger lift.
Off the hall are a study/reception room, guest powder room and the integral garage/car lift, enabling the owner to drive into the garage with smart technology taking the car to the sub-basement level to park safely. There is space here to park three cars.
The first floor has a magnificent main reception room with high ceilings and reclaimed oak parquet flooring, a fabulous stone fireplace, elegant ceiling coving and three sets of French windows opening onto the front balcony overlooking Pembridge Villas.
On the lower ground floor is a huge open space incorporating a kitchen and breakfast room, with a Pedini-designed curved central island and breakfast bar, with integrated Brazza and Miele appliances and a Subzero fridge, Subzero freezer and wine fridge.
The kitchen leads into the open-plan dining area and family living room. Automated floor-to-ceiling glazed doors in the family living room open onto the 750 sqft rear garden, providing an expansive indoor-outdoor entertaining area. There is also a guest cloakroom and utility room on this floor.
With an artistic centrepiece in the form of a bespoke design copper Angel feature fountain, the spacious garden receives unobstructed sunlight from 10 am to 3 pm.
The sub-basement contains the luxurious private spa, whose centrepiece is a 21-metre swimming pool (believed to be the largest private pool in Notting Hill) bordered by a stone-floored leisure deck area with a bar/kitchen area.
The leisure deck provides space for a gymnasium and loungers, sauna, hammam and shower facilities.
The pool floor can be raised to transform the space into a ballroom or banqueting room or lowered to create a swimming pool with adjustable depth.
The master bedroom suite occupies its own private level on the second floor and features the large master bedroom with reclaimed oak parquet flooring, stone fireplace and ceiling detailing, with a walk-in dressed room lined with bespoke wardrobes and a master bathroom with freestanding bath and a large walk-in marble and mosaic tiled double shower.
The top third floor provides three bedrooms, one with an ensuite shower room and two opening onto a front-facing balcony. There is also a family bathroom with a freestanding bath, and on the landing, the skylight provides natural light and the sight of the bronze feature weathervane.
The basement contains three further bedroom suites for guests or staff, each with ensuite shower rooms. Two bedrooms have glass walls overlooking the atrium space above the skylighted pool, providing natural light and views of the pool area. The third bedroom has its own lightwell.
Havona House has been finished to an exacting specification with bespoke flooring in timber, marble and stone, custom-made joinery and finishes and built-in wardrobes.
The house is wired for sophisticated Control 4 home automation and entertainment and there is comfort cooling to the reception rooms and bedrooms.
Capable of storing three cars, the integral garage introduces for the first time in the UK the US Park Plus, state-of-the-art, automated technology. This exclusive innovation enables the use of the fully automated car lift and Automatic Vehicle Guidance (AVG) System’s robotic platforms, linked to the house occupants’ mobile phones, to steer without the driver having to be in the car and park three vehicles in the basement level in pre-selected locations.
The design and the space in the garage allow the vehicles to turn and face the road automatically, so when the cars arrive at the street level, the car owner can join the car while still inside the building and drive away easily.
Konstantinos Diamantopoulos, Owner of Albert Bridge Properties Ltd says: “Havona House is the largest and finest newly built mansion to be constructed in Notting Hill for many years, backed by a 10-year NHBC guarantee.
Combining classical architecture with modern specification and Feng Shui principles, this unique family house is set apart by the quality of the specification, which incorporates fully automated driverless parking and the abundance of entertaining space.
This includes the private spa with its swimming pool room, which can be transformed into a ballroom or banqueting space via the pool’s moving floor.”
Rokstone observes that over the last twenty-four months, Notting Hill has only had four houses for sale, which are over 5,000 sqft in size, and each of these mega-pad sales has achieved premium prices of up to and in excess of £20 million.
Wealthy buyers who would have previously purchased a luxury family home in neighbouring Kensington or the Hyde Park Estate are now choosing to purchase property in Notting Hill because they get more value for money; they like the village ambience and because the quality of the new luxury homes like Havona House being created in the marketplace is of a quality that rivals Kensington, Belgravia and Mayfair.
Havona House is for sale for offers in excess of £25,000,000. For further sales information, contact sole agent Rokstone on Tel: +44 (0) 20 7580 2030 or visit www.rokstone.com
Havona House has a bespoke furniture scheme designed by Casa e Progetti, available upon request and priced by separate negotiation. Casa e Progetti Tel: +44 (0) 20 3137 9889 or visit: www.casaeprogetti.com