Legendary Hollywood director Sir Ridley Scott’s former Hampstead house is on the open market for the first time since the 1980s.
The Oscar-winning director lived in the property for more than 15 years, overseeing a major refurbishment in 2006.
Scott, whose production company Ridley Scott Associates is based in London, enlisted interior designer Chester Jones to help him refit the Grade II-listed house.
In a report for the planning application carried out at the time, Jones offered a blistering critique of the existing decor.
“Let us banish all of the nostalgic bits and bobs,” he wrote. “Rooms would benefit from film memorabilia, reference books, posters, photos and some drawings.
“The lower-ground floor back entrance hall is a joke - the plasterwork looks like a Sixties Brighton hairdressing salon. Surely this must be stripped out and simplified. As a first impression of the house, it is not a good one.”
He went on about the house Scott shared with his actress partner (now his third wife) Giannina Facio, who played Maximus’s wife in Gladiator: “I feel that neither the planning nor the decorations work in this house. The decorations are too imitation to be satisfactory.”
The new designs replaced the canary yellow study, stone busts, chandeliers, ornate rugs and large paintings with a simpler, more neutral scheme that allows original features such as wood panelling, grand fireplaces and rococo plasterwork to stand out.
Scott lived there while working on many of his huge box office hits, including Gladiator, Thelma and Louise and Hannibal but eventually sold it off-market for £26.5 million to a local couple who fell in love with it at a party and later asked to buy it.
“There was a bit of protracted negotiation, for sure, because the house was not for sale,” James Diaper of Savills, one of the agents marketing the house told The Times. “The owners really wanted it and probably paid a slight premium for it. But it shows the love for the house.”
Built in the early 18th century, Old Grove House had additions in 1730 and renovations in 1912 and 1959 before Scott’s interventions.
The property is now for sale on the open market for the first time in almost four decades, with an asking price of £28 million.
The eight-bedroom main house has more than 700m2 of space while a white stucco annex known as Cottage House adds a further 790m2 of space and an additional bedroom, living room and kitchen-diner. Thre is also a 36-metre long walled garden with topiaried hedges and ornate stone ornaments.
A roof terrace has views over the gardens of nearby Fenton House — on which the property’s own gardens are based — and London landmarks including the Shard, Canary Wharf and Battersea Power Station.
Sebastian Gibson, director at joint agent FG Consultants, said: “I’ve never seen a property that marries such architectural merit along with elegant living, grand reception spaces along with intimate ones, classical design with cosy living, a secret garden that belies being steps away from the heart of Hampstead villages and unparallel views across London.”
