Number seven Balfour Place in Mayfair was built as a trophy property within the historic Grosvenor Estate in 1892. It was designed by Eustace Balfour, the estate’s chief surveyor and architect and is Grade II listed with a five storey brick façade.
Balfour, a Fellow of the RIBA, was incredibly ambitious and well connected. His mother was the daughter of the second Marquess of Salisbury and his brother Arthur was Prime Minister. His wife, Lady Frances Campbell, was the daughter of the Duke of Argyll and favourite niece of the first Duke of Westminster and it was she who got him his job of chief surveyor to the Grosvenor Estate.
Balfour knew that the Duke liked the domestic revival style of architecture so to please him he designed eight mansions on the site of Balfour Place with the aim of creating the grandest Arts and Craft style homes ever built in London.
The completed mansion was hailed as magnificent. There was an extensive lower ground floor for kitchens and staff, a vast entrance hall and three grand reception rooms. The first floor had another three large entertaining rooms, with eight family bedrooms on the second and third floors, and staff accommodation and storage on the fourth and top fifth floor.
The site of the new mansions was originally known as Portugal Street as a tribute to the Portuguese wife of King Charles II, but the Grosvenor family renamed the street Balfour Place in honour of their chief surveyor.
Over the years number seven has had a variety of owners including several industrialists, a Dowager Countess and a City of London metal trader magnate. The most famous person to covet the property was shipping heiress Christina Onassis although she was never able to buy it.
In 1991 number seven was converted into six apartments and it now has flats ranging from 1.255 square feet to 2,583 square feet with two to four bedrooms. The property is currently income producing and is for sale on a freehold basis. It could be acquired as a rental investment, refurbished to provide luxury apartments or reinstated as a single residence, subject to the usual planning consents.
According to agents Wetherell it benefits from a prestigious address, elegant architecture and rooms with princely proportions. The firm’s chief executive Peter Wetherell said that if it was changed back into single residence, designed and specified to a luxurious ultra-prime finish, and interior designed and presented to sell to an international market it could be worth anything from £52 million to £65 million.
‘It could create one of London’s finest mega mansions, an outstanding home of world class quality and refined provenance Such a transformation has the potential to generate a lucrative return for a discerning purchaser acquiring the property in its current configuration,’ he added.
