Home Residential PropertyLuxury Property Kosovo buys Spike Milligan’s £6.5m London mansion or grand new embassy by Hyde Park

Kosovo buys Spike Milligan’s £6.5m London mansion or grand new embassy by Hyde Park

by LLP Staff Reporter
12th Apr 23 2:24 pm

The Embassy of Kosovo, the diplomatic mission of Kosovo in the UK, has purchased 9 Orme Court in London’s Bayswater, a grand 5,697 sq.ft. Victorian townhouse, formerly the home of Spike Milligan and office of Eric Sykes, and plan to transform the building into the new London Embassy for Kosovo.

Beauchamp Estates, who were instructed to sell 9 Orme Court, introduced the Embassy of Kosovo, and negotiated the successful sale. The asking price was £6,500.000.

Originally built in the 1890s, the twin Blue Plaque 9 Orme Court is where Spike Milligan lived and worked, and where he, Eric Sykes, Peter Sellers, Terry Nation,  Dennis Spooner and other scriptwriters ran Associated London Scripts (ALS) and between 1962-1979 worked on famous TV, radio and theatre scripts, including iconic hits The Goon Show, Hancock’s Half Hour, Dr Who and the Daleks, Genesis of the Daleks, Steptoe and Son, Thunderbirds and Stingray.

Now the Bayswater townhouse, which is just 100 yards away from Hyde Park, will have a new future as a diplomatic mission for the Government of Kosovo. The ground and first floors have a series of large rooms, with high ceilings and tall windows, providing the ideal venue for diplomatic meetings and receptions.

The upper floors, where Spike Milligan had his bedroom and where Terry Nation wrote the 1963 BBC script for Dr Who and The Daleks and Dennis Spooner wrote scripts for Thunderbirds and Stingray will provide more private accommodation and offices for Embassy staff.

The property was originally co-owned by Spike Milligan and Eric Sykes. During the early 1970s Spike sold his interest in 9 Orme Court to Eric who continued to work in his first floor office up until 2011 before his death in 2012. 9 Orme Court has twin Heritage Foundation Blue Plaques celebrating Spike and Eric’s lives at the property, installed in 2003 and 2013 respectively.

The Embassy of Kosovo in London is led by His Excellency Mr. IIir Kapiti, Ambassador of the Republic of Kosovo to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Ambassador arrived in London with his family on 31st December 2021. After two stints in the capital studying for a master’s and an MBA the Ambassador considers London a second home and has always been impressed by its cultural diversity.

The UK-Kosovo bilateral relationship was crowned with a Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the two countries signed in December 2019. The new Hyde Park Embassy at 9 Orme Court underlines that the UK is an important ally and partner and the two countries have well established relations.

Gary Hersham, Founding Director of Beauchamp Estates said, “Beauchamp Estates is delighted to have introduced the Embassy of Kosovo to 9 Orme Court and negotiated the successful purchase. This grand townhouse has the benefit of a long history of being used as both offices and living accommodation making a transformation into an Embassy a logical step.

“The spacious interiors and prime location, on the doorstep of Hyde Park and just a short drive to Buckingham Place, makes it a perfect venue for a diplomatic mission.”

Beauchamp Estates highlight that Bayswater, with its close proximity to Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace and London’s West End is a popular location for embassies. The embassies of Gambia, Guyana, Laos and Sri Lanka are all located in Bayswater.

There are a total of 163 embassies and other diplomatic buildings in Central London, the most popular locations being addresses close to Buckingham Palace, N.10 Downing Street and Hyde Park, with Kosovo locating their diplomatic headquarters here, Bayswater will now have five embassies.

Beauchamp Estates reveal that the top-five addresses in London for embassies in rank order are Kensington, with 37 embassies, then Belgravia and Marylebone, both with 23 embassies each, followed by Westminster with 18 embassies and Mayfair with 15 embassies.

9 Orme Court was sold by Beauchamp Estates on behalf of the vendors (the family of Eric Sykes) with Beauchamp Estates instructed by the vendors as selling agents to market the property.

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