The former Westminster home of Conservative party treasurer Lord Alistair McAlpine, a Grade II Listed 2,176 sq.ft. (202 sq.m.) three bedroom Georgian townhouse with a patio garden on Great College Street, which provided a base for Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major and hosted other political figures and business tycoons is for sale via DEXTERS.
Originally built in 1720-1722 the Georgian townhouse offers elegant accommodation over lower ground, ground and two upper floors and provides an entrance hall, three spacious reception rooms, a formal dining room, a hand-crafted kitchen opening onto the patio garden, three double bedrooms, two bathrooms, a wash room and wine cellar.
With spacious entertaining spaces and period features including sash windows, wooden wall panelling and original fireplaces, the townhouse offers superb views of the Palace of Westminster, Westminster Abbey and the ancient College Garden.
Between 1984 and 1993 the townhouse on Great College Street served as the Westminster home of Lord Alistair McAlpine (1942-2014), who was the Conservative party treasurer between 1975-1990, and his glamorous second wife, Romilly Hobbs. McAlpine married Romilly in 1980 and she had previously served as his political secretary.
Lord McAlpine and Romilly acquired the townhouse on Great College Street as their London home and it was here during the 1980s and 1990s that they entertained the grandees of the Conservative party including Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her husband Denis, Cecil and Anne Parkinson and Norman and Margaret Tebbit. On general election nights, budget announcements and major events such as the Falklands War the townhouse would come alive with people and visitors.
McAlpine also used the townhouse to host and court the party’s most important funders. Those courted included Asil Nadir of Polly Peck, Mohammed Al-Fayed of Harrods and John Latsis, the Greek billionaire shipping tycoon.
As a devoted ally of Margaret Thatcher, when she fell from power in 1990, after 11 years at 10 Downing Street, the loyal Lord McAlpine offered Thatcher and her husband Denis, the townhouse at Great College Street as a Westminster refuge – despite owning a house opposite Dulwich Park in South London, Thatcher preferred to stay close to the British epicentre of political power.
According to her biographer Charles Moore when Thatcher lived at Great College Street in the early days after her fall from power thousands of supportive letters from the general public piled up in unopened sacks in the entrance hall and Thatcher struggled to dial people directly on the telephone and use the answering machine because since 1979 she had relied on the Downing Street switchboard to manage her calls.
Thatcher left McAlpine’s townhouse later in 1990, relocating to the grand home of Mrs Henry Ford II on Eaton Square in Belgravia, before finally in 1991 moving to her own five-storey home on Chester Square. Thatcher’s legacy is still evident at Great College Street, however, in the form of a ‘Division Bell’ she insisted on having installed, used to summon MPs to Parliament when a vote was about to be taken.
It was at Thatcher’s suggestion that the townhouse on Great College Street was also used as John Major’s campaign headquarters during the succession struggle immediately after her fall, in which he ultimately triumphed as Prime Minister. The home was also a source of fascination to political commentators in 1993, when McAlpine offered it to the anti-Maastricht, anti-Major rebels as their nerve centre.
In 1990 the IRA bombed Lord McAlpine’s country house, West Green House, in Hampshire and this led him to spend more time overseas in Monaco and he eventually sold the townhouse on Great College Street at the end of 1993.
Over the centuries from when it was first built in 1720-1722 the townhouse has been connected to the Houses of Parliament. In 1770 one of the first residents was John Croft, a Senior Clerk from the House of Lords, by 1807 it was the home of Durell Stables, the Royal Mint liaison officer at the Palace of Westminster, in 1855 it was the home of John Nicholas Marshall, a Messenger at the House of Commons and by 1901 it was the home of MP Edmund Haviland-Burke.
Most notably, between 1914 and 1921, the townhouse served as the Westminster home of Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner. Between 1916 and 1918, Lord Milner was one of the most important members of Prime Minister David Lloyd George’s war cabinet, and it is believed key meetings were held at the home. An outspoken critic of the Gallipoli campaign, Lord Milner was appointed Minister of War in 1918 and was one of the signatories to the Treaty of Versailles.
Now the townhouse on Great College Street is seeking a new owner, perhaps again from the world of politics. On the ground floor, off the spacious reception hall with its period fireplace and original Georgian wooden panelling, is the formal 10-seat dining room, also panelled and with a period fireplace. The adjoining kitchen has handcrafted cabinetry, a sleek industrial style oven and tiled floors. The kitchen opens onto the private patio garden, with space for a table and chairs and growing herbs, flowers and plants.
On the first floor are a pair of reception rooms, their panelled walls painted in an authentic 18th-century green, and on the second floor there are two large double bedrooms, also with their original wooden panelling, and a large family bathroom. On the lower ground floor there is a self-contained guest/staff apartment providing a double bedroom, reception room, bathroom and serving area.
Harry Laflin, Director of DEXTERS (Westminster), said, “Offering unmatched views of the Palace of Westminster, Westminster Abbey and the ancient College Garden, this magnificent Georgian townhouse was formerly the London home of Conservative party treasurer Lord Alistair McAlpine, and provided a base for Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major.
“Over many decades this house has hosted famous political figures and has an incredible sense of history, given its important heritage we anticipate significant interest in the property from discerning buyers from both the UK and internationally.”
The townhouse on Great College Street is for sale for £3,650,000 (freehold). For further information or to arrange a viewing, please contact DEXTERS (Westminster) on Tel: +44 (0)20 7590 9570, or visit www.dexters.co.uk
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