Live in a WWII-Era U.S. Embassy in London for £21.5 Million
The three-bedroom, duplex apartment in the notable Mayfair building spans 4,400 square feet
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In the heart of London, a duplex apartment within the city’s former U.S. Embassy, which has been recently transformed into super-prime residences, has hit the market for £21.5 million (US$26.9 million).
The unit, which has been given the presidential moniker of the “Oval Residence,” is within No. 1 Grosvenor Square, and is the last sponsor unit available from developer Lodha UK. The building, on Mayfair’s uber-posh Grosvenor Square, served as the U.S. Embassy from 1938 until 1960, and then as the Canadian High Commission from 1962 until 2013. After being restored brick by brick, quite literally , it reopened as residences in 2022.
Some of the prominent figures of the 20th century have passed through its doors, including John F. Kennedy, who called it home when his father was appointed U.S. Ambassador to the U.K. in the 1930s, Winston Churchill and Eleanor Roosevelt, who was loaned an apartment when she visited London during World War II.
The three-bedroom home spans 4,400 square feet and was designed by Blandine de Navacelle, creative director of Studio Lodha, the developer’s interior design practice.
“No.1 Grosvenor Square is one of the capital’s most iconic addresses, and the design of the Oval Residence needed to reflect this,” de Navacelle said in a news release. “With large, open-plan living spaces and floor to ceiling windows, the residence offered the perfect backdrop for statement artwork and eclectic, sculptural furniture.”
The home also boasts a sleek kitchen, a home theatre, a dining area, wood-panelled walls, fireplaces and a 576-square-foot terrace.
“I regularly visit French galleries and furniture ateliers and am drawn to their art-centric approach to design and interiors,” de Navacelle said. “I wanted to bring a touch of this Parisian eclecticism to No.1 Grosvenor Square, creating a sophisticated and elegant private residence that blends both the classic and the contemporary.”
The turn-key flat is being sold with all of its furnishings.
Future occupants will also have access to the building’s amenities, including an in-house concierge team, a private health club and spa, a pool and a cinema.
Grosvenor Square has been one of London’s most-famed addresses for centuries. Currently in the middle of a dramatic remaking, No.1 Grosvenor Square is just one the enclave’s storied buildings to be undergoing, or to have undergone, a complete transformation.
The former U.S. Naval Building at No. 20, has been transformed into the first solely residential project from the Four Seasons, and the iconic Eero Saarinen-designed U.S. Embassy that spans the entire western side of the square, is set to become the Chancery Rosewood hotel by 2025.
London has no shortage of diplomatic buildings that have been transformed into luxury homes. In February, and for the first time in more than a century, the former Italian Embassy, now a lavish mansion, hit the market for £21.5 million . The former Cypriot Embassy, meanwhile, sold in March for £25 million to a buyer seeking a grand family home in the city.
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Château d’Ansembourg and the adjacent Domaine du Presbytère d’Ansembourg are on the market for €37.5 Million
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The listing comprises the ancient Château d’Ansembourg and the adjacent Domaine du Presbytère d’Ansembourg, which are within central Luxembourg’s Valley of the Seven Castles.
Château d’Ansembourg is one of the seven castles the valley is named for and is regarded as one of the country’s most important privately owned châteaus, according to Ignace Meuwissen, the founder of Whisper Auctions, who is handling the sale.
The castle sits at the heart of an almost 500-acre estate overlooking the picturesque village of Ansembourg, and records of its existence date to 1135.
Domaine du Presbytère d’Ansembourg, meanwhile, is a more than 110-acre estate comprising a former presbytery, a chapel dating to 1678, a historic school site, forests and meadows.
“Properties of this calibre rarely become available,” Meuwissen said.
“What is being offered today is far more than a chateau. The combination of nearly nine centuries of documented history, 245 hectares of land and a unique location in the Valley of the Seven Castles creates an opportunity that is exceptionally rare within Europe. Opportunities of this scale and heritage value are seldom brought to market and are often preserved within families for generations.”
The properties are being marketed through a “semi-off-market sales process,” with limited information and marketing materials publicly available, and access to the properties is reserved for a small number of pre-qualified candidates, according to Meuwissen.
Both estates have been privately occupied by the same owner, whom Meuwissen declined to identify. Mansion Global could not confirm who the seller is.
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