How much would you pay for a two-bedroom house in London today? If you are a French billionaire, then £20 million ($ 32.11 million) is no big deal, right? François Pinault, the founder of PPR, labels including Gucci and Stella McCartney, has forked out the staggering amount to get himself a house in Chelsea, south-west London. The house, which is famed as Richard “Uncle Monty” Griffiths’s bachelor pad the 1987 comedy film Withnail and I, will go through some serious alterations. The Queen Anne revival property was designed in 1868 by Philip Webb for painter George Price Boyce.
The house’s previous owners include Professor Bernard Nevill, who picked up the house for £80,000 and spent over “30 years perfecting the interiors”. Under its new owner, the house changes include “reinstatement of original features such as the main staircase,” redesigning the bedrooms, kitchen, bathrooms, getting rid of the Joinery, and new windows for the studio.
[Telegraph]
