The sale of the £18 million Sir John Soane designed Tyringham Hall
Property developer Anton Bilton and his Brooklyn born wife Lisa Barbuscia-Bilton (better known as Lisa B.) bought the Sir John Soane designed Tyringham Hall in Buckinghamshire for £2.5 million in 2001. They’ve recently put it on the market at the staggering price of £18 million.
The 18th century Grade I listed mansion, which the couple have renovated with the help of English heritage, features 25 bedrooms and 32 bathrooms. In total there is 36,602 square foot of accommodation and 59.21 acres including parkland and formal gardens with two buildings by Sir Edwin Lutyens.
Of the sale of this neo-classical villa, built between 1792 and 1797, Crispin Holborrow of selling agents Savills commented:
“Tyringham Hall combines some of finest work of Soane and Lutyens, and as such could be labelled as one of England’s greatest architectural masterpieces. What’s more it is in exceptional condition having been beautifully restored”.
“It is enormous but also remarkably compact. It has some wonderful formal rooms so can expand into a party home or contract into a family home”.
“It is right at the top of English homes, an architectural jewel. It is architecturally and historically significant and this will attract buyers… The eventual purchaser is unlikely to be someone who might think of buying a new house in Wentworth, for example”.
The Biltons, who are selling up to move permanently to Ibiza, have used Tyringham to full effect during their tenure. Amongst the many events that they have hosted there have been a lunch party for Goodman Derrick ‘Berlinettas’ in 2007 and Aston Martin’s Vanquish model launch in November 2012.
Barbuscia-Bilton, in an interview for the Daily Mail’s ‘Richard Kay’ column spoke fondly of Tyringham:
“It’s a fantastic place — it looks like a stately home from the outside but feels like a comfortable family house on the inside — and it is great for children. But then we moved out here [to Ibiza] and it now seems pointless to keep a house with 32 bedrooms when we are hardly there anymore… I did love our big house in Buckinghamshire and I hope it goes to a family who will love it as much as we did”.
Of the limitations of Tyringham though, a feature in the much respected country house blog The Country Seat suggests:
“The house and estate today is not the same one Soane created. Between 1907-19, a series of unfortunate changes were made to designs by the architect Ernst Eberhard von Ihne, his decorator Florian Kulikowski and another architect, Charles Rees, who implemented Von Ihne’s plans which swept away much of Soane’s interior decoration. They also added an ill-proportioned copper dome, a tea cosy on a champagne bottle, which has the strange visual effect of elongating the columns. With an estate of only 59-acres, it’s unfortunate that a series of 9 or 10 houses were built to the immediate north-east of the main house. Equally sad, the most important section of Soane’s considered drive to the house is now in separate ownership”.
In his memoirs, Sir John Soane concluded that he’d spent “the six most happy years of [his] life” working on Tyringham. Whoever ultimately buys this masterpiece will equally enjoy some pretty fine times also.
For more details on Tyringham Hall, click here. Contact Hugh Maconochie of Savills on +44 (0) 20 7016 3780 for more information.
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