£5,000 Chelsea house now on sale for £8.5m

12 April 2012

An unmodernised Chelsea house bought for £5,000 when it was last on the market in the Fifties has sparked a frenzy of interest among buyers.

Gilston Lodge, which has an asking price of £8.5 million, has been described as the hottest property on sale in London and is expected to reach more than £10 million when it goes to sealed bids on Thursday.

It has had more than 50 viewings in three weeks and over 20 serious expressions of interest. Any buyer is expected to have to spend between £2million and £3 million bringing it to a modern standard, including features now taken as standard such as en-suite bathrooms.

James Pace, of Knight Frank, said the estate agent was expecting a large number of bids and believed the house would achieve "considerably in excess of the guide price of £8.5 million - probably more like £10 million".

Gilston Lodge was last sold in 1958, when it was snapped up by Old Etonian Roderic Fenwick Owen, who owned it until his death in April. An old-school adventurer, he revelled in the cloak-and-dagger gay scene of the Fifties and wrote travel books and biographies.

He famously criticised Lord Wolfenden, whose 1960 report decriminalised homosexuality, for "coming along and spoiling everything". His ultimate partner, Gian Carlo Pasqualetto, lived with him in the lodge from 1967 until his death in 1991. The address at Mr Fenwick Owen's funeral was read by an old friend, Rabbi Lionel Blue.

When Mr Fenwick Owen bought the lodge, Chelsea was seen as bohemian and rather risqué and his mother was concerned no one would venture from Mayfair to visit him.

Now the detached, five-bedroom house with its distinct shape, private garage and unusual wraparound garden, complete with fig tree, is the height of desirability.

The house is being sold on behalf of the executors, family members who have excluded certain items from the sale for their sentimental value. They are a carriage door, dining chairs and a brass luggage rack which once graced the Brighton Belle train - and an alarm chain, for which the penalty for wrongful use was £5. The house stands in the "island section" of Gilston Road, which leads into The Boltons.

Mr Pace said: "The house now needs complete modernisation but also gives any incoming purchaser the opportunity to move forward with a blank canvas. Of the bids we are expecting, many are from people already living in the neighbourhood and looking to trade up."

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