Property of the Week: Restaurateur Peter Langan’s celeb haunt turned 4-bed penthouse in Mayfair
This top-floor penthouse moments away from fashionable eateries Sketch and Pollen Street Social has links to a historic restaurant itself and once hosted some of Britain’s greatist contemporary artists.
Built at the start of the 20th century by Ernest George, the same architect behind the grand, red brick Royal College of Music, this building on Maddox Street was once the office and studio of Peter Langan. The larger-than-life Irishman was the proprietor of Odin’s in Marylebone then went on to open Langan’s in Mayfair with actor Sir Michael Caine.
Movers and shakers in London in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s will remember Langan’s Brasserie for being at the heart of the city’s fine dining scene, luring celebrity diners from Elizabeth Taylor, Princess Margaret, Mick Jagger and Jack Nicholson. It was just as famous for the art that covered its walls, from the likes of David Hockney, Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon and many of these were donated because Langan put them up in his studio on the top floor of his offices.
Since his death in 1988, some of the art has been sold off, the restaurant is in different hands, but the grand Edwardian neo-baroque style building remains. It became the home of an architectural practice before it was acquired by developers Amazon Property and McLaren Construction Group, which turned the offices on the lower floors into four apartments.
However, the penthouse on the top two floors, Langan’s old studio, has just entered the market. Unusually, visitors enter on the upper floor, gazing up at 8ft high ceilings and a living room that spans the entire depth and width of the building. Venture further and floor-to-ceiling windows open out onto two private roof terraces with views of bustling shoppers entering Liberty Department Store.
Retreat inside and the feature fireplace should warm dinner party guests up while seated at the 10-seater dining table, watching you whip something up in the handmade kitchen with Calacatta Michelangelo marble worktops. Descending to the lower floor there are four ensuite bedroom, including a master suite with its own balcony and walk-in dressing room.
The property is for sale on a 999-year lease, and Chris Lanitis, director at Amazon Property, is betting on Mayfair still being “London’s most sought-after ‘blue chip’ address, with more 5-star hotels, top-rated restaurants and VIP clubs/bars than any other district in the capital” to sell it for over £5m.
Call Knight Frank on 020 3811 2378 or CBRE on 020 7420 3050