I assume most properties in that exclusive area are leased. Probably because the property continues to increase in value over time. People keep them as investments.
This odd shaped property can actually be purchased.
IIRC correctly, freehold means you own the land completely, forever and ever and can sell it as you please. as opposed to a leasehold which means you have use of the property and buildings for some specified term of years (like 20 or 40 or more years.) In the US I think this is only common in Hawaii.
We have a similar set up in MD.
https://www.peoples-law.org/understanding-ground-rent-maryland
From this site, it happens in the Baltimore area, parts of PA, and Hawaii.
I agree that it’s triangular. The second link- the far end of the building looks wider than it is at foreground. Look at the adjoining beige building.
I agree that they were probably required to keep the facade. Looking at that picture again, that whole row seems to be composed of narrow buildings. My guess for former use was housing or shops with housing above.
I would love to have this building, but the cost and taxes are astronomical.
I agree. In fact, it looks as though this is a remnant of a building where there was always a stone facade wall, concealing a rather less grand building behind - you can see it in the photo with Sir Martyn Poliakoff in it.
To me, the building has a look such that it might originally have been part of an office/light industrial premises - the part that remains being the corridor leading to offices and work spaces (doors bricked up when the remainder of the building was demolished).
If it was a ‘light industrial’ building, It’s possible that the parts that were originally behind the surviving structure may have been timber framed sheds with a tin roof, which could be demolished without requiring much structural change to the front parts of the building.
Looking at it on Google Maps (Google Maps)
- in particular, the aerial views - you can see that it’s a thin sliver of a building that exists at the end of a row of other thin houses, tapering down to this point. Also, there’s a big strip of landscaped garden between the back of it, and the more modern buildings behind - but there is a straight line cutting off the back of all of these buildings - implying perhaps that whilst the surviving part is freehold, maybe the parts behind were not - and the entire plot behind was redeveloped.
And doesn’t the tree in the back look much nicer in the summer photograph from 10 years ago, than it does now with the leaves all off. And the street garden… If that facade is not protected by a planning regulaiton, the agents are expecting the building to be torn down and replaced. Or maybe even if it /is/ protected…
Those photos don’t do it any favors. Perhaps a picture of it cleaned up, painted, etc with some sort of shelves or a narrow bench would make it look livable. Plus a person inside for actual scale.
Still, maybe there’s a rich ex-submarine captain somewhere looking for new digs.
It’s an AirBnB gold mine, is what it is. Nobody who can afford that is going to actually want to live there, but they’ll be able to book it up solid at $250/night. It’ll pay for itself in 10 years.
In the comments on the second link in the OP, someone asserts that this structure is the rear facade and servants’ corridor from a much larger house. Most of the original structure was demolished and the multistory structure behind it was built. I find this entirely believable, although I’d like to know why the rear facade/corridor wasn’t demolished with the rest of the house. Perhaps only that strip of land was freehold, and the only way to maintain freehold status was to leave part of the original building. Does a freehold typically convert to leasehold if all of the original non-movable structures are demolished?
The 'corridor" thing doesn’t make much sense to me. There are three doorways in that facade: two are bricked up. It’s possible that the doors opened into corridors, but if so, there would have been a room on one or both sides of the corridor. But I’m not familar with the servents entrence to a much larger house: everywhere I know, the back enterence gate opens into outbuildings. When you go in the back door of the main house, it’s just a little twist and your into the main corridor, or the stairs, or the scullary or whatever: you wouldn’t waste space on a corridor duplicating the outside access.
In England, the Crown owned the land, by right of conquest, William the Conqueror conquered England, and took all the land. He gave other people the right to Hold some of his land and not pay rent: Free Hold. They could sell it or lease it out: the Crown only takes it back for Treason.
Some places don’t have the custom of owning your own home, even if you plan to live their the rest of your life, you just get a long lease. The land itself doesn’t have any special lease/free status.
I had a friend who holds a 99 year lease to a flat (a flat subdivision of a larger older building) in London. He paid cash for the lease, just like you would pay cash to own property. He has an ongoing payment as well, but it’s a fixed payment, like paying out a mortgage, it’s not tied to the present value of the flat.