Property of the Week: Mary McCartney’s family home near Abbey Road Studios is on sale in west London
It must be strange enough, having a Dad as famous as Sir Paul McCartney, without having to walk past hordes of tourists darting out in front of the crossing outside Abbey Road Studios.
Clifton Hill, St John’s Wood, £3.95m
But it’s a sight that must have been familiar to Mary McCartney, Paul and Linda’s eldest biological daughter, and sister of fashion designer Stella, as she lived in this house around the corner on Clifton Hill for 10 years. Sir Paul is also a notable local, having lived in St John’s Wood for decades.
However, Mary has recently moved out of the home where she wrote her vegetarian cookbooks, honed her photography skills and raised her four children. “Mary and her husband both worked from home and they had lots of guests so, as the children got older, they just needed more space. They didn’t really want to leave to be honest,” says Sacha Moussaieff at Milton Stone, the agent handling the sale.
It’s a stunning five bedroom family house, built in 1890, in a popular, but quiet road. The facade of the houses can’t be changed house sits in a conservation area, and is Grade II Listed, so retains original fireplaces, staircases and window frames.
That hasn’t stopped Mary from renovating, embarking on a basement excavation under the front drive and creating two parking spaces. This also means that, unlike a lot of properties in the road, it has four storeys rather than the usual three, allowing the master bedroom and accompanying dressing room and study to spill out over the entire first floor.
The ground floor is a much-loved entertaining space, where the living room flows into the kitchen with a ten-seater dining table, then opens out onto a 45ft garden, so the entire family could gather one one floor.
“The area appeals largely to young families for the schools,” says Mousaieff, “and a lot of investors buy nearby because there are a lot of American tenants who want to be near the American School.”
Call Milton Stone on 020 7835 2888