The Qatari Royal Family are developing their own spacious “palace” in London. Three grade 1 listed townhouses will be renovated to create a palatial mansion at Cornwall Terrace, an early 19th century stucco frontage row in Regent’s Park with a garden the size of a small park. Nearly demolished after World War II due to bomb damage, and at one time a squat in the 1970’s Cornwall Terrace has had a colourful history. It was also once fitted out for a Russian family who never moved in.
On its lower floors the finished development will include a gymn, a swimming pool. a hairdressing salon and a TV room with an 85in screen.
Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al-Missned, the mother of the current Emir is overseeing the conversion of the immaculately renovated 3 townhouses into the single palatial mansion where there will be ample room for state receptions, and 15 of the rooms’ flooring will be replaced with white Carrara marble. The total space of the combined residence will be 33,000 sq ft – smaller than Buckingham Palace at 721,206 sq ft, but still mightily impressive. The Sheikha is one of the 3 wives of Shiekh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the former Emir of Qatar and the property will mainly be her and her seven childrens’ London base.
Below, you can see some of the property and assets of the prestigious Al-Thani dynasty in London:-
London Stock Exchange – 10% stake, worth around £770 million
Sainsbury’s stake – worth about £1.17 billion
No 1 Hyde Park – £1.15 billion joint venture with Christian Candy – the Property Tycoon
Chelsea Barracks – Bought for £959 million in 2007
US Embassy Grosvenor Sq – Believed to have been bought for around £500 million in 2009
Harrods – £15 billion paid in 2010
The Shard – Tallest building in Europe – £2.37 billion stake
The Olympic Athlete’s Village – in 2011, £557 million paid for all 14,000 flats and surrounding plots
Camden Market – 20% share
Living quarters in The Cornwall Terrace address will include staff accommodation of course. Nanny and Butler can expect their own en-suite bathrooms. There will be a children’s floor, lifts, underground tunnels, concealed doors and high-tech domestic gadgets. The Sheikha paid £120 million for the three houses in Cornwall Terrace, which were built between 1821 and 1923 to designs by Decimus Burton, an apprentice of John Nash . All accounts of their current interior condition are that they are already of the highest quality of excellence.
More news on the Qatari Royal Family soon.