No one's lived in Malplaquet House since 1895, and it still bears the unusual hallmarks of those residents 126 years on
A 250-year-old mansion that's packed with spooky atmosphere and features some unusual decor has gone on the market for a cool £2.95million.
One of London's 'forgotten' properties, Malplaquet House is a rare surviving mansion dating from 1741 and preserves a wealth of historic detail and features.
The 'secret' spooky home is Grade II listed and was left without residents for years until the current owner restored it - and it's full of curiosities.
Rooms feature several religious statues, a bathroom crammed with crucifixes and some odd animal heads mounted on the walls of the starcase.
Set in Stepney Green in the heart of the East End, it's been sympathetically restored.
With stout iron railings and brick piers topped with stone eagles, the building it festooned with climbing roses, wisteria and jasmine.
The house, and its pair next door, were rescued by the Spitalfields Trust in 1997, and painstakingly repaired by them and the present owners.
Guided by historic documentation and surviving evidence, the forecourt shops were demolished, revealing the house surprisingly intact.
Since then the owners have carefully restored the building and its garden setting, making Malplaquet House one of the most unforgettable secret houses of London.
The house was built between July 1741 and October 1742 by Thomas Andrews, ‘bricklayer’ or speculative builder of Mile End according to Right Move.
It was one of three houses, two of which survive, which has four floors and is five bays wide, built with London stock brick with fine rubbed red brick above the windows.
Between 1778 and 1827, the house was extensively altered and modernised by Mr Harry Charrington, a director of the Charrington brewery of Bethnal Green.
He extended the house to the rear, replacing the old windows with sashes with fine glazing bars, and installed a fashionable new front doorcase.
Inside the house was opened up, creating two double reception rooms on either side of the Entrance Hall, fitted up with elegant joinery and marble chimneypieces.
The staircase was also replaced, its simple but elegant joinery taking up less space.
On Charrington’s death in 1833, the fortunes of the house declined and Malplaquet House was divided up into lodgings. Two shops were built on the garden in 1857.
The last domestic residents of Malplaquet House are recorded in 1895. Thereafter, the upper floors were mainly used as storage.
The accommodation, on the raised ground, lower ground and two upper floors, is spacious and flexible, while its north-south axis makes it light.
It's on the market with Fyfe McDade.
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(Source: Mirror)
