Historic trophy home in Hampstead that belonged to Sting in the early 1980s for sale for £11.95m

Sending out an SOS! Sting’s former Hampstead home is for sale with Savills for £11.95 million.

Located on Frognal, the ivy-covered Grade II-listed mansion is more than 300 years old, making it one of Hampstead’s oldest surviving houses.

The singer, who had been living in Bayswater, bought the property in June 1980, after The Police had soared to fame with songs like “Message in a Bottle” and “Roxanne”.

Sting and his first wife, Frances Tomelty, moved in shortly afterwards.

(Savills)

Despite its 4,309 square feet of space, Sting’s biographer Christopher Sandford notes that the property was “modest in comparison with other rockers’ mansions”, though it quickly became the site of a long, costly renovation.

“The décor was more exotic, the shag pile deeper and the lighting more arty, but the house retained the same vampire’s lair-look of Leinster Square [in Bayswater].

“There was a bookcase, a Teac tape deck, a toy toucan and children’s mobiles swinging from the ceiling, but, apart from the framed photographs of Sting, nothing that gave it a human touch.”

According to Sandford, friends rarely saw the curtains open, and visitors remarked on the “strangely formal atmosphere, as if the home were a family hotel of which Sting was the manager”.

(Savills)

With newfound fame and fortune, the acquisition of such a grand property required some adjustment for Sting.

He told The Sunday Times in 1985: “If you look at my background, it wouldn’t suggest to anyone that I would have ended up a 30-year-old millionaire living in a Georgian mansion in Hampstead, owning racehorses and with a record-buying public in millions.

“And therefore there is a certain amount of ‘You don’t actually deserve this’, the feeling that you must have done it by some kind of byzantine trickery.”

Sting began his relationship with Trudie Styler in 1982, and the following year the relationship was made public.

(Savills)

According to Sandford, Sting put the house on the market in 1982, with he and Trudie moving to The Grove in Highgate.

When Sting parted ways with The Police and released his first solo album, The Dream of the Blue Turtles, he said that the inspiration came from a dream about his Hampstead garden, in which enormous blue turtles crashed through his neat walled garden.

“They didn't harm me but with an almost casual violence commenced to destroy my genteel English garden, digging up the lawn with their claws, chomping at the rosebushes, bulldozing the lilac tree. Total mayhem.”

Long before Sting, in the 18th century, the house was a pub which was called The Three Pigeons and later Ye Pilgrim, The Windmill and The Duke of Cumberland.

(Savills)

Between 1950 and 1974, it was home to the Russian prima ballerina Tamara Karsavina, who is commemorated with a blue plaque outside the property.

The house has been in the hands of its current owners for more than 35 years, and is now looking for a new owner.

Set behind a gated entrance and walled front garden, the five-bedroom property is made up of what was originally three dwellings, now merged into one expansive house.

On the ground floor, the house has two kitchens and three reception rooms, with period fireplaces and wooden shutters.

(Savills)

The five bedrooms are spread over the two floors above, with the principal suite containing a bedroom, dressing room, bathroom and private study.

Outside, there is a landscaped rear garden, and on top of the building is a large roof terrace which looks out across London.

“This remarkable home is said to be among the oldest surviving houses in the area and is certainly one of the finest examples of Georgian architecture I’ve encountered in my career,” says Nier Gigi at Savills Hampstead.

“One of the stand-out features is its magnificent roof terrace which provides the most breathtaking views across the London skyline.”

The property has been a family home for the past 35 years, and Gigi believes it is likely to suit similar buyers. “It would make a wonderful family home,” he says.

“The sale presents a rare opportunity to acquire a residence that has been thoughtfully brought into the 21st century, with meticulous attention paid to preserving its historic integrity and character.”