Top of the pops: own a piece of music history – in pictures

Townhouse Studios was originally built by Richard Branson in 1978 as part of his Virgin Records label. All photographs: Savills

Fancy living in the space where multiple music legends including Blur, Coldplay, Bryan Ferry, The Jam, Queen and Oasis laid down some of their most iconic tracks? The famous former Townhouse Studios in London’s Shepherd’s Bush, originally built by Richard Branson in 1978 as part of his Virgin Records label, has been converted into swish mews houses, nine of which are now for sale at prices ranging from £1.75m to £2.35m.

Some house numbers correspond to the original recording studio numbers.

Some of the house numbers correspond directly to the previous recording studio numbers, according to agent Savills. Number two Townhouse Mews, for example, was Studio 2 where, in its famous stone room, Phil Collins laid down the distinctive drum sequence for In the Air Tonight. House number one was Studio 1, where Elton John recorded his reworked version of Candle in the Wind in tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997.

Meanwhile, house number three is on the site where Pulp recorded their album Different Class in 1994-95 and Fat Les recorded football anthem Vindaloo as an unofficial theme song for the 1998 Fifa World Cup.

Dine where the greats played.

When the studios first opened in late 1978 in a building that previously housed Goldhawk Film Studios, Branson had invested almost £2m turning it into a sort of “London residential” with studios, mastering rooms, accommodation, a canteen and recreation rooms all under one roof.

EMI bought Townhouse Studios in 1993, eventually selling the site to the Sanctuary Group in 2002, which in turn sold it on to Universal in June 2007. More on the studios’ history can be found on specialist website Philsbook.

The site finally closed down and all the equipment was auctioned off in 2008, after which the building lay largely empty until bought by Irish property company Perpetuum in 2014 and developed into Townhouse Mews.

Original features, such as floor to ceiling windows and vaulted ceilings, have been retained.

The development has taken advantage of the building’s unusual architectural features such as vaulted ceilings and floor to ceiling windows.

Each property has a designer kitchen and multi-zone underfloor heating adjustable from smartphone and tablet devices.

The houses all come with designer kitchens.

There are small differences in layout and size between the houses up for sale, which accounts for the price range. While all nine are four-bedroom houses, the fourth bedroom is smaller – more of a study – in some, for example, while others have an extra “garden room” and three have roof terraces.