Britain’s priciest home — and the man who lives on its porch

When it last changed hands in 2020, 2-8A Rutland Gate sold for £210m. The word “house” hardly fits: the Knightsbridge property has 45 rooms, four lifts, an indoor pool and 116 windows, 68 of which face Hyde Park. Yet it has stood empty for years. On the porch a makeshift tent of umbrellas shelters Anders Fernstedt, who has lived there for three years.

His space spills with baskets, books, pictures, teddy bears, games and flowers; with bathrooms once decorated in semi-precious stone, Fernstedt now admits to peeing into a plastic bottle. “Everest base camp problems,” he says. “One has to be clever enough so as not to get out of the bloody tent every time.” The property began as a row of terrace houses before the early 1980s, when Rafik Hariri bought and linked them to build a single London palace.

Hariri lived lavishly — even wastepaper bins were covered in 24-carat gold leaf — until his assassination in 2005.

United Kingdom, London

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