Miramonte, a six-bedroom Bauhaus home in New Malden, is on the market with Strutt & Parker for £6.25 million.
Designed by English modernist architect Maxwell Fry during his partnership with Walter Gropius, the Grade II listed property is considered an important example of mid-century design.
“Miramonte certainly occupies a special place in the history of modernism in England,” wrote the Twentith Century Society in 2002. “[It] was conceived at the height of Maxwell Fry’s creativity.”
Architecture critic Edwin Heathcote called the house “an enduring legacy of Fry’s ideas about the longevity of architecture”. “This is a house of substance,” he wrote in the Financial Times. “A rare mark of Modernism among the trees and golf courses.”
Miramonte had previously been listen for £8 million with another agent last year, and has been re-listed with £1.75 million knocked off the asking price.
Fry designed the house, which was completed in 1937, for property developer Gerry Green. At the time the architect was working with Gropius, the founder of Germany’s Bauhaus School with its central design tenant of prioritising both form and function.
Fry helped Gropius flee the fascist Nazi regime under the pretext of temporarily leaving Germany to visit a film propaganda festival in Italy.
Gropius sought refuge in London, where he joined the Isokon Furniture Company, living in one of the apartments in Hampstead’s Isokon Building.
Miramonte is set on the Coombe House Estate in New Malden, Surrey. Alongside the main house the property includes a self-contained apartment called the Lodge, formerly the chauffeur’s house.
The house comes with an indoor swimming pool, sauna and steam room, and a tennis court set in landscaped gardens.
Miramonte was restored and extended by the current owner in 2000, with restoration work by London-based Avanti Architects.
Unfortunately the house had been previously left empty and allowed to fall into disrepair, and some features such as moveable furniture designed by Fry himself were too damaged to save.
Many original features have been preserved, however, including a wine cellar with bottle-shaped recesses in the concrete.
Formed in an L shape, the house is designed to make the most of the sunlight, with whitewashed walls and expansive windows, sun terraces and balconies.
The main house includes a drawing room with Australian walnut floors and a glazed facade overlooking the lawns and tennis courts, with an adjoining sun room with copper vents.
A breakfast area sits in a glazed semi-circular bay as part of the ground floor’s expansive interconnected kitchen and family room.
The library, lined with shelves and complete with a built-in desk, is accessed via a hidden doorway. There is also a home cinema lined in dark imported wood.
Certain modern conveniences have been added to the modernist home, including an AGA oven and sub-zero fridge in the kitchen, rechargeable electric blinds, and Systemline speakers in the principal bathroom.
“Miramonte is a superb example of Bauhaus architecture, particularly at this size and in such an exclusive location — it really is a one off. The house has all one could wish for,” said Tom Shuttleworth, senior associate director at Strutt & Parker.
“The likely buyer will be somebody who falls in love with the architecture and appreciates its rarity in today’s market; the current owner has lived here since 2001 so there’s unlikely to be another Miramonte for a number of years.”
