The home of the late comedian, broadcaster and chat show host Paul O’Grady could be yours for £3.5 million.
O’Grady, who catapulted to fame with the creation of his leopard print-wearing, mouthy drag alter ego Lily Savage, bought the property in 1999 and lived there until his death in March last year. He lived with his husband, the ballet dancer Andre Portasio, who is selling the house.
Located near Aldington in Kent, the sprawling country estate has a grand main house —Knoll Hill House— several outbuildings and sits on 20 acres of land. It has been listed with Strutt & Parker.
O’Grady, who lived in London before the buying the house, had become interested in relocating to the Kent countryside after visiting with his business partner, manager and long-term partner Brendan Murphy. A lengthy search for the perfect property began, with the couple scouring Kent’s cottages, oast houses and barn conversions every week.
It was Murphy who found Knoll Hill House while O’Grady was performing in a production of Annie in Manchester. He was sitting in the dressing room when he got the call. “He’d found the perfect property, he told me excitedly, with six bedrooms, the most sensational views, its own wood and, more importantly, totally private.”
O’Grady wrote in his book, Country Life —inspired by his move to Kent— that Murphy had described it as “the kind of house you’d find in one of those Enid Blyton books” on the phone. “Enid Blyton. A childhood fancy was instantly awakened by those two magic words and at that moment I knew I was destined to live there.”
O’Grady bought the house from comedian Vic Reeves and, shortly after, he and Murphy moved in. “I couldn’t quite get it to sink in that the house was mine,” O’Grady wrote. “On my first night in the house I couldn’t sleep I was so excited…I spent the night roaming around the rooms like a cat getting accustomed to its new surroundings (although I didn’t spray), lugging pieces of furniture from one room to another and then spending ages standing back to see if it looked right, which it inevitably didn’t.”
Murphy died in 2005 after being diagnosed with a brain tumour. O’Grady married Portasio in 2017 and they lived together at the estate.
O’Grady spent two decades turning the estate into a flourishing natural environment. He planted a wildflower meadow, coppiced the woods and bought a patch of land nearby to prevent it from being turned into a site for motorbike scrambling and paintball. Now, it is used to rear sheep.
O’Grady also started his own collection of animals, living with 14 sheep, three dogs, two pigs, hundreds of rescued chickens, ducks, alpacas, goat and barn owls. “I’m a city rat turned country mouse,” he wrote.
Today, the property’s 20 acres of land remain a “wildlife haven”, as agent Edward Church puts it. As well as having formal gardens, the land contains native woodland, managed by The Woodland Trust to enhance the natural habitat. There are paddocks for keeping livestock, while the wildflower meadow continues to attract insects and birds.
“There’s a wonderful sense of peace at Knoll Hill House. Between the views down to the marshes and sea, and the seclusion offered by the 20 acres of land, you really feel as if you’re in your own world here; the skies are vast and the land rolls down almost as far as you can see,” says Portasio. “The gardens are a mix of formal and relaxed, and they’re incredibly special during the spring when everything comes into bloom.”
Knoll Hill House itself is an Edwardian building with wide bay windows, three balconies and pale blue walls. Built in 1910, it spans 3,576 square feet over two floors.
On the ground floor is the kitchen, with an Aga set in a wide hearth and French doors leading onto a terrace outside. An expansive 511 square foot drawing room forms the main living space, with an adjoining garden room, although there is also a separate dining room, hall and study.
Upstairs are the house’s five bedrooms, four of which have views over the surrounding countryside towards Romney Marsh. The master bedroom has an ensuite, dressing room and private balcony.
“The single most special thing about Knoll Hill House is the view,” says Church. “It’s the light and the scale of the big sky that comes with it.”
As well as Knoll Hill House itself, the estate comprises a swimming pool and several outbuildings, including two self-contained cottages, a barn, stables and “Witches House” on the lawn. Together, these cover 5,029 square feet.
The cottage is the largest of the outbuildings, constructed by O’Grady and Portasio to provide a dance studio, gym and steam room. With a kitchen, living space and further bedroom upstairs, the agents say that this can be used as guest accommodation.
A timber-clad cottage, nicknamed “the Woodland Hut”, provides additional room for guests. Described by the agents as a “charming and whimsical building”, there is a wood burner, exposed brick walls and a galleried bedroom.
“We were careful to create lots of different areas in the garden which offer different views and feelings,” says Portasio. “The Woodland Hut looks out over the pond, while the Witches’ House —and its veranda— is the perfect spot for sipping a cup of tea while taking in the wildflower meadow and Knoll Hill beyond.”
Now, though, Portasio is putting the house up for sale. Church believes that the estate has “wide appeal”, being of interest to families, thanks to its space; retirees, for its privacy; and commuters, for its proximity to London.
“Sitting underneath the [two ancient oaks at the bottom of my field] in the summer, the great branches almost touching the ground and forming a canopy of leaves all around you allowing shafts of sunlight to break through here and there, a profound sense of peace descends over you, for this is a special place and you sense that you are witnessing the theatre of nature, an organic, living, breathing cathedral,” wrote O’Grady in Country Life. “I’d like to see out my days here. I couldn’t imagine any other life now.”
