A Georgian mansion that has been hidden away in the heart of the East End has gone on the market for £3million.
The five-bedroom house in Stepney Green is one of the capital’s forgotten properties, and lay empty for over a century until its current owners – who are now selling – restored parts of it.
Inside the sprawling residence, Malplaquet House is packed full of looming portraits, creepy religious statues and stuffed animals.
A Georgian mansion that has been hidden away in the heart of London’s East End has gone on the market for £3million
The five-bedroom mansion is known as Malplaquet House and can be found hidden by jasmine and wisteria plants off Mile End Road
The house is full of oddities such as stuffed animal heads and looming portraits on the walls. It has four storeys and five bay windows
Religious statues are littered throughout the airy house, which is one of the city’s only surviving residential properties from 1741
The Grade II house is a rare example of a surviving property from 1741, and is made even more unusual by the fact it still retains many of its original features.
Its sale is being managed by Right Move, who call it ‘one of the grandest and best-preserved of all the historic old houses in the area’.
It has stout iron railings and lofty brick piers topped with stone eagles, a substantial front garden area filled with ivies, climbing roses, wisteria and jasmine which secludes it from the bustle of Mile End Road.
The house, and its pair next door, were rescued by the Spitalfields Trust in 1997, and painstakingly repaired by them and the present owners.
There used to be shops in front of the main house, but guided by historic documentation restorers demolished them to reveal Malplaquet House behind.
Its sale is being managed by Right Move, who call it ‘one of the grandest and best-preserved of all the historic old houses in the area’
Guided by historic documentation and surviving evidence, the forecourt shops were demolished by the Spittlefields Trust team, revealing the house surprisingly intact behind
The house, and its pair next door, were rescued by the Spitalfields Trust in 1997, and painstakingly repaired by them and the present owners
The mysterious house had been uninhabited for 100 years before being bought in 1997, but its history prior to this time was interesting
It was built between July 1741 and October 1742 by Thomas Andrews, a bricklayer from Mile End. It was one of three houses, two of which survive, and is four stories high and five bays wide.
The ‘forgotten’ mansion’ was built from London stock brick with fine rubbed red brick above the windows and the projecting cornice.
It was built between July 1741 and October 1742 by Thomas Andrews, a bricklayer from Mile End. It was one of three houses, two of which survive
Arsenic green was a colour theme throughout the house, which for a while was split up into lodging quarters and then used as storage
It boasts not only five bedrooms, but a wine cellar, breakfast room, a marble-shelved larder, a drawing room and a number of rooms which would have been used to entertain guests.
Throughout the house, the walls are painted what was at the time called ‘arsenic green’.
In the entertaining rooms on the first floor there remains eighteenth-century panelling and a wealth of historic painted surfaces – as well as works of art.
Between 1778 and 1827, the house was extensively altered and modernized by a man called Harry Charrington, a Director of the Charrington brewery in Bethnal Green of the same name
This unusual bathroom was painted a bright shade of yellow. For reasons unknown, there is a large number of crucifixes on the walls
Between 1778 and 1827, the house was extensively altered and modernized by a man called Harry Charrington, a Director of the Charrington brewery in Bethnal Green of the same name.
He extended the house to the rear, replacing the old windows with sashes with fine glazing bars. But when Mr Charrington’s died 1833, Malplaquet House had a fall from grace.
He was divided up into lodgings and two shops were built upon the old front garden in 1857. According to records, the last people who lived in the building were there in 1895 but after that, it was used for storage.
He extended the house to the rear, replacing the old windows with sashes with fine glazing bars. But when Mr Charrington’s died 1833, Malplaquet House had a fall from grace
According to records, the last people who lived in the building were there in 1895 but after that, it was used for storage
According to Right Move, the house is made up of almost 4,500sqft of internal space and is in walking distance from Victoria Park
Malplaquet House still boasts lots of the house’s Georgian features like iron metal work, and wooden flooring
