Candy's cavern: property tycoon's plan for Chelsea basement with pool, cinema and even a bowling alley

 
Basement plan: Christian Candy's basment plan consists of an underground car park, bowling alley, spa and cinema

Property developer Christian Candy wants to build an extraordinary private spa and “leisure centre” complex under a Georgian mansion in Chelsea that will be one of London’s biggest ever family home basements.

Plans submitted to the local council last week for the development of 204-year-old Gordon House reveal a cavernous subterranean “lifestyle” space that include a 20-metre swimming pool, a cold plunge pool and jacuzzi, sauna and steam room, a dance studio, three treatment rooms, a cinema room and an 18-metre two-lane bowling alley.

Mr Candy bought a long lease on the Grade II listed building from The Royal Hospital Chelsea - home to the scarlet-coated Chelsea Pensioners - for £75 million last year.

It was the first time the house had come on the market since it was built in 1809.

The latest set of plans show that the property, which also includes an Orangery build by Sir Thomas Vanbrugh in 1725 and a third smaller building, Creek Lodge, will boast what may be one of the last mega-basements built on this scale in London.

Kensington & Chelsea has already said it will impose strict limits on the size and depth of basements from the end of the year and Westminster is under intense pressure from residents to follow suit.

Plans: A bird's-eye view of the development plan

But the sprawling two-acre grounds of Gordon House has given architects Paul Davis & Partners free rein to design a far more spacious basement - nearly 1,200 square metres - than is normally possible under central London’s densely packed streets.

The swimming pool is only five metres shorter than the public pool at nearby Chelsea Sports Centre on the Kings Road.

Jonathan Hewlett, head of London residential at agents Savills, which handled the original sale, said: ”They’re not going under the building, they’re going under the garden and that’s given them scope to accommodate everything they could possible want.

“The best basements are not the ones that go down 25 floors they’re are the ones that offer fantastic space and total privacy.”

The plans - originally drawn up by the Royal Hospital and now amended by Mr Candy show that he intends to return Gordon House “to its historic use as a single-family residence.”

The house has been used as staff accommodation but is currently empty.

The whole property will comprise the three historic buildings, the basement and new two storey modern annexe above it.

The L-shaped orangery’s most recent use was as a library and chapel for the pensioners, ex-servicemen and women “broken by age and war”.

The developer, 39, who has an estimated £150 million fortune and vast property portfolio, lives in Monaco with his socialite wife Emily and their four-month-old twins Isabella Monaco Evanthia and Cayman Charles Wolf.

Mr Candy was not available for comment but a spokesman for his company CPC Group said: “The original planning application for the refurbishment of Gordon House including the construction of a basement was submitted by The Royal Hospital and Paul Davies & Partners, and consent was received last year.

“Christian Candy’s revised application is a minor amendment to The Royal Hospital’s existing approved planning application.”

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