A “superstar” hedge fund trader has converted a £3.2 million mews house in South Kensington to make way for a garage and gym for his nearby family home.
Chris Rokos, 44 — one of London’s top earners at his peak and reportedly worth more than £200 million — bought the 19th-century former coach house near the Science Museum in 2011 but pulled it down two years later.
He intends to rebuild the home with space for two large cars on the ground floor, according to plans lodged with Kensington and Chelsea council.
In addition there will be a basement gym, “fitness suite” and “cardio area”, and accommodation on the first floor for those expected to work in his three-storey, five-bedroom flat, which backs on to the mews house.
The flat, in a large town house which also includes two other flats over a further four storeys, will be connected to the mews house by a basement corridor.
One neighbour, a mother-of-two, said: “It’s a massive shame. It just seems unnecessary and crazy to bring down the whole facade. You don’t really expect that kind of development on a small mews street.”
Another local, who owns the garage next door, said: “He has made himself rather unpopular here as he is only going to use it as a back entrance, but we’ve had all this disruption.”
Mr Rokos, 44, paid £5.175 million for one flat in the town house in 2008 and £2.475 million for another in the same year. He later combined the flats.
It is not the first time he has drawn concern over his ambitious housing plans.
In 2007, he applied to transform an £18 million, 83-bedroom run-down hotel into one of London’s largest homes — complete with a diving pool and climbing wall.
His current plans to combine the properties were approved on appeal last August by planning inspector Neil Pope after initially being turned down by Kensington and Chelsea council in November 2012.
Mr Rokos built up a reputation as one of London’s most successful traders working for hedge fund Brevan Howard between 2004 and 2012, when he is said to have made around $4 billion (£2.6 billion) in total for his employer.
This year he has been locked in a legal dispute with Brevan Howard over a clause in his contract imposing a five-year ban on him setting up in competition against the hedge fund firm he co-founded.
Court documents revealed that his final yearly payment for 2012 was $72.97 million (£44.09 million).
A spokesman for Mr Rokos, said: “The mews house is being meticulously restored with an unchanged facade.
"Nobody from the outside is going to notice any difference whatsoever apart from that the metal doors will be replaced by wooden doors. Everything is being done to ensure that there is as little disruption as possible during the course of the project.”
