Inside a London mansion that's been home to history

Time of India

25-04-2025

Big Motoring World founder Peter
Waddell
is putting his historic, Greater London country estate on the market. Holwood House, which has been the residence of a prime minister and hosted scientists and statesman, is listed with Knight Frank for £23.5 million ($31.1 million).
#Pahalgam Terrorist Attack
Pakistan suspends Simla pact: What it means & who's affected
What is India's defence muscle if it ever has to attack?
Can Pakistan afford a full-scale war with India?
The 59-year-old-Waddell, who says he's retiring and going to live full time in Spain—where he has a replica of Holwood House—has a story to tell about when he first bought the place in 2018. It coincided with another big event in his life: the birth of his son.
Waddell recounts a conversation with his financial adviser, who told him to stop leaving all his money in the bank and suggested that he buy a bigger house.
'I was waiting for the baby to arrive at the Portland Hospital and went on [property website] Rightmove and saw the house and knew that was it,' says Waddell. He went out to see the house the day after his son was born and was impressed by the sheer scale of the home and the privacy it offered.
'I liked the house, but I told the agent I have one problem, and he said, 'What's that?'—sort of sighing like, 'Here we go, another time waster,'' Waddell explains, adding that he told the agent: 'My wife just had a baby, so I can't drag her out of bed today to see the house. Can we come back in a week's time?'
Waddell and his wife did come back a week later and ended up making the purchase for around £8.5 million, according to
Land Registry
public records. He says he's spent some £18 million on renovations and improvements.
Seven years later, he's put the property on the market. A buyer gets a 25,000-square-foot home with seven bedrooms, five bathrooms and 40 acres of grounds with additional staff accommodation. The list price is less than the total Waddell says he spent on the house including renovations, but London's housing market has been under pressure from taxes, the trade war and high interest rates.
Waddell owns one of the finest country houses in South East England now, but he doesn't come from wealth. He grew up in a children's home in Scotland and moved to London when he was just 16. He launched his business in the 1980s with a small car showroom that he expanded into a multimillion-dollar automotive business.
Inside the House
Holwood House is set on a gated private road that meanders through mature oaks. Waddell says he instructed staff to plant some 68,000 daffodil bulbs along the approach, which were in bloom in early April.
The house has two floors and an extensive basement, which includes cardio and weight gyms, a wine cellar and substantial storage space. The entrance opens into a grand entry hall, with one hallway leading into the bespoke Clive Christian kitchen and the other into a wing used primarily for entertainment.
In that wing, there's a drawing room, a games room with a snooker table as well as Waddell's favorite part of the home—the cinema room with lounge reclining seating, where he can kick his feet up and relax. 'We spent hundreds of thousand of pounds on the cinema room,' says Waddell. 'We have a moving screen and acoustics all done by a company called
Synergy Controls
who do all the billionaire houses in London.'
There's also an indoor swimming pool, a wet lounge, a changing room and a sauna on the ground floor. The pool area opens onto the porch, where there are sun loungers to relax on on a warm day. Outside, there's a tennis court, a walled garden and a new machinery warehouse for tractors and lawn equipment.
Up the grand staircase on the second floor, there are seven bedrooms. The principal suite, which offers views to the parkland, includes his and hers dressing rooms.
Peter Jr.'s bedroom is on the second floor, too; Waddell installed special features in the wing for his son, such as a bathtub that lights up and plays music.
It's all part of what he characterizes as technological investments to make the home suitable for his family, both for security purposes—like biometric entrances with thumbprints—and touches of fun and personality.
'Just to give you an example, if you are driving up the road with me, and I said, 'What's your favorite color?' And you say to me, 'Pink.' From my phone, I can press a button, and when you arrive at the gates, the gardens, the house, the whole area will light up in pink.'
There's also a four-car garage on the property, filled with Ferraris and Bentleys, but Waddell says he recently won a prolonged battle with the local council to get permission to build a £20 million garage to host his fleet of supercars.
'It's taken me five years and a lot of money to get permissions,' says Waddell. The garage has not been built.
About the History
Waddell's house is in the South East London borough of Bromley, around 14 miles from the financial district of Canary Wharf. On a fast train, it takes 18 minutes from Orpington Station to
London Bridge
station, but Waddell says he's preferred to travel by helicopter and frequently lands a chopper on the grounds.
'You can park at Chelsea Harbor in the helicopter port. You can be there in four minutes and then shortly at Harrods afterwards,' he says.
Holwood House is Grade I listed, meaning the highest level of importance, and there is a impressive list of significant historical figures who've owned or visited the property.
The UK's youngest prime minister, William Pitt, first bought the property in 1785 for £8,950—about £1.2 million in today's money, based on the Bank of England's inflation calculator. In May 1787, Pitt met with his close friend the abolitionist campaigner William Wilberforce on the grounds under an oak tree, and Wilberforce told Pitt of his intentions to bring a bill to the House of Commons to abolish the slave trade.
In the 1820s, the house was demolished and rebuilt under a new owner, who enlisted the era's fashionable architect Decimus Burton to design it in the Greek Revival style. Charles Darwin was a frequent visitor to the newly built property, and he would conduct experiments and have picnics on the expansive grounds. Later, Winston Churchill dined at the house, which was under threat of bombing during World War II due to its close proximity to Biggin Hill Airport.
'The house is so big and beautiful and has loads of history,' says Waddell.
As to who will be the next owner, Waddell thinks it will likely be someone in business, especially given the house's easy commute to the City of London, or another notable person. 'We've had a few offers before, but we weren't ready to sell. We've had a few footballers, a few actors who made offers, but I wasn't selling then.'
It was Waddell's family home, and he wasn't ready to part with it. 'But now I'm retired,' he says. 'I don't need two big homes. I only need one.'