Inside Petra Ecclestone’s sprawling London estate
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1/10The screening room is another investment to amp up the overall desirability of the home, and it has ended up as a favourite for the kids. Ecclestone says, “It does get used a lot. They love to have popcorn and watch a movie.”
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2/10Built in the late 1700s, the red brick Sloane House is the main residence of the property. It is a Grade-II listed residence, which means it’s governed by the strictest preservation laws in the United Kingdom. For Ecclestone it has major curb appeal. She says, “To have found a house with this outdoor space… I really didn’t want to be in a house that was more narrow, and had loads of stairs, and did not have the wide width to it.”
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3/10The home’s fitness area includes a gym, an enormous indoor pool, a squash court, and a two-story kid’s playhouse. The neon art is a special commission
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4/10An integral part of a wellness area added downstairs, the hammam—or traditional Turkish bath—has a wall that allows for bathers to swim under and over to an adjacent pool
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5/10“If I didn’t have multiple small children, I would be in there a lot,” Ecclestone says of the salon she had built out in the lower level. “I just do my hair and makeup wherever the kids are, really.”
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6/10Inspired by the almost-black marble bathrooms in the suites at the Bulgari Hotel in London, Ecclestone opted for dark tones when designing this guest bathroom. The bathroom is part of a larger guest suite, one of three in the home. The radiant floor heating makes this room particularly toasty on cold English nights, Palmer says
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7/10An adjacent house, dubbed Sloane Lodge, currently connects to the main house, though it can easily be converted into a discrete second home. With the largest grounds in Kensington and Chelsea, the property offers an unusual and impressive amount of street-buffering space for both parking and security
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8/10A staircase in the lodge leads toward the dining room. Steps are made of shafted crystal inside glass. Palmer says, “This is a good example of her [Petra’s] balancing the masculine and the feminine in the redesigning and reimagining of the Sloane House.”
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9/10A downstairs kitchen in the main home is where the family eats most of their meals. The prime cooking and dining space—though not to be confused with the property’s full chef’s kitchen also on the ground floor—features lots of natural light, doors out directly to the garden, and the second largest residential aquarium in all of Europe. “I love fish,” Ecclestone says. “I find it really peaceful. I was drawn to the colourfulness. I didn’t have children at the time [it was designed], and now they’re obsessed with looking at them.”
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10/10Ecclestone’s major renovation of the historic property went on for close to five years and involved adding three stories. An elevator is now a must
