The childhood home of novelist Daphne du Maurier has sold for about £28 million in one of the year’s biggest property deals.
Cannon Hall, a six-bedroom Georgian “country house” on the edge of Hampstead Heath, is regarded as one of London’s finest 18th-century homes.
Du Maurier moved into the house in 1916 when she was nine and grew up there with her two sisters.
She would go on to write a string of best-selling novels such as Jamaica Inn and Rebecca as well as short stories including The Birds and Don’t Look Now, which were both turned into Hollywood movies.
Lloyd Dorfman, founder of foreign currency chain Travelex, put the house on the market with agents Savills and Glentree last year for £32 million. It was later reduced by £4 million and a sale was agreed this month.
It is the largest deal this year outside central London — with the buyer having to pay £3.2 million in stamp duty.
Frank Townsend, head of Savills’ Hampstead office, confirmed that the new owner is British and lives in the capital. He added: “It was the first time in two decades that this magnificent Grade II listed Georgian mansion had come to the market and it will likely be at least another generation before we see du Maurier’s former home available to buy again.
“Cannon Hall in Hampstead is just one of half a dozen houses of similar calibre in the area. As one of London’s finest and most iconic period homes, Cannon Hall prompted serious levels of interest which crystallised following the general election, and this is a landmark sale for the prime London market post May 7.”
He said it was “one of the very few examples of a Georgian country house in London”.
Du Maurier lived at Cannon Hall with her parents, actor manager Sir Gerald du Maurier and actress Muriel Beaumont. Sir Gerald lived there until his death in 1934 and there is a blue plaque to him on the house. Daphne du Maurier died in 1989, aged 81, at her home in Cornwall.
Cannon Hall, which dates from 1730, has five reception rooms, a billiards room and an indoor swimming pool. There is also a former coachman’s house and a self-contained staff cottage.
