The Wall Hall country house development
Once home to financier JP Morgan Jr, this mansion has been divided into flats. Does it add up?
In these dark times of financial turmoil, a connection with JP Morgan – one of the biggest names in banking – might not seem the most obvious selling point.
Nevertheless, the developers behind Wall Hall, a country house just outside Aldenham, in Hertfordshire, are making much of the fact that it was once the home of John Pierpont Morgan Jr, son of the founder of the financial dynasty. They hope to attract buyers keen to acquire their own slice of architectural – and financial – history.
The gothic-revival mansion was built in the early 19th century for George Woodford Thel-lusson, a prosperous City banker noteworthy enough to be mentioned in Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities. Morgan Jr – like his father, part financier and part philanthropist – bought it in 1910. He spent three months each year at the estate, shooting and entertaining parties that included George VI and the late Queen Mother.
During the second world war, Wall Hall was the residence of Joseph Kennedy, the American ambassador, and later became a training centre for various European underground activities. Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s deputy, was rumoured to have been imprisoned and interrogated there. Subsequently, it became the University of Hertfordshire, before Octagon, a developer, bought it in 2001.
The Grade II-listed mansion has been divided into seven two, three- and four-bedroom flats, and a further 112 properties have been built within its 55 landscaped acres. Prices range from £700,000 to £3.6m. Facilities on the grounds include a gym and a communal tennis court.
From the front, Wall Hall looks as if it has come straight out of Legoland. It is castellated and has recently been rendered in an unpalatable shade of brown, as required by English Heritage.
Number seven, the 4,000 sq ft show flat, which is one of the larger properties, includes a barrel-vaulted reception room so large that the furniture had to be custom-made. It has the curving staircase and the splendour of the great hall, and at one end is a kitchen, with a mezzanine floor above it; at the other, floor-to-ceiling windows look out over manicured parkland.
There are three bedrooms, all ensuite, and all the furniture is included – down to the last teaspoon. The other two large flats also have grandly panelled rooms; one of them even has its own silver vault.
The conversion has been carefully done, and – from the outside at least – Wall Hall is impressive. There are, however, some drawbacks. The interior of many of the flats where there are no obvious original features are on the bland side, despite the price tag.
You can’t bank on privacy, either. The newly built development around the main house is fairly cheek-by-jowl, so you can forget entertaining in wild abandon. Then there is the constant hum of the M1 in the distance.
So, what would old JP have thought of it? Well, according to Brian Hyde, a retired police officer who has lived in Aldenham all his life, he may not have been all too happy.
“I don’t think JP Morgan ever intended any development on this place,” says Hyde, 79, who met the financier at the age of 10 and remembers Wall Hall’s heyday well. “He was obviously a country squire. He was known for his generosity – he donated land to the church, but the biggest donation of all was Aldenham social club and two acres, which he bequeathed to the local people. He joined in as a true Brit and I think, if the weather had been better, he’d have stayed here longer.”
Would any of today’s bankers and financiers want to buy into Wall Hall? Until the credit crunch, any worth their salt would have aspired to buy an entire estate or two of their own, but the climate has changed. Maybe a flat – provided it is grand enough – could provide a more appropriate refuge in today’s less ostentatious times.
Wall Hall Mansion; 01923 850680, www.wallhall.com . Or call Real Estates on 020 8446 5615
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