Opened 1812 | London borough City of Westminster | |
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Similar The Holme, Queen Mary's Rose Gar, Cumberland Terrace, Winfield House, Cornwall Terrace | ||
St John's Lodge is a private residence. Since 1994 it has been leased by the royal family of Brunei. It is the London home of Prince Jefri Bolkiah of Brunei.
It is located on the Inner Circle of Regent's Park, London, which until 1965 was in the Metropolitan Borough of St Marylebone and is now part of the City of Westminster.
It was built in 1812 and designed by the architect John Raffield, for Charles Augustus Tulk. The lodge was the first house to be built in Regents Park. The Royal Parks service describes it and The Holme as the only two villas remaining from John Nash's original conception of Regents Park., which would have included a royal palace, as well as many large villas; a scheme which was soon abandoned. Other owners of the lodge have included Lord Wellesley, Sir Isaac Goldsmid and a Marquess of Bute.
The building was occupied by the University of London's Institute of Archaeology, from 1937 to 1959, and by the history and classics departments of Bedford College, from 1959 to 1983. The adjoining gardens have been open to the public since 1928.
In 1987, it was bought by the development company Messila House for £9 million, and almost doubled in size to 35,000 square feet, before being sold in 1994 to the Brunei royal family for £40 million, making it the then most expensive single private house in the UK.