The Bishops Avenue, Barnet
An ultra-exclusive street running from the northern tip of Hampstead Heath to East Finchley
Built by a Turkish business mogul, Toprak Mansion was nicknamed Top Whack Mansion
The name derives from the bishops of London, who owned a large hunting park in the area in the late Middle Ages. Highgate golf course lies to the east and Hampstead Garden Suburb to the west.
This is probably the most ‘desirable’ address outside central London, if you like ostentatious displays of wealth. Neighbouring Winnington Road is almost as well-heeled.
One house on the Bishops Avenue, the Towers, sold for around £10 million in 1992 – a phenomenal price at that time. Its features include an island with palm trees in the middle of its indoor swimming pool. Another, the twelve-bedroom, eleven-bathroom Summer Palace, was built in 1991. It has a brass and crystal glass lift, a comprehensive leisure complex and a central atrium. It is presently owned by the steel baron Lakshmi Mittal but is not his main place of residence in London. Prices on the avenue have continued to spiral and Toprak Mansion was sold in January 2008 to the Kazakhstani billionairess Horelma Peramam for £50 million. The house had been nicknamed Top Whack Mansion but is now formally known as Royal Mansion.
Barnet council has taken exception to some of the most vulgar monstrosities that have been put up here in the last decade or two, but realistically the avenue is beyond redemption and should be allowed to continue as an object of amazement and amusement. However, London’s billionaires mostly prefer to live in Kensington or Belgravia, so some properties have lain empty in recent years and the latest trend has been for their replacement by high-price, low-rise apartment blocks.
Successful musicians to have lived on the Bishops Avenue have included Gracie Fields, Lulu, Ringo Starr, Sting, George Michael and Annie Lennox. ‘Why not talk about Bishops Avenue / I’ve got a lovely house on Bishops Avenue,’ sang Elton John in his 1988 parody of ‘Give Peace a Chance’.
Postal district: N2
