- Long before he popped the question, James Matthews, 41, was one of London's most eligible bachelors
- He spent his days as a singleton at opulent 39 Park Street in Mayfair - which is now worth £40million
- Exclusive photographs, taken for a property magazine feature in 2006 when James was selling his seven-storey, five-bedroom home, have resurfaced, giving a glimpse of the hedge fund manager's private life
Stag antlers strung from the walls, gaudy red cushions on the four-poster bed, a roof terrace with its own hot tub. Who lives in a house like this?
Take a closer look at the proud owner — that crisp, white shirt with the top button casually undone, slicked-back hair and gleaming grin — and you'll see it's none other than James Matthews, the soon-to-be husband of Pippa Middleton[4].
Long before he popped the question, James, 41, was one of London[5]'s most eligible bachelors, spending his days as a singleton here, at 39 Park Street in Mayfair — a staggeringly opulent address now worth almost £40 million.
These exclusive photographs, taken for a property magazine feature in 2006 when James was selling his seven-storey, five-bedroom home, have resurfaced, giving a glimpse of the hedge fund manager's closely guarded private life.
Long before he popped the question, James, 41, was one of London's most eligible bachelors, spending his days as a singleton here, at 39 Park Street in Mayfair — a staggeringly opulent address now worth almost £40 million
The extravagant master bedroom, where the main feature is a huge wooden four-poster bed surrounded with art
On the first floor is the drawing room, where a bay window looks out on to Park Street, parallel to Park Lane
In those days, James, who bought the house in 1998 when he was just 22 years old, was very different to the straight-laced businessman who wooed the Middleton sister once dubbed 'Tatler's Number One Society Singleton'.
He didn't come from money. His mother, Jane, is an artist and his father, David, started life as a car salesman before buying a run-down hotel on St Barths, an idyll in the Caribbean, and transforming it into the celebrity retreat Eden Rock.
No, hard-working James, who graduated from the £34,000-a-year Uppingham School in 1993, is a self-made man. He skipped university to work as a trader at Spear, Leeds & Kellogg, a City firm now owned by Goldman Sachs, and in 1997 moved to Nordic Options, another finance house, where he became its senior equity trader.
Later that year, James, who by now was living in a terrace house in Fulham, South London, decided it was time to upsize. He could certainly afford it — a friend says James 'made a huge amount of cash' in these early years, some of it from his day job, the rest from sensible investments around London, with his name linked to several multi-million-pound properties in the capital.
Comprising 9,133 sq ft — enough to accommodate four tennis courts — the house boasted 21 cavernous rooms, marble floors, mahogany panellin g and intricate period plasterwork
The Grade II-listed house, built between 1908 and 1910 by British architect W. D. Caroe, cost £1.75 million in 1998; small change for James at the time - a City trader with the world at his feet. Pictured, James sits in one of the mansion's many reception rooms, decorated with attractive leather furnishings, deer antlers and traditional paintings
The house was renovated by James' parents, with a design that blended traditional and modern styles in unorthodox ways - including this bedroom which has a privacy-encroaching hole in the wall, a photo print on canvas and flowery curtains. A stark contrast to the classic and sophisticated furnishings in over rooms
The Grade II-listed house, built between 1908 and 1910 by British architect W. D. Caroe, cost £1.75 million at the time; small change for a City trader with the world at his feet.
Comprising 9,133 sq ft — enough to accommodate four tennis courts — it boasted 21 cavernous rooms, marble floors, mahogany panelling and intricate period plasterwork. But at such a tender age, James didn't have a clue about interior design. So he did what any twentysomething in possession of a million-pound house would do. He called in Mum and Dad.
'My parents organised most of the conversion work and the decoration,' he revealed.
'When we bought the house, all the rooms had been used as offices. It was cold with large empty rooms, tired carpets and no bathrooms. The refurbishment has worked as well as we could have hoped.'
Up a spiral staircase is the roof terrace with a cosy two- person hot tub and sun loung ers for warmer days
And what a refurbishment it was. The house was transformed with what the property reviewer dubbed 'a rip-roaringly contemporary design', blending traditional and modern styles in unorthodox ways — and it eventually sold for £12.75 million, making the family a tidy £11 million profit.
The Grade II-listed house, built between 1908 and 1910 by British architect W. D. Caroe, cost £1.75 million at the time; small change for a City trader with the world at his feet
Visitors to the mansion, just around the corner from Hyde Park, were greeted by a chequerboard marble floor, leading to a sweeping Edwardian staircase, its bannister fitted with halogen lights.
To the right is the dining hall, where a lone chair sits at the head of a huge table set for ten, and through an adjoini ng door is the Scottish-themed reception room, where antlers adorn the walls and a dresser is lined with crystal and an assortment of manly spirits.
On the first floor is the drawing room, where a bay window looks out on to Park Street, parallel to Park Lane. Above this is the extravagant master bedroom, whose main feature is a huge four-poster bed.
Three floors up is an open-plan guest area — James's favourite part of the house and, according to the property reviewer, its 'piece de resistance'.
A porthole built into a wall separates the bedroom and bathroom from a kitchenette and study. Up a spiral staircase is the roof terrace with a cosy two- person hot tub.
'I love this floor,' admitted James. 'It's quiet, and best of all you have access to the roof terrace, which is private and great for sunbathing.'
Records for the house show it recently sold to a Cayman Islands-based company for £39 million, three times what James pocketed.
So, with the wedding just days away, we look through the keyhole at the bachelor days James Matthews would rather time forgot . . .
References
- ^ Sarah Rainey For The Daily Mail (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ e-mail (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ 1.7k View comments (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Pippa Middleton (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ London (www.dailymail.co.uk)
