Eglon House in Primrose Hill, the former London home of award-winning movie director, producer and writer Tim Burton, is a magnificent architect designed, five bedroom house providing 13,000 sqft of live/work accommodation and leisure facilities including a swimming pool, sauna and steam room, the dramatic interiors and full height cold pressed bronze windows and feature glass brick facades inspired by Pierre Chareau’s iconic Maison de Verre in Paris: for sale via Aston Chase.
One of the most extraordinary new houses to be built in Primrose Hill in living memory, Eglon House is located in a discreet gated mews, known as Eglon Mews, located in the heart of Primrose Hill. Designed in collaboration with architectural practice Chassay Last Architects and design house Russell Sage Studio it consists of two interlinked buildings which sit opposite one another across a private central garden courtyard, with the pair joined at lower ground floor level.
Best known for his gothic fantasy films such as Beetlejuice (1988), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Sleepy Hollow (1999) and superhero movies such as Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992) American film director Tim Burton (born in 1958) rented Eglon House for a number of years from 2016, using the property as his London home, with part of the accommodation used as his creative studio where he completed the 2019 Film Dumbo for Disney.
Benefitting from spacious open plan interiors, generous ceiling heights and floor-to-ceiling glazing or glass bricks on all floors, the East and West wings of Eglon House look onto the central garden courtyard and provide substantial accommodation over lower ground, ground and two upper floors.
The east wing of Eglon House has on the lower and ground level a dramatic double-height grand salon – which recalls the Art Deco hall at Eltham Palace – with an upper galleried level containing the kitchen and breakfast room and dining room. On the lower level the salon leads into the leisure suite which includes the swimming pool that doubles as a cinema room, with a mechanical floor and waterproof screen, alongside a leisure room and gym with a purpose designed cocktail bar.
The first floor of the east wing offers over 2,000 sq. ft. of space which has currently been configured as the principal bedroom suite. The second floor provides a glazed ‘orangery’ that would work well as a large home office space.
The west wing of Eglon House has a more intimate feel and Art Deco ambience. The ground floor contains a double height living room and kitchen, opening onto the courtyard. On the upper floors of the west wing there is a study, three further bedrooms, a walk-in dressing room and a bathroom. Eglon House has a passenger lift connecting all floors and staircases in the west and east wings.
When Tim Burton was living at Eglon House, he utilised the east wing of the house to write and produce Dumbo and the west wing to provide accommodation for executives and staff working on the film. This underlines the highly flexible space and uses of Eglon House which could be used as both a home and business base for a business owner including a creative studio for a film director, advertising/media firm or private family office/financial entity.
The site of Eglon House has a fascinating history, originally serving as stables and barns which were utilised in World War I to manufacture shell casings. The site was then used by Express Dairies to service the milk production from cows who grazed on Primrose Hill up until the 1950s. In the 1970’s it was converted into the world-renowned Mayfair Recording Studios where the likes of David Bowie, The Clash, Oasis, The Smiths, Tina Turner and Pink Floyd made and recorded hit records.
After six years of design and construction Eglon House was completed in 2016 with its design inspired by Pierre Chareau’s iconic Maison de Verre in Paris (built from 1928-1932), meaning ‘House of Glass’ located in Paris, which pioneered the modern style of architecture, combined living accommodation and commercial space and used glass, glass blocks and steel and a juxtaposition of “industrial” features with a more traditional style of home décor.
Despite many similarities with Chareau’s Maison de Verre, Eglon House was created largely by English craftsman with features including a staircase made from pitch-pine and grout mixed with Portland stone. Elsewhere Lebanese cedar is combined with elegantly patinated Italian marble with other details such as a bespoke custom-designed kitchen, museum-grade bronze track lighting, walls reinforced to take heavy large format artworks and solar PV matting set into the triple-glazed roof lights so that it simultaneously reduces any glare from the sun and generates energy.
