Gordon Ramsay buys £4.4million holiday home...and then announces he wants to demolish it and build a bigger version
- The 49-year-old chef has submitted plans to bulldoze the 1920s UK retreat
- It's in the seaside village of Rock, Cornwall, nicknamed Kensington-on-Sea
- Ramsay wants a three-bedroom grass-covered boathouse in the grounds
- Lavish design includes a swimming pool, wine cellar and several ensuites
For most of us, spending £4.4million on a holiday home is beyond our dreams.
But only a few months after doing exactly that, Gordon Ramsay wants to knock it down – and then build a bigger and better version in its place.
The 49-year-old celebrity chef has submitted plans to bulldoze the 1920s retreat in the upmarket seaside village of Rock, Cornwall.
The area has been nicknamed Kensington-on-Sea because of the number of wealthy interlopers with large holiday homes in the area.
Not big enough: The £4.4million 1920s retreat in Rock, Cornwall, that Gordon Ramsay wants to bulldoze so that he can build an even bigger holiday home
Lavish lifestyle: Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay and his wife Tana Ramsay, who want to build a five-bedroom house complete with a swimming pool, wine cellar and ensuites for each bedroom
In place of the current house, Ramsay wants to build a five-bedroom house featuring white walls, a zinc facade and timber cladding.
It will have not one but two kitchens – the current property has only a small one. Plans drawn up by an architect for Ramsay and his 41-year-old wife Tana show the main house with a large open-plan kitchen, dining and living area.
There will also be a separate, smaller ‘prep kitchen’ at the side of the house as well as a snug, study and TV room.
Ramsay also wishes to put up a three-bedroom grass-covered boathouse in the grounds, which cover one-and-a-third acres with direct access to the beach.
The lavish design includes plans for a swimming pool and a wine cellar, and ensuites for each bedroom, which will provide plenty of space for his four children, Megan, 17, twins Jack and Holly, 15, and 13-year-old Matilda.
The house he wants to knock down was described by estate agents before the sale as having ‘immense potential for development’.
It had come on to the market for the first time in 30 years and Ramsay managed to knock £100,000 off the asking price. But now he wants to rip it down and start all over again. The plans have been submitted as part of a pre-application to Cornwall Council to see what the response would be from locals. Ramsay would then have to submit a full planning application.
When he bought the property, there was a frosty reception from some neighbours. One told a local newspaper: ‘£4.5million wouldn’t be affordable to most people round here. It’s a shame the local community is being driven out. The sort of people who move here aren’t really helping the community much. It brings jobs, and it is good for tourism, but it is dead in the winter.’
Exclusive: The seaside village has been nicknamed Kensington-on-Sea as it is one of the most expensive places to buy in the UK, with the average property costing almost £800,000 over the past five years
But local councillor Carol Mould said yesterday that what Ramsay plans to do is ‘not unusual for Rock’. She added: ‘He is just one of many. That’s just what happens here. We will consider his plans in due course.’
Rock is one of the most expensive places to buy in the UK, with the average property costing almost £800,000 over the past five years – four-and-a-half times the national average.
It is just round the bay from Polzeath, where Prime Minister David Cameron holidays with his family, and across the estuary from Padstow, where another celebrity chef, Rick Stein, owns a number of restaurants.
In the 1990s and early 2000s Rock had a reputation for attracting ‘snob yobs’, young public school teenagers who would party on the beaches during the school holidays.
Its reputation changed after the police cracked down on underage drinking and rowdy gatherings.
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