The ultimate fashion fantasy home: Alexander McQueen’s London penthouse hits the market for £8.5 million (complete with bespoke chandeliers, a dining terrace and walk-in dressing rooms) 

• e-mail

He was celebrated for his opulent couture and flamboyant catwalk shows, so it's no surprise that Alexander McQueen's former home is filled with dramatic flourishes. 

Now on the market for £8.5million, the late fashion designer's spectacular penthouse in London's Mayfair boasts a stunning roof garden for entertaining, a vast dining room opening on to a terrace, and a 'fashion catwalk' lined with mirrors and photographs of McQueen's most famous shows.    

A dramatic spiral staircase leads to two VIP bedroom suites inside the fully refurbished property on Dunraven Street, built in 1897, complete with bathrooms lined with rare Calacatta marble, black American walnut wood flooring, bespoke chandeliers and walk in dressing rooms.

Scroll down for video 

On the market: The spectacular duplex penthouse has been refurbished over 16-months, as an homage to the late designer

Mayfair living: Alexander McQueen's former home is perfect for entertaining, with an expansive kitchen and dining area

VIP: The lavishly decked out bedroom suites are decorated in cream, silver and black, with black American walnut floors

Luxury: The stylish bathrooms are lined with rare Calacatta marble and feature free standing bath tubs 

Previous occupants include His Highness Alexander Mountbatten, the grandson of Queen Victoria, and the author P.G. Wodehouse. 

International design house Paul Davies London has spent 16 months transforming the multi-million pound penthouse into an art deco-inspired homage to the acclaimed designer, who died in 2010, having bought the property the year before.

McQueen paid a reported £2.525 million for the Dunraven Street home, which is now being sold through Wetherell. 

Stand-out features include a spiral staircase linking the plush bedroom suites to the lower floors, and a bespoke kitchen by Clive Christian with a wine chiller. 

Alexander McQueen: The celebrated designer bought the property for £2.525million in 2009, the year before his death

Perfect party pad: The roof terrace at the luxe penthouse in Dunraven Street has views over London's Mayfair

At the turn of the 21st century, Alexander McQueen was the most feted and controversial designer of his generation. 

In 2003 alone, he was made British Designer of the Year (an award he won four times), International Designer of the Year and — in a remarkable show of acceptance by the establishment — a Commander of the British Empire.

His achievement was all the more remarkable because he’d shown little promise at his East London comprehensive school, where he was dismissed by his teachers as just another ‘East End oik’, going nowhere fast. His father, a taxi driver, expected him to take up a trade at 16, such as plumbing.

It was his mother, Joyce, who saw a programme on TV one day that mentioned there was a shortage of apprentices in Savile Row.

Soon afterwards, McQueen had started on the bottom rung of his new career — a career that would see him become the darling of the beautiful set, best friends with models, actresses and fashion editors.

Yet by the age of 40, it was all over. On the morning of February 11, 2010, McQueen’s housekeeper arrived at his home in London’s Mayfair to find the designer had hanged himself. A post mortem later revealed that he had also taken a cocktail of drugs, including cocaine, sleeping pills and tranquilisers.