Inside Abramovich's New $230 Million London Mega-Mansion
Filed under: Estates, Wealth, Architecture & Design

Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich has purchased all nine luxury apartments in two adjoining buildings in London's posh Knightsbridge neighborhood and plans to transform them into a mega-mansion at a total cost of about $230 million. He aims to turn the 30,000-sq.-ft. eight-bedroom buildings, a historic property located next to famed department store Harrods and designed by renowned master builder Thomas Cubitt, who also designed parts of Buckingham Palace, into a high-tech luxury fortress with five above-ground stories and three underground levels, the London Daily Mail reports. The paper has obtained a schematic of the plans, above; most of the cost of the project will go towards the renovations.
"He wants a very plush interior in the style of high neoclassical Victorian to match the exterior," an insider tells the paper. "He's going to be very hands-on and there will be nothing minimalist about his taste. Inside will be all cornices, thick pile carpeting and heavy drapery." The plans call for six bedrooms two guest rooms all with en suite baths; a multicar garage with staff accommodation in a mews behind the main building; a cinema / entertainment room; an indoor swimming pool; a steam room and sauna; and a children's study and entertainment room. Abramovich has been patiently acquiring the flats in the buildings since the late '90s, the paper reveals, and just recently closed on the last one.






After 17 months of misery, luxury home prices in 
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