Can YOU guess the celebrity house chain gang?

Can YOU guess the celebrity house chain gang? When Griff Rhys Jones sold to Tracey Emin, it was just the latest star-to-star property deal. So check out our fun challenge… with fiendishly clever clues

A 33-room mega mansion, a Georgian townhouse and a five-storey home are among the properties that have been sold from star to star.

Famous faces have been snapping up the statement homes for prices ranging from a cool £1.8 million to a whopping £40 million.

But can you guess which pair of celebrities lived in these lavish properties just by looking at the exteriors?

Here are some fiendishly clever clues to help you out. 

This house dates from the 15th century and boasts splendid oak beams. Outside there is stabling, a Japanese deer pond, waterfowl area and terraced rear garden

1. A Sellers Joy — Even For Beatles

Estimated worth: £1.8m 

This house dates from the 15th century and boasts splendid oak beams. Outside there is stabling, a Japanese deer pond, waterfowl area and terraced rear garden.

The previous owner immortalised the house’s gardener of the time, basing his enigmatic performance as Chance, in the 1979 film Being There, on him. He also added a cinema above the garage and imported a front door from Italy.

The pop star he sold it to might usually be found in a Yellow Submarine. But it’s said he cut a hole in the front door to provide a flap for his Siamese cats. The house also hosted a 1969 meeting which led to the musician’s warring band agreeing, temporarily, to Let It Be.

This is actually three houses in one. After buying from a Hollywood A-lister who, despite her Titanic £45 million fortune insists on calling herself ‘Kate from Reading’, a power couple snapped up both adjacent houses to create this 33-room mega mansion by stealth

2. Titanic Home As Big As An Iceberg 

Now worth: £4.2m  

This is actually three houses in one. After buying from a Hollywood A-lister who, despite her Titanic £45 million fortune insists on calling herself ‘Kate from Reading’, a power couple snapped up both adjacent houses to create this 33-room mega mansion by stealth. 

Neighbours in Belsize Park, North London, grumbled that building works, presumably needed to make room for a growing collection of jade eggs and floral-motif guitars, went on for ten years.

After consciously uncoupling in 2014, the family home was put up for sale in 2018.

A stunning townhouse, this Georgian mansion in Fitzrovia, Central London, has a library, indoor pool and wine cellar

3. Emin-ent House With Room For An Unmade Bed

Now worth: £15m 

A stunning townhouse, this Georgian mansion in Fitzrovia, Central London, has a library, indoor pool and wine cellar.

Not bad for someone who made his name reading Not The Nine O’Clock News. The buyer, no doubt already leaving the beds unmade, bought it after learning she had bladder cancer, from which she is now recovering.

When the vendor and his graphic designer wife bought the property in the Nineties, it was being used as offices. He told an interviewer: ‘All the work had been done so shabbily that you could literally turn over a cornice and pull on a piece of cardboard and reveal the staircase underneath.’

The buyer’s old home and studio in East London is on the market for £12 million, while the seller has moved to a house in Holborn, bought for £3 million.  

Once a Victorian house in St Ann’s Hill, Chertsey, Surrey, the original building on this plot was demolished in 1975 to create a bungalow called Tara with a roof consisting of five pyramids

4 It’s Musical History Was Quickly Erasured

Now worth: £3.5m 

Once a Victorian house in St Ann’s Hill, Chertsey, Surrey, the original building on this plot was demolished in 1975 to create a bungalow called Tara with a roof consisting of five pyramids.

The owner, who died of a drug overdose in 1978, partied hard in it, once driving a car into the pond. One writer said: ‘People would come to deliver a pizza or do a mural and be there for weeks.’ It then passed to two more pop stars, the first was presumably Not In Love with it when he sold it to the next owner, who Erasured all trace of Tara to create a new home shaped like a snail shell made of glass and concrete.

Designed by the architect John Newton, there are spiral glass staircases, an indoor pool and a copper-roofed recording studio, plus 5.6 acres of land. Estate agent Oliver Clarke says: ‘It is like Marmite, you either love it or you hate it.’

A substantial five-storey detached house in Belsize Park, this has a 70ft garden, a beautiful roof terrace and was once home to constant parties featuring the likes of Kate Moss and Sadie Frost

5. Little Britain’s Oasis Of Fun

Now worth: £5.9m 

A substantial five-storey detached house in Belsize Park, this has a 70ft garden, a beautiful roof terrace and was once home to constant parties featuring the likes of Kate Moss and Sadie Frost.

The previous owner called it a ‘big ****ing heavy house’ and said: ‘The bar was always open, the door was always open.’ He added that he spent ‘wasted years sitting there with the curtains closed’.

One night, a member of a pop band fell down the stairs and broke his leg. Despite the wild parties, the previous owner ensured fellow residents had no cause to live next to a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star, sound-proofing it so effectively that the actor Bob Hoskins, living next door, described him as ‘the quietest neighbour in Europe.’

The property has since been overhauled by its new Billionaire Boy owner, who’s knocked down several Wonderwalls to create double and triple height spaces, but only three bedrooms. Just right for when Gangsta Granny comes to stay.

Built between 1875 and 1881, this house is a peak example of the Gothic revival style — with mosaics, murals and carvings — and is Grade I-listed

6. There’s A Whole Lotta Bricks Here!

Estimated worth: £40m 

Built between 1875 and 1881, this house is a peak example of the Gothic revival style — with mosaics, murals and carvings — and is Grade I-listed.

The cylindrical tower is topped with a conical roof. Perfect acoustics, one might think, for the current guitar legend owner. Some of its original furnishings are now in museums. Drag artist Danny La Rue recalled visiting the house and wrote: ‘It was a strange building and had eerie murals painted on the ceiling . . . I sensed evil.’

Built by architect and designer William Burges, a known opium addict, Oscar Wilde was a visitor shortly before Burges died. Burges’s bedroom, themed on sea creatures, features carved fish on the mantelpiece and a baby mermaid in the chimneypiece.

Subsequent owners of the property in Kensington, West London, include a poet who described it as a ‘Victorian dream of the Middle Ages’ and a hell-raising actor famed for his Sporting Life, playing an emperor in Gladiator and his wizard turn as Professor Dumbledore in Harry Potter.  

Designed and built in 1902-3 for mathematician William Garnett, the house was inspired by his love of the Lewis Carroll poem Jabberwocky

7. A Place To Woo Shirley Valentine

Now worth: £15m 

Designed and built in 1902-3 for mathematician William Garnett, the house was inspired by his love of the Lewis Carroll poem Jabberwocky.

There’s a ground floor ballroom lit by a double-height stone mullioned window, with space to seat 75, overlooked by a minstrels’ gallery. For the most recent vendor, perhaps it was just the spot to woo Shirley Valentine.

The new owner, who has won permission to prune or fell 15 trees in the garden in the face of local opposition, is already making a name for himself as the Edward Scissorhands of the area.

Guests at the home in its heyday included H. G. Wells, Rudyard Kipling and Emmeline Pankhurst. It was converted into flats in the 1950s but made into a house again by the seller and his wife. Known as The Wabe, it is now estimated to be worth £15 million.

A rambling redbrick house with six bedrooms, it has balconies, a climbing rose over the door, and its own wood

8. An Idyll For A Once Savage Owner To Watch Shooting Stars

Estimated worth: £3m 

A rambling redbrick house with six bedrooms, it has balconies, a climbing rose over the door, and its own wood. 

No wonder the previous owner enjoyed nothing more than a Big Night In or watching Shooting Stars. Now owned by a comedian with a Savage sense of humour, he keeps goats, sheep, cows and pigs. Famously, he is also a dog lover.

He said: ‘I have two ancient oaks at the bottom of my field. I was told that they’re called Adam and Eve, and regardless of whether you’re a spiritual person or not, sitting underneath them in the summer, the great branches almost touching the ground and forming a canopy of leaves all around you allowing shafts of sunlight to break through here and there, a profound sense of peace descends over you.’

…And the VIPs who have lived in them


Comedian Griff Rhys Jones, 67, (left) sold his Grade II-listed house to artist Tracey Emin (right) last year for £15 million

A. Comedian Griff Rhys Jones, 67, sold his Grade II-listed house to artist Tracey Emin last year for £15 million.

That’s a huge profit as he bought it in 1998 for £1.45 million.


Actor Tom Conti (left) sold his house to director Tim Burton (right) for £11 million in 2018

B. Actor Tom Conti sold his house to director Tim Burton for £11 million in 2018.

It had been on the market since 2015 after a dispute between Conti and football’s Thierry Henry, who had enlarged his neighbouring mansion.


Actor Richard Harris (left) sold his mansion for £350,000 to Led Zeppelin star Jimmy Page (right) in 1972

 C. Actor Richard Harris sold his mansion for £350,000 to Led Zeppelin star Jimmy Page in 1972.

It wasn’t the first time the property passed through celebrity hands. Poet John Betjeman lived here before Harris snapped it up for £75,000 in 1969.


Kate Winslet (left) sold the house in 2004 for £2.5 million to fellow actress Gwyneth Paltrow and then husband Chris Martin (right)

D. Kate Winslet sold the house in 2004 for £2.5 million to fellow actress Gwyneth Paltrow and then husband Chris Martin.

When Gwyneth and Chris sold up, they left it with a newly installed swimming pool and pizza oven, from the days when wellness guru Gwyneth was still best known as a foodie.


Oasis star Noel Gallagher’s (left) former home was bought by comic David Walliams (right) for £3.2 million in 2005

E. Oasis star Noel Gallagher’s former home was bought by comic David Walliams for £3.2 million in 2005.

Gallagher lived here with then wife Meg from 1997 to 1999 at the peak of Oasis’s Cool Britannia fame. The couple, who divorced in 2001, sold it to their friend Davinia Taylor. Current owner Walliams listed it for sale in 2018 for £5.35 million.


Actor Peter Sellers (left), a pal of Ringo Starr (right), agreed to sell him Brookfield in Elstead, Surrey, for £70,000 in 1969

F. Actor Peter Sellers, a pal of Ringo Starr, agreed to sell him Brookfield in Elstead, Surrey, for £70,000 in 1969.

John Lennon also loved the home and offered Sellers £150,000 but The Pink Panther star wanted to keep his word to Ringo.


Kevin Godley (left) of 10cc sold Tara to Vince Clarke (right) of Erasure in 1990

G. Kevin Godley of 10cc sold Tara to Vince Clarke of Erasure in 1990.

Tara was bought in 1971 by Keith Moon of The Who for £65,000. He sold it to Godley in 1975. After he bought it, Clarke demolished Tara and built a huge snail shell-shaped home and studio called Ammonite. This went back on the market in 2003, and sold in 2010.


Comedian Vic Reeves (left) sold this house near Folkestone in Kent to TV presenter Paul O’Grady (right) in 1999 for £650,000

H. Comedian Vic Reeves sold this house near Folkestone in Kent to TV presenter Paul O’Grady in 1999 for £650,000.

O’Grady hadn’t even seen it when he put his bid in. It’s now worth £3 million and O’Grady and his ballet dancer husband Andre Portasio have permission to build a dance studio in the grounds.

Answers:

1F, 2D, 3A, 4G, 5E, 6C, 7B, 8H 

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