For sale: the Kensington townhouse that hosted Gladstone and Tennyson

Queen Victoria famously described William Gladstone as a 'half-mad firebrand' who 'addresses me as if I were a public meeting.' The monarch reluctantly put up with the Liberal politician as her prime minister four times between 1868 and 1894, while considering him – among many other things – 'arrogant, tyrannical and obstinate.'

Quite what she made of George Warren, the 2^nd Baron de Tabley, who Gladstone appointed as her Treasurer of the Household at the start of his first term as premier, is unclear – but we do know he quit his job monitoring the widowed, querulous and reclusive monarch’s finances on behalf of Parliament two years before Gladstone’s electoral defeat of 1874.

On renouncing this tricky role – at a time when Victoria’s personal expenditure was under close public scrutiny – de Tabley swapped what is believed to be a grace-and-favour apartment in Kensington Palace for his own power pad: a swanky new-build townhouse, in Cranley Gardens, off Queen’s Gate in South Kensington. It showed the Eton-and Oxford-educated de Tabley, a godson of King George IV, to be a canny property player.

Designed in Neoclassical Italianate style by architect Charles Henry Thomas, the brick- and white stucco-fronted home formed part of a brand-new enclave of luxurious townhouses being developed by Sir Charles James Freake – a Victorian version of Nick Candy much loved by London’s best-heeled. Responsible for some of the capital’s most iconic facades, including those at Eaton Square, Exhibition Road and Cromwell Place, Freake is credited for turning what we now know as South Ken from a dingy backwater into a second Belgravia.

De Tabley and his wife, Catherina Barbara, and probably at least some of his six children, moved into the home when it was finally completed in 1875, and used its airy, light-filled spaces to entertain politicians such as Gladstone, and literary luminaries of the day, including Poet Laureate Lord Tennyson. De Tabley’s successor as Treasurer was also on the guest lists – although Lord Poltimore’s name is today more often linked to the extravagant diamond tiara he had commissioned for his wife, which Princess Margaret wore to her wedding to Antony Armstrong-Jones in 1960 (and in which she was notoriously snapped by him accessorised with nothing more than bubbles and a beehive in a bath tub).

The now grade II listed five-bedroom house, which sprawls elegantly over eight floors and nearly 7,483 sq ft of living space, has lost none of its cachet, having been updated over the decades by other smart investors. Today, the retreat is on the market for £19m, with its vast living spaces, full height windows and elegant ceiling coving intact, but with all the hallmarks of a luxurious, contemporary London family home.

Along with a principal bedroom suite over the entire second floor, taking in two walk-in dressing rooms, there are two balconies and five private terraces, a passenger lift and gym, and – where de Tabley’s servants once toiled over a coal-fired kitchen range - a spectacular double-height basement leisure complex, with a 9.8-metre, mosaic-lined pool with stone feature wall, a leisure deck, hammam and hot tub. The white open-plan kitchen, with central island and high-end Gaggenau and Miele kit, is now on the lower ground floor, leading onto a timber-decked patio garden.

Much of its look is the work of its current owner, who started off renting the house nine years ago, before buying it – and prefers not to give his name. 'It was already being renovated when we first moved in, but we had the chance to influence the designs,' he says. 'We immediately felt its unique atmosphere, with lots of scope to display our artwork and to create cosy, family space, while preserving its historic grandeur.'

Working closely with an interior designer and craftsmen from Belgium who specialise in restoring Italian palazzos, he commissioned a bespoke paint theme running up the main stairwell to represent the Milky Way, a contemporary lighting scheme and custom-made furniture to fit the spaces. Bold touches such as a Klein-blue landing and thoughtful practicalities such as a small kitchen station in the laundry room to serve the main living room, plus home automation and security systems, were also incorporated.

The house, he says, has allowed the family to spend lockdowns in seclusion and comfort – with their children studying on the top floor of the home, with unparalleled views over the rooftops of London, and access to the residents-only communal oasis of Cranley Gardens. The family has now moved abroad and are 'regretfully' selling up. Time, then, for a new power player to move in.