Music of the spheres: St Ann’s Court

Like many great inventors, it was a happy accident that changed the course of Osman Kent’s life. The founder of technology company 3Dlabs – the first GPU company to go public in 1996 – was always a passionate music lover, but by his own admission “very average from a musical talent point of view.” So, when he moved from Istanbul to the UK to study Computer Science and Electronics at university he decided to do something about his musical ‘averageness’. 

“I wanted to build a machine to improve my sight reading, whereby if I played a note on the keyboard, a digital screen would display the musical notation I was playing in real time,” he explains. “To be able to do that you needed to have bitmap graphics which weren’t generally available in the ‘70s. So, in creating this machine, myself and a co-inventor accidentally invented some of the foundations of computer graphics – although we didn’t appreciate its significance at the time.” Said machine ended up featuring on BBC One’s long-running series Tomorrow’s World, but it also laid the foundations for Osman’s extraordinary career as a technology entrepreneur. 

3Dlabs was responsible for designing and developing some of the first computer graphics systems for the PC to achieve global mainstream success. In 1997, while modern PCs were still in their infancy, the company’s market cap reached $987m. Osman spent much of his working life building the business in California (although it was a UK company), before exiting at what felt like the right time in 2002 to resume his first love and launch a record label. How, then, does an international technology pioneer and music producer come to own a Grade II* listed modernist house in Surrey? 

“I was always in love with modernist architecture and because I spent half my time in Silicon Valley I was exposed to a lot of architects like Richard Meier who designed the Getty Center,” Osman says. “I didn’t know that I could find something similar in the UK. One morning, my wife passed me a property advert and said ‘this is your house’.” 

She was right. St Ann’s Court combined modernist architecture with a purpose-built music studio for Osman to helm his record label, as well as sizeable grounds to fuel his wife’s own passion for landscape design. “We visited, came to an agreement with Phil and never looked back,” Osman says. Phil, incidentally, was Phil Manzanera of Roxy Music, the property’s previous owner who installed the music studio in the adjoining Coach House, which Osman has since developed. 

The property itself is palatial. It was designed in 1936 by Australian architect Sir Raymond McGrath. The incongruous name ‘St Ann’s Court’ reflects the fact that an Elizabethan manor used to stand on the same site, but was demolished in the ‘30s to make space for the present building. Osman explains: “St Ann’s Court was originally the summer estate for the Holland family, of Holland Park fame, and Sir William Berry, a former owner of The FT and The Telegraph also lived in the old house, before it was knocked down.” 

Its circular shape lends the considerable 6,500 sq ft of the main Round House real grandeur. Step inside the entrance hall and the house almost sweeps you along with itself, from curvaceous room to room. Upstairs, you’ll find six bedrooms, five bathrooms and two terraces, while the ground floor features a light-filled sitting room with floor-to-ceiling windows, a dedicated dining room, kitchen-diner and study, all of which enjoy commanding views across the eight acres of land that fan out from the house. Despite its striking looks, it’s a very private property; gated and with woodland on three sides and therefore “no neighbours to worry about.” 

Just a few steps from the Round House sits the 19th century Coach House. This space is in itself larger than most family homes, at 4,600 sq ft centred around an open kitchen, living and dining area, with Osman’s state-of-the-art recording studio to one side and the games room above. Several notable artists have recorded here, including Roxy Music and Paul Weller, and the property has previously been rented to successful musicians who need a place to write and record new music. “This place has a great creative energy,” Osman says, reflecting on his own eight years producing and recording music. “Having all the space a large family needs, but being just 10 or 20 yards away from a separate space for creative endeavours or for your personal entrepreneurial headquarters is a Godsend.”  

St Ann’s Court has also featured as a location in a fair few TV series and movies over the years, so don’t be surprised if you spot your living room in the Oscar winning 2019 Judy Garland biopic, Judy, starring Renée Zellweger. “That’s the most recent thing I can tell you about,” says Osman, with a knowing smile. 

And now, the place could be yours – for a time, at least. St Ann’s Court is available to rent and is ideally suited to creatives or entrepreneurs in need of a purpose-designed retreat from which to focus. “Knight Frank secured the Hollywood star who lived here throughout 2021,” Osman reflects, “and we bought the house through Knight Frank in 1997.” While musicians will doubtless be drawn to the recording studio, St Ann’s Court could equally suit a dramaturg, writer or painter. Or indeed tech entrepreneurs and their families – like Osman, his wife and children – who want to have a personal headquarters yet be close to their nearest and dearest. 

“It’s been an extraordinary place to raise our family,” says Osman. “This place is a national treasure.” 

St Ann’s Court is available to let on a short or long term basis. Please contact Ross Harvey for more information or to arrange a viewing. ross.harvey@knightfrank.com / +44 (0) 1344 299390