A tale of two eras: Donne Place

Helen and David Campbell like their contemporary townhouse in Knightsbridge so much that they have bought it not once, but twice. Over the past 24 years the house has worked for them as a cutting-edge bachelor pad, a first marital home, a renovation project, and a central London pied-à-terre, to boot. Now, it’s entering a new chapter, as an exceptionally stylish rental property.

It was David Campbell, recently divorced and in need of a central London base, who first fell for the circa 3,500 sq ft house on Donne Place, just off the Brompton Road. It had previously been owned by the British inventor and entrepreneur, Sir Clive Sinclair, who had created an ultra-modern – by late 20th century standards – city home with a basement extension housing a resistance pool, a lift connecting its five levels and a roof-top conservatory. “It was a totally unique property,” says David, 63, a retired financial services director who bought the house in 1998 and proceeded to transform it into his perfect home.

After David and Helen married she moved into the house with him. But after the birth of their eldest daughter, now 22, in 1999 the couple reluctantly decided that a tall skinny terrace with multiple stairs and hard stone surfaces everywhere wasn’t suitable for very young children. They sold the house and moved to the west London suburbs, where they had a second daughter, now aged 20.

Years passed happily, but as the girls reached their teens David and Helen, 54, a journalist turned property investor, started to hanker after a return to town. “We realised we had not spent that much time in central London, and it might be interesting to get a place,” says David. They began to look for a bolthole and – by sheer chance – discovered their old house was on the market.

They snapped it up, for the second time, in 2016. Happily for the couple, almost nothing had changed about the place since they had last seen it. It felt like a true return home. “It even had the same kitchen,” Helen recalls. “It was like stepping back in time.”

She was however unimpressed by the layout, with a large, enclosed staircase taking centre stage and making the rest of the house feel cramped. With the aid of Paul Green, managing director of Green County Developments, she set about redesigning Donne Place, moving the lift and the oppressive staircase, and replacing the stairs with multiple flights of contemporary open tread steps.

By opening up void sections and reducing the size of the mezzanine floor, they were also able to create a double height entrance hall, which makes quite the impression as you walk inside. The calm interiors have been brought into the 21st century, with plenty of texture and natural materials, statement lighting and chic furniture to create, in Helen’s words, “an understated elegance.”

The dated rooftop conservatory was replaced by a glass-walled pod with sliding doors, and terraces on either side with fabulous views across central London, taking in local landmarks including Harrods and the grand museums of South Kensington. “As a place to spend time in, it is absolutely fantastic,” David says.

After a 15-month renovation the family had great fun using the house as their central London base, but the pandemic grounded them back in the leafy suburbs, even once restrictions had lifted. “We have all become a lot more garden-centric and we were spending most of our time in west London,” Helen says.

The solution was to rent out the house with Knight Frank as the chosen agent. Helen has built up an excellent relationship with the firm after working with it on several of her investment projects. Helen and David decided against selling their house partly because they have faith that the prime central London market will continue to rise in value – and partly to avoid the possibility they might just end up buying it back all over again. “It remains an option for us to live in again in the long term,” says David. It seems the Campbells’ story at Donne Place is far from over.