Charles de Gaulle and 99 Frognal

IT was once the Hampstead home of a family who provided a sanctuary for sickly Victorian children.

More recently, war-time leader of the Free French Forces, Charles de Gaulle, gazed from its roof across a skyline lit up by searchlights and bomb blasts.

The rooms later became the scene of the quiet contemplation of a convent.  The story of 99 Frognal is long and varied – and now a new chapter could be written as its owners have applied to renovate their £15million Grade II-listed home.

Plans lodged at the Town Hall, would see the main house restored and buildings in the garden demolished and replaced with three new homes. To give it a £15m, 21st-century feel, the application shows a new extension with a basement swimming pool and sauna.

A detailed survey of the building has been carried out by historic architects Paul Vicks. They have recommended taking out partitions to restore a grand drawing room on the first floor, and completing similar work on the ground floor dining room. Lost 18th-century features are set to be revealed, restored or re-installed.

The architects say a 1930s staircase added to take the owners to a roof-top sun room detracts from the Georgian elements and the stairs are no longer “meaningful”.

Mr Vicks said: “The proposal seeks to reinstate the building as a single family home and to reinforce and augment its original character, which is a significant benefit given the harm caused by decades of institutional use. “This includes the reinstatement and restoration of its essential character as an early 18th-century merchant’s house and the removal of later accretions and alterations which have had a harmful impact upon its special interest.

“Its setting will be significantly enhanced through the removal of the 1970s extension and substantial improve­ments to its garden and landscaping.”

One neighbour, whose home is directly next door, has lodged an objection. While saying they welcome much of the scheme, the plan to add a higher roof would rob them of daylight. They also say skylights and lightwells sunk into the ground would lead to light pollution at night.

The plaque on the side of the building

Originally called Frognal House, it was built on the site of an earlier dwelling in 1740 and the Kelly family – who helped found the first Catholic church in Hampstead following the Reformation – lived there from the early 1800s for 50 years.

An 1853 advert by auctioneers Messrs Shuttleworth & Sons outlines the scale of the property, describing “12 bed chambers and two dressing rooms, spacious elegant drawing rooms,” as well as library, breakfast room, morning room, and a handsome staircase. To keep the house spick and span, the advert includes “a house­keeper’s room, servants’ hall, butler’s pantry, numerous domestic offices, wine-vaults, and cellaring”.

In the grounds there was the Georgian patriarch’s version of a man cave in the shape of a standalone billiard room, alongside a coach house, stables, pleasure grounds and an orchard, including “melon pits” – a process of growing melons on top of compost heaps. It was then in the hands of an “instructor of invalid pupils,” John Rowe, who looked after “many children”. Rowe also ran the Sailors’ Orphan Girls’ School and Home and his family, staff and pupils appear on the 1881 census.

Irish publisher Brian McPeake bought the property in 1933 and he added a new staircase and a roof-top sun room, before Charles de Gaulle moved in with his family in 1942 and watched German bombs hit London from the roof. A plaque was added in 2021 to mark his stay, when the building was last sold. The McPeakes returned to the house in 1946, and in the late 1960s they sold up to the Sisters of St Dorothy for £56,000.

The McPeakes did not move far – they built a home in a corner of the gardens.