Life Is Sweeter In A Chocolate Factory

With the recent premiere of the much anticipated Wonka film, Abode2 were inspired to explore the £18m duplex created from Harrods chocolate factory in Knightsbridge’s Trevor Square that has recently been sold by Beauchamp Estates

Beauchamp Estates has sold an £18 million six bedroom 6,404 square foot duplex apartment, created from the conversion of the Harrods Bakery & Chocolate Factory in the Harrods Depository on Trevor Square in London’s Knightsbridge, sold to a European family who wanted to live next door to Harrods.

With ceiling heights in excess of 3.1 metres, the magnificent duplex residence has interior specification and design by super-prime brand Candy & Candy and is located on the fourth and fifth floors of the palatial Harrods Depository building at 17-21 Trevor Square, adjacent to the world-famous Harrods Department Store.

On the upper floor the duplex has a large entrance hall, three reception rooms comprising the main living room, adjoining dining room and media/family room. There is also a Poggenpohl kitchen/breakfast room with Gaggenau appliances opening onto a breakfast terrace and a flexible room which could be used as a gymnasium, exercise studio or bedroom.

Accessed via a striking curved staircase the lower floor provides the luxurious bedroom suites (all ensuite) including the gigantic principal bedroom suite, with twin walk-in dressing rooms and twin ensuite bathrooms. The duplex has four car parking bays within the secure parking complex within the building.

Faced in brick and terracotta with arched windows, high ceilings and ornate Harrods lettering on the pediment the Harrods Depository was originally built by Mowlem & Co in 1913-1914 and opened in 1920, designed by C.W. Stephens, the architect of the Harrods store on Brompton Road.

The Depository was designed as a sister building to the Harrods store – the two look almost identical – and served as director’s offices, warehousing and the production of Harrods own-brand goods, including luxury food, teas and beverages.

On the fourth and fifth floors of the Depository (now the luxury duplex just sold by Beauchamp Estates) was the Harrods Bakery & Chocolate Factory producing luxury chocolates, easter eggs, cakes and pastries sold in the Harrods Store.

With its white uniformed and gloved staff the Harrods Bakery & Chocolate Factory operated between the 1920s and late 1970s making a range of VIP confectionary including birthday and wedding cakes for the British and Iranian Royal families, huge Easter eggs for Indian princes and Middle East princesses and luxury chocolate boxes for American tycoons and their wives.

There was even a secret underground subway from the Depository to the shop under Brompton Road, designed and built in 1913 by Harley H. Dalrymple-Hay, which ensured that the expensive Harrods cakes, Easter eggs and chocolates could be ferried to the store without disrupting shoppers or traffic on the Brompton Road.

In 2000-2002 the former Harrods Depository was converted into 40 generously sized super-luxury apartments complete with covered parking complex, landscaped residents’ courtyard garden, ground floor hotel-style entrance foyers and 24-hour uniformed security and concierge. With its Harrods façade, the building is the closest thing a buyer can get to living in the actual Harrods store.

Jeremy Gee, Managing Director of Beauchamp Estates says: “Beauchamp Estates is delighted to have sold this magnificent duplex apartment, created out of the former Harrods Bakery & Chocolate Factory, located in the Harrods Depository on Trevor Square, one of the most sought-after super-prime apartment buildings in Knightsbridge, literally adjacent to the Harrods store. The six-bedroom duplex apartment offers extensive living space with grand proportions throughout and has a fantastic history as the former bakery and confectionary factory where Harrods own-brand fresh bakery, luxury chocolates and Easter eggs were prepared and stored.”

www.beauchamp.com