London’s Little White House Is Put on the Market for $3.6 Million

A £2.5 million ($3.6 million) property dubbed the Little White House, currently one of the most protected private homes in Britain, is now for sale in the U.S. Embassy complex in London’s posh Mayfair neighborhood.

The so-called Little White House at 4 Blackburne’s Mews in Mayfair is located in a private gated complex directly adjacent to the American Embassy, whose front façade overlooks Grosvenor Square, and is within its protective perimeter.

The property, which dates back to 1732, is known as the Little White House because of its white façade, grand 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue-style entrance hall and its proximity to and longstanding links with the adjacent American Embassy. Future U.S. President John Adams chose the area around Grosvenor Square as the site of the first American diplomatic mission to Britain more than 230 years ago.

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Currently, to get to this mini-White House, visitors must contend with tight Embassy security, including identity card access, patrolling U.S. Marines, a 24-hour British police presence, checkpoints, anti-tank barricades and closed-circuit TV surveillance. Every visitor to the mews is also required to state his or her business.

However, the Little White House’s status as the UK’s most protected home is set to change in 2017, when the U.S. Embassy, which has been there for 55 years, relocates to south London and the Eero Saarinen-designed building is transformed into a five-star hotel and luxury resort.

This is taking place alongside other changes to Grosvenor Square, including the development of luxurious apartments priced between £4 million and £35 million. Brokers are predicting that house prices in and around the highly sought-after square will rise.

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"For Grosvenor Square, the next five years will be the most significant in its 270-year history. With the security cordon gone in 2017, and the Embassy replaced by a new luxury hotel with large public realms, residential values in the locale could rise easily by an additional 10% above the overall Mayfair value increases we have been seeing over the decades,” said Peter Wetherell, chief executive of Wetherell, a brokerage.

“The Little White House in Blackburne’s Mews provides the adroit buyer with an outstanding and unique long-term investment and lifestyle opportunity,” he said. “The transformed Embassy building will become London’s next Claridges or Connaught Hotel, with the purchaser having the benefit of living right on the doorstep.”