Countess Raine Spencer’s Mayfair apartment goes up for sale for £8.5 million 

The former home of Princess Diana’s stepmother, Countess Raine Spencer, is up for sale for £8.5 million.

The Countess, who was the daughter of romantic writer Dame Barbara Cartland, married Gerald Legge in 1948 and the couple used the two-bedroom apartment at 47 Grosvenor Square.

The 5th floor apartment, which offers 2,145 sqm of living space, is currently a ‘blank canvas’ and ’empty shell’ in need of extensive refurbishment.

Realtor Wetherell commissioned Casa e Progetti, the award-winning luxury design studio, to create a portfolio of CGI interior images to show buyers what the apartment might look like after modernization.

Peter Wetherell, founder and executive chairman of Wetherell, estimated it would cost £10.5 million to refurbish the space, adding: ‘With its iconic address and garden square views, this Mayfair apartment at 47 Grosvenor Square offers a discerning buyer a unique opportunity to purchase a blank canvas hull and renovate and modernize the property to make it a stunning new home.

‘Once refurbished and designed inside, the apartment would serve as an excellent long-term investment and residence in London.’

To give buyers an insight into how to transform the interior into a stunning new residence, Wetherell commissioned Casa e Progetti, the award-winning luxury design studio specializing in state-of-the-art virtual staging and advanced computer-generated imagery, to create a floor plan .

Peter explained: ‘Casa e Progetti is available to assist the buyer with floor plan concepts, CGI visualisation, specification and interior design.’

Raine married three noble aristocrats, her first husband being the Hon. Gerald Legge, later 9th Earl of Dartmouth, her 2nd John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer, and finally Earl Jean-Francois Pineton de Chambrun.

A magisterial recent biography of Raine Spencer titled Three Times A Countess by author Tina Gaudoin discusses Raine’s remarkable life and times.

The couple had five staff to help run their lives in Mayfair and Raine gave Gerald two sons, William in 1949 and Rupert in 1951.

Raine loved to entertain and illustrious guests at their dinner parties, including Viscount Furness, Lady Pamela Mountbatten, Mrs. Reginald Vanderbilt, and the Marchioness of Douro.

The couple also had high-profile neighbours, the most famous being the owners of the giant 1st-floor apartment at 47 Grosvenor Square socialite Artemis Onassis, the sister of billionaire Aristotle Onassis, and her husband Theodore Garoufalidis, the president of Olympic Airways.

When Raine became a Westminster City Councilor in 1955, she used the apartment at 47 Grosvenor Square as her office and political base.

Raine eventually divorced Gerald, but Mayfair remained her home.

When she married her second husband John Spencer in 1976, one of her first acts was to convince her new husband to buy a first floor apartment at the adjacent 48 Grosvenor Square.

After Earl Spencer’s death, Raine moved first to a house on Farm Street in Mayfair, then to furnished suites at 35-37 Grosvenor Square, and finally to a mansion near Chelsea Green.

Now the apartment at 47 Grosvenor Square, where Raine lived during her years as Countess Dartmouth, is up for sale.

Despite its illustrious history, the building is currently empty.

Using the signature techniques of Raine Spencer’s favorite interior designer David Hicks as inspiration – Hicks was known for using bold colors, modern furniture and contemporary artwork – Casa e Progetti has used CGI technology to create a series of beautiful rooms and dressed interior concepts. creating for the new apartment.

The refurbished apartment offers two bedroom suites, both with dressing areas and luxury en-suite bathrooms, and would feature a triple reception room, spanning the full width of the apartment, with four tall sash windows looking out over Grosvenor Square.

The triple reception room is accessed through a spacious entrance hall with bespoke parquet flooring and offers two separate living areas and a large dining area for 6-8 with a built-in cocktail bar.

The bold green and orange colors of the dining area pay homage to the adjacent garden square and David Hicks.

At the rear of the apartment are the two stylish bedroom suites. The master bedroom suite has a curved bay window with living area and a dressing/makeup area behind the master bedroom.

The main suite has a walk-in dressing room and a luxurious en-suite bathroom.

The second bedroom suite is lined with wardrobes with a built-in make-up area and has an ensuite bathroom.

The spacious kitchen/breakfast room has a separate pantry/utility room. From the kitchen there is a separate back-of-house staff corridor connecting the kitchen to the entrance hall to facilitate staff circulation and hospitality.

Wetherell and Casa e Progetti calculate that the apartment could cost up to £1.5 million to refurbish, modernize and dress up, with the finished dressed apartment worth up to £10.5 million.