House of Secrets
Who owns Witanhurst, the city’s largest home after Buckingham Palace? Ed Caesar investigates.
Witanhurst felt "desolate and Ozymandian" when Cowell toured it—no parties for half a century, water leaking through the roof. Then it sold for £50 million to a shell company. Now there's an underground village beneath the forecourt: pool, cinema, parking for twenty-five cars.