By Angella Johnson
Last updated at 11:45 AM on 27th December 2010
It is a mansion fit for a king - or even a tsar.
Not content with the dozens of houses he already owns around the world, Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich has purchased all nine flats of a prime London block with Harvey Nichols and Harrods as their corner shops.
Spread across two stucco-fronted properties in Knightsbridge in London, the eight-bedroom building is expected to be worth up to £150million.
The massive home extends three storeys underground and has a swimming pool, staff apartments and 30,000 square feet of space
It should provide plenty of space for Abramovich, 44, girlfriend Dasha Zhukova, 29, and their baby son Aaron, one.
For Chelsea football club owner Abramovich, whose £14billion fortune makes him the 15th richest person in the world, the house will be a measure of his vast wealth and an opulent expression of his personal style.
'It looks as though it will be palatial,' said a source familiar with the plans. 'He wants a very plush interior in the style of high neoclassical Victoriana to match the exterior.
'This is clearly a personal project, because men like him would normally hand such a massive undertaking to some upmarket interior design firm.
'He's going to be very hands-on and there will be nothing minimalist about his taste. Inside will be all cornices, thick pile carpeting and heavy drapery.'
Abramovich and heiress girlfriend Dasha Zhukova escaped the British cold with sun and shopping in St Barts earlier this month
The proposals, approved by Kensington and Chelsea council, should also prove more than adequate for Mr Abramovich, if his older five children do occasionally visit.
The development, over five storeys above ground and three basement levels, boasts a cinema/entertainment room, an indoor pool, steam room and sauna, as well as a children's study and entertainment room.
All six family bedrooms have en suite bathrooms, as do the two guest rooms. In a linked mews development behind the main building, four flats above a multicar garage will be used as staff accommodation.
The total size is 30,000 sq feet, five times the area of a normal five-bedroomed family home.
The home is currently two adjoining townhouses, which were split into nine apartments in 1998.
Mr Abramovich has been buying up the individual flats over the years to convert the building into the single home, but did not change the exterior.
He first bought a flat there in the late Nineties, spending £1.2million. He and his then wife, Irina, spent a similar amount gutting and remodelling it and it was their London home for several years.
That was before he bought Chelsea FC, a Sussex estate and a London home worth £40million, which Irina kept following their divorce.
The palatial Knightsbridge home has plenty of room for all six of Roman's children, five from his marriage to ex Irina and son Aaron with Dasha, seen here frolicking on the beach in St Barts
'I knew he was buying property,' said a property expert. 'But I didn't realise all of them were in these two buildings. He was obviously determined to acquire them and just waited patiently until, one by one, they came on the market.'
By cannily buying up individual flats, the Russian has ended up paying between £15million and £20million for the two historic houses, a great deal less than their eventual worth.
He bought the freehold for the buildings from Sun Life for only £1.8million.
Abramovich is believed to have a large property portfolio including a villa in the South of France and multiple yachts.
The Knightsbridge building was designed by renowned master builder Thomas Cubitt, who worked on a swathe of grand designs in West London in the 1830s.
Cubitt was also responsible for the east front of Buckingham Palace. The new interiors are designed by neoclassical architect John Simpson, a favourite of Prince Charles who was responsible for the Queen's Gallery addition to Buckingham Palace, built in in 2002.
John Martin Robinson, a historic building consultant who has assessed the proposals, said there was so little period detail remaining that the work could only improve the building.
'It will reintroduce a grand town house of the type which originally featured in the square,' he said.
'The work will revive some of the original early Victorian glamour of the square and introduce a classical interior worthy of the elevation.'
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