Inside creepy half-built abandoned mansion bigger than Queen’s Buckingham Palace
A half-finished and half-abandoned mansion nestled in the Sussex countryside has become an object of fear for disgruntled locals who have dubbed it the 'Ghost House of Sussex
The imposing structure of Hamilton Place towers over its leafy surroundings south of Uckfield and was once said to be the most expensive private house built in Britain.
When it began to be developed in 1985, its estimated cost was £40 million which doesn't sound a lot these days for a property bigger than Buckingham Palace.
READ MORE: Putin nuke strike on Britain would starve 90% of us with Argentina best survival option
But amazingly the mansion remains no more than a huge empty shell, lying unfinished 37 years later reports SussexLive.
Designed for British multi-millionaire Nicholas van Hoogstraten, one of the wealthiest people in Sussex, Hamilton Place is something else.
It's been the subject of immense investment despite the fact that no one has ever lived in it and there is little sign that anyone ever will.
Today the house is completely obscured by a thick wooded area with a sign reading 'High Cross Estate, Private Property, Keep Out' written in capital letters.
The closest glimpse travellers can get can get on foot is of a gated entrance onto the estate that gives nothing away, aside from a bricked unit and a large, white container.
However, there is a definite sense of unease with multiple other signs warn of "shooting in progress", "dogs running free" and CCTV being in operation. It is a clear message: do not try and come in.
It appears not many have, with most recent photographs taken by drones and older photographs taken on site apparently when work was still ongoing.
Those photos show an eerie building, shrouded in scaffolding and overgrowing foliage, with discarded containers, construction equipment and other items littered throughout the grounds. It doesn't look like anything has happened here for a long time.
Few have been inside, but one reporter who did, in 2000, when it was said to be two years off completion, described a grand central staircase and reception hall, with lift shafts already installed and expensive stone balustrades and pillars.
Low-level lighting had been installed on the roof, where there was to be a garden, and there was space for a fountain below. One entire floor was due to house van Hoogstraten's art collection.
Today, the domed roof of the main building still rises over the top of the treeline and remains visible from a distance from the nearest set of houses in the hamlet of Palehouse Common.
Van Hoogstraten who is now 77 and goes by the name of Nicholas von Hessen, is a Sussex native born in Shoreham who owns dozens of properties in the area.
He is said to have started making money selling stamps as a teenager before moving into property and, by the age of 22, had 350 properties in Sussex alone.
In the 1980s housing boom he acquired more than 2,000 properties and had sold 90 per cent of them by the 1990s.
'World's loneliest killer whale' filmed endlessly circling tank after outliving family
Over the past couple of decades, he has been involved in widely reported disputes with neighbours over the huge estate.
Locals have previously vented about the large area being left unused and there was a row over a public footpath that ran through it that van Hoogstraten did not want to be used.
In answer to those complaints, he is quoted as saying "even the most moronic of peasants would be able to see… that we have been busy landscaping the grounds of the palace so as to prepare for scheduled works".
And he has also denied that the house is falling apart, saying: "Hamilton Palace is far from 'crumbling' and was built to last for at least 2,000 years.
"The scaffolding only remains as a part of ongoing routine maintenance such a property would require until completion."
It is thought the estate is now owned by his children through the company Messina Investments.
To get more stories from Daily Star delivered straight to your inbox sign up to one of our free newsletters here.
READ MORE:
- For more of the latest news from the world of the Daily Star, check out our homepage.
Road signs 12 feet tall leave locals joking 'maybe giraffes are coming to town'
Pint-lovers fume as 'Pub of the Year' to be knocked down and turned into a Starbucks
Brits threaten to 'sell nudes for food' after Bank of England's grim interest rate hike
Boris Johnson impersonator was walked around town on leash – in just Union Jack pants
Source: Read Full Article