Hay’s Mews House Mayfair building refurbishment, English residential property development images

Hay’s Mews House in Mayfair, London

13 May 2024

Architect: John Pawson CBE

Location: Hay’s Mews, Mayfair, west London, England, UK

Hay’s Mews House

Images:

Hay’s Mews House, London

The only house in Mayfair designed by acclaimed minimalist architect John Pawson CBE, a 2,845 sq.ft. (264.3 sq.m.) white stucco three bedroom house in Hay’s Mews with minimalist interiors designed to showcase artwork, originally the London home of renowned art collector Doris Lockhart Saatchi, and most recently the home of Chicago collector and art patron Ralph I Goldenberg is for sale via Wetherell.

Commissioned by Doris Lockhart Saatchi, designed by John Pawson and built/reconfigured in 1987 the three-storey house in Hay’s Mews is an architectural masterpiece of minimalist design, offering cool uncluttered living spaces with dark-grey stone slab flooring, the dramatic interiors illuminated by oversized full height windows on the ground and first floors.

The house includes two spacious reception rooms, designed to showcase important works of art, a custom designed Pawson kitchen and a study. It features Pawson designed items that are now iconic sought-after design classics including a contemporary handle-free front door, font-like white marble Pawson Saatchi basins in the bathrooms and banks of white folding cupboards designed to keep spaces and surfaces clutter free. The remarkable artistic house is complete with an internal garage, ground floor patio garden and a 30 ft long rooftop terraced garden.

The house can trace its origins back to 1987 when Doris Lockhart Saatchi split from her second husband, Charles Saatchi. The couple, who married in 1973 and divorced in 1990, shared a love of art and it is US-born Doris Lockhart Saatchi who is credited as having instilled in Charles Saatchi a passion for collecting and championing the work of young artists, which grew into the now acclaimed Saatchi Collection.

After their split, Doris Lockhart Saatchi relocated from St John’s Wood and moved to the house she commissioned from Pawson in Hay’s Mews. The home’s light-filled, clean-lined, pure white spaces were the perfect way to showcase her enviable personal collection of contemporary art, which included works by Damien Hirst and Angela Bulloch.

The Hay’s Mews commission by Saatchi helped to forge Pawson’s signature architectural look and global success. Pawson has since become one of the world’s most acclaimed architects, designing homes for Calvin Klein and Karl Lagerfeld, art galleries in London, Dublin and New York and, recently, the new ArtSpace & Café at Claridge’s, just moments from the Hay’s Mews house.

At Hay’s Mews Pawson updated the traditionally styled period exterior with a dazzling white stucco façade and inside the three storeys of flowing, zen-like spaces are a series of architecturally important built-in pieces of minimalist furniture bespoke designed by Pawson. For example the ground floor kitchen has a built-in stainless steel central island with one side of the kitchen bordered with banks of white, folding soft-close cupboards, whilst in the adjacent dining room, a wood-topped and cement legged dining table makes an installation-style statement.

Spanning the entire width of the house the first reception room is an achingly cool living/gallery space, with a neighbouring guest cloakroom/WC and a study that could also be used as a third bedroom.

On the second floor is the principal and guest bedroom suites, both with clever banks of invisible white cupboard built-in storage. Accompanying the bedrooms are two zen-like, ensuite bathrooms. The main bathroom has a built-in bath clad in dark-grey stone slabs, a classic white marble Pawson Saatchi basin and a wall of built-in mirrors. The top of the house is given over to a 30 ft long white-walled, wooden decked terrace.

In a 2017 interview in The Sunday Times Doris Lockhart Saatchi confided that she had been forced to relocate from her beloved Mayfair home after a fan found out where she lived. This happened because Saatchi herself had become a work of art when immortalised in black and white photographs taken by Robert Mapplethorpe in 1983, now part of the National Portrait Gallery collection, the fan had become obsessed with her due to the Mapplethorpe photos.

In October 2000 the Pawson house in Hay’s Mews was purchased by another noted art patron and collector, the prominent Chicago financier Ralph I Goldenberg who was the co-founder of financial clearing firm Goldenberg, Hehmeyer & Co. He moved from Chicago to London to spearhead the global expansion of Goldenberg, Hehmeyer & Co, managing Goldenberg Hehmeyer Traders, a City of London proprietary trading firm.

From the 1960s onwards Ralph I Goldenberg had been a collector of important pieces of contemporary art so the Pawson house in Mayfair served as both a home and a private contemporary art museum. In his Mayfair house Ralph I Goldenberg display works of art by some of the titans of contemporary art including Willem DeKooning, Jackson Pollock, Robert Ryman, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg and Cy Twombly.

During his time in London he supported the Tate Modern and the Museum of Modern Art in New York where he served on the Committee of Drawings and Prints. Ralph I Goldenberg lived in Mayfair with his wife Anna most of the time until his retirement in 2018 when he moved to Italy where he lived until his death in 2022.

Peter Wetherell, Founder and Executive Chairman of Wetherell says: “This magnificent Pawson designed house in Mayfair is a masterpiece of minimalist architecture and one of less than half a dozen private homes that the architect has designed around the world. There is truly no other artistic residence like this in Mayfair, and it has served as both a home and private art museum for two prominent patrons of contemporary art, Doris Lockhart Saatchi and Ralph I Goldenberg. We believe it will appeal to other art patrons who want a home which has been specially designed to display art collections including large art installations.”

Jane Goldenberg, Ralph’s daughter and Executor of the Estate of Ralph I Goldenberg says: “For my father Ralph I Goldenberg there was a perfect symbiotic relationship between the Pawson house, an iconic piece of minimalist architecture, and his art collection. As a collector, he was increasingly drawn to minimalist works of art and the Pawson house served as the perfect showcase for his vision. Hopefully the next owner will serve as the privileged custodian of this important example of Mayfair’s contemporary architectural heritage.”

Coinciding with the exclusive listing for sale of the Pawson house in Hay’s Mews, the art collection that it housed so perfectly for the last twenty-five years will also be offered for sale this summer. The 80 works assembled there by Ralph I. Goldenberg perfectly echoed the minimalist aesthetic of the house and included works by Alexander Calder, Lucio Fontana, Brice Marden, Agnes Martin, Jackson Pollock, Robert Ryman, Cy Twombly and Rachel Whiteread, among many others.

The art collection will be displayed in Sotheby’s New Bond Street galleries from the 19th to 24th June 2024, ahead of being of offered sale on the 25th and 26th June 2024. The exhibition, open to the public and free of charge, will be a specially designed installation intended to capture the unique aesthetic and atmosphere of the extraordinary space that is Hay’s Mews.

The Hay’s Mews house is for sale under instructions from The Estate of Ralph I Goldenberg. The Pawson house is for sale for £6,750,000 (973 year lease). Viewing is strictly by prior appointment, contact Wetherell (Peter Wetherell) on Tel: +44 (0)20 7529 5566, Email: parw@wetherell.co.uk or visit www.wetherell.co.uk