The ultimate celebrity status symbol? A sprawling gated mansion, ideally tucked away deep in the countryside with its own swimming pool, cinema, sweeping drive and sizeable grounds.
However, not only do the rich and famous love unlocking the door on the kind of extravagant homes mere mortals can only fantasise about… they also love to re-model them, which is where things can go awry.
Ambitious plans require watertight permissions in the UK that can take months – sometimes years – to get the green light on, with once grand properties falling into disrepair in the meantime.
Elsewhere, properties that were once owned by famous residents have simply become unloved – and eventually derelict – after their former inhabitants have left.
Here, we look at some of the British homes owned by major stars that have ended up empty, unloved and, in the worst cases, facing a date with a wrecking ball.
James Corden’s £8.5million Oxfordshire estate
British funnyman James Corden had hoped to turn an Art Deco £8.5million property into his dream home, but has now reportedly sold the property
The Gavin and Stacey writer gained permission to tear down the Oxfordshire site and build a new home in January 2024 – but the 1960s mansion appears to remain derelict, and is now thought to have been sold
An eerily empty indoor swimming pool is littered with dirt and leaves in the house. The floors of the once impressive mansion can be seen covered in rubbish and debris
It was once an impressive family estate which sat proudly among acres of stunning scenery in Oxfordshire.
However, James Corden’s UK mansion, which he planned to demolish and turn into an £8million new home has seen better days – with the star having now reportedly sold the property.
The British comedian and actor had initially planned to replace the structure with a six-bedroom pile with a pool and spa – but those plans seem have fallen by the wayside.
This week it was announced Corden is set to return to the US for a 17-week run of a play on Broadway in New York.
Newly emerged photographs reveal the state of the derelict house, showing an eerily empty indoor swimming pool littered with dirt and leaves.
Meanwhile, the floors of the mansion can be seen covered in smashed glass and debris while the outside of the property is overgrown and haggard.
Locals in quaint surrounding villages fear the star’s building project will never be completed.
Jayne Worral has been the landlady of The Bull pub in nearby Wargrave since 1980 and said it would be ‘sacrilege’ for Corden to leave the property empty.
When the House Party was over: The TV mansion that ended up in sad disrepair
Mr Blobby was an instant hit when he began appearing on Noel’s House Party in the 90s; the home of the larger than life TV character was Dunblobbin, a real-life property in Cricket St Thomas in Somerset
Noel Edmonds with his TV sidekick, Mr Blobby. Dunblobbin was part of the Crinkley Bottom theme park but after it was sold the Blobby house was simply left to rot for nearly 15 years
Noel’s House Party was one of the biggest Saturday night shows of the 90s…but the mansion that provided the backdrop to Noel Edmonds’ hit show ended up in a run-down state.
The remains of ‘Dunblobbin’, the stately home where Mr Blobby famously resided, were discovered nestled deep in the grounds of Cricket St Thomas in Somerset in 2015.
The property had been part of the Crinkley Bottom theme park which capitalised on the success of the TV show… but after it was sold the Blobby house was simply left to rot for nearly 15 years – before it was demolished.
Appearing alongside Noel was the calamity-prone Mr Blobby, who became a household name in the 1990s.
The pair enjoyed huge popularity, and were able to use their celebrity status to knock Meat Loaf’s hit record I Would Do Anything For Love off the Christmas number one spot, with their own record Mr Blobby.
The property abandoned in 1999 was eventually demolished…after becoming a graffiti target for local vandals
The Crinkley Bottom theme park was a tourist attraction in the 90s but by the end of the decade the show’s fortunes had changed
In 1994, at the height of the show’s success, Noel Edmonds opened the Crinkley Bottom theme park, which he described as offering an unrivalled family day out in the company of one of the country’s biggest stars.
However, Blobby later became a figure for ridicule when the New York Times described the pink and yellow mumbler as ‘a metaphor for a nation gone soft in the head’.
With Edmonds’ and Blobby’s celebrity status dwindling, Crinkley Bottom began to struggle and was forced to close its doors in 1999.
The theme park was renovated and turned into a hotel and wildlife park, but the annexed Dunblobbin was left to its own devices, and began to rot in the nearby woodland.
The sorry tale of the Scottish mansion once owned by Genesis
Once owned by Phil Collins and his band Genesis, the Scottish hideaway of Pennyghael House was priced at £5million in 2021…but last year went on the market for just £180,000 because of its poor condition
Set in stunning natural woodland on the Ross of Mull Peninsula, the home was purchased by Collins in the mid-80s- but proved a controversial property for the pop stars
In January last year, a derelict nine-bedroom mansion in the Ross of Mull Peninsula in Scotland hit the market for just £180,000.
The price of Pennyghael House belied its rock star history; the property had once been owned by Phil Collins and Genesis after being bought by the band in 1985.
The band invested £500,000 into the site until its sale in 1997. The nine-bedroom mansion, situated on nearly 12 acres of land, was left to rot however and was near derelict by the time it went on sale last winter.
Set in a stunning location, the property might have fetched millions – but allowed to decay, Pennyghael House went on sale in January 2025 for much less than the average UK house price
The estate was previously put up for sale in 2021, for offers of over £5million.
The home was once at the centre of a huge row after the Genesis stars were accused of using it to reduce their tax bills by investing in woodland, under a scheme introduced by Margaret Thatcher.
The band were also accused of allowing the property to fall into disrepair before they sold it to Dutch buyers in 1997.
The house has been on the Scottish Civic Trust’s ‘at risk’ list since the 90s.
At the beginning of the 19th century the estate was bought by the Scottish-born fur trader William McGillivary, originally from Canada, one of the pioneers of the North West Company before it was merged with the Hudson Bay Company.
Sadly the trader died before he could move into the house he had planned for the land he bought.
The home of a British comedy great that went up in flames – and sold at a £2.5million loss
Famed late British comedian Ronnie Corbett once resided happily in this beautiful Croydon mansion with his wife and children.
The five-bedroom property was eventually bought by another celebrity though, boyband star Oritsé Williams.
The JLS singer paid £3 milllion in 2013 for the characterful home…but would later sell it at a £2.5 million loss after a devastating fire destroyed the property.
JLS star Oritsé Williams made a £2.5 million loss on the beautiful Croydon home once inhabited by much loved British comedian Ronnie Corbett – three years after a fire destroyed the property in 2019
The former Croydon beauty was left a decrepit mansion by the blaze, with a collapsed roof, blown out windows and gutted interior
The singer had been trying to sell the five-bedroom house when the blaze broke out.
Around 70 firefighters were called to tackle the huge blaze in June 2019, but they could do nothing to prevent the three-storey property’s roof being destroyed. No one was injured in the inferno.
It sat derelict for years but Land Registry records showed in 2022 that new buyers had paid £1.25 million less than Oritse had been asking for the luxury property when it was on the market.
Aerial photographs taken the year after the fire showed the decrepit mansion with a collapsed roof, blown out windows and gutted interior.
The second floor was 80 percent damaged by the inferno, London Fire Brigade reported. Meanwhile the garden was seen overgrown with the swimming pool a murky shade of green.
A worse-for-wear shot of the pop star’s former home with the roof reduced to a burnt out skeleton
What the former family home of Ronnie Corbett once looked like inside, with lavish wood-pannelled rooms and ornate island kitchen
The property was left a former shell of the once family home which Ronnie once lived with his wife Anne and their two daughters.
The marital home dubbed ‘SouthYork’ that was built for Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor – but ended up with bats in the roof
The 12-bedroom mansion which, in a twist on JR’s Dallas ranch Southfork, became known as SouthYork, was eventually sold in 2007
Last year’s bombshell biography about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson, Entitled, by Andrew Lownie painted a lavish picture of Sunningdale, the former couple’s marital home in the years after it had first been built.
The 12-bedroom mansion which, in a twist on JR’s Dallas ranch Southfork, became known as SouthYork, was a lavish 5,000-acre property near Ascot.
In his book Lownie detailed how the home was ‘surrounded by eight-foot walls’ and came with ‘its own helicopter landing pad, a cinema, pool room and swimming pool, and 20 rooms of staff quarters’.
Deemed a ‘huge expense’, Sunninghill took four years to complete, having been initially gifted to the royal couple by the late Queen as a wedding present in 1986.
Sunninghill took four years to complete, having been initially gifted to the royal couple by the late Queen as a wedding present in 1986
Despite millions being spent on its renovations, the property was eventually demolished in 2015
Requisitioned by the American Ninth Air Force squadron of fighter pilots during World War II, the home had initially been earmarked for a young Princess Elizabeth and her fiancé, Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, after their 1947 marriage.
But during renovations, a workman in the library dropped a cigarette and the entire building went up in flames. Despite dozens of firemen battling to save the mansion, it was razed to the ground.
Yet, the couple enthusiastically welcomed the late Queen’s gift and poured millions of pounds into extensive renovation works to Sunninghill Park, which sat on the edge of Windsor Great Park, offering lakes, woodlands and gardens.
After Andrew and Fergie’s high-profile divorce in 1996, the then-Prince eventually moved out of the purpose-built mansion, while the then-Duchess, Princess Beatrice and Eugenie remained living at Sunninghill until 2006.
Then, after spending five years on the market, the property was eventually purchased by Mr Kulibayev in 2007, who controversially paid £3million more than the asking price.
Despite the millions spent on its renovations, the property was eventually demolished in 2015, having fallen into a state of disrepair after lying completely empty for eight years.
Just 25 years after Andrew and Sarah moved in, the once-lavish mansion was no more. In its final years, the property had been compared to a Tesco superstore and even had bats roosting in the roof.
The 16th-century Elizabethan House once owned by Pink Floyd star
In leafy South Oxfordshire, Hook End Manor has had some fascinating residents…including a British rock legend – but in recent years was a sad shell after falling into disrepair
Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd, pictured at the Royal Albert Hall in 2019, recorded hits galore at Hook End Manor’s recording studio
A former ecclesiastical home built in the late 16th century for the Bishop of Reading, Hook End Manor, near the village of Checkendon, in rural South Oxfordshire became a bolthole for 20th-century rock royalty after it was transformed into a recording studio.
Pink Floyd’s Dave Gilmour, who purchased the property in 1980 crafted many a chart-topper while living on the regal estate, including Goodbye Blue Sky and Wish You Were Here.
Other famous faces who recorded songs at the atmospheric studio include Rod Stewart, The Smiths and Frankie Goes to Hollywood.
The home, which was set in 25 acres, had a rather macabre backstory however. The site of a former mental hospital, one former resident made a grim discovery in 2020, when the headstone of a young child – a seven-year-old boy named Jack – was discovered in Hook End Manor’s basement.
The boy is believed to have been buried at the property following his death in 1909.
The rock star eventually sold the centuries-old home and, after having several owners, it spiralled into disrepair – by 2017 it was a sad shell of its former glory.
Now though, Hook End Manor has finally been given the TLC it deserves, with its latest owners undergoing a full renovation.
