Witanhurst is a large Grade II listed 1930s Georgian Revival mansion on in Highgate, North London. It has had several prominent owners since being rebuilt by soap magnate Sir Arthur Crosfield. After several decades of increasing dilapidation, it underwent substantial refurbishment after its 2008 sale to an offshore company owned by the family of Russian businessman Andrey Guryev. History The original estate, dating from 1774, was known as Parkfield, situated at the junction of Highgate West Hill and The Grove. The current house, built between 1913 and 1920, was designed by architect George Hubbard for soap magnate Sir Arthur Crosfield on an site. The mansion is Grade-II* listed, meaning it has been judged to be of national historic or architectural interest. English Heritage has in the late twentieth-century and early twenty-first century placed the property on its Buildings at Risk Register. Paul Crosfield sold Witanhurst to the property developer Lionel Green in 1970, but it was possessed by banks shortly after, and owned by various other property developers for the next fifteen years. Various schemes for redeveloping Witanhurst were proposed and rejected by Camden council during this period including turning the house into a hotel or apartments, and various pieces of land from Witanhurst's large estate were sold. In 1976, Witanhurst was bought by Al-Hasouwy for £1.3 million. He subsequently spent £500,000 developing the property. It was then put up for sale in 1977 for £7 million with planning permission for 63 houses. In 1984, the house was sold for £7 million by Noble Investment Corporation, a shell company believed to have been linked to the al-Hasawi family. Additionally, a revised scheme for 24 houses to be built on part of the land was sold for more than £7 million. The buyer of the house was Mounir Developments, a company registered in the tax haven of Panama. The ultimate beneficial owner of Mounir Developments was eventually revealed in a court case to be a relation of the Assad family, the ruling family of Syria, who were then in exile in England. Somar al-Assad, a cousin of the then Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, stated in a court case that he had not slept at Witanhurst in the previous eight years of ownership by a trust connected to the family. Witanhurst was used as the location of BBC's Fame Academy talent show from 2002 to 2004. The interior of the house was