A seven-storey building close to Trafalgar square was bought by the Hungarian government. The building will function as the Hungarian House in London.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Péter Szijjártó said that the building will be home to a Hungarian weekend school, and a theater room, where exhibitions and plays will take place. There are many Hungarians working or studying in London or the neighbouring areas, but as the Minister of Foreign Affairs said, they did not have a place to nurture their Hungarian heritage, culture and identity. – writes 24.hu.
The house will be a meeting point for Hungarians living in England. „In order that the house would be worthy and able to welcome Hungarian people, now it will be renovated, and as soon as the renovation ends, after a few months the Hungarians living in London and the area can take possession of it.” – the minister said.
The house is the work of Sir Aston Webb, an architect whose name can be linked to the Buckingham Palace, and the main building of Victoria and Albert Museum. The building was later bought by the Canadian National Railway Company. In 1970, the building got Grade II type protection, which means that maintaining the original look of the building is important.
The building was eventually bought from an investor. The 1862 square meters building was put up for sale in 2017 by Hanover Green for 25 million pounds. This could be the price that the Hungarian government paid for the building, however, the information has not been officially confirmed.
Telex reached a realtor, who said that the price cannot be indicated, but the 25 million pounds sounds realistic. The news site also found out from the realtor that the contract was signed about nine or ten days ago.
Some parts of the building will probably welcome visitors in March this year. Liszt Institution will hold its events in the house starting next month. – 24.hu also wrote. The house will be a hub for Hungarians working and living in the London area. As for how long the full renovation will take, there has been no information published.
If someone really wants to know the price that was paid for the building, all they have to do is look up the property online on the HM Land Registry – even the secretive Hungarian government can’t prevent that information from being in the public domain. By the way, the UK does not have ‘realtors’ – than is a North American term and is never used in the UK, instead the are called Estate Agents. Say ‘realtor’ in the Uk and most people would not know what you are talking about. Finally Grade II Listing (as it is properly called, not ‘protection’) is about a lot more than ‘maintaining the original look’ – any alterations of any sort requires written consent from the relevant authorities of which there are many. Refurbishing a Grade II Listed building tends to be a very slow process and very expensive if major works are proposed.