Talkshow host, novelist and wine maker Graham Norton is downsizing by putting two of his historic trophy homes on the market.
Norton went on something of a buying spree in the early 2000s, buying a property in New York in 2002, and a townhouse in London’s docklands and a bucolic bolthole in west Cork a year later. The New York and London properties are now up for sale.
The first of the super-prime properties to list is a carriage house within a gated community in the upscale Murray Hill neighbourhood on Manhattan’s east side. Number 6 Sniffen Court is for sale through agents Corcoran for $5.595 million (€4.94 million).
The brick-fronted house is one of just 10 properties, formerly stables, that were built during the American Civil War and are included on the US National Register of Historic Places.
Norton bought number 6 from supermodel Claudia Schiffer and had used it mainly as a pied-a-terre, save for the brief period when he presented NY Graham Norton in 2004. Described as a “jewel box” to the New York Times, the property is bedecked in blocks of jewel colours, including a tourmaline-blue main bedroom with malachite-green study off of it, and a custom emerald-quartzite vanity in the powder room. The three-storey, two-bedroom, two-and-a-half bathroom townhouse, which extends to 232sq m (2,500sq ft), was designed by Gachot Studios. It features clerestory windows that illuminate its double-height great room and includes a showstopping colour-drenched formal diningroom in tomato red, a library, and a 465sq m (5,005sq ft) rooftop deck that is planted and irrigated with areas zoned for entertaining and dining. It has served as the setting for countless parties during Norton’s time as owner.
Other famous residents of the mews, which sits just off East 36th Street near Third Avenue have included Cole Porter and Lenny Kravitz.
On this side of the Atlantic, Norton has put his London home at Pier Head, on Wapping High Street, on the market. Set on the banks of the Thames, the former customs office of the London Dock Company comes with access to a beach, which reveals itself twice a day at low tide.
Laid out over four floors, the four-bedroom, five-bathroom Georgian townhouse has all the classic period features of the era, from sash windows surrounded by stripped window boxes and shutters, good ceiling heights and open fireplaces. As with his Manhattan home, the principal suite occupies the entire top floor and boasts a vast en suite bathroom. It includes a book-lined library where one can imagine Norton lighting the fire on dark winter nights and cracking open a bottle of his Argentinian He Devil Malbec.
The 343sq m (3,701sq ft) house is elegant and decorated in a classical contemporary fashion that marries the period with the modern. This helps knit the addition of a detached former warehouse to the rear to the older part of the property. Its bare brick walls and double-height ceilings give it a loft-like feel in parts of its two light-filled floors.
Its large open-plan living accommodation has vaulted ceilings, views of the river and direct access to the rear garden. The lower part features a shower room, a useful large storage room and a lounge. The generously sized riverside garden is owned and well maintained by the residents’ management company. It is for sale through agents Knight Frank seeking £4,950,000 (€5,839,002).
Norton married Scottish film-maker Jono McLeod in 2022 in a ceremony that took place at Bantry House in Co Cork. The formalities were followed by a party at his west Cork abode, the 371sq ft (4,000sq ft) Ahakista House which he purchased in 2003 for a reported €1.6 million. Norton meticulously restored the 19th-century waterside villa through Schull-based Edge Architecture.
While the presenter told The Sunday Times he is “ready for a big change” it remains to be seen if he has a plan to dispose of his residence on the south side of Sheep’s Head peninsula.
