Manor where ‘Beast of Barnet’ hid for years feeding on birds and squirrels is up for sale for £8m

A north London mansion dubbed the ‘Beast of Barnet’ lair, where an escaped big cat hid for a decade, is now up for sale for £8m. The 13-bedroom mansion in Cricklewood became famous in 1991 when residents of nearby houses on Hocroft Road began seeing a fearsome, “panther-like” beast roaming their gardens late at night.

They would even see the eyes of the beast reflected in the headlights of their cars when driving at night. Domestic cats, rabbits and guinea pigs also began to disappear, it is said.

But then, the sightings of this mysterious beast simply ceased, the animal seemingly disappearing without a trace. But a few years later, in 1998, the beast was reportedly spotted again and a Metropolitan Police helicopter was called in, along with trained marksmen, to hunt it down.

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Residents were urged to stay inside, lock their doors and watch their pets. But as quickly as the beast had appeared, it disappeared again.

Experts from London Zoo and the Royal Veterinary College were called in to consult and there was speculation around the Hocroft Estate that the ‘beast’ was either an escaped cougar or a leopard, with eyewitnesses describing what they saw as being a “cougar style”. the big cat with sandy fur.

The last sighting of the beast was in 2001, by a cleaner who claims to have seen the animal lurking in the bush at the end of the garden of the mansion now for sale. The beast had been secretly living in the bushes in the garden for some time, feeding on birds, squirrels and hares found in the gardens of the Hocroft Estate.

Armed police officers and officials from London Zoo were scrambled and after a four-hour hunt on the Hocroft Estate, the beast was eventually calmed down and captured on nearby Farm Road. The ‘monster’ turned out to be a large female European lynx, believed to have escaped from its Hocroft Road owner, a neighbor of the property currently for sale, who had been keeping the animal illegally for many years.

The kitten was sent to the Big Cat enclosure at London Zoo and named Lara. After living for three years at London Zoo, Lara was transferred to the Zoological Park du Bois de Coulange in Amneville, France, where she found a mate and gave birth to many cubs, eventually dying in 2009.

Manor owner Farhana Meerza, 56, said: “If someone had told us the ‘Beast of Barnet’ lived and roamed the undergrowth at the end of our long garden, we would have thought it was all a hoax. joke and never. He would have believed them. However, in May 2001 the lynx was spotted in plain sight in our garden and after a four hour manhunt it was finally captured and sent to the zoo in France a mate, raised a family and he had a happy life, which is a very nice ending to the story.”

The mansion now for sale on Hocroft Road is a sprawling 10,000 sq ft home with a large garden, indoor pool and two garages. For more information visit www.beauchamp.com.

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