Prince John Zylinski’s palatial ‘White House’ in Ealing goes on the market for £4.2m

Rows of Corinthian columns, a magnificent frescoed ceiling and endless gilded cornices – all just off the Hanger Lane roundabout.

John Zylinski’s neo-Palladian villa in Ealing has hit the market for £4.2m following the death of the eccentric Lewisham-born Polish prince and property developer in January.

The exuberant Zylinski, who claimed the prince from a noble line of Polish aristocrats, took up ballet in his fifties, ran for mayor of London in 2016 and once challenged Nigel Farage to an 18th-century-style duel.

His remarkable former home, which is listed for sale with Savills, is a Versailles-tinged replica of the family palace that once stood in the Polish town of Gozdowo.

Its creation represents a promise fulfilled for his grandmother, who spent World War II in Ravensbrück concentration camp and later escaped to a bed at Earls Court with her daughter Grazyna.

Her childhood home was requisitioned during the war and later demolished by the communist government. Years later, a young John allegedly vowed to rebuild the original palace based on a series of salvaged drawings.

Completed in 2009 after eight years of building work, the palatial house on Park View Road is a vaguely Francophile remodel of a redbrick house that was perhaps more in keeping with Ealing’s suburban semis.

The three-story main building, known as the White House, comprises a large reception hall, dining area and kitchen, with six bedrooms, a library and a luxurious master suite on the upper floors.

Behind the stucco facade – complete with colonnaded portico – is a riot of marble and gold, with meters of Parisian-style paneling, ornate parquet flooring and a solid marble staircase with gilded balustrades.

Only two bricks remain from the original house in Poland, installed in the walls as a signature of the prototype.

A full-width terrace on the top floor overlooks a circular front lawn flanked by Leyland cypress trees that screen the house from neighboring properties and an adjacent playing field.

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The layout would offer total seclusion if it weren’t for the grand announcement of the arched entrance on Park View Road, crowned by classical statues and utterly visible amongst the conventional family homes.

A cobblestone walkway leads between two self-contained ‘arches’, each over 1,000 square meters, which could offer visitors beautiful digs.

The ground floor of the south arch is intended for a spacious ballroom, while the north arch has further reception spaces and a shower room.

Stuart Balfre, head of Ealing sales for Savills, says: “It’s not every day that properties of this grandeur, size and style come up for sale in west London – in fact, I’ve never seen a house like this.”

“With an area of ​​almost 10,000 square meters, this house has proportions synonymous with those of a country house.

“One of its most notable features is the seamless transition from indoors to outdoors – almost every room opens onto a terrace or balcony.

Balfre anticipates widespread interest in the home, “either from families looking to expand into the area or people looking to move from central London in search of a bigger space”.

In 2012, Zylinski was denied the right to rent out the house for weddings and events — which he called a human rights violation — but it soon became a popular hangout during Open House weekend each year.

An Instagram page for the house announced Zylinski’s death “with deep sorrow” on January 3, calling him “a luminary in business, ballet, philanthropy and history and the visionary creator of the Ealing White House”.

Property prices in Ealing averaged £785,737 over the past year.