Comedy actor Rowan Atkinson aka Mr. Bean may have been playing an ordinary guy on the screen, but in real life his standard of living has some extraordinary features.
Atkinson, 61, bought Handsmooth House and its 16 acres of land in Ipsden, Oxfordshire, for £2.6million in 2006 and has spent the last decade and millions of pounds building a hi-tech ‘space age petrol station’ glass and steel mansion in its place.
Neighbours had hoped he might restore the empty 1930s Handsmooth House, but he instead chose to replace it with an 8,000 sq. ft. white and glass structure designed by top U.S. architect Richard Meier.
Scroll down for the pictures
The state-of-the-art home, which he has spent up to £5million transforming, has five bedrooms overlooking the stunning Chiltern Hills as well as a bridge over a courtyard which links both wings of the house.
It also boasts an atrium-style living room, solar panels on the roof and a secret garage in a grassy bank for his fleet of luxury cars.
A swimming pool which was built in the 1970s has also been bulldozed to make way for a two-storey luxury guest wing set into the side of an ancient hillside behind the property.
Tennis courts and horse stables also feature in the grounds, and the star has recruited award-winning landscape designer Tom Stuart-Smith to reproduce a meadow at the front of the property.
He originally bought the estate with his wife of 24 years, Sunetra Sastry, but they were granted a ‘quickie’ divorce in November last year.
It is believed they had been living apart for 18months and he reportedly bought Miss Sastry a six-bed west London mansion, costing £21million in 2014, reports said in the UK media.
Take a look at the pictures here:
The look from inside
This is what his house looked like before
And this is what he wanted it to be, before the construction began
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