Its blue doorway became recognised the world over after Rhys Ifans emerged in nothing but his underpants for the paparazzi in Notting Hill.
Now the flat from the film, once owned by the film’s screenwriter Richard Curtis, is on the market for £7.95million, the Daily Mail can reveal.
In the movie it is, of course, home to William Thacker, a London bookseller played by Hugh Grant, who falls in love with Hollywood actress Anna Scott, portrayed by Julia Roberts. Thacker shares the flat with the hapless Spike, played by Ifans.
The British film became a global phenomenon, grossing £224.4million at the box office and raising not only the profile of the west London neighbourhood but also that of its famous blue door, which has attracted tourists for almost 30 years.
While the interior scenes were filmed in a studio, the flat’s exterior and entrance featured in some of the 1999 film’s most memorable moments.
Most notably, as news breaks that America’s top actress has fallen for a London shop worker, paparazzi gather outside only to be greeted by the hapless Spike, played by Rhys Ifans, who emerges wearing nothing but his briefs.
On another occasion, as Anna Scott hides inside, the near-naked Spike hangs out of the window smoking a cigarette.
But compared with the poky flat inhabited by Grant’s character, the home behind the famous blue door is positively palatial. The converted church spans around 3,000sq ft and boasts three bedrooms and two bathrooms.
Its most famous appearance was perhaps when William’s hapless flatmate Spike – played by Rhys Ifans – appeared to paparazzi waiting outside it in his pants
Ifans hangs out of the window of the flat in the hit movie also starring Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts
Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant in Notting Hill. The interior of the flat was a film set, with only the exterior of the real blue-door house used in the movie
Grant is seen filming at the blue door again in 2018
The flat was last purchased 2014 for £4,575,000 to tech entrepreneur Neil Hutchinson. He married actress Jessica Stroup in Marrakesh in 2023
The main living area of the blue-door property, which boasts an open-plan interior
Today, the exterior enjoys cult status in its own right, with tourists flocking to the entrance and its portico for photographs.
Now, one property buyer has the chance to call it home, provided they do not mind a steady stream of film fans stopping by each day.
Curtis sold the property shortly after the film’s release in 1999. It was last purchased in 2014 by Neil Hutchinson for £4.575million, according to Land Registry records, and is now being offered for almost £3.4million more than he paid for it.
The 48-year-old is the director of Neon One Limited, formerly known as Forward Internet Group and TrafficBroker, which at one time was one of the UK’s largest affiliate marketing firms.
The flat’s listing, featured on the Invisible Homes website for off-market listings, boasts the property as one of London’s most recognisable front doors, with a ‘remarkable’ home behind it.
The listing says the house has a ‘spectacular kitchen, dining and reception room extending almost 48 ft’.
‘Originally conceived as an artist’s studio, this extraordinary space is crowned by a vaulted ceiling with exposed roof trusses and skylights,’ it reads.
It adds that the living room has ‘dark timber floors and a stone fireplace’ while the kitchen boasts a ‘marble island.’
Above the living room there is a ‘first-floor gallery’ which ‘wraps around much of the room and incorporates a book-lined study.’
The property also boasts a ‘secret roof terrace’ which can be accessed via a spiral staircase located in the private courtyard garden.
The roof terrace is ‘enclosed by mature planting and old brick walls providing a secluded place to dine above the rooftops of Notting Hill’, the listing adds.
The original blue door was auctioned by Christie’s shortly after Notting Hill’s release in 1999 and replaced by a black one.
It was presumed the change of colour was to put off picture hunters, but eventually it was repainted blue.
Hugh Grant at the door of his character William Thacker’s flat
Ifans’s appearance in his briefs was one of the highlights of the film – but the interior of the real flat, on sale for almost £8million, is much more grand
Hugh Grant strides towards the flat in the hit 1999 rom-com
Tourists still flock to the area to pose at the doorway, although the flat inside is far more palatial than the one in the film
In 2023, fans were left fuming after the famous blue door became the subject of regular vandalism, with tags scrawled across it, ruining pictures for visitors.
Dozens of moaning comments have been left on Google Reviews, where the site has been given a score of 3.6 out of 5 thanks to its sorry appearance.
One tourist wrote: ‘William Thacker needs to take more pride in his house.’
At the time, visitor Jonathan Lau posted an image of the door covered in graffiti, saying it ‘has seen some better days.’
‘It is now heavily graffitied,’ he added. ‘Obviously the hooligans responsible aren’t fans of the movie.’
Valentino Odasso said: ‘If you’re thinking of coming only for the door, not worth it.’
Adriana Couto said those visiting the door would find it a ‘disappointment’, as others described its demise as ‘heartbreaking’.
Its last known owner Neil Hutchinson had an extraordinary rise to fame and fortune.
In 2004, Hutchinson launched TrafficBroker from his bedroom with a ‘bad credit rating from university’ as well as a £2,000 overdraft – and by 2008 it was working with more than 250 firms, amassing sales of £18.3million.
Five years after that, he was ranked 21st on The Sunday Times Rich List, which estimated he had a net worth of £178million; this estimate increased £586million a year later.
In 2023, he married Hills Have Eyes II actress Jessica Stroup in a lavish Marrakech ceremony, almost a decade after they met at a Charity Water Gala in New York.
