12 May 2024 , 10:00
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Would you step foot in this abandoned mansion? The jaw-dropping country estate in Kent is bigger than Buckingham Palace but has sadly been eerily abandoned for 40 years, laying bare and left to rot.
Hamilton Palace has been dubbed "The Ghost House of Sussex" as it's no more than a huge shell these days, with little sign anyone will ever live there again. It was built for British multi-millionaire Nicholas van Hoogstraten - one of the wealthiest people in Sussex. Being left to decay since construction stopped in 1985, the mansion wastes away in the countryside - so why has such an impressive property been completely abandoned?
The owner, Nicholas van Hoogstraten, was convicted for the manslaughter of a former buisness rival Mohammed Raja in 2002. However, the verdict was overturned on appeal and he was subsequently released. Three years later, Nicholas was ordered to pay the Raja family £6 million in a civil case. Construction was put on hold shortly after, and Mr Van Hoogstraten told The Argus that completing the renovations weren't his "top priority".
The sprawling estate has been abandoned for 40 years (PA)The businessman, 79, is a Sussex native born in Shoreham and owns dozens of properties in the area. He is said to have started making money selling stamps as a teenager before moving into property and, by the age of 22, had 350 properties in Sussex alone. In the 1980s housing boom he acquired more than 2,000 properties and had sold 90% of them by the 1990s. Over the past couple of decades, he has been involved in widely reported disputes with neighbours over the huge estate.
Locals have previously vented about the large area being left unused and there was a row over a public footpath that ran through it that Mr Van Hoogstraten did not want to be used. Eight years ago, the property owner hit out at those complaining about the state of the mansion, calling them "peasants" and said: "Even the most moronic of peasants would be able to see… that we have been busy landscaping the grounds of the palace so as to prepare for scheduled works."
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A closer look at the unfinished renovation (Daily Mirror)The crumbling estate been the subject of immense investment despite the fact that no one has ever lived in it and there is little sign that anyone ever will. Drone footage taken in 2022 showed the owner still has no plans to resume renovation as pictures showd the dilapidated building encased in scaffolding and overgrowing foliage, with discarded containers, construction equipment and other items littered throughout the grounds.
Despite its scale, there is little to hint at its presence as you approach. It is hidden away off of an unassuming junction on the A22 south of Uckfield in East Sussex and the house, bigger than Buckingham Palace, is completely obscured by a thick wooded area. The closest glimpse you can get on foot is of a gated entrance onto the estate that gives nothing away, aside from a bricked unit and a large, white container. But there is a definite sense of unease. Stuck on the gate is a sign 'High Cross Estate, Private Property, Keep Out' written in capital letters, reports SussexLive.
If that's not enough, multiple other signs warn of "shooting in progress", " dogs running free" and CCTV being in operation. It is a clear message: do not try and come in. Few have been inside, but one reporter who did, in 2000, when it was said to be two years off completion, described a grand central staircase and reception hall, with lift shafts already installed and expensive stone balustrades and pillars.
Low-level lighting had been installed on the roof, where there was to be a garden, and there was space for a fountain below. One entire floor was due to house Van Hoogstraten's art collection. Today, the domed roof of the main building still rises over the top of the treeline and remains visible from a distance from the nearest set of houses in the hamlet of Palehouse Common.
A version of this story was first published in July 2020.