Amazing opportunity to buy a piece of London's most famous pie, Eel Pie Island!
We are very excited to have secured for sale an unusual property on this unique and well known Thames island, famous as the home one of London's most iconic artistic communities and rock legend.
The history
Eel Pie Island is the largest island in the London area of The Thames at just under 9 acres. Situated in the London Borough of Richmond-Upon-Thames on the Twickenham stretch of the river, opposite the Twickenham Embankment, it's above the only lock on the Tideway and is accessible only by boat or the footbridge built in the 1950s.
Thought (but not confirmed!) to have been named after the eel pies served by its famous inn, Eel Pie House, it has been a centre of cultural and tourism activity for centuries, being a popular destination for day-trippers in the 17th and 18th centuries, but made particularly famous in modern times in the 1950s and 60s when it was the centre of the popular music scene - starting with Jazz and moving on to Rock, earning its reputation as “the place where the 60s began”.
The famous Eel Pie Island Hotel became a favourite venue for touring jazz bands, and is claimed to be the launch pad for many of the world's biggest rock groups including The Who, The Rolling Stones, The Yard Birds, Pink Floyd and Genesis. It's the inspiration for Pete Townshend's Eel Pie Recording Studios, located just across the river on the mainland.
Today, the island is a private haven to many a celebrity seeking anonymity, with around 120 inhabitants in 50 permanent dwellings, as well as houseboats. It's also home to one of the largest and oldest rowing clubs in London, the Twickenham Rowing Club, as well as the only working boatyard on the tidal Thames, which welcomes all sorts of river craft for maintenance and refurbishment.
It has a thriving artistic community with a wide variety of artist studios housed in the Boat Yard, which open their doors to the public at weekends over the summer months, bringing a steady flow of visitors from all over the world, and allowing its cultural and bohemian legacy to live on.
The opportunity
Rose & Partners is privileged to have been instructed to sell the Eel Pie Island Slipway, which our client originally acquired to maintain the fleet of boats belonging to Thames Cruises Ltd, who run a number of pleasure boats up and down the Thames. The yard also maintains and services other boats too.
The site currently comprises a two-storey commercial building of approximately 533 sq m (5,741 ft) and a covered slipway of 670m (7.212 ft) GIA.
Offices occupy the commercial building and are let on occupational licences, generating an income of £52,800 in total. The slipway generates an income of £150,000 making a total income of £202,800.
We are guiding this at £3.5m, with the benefit of a well-established income stream, which reflects a gross yield of 5.8%.
There are a number of potential redevelopment opportunities here, but it is for a buyer to make their own investigations.
For more information, please contact Simon or Tom at Rose & Partners. info@roseandpartners.co.uk