9 Orme Court – as previously owned by Spike Milligan and Eric Sykes – goes on the market

It is one of the most significant buildings in British comedy history – and now it can be yours… if you have £6.5million to spare.

Scripts for The Goon Show, Hancock’s Half Hour and Steptoe and Son were created at 9 Orme Court in Bayswater, West London, when it was the home of Associated London Scripts, the UK’s first co-operative for comedy writers.

The grand London townhouse was the workplace of comedy stars like Eric Sykes, Peter Sellers and Johnny Speight – and even Dr Who writer Terry Nation, who created the Daleks there – as well as being the London home of Spike Milligan.

Sykes and Milligan set up ALS in 1953, originally at 130 Uxbridge Road in Shepherd’s Bush Green, along with Steptoe writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson.

They were soon joined by other writers including Nation, Tony Hancock, Denis Norden and Barry Took. with their offices frequented by visitors such as Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers  to read and rehearse scripts.

By 1962, with up to 30 writers using the co-operative, it had outgrown its original based and relocated to the grander surroundings of 9 Orme Court in Bayswater, 100 yards away from Kensington Gardens. Sykes and Milligan rented the former townhouse and ALS let rooms to the various writers for a peppercorn rent.

Other shows created in the six-storey building include Educating Archie Till Death Do Us Part, The Frankie Howerd Show and Sykes. Meanwhile Dennis Spooner had an office from which wrote scripts for Thunderbirds and Stingray for Gerry Anderson.

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For his office, Eric took the first floor reception room to the front of the property, with Spike taking the first floor living room to the rear. In Spike’s office there was a pull-out bed and he also had a bedroom on one of the upper floors, using it as his London pied-a-terre.

Norma Farnes, Eric and Spike’s long-serving and long-suffering manager and agent, took the dining room on the ground floor as her office, with other writers taking rooms on the various floors.

In 1967, the co-operative broke up but  Eric and Spike remained at 9 Orme Court,  – which now bears Comic Heritage blue plaques commemorating them both – jointly buying the freehold while continuing to maintain the property as a creative writers co-operative.

During the early 1970s Spike sold his interest in the property to Eric and by the late 1970s most of the original writers had left. But Eric continued to work in his first floor office up until 2011, a year before his death.

In 1986 Eric was given an OBE, followed by a CBE in 2004, when he threw a small party at 9 Orme Court to celebrate, attended by family and friends including Denis Norden, Richard Briers and Sean Connery.

Now the family of Eric Sykes have decided to sell 9 Orme Court with the possibility of returning the 1890s-built the 5,700 sq ft building into a single six-bedroom family home, subject to planning permission from Westminster City Council. 

It is now being sold by estate agents Beauchamp Estates and Carter Jonas. Gary Hersham, founding director of Beauchamp Estates says: ‘9 Orme Court is the former pied-a-terre of Spike Milligan and the creative office of Eric Sykes wherze The Goon Show, Hancock’s Half Hour, Dr Who and the Daleks and Steptoe and Son were scripted.

‘This famous property would make an outstanding London townhouse on the doorstep of Kensington Gardens, perfect for comedy and Dr Who fans alike.’

The estate agent’s blurb says the building ‘provides substantial accommodation over lower ground, raised ground and four upper floors set behind a striking Arts and Craft inspired red brick Victorian façade. Features include large main rooms, high ceilings, Dutch gables, stone dressed chamfered bays, first floor ornate balcony and elegant entrance canopy.’

And also…

An embroidered silk robe that Harry Secombe wore backstage is going under the hammer this weekend, Chortle can reveal.

The burgundy garment, right, with HS embroidered on the breast pocked, was donated to an unnamed charity by the granddaughter of the man Secombe gave it to.

The woman, from Swansea, said her grandfather was ‘very proud’ of the Austin Reed dressing gown and would often wear it for breakfast, as both he and Secombe were of 'short and stocky' build.

It is being sold by Rogers Jones & Co auctioneers as part of their Welsh Sale on Saturday and has a start price of £160. Click here to bid.

Published: 17 Nov 2022