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THE BISHOPS AVENUE, London

The Bishop's Avenue London, N2 in the London Borough of Barnet is one of London's most exclusive residential thoroughfares. It is named after the Bishop's Wood, originally owned by the Bishop of London through which it runs. The Bishop's Avenue connects the north side of Hampstead Heath at Kenwood (Hampstead Lane) to East Finchley and is on the boundary of the Borough to the London Borough of Haringey.

The road is a favourite with the international ultra-rich and is often referred to by its nickname of "Millionaires' Row" (although recently, it has been referred to as "Billionaire's Row" in keeping with inflation), and each property occupies a 2-3 acre plot, which is relatively palatial for London. During the mid 1990s, the street came to resemble a building site with many of the original houses being re-built. Properties on the street now have a vast array of individualistic architectural styles.

Property prices on the street sailed past the £1 million mark in the late 1980s[2], with house prices now typically starting from about £5,000,000 ($9,497,759 USD), with no upper bound. Currently Turkish tycoon Halis Toprak's 30,000 sq ft home, styled around a Greek temple, is for sale at £50 million ($94 million USD), making it one of the most expensive houses in the world, as listed by Forbes magazine.

Amongst the road's rich and famous residents are the Saudi Royal Family, whose London residence is situated there, although details of other residents and their addresses are kept relatively sketchy. Construction is constantly underway on The Bishops Avenue and prospective residents will purchase large properties as they become available, only to flatten them and construct their own from scratch. Another practice is to purchase any available property on the road, with the intention of moving to another non-available site, and to subsequently move when the more desired plot becomes available; however, there has been some recent press attention into whether the Bishop's Avenue has entered something of a decline. This has been mainly attributed to the fact that the road often appears to be very 'dead', because many of the residences do not appear to be primary residences, with the owners often residing abroad. Property switches hands frequently between the road's existing residents, and prominent corner positions are popular, as are some of the sites which are completely concealed from the road with gardens.

The Avenue is noted for the number of entrepreneurs and tycoons residents on it - the sudden influx of self-made billionaires (as opposed to aristocracy) is a recent phenomenon in London, and the Avenue is therefore markedly different to the highly exclusive but much more subtle and subdued character of areas such as Belgravia or Mayfair.

The fairly lax planning regulations on the road have resulted in some astonishing, and certainly unconventional, constructions as residents vie for attention and prestige. The exact details of properties on the avenue are not readily available although it appears that swimming pools, tennis courts, elevators and even private bowling alleys are popular.

The designs of some of the houses, nearly all of which are surrounded by high fences and security gates, have been criticized by various local and council groups although the wealthy residents, with the enormous houses eligible to very heavy taxation, usually gain planning permission from the local council, and some would argue that given the developments which have been allowed to take place, the architectural blend of questionable taste has become the avenue's signature style and it would therefore be pointless to try and restrain or restrict future development.

''London is now the capital of the moneyed world; the very rich consider it their second home,'' said Mr Abrahmsohn, as we sat in his tiny vehicle outside the huge wrought-iron gates of Toprak Mansion.

''The Bishops Avenue is a global name. It is well known to the international wealthy, and for them to have a house here is the ultimate status symbol.''

And yet, bizarrely, a sizeable proportion of the houses in The Bishops Avenue, many of which are of the Southfork luxury ranch-style variety, appear to be empty and unloved. Windows are barred, drives are unswept and weeds are creeping through.

Even the ubiquitous stone pineapples that cheer up the brick gateposts are covered in polythene outside some of the houses. The only visible signs of habitation are the security guards lurking in the shadows like feral cats.

''A lot of the owners have houses all over the world and like to have a big house in London just as an investment,'' said Mr Abrahmsohn, who started wheeling and dealing in property from a single upstairs room in nearby Golders Green 30 years ago.

''They are not worried about leaving their houses empty. The property will always make money. Properties in this street will always be wanted whatever the state of the market.''

The Bishops Avenue is unlike any other street in London - or elsewhere in the country. It is more easily compared to a slimmed-down version of America's Bellevue Avenue, in Newport, Rhode Island, where fantastic mansions shipped in from every corner of the globe and every period of history were rebuilt by the USA's great industrial barons at the turn of the 20th century.

A century later, international money (and lots of it) and minimal planning restrictions have turned The Bishops Avenue into Britain's very own Bellevue Avenue - a 21st-century boulevard of bounteous excess.

If you have the money and want to live in a super-mansion of your own grandiose design that is within easy reach of both the city and a private jet at Luton Airport, then this lane of electronic gates, high hedges and swivelling cameras is where you want to be.

The road was built in 1887 when even then it was home to the newly prosperous, among them George Sainsbury and William Lyle of Tate and Lyle. By the 1930s, when the nickname Millionaires' Row was established, the actress Gracie Fields had become a resident and Evelyn Waugh placed his fictional press baron Lord Copper there in his book Scoop.

After the war, the street re-established its reputation as an enclave for newly moneyed captains of industry, such as Billy Butlin. It also had its smattering of celebrities such as Des O'Connor, Lionel Blair and even a young Salman Rushdie.

It was in the mid-1960s, as affluent Greeks moved in after the overthrow of the Greek monarchy, that the nature of the avenue changed. (Then the average price of a house was £200,000 and the architectural style included in-house chapels.)

By now, the road not only housed a number of dubious characters including Emil Savundra and Asil Nadir (of Polly Peck fame); it was also a haven for the world's very rich escaping from political or economic crises.

The Opec price hike in 1973 brought the Middle-East oil dollars to the avenue; the 1980s saw the arrival of the Nigerians, followed in the early 1990s by the Eastern Europeans. There was a rush of money from Hong Kong when the Chinese annexed the crown colony in 1997, and the Saudi Royal family bought 10 houses when they feared an invasion from Saddam Hussein.

More recently, successful members of Britain's Indian community have moved in, as well as, of course, the Russian oligarchs, one of whom has never been known to leave his mansion. Other current residents in the street include the publisher Richard Desmond and the Brunei royal family.

''In the 1970s and 1980s, the road went through a disreputable phase,'' said Savills estate agent Simon Edwards, who has sold one or two of the avenue's properties under Mr Abrahmsohn's nose.

''Most of them were all hat and no rabbit. The fronts were showy and inside they were gimcrack and gimmicky. I remember selling houses with purple scallop-shaped baths and solid gold taps moulded like swans. Bedrooms had shag-pile carpets and enormous fitted water-beds. The houses were brash and cheesy.

''But that has changed dramatically in the past few years. At least eight of the houses have been locally listed - there are some very interesting Cape Dutch and Arts and Crafts buildings. And the new generation of residents are interested in quality both inside and out. They are used to staying at the very best five-star hotels, and that is how they want their houses to be and to look.''

As far as the well-connected Trevor Abrahmsohn is concerned, The Bishops Avenue is faultless. It is his Yellow Brick Road, but it reminds him more of the film The Yellow Rolls-Royce.

''Like the film, the avenue has many varied and colourful owners,'' he said, noting that a brand-new £250,000 Rolls-Royce was the car of choice for almost all the avenue's residents.

"To an international buyer, the name The Bishop's Avenue is worth 20 per cent more than a comparable house anywhere else. No one ever lost money buying in The Bishops Avenue.

''People forget how gaudy English stately homes were when they were first built. Given time, the houses in The Bishops Avenue will be as admired as any other. In fact, I predict Toprak Mansion will be listed by English Heritage in 100 years' time.''

That is, of course, as long as the gatekeeper keeps an eye on the new changes being wrought by Ms Peramam through his office windscreen.

London's most expensive residential streets

On the basis of cost per square foot, the Bishops Avenue in fact comes in at No 16, well below London's most expensive street.

To put it in context, a modest semi in an ordinary part of London is about 1,250 square feet and will cost about £350 to £400 a square foot. At the very top end of the market, assuming long leasehold or freehold interest and in very good condition, that price can rise to £4,000 per square foot and upwards.

Listed below are the most expensive streets in London, according to Savills estate agency.

1. Kensington Palace Gardens, W8 £4,000 to £5,000 per sq ft
2. The Boltons, SW10 £3,500 to £5,000 per sq ft
3. Lowndes Sq, SW1 £3,500 to £4,000 per sq ft
4. Belgrave Square, SW1 £3,500 to £4,000 per sq ft
5. Eaton Square, SW1 £3,500 to £4,000 per sq ft
6. Upper Phillimore Gardens, W8 £3,000 to £3,500 per sq ft
7. Wilton Crescent, SW1 £3,000 to £3,500 per sq ft
8. Chesham place, SW1 £3,000 to £3,500 per sq ft
9. Egerton Crescent/Terrace, SW3 £3,000 per sq ft
10. Holland Park, W11 £2,500 to £3,500 per sq ft
11. Avenue Road, NW8 £2,750 to 3,000 per sq ft
12. Cadogan Square, SW1 £2,500 to £3,000 per sq ft
13. Cheyne Walk, SW3 £2,500 to £3,000 per sq ft
14. Addison Gardens, W14 £2,500 to £3,000 per sq ft
15. Hanover Terrace, NW1 £2,000 per sq ft

(The Bishops Avenue, N2 comes in at No 16, at £2,000 per sq ft)

Famous residents:

Dame Gracie Fields
Lakshmi Mittal
Billy Butlin
Saudi Royal Family

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