Exposed beams have been installed in the master suite, bringing that barn conversion look to Mayfair. In another incongruous touch, a pastiche Baroque fresco decorates the ceiling of a room on one of the upper floors of the six-storey house. The place looks Victorian from the outside, but was actually put up in the 1930s.

The kitchen is smart, but not the state-of-the-art gastronomic facility normally associated with homes that have eight-figure price tags, although the property is impressively wired up to cater for every technological need.

These are only some of the features of the £20 million house in Charles Street, Mayfair, that is Britain’s biggest repossession. There is planning permission to increase the floor space of the home and its adjoining mews house (staff accommodation, plus a double garage) by about 25 per cent to 15,000 sq ft — more than 16 times the size of the average dwelling in the UK. This means that there might be just enough space for David and Victoria Beckham, who are reported to be seeking a London pied à terre. The Beckham children would like the 48ft swimming pool.

The house will be sold by sealed bid on July 22 and there has already been considerable interest from developers and “end-users”, according to Charles Smith, of Sotheby’s International, the estate agents. Mr Smith does not think anyone will be offering “silly money”, but suspects a deal could be struck at something above the asking price. Buyers could view the property as representing good value: the same sort of grand London home would cost 20 per cent more in Knightsbridge.

Charles Street has been put on the market by Allsop, the receiver acting for Investec, which is owed money by a company controlled by Cevdet Caner. Mr Caner, who is now in Monaco, founded and held most of the shares in Level One, a German social and affordable housing group that went into administration last year. He will be hoping that his bet on prime Central London property turns out to be a better move than his gamble that Germans would prefer to buy homes rather than rent them.

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