"Experience The Exceptional"

The ugliest buildings in London?

The remarkable thing about One Hyde Park, with its Arabic scrawl and Rolex/McClaren showrooms not that it is the most expensive residential property in the world (in 2010, a penthouse went for £140 million). No, what is extraordinary is that it is empty.

The building replaced a ghastly 1960s urban concrete affair that blocked Knightsbridge from Hyde Park. An obvious place for the billionaire Candy Brothers to re build, which they did from 2006 creating a snarling traffic mess at the doorstep of Harrod's and the beautiful Mandarin Oriental making Central London and me miserable for five years. But what did they care ?

1HP comes with all the modern-day conveniences - bullet proof windows, 24 hour armed security, lock-down procedures and secure private access for the RR. In short, a military bunker for the nine residential addresses actually registered with the Westminster City Council for Council Tax.  The remaining units purchased by offshore corporates or Guernsey tax shelters as investment, never to be inhabited and leaving an otherwise vibrant neighbourhood empty.

"When council spending is under unprecedented pressure, it is scandalous that residents in luxury apartments can avoid their share of council tax liability."

--Westminster North MP Karen Buck