Mansion could become folly

THE Framfield palace of convicted killer Nicholas van Hoogstraten is likely to remain a half-built folly, so says the man who designed it.

Chartered architect Anthony Browne said the half-mile long stucture would become a 'fitting monument' to the personal folly of the property tycoon who was this week convicted of the manslaughter of business rival Mohammed Raja.

Hoogstraten's Hamilton Palace has already cost 6 million, but would need anything from 12 million to 20 million to complete. Work stopped two years ago after a dispute between the millionaire and his builders, leaving the construction which has marble floors and solid oak doors practically roofless and rotting in the rain.

Mr Browne said: 'The real answer as to what will happen to the palace is still too early to say. We'll have to wait until sentencing is passed in October. But is he ever going to be let out to occupy it? Even if he sells it or is forced to sell it, it's hard to see it being completed.

'His building would always have made a magnificent ruin but instead of it taking 1,000 years to become one, it's only taken two. It's a fitting monument to Hoogstraten's own personal folly.'

Mr Browne, who was Hoogstraten's architect for 20 years before quitting in 2000, described the tycoon's outrageous opulence, bizarre thriftiness and intimidating aura.

He said: 'Hoogstraten didn't mind paying for what he could see but he couldn't come to terms with paying for things he couldn't. He spent 1.5 million building a boat house, but it was just a place to have tea.

'One time we needed to install piling (30 metre by three metre rods of concrete, drilled 100 feet into the ground to support the building's foundations). It cost 120,000 and he paid for it on his credit card.

'But we needed to fit a massive sub-station to supply the electricity and he just wouldn't stump up the money.'

Work on the palace interior came to a standstill after Hoogstraten who was living in an old converted lodge cottage on the 100-acre High Cross estate began to interfere with the plans.

Mr Browne said: 'He wanted a massive staircase built that took up most of the central part of the building. He then had an idea for an extra storey to be put on top of part of the palace. A couple of years later he decided it didn't look right and when he asked me who had designed it I had to tell him it was him.

'He had started to go slightly mad. He'd started to believe his own propoganda.'

Despite a personal wealth estimated at around 200 million, Hoogstraten would go to extraordinary lengths to save money. Mr Browne described one incident when police arrived at the estate to interview Hoogstraten. The officers saw used tea bags which had been left out to dry on the kitchen worktop to be recycled. 'He would steam unused stamps off envelopes,' added Mr Browne.

Referring to Hoogstraten's reputation as a ruthless bully, Mr Browne said: 'Was he intimidating? Yes, very much so. He was quite capable of doing anything to anybody.

'But he was verbally violent he was always violent with his tongue and quite often that's worse than physical violence.

'If you get a slap from someone, you can recover relatively quickly. But his verbal intimidation and tongue lashings will remain with many people for many years.'