Leading volume housebuilder Weston Homes has sold the 2,088 sq ft three-bedroom Clock Tower Penthouse, at the £60 million (GDV) Hampshire development, Gun Hill Park for £760,000 – which is the highest price ever achieved for an apartment in Aldershot and the most expensive new build apartment sale in Hampshire in 2022, as recorded on HM Land Registry.

The landmark penthouse sale at Gun Hill Park underlines the significant sales success and values achieved at the prestigious residential development which consists of the transformation of the magnificent Grade II listed Cambridge Military Hospital, originally built in 1875-79, into a new residential address providing 140 exceptional quality apartments and houses, including meticulously converted homes with new interiors and newly built properties, completed with private gardens and landscaped grounds.

Weston Homes have revealed that they are now 50% sold at Gun Hill Park, with £31.5 million worth of sales, making the project one of the most successful new homes developments in Hampshire.

Prior to the sale of the Clock Tower Penthouse the highest recorded sale for an apartment sold in Aldershot was a luxurious two-bedroom apartment just over three miles from Gun Hill Park, in Ash, which sold in 2020 for £420,000.

Across the rest of the new homes market in Hampshire, no other new build development has achieved the value of the Clock Tower Penthouse – the nearest equivalent is a second hand three-bedroom penthouse apartment in Hythe Marina Village, with two marina moorings included, which sold for £1.125 million at the start of 2022.

Bob Weston, Chairman & Managing Director of Weston Homes, says: “With its grand Victorian-era buildings and converted homes with their tall windows, high ceilings and retained historic features Gun Hill Park is totally unique in the Aldershot housing market. The specification of the apartments and houses is of a London quality, with custom design kitchens and designer bathrooms. We have created our own market in Aldershot and this is why the development has achieved really good capital values – you can’t compare the homes to those in the local market, they are best compared to quality new homes in London.”

Suzanne Aplin, Group Sales & Marketing Director of Weston Homes says: “Weston Homes is delighted to have sold the spectacular Clock Tower Penthouse at Gun Hill Park at a record price for the area yet still at great value for money for the buyers. We believe that the penthouse is the most striking and unique apartment in Hampshire with its panoramic views and illustrious history and we are delighted to have found buyers to call it home.”

The Clock Tower Penthouse is located in the 109 feet tall clock tower on the top of The Cambridge, the central building at Gun Hill Park. The design of the clock tower was inspired by the clock tower at Osborne House, Queen Victoria’s holiday home on the Isle of Wight. The hospital was opened on 18th July 1879 and the clock was ceremonially started by HRH Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, who was the cousin of Queen Victoria and in whose honour the hospital was named.

In the cupola bell tower below the clock turret the Army installed the famous Sebastopol Bell, a bronze Russian church bell by Moscow sculptor Nicholas Samtoum, brought to Britain in 1856 at the end of the Crimean War as a trophy. In 1961 the bell in the clocktower at The Cambridge was removed and relocated to the St Omer Army Barracks in Aldershot and turned into a monument commemorating the dead on both sides in the Crimean War.

When HRH Princess Margaret visited Aldershot to close the hospital on 2nd February 1996 she toured the clock tower to enjoy the sweeping views, with the hands of the clock set and frozen at midnight to mark the closure of the complex and the departure of the military.

The Clock Tower Penthouse skilfully combines contemporary living spaces with heritage features, providing accommodation over six floors starting with a main lower level located across part of the top floor of The Cambridge apartment building.

The accommodation includes a striking entrance hall, spacious living room, family kitchen with dining area, the principal bedroom suite, with a walk-in dressing room and ensuite bathroom, and a second bedroom. There is a private cinema/media room on the second floor; on the third floor is a spacious bathroom, the fourth floor offers a further bedroom and the fifth floor, located in a cupola with arched windows (which originally housed a bell), forms a viewing platform which offers breath-taking panoramic views from the porthole windows over Aldershot and the countryside beyond. The top sixth level comprises the clock turret itself, the face of the clock being eight feet in diameter.

Homes at Gun Hill Park are priced from £285,000 for a one-bedroom apartment, £315,000 for a two-bedroom and from £500,000 for a three bedroom house.