HUGE PRIVATE DEAL.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1935, 18 December 1913, Page 5

HUGE PRIVATE DEAL.

DURE OF BEDFORD'S COVENT GARDEN

ESTATE SOLD,

MILLIONS CHANGE HANDS. By Tekirranh—Pros3 Assoclatlon-CoDTrlelil London, December 16. Mr. Harry Mallaby-Deelev, M.P. for Middlesex, lias purchased the Duke oi Bedford's Covent Garden estate of nineteen acres, tho purchase including Covent Garden Market, tlio Opera House, several theatres, the National Sporting Club, twenty-six streets, the Waldorf Hotel, tlio Akhvych, the Strand and Diury Lane Theatres, and Bow Street Police Court. It is the largest private purchase on record. The estimates of the price range from £5,000,000 to £10,000,000. Mr. Mallaby-Deeley previously purchased tlio site of Saint George's Hospital for half a .million, Piccadilly Hotel fo- half a million, and Saint James's Court Flats for a quarter of a million. (Rec. December 18, 0.20 a.m.) London, December 17. At the rate Australia paid for adjoining land, the price of tlio Duke of Bedford's land would bo £0,000,000. Other estimates place the purchase money at £1,800,000, plus the capital valuo of tho Covent Garden tolls— which produco £25,000 annually—the ground rent of the Opera House, three theatres which cost £24,000. When th© founder of tho Bedford family obtained tho land, tho cstimato of its value was £126 Bs. annually. Tho present Duko has sold 19,000 acres in Cambridgeshire (in 1909) and, 17,752 acres in Tavistock (1911). _Mr. Deely's father is a wealthy Liverpool merchant. Mr. Frank Curzon,a theatrical manager, is a younger brothor. Mr. Decly, interviewed, states that ho is not backcd by a syndicate, the purchase was entirely a private investment. Tho property would not be sold to a company. The Duke does not desire to disclose the purchase price. He says ho docs not fear Mr. Lloyd-George's land proposals, so long as they do not cause downright confiscation.