Acclaim for his talent betrays no sign of diminishing, as indicated by his triumph in notching up 2023’s Christmas Number 1, not to mention his success in generating earnings of more than a £44,000-a-day – after tax – in the last financial year.
And now, more than seven years after his death at the age of 53, George Michael‘s first superstar home – acquired in 1987 as he forged ahead with his solo career – is being treated to a dazzling revamp by his only surviving sister, Yioda Panayiotou.
Some might be tempted to say it is not before time. Photographs reveal that the house, in Hampstead, north London, is now profoundly dilapidated, with its white cement board cladding breaking up to leave the building looking more like something on a sink estate rather than in a leafy enclave where house prices routinely climb north of £10million.
Yioda, 62, is intent on restoring the property to what her architect describes as a ‘habitable’ condition, and seeks to remove a water tank from the roof, as well as replacing the roof in its entirety, along with the crumbling cladding.
But that’s just for starters. She’s also seeking permission to convert two garages into living quarters ‘with a more traditional house frontage’ which will ‘reinstate the character of the house’. New decking is to be installed around the main house so that it wraps around to a bedroom at the rear. The window on the upper ground floor will be raised so that it enjoys a fuller view of the garden.
Balustrading will be erected both on the terrace – which will be reached via new patio doors – and along the drive.
Let’s hope that Yioda’s Grand Design gives the house a new and happier lease of life.
Built to a futuristic design in the mid-1970s, it was ransacked in George Michael’s absence in 2002 when raiders stole jewellery, designer clothes and paintings, as well as family heirlooms bequeathed to the Wham! star by his beloved mother, who died of cancer in 1997.
The intruders then drove off in his Aston Martin DB7.
In the last decade of his life he spent far more of his time at a classic Georgian house in north London and at his 16th century house in Oxfordshire where he was found dead on Christmas Day 2016.
Exactly three years later, his younger sister, Melanie, died aged 59, leaving Yioda as the only surviving sibling.