Phones4u founder John Caudwell sells Knightsbridge mansion that was once home to ballerina Margot Fonteyn for £55million

Published: 10:47, 29 May 2026 | Updated: 10:48, 29 May 2026 The billionaire founder of Phones4u has sold his London mansion that was once home to prima ballerina Margot Fonteyn for £55million.  John Caudwell, 73, sold the Art Deco-inspired property Fonteyn House after just four weeks on the market.  The Knightsbridge home once served as the Panamanian Embassy, but became Dame Fonteyn's home when she married Roberto Arias, who was Panama's ambassador to the UK at the time.  Visitors to the home over the years have included Princess Margaret, Yves Saint Laurent and Fonteyn's dance partner, Rudolf Nureyev.  Russian ballerina Nureyev stayed at the house after defecting from the Soviet Union in 1961, while negotiating his contract with the Royal Ballet.  Fonteyn and Nureyev used the bedroom suite on the second floor - now a guest bedroom - as a dance studio.  The property was bought by businessman and Labour-backer John Caudwell in 2010 and was rebuilt into the 16,000 square foot behemoth that it is today.  The home, which overlooks the V&A, features a 12-metre swimming pool and a cinema screen, as well as a spa complete with a hot tub and ice fountain, a cocktail bar, and a gym.  The Knightsbridge property was sold for £55million after four weeks on the market  The Art Deo-inspired property, Fonteyn House, was once the Panamanian Embassy  John Caudwell pictured with his girlfriend Modesta Vžesniauskaitė, who he through cycling Margot Fonteyn was prime ballerina at Sadler's Wells ballet company, now known as the Royal Ballet Mr Caudwell, who is believed to have a net worth of between £1.5-2.8billion, also recently sold another multimillion Mayfair property, Bloomberg reported.  The home, which was once the coach house for the head groom to the aristocratic Capel family, was marketed at a humble £20million, though it is not known what the five-bedroom property sold for.  The billionaire is also currently spearheading another London development which will feature 29 homes, including three penthouses worth £200million each.  The £2billion block at 1 Mayfair will feature a 1000-book library, curated with the help of the Duke of Devonshire, 81-year-old Peregrine Cavendish.  Cavendish, often known as Stoker, owns book salon Heywood Hill on Curzon Street in Mayfair, which was reportedly the late Queen's go-to choice for stocking her bookshelves.  The development will also include a health spa and 20-metre swimming pool, and is set to be the UK's most decadent new residential address.   But the place the billionaire calls home is actually Grade I-listed Staffordshire manor house, Broughton Hall.  Built in the 1600s, John Caudwell told the Mail it was his 'spiritual home' after he bought it in the 1990s.  The billionaire on board his £80million yacht Titania, which featured in a Channel 4 documentary He claimed that the Long Gallery is haunted by the ghost of a boy shot by Oliver Cromwell's soldiers in the Civil War.  Before he moved in, elderly nuns lived there and used one of the rooms as their chapel.  The tycoon also owns an £80million megayacht, which has personalised spas, five state-of-the-art ensuite bedrooms and even a Michelin star chef.  The boat, one of the world's most elite superyachts, can be chartered to wealthy tycoons for £600,000 a week.  Named Titania after the Queen of the Fairies in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, the 73-metre-long vessel featured in a Channel 4 documentary last December.  While John is the owner of the mighty boat, he only visits it once or twice a year, as wealthy VIPs charter it the rest of the time.   No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.