East London's most expensive house: Georgian Clerkenwell house with swimming pool sold for record-breaking price

An early Georgian former rectory in Clerkenwell has become the most expensive house ever sold with an east London postcode.

The £7.495 million sale of the grade II listed Infinity House on Britton Street, in the EC1 postal district on the fringes of the City, was completed this month.

The remarkable brick facade home, which dates from about 1720, is the last surviving property on a street built by developer Simon Michell in the early 18th century.

It served as a rectory for more than 200 years but was given a spectacular modern overhaul completed in 2017 by owners and designers Agathe Jacquillat and Tomi Vollauschek.

They created a 5,570 sq ft home with six bedrooms, five bathrooms and a huge basement with glass-sided swimming pool, spa, cinema and wine cellar. The lower ground floor has a self-contained one-bedroom apartment.

Despite the popularity of East End districts such as Shoreditch, London remains a city of two halves in property terms with the vast majority of multi-million home sales in W postcode areas.

In some east London boroughs, the highest property sales ever recorded would be regarded as commonplace in huge swathes of west London.

According to Land Registry records the highest price ever paid in Newham was just under £2.4 million for a terraced house in 2002.

Even in fashionable Hackney, which has seen some of London’s biggest price rises over the past decade, no property has sold for more than the £3.8 million fetched for a terraced house in Hoxton Square in 2013.

A handful of vast penthouse apartments in new developments in Docklands and around City Road have sold for more than £7.5 million, but never a whole house.

Becky Fatemi, founder and director of agents Rokstone, which handled the sale alongside Shoreditch-based TBA Property, said: “It’s rare to find such a large house so close to central London with so much light and access to outside space.

“The £7 million-plus price also reflects the strong luxury market that has developed in east London, especially in Clerkenwell and Shoreditch. The whole area is a design, fashion, foodie, tech cluster.

“Prime central London no longer just comprises the traditional West End enclaves of Belgravia, Knightsbridge, Mayfair and Kensington and Chelsea.

"More clients are looking for trophy homes with outside space on the fashionable streets of the East End.”