Historic home for new Beeb show

High on Highgate West Hill, surrounded by six acres of woodland and commanding some of the best views in London, stands Witanhurst. This almost regal, not to say overblown place, with 94 rooms and a price tag around the £35million mark, is said to be the largest private house in London after Buckingham Palace.

After years of standing empty it is about to become one of the most familiar properties in Britain - as the setting for the latest serving of reality TV. A dozen young hopefuls will try to sing and dance their way to stardom in Fame Academy, BBC1's answer to Popstars.

As they enjoy the studio, multigym and hot tub installed by the BBC, few, if any, of the wannabe stars will have any idea of the history of Witanhurst and its echoes of an altogether more gracious time, when the rich gave masked balls there and little girls did their gym in long skirts.

Witanhurst was an exquisite Georgian house called Parkfield when stockbroker Walter Scrimgeour bought it at the end of the 19th century. It was not as big then, but adequate for Mr Scrimgeour, his wife and their eight children once they had added a schoolroom, nurseries, a gym and a billiard room.

One of the daughters, Phyllis, went on to marry Sir Louis Greig, the controller of King George VI's household. She and all her brothers and sisters are long dead, but 30 years ago - when Phyllis was 87 - she and her younger sister Beryl gave an interview about their memories of growing up in Highgate.

"We did so enjoy life at Parkfield," said Beryl. "With eight of us in the family we made all our own fun. We did gymnastics in our long skirts; trapeze, parallel bars, that sort of thing. We were rather good at it."

They played card games from bridge to whist and even poker in bed in the mornings. "Great fun," said Beryl. "We kept our winnings on the mantelpiece."

While the children enjoyed themselves playing golf, fencing and riding some of the first bicycles, the running of the house was down to the family's 13 servants. There were weekly summer dances and the occasional masked ball. Phyllis and Beryl's brother, Humphrey, recorded in his diary how his father had the house "completely rebuilt with every modern convenience", for those days at least.

He wrote: "From the terrace the garden slipped, one side to a meadow to two tennis courts, an orchard, a pond and another meadow to the boundary of Fitzroy Avenue. Living at the top of West Hill we had a wonderful toboggan run in the garden." What they would have made of the house being used for would-be pop stars is anyone's guess, but Humphrey's daughter Jane Hawksley, of Suffolk, said: "I don't mind. At least it is putting it to use."

Tatler editor Geordie Greig, Phyllis's grandson, said: "I think it is a terrific idea. My grandmother had a tremendous sense of fun. She died in 1972 but had she been alive today, I'm sure she would have embraced wholeheartedly the idea of the nation enjoying this game in the family house."

When the family left Parkfield in 1913 it was bought by Liberal MP and soap magnate Sir Arthur Crosfield, who altered it beyond all recognition and renamed it Witanhurst.

Lady Greig was not impressed. "We tried to keep things in scale," she told her interviewer 30 years ago, "not like the present monster."

Now it is owned by a Paris-based Arab property company and while some of the Scrimgeours' descendants welcome it being put to use after so many years empty, not all nearby residents are happy.

Brenda Palmer, who has lived opposite for 40 years, said: "There could be teenagers from all over the country coming to watch the Fame Academy pupils come and go."

Another neighbour said: "If the show is anything like the Big Brother it is being billed as, there will be hundreds of teenage fans, paparazzi photographers and TV crews marauding around the village." And maybe Walter Scrimgeour will be spinning in his grave.