Stocks House - Playboy

Playboy

In 1972, Stocks House was purchased by American Playboy executive Victor Lownes and English Playmate Marilyn Cole for £115,000. They installed a massive jacuzzi - thought to be the largest in the country - in the house. The mansion was used as a training camp for Playboy bunnies and was well known for hosting extravagant parties with celebrities, including a 25-hour party to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of Playboy magazine. The 1970s A-list that attended Stocks parties held by Lownes, was the same celebrity crowd who also partied and played the tables at the London Playboy Club. Stocks during that era was considered the Playboy Mansion of England, copying the general concept of a great Old English mansion of Hugh Hefner, which served as the Playboy Mansion in the U.S.

Coincidentally Lownes also owned 1 Connaught Square in London, the townhouse of Mary Augusta Ward, the former owner of Stocks, where she had died.

Following Lownes' dismissal from Playboy in 1981 he remained in the property for several years and developed it into a high-end resort hotel, but he was eventually forced to sell it due to the high running cost.