Photo: John McMurtrie
Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris has revealed that he’s considering turning his Essex mansion in to a boutique hotel for Iron Maiden fans. Which wouldn’t be a bad treat at all considering that the heavy metal godheads recorded their 1992 album, Fear Of The Dark, there.
The nine-acre property has been on the market for the last five years. It had a starting price of £6.75m but is now on sale for £3.95m after two price drops.
Sheering Hall – some of which dates back to the Norman conquest of 1066 – features a full-sized football pitch, the private Horse & Cart bar and even a red, British telephone box. Rock star excess? Too right! If you’re going to do this thing then do it right.
Speaking to Sweden’s Bandit Rock radio show, Harris explained that he wasn’t certain if he wanted to sell the property not, despite moving to the Bahamas in 2003. Now he’s considering going into the hotel trade.
He told Bandit Rock: “I was moving abroad, and I thought, ‘Well, I don’t know if I’m going to really want to stay abroad.’ So I put it at a silly price, and I thought, ‘If someone wants to pay silly money, they’re welcome to it.’ Then I brought the price down – it’s actually very reasonable now.”
He continued: “In an ideal world I’d like to turn it into a boutique hotel. I think Maiden fans would go there. I had a small bar in Portugal, called Eddie’s Bar, which is no longer open.
“But people used to come from all over the world just to go to that little bar. I think maybe they would go to the house. We recorded some albums there and there’s lots of memorabilia and everything like that.
“It means I could stay there as well, which would be great. It would be nice.”
Iron Maiden wrapped up the promotional duties for their 2015 album, Book Of Souls, last month but guitarist Dave Murray told fans to expect “some surprises”. Perhaps the Iron Maiden hotel will be one of them?
