Residents have described North Korean communist diplomats as the ‘perfect neighbours’ – and revealed they play classical music and enjoy a curry.
The tenants, who declined to give their names, gave an insight into what it’s like living next to the North Korean embassy in Gunnersbury, west London, after their home was put on the market for £1.7 million.
Details for the home for sale describes the detached 1920s property as a four bedroomed home with a sprawling back garden and a garage.
The embassy meanwhile has a low profile, which is only given away by a flagpole in the garden where the North Korean flag is hoisted on significant occasions.
It first became the Embassy of North Korea in 2003 when it went on the market for £1.3 million.
The house for sale is currently rented out to a family with the owner living overseas.
The tenant told Metro: ‘They are perfect neighbours. The only noise we here is someone playing classical music on the piano which is lovely.
‘We rarely see anyone come in or out but once a teenage boy, who lives there, came to ask for his ball back, he was super nice and polite.’
The property details for the detached home on sale describes an entrance hall featuring a fireplace and leads to two reception rooms, one of which has double doors opening onto the rear garden. A kitchen/breakfast room, cloakroom, and utility room complete the ground floor.
There are four double bedrooms and two bathrooms. The listing touts ‘potential for a large ground-floor extension.’
The rear garden is described as ‘lovely’ and has side access, and the property is freehold and is offered with no onward chain.
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The house is near Gunnersbury Park, where a house formerly owned by the banking family the Rothschilds sits in the grounds and is now a museum.
It is also close to Acton Town station and nearby shops and restaurants including curry house where embassy residents have been spotted.
Ealing Broadway station, with its Elizabeth Line connection is also close.
The tenant added: ‘We have been here two years and it’s a great area. I can honestly say the embassy residents are nothing but ideal neighbours. If it wasn’t for the rubbish we see put out on bin day, we would hardly know they are there.’
Other neighbours described how they had seen the current embassy residents in the local curry house and playing tennis on courts opposite the house.
One told Metro: ‘There were different people in the embassy two years or so ago but they seemed to kind of do a moonlit flit. We wondered if they had come under heat from our government or theirs.
‘Anyway the new people seem fine. They play tennis and like a curry at our local restaurant. There was a small demonstration against their government outside the house a week or do ago but nothing much.’
Two black Mercedes cars are regularly parked at the embassy while there are CCTV cameras converging the embassy grounds.
Another neighbour said: ‘They come in and out in cars we rarely see them on foot. They seem very quiet and low key which I guess goes with the territory when you represent an authoritarian state.
‘There was a protest outside the house last week but nothing major. It’s such a strange place for an embassy here in suburbia. But I guess they want to fly under the radar that’s the point.’
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