'The parties are not like they used to be 30 years ago': the Marbella home that played host to aristocrats – for sale

Prince Alfonso von Hohenlohe helped put the Costa del Sol on the radar of the international jet set, alongside St Tropez and Monaco, when he founded The Marbella Club in 1954. It was an extravagant resort where European aristocrats and business leaders mingled with Hollywood actors.  

Some of these figures fell in love with the dramatic and tranquil beauty of the mountains behind Marbella, and bought secluded properties nearby, to which they could retreat after the Prince’s protracted parties. 

Sir James and Lady Annabel Goldsmith bought their finca, Torre de Tramores, near the sleepy village of Benahavis, in 1986, a home whose guests have included Diana, Princess of Wales, and the young Princes William and Harry. Close by, the gated estate of La Zagaleta was created to allow the super-rich to live in palatial villas far from prying eyes. 

Merchant banker Christopher Balfour and his partner Nichol Fleming – the son of the celebrated adventurer and travel writer Peter Fleming and the actress Celia Johnson (and nephew of James Bond creator Ian Fleming) – were so impressed by the Goldsmiths’ house, by Argentinian architect Mario Connio, that they asked him to design them a home just like it.  

“We bought a steep piece of land of around 50 acres with a tiny house surrounded by olive and eucalyptus trees, and asked Mario to ring us when it was ready,” says Balfour, now 77. “It is near the village of Alhaurin el Grande, described by Gerald Brenan [the British writer who relocated in 1968] as ‘a white handkerchief on the side of a mountain’.

“Our brief to Mario was a house with four bedrooms looking south with spectacular views – just like Tramores.

"They had to knock down the top of the mountain with a bulldozer and let it settle for a year, but two years after that our house was complete, down to the curtains and armchairs made from wonderfully coloured cottons we had found in Sri Lanka. I have never found a detail I would ever change.” There is also a two-bedroom guesthouse and staff cottage. 

Balfour’s love of Spain goes back to his childhood in Lima. The couple travelled widely, with ski trips to Klosters, and to Ian Fleming’s beachfront villa, Goldeneye, in Jamaica. Their love of sun-worshipping, horse riding and the outdoor lifestyle led them to this spot half an hour inland from Marbella.  

The couple met during Balfour’s first term at Oxford University in 1960. “Our families had known each other for three generations, but we kept our relationship very quiet,” says Balfour. 

Fleming – whose bullying classmates at Sunningdale Prep School were reportedly the inspiration behind two of his uncle’s Bond villains, Blofeld and Scaramanga – was a writer, and Balfour was a director at Hambros Bank before becoming chairman of the auction house Christie’s.

In this role, he oversaw the charity auction of his friend Diana, Princess of Wales’s designer gowns. “Diana befriended me shortly after her marriage, and during the sale of her gowns we enjoyed many fun trips to New York together, and nice lunches. We were very close during the last 12 months of her life,” says Balfour.

Their homes included a townhouse in Kensington, and Merrimoles, the Fleming estate in Oxfordshire that Nichol inherited on the death of his father, Peter, in 1972. Their Spanish retreat was full of friends and family every July and August. “It became rather famous as people loved it,” says Balfour. “It was a place where we had the best possible fun.”

This seems evident from his photo albums that, along with handwritten cards from the Princess, are packed with images of the British aristocracy enjoying sunny meals on their terrace – although he is too discreet to publish names.

However, a local press feature in May 1995, a few days after Nichol’s funeral, provides a report of Balfour accompanying the Prince of Wales and Lord and Lady Douro (now the Duke and Duchess of Wellington) on a visit to the Alhambra in Granada. 

Since then, and post-retirement, Balfour has spent much longer periods at the property, as well as many evenings at the Marbella Club. “The Hohenlohe family held the best parties ever. After Nichol died, I found many friends at the beach club restaurant.”

His friends’ love of his Spanish property has been one of the reasons he’s kept it on for so long, but now it’s on the market. “The parties are not like they used to be 30 years ago. It’s a different scene now,” he says. 

With the designer bars and boutiques of next-door Puerto Banús attracting reality TV stars alongside the supercars with Middle Eastern number plates, Marbella has indeed moved on – yet life in the hills behind remains refreshingly unchanged.  

The house is on the market for €1.49 million (£1.34 million) with Knight Frank