Michael Caine's former home up for sale

A mews house, just round the corner from Hyde Park in London, has gone up for sale for £4,950,000. Not only is it a lovely mews house on a quiet cobbled street in the heart of London, it's also your chance to snap up Sir Michael Caine's old pad.

He lived in the property at the height of the swinging 60s. It was his home while he was filming iconic movies from The Italian Job to Alfie, and was a world away from the prefab he grew up in Elephant and Castle.

The area has come up in the world even further since Caine lived there. The mews is now gated and accessible only to residents - and the property has been dramatically improved. Most notably, it's twice the size it was when Cane lived there, as two mews houses have been knocked into one.

All the pokiness that usually comes as part of the package in a mews house has been banished, as the large windows, high ceilings, and double-size rooms mean there's plenty of space. Many of the ground-floor rooms also open into one another, so it feels even more spacious.

Nowadays it also has two reception rooms, a swanky kitchen and four en-suite bedrooms. One of the most unusual aspects for a mews house in this part of town is that it also offers off-street parking.

Caine famously left the UK in the 1970s in order to escape the clutches of the taxman. However, he has since returned and lives in a 200-year-old barn conversion on the outskirts of Leatherhead in Surrey - which he bought for £1 million in 1999. He reportedly chose the property because it is secluded, and it means he and his wife can live private lives despite his worldwide fame.

He also has a two-bedroom flat in Chelsea Harbour, and back when the Mansion Tax was on everyone's lips, he famously complained that both of his properties qualified as mansions under the proposed rules.

So what do you think? Would you fancy the £5 million mews house, or will you be waiting for the barn conversion to come onto the market? Let us know in the comments.