At a corner table at 108 Brasserie in the Marylebone Hotel on the fringe of the Howard de Walden Estate, Mark Kildea, the chief executive of one of London\u2019s old family estates, meets for lunch.<\/p>\n
The brasserie is among a number of stylish restaurants and boutiques that the estate, encompassing about 800 buildings on 95 acres of land between Oxford Street and Regent\u2019s Park, has in recent years become renowned for, alongside its roots as a healthcare district stemming from Harley Street.<\/p>\n
Kildea, 60, sitting down to an Angostura orange bitters and tonic water \u2014 \u201ca phenomenal thirst-quencher\u201d \u2014 has made developing the district as a hub for health tech innovation a central part of the strategy since he was promoted to chief executive during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic after nine years as its finance chief.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s got this history,\u201d Kildea says. \u201cI would argue, if you think about London, how many districts are still famous for that same trade or profession? I can only think of the City because even places like Covent Garden or Smithfield, famous for the butchery trade, they\u2019ve changed over time.\u201d<\/p>\n
He adds: \u201cThat\u2019s been one of the things that has been successful about the Harley Street health district. But it\u2019s actually as important today, or even more important today than it was in the Victorian period when it was created, in essence, because healthcare is changing quite dramatically.\u201d<\/p>\n
Its connection with healthcare can be dated at least as far back as 1850 when the Establishment for Gentlewomen During Temporary Illness opened on Harley Street. In 1853 Florence Nightingale was appointed resident superintendent but left shortly afterwards to treat wounded soldiers on the battlefields of Crimea.<\/p>\n
Amid today\u2019s advent of artificial intelligence and medtech innovation, the estate has been more actively managing its portfolio, investing \u201chundreds of millions of pounds\u201d in renovating and repurposing Victorian and Georgian buildings to build a cluster of health tech tenants and private sector-NHS partnerships, which, Kildea says, can ultimately help the country avoid \u201chealth bankruptcy\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s plenty of innovation. It\u2019s the adoption of it and the scaling up of it [that\u2019s a challenge],\u201d he notes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact is you\u2019ve got regulation that holds that back. Funding holds that back \u2026 The NHS is massive. If it can get its act together and act as one whole spire, then it\u2019s incredibly attractive, not just to businesses in the UK, but probably attractive to businesses from elsewhere too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kildea is familiar with the brasserie\u2019s menu and the hotel\u2019s general manager, who comes over to the table to greet us.<\/p>\n
For starters we both order crispy tiger prawns with spicy cocktail sauce from the set menu. Kildea, who enjoys walking in the Cotwolds with his wife, where he has a home, and is off for some \u201cproper trekking\u201d at the end of January in Patagonia \u2014 part of what he quips is a \u201cgoal to manage decline\u201d \u2014opts for water.<\/p>\n
Despite primarily being a hub for private healthcare, Kildea says the estate can help alleviate pressures on the NHS, including from an ageing population, and showcase and introduce technologies.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all living longer but it comes with challenges, so you\u2019re always going to get, I call them the ageing conditions, from cancer, cardiac, ophthalmology, orthopaedics and cognitive decline.\u201d<\/p>\n
He adds: \u201cWe realised that healthcare was changing quite dramatically. It\u2019s gone through the challenging period of Covid. There\u2019s a workforce shortage. There\u2019s a funding shortage. The government just doesn\u2019t have enough money to spend on healthcare. There\u2019s a societal shift as well towards wellbeing, preventative healthcare. So we wanted to make sure that Harley Street was in a position to respond to that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Healthcare is the largest part of its portfolio, accounting for almost 40 per cent of both its property income and value. Healthcare income increased 4.8 per cent to \u00a363.8 million in the year to the end of March 2025 and that part of the portfolio was valued at \u00a31.58 billion, an increase of 3.5 per cent. At the turn of the century, 40 per cent of income was from office tenants.<\/p>\n
The estate\u2019s healthcare district also represents 40 per cent of London\u2019s independent market and 10 per cent of the UK\u2019s, partly due to an increase of NHS private patient units.<\/p>\n
The portfolio was 98.8 per cent let at the end of its 2025 financial year, excluding buildings under refurbishment. <\/p>\n
It includes Hale House on Portland Place, launched last year in partnership with Spacemade. Initially two buildings totalling 29,000 sq ft created through about \u00a325 million of investment, Hale House is designed as a flexible workspace for health tech start-ups and investors. <\/p>\n
The anchor tenant is UCLPartners, a large health innovation network working with NHS hospitals. It was partly created in response to market research that found prospective tenants concerned about the cost and availability of space on the estate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are already connecting innovators to some of our largest hospitals and clinics. One of our largest hospitals is very close to trialling with some health innovators with support from UCLPartners.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hospitals on the estate include the King Edward VII\u2019s hospital, which was acquired by Bupa last year and the London Clinic, which partnered with America\u2019s Northwestern Medicine two years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a lot of lovely townhouses here, which work for some specific healthcare and medical needs. But in terms of having that appropriate building [Hale House] that would create that energy and that vibe and bring the innovators here, that was something that was missing. And it was really important.\u201d<\/p>\n
At 1 Harley Street, a 25,000 sq ft healthcare space due to complete in March after a \u00a325 million refurbishment, the estate is in late-stage letting discussions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the gateway for Harley Street. It\u2019s number one. So it\u2019s important that we get the right type of occupier that adds something to the area.\u201d<\/p>\n
For a main course, Kildea has chicken Milanese with lemon zest, capers, rocket and parmesan, plus a side of hand-cut chips.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel quite guilty talking about healthcare and having chips on the table,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
I have Thai massaman curry with baby potatoes, mange tout, baby corn, toasted coconut and sticky rice. <\/p>\n
Brasseries like this one at the Marylebone Hotel are what Kildea believes distinguish the estate from other healthcare clusters, particularly those in out-of-town science and business parks.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have this proper ecosystem. But also it\u2019s within a lovely setting. It\u2019s not on some city fringe \u2026 It\u2019s culturally interesting \u2026 You have the experience economy here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Conversely, he recognises that because of the challenges of developing historical buildings, some listed, you would not necessarily start a healthcare hub here.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause it would probably be more cost effective to do that in Maidenhead or on some biomedical campus. But where are you going to find your patients? Where are the nurses going to come from? It just doesn\u2019t happen. So we manage that well within the constraints.\u201d<\/p>\n
As well as securing quality tenants, the challenge is also to retain the investment confidence of the family.<\/p>\n
The Howard de Walden family have controlled the estate since 1879, when the death of the childless 5th Duke of Portland resulted in the land being passed to his sister, Lucy Joan Bentinck, widow of the 6th Baron Howard de Walden. The family is currently led by Peter Czernin, the film producer, who became the 11th Baron Howard de Walden in 2024 after the death of his mother, Hazel.<\/p>\n
The family received dividends totalling \u00a350.3 million last year, up from \u00a344.1 million in the previous 12-month period.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are probably 60 beneficiaries\u201d, says Kildea, who hosts an annual shareholder meeting at the nearby King\u2019s Fund thinktank on Cavendish Square.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my job as a chief executive to stand up there every year and tell them: \u2018This is a great investment. This is something you should continue to be associated with. It will provide you with a good stable return and there\u2019s some really exciting stuff happening in healthcare.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The estate, which traces its history to the Domesday Book in 1086, is a world away from Kildea\u2019s \u201cvery working class\u201d upbringing in a council house in Scotland.<\/p>\n
But after university at Strathclyde he worked in the City of London during the 1980s deregulation boom when \u201cfinance was the sexy place to be\u201d. After periods on banking and trading floors, he went on to become group treasurer for 17 years until 2011 at Capital Shopping Centres, later called Intu, which collapsed in 2020.<\/p>\n
With time running out, suitably we skip dessert and order quick coffees \u2014 Kildea an Americano with warm milk and I have an espresso \u2014 before we say goodbye.<\/p>\n
CV <\/p>\n
Age: 60
Education: University of Strathclyde \u2013 BA, economics 1983-1987
Career: Howard de Walden Estate, chief executive since September 2020 and finance director from 2011 to 2020. Before this, group treasurer at Capital Shopping Centres for 17 years. Fellow of the Association of Corporate Treasurers.
Family: Married. No children<\/p>\n
Receipt <\/p>\n
Kingsdown still water \u00a36
Kingsdown sparkling water \u00a36 x 2
London Essence tonic water \u00a34.50
Starters: Crispy tiger prawns x 2 \u00a318 x 2
Set menu two courses \u00a330 each:
Thai Massaman curry x1 (plus chicken \u00a38)
Chicken milanese<\/p>\n
Side of chips \u00a37
Americano coffee \u00a36.25
Espresso coffee \u00a35.25
Service charge \u00a313.63<\/p>\n
Total: \u00a3122.63<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At a corner table at 108 Brasserie in the Marylebone Hotel on the fringe of the Howard de…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[163,521,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-265249","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}