A LUXURY art deco-inspired family home that divided opinion when it was built is for sale for £3.65m.

Tindale Towers, in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, has won several awards for its design, inspired a book and would not look out of place on a Hollywood film set.

Some people have questioned why owners Mike and Jules Keen wanted to build a 38-room fourstorey luxury mansion between a scrapyard and a bypass.

But Mr Keen, who is raising capital to go back into the furniture business, said the house would most likely take “a year or so” to sell, but he expects to be vindicated.

Mr Keen said: “We wouldn’t have got planning permission to build it anywhere else.

“We only ever got criticism when it was in breeze blocks. Once the rendering went on and people could see what it was going to look like, that was the end of it.

“It’s designed for its location, there are no significant windows at the back of the property and we have wonderful views from the front.

“We have had our fun, the kids have grown up and are leaving, so we feel like we’re just rattling about in the place.”

In 2008, the building was honoured at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors annual Renaissance Awards.

The same year millions of viewers were given a television tour of the house when it appeared on I Own Britain’s Best Home and the glow-in-the-dark kidney-shaped swimming pool received its own design award.

Stephen McOwan, from estate agents George F White, said: “No expense has been spared with this iconic building. It is truly luxurious and includes 38 rooms, its own penthouse, entertainment and leisure suite, wind turbine and self-tanning showers. Stretching over four floors, Tindale Towers is a house that is completely unique and probably one of the most expensive stand-alone properties to have ever been put onto the market in the North-East.”