Urban explorers recently gained access to the derelict £4 million mansion once owned by convicted sex offender Rolf Harris in Bray, Berkshire, capturing striking images of the overgrown Thames-side property.
The Unauthorized Exploration
Members of the group Tress.Pass.South scaled a stone wall to enter the neglected grounds, documenting their incursion with head-mounted cameras. They navigated through weed-infested areas, inspected a locked outhouse, and entered the basement through an unsecured sliding door. Climbing steps to an unlocked side entrance led them into the retro 1960s kitchen, featuring vinyl flooring, wood-veneered cabinets, and ceiling—now barren except for a kettle and partial roll of paper towels.
A serving hatch connected to the expansive wood-panelled living room, adorned with a large wall mirror and a solitary old white armchair in the corner. The explorers proceeded through an open-plan hallway to an empty dining room with a lone Welsh dresser, then briefly viewed the downstairs bedroom used by Harris and his wife Alwen in later years, complete with a vintage dressing table. Upstairs, they filmed another bedroom with an en-suite and a dilapidated bathroom featuring a rusty, stained sink on the verge of collapse.
A security alarm activated during the kitchen entry and blared throughout, but the group continued to an old office before exiting past the Thames and over the wall. The six-minute video appeared on the group’s Facebook page recently.
Property’s Troubled Past and Present
Harris, aged 93, died in the home from neck cancer in May 2023. His wife Alwen, who supported him through his legal troubles, passed away in August 2023 at 93 following a stroke linked to vascular dementia. Married for 65 years, the couple lived as recluses there in their final years.
Listed for £4 million nearly a year ago, the property—modeled after Harris’s childhood home in Perth, Western Australia—has attracted no buyers amid visible decay: moss-covered walls, cracked windows, and a rusting front gate. It now heads to auction with a guide price reduced by half. Experts anticipate demolition and a new build on the site, located in a celebrity enclave near the late Sir Michael Parkinson’s former residence.
After Harris’s 2014 conviction for 12 indecent assaults on four girls between 1968 and 1986—some occurring in the home, including an assault on his daughter Bindi’s friend aged 13 to 19—he served five years and nine months, releasing in 2017. Renovations followed, but neighbors sold their multimillion-pound homes nearby.
Public Reaction
One viewer commented on the footage: ‘Not the house fault. Could be made beautiful with a big part of the sale price going to a children’s charity. We need to forget Rolf.’
Harris rose to fame after moving to England in his early 20s, starting as an art student and BBC personality with a cartoon segment on the children’s show Jigsaw. He later invented the wobble board, featured in his hit ‘Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport’.
