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    "original_url": "https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/09\/19\/world\/europe\/batman-mansion-mentmore-towers-bats.html?ae=oa&emc=edit_nn_20260921&nl=the-morning&segment_id=226815",
    "parsed_content": "AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTSupported bySKIP ADVERTISEMENTOnce Home to Batman, This Faded Mansion Is Now Plagued by Real BatsOfficials in England are alarmed at the state of Mentmore Towers, the 19th century estate that served as Wayne Manor in the 2005 film \u201cBatman Begins.\u201dListen \u00b7 6:21 min Share full articleMentmore Towers in Buckinghamshire, in the English countryside, in 1977.Credit...Sydney O'Meara\/Evening Standard, via Hulton Archive, via Getty ImagesBy Leo SandsReporting from LondonPublished Sept. 19, 2026Updated Sept. 20, 2026See more of our coverage in your search results.Encuentra m\u00e1s de nuestra cobertura en los resultados de b\u00fasqueda. Add The New York Times on GoogleAgrega The New York Times en Google Christian Bale once stalked its grounds as Batman, plotting his caped crusade from its recesses.But the stately English home that featured in Christopher Nolan\u2019s 2005 film \u201cBatman Begins\u201d has lately hosted another type of bat: the smaller and smellier kind.Mentmore Towers, the 19th-century Jacobethan estate that served as Wayne Manor and as a backdrop for other movies, was found littered with bat droppings during an inspection by local environmental officials last year. They also found a dead bat.Spooked by its decline, the authorities in Buckinghamshire, in the countryside northwest of London, are demanding that Mentmore\u2019s owners carry out urgent bat surveys and roof repairs. If not, the officials said, they could move to force the owners to sell the mansion, which holds a Grade I listing, Britain\u2019s highest heritage status.ImageChristian Bale as Bruce Wayne walking down the steps of Mentmore Towers in the 2005 film \u201cBatman Begins.\u201dCredit...David James\/Warner Bros.\u201cOur focus and priority is making sure this Grade I-listed building \u2014 well known and well-loved in Buckinghamshire \u2014 is protected and preserved,\u201d Peter Strachan, the deputy leader of the local council, said this month.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTConservationists describe the 250-room manor as one of Britain\u2019s finest examples of Jacobethan Revival architecture, an amalgam of Elizabethan and Jacobean styles.It has been owned by the family trust of the British Syrian property tycoon Simon Halabi since 1998. The local officials gave Mr. Halabi\u2019s family trust a deadline of Oct. 4 to comply with its repair notice and conduct professional bat surveys.At least two species of bat appeared to be roosting in Mentmore Towers, local inspectors said, based on the droppings found there. The inspectors shared photographs of broken windows, ceiling holes and cracked exterior walls, which they said had offered the bats possible entry routes.ImageCracks in the wall at Mentmore Towers.Credit...Buckinghamshire CouncilImageA hole in the ceiling at Mentmore Towers.Credit...Buckinghamshire CouncilAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTBats are protected species in Britain, and property owners are legally obligated to take precautions to avoid disturbing them.In response to the notice, Mr. Halabi\u2019s family said that it had begun a bat survey and a program of repairs and restorations.\u201cThere is an irony in the suggestion that nobody is dealing with the bats when a team of professional ecologists, effectively Mentmore\u2019s own \u2018Batman\u2019 team, has already been on the case,\u201d it said in a statement. The Halabi family trust was \u201cabsolutely committed to the long-term preservation and restoration of Mentmore Towers,\u201d it added.The statement argued that Buckinghamshire Council had slowed down the family\u2019s efforts by opposing the construction of a security fence and a storage facility on the grounds. The council said they breached planning rules.Mentmore Towers is the only major surviving work in Britain by Joseph Paxton, a Victorian innovator best known for designing London\u2019s Crystal Palace, an iron-and-glass symbol of the Industrial Age that burned down in 1936.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTLong before it was a filming location \u2014 including for Stanley Kubrick\u2019s \u201cEyes Wide Shut\u201d (1999), the Sacha Baron Cohen comedy \u201cAli G Indahouse\u201d (2002) and the Spice Girls\u2019 \u201cGoodbye\u201d music video \u2014 Mentmore served for over a century as a country palace of the Rothschild banking dynasty.At one point it was home to a future British prime minister, the Earl of Rosebery, who married into the family. Photographs taken in 1975 show its grand hall dripping in tapestries, with lavish furnishings and a cabinet brimming with trophies.Hit by British inheritance taxes nearing $7 million in the 1970s, the Rothschild family sold the house and held a flash auction of its furnishings. Over nine days in 1977, nearly 3,000 items of Baroque art, gilded furniture and other treasures were sold, fetching more than $10 million.ImageInside the Grand Hall of Mentmore Towers as its contents were being prepared for auction, in 1977.Credit...Peter Cade\/Central Press, via Hulton Archive, via Getty ImagesThe following year, Mentmore was acquired by an organization that promoted transcendental meditation, according to a local history museum. Two decades later, Mr. Halabi\u2019s family trust purchased the property with the idea of converting it into a luxury hotel.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTAccording to court documents filed this month in a separate dispute between Mr. Halabi and a neighbor, the businessman said he ended up keeping the property as a family home after the death in 2003 of his eldest son, who was buried on the estate.Mr. Halabi has been a fixture in the British news media for years. In the early 2000s, The Times of London named him one of Britain\u2019s wealthiest people, having amassed a portfolio of properties that included a share in the development of the Shard, London\u2019s tallest building. According to public records, he declared bankruptcy in 2010.Historic England, the government\u2019s heritage adviser, lists Mentmore Towers as a building of \u201cexceptional interest,\u201d a classification that requires owners to protect its architectural significance. The body now says the building is in a \u201cvery bad\u201d state and requires urgent repair.Constructed from 1852 to 1854 in buff sandstone, and noted for its large plate-glass windows, Mentmore took inspiration from Wollaton Hall, an Elizabethan mansion in the city of Nottingham, according to conservationists.Morgan Ellis Leah, a conservationist at Britain\u2019s Victorian Society, a heritage group, said that the pace of the building\u2019s deterioration was deeply concerning.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT\u201cWhat remains of Mentmore\u2019s interiors are of extraordinary quality: from the Caen stone entrance hall to the 12-meter-high grand hall with its glazed ceiling,\u201d Mr. Leah said.He commended local officials for trying to safeguard the mansion\u2019s future, but added that the effort \u201cunderscores the fragility of the building and the absolute necessity of protecting its setting from further harm.\u201dFrom the commentsLeo SandsBreaking news correspondentAlthough the Batman link is particular to Mentmore Towers, there are a lot of similarly dilapidated mansions in England -- upkeep can prove very costly. It gets thornier when a private property is also of national historic significance \u2014 at what point should the authorities step in?ImageA bat flying at dusk in London in 2025. Bats are a protected species under English law, which requires homeowners to take precautions to avoid disturbing them.Credit...Andrew Testa for The New York TimesAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT",
    "published_at": "2026-09-19T08:05:16+00:00",
    "author_name": "Leo Sands",
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    "ai_headline": "Once Home to Batman, This Faded Mansion Is Now Plagued by Real Bats",
    "ai_simplified_title": "Mentmore Towers, Batman Mansion, Plagued by Bats",
    "ai_excerpt": "Mentmore Towers, the 19th-century estate that served as Wayne Manor in \"Batman Begins,\" is in disrepair and infested with bats. English officials are demanding urgent repairs and bat surveys, threatening forced sale if owners don't comply.",
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