Batman’s original mansion is for sale, and it’s a mock-Tudor masterpiece that’ll (almost) convince you that you’re in England

It’s easy nowadays to laugh at the 1960s television adaptation of Batman. Seen through a 2020s lens, it’s easy to take the kitsch, colourful, wildly overacted show at face value — something I did as a kid, as did all my friends — and poke fun at the whole thing.

The show’s creators and stars, though, were in on the joke right from the start. Ludicrous plotlines. Farcical pseudo-science. Adam West’s unflinchingly deadpan delivery. This was a classic piece of 1960s satire that delighted in making every joke possible — at the expense of its comic book source material, the very notion of superheroes, TV detective shows, and indeed 1960s society as a whole.

Subsequent incarnations of Batman, and in particular the films helmed by Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan, have darkened the mood and played things straight. In a world full of bleakness and wannabe-strongmen political leaders who convince themselves (and, depressingly, others) of their own legends, I’m not sure that Burton, Nolan et al have done us much good.

One thing about Batman’s world has remained unchanged, though: the stately home where his alter-ego, Bruce Wayne, lives. Wayne Manor has been played by plenty of different country houses over the years, including a couple (Knebworth and Wollatton) that are in England. Neither of those will be up for sale any time soon, but the original Wayne Manor from the 1960s show is up for sale right now — and it’s priced at $32 million, or around £24 million.

‘Wayne Manor’ may not have the aristocratic ring of ‘Wollaton Hall’, but it’s a considerably more romantic name than the house’s real-life moniker, 380 S San Rafael Avenue, in Pasadena, a northern suburb of Los Angeles. The name may not have the ring of an English country home, but an awful lot else about the place hits the spot.

This really is quite the place: 18,655 sq ft, seven bedrooms, 11 bathrooms and just under five acres of land — enough to almost convince you that you’re out in the countryside.

In a sense, you are: the house actually backs on to the Arroyo Seco park, the largest green space in the area, which has several hundred acres set up for hiking, running, cycling, picnicking, golf and more — not something that you’ll find in many LA neighbourhoods.

The house itself is just as much of a pleasant surprise: it’s absolutely extraordinary, built in the 1920s in mock Tudor style, with leaded, stone-mullioned windows, the same mix of brick and stone walls you’d find at Hampton Court, and even castellations on parts of the roof.