Victorian-era island mansion off the Thames sells for £3million to mystery ...

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An island in the River Thames has been bought up by a mystery British buyer for £3million, along with the 13-bedroom Victorian mansion that stands on the land.

The grade-II listed mansion, named Eyot House, was built for Richard D'Oyly Carte, a talent agent best remembered for managing the first productions of operas by Gilbert and Sullivan.

D'Oyly Carte island, close to Weybridge in Surrey and named after the opera impresario who bought it in 1890, had lain abandoned for at least ten years.

The grade-II listed mansion on the island had fallen into a near-derelict state, according to Ricky Luther, director of Chase Apartments, the estate agent that sold the property.

He told The Guardian: 'It's going to be quite an expensive project for the new owner.'

The mystery British buyer is up for the challenge, however, pledging to invest £1million – on top of the £3million sale price – in a bid to 'bring it back to stand as the glory on the Thames that D'Oyly Carte would be proud of'.

Carte, known as 'the Simon Cowell of Victorian England' for his savvy management of popular music acts of the time, was also a hotelier, with the most notable property in his catalogue being the Savoy Hotel on the Strand in the City of Westminster.

He bought the island on the Thames, at that time called Folly Eyot, with plans of turning it into a boozy boat stop, to which guests at the Savoy Hotel could travel by ferry for a private retreat from the hustle and bustle of central London.