LORD LLOYD-WEBBER, the composer, has taken out what is thought to be Britain’s biggest home mortgage and used the money to become the sole owner of seven West End theatres, including the London Palladium.

He has borrowed £35m from Barclays bank, secured against his £10m London town house and his sprawling Hampshire estate.

The monthly repayments are in the region of £150,000, more than the average cost of a terraced house in Britain.

Each quarter-point rise in the Bank of England base rate will add more than £7,000 a month to repayments.

Lloyd-Webber, who has written or produced a string of West End musicals including Cats and The Phantom of the Opera, took out the mortgage at the end of last year to buy out a stake in the theatres held by his business partner, the venture capital fund Bridgepoint.

André Ptaszynski, chief executive of Really Useful Group, Lloyd-Webber’s main company, said: “Andrew was given an extremely short timeframe . . . the fastest and most sensible way to raise funds was to do it personally and not through corporate means.”

Ptaszynski said the money was immediately reinvested in the business.

“He became 100% owner of the seven most famous musical theatres in the West End — the Adelphi, the Cambridge, the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Her Majesty’s, the New London, the London Palladium and the Palace,” he said. “Essentially he took this decision to safeguard the future of these buildings.”

Lloyd-Webber’s home loan far outstrips the previous record, reportedly a £15m mortgage taken out by an anonymous businessman on his Belgravia home in 2004. The house had eight bedrooms, a swimming pool and separate servants’ quarters in the back garden.

Barclays is unlikely to have any qualms about Lloyd-Webber’s ability to keep up the repayments. According to the 2005 Sunday Times Rich List, the Tory peer has a fortune of £700m, mainly from royalties from his 14 musicals.

His early successes included Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Jesus Christ, Superstar. His most successful show, The Phantom of the Opera, has been seen by about 80m people in more than 17 countries over the past 20 years and has grossed more than £1.8 billion.

Titanic, the most profitable film of all time, earned a similar amount including DVD sales.

Lloyd-Webber, who was ennobled by Sir John Major in 1997, has also sold more than 125m albums.

Last year he considered selling his business. Potential buyers included Michael Grade, the chairman of the BBC, and Sean “P Diddy” Combs, the American hip-hop star. However, in the autumn Lloyd-Webber decided not to sell after all.

In an interview with an American trade paper he said: “I don’t want to be involved with the business side at all. I’m not a good businessman.”

Lloyd-Webber, 58, has used his fortune to build up one of the world’s leading collections of pre-Raphaelite paintings, many of which are on public display. They will be left to the nation when he dies.

A source close to Barclays said: “We have never come across a mortgage this large. But when you are dealing with someone who has assets like Lloyd-Webber it really is not a concern.”

The Land Registry shows that the mortgage is secured against Sydmonton, Lloyd-Webber’s 5,000-acre estate near Newbury, which he bought in 1975. It is the venue for an annual summer festival at which he presents a selection of works in progress to an invited audience of 100 or so friends. The bank has also taken a charge against his Belgravia house but his castle in Ireland and apartment in Trump Tower in New York are not part of the deal.

It is understood that, as well as buying out Bridgepoint, the money will also help to fund a refurbishment programme for Lloyd-Webber’s theatres which, while enjoying healthy box office receipts, have been criticised for their dilapidated condition.

Sir Cameron Mackintosh, Lloyd-Webber’s rival impresario, has been praised for spending millions on refurbishing his theatres, including £7m on the Prince of Wales theatre alone.

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