Tom Hardy's £3.5m London home he ditched after safety concerns

Tom Hardy and Charlotte Riley seem incredibly comfortable with their understated life in the Surrey countryside with their children.

Though the pair live a more reclusive lifestyle now, the MobLand actor and his wife shared a home in Richmond, London, before retreating in 2018.

After having grown up around the area, Tom moved back to Richmond with his then-girlfriend Charlotte in 2013, and the pair married a year later, welcoming two children in 2015 and 2019.

Though famously very private about his personal life, the Havoc actor spoke frequently, at the time, about wanting to stay near the area, as his first son Louis, from a previous relationship, lived nearby.

In 2018, he told Esquire that he was aiming to spend as much time as he possibly could with his children, following a return to London after filming Fonzo and Venom back to back.

© Getty

Tom also told Cosmopolitan in the same year, when Louis was 10, "My son lives in London with his mother, and I need that contact with him. It's so important to me. Any time away from him is just criminal. Also, I am a Londoner forever."

He continued: "I'm never moving until my boy is old enough to move with me if he wants to."

However, after a series of issues, Tom and Charlotte decided to relocate. First, the two caused some controversy in the neighbourhood after submitting planning permission for a chrome chimney, according to The Sun.

© Dave Benett/Getty Images

Then, the Dark Knight Rises star was famously seen chasing a moped thief through the neighbourhood in late 2017 before finally deciding to relocate due to a stalking incident.

It seems that the final straw came in early 2019, when a car crashed into the front of Tom and Charlotte's house, according to a report in The Sun.

Tom and Charlotte's retreat to the Surrey countryside

The actors seem to be much more content in the countryside; in an interview with Esquire, Tom opened up about how taking his rural lifestyle in his stride during the coronavirus pandemic helped him to reevaluate his career and priorities.

© David M. Benett

He said: "I think there's less reason to work, ultimately, because the life-drive is to be with the kids and to be fit and healthy and eat well and stuff.

"If you've got a roof over your head and a bed underneath you and food in the fridge, how much is enough? Because it's not a dress rehearsal, life, is it? It's going out live. This is one-time."