Michael Bloomberg is to follow the likes of Mick Jagger and Roman Abramovich when he moves into a £16m ($25m) mansion on one of London’s wealthiest streets.

The former mayor of New York is reported to have paid £1m ($1.56m) more than the asking price for the seven-bedroom grade II*-listed mansion on Cheyne Walk, Chelsea.

The property, which was once home to the novelist George Eliot, is accessed by a private road and decorated in an extravagant period style. Its ornate interior includes a sweeping central staircase, original parquet floors and a Baroque ceiling mural depicting Venus by James Thornhill, who is known for having painted the inside of the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral.

“It is a very special house of unique historical importance – a classic jewel in the crown with wonderfully exotic features,” Charles McDowell, a property agent, told the Sunday Times, which first reported the purchase.

The street is one of the most exclusive in the capital, having once been home to the Rolling Stones frontman, Jagger, and more recently to the Chelsea football club owner, Abramovich, and the former England footballer Sol Campbell.

Bloomberg is said to have a fondness for London that stretches beyond his taste for period architecture. He is building a new European headquarters in the capital for his media company and earlier this year was said to have been thinking about standing as a Tory candidate to succeed Boris Johnson as mayor in 2016. Johnson, a close friend, once joked that the two should do a “job swap”.