Homes from History

Featuring over 650 photographs, a new book uncovers the interiors of London’s most spectacular 19th and 20th century homes, shedding a fresh light on the history of Mayfair and St James’s

With more than 650 stunning photographs from the archives of Historic England, Bedford Lemere and Millar & Harris, London: Lost Interiors features images – many unseen – and information on the lost world of London’s most spectacular 19th and 20th century homes.

From lavish Victorian boudoirs and Edwardian libraries and smoking rooms to Modernist master plans and fashionable Arts & Crafts Houses, Brindles’s book beckons viewers to peek through timeworn keyholes into royal residences and aristocratic abodes.

Providing a window into London life from 1880-1940 before many of these interiors were destroyed or stripped out, not only do these images revive lost slices of history, but they capture fleeting tastes that perished or mutated according to fluid cultural trends.

“[Many of these] houses were a prime means of self expression. A great deal of thought and care went into them. I think that really stands out from the photographs,” Brindle says. “None of these things happened by accident. They were very much designed and willed and took, in most cases, a good deal of money and effort. There's no doubt in my mind that it's an art form.”

An author and historian who has worked with English Heritage (now Historic England) since 1989, Brindle is fascinated by the way buildings, and their interiors, become victims to the whims of taste. In the book's foreword he describes interior design as ‘one of the most fugitive and fragile of art-forms’. “Interiors in any one form are probably as mortal as their owners,” he says. 

In some cases the entire concept of a room has been lost to the annals of history. The great Victorian Smoking Room might not have been good for health and hygiene but it birthed some truly magnificent interiors. 43 Wimpole Street in Marylebone, complete with elaborate plasterwork, mosaic floor, marble nymph and potted palms, is a testament to this now ancient tradition of puffing away in quirky parlours.

The relentless advance of fashion sometimes came at a cost to classical interior design, exemplified in the striking reconstruction of 11 Hill Street. The large Georgian House in Mayfair was remodelled by the architect J.Leonard Williams in 1902–3 into an elegant vision of Renaissance-style. Once home to Charles Ansell – a listed owner, who beyond being a wealthy stockbroker, there is a dearth of background information – the property was inherited by the publishing baron Edward George Warris Hulton, son of newspaper proprietor Sir Edward Hulton and founder of the Hulton Press (1937). The rich 17th-century style interiors that were so popular in the Edwardian age were deeply unfashionable by the 1930s, and the house was duly redecorated in Art Deco style.

Another photograph taken by Millar & Harris from the 1930s reveals the creeping influence of Hollywood on Mayfair. Dated to September 1935 the shot of Canadian-born actress Fay Wray – then one of Hollywood's most highly paid actors – relaxing in a chunky armchair was taken in her London home. 

Part of a brand new Neo-Georgian block, completed that year, Wray lived at 20 Grosvenor Square during a film schedule that saw her feature in several British films with Jack Buchanan, the Scottish actor who found fame playing the quintessential English gentleman.In some cases the stories of these previous inhabitants are filmworthy tales of ascent and demise. Located at the east end of the eastern terrace in St James’s 18 Carlton House Terrace was rebuilt in 1864-9 by the architect William Burn for the 6th Duke of Newcastle. 

José and his brothers, ascended through the ranks of London’s diversifying social scene, along with his wife Jesusa, who became a fond favourite of the Prince and Princess of Wales. That rise fell with a thump, however, not long after these photographs were taken, when the Argentine government defaulted on its bonds, and the de Murrietas suffered heavy losses.

The Murrieta’s might have fallen from grace but their prime residence has not. Sold for an eye watering £250 million 18 Carlton House Terrace smashed the UK house price record when it was sold in 2013. 

In other cases relentless bombing campaigns destroyed elegant feats of architecture. Perhaps no more so than 5 Connaught Place, located a stone's throw from Hyde Park. Designed by the Russian emigré architect Serge Chermayeff for Commander Edward Heywood-Lonsdale R.N. and his wife, June Shakespeare – a friend and mentor to Philip Mountbatten, the future Duke of Edinburgh – the Modern Movement flat was created within a Georgian terrace house in 1937. It saw the Movement’s ideal concept of contemporary living merge with a naval officer’s idea of the orderly and efficient use of limited space. 

Bombs quickly put an end to this idealised home and it was abandoned and demolished, although furniture that Chermayeff designed remains with Heywood-Lonsdale’s daughter, Amanda, the present Duchess of Devonshire, and her family. The fate of the Picasso on the far wall remains unknown.    

 London Lost Interiors by Steven Brindle (Atlantic Publishing, £50) is published now