A Georgian townhouse in London‘s Mayfair which was the former home to prolific writer Nancy Mitford and used as her billet during a stint with the Auxiliary Fire Service in the Second World War has gone on sale for £7.5million.
As a writer with an affluent background and one of the celebrated Mitford sisters, Nancy was a natural fit with the ‘Bright Young Things’ – the name given to the group of young aristocrats and socialites in 1920s, including Evelyn Waugh, who raised eyebrows with their partying.
The five-storey property has also been home to the physician who cared for Queen Victoria’s uncle and the nephew of Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger.
The Georgian townhouse’s private terrace, looking out over Curzon Street on Mayfair and situated opposite G.F Trumper’s original shop, which sells a range of luxury grooming products for men. The property, which was once home to writer Nancy Mitford during the war, has gone on sale for £7.5million after being restored and extended in homage to Maison de Verre
The study, featuring a large wooden cabinet stacked with rows of books on one side, and numerous drawings lining the wall on the opposite and back walls, with the desk situated towards the centre of the room. Nancy was the most successful writer of the Mitford sisters, with The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate amongst her most popular novels
The vast living room with wooden flooring and a large fireplace underneath the mantelpiece. The leather armchair and recliner each have a reading light, with double doors leading out onto a Juliet balcony. The townhouse has also been home to the physician who cared for Queen Victoria’s uncle and the nephew of Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger
The dark-green marbled bathroom including a bath tub with a black and white harlequin patterned ceiling. Fittings were made by luxury bathroom firm Czech & Speake. Frank Sawkins, who founded the firm, said he had created the home to ‘provide the best quality of life and environment for my family’
Novelist Nancy Mitford, who used the property as her billet during a stint with the Auxiliary Fire Service in the Second World War. The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate were among her most popular novels. She was a natural fit with the ‘Bright Young Things’ – the name given to the group of young aristocrats and socialites in 1920s
The three-bedroom house on Curzon Street is close to Hyde Park and Park Lane as well as the upscale Annabel’s nightclub.
It has been re-built and fully restored with modern features including a catering kitchen and top-notch fittings made by luxury bathroom firm, Czech & Speake, whose founder, Frank Sawkins, is the property seller.
Nancy – whose younger sister, Diana, married the Fascist leader Oswald Mosley – served in the Auxiliary Fire Service and stayed at 45 Curzon Street while keeping the night watch for V1 flying bombs and fires during World War Two.
The sisters became writers – the most successful being Nancy who wrote entertaining stories with outlandish characters based on her own family.
The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate were her most popular novels and their appeal endures today.
She was once said to have run into the street, exhorting her companions to ‘come and look at the V1s’, saying: ‘They are so pretty.’
The dining room and entertaining kitchen, featuring hanging lamp shades and a black marbled worktop with leather chairs surrounding a wooden table fitting up to eight people. The room also has a door leading to the outside. On the first floor there is also a study and a drawing room, with a second kitchen on the next floor
The entertaining kitchen, which is connected to the dining room, featuring a dumbwaiter – a piece of furniture intended to store and carry food. The kitchen also has steel and wooden worktops paired with black cupboards
One of the bedrooms, which has a similar style and layout to that of the living room, with numerous shelves and a huge rug covering the wooden flooring below. The room also has two white-paned windows overlooking the street
The dressing room and bathroom with a wooden bath, flanked by cupboards towards the entrance and glass double doors. Mr Sawkins, who has lived in Mayfair for 30 years, said he found the property ‘exceptionally easy to live in’
The stairs leading to a terrace, decorated with white and black patterned wallpaper. The third floor of the property has a second bedroom suite with the fourth level entirely taken up by the master bedroom and terrace
A floor plan of the Georgian townhouse, which is on sale for £7.5million. The property is on sale with a long lease through Beauchamp Estates and has been fully restored with plaster cornice, dado rails, skirting and raised hardwood double doors
A blue plaque on the front of nearby Number 10 Curzon Street commemorates her time working in the Heywood Hill bookstore there.
The house has been restored and extended in homage to the celebrated Maison de Verre, or glass house, in Paris.
Mr Sawkins, who founded Czech & Speake, said he had created the home ‘to provide the best quality of life and environment for my family’ and had found the area an ‘oasis of calm and quiet’.
He said: ‘Security was an important factor and the design and internal layout have been arranged to maximise integration of usable space with the south facing terraces and flood the interior with light.
The property’s Georgian section has been fully restored with plaster cornice, dado rails, skirting, sash windows and raised hardwood double doors.
The new owner will have three entry gates, doors and a marble hallway, alongside two kitchens, a private terrace with its own dumbwaiter access to the kitchens, and a balcony.
The dining room, which is connected to the entertaining kitchen on the first floor, taken from a different angle, showing the porthole-styled mirror on one wall, with sliding doors at the entrance of the room, situated near the staircase
The garden terrace with outdoor furniture and wooden decking surrounded by shrubbery. Mr Sawkins decided to move out of the Georgian townhouse after his children grew up and moved out
The main kitchen, which has a dumbwaiter connecting to the entertaining kitchen below, also featuring a small seating area to the side with shelves lining two of the walls. The room also has two squared windows, surrounded by smaller glass squares
The entrance to the main kitchen, with a porthole window on the front of the door, peering onto the dumbwaiter, book shelf and cooking utensils lined up along the wall. Mr Sawkin said it is now time for ‘another design project’
The master bedroom entrance, which leads out onto the staircase and large terrace below. The room features numerous mirrored cupboards and takes up the entire fourth level
On the first floor there is a dining room and an entertaining kitchen, study and a drawing room.
There is another kitchen and laundry room on the next floor and a bedroom suite.
The third floor has a second bedroom suite with the fourth level entirely taken up by the master bedroom and terrace.
Mr Sawkins, who has lived in Mayfair for 30 years, said he found the property ‘exceptionally easy to live in’ but had decided to move after his children grew up and moved out.
He explained: ‘It left too large a property for my wife and so it’s time for another design project.’
The property is on sale with a long lease through Beauchamp Estates.
Scandalous lives of the eccentric six Mitford sisters who raised eyebrows in early 20th Century high society
The six daughters moved in the same circles as Winston Churchill, John F Kennedy, Adolf Hitler and Evelyn Waugh and epitomised a privileged and glamorous aristocratic life that no longer exists.
The siblings – Nancy, Pam, Diana, Unity, Decca and Debo – born between 1905 and 1920 to Lord Redesdale and his wife Sydney, were notoriously known for the public interest their antics aroused.
The most controversial of the sisters was Diana, known as Honks, who left her first husband and married the founder of the British Union of Fascists Oswald Mosley. They tied the knot in a civil ceremony in Joseph Goebbels’ drawing room in Berlin in 1936. Hitler was the only other guest.
Three of the Mitford sisters pictured in 1932 at Lord Stanley of Aldernay’s wedding. From left to right: Unity, Diana, known as Mrs Bryan Guinness and later Lady Diana Mosley, and writer Nancy
As a result, during World War Two she was locked up as an enemy to the Allies in Holloway Prison.
Mary S. Lovell, who has written a biography on the Mitford sisters, said Diana ‘became arguably the most hated woman in England for a while.’
But Diana wasn’t the only Mitford with polarising political views. Decca was once an outspoken supporter of communism while Unity was also a fan of Hitler.
Both she and Diana attended the Nuremberg Nazi rally of 1933 and Unity was said to have become fascinated with the leader.
They became great friends – some even believe lovers. When war broke out, she was in Germany and shot herself in the head with a silver pistol. She survived but was brain damaged and was sent back to England to be nursed by her family. She died in 1948 of meningitis.
The sisters also had a brother, Tom, who died during World War Two in Burma.
Unity Mitford pictured with Adolf Hitler. Both she and Diana attended the Nuremberg Nazi rally of 1933 and Unity was said to have become fascinated with the leader
The girls were raised in stately homes in relative isolation as their father didn’t believe they should go to school to be educated.
Despite this, they became prolific writers, the most successful being Nancy who wrote entertaining stories with outlandish characters based on her own family.
The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate were her most popular novels and their appeal endures today.
As a writer with an affluent background, Nancy was a natural fit with the ‘Bright Young Things’ – the name given to the group of young aristocrats and socialites in 1920s, including Evelyn Waugh, who raised eyebrows with their partying.
Another famous associate of the Mitford sisters was Winston Churchill. In 1937 Decca, then 19, met her second cousin Esmond Romilly, Churchill’s nephew. They eloped to Spain during the civil war causing the British government to send a war ship to the country to try and bring them home.
They then moved to America where Decca remained until her death in 1996 but she had by then long lost her first husband who was killed in action during World War Two.
Pamela, the second eldest daughter, led the quietest life and was described as ‘the most rural of the Mitfords’ as she was more content on a farm than at at cocktail parties and balls.