Tuesday, July 12, 2011

What happened to Chesterfield House?

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 The announcement was made in The Times on October 27, 1931, that the Earl of Harewood "wishes to dispose of Chesterfield House, Mayfair."  He had purchased the mansion from the Dowager Lady Burton in 1919.

The house was built in 1746, "at the corner of South Audley-street and Curzon-street," on land owned by Lord Howe.

It was also announced that Lord Harewood planned to lease Goldsborough Hall.   Lord Harewood, then Viscount Lascelles married Princess Mary, the only daughter of King George V and Queen Mary, married in 1922.  They moved to Goldsborough Hall, near Harrogate, soon after their wedding. 

Chesterfield House was Lord Lascelles and Princess Mary's London residence. The couple's first son, George, was born on February 7, 1923, at Chesterfield House.   He was baptized at the family church on the Goldsborough Hall estate.



The Princess Royal visited Chesterfield House for the final time on January 9, 1932.  She and her husband, the Earl of Harewood, had come down from Yorkshire to "superintend the moving of their furniture and household to their new home, the house in Green-street given to them by Queen."

Mary and her husband were staying at the home of the Dowager Countess of Harewood in Upper Belgravia Street.  The princess and her husband planned to move into their new home at the end of January.

After the Princess Royal had moved into her new home on Green Street in London, Lord Harewood instructed Sotheby and Co. to "sell the remaining contents of Chesterfield House," which had been their home for nine years.

The sale, on April 7, 1932, was divided into two sections.  In the morning, books, prints, porcelain, pictures, and small objects were put up for sale.  The afternoon sale was reserved for the contents of the hall, staircase, dining rooms, ballroom, music room, and drawing room.   The sale realized £5,756.

By the fall of 1933, there were reports that there is "a possibility of the exercise of an option to acquire a building lease of the site of Chesterfield House."   The plans, not formalized, would include developing the site as a club.

In the mid-1930s, Chesterfield House was used for art exhibitions, concerts, and receptions.  In 1935, the mansion was demolished to make way for new flats.   The "beautiful new building," also called Chesterfield House, opened in 1935, complete with electrical passenger lifts, heated linen cupboards, electrical refrigerators, wireless, house telephones, letter shutes, and model kitchens!


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