48 Belgrave Square

48 Belgrave Square is a London Town House situated on the North East Terrace of Belgrave Square near to Grosvenor Crescent, until 2009 it held the record for the longest family ownership of any house on Belgrave Square, with almost 170 years of ownership.

History

The house was bought in 1840 by Col. Christopher Hamilton MP from the Grosvenor Estate and was the Hamilton family's main London house, the house eventually passed to his granddaughter Sarah Winter in 1890 who continued to live there until her death in 1945. During Mrs Sarah Winter's ownership the house, under the name Hamilton House was the setting for some of London's biggest social events, the annual Hamilton House Christmas Ball was a key feature in the London social calendar. The house was also linked to huge controversy in the run up to the Second World War, Mrs Winter, a known Nazi supporter, used the house as a way of raising money for the Anglo-German Fellowship, Mrs Winter once said in a letter questioning her about her activities:

Nothing could please me more than helping the great and glorious Adolf Hitler, his views are my views and nothing will stop me in my calling for the Nazi party, Long Live the Third Reich, Heil Hitler[1]

Mrs Winter caused greater controversy however in March 1938, after the Anschluss, when she instructed her staff to fly the Nazi flag from the house, this caused great offence to many people and after a telephone call from the then Foreign Secretary, Viscount Halifax it was removed, however Mrs Winter continued to fly it at her country house in Shropshire.[2]


The house was not retained after the war instead being rented out, the family retained a flat in the service part of the house.[3]

It currently serves as the residence of the Mexican Ambassador to the United Kingdom

Sale

The house was controversially sold in 2009 by a Hamilton Family Trust Committee for £60 million, after 169 years of ownership.

gollark: I really do *not* like hydro going on about how "altruistic" he is when he also goes around extracting huge profits. I mean, self-interest, sure. Fine with me. But effectively lying about it?
gollark: I mean, he probably loses money buying useless things like diamond, but profits everywhere else.
gollark: "Losing money"? Really?
gollark: I buy at 0.5KST per iron ingot and sell at 0.55.
gollark: The sell shop, I mean.

References
  1. Wood, Henry (1960). British Followers of the Reich: Nazis in the British Establishment. Macmillan.
  2. Jones, Harold (1954). London at War. Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

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