Chesham Place

Chesham Place is a street in Belgravia, London UK, running between Belgrave Square and Pont Street.[1] It is home to several embassies and has had many distinguished residents.

37 Chesham Place

It was first laid out in 1831, and includes a number of listed buildings.

Chesham Place and nearby Chesham Street take their name from the town of Chesham in Buckinghamshire, and were named by William Lowndes who owned the leases on this and nearby land.

It gives its name to Chesham Amalgamations, founded at number 36 in 1962.

Individual properties

• 7 Chesham Place, High Commission of Lesotho.
• 9 Chesham Place, former studio of the milliner Simone Mirman.
• 10 Chesham Place, birthplace of Douglas Hogg, 1st Viscount Hailsham.
• 17 Chesham Place was converted to the Chesham Court apartments in the 1930s. Its residents have included Robin and Angela Fox, Peter Yates, Kenneth Hurren, Greta van Rantwyk, and Michael Wilding.[2]
• 20 Chesham Place is the Thomson Belgravia Hotel, including the Hix Belgravia restaurant, operated by Mark Hix.
• 21 Chesham Place is a former British Telecom telephone exchange, converted into luxury flats by Foster + Partners for the Candy brothers.[3]
• 25 Chesham Place, former home of Sir Charles Wood, 1st Viscount Halifax.
• 27 Chesham Place, former home of the Marquess of Waterford.
• 28 Chesham Place, former home of the Conservative MP Malcolm St Clair.
• 34 Chesham Place, former home of the Conservative MP Christopher Turnor (1809–1886),[4] and Sir William Richmond Brown, 2nd Baronet.[5]
• 36 Chesham Place, site of Mrs Thatcher’s office after leaving Downing Street. London home of Earl Dalhousie from 1842, prior to his tenure as Viceroy of India. [6]
• 37 Chesham Place, former home of the Duke of Bedford. A blue plaque marks it as the former home of the first Earl Russell 1792-1878.

38 Chesham Place is the Embassy of Finland. A Grade II listed building, it was previously known as Belgrave House and Herbert House. Former residents include:

• Major General James Ahmuty
• William Russell, a member of the family of Lord John Russell[7]
• Elizabeth Herbert, Baroness Herbert of Lea, widow of Sidney Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Lea died at Herbert House in 1911
• Aldred Lumley, 10th Earl of Scarbrough
• Irwin Boyle Laughlin (1871–1941) secretary of the American Embassy in London (1912–1917) and Counselor (1916–1919).
• Gustavus William Hamilton-Russell, 9th Viscount Boyne.

The British Red Cross and St John's War Organisation used the house during World War 2 (1939–1945) and then the Victoria League for Commonwealth Friendship leased 38 Chesham Place until 1975 when it became the Embassy of Finland.[8]

• 39 Chesham Place is the Embassy of Spain

The entrance to the Embassy of Germany in Belgrave Square fronts on to Chesham Place.

Chesham House was the home of the Russian Embassy from 1853 until the formation of the USSR in May 1927.[9]

References

1. "Chesham Place" LondonTown. Retrieved 30 October 2013.
2. "Chesham Court". Archived from the original on 23 December 2014. Retrieved 25 May 2013.
3. "Candy brothers selling three homes for £100M". Evening Standard.
4. "The Diaries of Dora Turnor" Archived 12 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine, Chetham's Library. Retrieved 3 January 2015
5. Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage, and Companionage. Kelly's Directories. 1916. p. 97. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
6. "Margaret Thatcher interview". Saga Magazine. Archived from the original on 16 April 2013. Retrieved 25 May 2013.
7. "The Embassy of Finland, 38 Chesham Place". Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. 2 June 2014. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
8. "Mysterious Britain".
9. The Drawing-room Portrait Gallery of Eminent Personages, Volume 2 (London, 1859): "Baron Brunnow had completed the house occupied by the Russian Embassy, since 1853, in Chesham-place."