If you love to uncover stories behind the majestic facades of historic London homes, you’ll want to check out this new offering seeking £10 million, roughly $13.3 million, on St. George’s Square. Located in Pimlico close to the River Thames, the 6,500-square-foot manor was was built in 1843 and boasts intriguing architectural and literary allure, especially if you’re a fan of murder mystery novels.
The Victorian stucco townhouse was built by architect Thomas Cubitt, who developed large parts of London (especially in Pimlico and Belgravia) as well as the east front of Buckingham Palace. While many of its neighboring mansions are now broken up into beautiful apartments, this one is a rare single-family home and has been meticulously refurbished for fashionable, 21st-century living.
The home offers seven bedrooms and six levels above ground as well as a lower level holding the kitchen, breakfast room, and gym. It’s the upper floors that may most interest avid readers, as acclaimed crime novelist Dorothy L. Sayers lived there in the early 1920s while studying for her Masters Degree at Oxford University.
Sayers, who along with Agatha Christie was one of the greatest crime novelists of her time, rented a room with a balcony on one of the top floors. Her studio apartment was likely what you can see as the club lounge/game room now.
In ‘Dorothy L. Sayer’s Bloomsbury Years’ by Nancy-Lou Patterson, it’s described that her quarters were modestly furnished and that she shared a telephone and bathroom with other tenants. It also recounts how she started the manuscript for Whose Body? here, her very first novel that was printed in 1923, and that she enjoyed the gardens of St. George’s Square. But really, who wouldn’t?
The author might be shocked if she were to walk through the doors 100 years later and see its new, contemporary touches, such as the trendy kitchen. However, the Pimlico townhouse remains timeless at its core and always will if its elegant architecture is respected properly.
For those who can afford the sumptuous London spread, Beauchamp Estates holds the listing.
