Nell Gwynn House

Nell Gwynn House is a Grade II listed ten-storey residential building in Sloane Avenue, Chelsea, London, designed in the Art Deco style by G. Kay Green. It stands next to the same architect's Sloane Avenue Mansions.

At the beginning of the 20th century, this area of Chelsea contained run-down or derelict housing, and by the 1930s the area was being redeveloped.^[1] The Victoria County History notes that by the end of the 1930s the district was "filled with housing for the better off, a curious mixture of select, consciously picturesque low houses and enormous and forbidding blocks of flats, either cautiously Art Deco or approximately neoGeorgian in style." It continues:

On the east side of Sloane Avenue several semi-detached houses were built and two immense ten-storeyed blocks of flats on either side of Whitehead's Grove with second frontages to Draycott Avenue: on the south corner Sloane Avenue Mansions was completed in 1933, and on north corner the larger Nell Gwynne House, faced with red brick and with a spacious open courtyard in the centre forming the main entrance, was finished in 1937. Both had parking space in the basements, and Nell Gwynne House had a restaurant open to non-residents.^[2]

Construction was completed in 1937.^[2] On 29 September 1937, the Central London Property Trust Ltd granted a lease of the whole block of flats to Nell Gwynn House (Chelsea) Ltd for ninety-nine years at a rent of £7,000 a year.^[3]

With a footprint forming a capital W, the geometric design of the building was Cubist, making use of Egyptian, Aztec, and Mayan patterns and materials. From the outset, each apartment had built-in central heating, there was a restaurant in the basement, a hairdressing salon, and a bar in the lobby. In 1948, a music club was established, with Sir Adrian Boult as President, and was patronised by Vaughan Williams, Arnold Bax, and John Ireland.^[4]

In 1966, A. G. Ogden described Nell Gwynn House as a "pied a terre for many Chelsea bachelors who honor the spirit of Charles II.^[5]

Since 2006, there has been a major refurbishment of the building, inside and out, including the renovation of the art-deco features of the reception area and also of some apartments by the interior designer Tim Gosling.^[4]

Notable residents

• Frank Foley (1884–1958), Secret Intelligence Service officer who helped many Jewish families to escape from Germany in the 1930s^[6]
• Daisy Burrell (1892–1982), actress of the silent film era, lived in flat 203^[7]
• Theyre Lee-Elliott (1903–1988), artist, designer of the BOAC Speedbird^[4]
• Roy James (1935–1997), one of the Great Train robbers, was living in flat 907 at the time of the robbery in 1963^[4]
• Bruce Forsyth (born 1928), entertainer^[4]

Notes