Curzon Street

This article is about the London street. For the former station in Birmingham, see Curzon Street railway station.

Curzon Street is located within the exclusive Mayfair district of London. The street is located entirely within the W1J postcode district and is 400 yards to the north west of Green Park tube station. It is within the City of Westminster, running from Park Lane (past Shepherd Market) to Berkeley Square.

The street is thought to be named after George Howe, 3rd Viscount Howe^[1]; however it is not until after his death that the title of Earl Howe was taken by someone with the last name Curzon. Before this time it was called Mayfair Row.

History

Curzon Street has been home to various notable members of the peerage. In 1748, a house was built in Curzon Street for the 4th Earl of Chesterfield, called Chesterfield House.^[2] The house was demolished in 1937 and the site was redeveloped as an apartment block. Adjacent to Chesterfield House were smaller dwellings, which have served as the London residences for a number of members of the peerage, including Lord Hothfield, the Duke of Grafton, Lord Leconfield, Lady Blessington, Alfred de Rothschild, Lord Blythswood and the Earl of Inchcape.^[3] Also to the east was Wharncliffe House, rebuilt in 1750^[3] and renamed for the Countess of Wharncliffe in the late 19th century.^[4] It is now part of the Saudi Arabian Embassy.^[5]

On the opposite side of the street, until 1894 stood Curzon Chapel, formerly Mayfair Chapel.^[6] First erected in 1730^[3] the chapel was the location before the Marriage Act 1753 of various clandestine marriages, including the marriages of the Duke of Chandos and Mrs Anne Jeffrey in 1744, Lord Strange and Mrs Lucy Smith in 1746, Lord Kensington and Rachel Hill in 1749, Sewellis Shirley and Margaret Rolle, widow of the second Earl of Oxford in 1751, the Duke of Hamilton and Miss Gunning in 1752 and of Lord George Bentinck and Mary Davies in 1753.^[3]

Other inhabitants of Curzon Street have included the art collector Edward Solly (at no. 7, 1821-44), Benjamin Disraeli until his death in 1881, Lord Macartney until his death in 1806, Member of Parliament George Selwyn in 1776, Prince Pierre Soltykoff and Earl Percy.^[3]

In 1966/7, the foremost off-shore, 'pirate' broadcaster, Radio London was based in 17 Curzon Street. With over 12 million listeners It was infamously closed down by the Marine Offences Act on 15 August 1967.^{[citation needed]}

In the 1970s, American songwriter Harry Nilsson owned a two-bedroomed apartment (#12) at 9 Curzon Street.^[7] Both Mama Cass of The Mamas & the Papas and Keith Moon of The Who died in the flat within 4 years of each other.^[7]

Modern times

1 Curzon Street is a modern office building overlooking Berkeley Square. The fifth floor was home to AIG Financial Products, the division that "nearly destroyed" the US insurance company and which has been described by reporter Peter Koenig as the "epicenter" of the global financial crisis of 2008.^[8]

G. Heywood Hill Ltd, of The Bookshop at 10 Curzon Street: Letters between Nancy Mitford and Heywood Hill 1952-73, remains open for trading.^[9]

21 Curzon Street is one of the largest houses in Mayfair,^{[citation needed]} at 26,000 sq ft (2,400 m²). It come with a full size squash court and nightclub and was a wedding present from Lakshmi Mittal to his daughter.^{[citation needed]}

In literature

Oscar Wilde mentions Curzon Street in two of his works: in The Picture of Dorian Gray, Lord Henry Wotton lives on Curzon Street, and in Lady Windermere's Fan, the notorious Mrs. Erlynne lives at 84A Curzon Street. In Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray, Rawdon and Rebecca Crawley live in a very small comfortable house in Curzon Street, Mayfair. Curzon Street is also the location of the Junior Ganymede Club in PG Wodehouse Jeeves and Wooster series of books. (Code of the Woosters)

In popular culture

• In the British sitcom As Time Goes By, Lionel broke the ice with Jean when he first saw her in Hyde park by asking if she knew the way to Curzon Street. It was just a ruse, as he didn't want to go there, he just wanted to meet her.
• The Van Morrison song He Ain't Give You None on the Bang Masters album contains the lines, Don't you ever go down/Down on Curzon Street/That's where old John/Flogs his daily meat.

Elsewhere

• There is a street of the same name in central Birmingham that is probably named after the London street, a common practice at the time (for example Cannon Street).

References

1. ^ History of Mayfair
2. ^ Details of an engraving at the City of London website
3. ^ ^{a b c d e} Mayfair, Belgravia and Bayswater (2007) by Geraldine Edith Mitton
4. ^ Stanford's Map of London, 1862 - 1871
5. ^ Aerial view of Curzon Street at multimap.com
6. ^ List of London Chapels at Genuki
7. ^ ^{a b} Dawn Eden (1994-04-29). "One Last Touch of Nilsson". Goldmine Magazine. http://www.harrynilsson.com/page-one-last-touch-of-nilsson-part-4.html. Retrieved 2010-09-04. 
8. ^ Shaylor, Jay; Pearle, Lauren; Babarovic, Tina (10 March 2009). "AIG's Small London Office May Have Lost Big". ABC News. http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=7045889. Retrieved 2010-06-08. 
9. ^ Heywood Hill

External links

• Curzon Street at the Open Directory Project

Coordinates: 51°30′23″N 0°08′59″W / 51.5065°N 0.14982°W / 51.5065; -0.14982