Interior of Dartmouth House in Charles Street
Interior of Dartmouth House in Charles Street
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Interior of Dartmouth House in Charles Street
SC_PHL_01_455_66_1822 (Collage 129374)
London Metropolitan Archives: LCC Photograph Library
A view of the ceiling of a ballroom of Dartmouth House, a grand mansion in Rococo style, at 37-38 Charles Street, Mayfair. Also known as the Nell Gwyn room after the seventeenth century actress, this was part of Dartmouth House that was sold in 1970 to form part of the Chesterfield Hotel next door at number 36. The room was reputed to have been the work of the sculptor Grinling Gibbons and to have come from a home owned by Nell Gwyn. The walls and ceiling are lavishly decorated with classical and mythical designs, including swags and foliage and panels of musical instruments. A chandelier hangs from the ceiling. The house was a rebuild/conversion of two mid-eighteenth century houses in 1890-91 by William Allwright of Turner Lord for banker Edward Baring, later Lord Revelstoke. The work was done by builders William Cubitt & Co. Around 1900 it was owned by Lord Dartmouth and minor alterations were carried out in 1927 by Clough Williams Ellis to convert the building into the home of the English-Speaking Union. Numbers 37 and 38 Charles Street was Grade II* listed in 1987; listing number 1357295. It is still the home of the English-Speaking Union.
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