An Emirati businessman is selling a Mayfair townhouse with connections to one of the world’s best-known plays.
Half Moon Street is now one of the most prestigious streets in London, a stone’s throw from Piccadilly, the Ritz and Green Park, but in the 19th century it was a much more raucous, bohemian location, popular with people connected to the arts and theatre and named after its public house.
Number 14 was used for bachelors’ lodgings, which were frequented by renowned playwright Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) and inspired his play The Importance of Being Earnest.
It is now a grand townhouse for sale with an asking price of £14 million ($18.7 million).
The Emirati vendor bought the home a decade ago for his daughter while she studied at university and is now selling it as he reorganises his property portfolio.
Jeremy Gee, managing director of Beauchamp Estates, which is marketing the property, told The National the new owner would have the “dream package” of a freehold period property with history and famous connections, already luxuriously refurbished, in one of the most sought-after streets in the city.
Wilde ways
14 Half Moon Street was built in the 1730s as a single-family home before being split into apartments in the 1880s by the then owners, the Gannon family.
Gannon Apartments provided “bachelors’ chambers” – accommodation for single male tenants seeking to advance their careers and fortunes. Actor and costumier Raoul “Reggie” de Veulle, novelist Hugh Walpole, poet Siegfried Sassoon and journalist and art critic Robbie Ross also lodged there.
Wilde was a regular in the area as he attended his club at nearby Albemarle Street and strutted through Burlington Arcade where he would buy carnations for his buttonhole.
He chose Number 14 as the setting for the opening act of The Importance of Being Earnest, as one of the principal characters Algernon Moncrieff’s “luxuriously furnished” chambers.
Next door was a racy tavern called Fleming, frequented by Wilde and his friends, which is now the plush Flemings Hotel with an Oscar Wilde-inspired VIP suite.
What the property offers
After the Second World War, 14 Half Moon Street was converted into offices and then became a single home once more in 2008. It has been fully refurbished and has luxurious living space over seven floors, all of them linked by a passenger lift as well as a traditional staircase.
The Grade II listed white stucco-fronted townhouse provides 5,019 square feet (466.27 square metres) of accommodation, featuring an entrance hall, four reception rooms, four/five bedrooms, a cinema room, steam room and two private terraces, with a large oriel bay window at first and second floor level.
Mr Gee said: “With its links to Oscar Wilde, this is one of the most famous townhouses in Mayfair and we anticipate interest in this property from discerning buyers from around the world.”
He expects it to be of particular interest to American buyers, who appreciate the “premium village” residential lifestyle now offered in Mayfair compared with its more commercial feel a few years ago, as well as those from the Middle East, who often have “generational connections” to London.
“Unless we find a very wealthy member of the Oscar Wilde fan club,” he joked. There would be “bragging rights in saying you own the Oscar Wilde house in Mayfair”, he added.
Vlad Viaryshkaka, senior sales negotiator at Beauchamp Estates, said there have been several interested parties, ranging from Americans working in London to Chinese families.
“This immaculately presented turn-key residence combines contemporary design with period features. The townhouse offers the ideal combination of spacious entertaining areas, leisure facilities and outside living space,” Mr Viaryshkaka said.
“Close to Green Park, at the end of the street, this townhouse is located in one of the most distinguished addresses in Mayfair. It is just a short walk to Bond Street and Mount Street, the local high street, and is perfectly located to offer the very best of Mayfair living and easy access to the shops and restaurants of Knightsbridge.”
