History

Ordnance Survey, 1894.

1839 – 1925: THE CHESTER ARMS.

Thomas Cubitt began to develop Belgravia in the late 1820s, but it was not until 1838-39 that development reached this part of South Eaton Place and Chester Row: houses were first rated in Chester Row in 1839, with this property being one of the first to be listed. (As noted in the introduction, the house was numbered in Chester Row until 1939, in spite of the fact that the main door faced South Eaton Place.)

A street directory of 1840 – which would have been revised in late 1839 – confirms that the building was occupied from the very first as a public house, “The Chester Arms”; it continued as such until 1925. The use was not noted in the rate books until a general re-assessment of rateable values in 1869, however, at which date its value was substantially increased to reflect the commercial use.

1899. Application for installation of lamp at corner of
building.

Preliminary investigations have not yet turned up plans or illustrations of the building as a public house, but certain aspects of the layout are implied by Ordnance Surveys, plans for alterations in 1925, and an 1899 application for the replacement of a large outdoor light. The Ordnance Survey shows that the “garage end” of the house was rebuilt and the front area reduced in size between 1869 and 1894 (maps appended), whilst the 1899 application for a new external lamp – which extended over four feet from the face of the building (illustration appended) – specified that the lamp was to extend from the corner of the building and fixed to a curved or angled corner façade. The 1925 plans (appended) are conventionally drawn with colour indicating new work against the black-and-white of existing fabric, and these show that the ground floor walls at the north end of the house were completely rebuilt at this date, and that the floor level was raised.

Taken as a whole, this suggests that either from 1839 or at some point in the late 19th century the building was provided with a ground-floor public house façade which ran from No. 25 Chester Row around an angled or rounded corner – above which was a large street lamp – and continued to at least the present entrance door. Additionally, the floor level on this side of the house was – as one would expect with a pub – at pavement level, with the basement used for cellarage.

Ordnance Survey, 1913.

Apart from this configuration, one would not normally expect to find substantial improvements being carried out to a public house beyond maintenance and modernisation of services (such as wiring after the introduction of electric mains in the mid 1890s and standard upgrading of sanitary facilities). Detailed research into the leasing history and landlord changes has not been carried out, but the 1920s’ closure of the pub may have coincided with the last years of an initial 90-year lease. If this was the case, and no interim lease had ever been granted, it would further suggest that any alterations were of a minor rather than major nature.

As mentioned, street names were rationalised in 1877 when “Chester Terrace” absorbed “Minera Street” and South Eaton Place absorbed “Burton Street”. Although new street numbers were also assigned – The Chester Arms changed from No. 1 to No. 27 – the building’s street address continued to reflect the original layout of the plot in Chester Terrace, rather than the door in the wall facing South Eaton Place.

Plan, 1925.

1925 – 1986: PRIVATE RESIDENCE The Chester Arms closed in the summer of 1925, and by September of that year applications were in hand to convert the property to a private residence. As noted on the plans (appended), the architect for the work was Clough Williams-Ellis – an idiosyncratic but greatly-admired architect who was later best known for designing the holiday village of Portmeirion.

The works of 1925 had a massive impact, virtually rebuilding the ground floor and substantially re-ordering the first and second floors:

• At the Chester Row end of the house, the ground floor walls were entirely rebuilt; a new, raised entrance was built; and the ground floor level of the newly-created dining room (formerly the main bar) was raised by 1’6” to match with level of the new entrance halll and southern drawing room.
• The interior of the ground floor was repartitioned; the chimney breast from a central room was removed to insert a new staircase and a lift; new chimneys breasts were built for the re-ordered dining and drawing rooms; the southern drawing room was extended with an alcove room set off in the Adam style with pillars; and a garage was built at the south end of the property.
• In the basement, what had presumably been the below-bar cellar was refitted as a servants’ hall and pantry, and former cellars at the south end were filled in to form solid foundations for the extended drawing room and garage.
• New bathrooms were inserted at the front of the house on the first and second floors, and the chimney breasts of the former central rooms were removed. The main first-floor bedroom opened to a roof terrace above the extended drawing room and garage.

1975.

The refitted house was occupied from 1927-1931 by T.C. Manooch (presumably Williams-Ellis’s client). It then appears to have been sub-let for a year; was occupied in 1933-1935 by Viscountess Gladstone (the daughter-in-law of the 19th-century Prime Minister); and from 1936 to 1960 was the London home of Dame Adelaide Livingstone, an American-born woman who was active in the League of Nations and United Nations, and who had headed the War Office mission of 1919-1920 to search for missing soldiers in France and Flanders.

On 1 July, 1939 – during Dame Adelaide’s occupancy – “Chester Terrace” was renamed “Chester Row” as part of the London County Council’s long-standing programme of eliminating duplicate street names. Just three weeks later, No. 27 Chester Row was re-numbered as 13A South Eaton Place, and one can premise both practical and social reasons for this change. As a practical matter, once the building ceased to be a pub, visitors would probably have had difficulty finding 27 Chester Terrace/Row: there was no entrance to a house at that address. This had not been an insuperable problem for 14 years, however, which leads one to suspect that the change from “Terrace” to “Row” also represented a reduction in the social cachet of the street name – in which case an association with Eaton Place was to be preferred even if it meant adopting “13A” as an inserted street number.

1975.

Dame Adelaide remained here until 1960, at which date the house was taken by Brian Davidson, who occupied the house until 1972. An application of 1960 was made on his behalf to change the kitchen to a playroom and fit out the former pantry as a kitchen, and one would expect that other building services (wiring and/or sanitary facilities) were also modernised at this time. (Davidson was presumably the source of the name “Chantry House”: the 1960 application lists his address as “The Chantry, Thornbury, Gloucestershire”.)

The house was vacant in 1973-1974, and photographs of 1975 (appended) suggest that the building was not particularly well maintained. The photographs show that the render of the ground floor was smoother than that of the upper floors (suggesting that only the ground floor had been rebuilt in 1925); that the sanitary pipes were perhaps the most prominent feature of the façade; that almost all of the cornice shown on the 1925 drawings had disappeared; that the house had no balconies; and that the porch was a fairly mean structure. (This reflected a dispute between the L.C.C., Williams-Ellis and the Grosvenor Estate relating to public dedication of the entrance to the garage; the upshot had been that architect’s intention to erect a substantial door hood was abandoned.)

Building, 1 August 1986.

SINCE 1986: THE EXISTING HOUSE

The building was listed Grade II in 1985, and was renovated and extended in 1986. A brief note in Building magazine (appended) stated that it had been gutted for renovation by the developer Grazefield under the architect John Simpson & Partners, but that part of the façade had collapsed during the works. (The article’s photograph shows that the whole of the first- and second-floor façade south of the entrance had collapsed.)

The works appear to have continued to 1988 or 1989: the house was advertised for sale in Country Life in October, 1988, but was illustrated with a drawing rather than a photograph, and a later advertisement – published in June, 1990 – shows that the porch shown in the earlier rendering had been replaced with a semi-circular version.

A comparison of the 1925 plans with the present layout suggests that the house was virtually rebuilt from the basement up; the following changes can be noted:

Read Cunningham, 1988.

Exterior

• New front porch.
• All pipework removed from front of house.
• Formerly-blocked windows on first and second floor opened and glazed; central second-floor window closed and rendered over.
• First-floor balconies added (designed to match Chester Row balconies).
• Ground-level railings added to Chester Row and north end of South Eaton Place.

Basement

• Northernmost under-street vaults closed off (perhaps an earlier change).
• Repartitioned, with kitchen/hall converted to sitting room and WC.
• Cellars below garage and drawing room re-excavated to form part of staff flat.

Ground Floor

• Entrance hall substantially enlarged with new staircase and cloakroom.
• Reduced-size northern room converted from dining room to kitchen.
• Drawing room extended over front area, eliminating 1925 alcove arrangement.

First Floor

• Bathroom re-sited and replaced with WC and vanity/shower room.
• Master bedroom replaced with drawing room, and room extended over former roof terrace above garage.

Second Floor

• Northern bedroom converted to bathroom; former bathroom converted to WC and dressing room.
• New roof terrace/conservatory built over extended first-floor drawing room.

Third Floor

• New storey added with three bedrooms, bathroom and en-suite.

Lane Fox, 1990.

1839-1840 Property first rated (1839); occupant listed as George Mash. First listed in 1840 street directory, as “Chester Arms”, at 1, Chester Terrace. 1869 Ordnance Survey, showing full site coverage. All properties re-rated; first rate-book acknowledgement of public house use, with greatly increased rateable value.

1877 Streets renamed and numbers assigned. Chester Arms numbered as 27, Chester Terrace; flanking street re-named as part of South Eaton Place. 1894 Ordnance Survey revision. South (garage) end of building re-built, and basement area along South Eaton Place truncated. Chester Place cabled for electricity.

1896 South Eaton Place cabled for electricity.

1899 Application for new lamp to be fixed on corner of building.

1913 Ordnance Survey revision; no obvious change from 1894 edition.

1925 Electoral Registers confirm public house closed in summer; application with plans submitted (September) for works relating to conversion to private residence.

1927-1932 Theodore Charles Manooch listed in Electoral Register (to 1931); Charles King listed for 1932.

1933-1935 Viscountess Gladstone (and domestic staff) listed in Electoral Register.

1936-1960 Dame Adelaide Livingstone (and domestic staff) listed in Electoral Register.

1960 Drainage application to convert kitchen to playroom, and pantry to kitchen. Submitted on behalf of Brian Davidson, The Chantry, Thornbury, Gloucestershire.

1961-1972 Brian Davidson listed in Electoral Register.

1973-1974 No occupant listed in Electoral Register.

1975 Exterior photographs.

1975-1986 Edward Carpenter (later Mrs Alice Carpenter) listed in Electoral Register.

1985 Statutorily listed; wrongly dated as “c.1830”.

1986 Article in Building magazine, noting works to house and partial collapse of façade. Developer noted as Grazefield; architect John Simpson & Partners.

1987 No occupant listed in Electoral Register.

1988 Advertisement in Country life, illustrated with perspective rendering.

1990 Advertisement in London Portrait; illustrated with photograph showing semi-circular rather than rectangular porch.

2003 Floor plans.