Napoleon III and Charles Dickens Once Partied at This $18.6 Million London Mansion
London’s Mayfair places a number of posh and historic residences on the map with ties to names like the Duke of Wellington and Prince Jefri Bolkiah of Brunei’s royal family. A Georgian townhouse that just came to market in the upscale district for £14,950,000 (or $18.6 million) via Beauchamp Estates also allows you to soak up some history and hunker down in the same quarters visited by French Emperor Napoleon III, Prime Minister Edward Smith-Stanley, and author Charles Dickens for £14,950,000, or $18.6 million.
Built in 1753, the Grade II listed mansion on Charles Street became the home of British Foreign Secretary James Harris (1807-1889), or the third Earl of Malmesbury, almost 100 years later. It came into ownership of Harris’s lineage when the property was acquired in 1820 for the Dowager Duchess of Malmesbury, the widow of the first Earl of Malmesbury, records show. When she died in 1830, the five-story address became home to the second Earl’s son, James Harris, who had befriended then French prince Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (1808-1873) while in Paris between his Oxford graduation in 1828 and his return to London in 1830.
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Harris reportedly hosted Bonaparte at the townhouse during the French prince’s two periods of exile, from 1838 to 1840, when he lived at the Brunswick Hotel in Mayfair, and again in 1846 to 1848, when he posted up on King Street in St. James.
In 1841, James became the third Earl of Malmesbury and was also elected to the House of Commons as Conservative MP for Wilton. He went on to become the British Foreign Secretary and Member of the Privy Council under Prime Minister Edward Smith-Stanley in 1852, and it wasn’t long before the mansion underwent a renovation with bay windows installed and grand fireplaces added throughout.
Beyond the pale yellow facade and past the ground-level entrance hall is the double reception room on the second floor where Bonaparte was hosted throughout the 1840s and 50s, as well as other notable guests like Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. Tall windows flood the spacious room with natural light, highlighting its wooden chevron floors and decorative lighting.
The primary suite occupies the entire second floor. Along with a balcony that overlooks the street, it comes with a walk-in closet and an en-suite bath that features slab marble floors and an oak-clad oval bathtub. Four more en-suite bedrooms are spread across the 7,500-square-foot digs’s third and fourth floors, with one other tucked away on the lower ground floor. A study that opens out to a terrace crowns the residence with views of the area. Elsewhere are a dining room, a casual sitting room, and a gym.
RELATED: French Emperor Napoleon III’s Former London Home Just Hit the Market for $5.4 Million
When James’s wife, Lady Corisande, died in 1876, he sold the property and moved to another home in Marylebone’s Cavendish Square. Today, the Mayfair abode’s coveted central location keeps you close to entertainment venues, renowned shops, designer boutiques, hotels, restaurants, and private members’ clubs. Adding to the locale’s appeal, Hyde Park and Green Park are just a stone’s throw away.
Click here for more images of the London property.
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