Type Residential buildings Location Sloane Avenue Completed 1937 Town or city Chelsea | Architectural style Art Deco architecture Country United Kingdom Opened 1937 Construction started 1936 | |
Similar Chelsea Bridge, Albert Bridge - London, Battersea Bridge | ||
Studio flat to rent in nell gwynn house sloane avenue sw3 london benham and reeves lettings
Nell Gwynn House is a ten-storey residential building in Sloane Avenue, Chelsea, London, designed in the Art Deco style by G. Kay Green. It stands next to the same architect's Sloane Avenue Mansions.
Contents
- Studio flat to rent in nell gwynn house sloane avenue sw3 london benham and reeves lettings
- Notable residents
- References
At the beginning of the 20th century, this area of Chelsea contained run-down or derelict housing, and by the 1930s the area was being redeveloped. The Victoria County History notes that by the end of the 1930s the district was "filled with housing for the better off, a curious mixture of select, consciously picturesque low houses and enormous and forbidding blocks of flats, either cautiously Art Deco or approximately neoGeorgian in style." It continues:
On the east side of Sloane Avenue several semi-detached houses were built and two immense ten-storeyed blocks of flats on either side of Whitehead's Grove with second frontages to Draycott Avenue: on the south corner Sloane Avenue Mansions was completed in 1933, and on north corner the larger Nell Gwynne House, faced with red brick and with a spacious open courtyard in the centre forming the main entrance, was finished in 1937. Both had parking space in the basements, and Nell Gwynn House had a restaurant open to non-residents.
Construction was completed in 1937. On 29 September 1937, the Central London Property Trust Ltd granted a lease of the whole block of flats to Nell Gwynn House (Chelsea) Ltd for ninety-nine years at a rent of £7,000 a year.
With a footprint forming a capital W, the geometric design of the building was Cubist, making use of Egyptian, Aztec, and Mayan patterns and materials. From the outset, each apartment had built-in central heating, there was a restaurant in the basement, a hairdressing salon, and a bar in the lobby. In 1948, a music club was established, with Sir Adrian Boult as President, and was patronised by Vaughan Williams, Arnold Bax, and John Ireland.
In 1966, A. G. Ogden described Nell Gwynn House as a "pied a terre for many Chelsea bachelors who honor the spirit of Charles II.
Since 2006, there has been a major refurbishment of the building, inside and out, including the renovation of the majority of the apartments plus the restoration of the art-deco features in the reception area by interior designer Tim Gosling.