Pimlico's social aspirations disappeared overnight after the opening of Victoria Station in 1860 and parts of the immediate area became quite seedy. This house built c1856 was in a street identified by the social researcher Henry Mayhew in 1852 as where an affluent man might seek a discreet introduction to the sort of 'quiet lady whose secrecy he can rely upon'. He noted that everyone knew that the street was inhabited by 'beauty that ridicules decorum'. The house was used for immoral purposes for about twenty years during this period. In this and nearby streets, one house in three was said to be a brothel. Two rather unusual brothers lived up the road who claimed to be the grandsons of Bonnie Prince Charlie, styling themselves Prince Sobieski and Count d'Albanie.
