This was one of a row of houses built in c.1738 and called Elysium Row for its far-reaching views over nursery gardens. The house was a country retreat for a deputy-auditor of the Exchequer in the 18th century. In the 1850s it was a girls' school run by Baron de Wiercinski, a Polish patriot who had been imprisoned by the Austrians in the dungeon of Spilberg after the revolution of 1830. The actor Frederick Sullivan later lived here, and his brother Arthur composed The Lost Chord while staying with him during his last illness in 1877.
From the 1920s the house was owned by the sculptor Peter Induni. The stables and coach house were used as a studio by him and later by Hermon Cawthra, who carved the figure of Britannia which looks down on Piccadilly Circus.