This house was built in 1933-4 as part of the complete redevelopment of the area into a fashionable district.  It was designed with all the modern conveniences expected in the 1930s, such as an ensuite bathroom to the principal bedroom, a rubbish hatch in the kitchen and a serving hatch through to the dining room.  The top floor landing featured a housemaid's cupboard fitted with an enamel sink.  In 1948 it was the first marital home of the Hon. Wentworth Beaumont, a heroic Spitfire pilot who had been imprisoned in Stalag Luft III, the setting for what was to be immortalised in the cinema as The Great Escape.  As ADC to Lord Mountbatten in India in 1947, Beaumont and his fiancee Sarah (the daughter of General Lord Ismay) experienced a horrific journey to Delhi, where the Muslim passengers were pulled out of the train by their Hindu fellow travellers and butchered in the most brutal manner.  Their servant, hidden under the seat, was the only Muslim to arrive at Delhi.

Neighbours have varied from dapper American publisher Morley Kennerley, poet and diplomat George Seferis, comedian Jack Train and 'Spycatcher' Lieutenant-Colonel Oreste Pinto - to the getaway driver for the Great Train Robbery in 1963.