One of Mayfair's oldest houses

I have just researched a house built c.1737 in the heart of Mayfair. It was originally at the less fashionable end of the street and was occupied by various tradesmen before becoming a lodging house for the last half of the 19th century. The house was considerably enlarged in 1915 and subsequent residents included a Broadway producer and an American banker involved in the collapse of Farrow's Bank in 1920. Thousands of people lost every penny they had, amongst them large numbers of clergymen. In the early 1930s Peter Watson lived here - he was to become one of the European art market's wealthiest patrons and the man who helped launch the careers of Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud. He was also a co-founder of the magazine Horizon and the Institute of Contemporary Arts. He met a squalid end, aged only 47, probably murdered in his bath by a jealous male lover who stood to inherit the bulk of his fortune and extensive art collection.

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