LONDON HOUSE

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 154, 25 March 1939, Page 7

LONDON HOUSE

Lord Rosebery To Sell

The Earl of Rosebery is negotiating for the sale of his London house, 38 Berkeley Square, states the “Sunday Times.” If the negotiations are completed it is practically certain that the mansion will be demolished to make way for a new block of Hats.

Little idea of the size of the house can be gained from the outside, but it is very large, runing back 150 ft. into Farm Street. Lord and Lady Rosebery have decided that it is too big for their needs in these days, and they are looking for a smaller London home. No. 38 was for half a century or more the residence of the Earls of Jersey. Here the celebrated widow of the fifth Earl —one of George TV’s favourites —held her receptions, to which “half the fashionable world had the entree, and the other half thirsted for the privilege in vain.” Later it was owned by Lord Londesborough. The late Lord Rosebery acquired the house in 1887. He began to remodel it in 1893, but it was two years before the work was completed. In the days when he was active in politics it was tlie scene of many brilliant gatherings. Berkeley Square was for generations one of the most fashionable residential quarters of London, and many famous names were associated with it. Its glory began to wane barely a decade ago, since when a number of- its great houses have vanished and the square has become increasingly commercialized. Lord Rosebery's is among the lust of them.