The West End run of The Importance of Being Earnest might be over, but the curtain has gone up on the house that inspired Oscar Wilde’s play, after being listed for sale for £14 million. Located at 14 Half Moon Street in Mayfair, this Grade II-listed townhouse has had a long and varied history, and is now being sold as an incredibly luxurious – and decidedly contemporary – home.
The handsome townhouse was built in the early 1700s as a private residence before being divided into small apartments known as bachelors’ chambers for young single male tenants. Though Oscar Wilde’s official London home was in Chelsea with his wife Constance, he was a regular visitor to Half Moon Street, visiting friends at number 14, staying with his lover, the journalist, art critic and art dealer Robbie Ross at number 40, and living the high life at Flemings tavern – the epicentre of the area’s vibrant bohemian scene. It had particularly strong links with the literary set and was home to a number of prominent writers during the 19th and 20th centuries (both both and after Wilde’s time), including Siegfried Sassoon, William Hazlitt and the female novelist, diarist and playwright Fanny Burney.
So taken was Wilde by the artistic spirit of Half Moon Street that he is said to have based Algernon Moncrieff’s bachelor pad in The Importance of Being Earnest on number 14. The apartment is described in the stage directions as ‘luxuriously and artistically furnished’ and has been brought to life accordingly in theatre productions, with the most recent West End iteration featuring a velvet-upholstered chaise longue, antique furniture and a very fine piano (which is also referenced in Wilde’s notes). And Algy is in the very finest fictional company, as Half Moon Street is also the location (this time mentioned by name) of Bertie Wooster’s flat in PG Wodehouse’s beloved series of books.
Today, things at 14 Half Moon Street look rather different, but the air of luxury remains. In the century or so since its bohemian heyday, Half Moon Street – like Mayfair as a whole – has become a prime property hotspot, with high-net-worth individuals from across the globe snapping up houses here. Most recently, number 14 has been owned by an Emirati multi-millionaire, who bought the stucco-fronted townhouse in 2016 for £14.95 million to serve as his daughter’s UK base while she was studying at the London School of Economics. A decade later and the house is back on the market, with the slightly lower price of £14 million seeming to reflect recent trends in the capital.
Spread over 5,000 square feet and an impressive seven floors, the townhouse has five bedrooms, five bathrooms, and generous living and entertaining spaces. On the ground floor, the entrance hall leads to a sleek kitchen and breakfast area, while upstairs on the first floor is an open-plan sitting and dining room as well as an additional elegant reception room. The four upper floors house the generous bedrooms and bathrooms, two of each have their own large dressing rooms, and another study and sitting area that leads to a private roof terrace. The lower-ground floor, meanwhile, has been transformed into an atmospheric cinema room ideal plus a practical utility area. Better still, a lift has been installed to provide easy access to every floor.
The new owners of 14 Half Moon Street will not only be buying a piece of London’s cultural and literary history, but one of the finest postcodes in the capital, too. Green Park is just moments away, as are many of London’s best restaurants, bars and theatres – perfect for when The Importance of Being Earnest next returns to the West End. We can’t help but wonder which real-world characters might be playing a leading role in the next Act of the 14 Half Moon Street story.
See the full listing on the Beauchamp Estates website.
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