Coleherne Court: home to princesses, actors and spies

Three years ago, a new blue plaque was unveiled in the Boltons Conservation Area. It marked the years that Diana, Princess of Wales, lived in this neighbourhood before her engagement. The plaque was fixed to the façade of Coleherne Court, a grand Edwardian mansion block between Redcliffe Gardens and the Old Brompton Road.

Lady Diana Spencer moved into 60 Coleherne Court in July 1979 with three friends. The flat was an eighteenth-birthday present from Diana’s parents. She kept living there until the night before her engagement was announced, before briefly moving to Clarence House. Later Diana described these 18 months as the happiest time of her life. But what was the history of this building, and how did a future princess come to be living there?

Coleherne Court was constructed on the site of Coleherne House, a late-eighteenth-century manor with landscaped gardens and a large fishpond. It was probably built by William Boulton, the landowner who gave his name to the current conservation area. But the manor’s most celebrated resident was Edmund Tattersall, head of the famous auction house.

Soon after Tattersall’s death in 1898, the house was demolished. A few years later, the current mansion block was constructed in the Arts and Crafts style. Its design included canted bay windows and ornamental friezes on the gables and window surrounds. Furthermore, the red brick façade was decorated with Portland Stone, as well as metal balconies for the upper storeys.

Inside, the flats had two large reception rooms, two bedrooms, as well as a servant’s bedroom, kitchen, scullery, larder, bathroom and two WCs. In size and layout, these properties were typical of the mansion blocks built across London during the latter decades of the Victorian Era.

In the mid-nineteenth century, London was growing quickly. Though the first underground line opened in 1863, it was not yet a commuter city. Demand in fashionable neighbourhoods was high, so developers began building dense blocks of flats to imitate European cities like Paris or Vienna.

These flats, known as mansion blocks, provided luxurious accommodation for the upper classes. Grouped around a grand central staircase, they could rise between four and eight storeys high. The style was unique to the city, with grand facades that recalled Georgian terraces or stately homes, decorated with stone, brick and plaster ornament.

Mansion blocks spread quickly through London’s smarter addresses: Mayfair, Kensington, Marylebone and Regent’s Park. At first, they were aimed at wealthy tenants, but over time they expanded to the middle classes.

Although one of the hundreds of mansion blocks built before the First World War, Coleherne Court is special. Its residents have access to an exceptionally large communal garden, with a blend of lawns, planted shrubbery and mature trees covering two acres. It has since been awarded numerous awards as the best communal garden in Chelsea.

The building has also attracted a remarkable range of residents. Before the war, it was home to Princess Mestchersky, a leading figure among the White Russian emigres in London. Then, between the 1950s and 1960s, it attracted the historian Sir Charles Petrie and the novelist Brigit Brophy. The actor Corin Redgrave – a member of the famous dramatic clan – also lived here and hosted meetings of the Workers Revolutionary Party in his flat.

Most remarkable of all, for many years there was an MI6 safe house in Coleherne Court. This was where British spies debriefed Oleg Penkovsky, one of the highest-ranking Soviet officials to provide intelligence to the British during the Cold War.

By the end of the century, this corner of Kensington was becoming more and more fashionable. It was the perfect bachelorette pad for the young Diana in the early ‘80s, and in the late ‘90s it was home to Sophie Rhys-Jones, the PR executive who married Prince Edward, later becoming the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh.

Today, Coleherne is a prestigious address, with the spacious flats and generous garden making it popular among families. As well as 213 sought-after properties, it offers a 24-hour concierge service and a summer party for all the residents on the lawns of that glorious garden.