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Mansions were quite revolutionary and very new.
Described in surprisingly modern estate-agent speak
as a multi-peopled abode there were no private
kitchens. Instead servants were provided for the
communal dining rooms and recreational facilities
which included a billiard room, a smoking room and
a grand coffee room. For bachelors of means Queen
Anne Mansions were 10 minutes from all the clubs
of St James’s. The hotel within was marketed to
visitors to London on its location, location, location:
“It is close to Piccadilly, Bond Street, and the
West-End Theatres; also to the Houses of
Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and the new
Roman Catholic Cathedral and less than 15
minutes from the City by underground train.”
Publicity for the Shangri-La hotel at The Shard tells
us that the 185 rooms and luxury suites will have the
best views over
‘this global city’.
It also promises
that:
A wide array of features and services will include the
“Shangri-La Bed,” made exclusively for the hotel
group and featuring patented body-contouring
technology; a designer LED television and iPod
docking station; complimentary high-speed Internet
access; heated floors and washlet toilets in all
bathrooms; butler service in all suites; climate
control to complement the building’s integrated
sun-shielding system, and more.
What on earth is a washlet toilet?
Advertising for Queen Anne Mansions also sold it
on its magnificent views.
The Builder
wrote of
the
fine panoramic view
from Crystal Palace and the
Surrey hills in the south to Highgate and Hampstead
in the north. This was a time when London fogs were
of the thick Victorian
pea-souper
variety and
Saturday Review
wrote:
“The three top flats are delightful on a fine day.
Those who inhabit them will have a magnificent and
ever-changing view when the Westminster fogs will
allow them to see anything at all.”
Below is our Guide Sarah’s photo of her view from
The Shard on the day she visited. If you’re unlucky
and go on such a foggy day you wouldn’t get your
money back but you would get the chance to transfer
your tickets to a new date. But only if you decide at
the bottom, you can’t go up in the lift and then say
can I come another day.
A six room flat at Queen Anne Mansions with no
garden (but you did get use of the ultra-modern
hydraulic lifts) went for a whopping £300 per annum
although you could get two small rooms for £60 per
annum. On top of this tenants had to pay 20% tax and
a pound a week for the servants. Flats on nearby
Victoria Street at this time went for £30 per annum
but a luxury top flight apartment overlooking Hyde
Park might go for as much as £750 a year so the
Queen Anne flats weren’t incredibly expensive for
their time. Over at The Shard there will be just ten
apartments in a vertical city of shops, hotel and
offices and they will cost between £30 and £50
million each. Which puts them in a similar bracket
to One Hyde Park, the Candy brothers’ flats over in
Knightsbridge. No buyers for The Shard apartments
yet apparently. Perhaps it’s the short lease (The Shard
is designed to last just 75 years) or maybe the worry
about where to put all the bins that are now required
by modern councils.
Of Queen Anne Mansions The Times wrote:
Everything is on a gigantic scale. The elevation
looks the most elevated thing in bricks and mortar
since the Tower of Babel. . . . Hydraulic lifts are
kept at work all day and all night, and this makes
the highest floors the most popular, even at the same