The Wall Street Journal - 20.03.2020

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Friday, March 20, 2020 |M1

If These Walls Could Talk

This ancient estate in the heart of London has been home to the famous, salacious and

infamous, and it comes with that most rare of city amenities—a huge yard

MANSION

Refi Fine

Print

Do this before you

trytogetanew

lower rate. M4

Pa rk It

Homes with a view

of urban greenspace

fetch a hefty

premium. M5

HOMES|MARKETS|PEOPLE|REDOS|SALES

This hall was added to Stanley House in 1812 to display casts of the Elgin marbles, which line the tops of the walls, above. The home was originally built in 1680. The home’s pool, below.

VANESSA BERBERIAN FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (3)

Thedeeppinkcolorofthewallsis

basedonawatercolorpainting

foundduringthehome’srenovation.

CastsoftheElginmarbles.

Thehomeisfilledwithvaried

texturesandprintsto

brightenitsancientspaces.

The Pandemic Rocks

Luxury Real Estate

The threat of coronavirus is transforming the industry almost

overnight; how to do business in a no-touch world

co-op on New York’s Upper East Side. The

buyers and agent, Ms. Greene learned,

would be wearing gloves and masks.

That wasn’t all. “He asked that I be up-

stairs in the apartment before their arrival,

as they didn’t want contact with anyone in

the elevator,” said Ms. Greene, who works

with Brown Harris

Stevens. “They also

requested that I open

all doors, closets and

drawers in advance

so they wouldn’t

have to touch any-

thing—and that I not

talk while they were

there.”

The request was a

surprise. “I was

laughing a little bit

about it,” she admit-

ted. The spread of

coronavirus in Italy

and Washington was

in the news; it had

PleaseturntopageM6

ON TUESDAY,March 10, real-estate agent

Joanne Greene got a call from a fellow

agent bringing buyers to one of her list-

ings, a roughly $2 million three-bedroom

BYKATHERINECLARKE,BETHDECARBO,

NANCYKEATES ANDKATYMCLAUGHLIN

A rendering of 130 William Street in New York, which is switching

to virtual technology to show properties to prospective buyers.

BINYAN STUDIOS (RENDERING)

a naval officer who fought alongside Sir Wal-

ter Raleigh to defend Britain against the

Spanish Armada. He gifted the property to

his daughter Elizabeth when she married a

minor aristocrat, Sir Robert Stanley, and the

Stanley family owned the house until 1691.

In the years that followed, the house

changed hands many times. Its most colorful

resident was the Countess of Strathmore, the

great-great-great-grandmother of Lady Eliza-

beth Bowes-Lyon, the late Queen Mother. (For

more on the countess, see the sidebar on

M8.)

A later incumbent of Stanley House was

William Hamilton, who was involved in a con-

troversy which rumbles to this day. Mr. Ham-

ilton, as noted in “The Elgin Affair: The True

Story of the Greatest Theft in History” by

Theodore Vrettos, was the private secretary

to Lord Elgin, and assisted in arranging the

removal of a series of classical Greek marble

sculptures from the Parthenon in Athens. As

PleaseturntopageM8

F

rom scandalous society ladies to

young brides and art thieves,

Stanley House has been home to

some fascinating characters in its

340-year history. The imposing

Georgian mansion on the King’s Road in Lon-

don’s Chelsea neighborhood was built as a

semirural getaway. And although the market

gardens around it have slowly been replaced

by houses and shops, its large walled back-

yard means it is still a quiet oasis amid a

busy city.

The lot, which measures an acre, is ex-

traordinarily large for a private house in cen-

tral London. The eight-bedroom, nine-bath-

room home, spanning 15,234 square feet, is

now for sale for the first time in almost two

decades. It is listed for $60.7 million with

Hamptons International estate agents.

According to London city records, Stanley

House was built in 1680 by Sir Arthur Gorges,

BYRUTHBLOOMFIELD