50 St James's Street is a Grade II listed house in St James's Street, St James's, London SW1, [1] opposite White's Club.
It was built in 1827, and designed by the architects Benjamin Wyatt and Philip Wyatt, as Crockford's, a gentleman's club. It was altered from 1870–75 by C. J. Phipps. [1]
From 1999 to 2009, a luxury casino named Fifty, owned by Robert Earl, operated on the premises. [2] [3]
Next, the property was secured by Luca Del Bono, an Anglo-Italian property developer. To this end, in 2011, Westminster City Council approved plans to create a members' club, spa, 14-bedroom hotel, and two public restaurants. [3]
In 2014, the property was bought by the Russian billionaire Andrey Goncharenko for £70 million, apparently with the intention of converting it to residential use. The building sat empty, until it was occupied by squatters in 2017. [4]
Spencer House is a historic town house at 27 St James's Place in the St James's area of Westminster, Greater London, England. The house is Grade I listed on the National Heritage List for England.
The Pantheon was a place of public entertainment on the south side of Oxford Street, London, England. It was designed by James Wyatt and opened in 1772. The main rotunda was one of the largest rooms built in England up to that time and had a central dome somewhat reminiscent of the celebrated Pantheon in Rome. It was built as a set of winter assembly rooms and later briefly converted into a theatre. Before being demolished in 1937, it was a bazaar and a wine merchant's show room for over a hundred years. Marks and Spencer's "Oxford Street Pantheon" branch, at 173 Oxford Street now occupies the site.
St Agnes Place was a squatted street in Kennington, south London, which resisted eviction orders for more than 30 years. When a number of derelict houses were scheduled for demolition to extend Kennington Park in 1969, squatters occupied the properties and a High Court injunction prevented the demolition. The street was run by a housing cooperative until 2005, when Lambeth London Borough Council obtained an eviction order. Demolition was completed in 2007.
The Naval and Military Club, known informally as The In & Out, is a private members' club located in St James's Square, London. It was founded in 1862 for officers of the Navy and Army. It now also accepts female members, and members who have not served in the armed forces, but continues to observe service traditions.
St James's Street is the principal street in the district of St James's, central London. It runs from Piccadilly downhill to St James's Palace and Pall Mall. The main gatehouse of the Palace is at the southern end of the road; in the 17th century, Clarendon House faced down the street across Piccadilly from the site of what is now Albemarle Street.
Coade stone or Lithodipyra or Lithodipra is stoneware that was often described as an artificial stone in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It was used for moulding neoclassical statues, architectural decorations and garden ornaments of the highest quality that remain virtually weatherproof today.
Great Russell Street is a street in Bloomsbury, London, best known for being the location of the British Museum. It runs between Tottenham Court Road in the west, and Southampton Row in the east. It is one-way only (eastbound) between its western origin at Tottenham Court Road and Bloomsbury Street.
Bulstrode is an English country house and its large park, located to the southwest of Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire. The estate spreads across Chalfont St Peter, Gerrards Cross and Fulmer, and predates the Norman conquest. Its name may originate from the Anglo-Saxon words burh (marsh) and stród (fort). The park and garden are designated a Grade II* listed building.
The Advisory Service for Squatters (A.S.S.) is a non-profit group based in London and run by volunteers. It aims to provide practical advice and legal support for squatters. It was founded in 1975, having grown out of the Family Squatters Advisory Service. After being based for many years in St. Paul's Road in Islington, A.S.S. moved its offices to Whitechapel High Street, in the same building as Freedom Press.
L'Escargot is London's oldest French restaurant, and is also one of the city's oldest restaurants. It is housed in a Georgian townhouse on Greek Street, in the heart of the Soho district. The building, which dates from 1741, was previously the private residence of the Duke of Portland.
Crockford's, the popular name for William Crockford's St James's Club was a London gentlemen's club, now dissolved. It was established in 1823, closed in 1845, re-founded in 1928 and closed in 1970. One of London's older clubs, it was centred on gambling and maintained a somewhat raffish and raucous reputation. It was founded by William Crockford who employed Benjamin Wyatt and Philip Wyatt to construct the city's most opulent palace of gentlemanly pleasure, which opened in November 1827. and he employed two of London's finest chefs of the time, Louis Eustache Ude and then Charles Elmé Francatelli to feed its members, food and drink being supplied free after midnight.
In England and Wales, squatting – taking possession of land or an empty house the squatter does not own – is a criminal or civil offence, depending on circumstances. People squat for a variety of reasons which include needing a home, protest, poverty, and recreation. Many squats are residential; some are also opened as social centres. Land may be occupied by New Age travellers or treesitters.
The Bank of Ideas was a squatted, self-managed social centre in a disused UBS office complex on Sun Street in the City of London, England. It remained in the building from November 2011 until January 2012. The building was owned by UBS, and the squatters were members of the Occupy London protest movement. The building was described by an Occupy London spokesman as "a space for political discussion".
St James's Place is a street in the St James's district of London near Green Park. It was first developed around 1694, the historian John Strype describing it in 1720 as a "good Street ... which receiveth a fresh Air out of the Park; the Houses are well-built, and inhabited by Gentry ..." Henry Benjamin Wheatley wrote in 1870 that it was "one of the oddest built streets in London."
Mark Masons' Hall in Westminster, Greater London, is the headquarters of The Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons of England and Wales, which is also responsible for the Royal Ark Mariner degree. It is located in 86 St James's Street in the district of St James's, opposite St James's Palace. While Freemasons' Hall is the headquarters of the United Grand Lodge of England and the Supreme Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of England, Mark Masons' Hall is the home of several other important appendant orders of Freemasonry in England and Wales.
102 Eaton Square is a Grade II* listed house in Eaton Square, Belgravia, central London.
South Audley Street is a major shopping street in Mayfair, London. It runs north to south from the southwest corner of Grosvenor Square to Curzon Street.
Andrey Nikolaevich Goncharenko is a Russian billionaire businessman, the former CEO of a Gazprom subsidiary, and the owner of four central London houses bought for a total of £250 million, including Hanover Lodge, "the UK’s most expensive home", for £120 million.
121 Centre was a squatted self-managed social centre on Railton Road in Brixton, south London from 1981 until 1999. As an anarchist social centre, the venue hosted a bookshop, cafe, infoshop, library, meeting space, office space, printing facility, and rehearsal space. Organisations using the space included Food Not Bombs, Anarchist Black Cross prisoner aid chapters, an anarcho-feminist magazine, a squatters aid organisation, and an anarchist queer group. Regular events at 121 Centre included punk concerts, a women's cafe night, and a monthly queer night. The centre kept a low profile and was one of the longest-lasting squats in London.
Oval Mansions are eight separate blocks of tenement housing in Kennington, south London. The blocks stand between the Oval cricket ground and the Oval Gasholders. After being occupied by 100 squatters from 1983 until 2000, the buildings were sold off by Lambeth Council in the early 2000s.