 | |
 | |
| Industry | Bookshop |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1936 |
| Founder | George Heywood Hill |
| Headquarters | 10 Curzon Street, London, W1 |
| Website | heywoodhill |
Heywood Hill is a bookshop at 10 Curzon Street, in the Mayfair district of London. [1]
| | |
| | |
| Industry | Bookshop |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1936 |
| Founder | George Heywood Hill |
| Headquarters | 10 Curzon Street, London, W1 |
| Website | heywoodhill |
Heywood Hill is a bookshop at 10 Curzon Street, in the Mayfair district of London. [1]
The shop was opened by George Heywood Hill on 3 August 1936, with the help of Lady Anne Gathorne-Hardy, who would later become his wife. [2] [3]
For the last three years of the Second World War, while George Heywood Hill was in the Army, Lady Anne ran the shop with the assistance of the novelist Nancy Mitford. [4] In 1949 Elizabeth Forbes, the daughter of Admiral Sir Charles Forbes, joined the staff of the store where she worked prior to her career as a journalist, music critic, and musicologist. [5] In the period following Heywood Hill's retirement, the shop was managed by Handasyde Buchanan, a notable contributor to books on natural history who had joined the shop in 1945. [6] John Saumarez Smith, who had joined the staff straight from Cambridge in 1965, took up the reigns as manager in 1974 following Buchanan's retirement, a position he held for over thirty years. [7] In 1991, the shop was bought by Nancy Mitford's brother-in-law, Andrew Cavendish, 11th Duke of Devonshire. [8]
Since 2016 the shop has been owned by Peregrine Cavendish, 12th Duke of Devonshire. It has been managed by his son-in-law, Nicky Dunne since 2011. [9] Heywood Hill specialises in rare books and collections of books, and has a service of assembling and delivering bespoke libraries for customers. [1] It has been described as the late Queen's favourite bookshop. [10]
Duke of Devonshire is a title in the Peerage of England held by members of the Cavendish family. This branch of the Cavendish family has been one of the wealthiest British aristocratic families since the 16th century and has been rivalled in political influence perhaps only by the Marquesses of Salisbury and the Earls of Derby.
The Mitford family is an aristocratic English family, whose principal line had its seats at Mitford, Northumberland. Several heads of the family served as High Sheriff of Northumberland. A junior line, with seats at Newton Park, Northumberland, and Exbury House, Hampshire, descends via the historian William Mitford (1744–1827) and were twice elevated to the British peerage, in 1802 and 1902, under the title Baron Redesdale.
Nancy Freeman-Mitford, known as Nancy Mitford, was an English novelist, biographer, and journalist. The eldest of the Mitford sisters, she was regarded as one of the "bright young things" on the London social scene in the inter-war period. She wrote several novels about upper-class life in England and France, and is considered a sharp and often provocative wit. She also has a reputation as a writer of popular historical biographies.
Deborah Vivien Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, was an English aristocrat, writer, memoirist, and socialite. She was the youngest and last-surviving of the six Mitford sisters, who were prominent members of British society in the 1930s and 1940s.
Diana, Lady Mosley, known as Diana Guinness between 1929 and 1936, was a British aristocrat, fascist, writer and editor. She was one of the Mitford sisters and the wife of Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists.
William Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Devonshire was a British nobleman and politician. He was the eldest son of William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire and Lady Mary Butler. A prominent Whig, he was sworn of the Privy Council in 1707, and served as Lord President of the Council from 1716 to 1718 and 1725 to 1729.
Edward William Spencer Cavendish, 10th Duke of Devonshire,, known as the Marquess of Hartington from 1908 to 1938, was a British politician. He was the head of the Devonshire branch of the House of Cavendish. He had careers with the army and in politics and was a senior freemason. His sudden death, apparently of a heart attack at the age of fifty-five, occurred in the presence of the suspected serial killer John Bodkin Adams.
Andrew Robert Buxton Cavendish, 11th Duke of Devonshire,, styled Lord Andrew Cavendish until 1944 and Marquess of Hartington from 1944 to 1950, was a British peer and politician. He was a minister in the government of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, and is also known for opening Chatsworth House to the public.
Peregrine Andrew Morny Cavendish, 12th Duke of Devonshire,, is an English peer. He is the only surviving son of Andrew Cavendish, 11th Duke of Devonshire, and his wife, the former Deborah Mitford. He succeeded to the dukedom following the death of his father on 3 May 2004. Before his succession, he was styled Earl of Burlington from 1944 until 1950 and Marquess of Hartington between 1950 and 2004. His immediate family are owner-occupiers of Chatsworth House and are worth an estimated £905 million. Estates landscaped before 1900 by the family are parts of Derbyshire and North Yorkshire. Other capital managed by the Duke includes fine and contemporary art, forestry and farming.
Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy was a British author, known for biographies, including one of Alfred Kinsey, and books of social history on the British nanny and public school system. For his autobiography, Half an Arch, he received the J. R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography in 2005. He also wrote novels and children's literature. He subsequently worked in advertising and publishing.
Mary Alice Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, was a British courtier who served as Mistress of the Robes to Queen Elizabeth II from 1953 to 1967. She was the granddaughter of Prime Minister Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury.
William Cavendish, Earl of Burlington, professionally also known by the name Bill Burlington, is a British aristocrat, photographer, and the son and heir of the 12th Duke of Devonshire. He was styled Earl of Burlington before his father's succession to the Dukedom of Devonshire, and has not assumed the title Marquess of Hartington as all previous heirs apparent to the dukedom have done.
Curzon Street is located within the Mayfair district of London. The street is located entirely within the W1J postcode district; the eastern end is 200 metres (660 ft) north-east of Green Park underground station. It is within the City of Westminster, running approximately east to west from Fitzmaurice Place past Shepherd Market to Park Lane.
The Cavendishfamily is a British noble family, of Anglo-Norman origins. They rose to their highest prominence as Duke of Devonshire and Duke of Newcastle.
Elizabeth Forbes was an English author, journalist, music critic, and musicologist who specialised in writing about opera. Actively working as a professional writer and journalist from the early 1970s until 2013, her main areas of interest were 19th and 20th-century opera and singers, both historical and present-day. She published multiple books related to opera and contributed many reviews and articles to several notable periodicals and newspapers internationally including the Financial Times, The Independent, The Musical Times, Opera, Opera Canada and Opera News among several others.
The Hon. Robert Gathorne-Hardy, was a British prose writer, poet, botanist, and horticulturalist. He was educated at Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford. Robert was the third of four sons of Gathorne Gathorne-Hardy, 3rd Earl of Cranbrook. He was for forty years a resident of Stanford Dingley in Berkshire. In Oxford he co-founded the Uffizi Society alongside Anthony Eden and Lord David Cecil.
Timothy John Behrens was a British painter who spent most of his professional life as a painter and a writer abroad, in Greece, Italy, and Spain.
RalphEdward Gathorne-Hardy was a British antiquarian, traveller and socialite.
George Heywood Hill was a British bookseller, and the founder of the Mayfair bookshop Heywood Hill in 1936.
Lady Anne Catherine Dorothy Hill was a British bookseller and writer.
London's Heywood Hill curates impressive collections for discerning customers in 60 different countries — and specializes in the obscure.
Media related to 10 Curzon Street, London at Wikimedia Commons