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He won the war and inspired the famous canine mascot of an insurance company, but it can be easy to forget that former British prime minister Sir Winston Churchill was also a longtime Londoner. Throughout his political career, and during WWI and WWII, the statesman lived in a succession of properties in the capital before occupying No 10 Downing Street and his famous wartime bunker. Now one of those homes is on the rental market. And it ain’t cheap.
Churchill and his wife Clementine moved into Number 34 Eccleston Square in Pimlico in 1908, soon after they were married. They stayed in the property until 1913, shortly before Churchill’s extremely difficult (and at times disastrous) rôle in the Great War. The chichi townhouse on a private square was built in the Regency period by notable architect Thomas Cubitt, and was a suitably aspirational home for the ambitious young politician, as well as conveniently located just a 25-minute walk from the Houses of Parliament.
It’s been on the market a few times in recent years and is available again now, for a wallet-eviscerating £19,500 a month. For that, you get an apartment over two stories, with five bedrooms, three reception rooms and access to the square’s residents-only private garden, which includes a tennis court. You could probably lay out your very own tennis court for £19,500, but hey. How the other half live etc. You also get a blue plaque in honour of the shack’s famous previous owner.
Should you be interested in a viewing, the flat is on the market with Harrods Estates. It is by no means their most expensive rental property, btw.
Want to ride out the recession without negative equity? Move to Kingston.
A statue of an anticolonial campaigner is set to occupy Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth.