PRESS REVIEW: 2021

   Camden New Journal, 27 May 2021:

 

NB assumptions made in the transcripts below, are the main subject of our blog and (some) have already been dealt with accordingly ...

 

"Dick Weindling and Marianne Colloms have spent years trawling the census, rate books and electoral registers without being able to trace her (...)

 

The common acceptance had been that Ms Langtry had lived at Leighton House at 103 Alexandra Road, and there was even a national newspaper campaign to save the property before the bulldozers flattened the ground to build the estate at Rowley Way in the 1970s.

It was claimed that it was here that Ms Langtry had seduced Edward VII, the then Prince of Wales (...) 

 

Mr Weindling said: “I’d say I’ve been on and off researching Lillie Langtry for 30 years. I became particularly interested because we couldn’t find any research at all saying she lived there. We have now gone through all the records, all the census data, all the newspapers. I’ve gone through all the biographies. There is nothing (...)"

 

Mr Weindling said the story of her living in Leighton House had first appeared in "The Telegraph" and "The Times" newspapers ahead of its demolition, but insisted there were no records of her living there. Paperwork instead places her in west London (...)

 

Mr Weindling said: “What I think happened is that Camden Council told the owner they want to demolish the whole street. At that point, she starts a campaign. She is quoted saying she had seen the ghost of Lillie in her bedroom and that she had been visited by her for many years (...)"

 

It went right to the wire. Government inspectors were brought in, but it was judged not worth preserving (...) 

 

Mr Weindling and Ms Colloms have written a detailed research article that is being published for the first time today (Thursday) on their website:

http://kilburnwesthampstead.blogspot.com/ " (quotes)

 

* Tom Foot in "The Camden New Journal" 

 

 The Daily Telegraph, 2 June 2021:

 

 

 

 

An actress fictitiously claimed her South Hampstead home once served as the love nest where Edward VII conducted an affair in order to save the property from demolition, historians have discovered. 

Lillie Langtry is long believed to have lived in South Hampstead where she would be visited by the King during their affair between 1877 and 1880.

So well accepted was the tale that the Princess of Wales pub - which had been named after Edward VII’s wife Princess Alexandra - was renamed and to this day is known as The Lillie Langtry.

Other tributes to the late actress in the South Hampstead area include the streets Langtry Walk and Langtry Road.

However, it has now emerged that the claims were fabricated by Electra Yaras, a Greek actress, after she learned that the property was set to be demolished in 1965.

Historians Dick Weindling and Marianne Colloms found that while there was evidence the affair took place, Langtry actually resided in Belgravia during this time and (did not) live on Alexandra Road.

“How on earth [Yaras] decided on Lillie Langtry, I have no idea,” Mr Weindling said. “There’s no link to that area at all. She was in Mayfair and Park Lane, the high-class areas of Belgravia and so on. She would have never been seen dead there — it’s not the sort of house she’d have wanted to go to.”

Lillie Langtry used to live at the former Cadogan Hotel - but never resided in South Hampstead.

Mr Weindling added that the urban myth became so widely accepted because people had wanted something to remember Langtry by.

“She was more than just a royal mistress. She was a really wonderful person, so they wanted to remember her.”

Ms Yaras, who died in 2010, told newspaper reporters that the ghost of Langtry would regularly appear before her at what she described as a “historic” house.

The actress’s ruse to save her house from demolition did not work, and it was demolished in order to accommodate social housing a short time later.

Edward VII and Langtry were both married at the time of their affair, and the King is known to have had at least 12 mistresses during his reign." (quotes)

 

* Dominic Penna in "The Daily Telegraph"

 

 The Times, 3 June 2021: 

 

 

 

 

"Lillie Langtry and Edward VII’s Hampstead love nest ‘a myth’

It was a slice of London history that inspired locals to name a pub and streets after one of its most famous residents (Mark Bridges writes).

For decades, the actress Lillie Langtry has been honoured in South Hampstead, where it was said she maintained a discreet love nest for her and the future king Edward VII.

Historians, however, say the tale was invented in the 1960s by an actress trying to save her home and that Langtry whose affair lasted from 1877-1880 would not have been seen dead in the suburbs so far from Belgravia.

Edward VII had an extramarital affair with Langtry between 1877 and 1880, when he was Prince of Wales

Dick Weindling and Marianne Colloms had long been suspicious of the claims. After trawling the archives, they found nothing to indicate that Langtry ever lived in Alexandra Road, in north London, before the report in 1965. 

 

They believe the story was fabricated by Electra Yaras a Greek actress, who, after learning her home was to be demolished, claimed she had spoken with Lillie Langtry ghost. Yaras told the Evening Standard in 1965: "Lillie Langtry ghost appeared at my bedroom door and asked if I would like to have a baby boy. Some time later, my son was born in that very room".

 

The claims inspired the naming of Langtry Walk, on the Alexandra and Ainsworth estate and nearby Langtry Road. The Princess of Wales pub was also renamed the Lillie Langtry.

 

Weindling, whose findings are  on the History of Kilburn and West Hampstead blog and were first reported in the Camden New Journal, said: "How on earth (Yaras) decided on Lillie Langyry, I have no idea. She would have never been seen dead there."  (quote)

 

* Mark Bridge in "The Times"

History of Kilburn and South Hampstead blog, 27 May 2021

 

 

 

The "first part" of their post gives us an outline of Lillie Langtry biography.

The transcripts below are from the "second part" - as if it were.

 

"The first reference to Lillie living in Leighton House in Alexandra Road is from the Evening Standard 2 April 1965. Yaras who had bought the lease of the property and had lived there for many years, told a reporter that tables were banged, and voices were heard whispering in Leighton House. 

 

Electra, who was an actress in the 1950’s  She said she had seen the ghost of Lillie Langtry in her bedroom. According to her, Lillie had lived in the house for many years and Edward, Prince of Wales regularly visited her there. Now the house was earmarked for demolition by the council.

Camden Council bought a 13.5-acre site from the Eyre estate for £925,000, including the houses in Alexandra Road, but these were not demolished until 1971. 

 

That year, the Hampstead News of 11 April carried an article by a journalist who had visited No.103. It says Leighton House was built by Lord Leighton for Lily (misspelt), with high walls and a glass canopy over the entrance steps to shield Bertie from view during his visits. While the house did have a glass-covered entrance behind the high wall, the walls were no higher than some neighbouring properties. 

 

No.103 was not built for Lillie by Lord Leighton. It was already standing by the mid-1860s and the name ‘Leighton House’ was given to the property by Samuel Litchfield, an importer and dealer of Dresden china, who moved there in 1870. He may have named the house after his wife’s place of birth, Leighton Buzzard. This was quite common for property owners at the time.

Did Lillie Langtry ever live in Alexandra Road?

Using a variety of sources, such as the census, rate books, and electoral registers, we have looked at all the people who lived at Leighton House between 1870 and 1907. For the most part they were wealthy businessmen, and there is no record of Lillie in Alexandra Road. Other sources say Lillie’s cousin Philip Le Breton lived at the house, and she was a frequent visitor. But in fact he lived in Hampstead, not Alexandra Road. 

None of the many biographies of King Edward VII and Lillie mention Alexandra Road, apart from ‘Edwardians in Love’ by Anita Leslie. On page 97 she writes; ‘From her small house in Mayfair, Mrs Langtry moved to Hampstead, where she bought a mansion called Leighton House in Alexandra Road.’ But the book was first published in 1972, after the publicity about saving the house had appeared in national newspapers, and Leslie describes some of the rooms using information which appeared in the articles (...)

The Times for 8 October 1971 and the Daily Telegraph of 9 October, reported the attempts made by campaigners to save the property, described as Lillie Langtry’s house. Electra Yaras and her son Andrew had persuaded fellow actress Adrienne Corri, who lived nearby in 26 Springfield Road, to add to the publicity in a last-minute attempt to get a preservation order on the house. But inspectors for the Environment Department decided the house did not merit saving, and the families had to move out that weekend. (...)

From all our research, we have found no evidence that Lillie Langtry ever lived in Alexandra Road or that the Prince of Wales visited her there. We are now convinced the story was fabricated by the occupants of Leighton House in an attempt to prevent its demolition." (quote)

 

* Dick Weindling and Marianne Colloms in their blog "History of Kilburn and West Hampstead". Help and information credited to Anthony J. Camp, MBE (ex-director of the Society of Genealogists)

 

 

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