7 and 8 Balfour Place are a pair of

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

houses in Balfour Place,

Mayfair Mayfair is an affluent area in the West End of London towards the eastern edge of Hyde Park, in the City of Westminster, between Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly and Park Lane. It is one of the most expensive districts in the world. ...

, London W1, on the corner with Mount Street. No 7 is also known as Balfour House. 7 and 8 Balfour Place were Grade II listed in 1984. They were built in 1892–1894 by

Eustace Balfour Colonel Eustace James Anthony Balfour (8 June 1854 – 14 February 1911) was a London-based Scottish architect. The brother of one British Prime Minister and nephew of another, his career was built on family connections. His mother was th ...

and

Hugh Thackeray Turner Hugh Thackeray Turner (8 March 1853 – 11 December 1937) was an English Arts and Crafts architect and also an amateur china painter. Hugh Turner was born at Foxearth, Essex, England. His father, Rev. John Richard Turner, was a Church of Engla ...

of Balfour and Turner, in a "Free Style with Flemish and early Renaissance details" , or in an Arts and Crafts style. The house's first owner was

George Coventry, 9th Earl of Coventry George William Coventry, 9th Earl of Coventry, (9 May 1838 – 13 March 1930), styled Viscount Deerhurst from November 1838 until 1843, was a British Conservative politician. He was Captain of the Gentlemen-at-Arms between 1877 and 1880 and again ...

. Balfour Place was originally known as Portugal Street (honouring the Portuguese wife of King Charles II), until the Grosvenor family renamed it after their chief surveyor.

7 Balfour Place

In 1978, the heiress

Christina Onassis Christina Onassis ( el, Χριστίνα Ωνάση; 11 December 1950 – 19 November 1988) was a Greek businesswoman, socialite, and heiress to the Onassis fortune. She was the only daughter of Aristotle Onassis and Athina Mary Livanos. ...

, who owned a three-bedroom flat in nearby Reeves Mews, flew in to London for a one-day shopping tour, amid considerable press interest. She viewed the house, but was apparently put off by the de Grimston co-founders of

The Process Church of The Final Judgment The Process Church of the Final Judgment, also known as the Process Church, was a British religious group established in 1966 and disestablished in the 1970s. Its founders were the English couple Mary Ann MacLean and Robert de Grimston, who spr ...

, living in the street, and the press calling their property "Satan's Cave". In 1991, the house was converted into six flats. In 2014, it was listed for sale at £45 million, with seven reception rooms, 19 bedrooms, six kitchens and 17 bathrooms". In 2016,

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busin ...

British banker

Peter Cruddas Peter Andrew Cruddas, Baron Cruddas (born 30 September 1953) is an English banker and businessman. He is the founder of online trading company CMC Markets. In the 2007 Sunday Times Rich List, he was named the richest man in the City of London, w ...

and his wife Fiona paid £42 million in cash for the seven-storey mansion, formerly owned by the

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

ian-born art dealer

Nasser Khalili Sir Nasser David Khalili ( fa, ناصر داوود خلیلی, born 18 December 1945) is a British-Iranian scholar, collector, and philanthropist based in London. Born in Iran and educated at Queens College, City University of New York and the ...

, who lived there for 22 years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:7 and 8 Balfour Place Grade II listed buildings in the City of Westminster Grade II listed houses in London Houses completed in 1894 Houses in the City of Westminster Arts and Crafts architecture in London