Queen Elizabeth II was born 100 years ago today, not in a palace but above a Chinese restaurant in Mayfair. Obviously it wasn't a Chinese restaurant at the time. The following year the family moved to a new home in a luxury international hotel on Piccadilly. Obviously it wasn't a luxury international hotel at the time. And when it suddenly became clear that her father was about to be king, the whole family moved into a tourist attraction at the foot of The Mall. At least that's still there, even if our centenarian monarch has sadly passed away.
The Queen was born at 17 Bruton Street W1, a Georgian townhouse with pillared stucco frontage. The house in Mayfair belonged to the Earl and Countess of Strathmore, better known as the Queen Mother's parents, who'd moved here from St James's Square five years earlier. The family was suddenly thrust into the limelight when their youngest daughter accepted the hand in marriage of the King's son, the marriage of Prince Albert and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon taking place at Westminster Abbey in 1923. Financially the couple were perfectly capable of buying their own home, but it was being redecorated as the pregnancy drew to a close hence the temporary Bruton Street stay. Our former Queen was delivered by Caesarean section at 2.40am on Wednesday 21st April 1926, with the Home Secretary present in the house as tradition demanded to ensure that no baby-swapping took place.
The house in Bruton Street alas no longer stands and it all started with the Canadians. In 1930 the Canadian Pacific Railway Company purchased fifteen houses on the south side of the street with the intention of replacing them by a hotel, then changed their minds and used number 17 as their London office instead. In 1937 the new owner demolished the entire flank with plans for a 44m-tall office block which would have been outstanding at the time. A Daily Telegraph journalist bore witness to the destruction, observing the collapse of the rear wall and watching "the Palladian columns falling before the pickaxes". The eventual reconstruction had just seven storeys and was one of London's first major reinforced concrete buildings. It's since been drably reclad but still goes by the name Berkeley Square House, and remains in stark contrast to the characterfully Georgian style across the street.
Thus any tourist visiting number 17 for its regal connections faces a sharp disappointment. Whichever room it was wherein the Queen breathed her first has long been replaced by a box in the sky, and all that indicates the site's historical significance is a pair of plaques, one from Silver Jubilee year and another from the Diamond. The original plaque is more ornate, chiselled into what looks like gilded slate, while the latter is a more mundane green roundel forelock-tuggingly placed by the local council. By contrast immediately beneath are a dry riser and a row of heaters, this the designated outdoor smoking area for the Chinese restaurant that now claims number seventeen.
It's quite a restaurant, specifically Hakkasan, a formerly-Michelin-starred Cantonese restaurant. It opened here in 2010 and the interior designer clearly had the word 'black' on his mind during its creation. It's also seriously expensive with duck and caviar heavily featured, the fish courses priced at £50 apiece and the addition of a bowl of beansprout noodles adding £20 to the bill. But then this is Mayfair, as you can tell by the car showrooms on the corner, the flogging of Bentleys and Bugattis now replacing the Queen's first neighbours. The office block recognises its place in history by hanging a prominent portrait of Her Majesty in the foyer, specifically the startling lenticular print Lightness of Being by Chris Levine. But don't expect a centenary party here this evening, nor a commemorative Elizabeth stir-fry, but if your pocket's deep enough you can always book a table and raise a glass to the famous baby born upstairs.
Not long after the birth the Duke and Duchess of York headed off on a royal tour Down Under, a massive undertaking which took them away from home for six months. By the time they returned, relieving the nanny, their house purchase had gone through and they had somewhere new to live. This was 145 Piccadilly, a spacioustownhouse located amid a terrace of similar white-fronted properties at the foot of the street near the junction with Park Lane. It wasn't quite a palace but it was certainly luxurious with 25 bedrooms, a ballroom, plenty of hanging space for tapestries and a balcony out front for occasional public appearances. Princess Elizabeth was allocated the entire fourth floor, and the back garden was communal so she occasionally got to mix with the neighbours on the extensive lawns. At the age of four she was joined by a sister, Margaret, and of course a lot of their time was spent elsewhere as the family darted from Scottish castle to royal retreat to meet a lifestyle of obligation. But for ten years 'home' for the young princess was a civilian property overlooking Hyde Park Corner, until the abdication crisis forced the family to move on.
They didn't want to leave but protocol insisted, also it was just as well that they did. In an air raid on 7th October 1940 the house was substantially destroyed, the back garden of the ruin being taken over as an allotment run by the Girls' Training Corps. It was the only house in the terrace to be lost. This did however make things easier for Westminster's road planners when it came to upgrading Park Lane to a dual carriageway in 1959. The obvious place to knock a gap through to Hyde Park Corner was right here, so 145-148 faced the wrecking ball while 144 and Apsley House were left intact. This means that the Queen's childhood home has been summarily replaced by the southbound carriageway of the A4202, specifically all four lanes of traffic just before the lights at Hyde Park Corner plus the pavement alongside. So if you've ever driven to the southern end of Park Lane or caught a bus this way or even walked it, you have in fact passed directly through the Queen's childhood home.
That's not the outcome normally stated, the general consensus being that number 145 was instead replaced by the InterContinental London Hotel. This five star hospitality behemoth opened in 1975 and was designed by Harlow architect Sir Frederick Gibberd, hence has a little more character than your average modern hotel. Alternate windows jut out in boxy ribs above an extended ground floor of thin pillars and glass, while off-white concrete gives the building an airy touch on the skyline. Only an exclusive few are allowed inside the seventh floor Club lounge, whereas everyday guests get to dine in the ground floor restaurant and they're actually getting the more historic deal. It even says so on the poster outside.
The odd thing about the Wellington Lounge is that is juts diagonally into the pavement a couple of times, these alcoves where the staff line up their breakfast juices and where a few lucky punters sit. It's these protrusions that enter the footprint of 145 Piccadilly and pretty much nothing else, almost as if they were deliberately designed so that the hotel could claim its royal heritage. Should you ever take up the InterContinental on its Afternoon Tea offer be sure to try and grab one of the tables closest to the window, otherwise your £85 is historically wasted and you might as well have brought a takeaway and eaten it on the pavement outside.
Of course after December 1936, when Elizabeth's father found himself suddenly elevated to the monarchy, the family swiftly moved into Buckingham Palace instead. It was to be her London home for the next eighty-three years, which is pretty impressive for the occupation of a single property, even if she spent the majority of her time elsewhere. But her three West End homes made Her Majesty very much a Londoner - by birth, in childhood and through a life of service - and it all started with a scream above a Chinese restaurant 100 years ago today.
