An elegant seven bedroom London townhouse, believed to be the former home of crime novelist Dorothy L. Sayers, on St George’s Square in Pimlico providing 6,559 sqft (609.4 sqm) of turn-key living space including high ceilings, large reception rooms, gym, two large terraces, step out balconies on the first and top floor, passenger lift and a garden patio is for sale via selling agent Beauchamp Estates.
Originally designed and built in 1843 by Grosvenor estate and Royal architect Thomas Cubitt, fronting onto a spectacular central garden square, the six storey white stucco Victorian townhouse has been recently fully refurbished and modernised to provide contemporary accommodation over lower ground, ground and five upper floors.
The townhouse has been refurbished to the highest standard with retained period features combined with the latest in contemporary design and specification including smart home technology. Features include four metre high ceilings to the principal reception rooms, elegant ceiling cornice and detailing, entrance hall, three reception rooms, a study, a spacious kitchen and breakfast room, seven bedrooms, all ensuite, and a gym opening onto a garden patio.
The townhouse in St George’s Square is believed to have been the London pied-a-terre of acclaimed crime novelist Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957) during the 1920s where she wrote her first crime novel Whose Body?.
Dorothy L. Sayers life in St George’s Square is reviewed by author Nancy-Lou Patterson in her detailed account of Dorothy L Sayer’s early life entitled ‘Dorothy L. Sayer’s Bloomsbury Years’ published by the Mythopoeic Society Journals in 1993.
In September 1920 the 27 year old Dorothy L. Sayers started her Masters Degree at Oxford University and in London rented a top floor bed-sitting room with a kitchenette and step out balcony in a townhouse in St George’s Square.
According to author Nancy-Lou Patterson the bed-sitting room used by Sayers was sparsely furnished and the writer had to use a WC located off the landing on the floor below and share a telephone. Perhaps she used the step out balcony to smoke her favourite cigarettes and cigars? Patterson writes that Sayers spent her relaxation time reading and writing in the beautiful garden square that forms St George’s Square.
During her time in St George’s Square and her later move to Bloomsbury Sayers worked as a copywriter for S. H. Benson, a London advertising agency, and in her private time focused on studying, dating her then boyfriend John Cournos and whilst at St George’s Square worked on the manuscript of what would become her first crime novel, Whose Body?, published in 1923. At the end of 1920 Sayers moved into a tiny studio flat in Mecklenburgh Square in Bloomsbury.
Author Nancy-Lou Patterson believes that Sayers stay in St George’s Square and subsequent move are echoed in her crime novel Strong Poison, published in 1930, where Harriet Vane stays at first in a bed-sitting room with Sybil Marriott and Eiluned Price, until she “left Miss Marriot’s house and took a small flat of her own in Doughty Street.”
After Whose Body?, featuring the fictional sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey, Sayers went on to write between 1926 and 1939 eleven crime novels and twenty-one short stories about the character. Her novels were adapted into two British BBC television series.
Now the St George’s Square townhouse is for sale. Today the top floor bed-sitting room has been completely modernised and transformed. The step out balcony remains, but the kitchenette has now been replaced by sleek built-in cabinets, with marble worktops, sink and glass fronted drinks fridge, providing a cocktail bar/servery for the room.
With parquet flooring, skylight and ceiling speakers the room has been dressed as a club lounge and games room. On the floor below, there is still a WC off the landing, but now fully modernised.
The townhouse offers a single luxury family residence of the highest quality. On the raised ground floor is the stone paved entrance hall with cantilevered stone staircase and passenger lift (from lower ground to fourth floor). There is also the 12-seat dining room with parquet flooring, feature fireplace, elegant ceiling coving and large bay window overlooking the central garden square.
Also on the raised ground floor is the study, which could serve as a TV snug or library, and a bright and airy family room, with three sets of French doors opening onto a spacious terrace.
On the first floor there is a spectacular double drawing room with a four metre high ceiling with elegant coving, marble fireplace, parquet flooring and two tall French windows opening onto a spacious step out balcony with seating area to the front façade and a Juliet balcony to the rear. There is also an ensuite bedroom on this floor.
On the lower ground floor is the family kitchen and breakfast room with central marble island/breakfast bar, sleek built in cabinets and cupboards, integrated Gaggenau appliances, marble worktops and splashbacks. There is also a gym with ceiling skylight, opening onto a garden patio/outside extercise area.
The principal bedroom suite occupies its own private floor on the second floor of the townhouse. The magnificent suite has a feature fireplace, elegant ceiling coving and behind the bedroom a walk-in dressing room with built in cupboards. The marble bathroom has a sculptural freestanding bath and a walk-in double shower with rainforest showerheads. There are four further bedrooms, all onsuite, on the two floors above with the top floor providing the club room/games room with balcony.
Jeremy Gee, Managing Director of Beauchamp Estates says: “Offering an abundance of luxurious inside and outside living space this magnificent Pimlico residence is one of just a few townhouses in St George’s Square which is still configured as a grand single family house. The townhouses in the square are exceptionally large, so many are now converted into lateral and duplex residences. It is believed that this was the former London home during the 1920s of famous crime writer Dorothy L. Sayers where she wrote her first crime novel Whose Body?.”
Vlad Viaryshka, Senior Sales Negotiator at Beauchamp Estates says: “St George’s Square is the most sought after address in Pimlico, with the largest garden square in the district. The address is the closest garden square to the Houses of Parliament and fronts directly onto the River Thames. Dorothy L. Sayers and Agatha Christy were the famous crime writers of the 1920s and 1930s, however the general public’s enduring fascination with murder mystery stories has continued to the present day, most recently with The Thursday Murder Club movie (2025), released in cinemas and on Netflix, based on the 2020 novel by Richard Osman.”
The townhouse on St George’s Square in Pimlico is for sale for £10,000,000 ($13.6 million US Dollars) (Freehold) contact Beauchamp Estates on Tel: +44 (0)20 7499 7722 or visit: www.beauchamp.com
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