Sunderland House Mabie Todd's London Headquarters

[Cob]

I'm afraid this is rather peripheral in a pen forum, but the flattening of this splendid house has given we amateur pen historians a great deal of work that might not have been necessary had the bombs missed.

 

A remark of Greenies ("bomb damage") prompted me to look into Sunderland House, Mabie Todd's grand London Headquarters in the 1930s which was destroyed by bombing in 1940.

Here's a snap:

 

 

The house was built in 1904 for his daughter Consuleo, by William Kissam Vanderbilt, eldest son of the famous "Commodore".

 

Consuelo Vanderbilt had been forced by her mother Alva, into a loveless marriage to the 9th Duke of Marlborough.

 

Here's a link to an article from the San Francisco Call, July 1904, which is an amusing read very much in the style of the time. It is also amazing that in around thirty years the private house had become a commercial premises, and given the economy of the time probably bought very cheaply.

 

 

Cob