March 22, 2015

Finest Hour 127, Summer 2005

Page 08

As the Wehrmacht drove through Poland on the night of 2 September 1939, a mutinous group of MPs gathered beneath the rain-lashed mansard roof of 11 Morpeth Mansions to discuss Britain’s failure to issue an ultimatum to Hitler. At a desk, writing to Chamberlain, was Winston Churchill; around him were Anthony Eden, Bob Boothby, Brendan Bracken and Alfred Duff Cooper. Within a day of delivery of WSC’s letter, Britain was at war with Germany.

Churchill’s London base from 1930 or 1932 (accounts vary) through 1939 was the top two floors at this red brick 1880s apartment block half a mile from Parliament. The Churchills enlarged the two-storey flat, but the kitchen and study were tiny, and the access to the upper floor was a narrow spiral staircase.

The flat is now for sale by owner Peter Sheppard, who notes that it was also once the home of Lloyd George’s mistress, Frances Stevenson. Sheppard replaced the spiral staircase with a conventional one, enlarged the kitchen, and remodelled the downstairs.

The flat is the only one in the building to enjoy access to the roof. Here Churchill and his wife went briefly after listening to Chamberlain’s broadcast announcing the declaration of war. WSC looked about him and imagined, as he wrote, “pictures of ruin and carnage and vast explosions shaking the ground.” He wasn’t wrong, though Morpeth Mansions was saved, and today bears a blue plaque noting his residency.