Nell Gwynne's House

Located at 79 Pall Mall in London, Nell Gwynne's House was the 17th-century home of King Charles II's famous mistress and remains the only property on the south side of Pall Mall not owned by the Crown Estate. After moving there in 1671, the former orange seller refused to accept a mere lease, prompting King Charles II to grant her the freehold title on December 1, 1676.

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79 Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5ES

Why is 79 Pall Mall in London the only property on the street's south side not owned by the Crown Estate?

Look up at this handsome building... seventy-nine Pall Mall. There's a blue plaque on the wall that reads simply: "Nell Gwynne lived here, sixteen seventy-one to sixteen eighty-seven." But behind those words lies one of London's greatest rags-to-royalty stories.......... Samuel Pepys called her "pretty, witty Nell," and she's been regarded as a living embodiment of Restoration England... a folk heroine whose story echoes the tale of Cinderella. And it all began in the gutter. Young Nell grew up carrying drinks to customers in a brothel, likely owned by her own brandy-soaked mother. By her early teens, she was selling oranges at the King's Theatre. But her sharp wit caught the eye of actors and playwrights, and soon she was ON the stage... not just beside it.......... Now, how does an orange seller end up living Here, on one of London's most exclusive streets? In February sixteen seventy-one, Nell moved into a brick townhouse at this very spot, seventy-nine Pall Mall. The property was owned by the Crown. She was the mistress of King Charles the Second... though she cheekily called him "her Charles the Third," because she'd already had lovers named Charles Hart and Charles Sackville before him!......... Here's where it gets interesting. Nell was apparently disappointed about only being a leaseholder. She is said to have complained that "she had always conveyed free under the Crown, and always would." She actually Refused the house until it was given to her outright! And so, on the first of December sixteen seventy-six, Charles the Second granted the freehold through his confidential servant William Chifinch, and it was conveyed to Nell's trustees the following April.......... That bold demand is why This building holds a truly unique distinction. The entire south side of Pall Mall was owned by the Crown, but in sixteen seventy-six she was given the freehold, and today it is Still the only property on the south side not owned by the Crown Estate. Three and a half centuries... and Nell Gwynne's audacity still echoes in the property deeds.......... The diarist John Evelyn once witnessed a scene here... a "familiar discourse" between the King and Mrs. Nelly, as they called her, she leaning over her garden wall on a terrace, the King standing below on a green walk in Saint James's Park. Imagine that... the King of England, gazing UP at an orange seller turned actress, standing in Her own garden... on Her own freehold land.......... And when Charles lay dying in sixteen eighty-five, he pulled his brother James close and whispered his jaw-dropping final wish: "Let not poor Nelly starve." James carried out this order, giving Nell a pension of fifteen hundred pounds per year. But Nell herself survived Charles by only two years. In March sixteen eighty-seven, she suffered a stroke that left her paralysed on one side, and in May, a second stroke confined her to the bed right here, in her Pall Mall house. In her will, she never forgot her roots... leaving one hundred pounds to the poor and enough to release imprisoned debtors every Christmas.......... She was buried at Saint Martin-in-the-Fields, where the vicar Thomas Tenison allowed her body to rest in his own space beneath the altar. A remarkable final honour... for the girl who once sold oranges in the cheap seats.

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