Palatial Mayfair house with rare double blue plaque status goes on the market for a cool £8.5 million... boasting a former prime minister and 18th-century dandy as its previous residents

A luxury Mayfair house, which has been home to the stars for 200 years, can now claim the rare privilege of having two blue plaques.

The six-floor house in London's affluent Mayfair district now boasts two of the capital's iconic blue plaques for its previous owners: the former British prime minister Anthony Eden and the Regency dandy George Bryan 'Beau' Brummell.

The elegant mansion is now on sale for £8.5 million, a price which can only have been enhanced by the house's 'double blue' status - not unusual in this area of London where blue plaques are commonplace.

                       

4 Chesterfield Street boasts the unusual accolade of having two blue plaques. Former Prime Minister Anthony Eden and Regency dandy Beau Brummer both lived here.

Just next door, number 6 Chesterfield Street also bears a plaque dedicated to the 20th century novelist and playwright William Somerset Maugham.

Around the corner, on Curzon Street, the writer Nancy Mitford, the 1st Marquess of Reading Rufus Isaacs and another former Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, also have plaques commemorating their lives in the heart of London.

From the outside, 4 Chesterfield Street is instantly recognisable as a traditional, regency-style town house, with all the sophistication and simple elegance of the period in which it was built.

                  

The elegant living room in the palatial Mayfair home, which has 2 'entertaining floors'

But inside, the current owners have made sure the palatial home has all the modern amenities a large family would expect to find.

The property boasts exceptional entertaining space with two 'entertaining floors' and a roof terrace, which director of sales for Chesterton Humbert Ivor Campbell-Davys says is unusual in this part of London.

He told The Times: 'The character is still very much there in the house but the owners have made sure there are three full bedroom suites.

                                 

                               

Beau Brummel, (right) introduced the modern suit worn with a necktie to fashionable British society - his blue plaque is at the heart of London's Mayfair

                                

                                 

Anthony Eden (right) was a former British prime minister who owned the house on Chesterfield Street during his time in office (1955-57)

'There are two floors for entertaining and three floors contain the living space.

'The roof garden is a fantastic feature which you don't often find in houses like these - it actually overlooks the Saudi Embassy which has an impressive garden so there are some incredible views from up there.'

 al of the era, the garden is enclosed by the house which wraps in an L-shape around it.

                      

A state of the art bathroom lies within the walls of this traditional Regency home in London's Mayfair 

                            

The sleek and sophisticated modern kitchen contrasts with the traditional elegance of the £8.5 million Mayfair house

                       

The house's two entertaining floors are in the basement and on the ground floor, which leads out onto the walled garden.

As the house backs onto the Saudi Embassy, the two prestigious buildings even share an emergency meeting point - a fire escape runs around the back of the house into the Embassy's property.

Aside from the two men commemorated on the blue plaques, previous owners have been equally esteemed.

The Duke and Duchess of Devonshire lived in the property in the late 1990s.

The bedrooms at 4 Chesterfield Street are decorated exquisitely, with both modern and traditional design features

BEAU: THE ORIGINAL DANDY

George Bryan 'Beau' Brummell was an iconic figure in Regency England.

He introduced fashionable British society to the modern suit worn with a necktie. The look was based on dark coats, full-length trousers, immaculate shirt linen and a knotted cravat.

Brummell was born in London, the son of politician William Brummell.

He was educated at Eton and Oxford , where his original style caught on and banished the cotton stockings and dingy cravats of the time.

Serving as as an officer in the military alongside the Prince Regent, his larger-than-life personality fascinated him so much that he was allowed to shirk his duties.

They became friends and Brummell had a great deal of influence over him.

In his later life, Brummell fled to France to escape prison - he owed thousands of pounds.

He lived the rest of his life in exile in France.

EDEN: THE UNSUCCESSFUL PM

Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, was an English Conservative politician who was prime minister from 1955-57.

He was also foreign secretary during World War II.

His reputation as a skilled diplomat was overshadowed when the United States chose not to support the Anglo-French military response to the Suez crisis in 1956. 

This was a major setback for UK foreign policy.

He is generally considered to have been a highly-unsuccessful prime minister.

One biographer said the Suez Crisis was 'a truly tragic end to his premiership'.

Eden retired and lived away from the public eye in Broad Chalke, Witlshire with his second wife Clarissa Spencer-Churchill - niece of his predecessor in office Winston Churchill.

He had three sons - Simon, Robert and Nicholas.

Anthony Eden, whose name is emblazoned on the most recent of the two blue plaques, is widely considered to have been the most unsuccessful British prime minister of the 20th century, owned the property during the two years he served in office (1955-57).

His reputation as a 'Man of Peace' and a skilled diplomat was overshadowed in the second year of his premiership when the United States decided not to support the Anglo-French response to the Suez Crisis.

His predecessor at 4 Chesterfield Street was the fashionable dandy George Bryan 'Beau' Brummell - an iconic figure in Regency England who was reported to have been close to the Prince Regent (the future King George IV).

Brummell was credited with introducing the modern men's suit, worn with a necktie, to fashionable British society.

So, with a former prime minister, a dandy who was best friends with King George IV, and a Duke and Duchess, the walls of 4 Chesterfield Road must have seen some interesting things over the last two centuries.

       

The Duke and Duchess of Devonshire were also star tenants of the house -they lived at 4 Chesterfield Street during the late 1990s

BYRON AND NAPOLEON III HAD FIRST LONDON BLUE PLAQUES IN 1867 - NOW 17 HAVE 'DOUBLE BLUE'

Blue plaques commemorate the link between notable figures of the past and the buildings in which they lived.

The idea of creating memorial tablets was first proposed by an MP called William Ewart in the House of Commons in 1863.

London's blue plaque scheme was then founded in 1866 and is believed to be the oldest in the world, inspiring many other schemes across London and the UK.

The scheme has been run by a variety of different bodies over the last 150 years.

The Royal Society of Arts, the London County Council, the Greater London Council and (sine 1986) English Heritage have all had a hand in running the scheme.

Benjamin Franklin, David Garrick and Lord Nelson were amongst the first names to be considered for plaques.

The first plaque was erected in 1867 to Lord Byron at his birthplace, 24 Holles Street, Cavendish Square (demolished in 1889).

The earliest blue plaque to survive was also erected in 1867 and was to Napoleon III in King Street, St James's.

There are now 17 buildings with the double accolade of displaying two blue plaques, including Virginia Woolf and George Bernard Shaw, Sigmund and Anna Freud, and Jimi Hendrix and Handel (though Hendrix and Handel's plaques are technically next door).