King William IV’s Mayfair Mansion Hits The Market

While you are unlikely to ever stumble across Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle or Balmoral during a nosy scroll on RightMove – and while King Charles is still clinging onto Clarence House (for now) – one particular former royal residence has just been listed for rent on Wetherell, for a cool £1.3 million per year no less.

This Mayfair mansion really is fit for a King – and once was home to a King, though he is renowned as one of the most forgotten royals in British history. Here we step inside King William IV’s former home, before he (like King Charles III) moved across to Clarence House in 1826 as the very first Duke of Clarence.

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Inside King William IV’s Former Mayfair Home, Now Up For Rent

William I, Henry VIII, Elizabeth II, the four Georges, Victoria… Some of Britain’s monarchs simply get more pages in our history books than others. Unless they’ve got a Shakespeare play to their name (or, more recently, an appearance in The Crown), many other monarchs remain largely forgotten.

One of the most inconsequential monarchs in Britain’s storied past is King William IV, slipping between the cracks left by the white-wigged Georgians and the bonneted Victorians. The Williamian era just doesn’t quite have the same ring to it…

Ruling for only seven years from 1830 to 1837, King William IV was the last Hanover on the British throne. The third son of the so-called mad King George III, the odds were stacked against William IV ever ascending the throne.

As we all learned (whisper it) in Netflix’s Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, King George III and Queen Charlotte bore many children, and their son King George IV bore many children of his own. In the latter’s case, however, only one was legitimate: Princess Charlotte.

So when Charlotte tragically died aged 21, George III’s second son Frederick was suddenly second place for the throne. Dying just three years before the death of King George IV, his passing promoted the unsuspecting William, the third eldest son, to next in line.

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The History Of 22 Charles Street

Originally built in 1753 by William Timbrell and John Phillips, 22 Charles Street’s is five storey Georgian townhouse whose chapter in royal history opened in 1820. This is when King George III died and Prince William ascended to Duke of Clarence, commemorated with the construction of Clarence House in 1827 (more on that below). Before that, William relocated from Bushy House in Teddington (where he had lived since 1792) to the remodelled 22 Charles Street along with his wife Princess Adelaide.

Already one of the finest townhouses in Mayfair, now fit for the brother of the King, 22 Charles Street’s enhancements included the installation of a cast-iron first floor balcony, marble fireplaces, ornate coving and ceiling mouldings, as well as additional attic storeys to make room for the Prince’s royal staff. 

Despite all the work, in 1824 William was allocated an even larger property, this time adjacent to St James’s Palace: Clarence House. John Nash was commissioned to design the property we now know as King Charles III’s primary address, and though the blue plaque outside lists Prince William as a resident only for the year 1826, in actuality the future King used the Mayfair mansion as his central London home from early 1825 until late 1827 while he oversaw the construction of Clarence House. In the meantime, the young Princess (later Queen) Victoria is known to have visited the Mayfair property.

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Step Inside

Today, the Grade II* listed 22 Charles Street retains many of its original features, boasting all of the entrance halls, formal dining rooms, drawing rooms, galleried walkways, sculpture galleries and panelled libraries of our period drama dreams.

Alongside the six bedrooms, the 9,305 sqft royal residence offers a double-height, glass-ceilinged reception room, a passenger lift, a gym, a private roof terrace, and a connected mews house with a triple garage, kitchen, bedroom, shower room, sitting room and laundry room.

Head downstairs to the basement level to find a large family kitchen, a breakfast/informal dining room (black tie and tiaras optional), plus a wine cellar. Upstairs, the first floor boasts two interconnecting rooms: one opening onto a balcony, the other to a glass floor garden terrace.

And if you really want to live like a king, rest your head in the principal bedroom, which sits on its own private floor with its very own walk-in dressing room and bathroom.

22 Charles Street is available to let via sole lettings agent Wetherell for £25,000 per week, £108,333 per month or £1.3 million per year. It is also available for a two to three year tenancy (£3.9 million for 3 year let). Find out more at wetherell.co.uk