Inside The Former Home Of 2 Nobel Peace Prize Winners (With 2 Blue Plaques To Boast)

The only thing better than one blue plaque? Two. 

One of only 19 London homes to boast more than one of the sought-after circles, South Eaton Place is the home of not one, but two former Nobel Peace Prize winners.

Inside South Eaton Place

Which Two Nobel Peace Prize Winners Lived Here?

The first of the two Nobel Peace Prize winners to call South Eaton Place home was Viscount Cecil (that’s Edgar Algernon Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, CH, PC, QC if we’re being precise). The sixth child of three-time Prime Minister Robert Gascoyne-Cecil (3rd Marquess of Salisbury), it must have been hard for Robert’s peace prize to make a dent on his family’s already over stuffed mantle – with other family members going on to become a leader of the House of Lords, the Bishop of Exeter, a distinguished army man and the Prime Minister.

Following on from his years at the University of Oxford where he was renowned as an expert debater, he worked as a lawyer before being elected as a Conservative MP in 1906. When the First World War hit, Lord Cecil began drafting pamphlets in response to the suffering caused by the war, calling for a diplomatic solution to the fight. This work paved the way for a united body of countries – a dream eventually realised in 1920 during the Paris Peace Conference when the League of Nations was founded to bring an end to the First World War. 

In 1937, Lord Cecil spearheaded a nationwide campaign demanding that the League of Nations adopt economic and military penal sanctions against violators of the peace, gaining a Nobel Peace Prize ‘for his tireless effort in support of the League of Nations, disarmament and peace’ later that year. Reimagined as the United Nations after the Second World War, Cecil’s pioneering work with the League of Nations was revolutionary in uniting the governments of the world together and inspiring peace.

The other name commemorated out front is that of Philip Noel-Baker, an Olympian and campaigner for peace. A rival to Cecil’s Oxford debates, Noel-Baker was the president of the Cambridge Union during his university years. Prior to his Nobel peace prize winning days, Noel-Baker carried the British team flag in the 1920 Antwerp Olympics where he won a silver medal for the 1500m run.

It was not, however, for his sprinting speed that he was awarded the biggest prize of his career. Noel-Baker was also closely involved in the formation of the League of Nations, having served as an assistant to Lord Robert Cecil and doing much of the League’s early work on its mandates system. During World War II he was a minister in Winston Churchill‘s coalition government, and after the war became foreign minister in Clement Attlee’s Labour government.

Later, Noel-Baker helped to draw up the United Nations Charter, and spent the rest of his life engaged in efforts to prevent nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. He was eventually awarded the peace prize in 1959 in honour of his ‘longstanding contribution to the cause of disarmament and peace’.

Step Inside

Located on a Georgian street of white stucco terraces in Belgravia, South Eaton Place spans an impressive five floors (if you include the basement and roof terrace).

Inside, the home features seven bedrooms, a home study, a dining room, a kitchen/breakfast room, a reception room and a garage. Decked out with ceiling mouldings, glittering chandeliers, ornate detailings, a marble fireplace, floral wallpaper and stylish arches to delineate the space, South Eaton Place has just as impressive an aesthetic as it does history. 

South Eaton Place is available for rent at £25,783 pcm at johndwood.co.uk