Last year I submitted Honor Balfour (1912-2001)’s former London home in Kensington for the award of a Blue Plaque to commemorate her many years there. It’s a long process with several stages of evaluation so it may be some while before the decision is made. I knew from my conversations with Honor what the drawing room had looked like but it was not until 2022 that I saw the exterior of the house. It faces a private square but in June 2022 it was open under London Open Gardens weekend. The planting, and possibly the design, will have changed since Honor lived in the crescent but it was great to get a sense of the view and the green space she would have enjoyed, a possible antidote to a very busy life.
Update:
Honor Balfour’s former home in Royal Crescent, Kensington is another house with historical connections. From here, this pioneering print and broadcast journalist (see previous posts for an introduction to her life) would set off to Broadcasting House to appear on current affairs programmes or to Bush House, then home to the BBC’s External Services. Sometimes she travelled to the television studios at Lime Grove. In an era when a woman commenting on current affairs was a great rarity, Honor was highly regarded.
At home she hosted dinner parties drawn from her wide circle of friends, many from the worlds of politics and the media. Today people walking past are unaware of these interesting years in the history of the house and are likely to remain so for the time being because the nomination was unsuccessful.