A Perch in Bohemia

Swan Court, home in the 1940’s to Agatha Christie and the young Margaret Thatcher, was the first modern block of flats to be built in Chelsea in the inter-war years, its uncluttered labour-saving spaces offering a new way of living to Londoners in flight from the over-stuffed opulence of Edwardian mansion flats. From 1931, when it opened, the building’s unique mix of flats, maisonettes and artists’ studios attracted an eclectic following, war widows and struggling artists rubbing shoulders with film stars, famous actors and fashionable designers.