BRITISH PRIME MINISTER

Southland Times, Issue 23378, 9 December 1937, Page 5

BRITISH PRIME MINISTER

HOUSE IN LONDON GRANDEUR FORSAKEN Now that he has become Prime Minister, Mr Neville Chamberlain will receive a “rise” of £lO,OOO a year in salary when the Government Ministers of the Crown Bill becomes law, said a writer in The Winnipeg Free Press recently. The doubling of his salary under the new Bill will, however, make little difference to Mr Chamberlain’s private life. He lives very quietly and entertains only personal friends. His whole personality is genial but austere. As a result of his appointment to the Premiership, the 99-year lease of Mr Chamberlain’s town house, 37 Eaton Square, is now for sale at a price or £5OOO. From outside 37 Eaton Square nothing can be seen of the beauties of the Chamberlains’ furniture within. The long windows are closely curtained with cream net to match the cream paint which covers the entire front of the house.

Its huge porch with massive Grecian pillars and black and white paving stones gives an air of great dignity to the big house. This impression strengthens when the heavy solid _ mahogany door is opened and the visitor steps inside into the semi-gloom of the green-panelled entrance hall. The most 1 simple furniture —oak bench, a Persian carpet, and a long mirror—furnish this entrance hall which leads to a central hall. Here is a massive fireplace, a comfortable settee, a writing table, and several Chippendale chairs. DINING-ROOM AND STUDY Green, gold and fawn is the colour scheme in the dining-room. The walls are panelled with green paint edged with lines of gold. The carpet and the curtains are fawn. All the furniture is either Sheraton or Chippendale style. There is a magnificent eightfoot Sheraton sideboard and a serving table of a similar pattern. The round Hming table is also Sheraton but the dining chairs are Chippendale. Leading off the other side of the lounge hall is Mr Chamberlain’s library and study—a cheerful all-gold room. His desk, rather small but with some ten big drawers, faces the door. Before the big fireplace is a threeseater settee and between the two long windows there is another large settee. On the mantelpiece there are two gold glass swans while valuable sporting prints decorate the walls. The curtains are most original. These are made of heavy black material patterned with gold peacocks. In the bookcase there are three rows of heavy blue-covered volumes. These are eighty-one volumes of Parliamentary reports! A wide sweeping-curved staircase leads from the lounge hall to a par-quet-floored landing on the first floor. This is really a miniature copy of the lounge hall. To the right is the draw-ing-room, to the left is the boudoir. The drawing-room is a huge size. It is an “L” shaped “double” room with two fireplaces. There is an archway that permits a curtain to be drawn shutting off one-half of the room. There are seven armchairs and three settees in it, upholstered in fawn, cream, and rose materials. Two magnificent crystal chandeliers, one in each “half” of the drawing-room, provide the light. There are also several Chinese pattern reading lamps placed on small Louis Xlth style tables. The parquet floor is covered with richly-coloured Persian carpets that echo the red and cream colouringsof the curtains at the long windows. The walls are panelled in cream and gold and their austerity is relieved by two _ six-foot mirrors framed in gold ana surmounted with paintings of sailing ships in full sail. boudoir and bedrooms The boudoir is a cheerful, sunlit room with a magenta-coloured all-over carpet, very soft to the feet. Its furniture is all cream and gold. The chairs are upholstered in magenta satin patterned with flowers. The walls are white and in one corner there is a Louis Xlth style writing-desk ornamented with a delicate pattern in inlaid woods. On the next floor are the two principal bedrooms. They have all-white walls and white furniture. The adjoining bathroom is black and white —with a large fireplace in one comer. On the next floor is the nursery suite of two bedrooms, a large playroom, and a bathroom. A little white-wooden gate shuts this suite off from the rest of the house. The playroom is painted green and is very simply furnished with a centre table and plain chairs. By the fireplace there are two armchairs. On the walls there is a black and white picture showing a child about to go to bed. Folding doors join this room to the nurse’s bedroom next door and the nursery bathroom, all white again, leads off from the bedroom. On the fourth floor are five servants bedrooms—all light and airy. In the basement are the kitchens and the wine cellar. The,main kitchen has a black and white floor and two large windows. The dresser stretches the entire length of one wall and reaches to the ceiling. Both gas and coal fires were used by Mr Chamberlain’s staff for cooking. „ , . The smaller kitchen, or ‘washingup” room, has a modem type of sink placed beneath a large window. It has also a huge dresser stretching the length of one wall and reaching to the ceiling.

Adjoining the kitchens are the housekeeper’s sitting-room and bedrooms for the butler and a footman. A service lift connects the kitchens to the lounge hall. At the rear of the house there is a garage big enough to hold two or three cars. Over it are four rooms suitable for use as bedrooms for servants.

All of this grandeur is now forsaken by Mr Chamberlain. He has moved into 10 Downing Street, the official resiland.