by NICHOLAS VINCENT

Despite being one of the last areas in central London where one can still find whole streets of exquisite 18th-century houses in near-mint condition, the royal enclaves of Westminster and St James’s rarely figure highly on the average London buyer’s wish list (Those looking for the ultimate central London town house usually head toward Belgravia, Chelsea, Holland Park, Kensington, Knightsbridge, Mayfair or Notting Hill). But subtle moves are afoot which may change all that.

The swathe of land between Westminster Abbey and St James’s Park was one of the first parts of the West End to be developed following the Great Fire of 1666. The area acquired its desirable status when Queen Anne moved to St James’s Palace in the early 1700s, and thereafter it became the haunt of poets, politicians, intellectuals and aristocrats. In the 1920s and 1930s, however, dwindling private fortunes resulted in the majority of the elegant Georgian buildings being converted to office use. Now the trend is being reversed, with Westminster City Council and English Heritage increasingly supportive of initiatives to restore these architectural gems to their role as individual family houses.

No 16, Great College Street, SW1, currently on the market, is one such period masterpiece. Built in 1722 and listed Grade II*, the house looks out across the Abbey Gardens and Close toward Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament. Despite being used as offices for much of the 20th century, the 7, 777sq ft building has remained fundamentally unaltered since 1897, when, as the home of Colonial Secretary, the Hon Alfred Lyttelton, it featured in Pall Mall Magazine after alterations by Lutyens. Behind the same ‘delightfully prim-looking’ exterior, it is not difficult to picture the spacious hall, ‘well lit by day’; the library with its white panelled walls and separate bow window; the huge first-floor drawing room with its ‘massive worn oak dresser and endless rows of shelves’, used to display the Lyttelton’s ‘wonderful collection of artistic china’.

In the past seven years, some forty buildings in this quiet corner of Westminster have been converted back to splendid family homes. Architect Anthony Close-Smith of Donald Insall Associates has seen many of these projects through from start to finish (‘and always warns prospective purchasers of the inevitable amount of time, cost and complic-ation involved in adapting a historic listed building for modern family living’). There are draft plans prepared for No 16 for a conversion back to a private house, with six reception rooms, kitchen, gaming room, wine cellars, staff accommodation, garden and summer house. The cost of such a refurbishment is estimated to be around £1 million, with the house itself for sale at £3.95 million.