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Actress invented tale of South Hampstead love nest where Edward VII conducted affair in bid to save her home

Edward VII was known for his many mistresses, including Lillie Langtry - Paul Popper/Popperfoto
Edward VII was known for his many mistresses, including Lillie Langtry - Paul Popper/Popperfoto

An actress fictitiously claimed her South Hampstead home once served as the love nest where Edward VII conducted an affair in order to save the property from demolition, historians have discovered.

Lillie Langtry is long believed to have lived in South Hampstead where she would be visited by the King during their affair between 1877 and 1880.

So well accepted was the tale that the Princess of Wales pub - which had been named after Edward VII’s wife Princess Alexandra - was renamed and to this day is known as The Lillie Langtry.

Other tributes to the late actress in the South Hampstead area include the streets Langtry Walk and Langtry Road.

However it has now emerged that the claims were fabricated by Electra Yaras, a Greek actress after she learned that the property was set to be demolished in 1965.

Historians Dick Weindling and Marianne Colloms found that while there was evidence the affair took place, Langtry actually resided in Belgravia during this time and lived on Alexandra Road.

“How on earth [Yaras] decided on Lillie Langtry, I have no idea,” Mr Weindling said. “There’s no link to that area at all.

“She was in Mayfair and Park Lane, the high-class areas of Belgravia and so on. She would never have been seen dead there — it’s not the sort of house she’d have wanted to go to.”

Lillie Langtry used to live at the former Cadogan Hotel - but never resided in South Hampstead - Getty Contributor
Lillie Langtry used to live at the former Cadogan Hotel - but never resided in South Hampstead - Getty Contributor

Mr Weindling added that the urban myth became so widely accepted because people had wanted something to remember Langtry by.

“She was more than just a royal mistress. She was a really wonderful person, so they wanted to remember her.”

Ms Yaras, who died in 2010, told newspaper reporters that the ghost of Langtry would regularly appear before her at what she described as a “historic” house.

The actress’s ruse to save her house from demolition did not work, and it was demolished in order to accommodate social housing a short time later.

Edward VII and Langtry were both married at the time of their affair, and the King is known to have had at least 12 mistresses during his reign.