Of course, I’ve been to Launceston Place before – the street, not the restaurant – but since I go to west London less often now, I was struck by the quality of the housing and indeed the whole sense of a privileged and protected urban environment: no architect named, not, I think, in one of the big estates, just well considered housing stock, which even thirty years ago, seemed not totally unimaginable as it is now:-
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 
I grew up around the corner, my parents having moved to the area before it became such a deluxe enclave. I’m not sure when the houses on Launceston Place were built but remember being shown maps showing extensive WWII bomb damage nearby. They are are extremely charming houses although the prices they now fetch are quite extraordinary.