Oscar Wilde’s Chelsea Haunt

The Cadogan first opened as a hotel in 1887, nestled within the 93-acre Cadogan Estate, and from the outset attracted creatives and glitterati. Indeed the hotel has a storied past full of glamour, intrigue and at times, scandal. The Cadogan has always played host to London’s most fashionable guests, most notably, the socialite and actress, Lillie Langtry who lived in the hotel where she famously met and entertained the Prince of Wales and became friends with the legendary and flamboyant Irish Playwright and author Oscar Wilde. The Cadogan is best known as where, in 1895, the police arrested Wilde on charges of “gross indecency”. Nearly a century later in the 1980s, supermodels would seek sanctuary at The Cadogan, far from the prying eyes of the media and comforted by endless cups of English Breakfast Tea. In 2019 The Cadogan, a Belmond hotel, reopened its doors following a multi-million-pound historic, nearly five-year, renovation. 75 Sloane Street, an address rich in heritage, has played host to socialites, artists and aristocrats throughout history and the reopening set the stage for a new ‘cast’ of guests to play their part.

Photography courtesy Belmond.

The Cadogan Estate covers 93 acres of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, including residential properties, offices and retail space, and has been under the same family ownership for almost 300 years. The Foundations of the Estate were established in 1717 when Charles, second Baron Cadogan, married Elizabeth Sloane, daughter of Sir Hans Sloane, having purchased the Manor of Chelsea in 1712. This part of London has remained under the stewardship of the Cadogan family ever since.

The company owes its origins to Sir Hans Sloane, a renowned society physician, naturalist, and collector, who purchased the Manor of Chelsea to house his collection of over 70,000 items, including books, coins, medals and drawings –he would bequeath the collection to the British nation, providing the foundation of the British Museum, the British Library, and the Natural History Museum, London. Sloane died without any male heirs, leaving his estate to two daughters.

In 1777, Charles Sloane Cadogan – then Earl Cadogan – granted a lease to architect Henry Holland to create the first-ever purpose-built new town. “Hans Town” provided attractive Georgian terraced houses to people of moderately affluent means. As London swelled during the industrial age, the 5th Earl Cadogan, George Henry Cadogan, decided on a comprehensive redevelopment. He commissioned cutting-edge architecture and a new red-brick style that became synonymous with the area: Pont Street Dutch. In 1868 Sloane Square Station opened followed by the completion of the riverside embankment in 1874.

From 1877 to 1900 much of the modern Estate took shape. Cadogan Square – the “jewel in the crown” of the new development – the Royal Court Theatre at Sloane Square and Hotel Trinity Church on Sloane Street were built under the 5th Earl’s auspices. Chelsea has a bohemian history and has long been a haven for artists, authors, musicians and designers from Dante Gabriel Rossetti to The Rolling Stones and Vivienne Westwood. Jane Austen stayed in Sloane Street with her brother Henry whilst writing Pride and Prejudice, and poet and writer Oscar Wilde called the borough his home.

In 1887 The Cadogan Hotel opened and instantly attracted London’s most fashionable guests. While living in the hotel the socialite and actress, Lillie Langtry famously met and entertained her lover the Prince of Wales and became friends with Oscar Wilde. In 1895 Wilde was arrested at the Cadogan on charges of “gross indecency” and taken custody in room 118. Now part of the Royal Suite, step inside and you’ll spot that the bedroom is marked 118.

Today The Cadogan celebrates British culture, design and quirky eccentricity. The hotel’s 54 rooms and suites provide a stylish retreat in the heart of the city, with spacious rooms that are a little ‘house’ in themselves; many have views over Cadogan Place Gardens and offer spacious living rooms with working fireplaces and dining areas as well as large bathrooms with deep freestanding baths and a specially designed champagne and book holder for relaxation. With private access to the hotel through 21 Pont Street – the private entrance marks the former home of Lillie Langtry – and a key to Cadogan Place Gardens, guests of the hotel can truly feel like a Chelsea resident.

Chelsea is a hive of artistic endeavour; it is home to major institutions of contemporary theatre, art and music. The hotel reopened with over 400 pieces of original artworks by predominantly British artists including a painting by Simon Casson, taking pride of place in the hotel lobby and depicting the history of Cadogan Estates. Five female British Artists were also commissioned to create statement artwork in the guest rooms, inspired by the botanicals in the private gardens. Indeed the scene is set for a dramatic entrance through the grand doors off Sloane Street, past the roaring fireplace and up the sweeping staircase, through the bronze cast of 600 books, to the rooms and suites. A truly British residence, every detail of the hotel weaves the past together with the present; carefully placed antique artefacts sit alongside commissioned modern art and bespoke, handcrafted furnishings. Today, The Cadogan’s stylish house staff, dressed in uniforms inspired by 1960s King’s Road fashion, greet guests through the doors off Sloane Street, inviting them in for a piping hot cup of tea, keeping fashionable traditions alive.

ABOUT BELMOND: Belmond has been a pioneer of luxury travel for over 45 years with a portfolio of one-of-a-kind experiences in some of the world’s most inspiring destinations. Since the acquisition of the iconic Hotel Cipriani in Venice in 1976, Belmond has continued to perpetuate the legendary art of travel. Its portfolio extends across 24 countries with properties that include the illustrious Venice Simplon-OrientExpress train and Italian hideaways such as The Grand Hotel Timeo in Taormina.

A COLLECTOR’S VOICE

25 Modernist Artists

"My viewpoints as regards local art are known to those who know me well. I have often gone against the grain and dethroned the accepted market leaders of the day. I ascertain and fully believe that five of these 25 artists are the pure innovators of Maltese modernism, (and two of them the absolute originals). However, I do not intend to reveal names in this book as it’s not my autobiography", writes art collector Joseph Agius in the introduction to his book 25 Modernist Artists, published by Kite Group. An exploration of modern art in Malta, the lavishly illustrated book provides a 360-degree view of the profiles of artists who helped shape Maltese modernism, fusing it into the fabric of our centuries-old artistic tradition and making it, in Schiele’s words, “eternal”. Photography courtesy Kite Group.

“Back in the early 1990’s, I wouldn’t have wagered one cent that one evening in November 30 years later, a book authored by me on Maltese modernist art would be officially launched. The foundations for 25 Modernist Artists lie in those years in which I was still under the effect of the preceding decade, one that had begun with high expectations and ended with dark disappointment. Although I tried to find escape from this predicament through voracious reading and listening to music, I felt that there was much that was missing in my life in the form of a passion, a new direction.

November 1992 was indeed an auspicious month as a friend of mine invited me to a collective exhibition of ceramics in which she was participating. It was here that the embers of a new interest were ignited, which fed on a flaw in my character that has its origins in my late father’s side of the family – that of being hoarders and collectors.

Istarted buying art as if there was no tomorrow, visiting the studios of Gabriel Caruana, Raymond Pitrè, Antoine Camilleri and other artists all in the space of months; thereafter, my collection went from strength to strength. All three artists became great friends, sharing anecdotes on the local art scene, their likes and dislikes, and stories about the origins of modernism in Malta. It was an eye-opening spate of years for me as I travelled abroad extensively, taking in all that I could as regards the international art scene.

Last November as well, I started the process of giving up my prized possessions through an auction at Obelisk Gallery, Attard, as, like 30 years ago, I feel the need to move on, to follow new paths, to discover new itineraries, to let go of the past. Each of these pieces in my collection is an entry in my biography, evoking memories of friendships and of friends who are no more.

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The embers of these writings that eventually were to be the basis of 25 Modernist Artists were originally kindled for a Maltese artrelated Facebook page I administer. In 2014, I realised that the literature available on the protagonists of Maltese modernism didn’t address and satisfy the local collector’s and art aficionado’s thirst for concise information on particular artists; knowledge that could honestly reflect a collector’s tastes and that could offer alternative views to those of an art historian or an art critic.

It could be a result of my formal education that I was never one to take an officially accepted opinion as bible truth; I always treated mainstream ideas with a lot of skepticism. I valued and still value others’ opinions but relied more on my personal gut, (and informed), feeling as a collector.

I must not fail to mention that these articles were also based on long-term friendships and discussions with some of the artists featured in this publication. These conversations occurred mostly during the last eight years of the 20th century; anecdotes were shared, describing in detail decades-old events that involved these same artists and their colleagues, amid a trail of animosities, mutual likes and dislikes, and life-long friendships.

While penning these articles for Times of Malta for a series entitled 20thcentury artists who shaped Maltese Modernism, on which most of these essays are based, I tried to keep my ‘bias’ in check to offer the readers a balanced view.

The reader might ask: why these 25 artists? This publication is already hefty as it is. Besides, 22 of these artists were featured in the original series and another two in interviews I had conducted on behalf of the same newspaper. The Toni Pace essay is the only one written specifically for this publication. It follows that there might be space for the writing of a sequel to this publication to include other worthy Maltese artists.

It was decided, together with Kite’s Gordon Pisani and editor Patrick Galea, that in an attempt to create a loose timeline, a chronological, rather than an alphabetical, order was to be followed – so Josef Kalleya, the oldest of the artists portrayed, features first and Pawl Carbonaro, the youngest, features last. In this way, a sequence and an indication of the dynamics involved in the development of Maltese Modernism could be deciphered. Thus, an unintended and, therefore, fluid cross-reference also occurs organically.

Acommon denominator that runs through in the choice of artists is that despite a strict academic training that generally didn’t allow transgressions in favour of then current international modernist thought, most of these pioneers had transcended this, some of them after much personal upheaval and studies away from these shores, and they eventually managed to broaden their perspectives. These enterprising innovators delivered our country from the boredom of insularity and opened the vistas to the possibilities of change and transformation, amid even the most revolutionary and ‘heretic’ of all discourses.

It was very difficult to choose which artworks to go for, as the quality found in private collections is indeed of the highest level. This new photographic documentation might aid the public to reevaluate and re-think the relativity of artistic pre-eminence as regards our country’s modernism, and to redefine the notion of what constitutes artistic originality, especially in the milieu of 20th-century international art. Our island’s insularity might have somehow obscured the bigger picture, especially the European and the North American one. I hope that 25 Modernist Artists will go some way in addressing this.”

25 Modernist Artists, by Joseph Agius. Editor Patrick Galea. Foreword by Maria Cassar. 336pages, hardback, published by Kite Group,www.kitegroup.com.mt

“But I think it’s important for people to remember that there was a time when being gay was a dangerous thing in America, and back in those days, you could be arrested, beaten, tortured, abused, killed even. And even for my friend Christopher Flynn, who was the first person that I knew was gay that I ever met growing up in Michigan, I think about how difficult life must have been for him growing up, to have to hide everything, and to not be who you are, and to fear for your life, and to be bullied. It’s important for me that people recognize how far we’ve come and how lucky we are.”

Madonna