65 Brook Street

Completed in 1812, for Charles Elliott (1752-1832), of Bond Street, "Royal Upholsterer and Cabinetmaker". His father had been outlawed for his part in the 1715 Jacobite Uprising and lived in Java. Charles arrived in London with, "a shilling in his pocket," but died a very wealthy man. From 1896 until 1920, 65 Brook Street was the home of George Ogilvy Haig and his American wife, Charlotte Augusta Astor, a divorcée whose first marriage had ended in the, "most conspicuous society scandal of the generation". She was the sister of John Jacob Astor IV who went down with the Titanic. Charlotte's husband was the brother of Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, who famously commanded the British Army on the Western Front in the First World War. In 1897, Mrs Haig installed a lift and enclosed the original entrance porch. In 1963, it became the home of the British Optical Association. Today, it serves as the Argentine Embassy.