Whitehall Court

{{Short description|Mixed-use building in the City of Westminster, London}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

File:Whitehall Court Mars 2014.jpg. The National Liberal Club takes up the section on the right; the rest is mainly residential.]]

File:Londres 195..jpg

Whitehall Court in the City of Westminster, England, is one contiguous building but consists of two separate constructions. The south end was designed by Thomas Archer and A. Green and constructed as a block of luxury residential apartments in 1884{{NHLE|desc=Whitehall Court|num=1266894|accessdate=13 December 2019}} while the north end, occupied by the National Liberal Club, was designed by Alfred Waterhouse and completed in 1887.{{NHLE|desc=National Liberal Club|num=1066072|accessdate=13 December 2019}}

The building was developed speculatively by the Liberal MP and property developer Jabez Balfour, through the Liberator Building Society which he controlled. In 1892 the Society collapsed, leaving thousands of investors penniless. Instead of advancing money to home buyers, the Society had advanced money to property companies to buy properties owned by Balfour, at a high price.Youssef Cassis, City Bankers, 1890-1914, Cambridge University Press (1994), page 164.John Briggs, Crime and Punishment in England: An Introductory History, Routledge (1996), page 227.{{cite book| title=Jabez: The Rise and Fall of a Victorian Rogue | first=David | last=McKie | publisher=Atlantic Books | date=2005 | isbn=978-1843541318 }}

Well-known residents have included William Gladstone, Lord Kitchener, Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia, George Bernard Shaw and Hall Caine.{{cite book| title=Hall Caine: Portrait of a Victorian Romancer | first=Vivien | last=Allen | publisher=Sheffield Academic Press| date=1997 | isbn=1-85075-695-3 | page=229 }}

The building was used as Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) headquarters until the end of the First World War.{{cite news|last1=Norton-Taylor|first1=Richard|title=Sir Mansfield Cumming, first MI6 chief, commemorated with blue plaque|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/mar/30/sir-mansfield-cumming-first-chief-of-mi6-commemorated-with-a-blue-plaque|accessdate=31 March 2015|work=The Guardian|date=31 March 2015}} A blue plaque in Mansfield Smith-Cumming's name at the SIS headquarters at 2 Whitehall Court was unveiled on 30 March 2015.

1 & 2 Whitehall Court are occupied by the Royal Horseguards Hotel.{{cite web|url=https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/trips-and-breaks/royal-horseguards-london-hotel-review-12990589|title=A top spot for a capital stay|date=8 May 2017|publisher=Manchester Evening News|accessdate=13 December 2019}} 3 Whitehall Court is occupied by the Farmers Club.{{cite web|url=https://www.thefarmersclub.com/|title=The Farmers Club|accessdate=13 December 2019}} 4 Whitehall Court was occupied by the West Indian Club from 1912 until 1971.{{cite journal |last1=Clover |first1=David |title=The West Indian Club Ltd: an early 20th century West Indian interest in London |journal=The Society for Caribbean Studies Annual Conference Papers |date=2007 |volume=8 |url=https://core.ac.uk/reader/246438}} It is currently split into apartments: in February 2018, Transparency International reported that lawyer and activist Alexei Navalny has claimed that Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov owns two apartments in Whitehall Court worth £11.4 million.{{cite web|url=http://www.transparency.org.uk/uwo-consider-today/|title=Transparency International UK|author=|date=|website=transparency.org.uk|accessdate=1 March 2018}}{{cite web|url=https://navalny.com/p/4346/|title=Кто в замке живет? ФБК доказывает: элитную лондонскую недвижимость вице-премьер Шувалов арендует сам у себя|author=|date=|website=Алексей Навальный|accessdate=1 March 2018}}