Once described as “having a mouth like a truck driver and the looks of a goddess”, thrice married American actress Ava Gardner spent her final years in Knightsbridge’s Ennismore Gardens. Born in Smithfield, North Carolina, this cotton and tobacco famer’s daughter turned international icon once stated: “I wish to live to 150 years old, but the day I die, I wish it to be with a cigarette in one hand and a glass of whiskey in the other” but sadly succumbed to pneumonia aged just 67.
My great aunt, who died in the ’60’s owned the Ennismore Gardens flat Ava Gardner subsequently bought.
I remember it as a small child being a vast, ill lit gloomy place….very depressing. I expect the flat has now been Candified