The former home of housebuilding Labour prime minister Harold Wilson could be yours for £1,999,999.
Wilson, who was leader of the Labour Party from 1963 to 1976, lived at the house on Southway, Hampstead Garden Suburb, for eight years.
Wilson and his wife Mary moved to the house next door in 1948, at the suggestion of Conservative MP Joseph Gurney Braithwaite. They upsized to 12 Southway with their two children, Robin and Giles, in 1956, and remained at the family home until 1964, when Wilson was elected as prime minister and a new address, 10 Downing Street, beckoned.
Wilson and the Labour Party won the 1964 general election by a majority of four, taking over from the Conservative government which had been in power since 1951.
“The count was a cliff hanger,” Wilson wrote in his memoirs. “In the end, the figures were Labour 317, Conservatives 303, Liberals 9, and the Speaker. We had fourteen seats more than the Conservatives and an overall majority of four. It was Winston Churchill who said, ‘One is enough’, and I was duly summoned to the palace.”
At 48, Wilson became Britain’s youngest prime minister since William Pitt. In his manifesto, he set out plans for a “New Britain”, pledging to modernise and “reverse the decline of thirteen wasted years”.
In a familiar situation, Wilson also blamed the Conservative government for “soaring land and house prices which have made it almost impossible for local authorities to replan our towns or for many ordinary families to rent or buy a home.”
He aimed to address this with a series of housing policies, including the construction of 400,000 new houses, lowering interest rates for housing, introducing 100 per cent mortgages and providing renters with greater security of tenure.
“While we regard 400,000 houses as a reasonable target, we do not intend to have an election auction on housing figures. It is no good having paper plans for houses if —as the present Minister of Housing is now discovering— you haven't the bricks to build them,” the manifesto stated.
Ultimately, Wilson’s government bettered their target, building a UK record of 425,830 new homes. Of these, 184,450 were council-owned and 226,070 private. The current government is falling short of its target of 300,000 new homes a year, having built 234,000 “net additional dwellings” between 2022-23.
Wilson liberalised laws on censorship, abortion, divorce and homosexuality, abolished capital punishment and started the Open University during his time in office. But, in a time of postwar economic decline, he was criticised for failing to bring about the transformational change that he promised.
Wilson resigned on 16 March 1976, and was succeeded by James Callaghan. He died in 1995, age 79.
As for Wilson’s own houses, after he sold 12 Southway (for £14,000), he purchased a holiday home in the Isles of Scilly in 1959, as well as a house on Lord North Street where he lived after Downing Street, and a property in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire – all of which gained flak after the costs were revealed in a Sunday People article. Wilson’s Scilly Isles bungalow was still being used by Mary Wilson until her death in 2018, and was listed for sale the following year.
Today, Wilson’s former home on Southway covers 2,237 sq ft, with six bedrooms, two reception rooms, garage and south-facing garden. Wilson is commemorated with a blue plaque outside.
“What makes this home distinctive is that it’s in a lovely, picturesque central part of Hampstead Garden Suburb in between Big Wood and the Heath Extension,” says Litchfields agent Charles Bobroff. “Although this is a six-bedroom house, unlike other houses in Southway it has the charm and character of a cottage, which was typical of the architects Unwin & Parker who were also creators of the original master plan of Hampstead Garden Suburb.”
The property’s current owners bought the house from Wilson, and, after 54 years, are “reluctantly parting with their cherished home” to move to a retirement home.
12 Southway requires “some renovation work”, say the agents, but retains “delightful features, such as intricate woodwork and period details, [which] provide a glimpse into its past.”
They add: “This is a rare opportunity to own a piece of history and create a home that reflects both your personal style and the legacy of its previous owner.”
