The Classiest Wang Office (sorry about the pun!)
The Berkeley Square office of Wang (UK) Ltd was the classiest of all the Wang offices, a Georgian building in the famous and prestigious Berkeley Square. It had enormous rooms with chandeliers and high ceilings with intricate plasterwork, which cost £800 in 1970’s money to paint.
The office was above an exclusive club called Mortons and we had a constant stream of Rolls Royces, Aston Martins, etc. stopping under our windows and leaving their car keys with the uniformed commissionaire who was rewarded with a large note when they delivered the car later on and probably drove a Ferrari himself. According to Morton's website they are the most exclusive, yet relaxed private members club in Mayfair! Did you know that these famous people were residents in Berkeley Square at one time or another... John Byng (1741), Vice-Admiral, Royal Navy. Byng's home was decorated by architect Isaac Ware. Horace Walpole lived at no. 11 1779 until his death in 1797. George Canning, UK Prime Minister (1827) — at no. 50 Winston Churchill lived at no. 48 as a child Robert Clive of India — bought no. 45 in 1761 and committed suicide there in 1774. Sarah Child Villiers, Countess of Jersey (Lady Jersey), one of the famous patronesses of Almack's and leaders of the ton during the Regency era; heiress to the Child & Co. banking fortune — at no. 38. Charles Rolls, co-founder of Rolls-Royce, was born in Berkeley Square in 1877. |