25 Park Lane
house in City of Westminster, Greater London, England, UK
25 Park Lane (later renumbered to 45) is a building on Park Lane, London.
25 Park Lane was the London residence of Sir Philip Sassoon who also owned Port Lympne Mansion and Trent Park. His Park Lane home was previously owned by his parents Edward Sassoon and Aline Caroline de Rothschild. It was by all accounts a great town house and a very suitable venue for entertaining. Built in 1895-6 by T. H.Smith and C. E. Sayer for Barney Barnato, a South African, the house was 13,000 square feet. Peter Stansky author describes the house as having had a four-story-high marble staircase, a conservatory, a winter garden and a ballroom.
Previously decorated by his mother Lady Sassoon after the First World War he undertook extensive changes filling the house with French Furniture, tapestries and his most important paintings. Sassoon employed Philip Tilden, who later worked for him at both Port Lympne and Trent Park, to reconstruct the interior. Tilden's memoirs record his efforts; "I built a recessed gallery, mirrored with glass the colour of oyster. I can assure you that deep red roses in porphyry vases reflected in black glass give an effect that is not without uniqueness".
The public source identifies “25 Park Lane” as house in City of Westminster, Greater London, England, UK. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Park, Lane and house.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “25 Park Lane”, the useful work is to connect “house in City of Westminster, Greater London, England, UK” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 18, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q4632170. Authority coordinates are 51.506, -0.151. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1895.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
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Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “25 Park Lane” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.