Editing Lillie Langtry (section)

====South Hampstead====
On 2 April 1965<ref name="Holzer " /><ref name="Looking " /> the ''[[Evening Standard]]'' reported an interview with Electra Yaras (born c. 1922),<ref name="myth " >{{cite news |last1=Bridge |first1=Mark |title=Lillie Langtry and Edward VII's Hampstead love nest 'a myth' |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/lillie-langtry-and-edward-viis-love-nest-in-hampstead-a-myth-mcmql2njx |access-date=9 December 2023 |work=[[The Times]] |date=2 June 2021}}</ref> leaseholder and resident of Leighton House, 103 Alexandra Road, [[South Hampstead]],<ref name="Looking " >{{cite web |last1=Weindling |first1=Dick |last2=Colloms |first2=Marianne |title=Looking for Lillie Langtry |url=https://kilburnwesthampstead.blogspot.com/2021/05/looking-for-lillie-langtry.html |website=History of Kilburn and West Hampstead |access-date=9 December 2023}}</ref> who claimed in the interview that Langtry had lived in the house and regularly entertained the Prince of Wales there.<ref name="Holzer " >{{cite book |last1=Holzer |first1=Hans |title=The Great British Ghost Hunt |date=1975 |publisher=[[Bobbs-Merrill Company]] |isbn=9780672518140 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TcYkEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT24 |author-link=Hans Holzer}}</ref> Yaras claimed that she herself had been visited in the house several times by Langtry's ghost.<ref name="myth " /><ref name="Holzer " />

On 11 April 1971<ref name="Looking " /> ''The Hampstead News'' said that the house had been built for Langtry by [[Lord Leighton]].<ref name="myth " /> These claims by Yaras and later by ''The Hampstead News'' were made in order to suggest an historical importance for the house and support its preservation from the demolition which had been originally ordered in 1965 and revived in 1971.<ref name="myth " /><ref name="Holzer " /><ref name="Looking " /> The claims were supported in 1971 by actress [[Adrienne Corri]], who lived nearby<ref name="Looking " /> and signed a petition,<ref name="no evidence " /> and were publicised in ''[[The Times]]'' on 8 October 1971<ref name="Looking " /><ref name="myth " /> and ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' on 9 October 1971.<ref name="Looking " /><ref name="no evidence " /> They were given further publicity by [[Anita Leslie]] in 1973 in a book on the [[Marlborough House set]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Leslie|first=Anita|title=The Marlborough House Set|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fpkDAAAAMAAJ&q=%22where+she+bought+a+mansion+called+Leighton+House%22 |year=1973|publisher=Doubleday & Co|location=New York|page=69|isbn=9780385014489 }}</ref>

The house was nevertheless demolished in 1971 to make way for the [[Alexandra Road Estate]].<ref name="no evidence " /><ref name="Looking " /><ref name="myth " />

In 2021, published research revealed that the house had been built in the 1860s by Samuel Litchfield and was likely named after his wife's birthplace of [[Leighton Buzzard]].<ref name="myth " /><ref name="Looking " /> Lengthy research into local records by Dick Weindling and Marianne Colloms revealed no connection whatever with Langtry.<ref name="no evidence " >{{cite news |last1=Foot |first1=Tom |title=Historians say there's no evidence for Lillie Langtry link to Camden |url=https://www.camdennewjournal.co.uk/article/historians-say-theres-no-evidence-for-lillie-langtry-link-to-camden |access-date=9 December 2023 |work=[[Camden New Journal]] |date=27 May 2021}}</ref><ref name="myth " />

The persistence of the myth, propounded in a time when stories about the royal family were easy to publicise and received no critical or substantiating research,<ref name="myth " /> resulted in Langtry's name still being in use in some place names and locales in the [[South Hampstead]] area.<ref name="Looking " /><ref name="no evidence " /><ref name="myth " /> These include Langtry Road off [[Kilburn Priory]]; Langtry Walk in the Alexandra Road Estate; and the Lillie Langtry pub at 121 [[Abbey Road, London|Abbey Road]] (defunct since late 2022),<ref>{{cite web |title=Lillie Langtry |url=https://www.closedpubs.co.uk/london/nw6_kilburn_lillielangtry.html |website=ClosedPubs.co.uk |access-date=9 December 2023}}</ref> built in 1969 to replace The Princess of Wales hotel, and briefly called The Cricketers from 2007 to 2011.<ref>{{cite web |title=Lillie Langtry |url=https://www.pubology.co.uk/pubs/3604.html |website=Pubology |access-date=9 December 2023}}</ref> The mythologising also includes The Lillie Langtry pub at 19 [[Lillie Road]] in [[Fulham]] – the road actually took its name from local landowner [[John Scott Lillie]].<ref>[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol42/pp322-338 "The Kensington Canal, railways and related developments"]. ''Survey of London: Volume 42, Kensington Square To Earl's Court'', pp. 322–338. London County Council, London, 1986.</ref>