On the corner of Curzon Street and Curzon Square in Mayfair you will find an attractive black-brick Georgian house. After being gutted during the Second World War it was converted into apartments.
It was in this building, in the same flat, in the very same bed, that both Cass Elliot (Mama Cass) and The Who drummer; Keith Moon, died 4 years apart. Here’s the story…
The Apartment
The building is Grade II listed and was built from the 1750s-60s when this whole area was turning from fields to city.
The photo below shows the entrance onto Curzon Street. Note the classic Georgian townhouse features such as the fanlight window over the door and the brilliant gold torch snuffers. Click here to watch my Instagram video on these!
Alternatively you can approach Curzon Square from these sneaky set of steps off Pitt’s Head Mews…
The American singer Harry Nilsson bought flat 12 in the building in the 1970s. The location was ideal, being close to Apple Records (he was a good friend of the Beatles), Playboy Club and Tramp nightclub, popular with celebrities.
The flat was decorated by the ROR design company, ROR standing for Ringo and Robin (Ringo Starr and designer Robin Cruikshank).
Nilsson would spend extended periods of time in America so lent the flat out to his musician friends…
The Death Of Cass Elliot
Cass Elliot, formerly Mama Cass of the Mamas and the Papas (real name Ellen Naomi Cohen), stayed at the flat whilst performing solo at the London Palladium.
On the 29th July 1974, after two tiring performances with many encores, Cass Elliott was found dead in the bedroom of the Mayfair flat. She was just 32 years old.
It was first widely reported that she had died from choking on a ham sandwich. The first doctor that attended the scene apparently saw a ham sandwich lying next to her body and then just made a pretty unprofessional leap to assuming that the sandwich was the reason for her death
She had in fact died of a heart attack. You can read a Rolling Stone article from 1974 about the incident here. She had been overweight her whole life and it is thought had attempted crash diets that fatally weakened her heart.
Nilsson and the rest of the music world were devastated.
The Death Of Keith Moon
In 1978, The Who drummer and one of the most extravagant and eccentric people in rock music; Keith Moon, also used the apartment.
Nilsson was initially understandably very wary of saying yes to Moon’s request to use the flat. He apparently considered the flat ‘cursed’. However, Pete Townshend, The Who guitarist, persuaded him that ‘lightning does not strike in the same place twice’. He was, tragically, to be proven wrong.
On 7th September 1978, after returning home from watching a preview of the film The Buddy Holly Story as a guest of Paul McCartney, Keith Moon died in the very same bed where Cass Elliot had taken her final breaths just a few years before.
He had struggled with excessive drinking his whole life but it was ironically an overdose of clomethiazole; a prescription drug for combating alcoholism that finished him off. He was also 32 years old. For a full account of what happened that day click here.
Nilsson, distraught, ended up selling the ‘cursed’ flat to Pete Townshend and moved permanently to LA.
It just goes to show that, despite the saying, lightning can indeed strike in the same place twice.
Thank you for reading, more London history below…
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What a spooky story about the Curzon Street flat. Must remember never to stay there!
Is the “cursed flat” really “an attractive black-brick Georgian house”, or has it just been painted in that cursed grey colour that is swiftly overtaking every building, front door, car and interior in the entire world?
Thanks for the blog.
Hi Jim, it is the building in the photo so yes still black brick!
The church was known as St Mary’s to us locals it was our school church my sister was married there we would play in the graveyard as children do you have any history on the small park in the high street our school Archbishop Tenisons girls school there were gravestones outside our classroom windows was this a graveyard originally.
Our school had a lot of history I would love to know more.
Hi Carole, send me an email to [email protected] and I will have a look into that for you!
Hhmm. Somehow something seems wrong. I don’t see a 300lb Mama Cass climbing 4 stories of steps…
Perhaps there was a lift. They did exist in 1974, to the best of my recollection.
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Very strange that the bed that Cass died in wasn’t replaced- as it states that Keith died in the same bed! Bizarre. Also, Pete Townsend tempting fate saying lightning doesn’t strike twice- and then swooping in to purchase the property afterwards.