Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Nearly Noël’s Neighbour?

Mozart and Coward: two of the most iconic names in Music and Theatre, but what’s the connection between them? Answer: both their legendary careers can be traced back to the same road, Ebury Street, London. The Coward Archive’s Robert Hazle looks at how they came to be there and what impact it had on their lives.

Did you know that Noël Coward and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart lived next door to each other on Ebury Street, London? Well, almost. Admittedly it was a few doors down and 150-odd years apart but here’s the story of how they came to be ‘nearly neighbours’…

Wolfgang and his sister Anna Maria (known as Nannerl) were both prodigiously talented musicians and their father, Leopold (himself a court musician) brought took them on a money-spinning tour of the courts and cities of Europe. Wolfgang Mozart was already a celebrated child musician and his year and half in London (1764-5) was to have a major impact on him. The family arrived in London and the children were soon performing for George III. 

But it was a bout of illness that caused the family to move for two months to what is now 180 Ebury Street, Belgravia. In the 1760s, Belgravia as we know it today did not exist and the road we know as Ebury Street was called ‘Five Fields Row’. As this might suggest, the area was part of the countryside near the village of Chelsea. It was the fresh country air that brought the Mozarts away from London’s Soho, where they had been staying above a barber’s shop. 

It was during his father’s recuperation that the young Mozart turned his hand to composing. Perhaps through the encouragement of Johann Christian Bach, brother of J.S. and court composer in London that Mozart composed his first symphony: Symphony No 1 in Eb. Since 1939, there has been a plaque marking this event. 

Whilst there he also wrote his first vocal works, including God Is Our Refuge, which they donated to the British Museum before returning to the continent. 

If you go there now, make sure to see the Mozart Statue in the green where Ebury Street meets Pimlico Road, which was designed by Philip Jackson and installed in 1994.

The 17-year-old Coward landed in Ebury Street in 1917 when his mother Violet took on a boarding house at number 111. After a decade or so as a child actor Coward had begun to make a name for himself both onstage and in society. 

His time at 111 Ebury Street saw his first film appearance in D W Griffith’s Hearts Of The World (1918), his first West End production as a playwright, I’ll Leave It To You, in 1920 and his first revue collaboration with Andre Charlot in 1923’s London Calling!. Most significantly, though, it was in that house that he wrote the critical and financial triumph, The Vortex, the scandalous tale of a nymphomaniac mother and her drug-addicted son. Audiences flocked to see it and adored its provocative subject matter. Its notoriety made Coward an overnight success on both sides of the Atlantic and a legend was born.

By 1930, Coward had moved round the corner to Gerald Road, but there’s no doubt that Ebury Street was where it all began.

So that’s the connection between Noël Coward and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Did that surprise you? Let us know in the comments or on social media.

Do you have a Coward Connection? We’d love to hear about it, so get in touch at cowardoffice@alanbrodie.com.