The actress Vivien Leigh is best remembered for her role as Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939). She used Flat D at 54 Eaton Square as her London base from 1958 until her death in 1967.

FAME AND ROMANCE

Born Vivian Hartley in India, Leigh began acting professionally in her 20s, making her screen debut in Things Are Looking Up (1934) and signing a contract with the film director Alexander Korda in the following year. While making Fire Over England (1937), she formed an intense relationship with her co-star, Sir Laurence Olivier, and the pair were married three years later.

Leigh came to international attention for her Oscar-winning portrayal of Scarlett O'Hara in the film Gone with the Wind (1939), a role that has somewhat overshadowed her reputation as an outstanding classical actress.

EATON SQUARE LIFE

At the time she moved to Eaton Square – alone, though she furnished a study for Olivier – she was still one of the most famous actresses in the world, but her private life was darkening. Her mental health was suffering and her marriage was almost over – she and Olivier divorced in 1960.

Nonetheless, the last decade of Leigh's life continued to bring her acclaim as a star of stage and screen, particularly as the heroine of The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone (1961) and the fading beauty in Ship of Fools (1965).

FINAL DAYS

By May 1967, the state of Vivien Leigh's health was such that she was rehearsing the Edward Albee play A Delicate Balance from her bed, where Noël Coward found her ‘pale but lovely, and smoking, which she shouldn't have been doing’. She died of tuberculosis here a month later, with her beloved pet cat, Poo Jones, by her side.