Person    | Male  Born 31/3/1848  Died 18/10/1919

William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount

Born New York City into an extremely wealthy family. Lived in Rome in his mid-thirties where he developed a life-long taste for the arts.  On his father’s death in 1890 he built the luxury Waldorf Hotel on the site of the New York family home. (His cousin, John Jacob Astor IV, who built the adjoining Astoria Hotel was killed on the Titanic.)

Moved with his family to London in 1891, renting Lansdowne House until 1893 when he bought the Cliveden estate in Buckinghamshire.  In 1895 he had 2 Temple Place built, by architect John Loughborough Pearson, as his London residence and estate office. Owned the Pall Mall Gazette, Pall Mall Magazine and The Observer. 1899 became a British citizen.  1908 opened the Waldorf Hotel in London.  In 1906 gave Cliveden to his eldest son Waldorf as a wedding present on his marriage to Nancy Langhorne who became Lady Astor. Died at home in Brighton.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials created by the subject on this page:
William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount

Creations i

Sante Maria weather vane

Made of beaten copper.  War-damaged in 1944 it was restored and re-erected in...

Read More

Other Subjects

Nicholas Saunders

Nicholas Saunders

Researched, published and distributed 'Alternative London' 1970. Moved into a warehouse in Neal's Yard in 1976 and starting with a wholefood shop he developed the area as an alternative shopping c...

Person, Commerce, Journalism / Publishing, South Africa

1 memorial
Proprietors of the Quiver

Proprietors of the Quiver

The Quiver was "a magazine for Sunday and general reading" published around 1876-1925 in New York and London.

Group, Journalism / Publishing

1 memorial
Joseph Whitaker

Joseph Whitaker

Born in London, apprenticed to a bookseller aged fourteen. With experience of a number of firms he set up his own publishing business. 1858 launched The Bookseller. 1869 published the first issue o...

Person, Journalism / Publishing, Sport / Games

1 memorial
Charles Hoy Fort

Charles Hoy Fort

Writer, thinker, humourist and investigator. Promoted scientific investigation of the paranormal. Born New York state, came to Europe aged 22. Returned to New York and married Anna in 1896. He bega...

Person, Journalism / Publishing, Literature, Paranormal, USA

2 memorials
Alice Meynell

Alice Meynell

Poet and journalist.  Alice Thompson was born in Barnes.  Her paternal grandmother was an unmarried Creole.  Educated with her sister entirely by their father as they lived a peripatetic life mainl...

Person, Journalism / Publishing, Poetry, Italy

1 memorial