Who hasn’t pondered faking their own death to get away from it all, if only as an idle daydream? William Waldorf Astor, who was once America’s second-richest man, seems to have actually gone through with it. It didn’t work, but London still got an architectural treasure in the process — Two Temple Place.
In 1891, Astor had had enough of his native America, declaring “the newspapers make the country unfit for a gentleman to live in”. The press had ridiculed him for his political ambitions, speculated about his children being kidnapped, and the loathing was mutual. He was also feuding with his aunt, who complained his New York hotel, the Waldorf, was overshadowing her mansion. He’d inherited his vast-for-the-time $100 million fortune from his father, who died the year before. So Waldorf Astor moved his family to London.
