With a private resident’s garden, 24-hour concierge, secure underground parking and leisure facilities including a sauna, gym and jacuzzi, this quiet, refined enclave would appeal to those who appreciate discretion and seclusion yet with direct access to the absolute best that London has to offer.

Pimlico Station is just a few minutes walk away. Victoria Station and St James’ Park Station are also within walking or cycling distance, as are the Houses of Parliament and other key government buildings. A taxi rank is also situated on the corner of Regency Street and Horseferry Road

Westminster Abby

So perhaps it may be more interesting to turn away from the ‘Men of God’ to those for whom eternal damnation beckoned, or at least possible emigration to Australia.

Millbank Prison built in the early 1800s was situated where Tate Britain sits today, just a stone’s throw from Regency Apartments. The prison was the holding facility for convicts waiting to be deported to Australia and ‘Prisoners of Millbank’ is supposedly where the Australian slang term for the English, ‘Pom’s/Pommies’ derives from.

Originally Millbank Prison was supposed to follow the theory and designs of the philosopher, Jeremy Bentham’s famous ‘Pentopticon Design’. Unluckily, like many modern-day civic projects, spiralling budgets and a series of hired and fired architects meant the design of the prison altered dramatically. Whatever the architecture, the conditions were still deplorable and when the prison was closed down in 1890, (one assumes the prisoners had been housed elsewhere!) newer prisons were built with slightly more humane and hygienic facilities.

Looking around the pleasant, peaceful residential dwellings of Millbank today it is difficult to imagine how it once was. However, a local pub, the Morpeth Arms, claims to offer an insight into the past. It is believed that the cellars of the pub were once the cells for prisoners in solitary confinement and they are believed to be haunted by ghostly ‘POM’S’. This doesn’t quite add up with contradictory reports that the pub was built to provide sustenance to the prison warders and a map of London in the 1860s – thirty years before the prison was demolished -clearly shows that the site of the prison does not impinge on the site of the pub. (Above ground level anyway).

Nonetheless, the Morpeth Arms is a popular local hostelry frequented by residents and nearby office workers alike. Indeed this author can attest to many a pleasant, sunny afternoon spent overlooking the River Thames from the outside seats of the pub. As of yet, however, I have never experienced anything scarier than discovering answers to life that are not found at the bottom of the whiskey glass.