Page 9 - xMITRE HOUSE BRIEF HISTORY_Layout 1

MIBTRE HOUSE A Brief History
124 THE KING’S ROAD CHELSEA LONDON SW3 4TP
Laurence Andsell Evans
Flat 4 & 6 - Another of the first original residents of Mitre House was Laurence Andsell Evans.
The son of a lawyer, Laurence Andsell Evans was born at South- port on 4 March 1912.A lover of cinema, he set out for Hollywood at the age of 19 where he spent two years working in the various studios gaining experience in both production and representation.
In 1930 Evans met Laurence Olivier on the set of Too Many Crooks filmed at Twickenham Studios and the two went on to become great friends.
They were known to see each other frequently during the time Evans lived at Mitre House and Olivier and Vivien Leigh, with whom Evans was also a very close friend, visited his flat on numerous occasions as indeed did many of his other and film and theatrical clients and friends.
Indeed in 1963, when Vivien Leigh flew back to London from New York suffering from nervous exhaustion, Evans met her at the airport and carried her furs as she was gently removed from the aircraft on a stretcher.
During the Second World War Laurence Evans became general manager of the OldVicTheatre Company and later became an agent at the well respected Music Corporation of America (MCA).
At various times he represented stars John Mills, Ingrid Bergman, Wendy Hiller,Anthony Quayle, Coral Browne, Anna Massey and Corin Redgrave.
Laurence Andsell Evans lived very profitably in both Flat 4 and Flat 6 Mitre House until the late 1930’s in what could well be described as the Golden Age of both theatre, film and without doubt, Mitre House.
(top: left to right) Laurence Andsell Evans; John Mills Laurence Olivier with Vivien Leigh