For many years Ivy House was home to the London Jewish Cultural Centre and is now part of independent King Alfred School.
But back in 1912 it was the home and haven of the world’s most famous ballerina Anna Pavlova.
The Russian star had been born in Saint Petersburg in 1881 and began her dance training at the tender age of 10 after seeing a performance of The Sleeping Beauty at the Imperial Maryinsky Theatre.
By 18 she was dancing with the Imperial Ballet Company in Moscow before joining the Maryinsky Theatre troupe which saw her study under First Ballet Master Marius Petipa.
With her slender frame, pale oval face and expressive style, Pavlova rose to become Prima Ballerina by 1906 performing every role from Giselle to Swan Lake to Sleeping Beauty.
It was in 1905 that Michel Fokine choreographed her most famous solo as The Dying Swan – danced to Le Cygne from Saint Saens’ Carnival of the Animals.
Pavlova danced in Paris with the Ballet Russes, but disliking the style of its leader she left in 1909 to form her own company.
Thereafter she toured the world including America where she captured hearts and was known as ‘the Russian swan’.
To honour Pavlova’s opening performance at the Palace Theatre in London in 1911 the owner put a gilded statue of her on the roof. It was taken down for safety during the Blitz but lost and later replaced by a replica.
In 1912 Pavlova appeared at the first ever Royal Variety Performance – the same year her fame and fortune allowed her buy her own house.
Ivy House was a 19th century two-storey mansion with wide windows, spacious rooms, a garden and ornamental pond where she installed swans – including her favourite Jack – and filled the rooms with art and furniture shipped from St Petersburg.
It was here she enjoyed moments of calm and time with friends between constant touring.
She particularly loved the living room which overlooked the garden and it’s also said she secretly married her manager and long term companion Victor Dandré in 1914.
He helped her convert a large hall into her own studio at Ivy House where she taught young students, rehearsed with her troupe, and conceived new work, storing sets and costumes for the shows in the cellars.
In 1931 while staying in The Hague, Pavlova caught a cold and died of pleurisy just shy of her 50th birthday. According to myth, her final words to her dresser were to get her dying swan costume ready.
An urn with her ashes at Golders Green Crematorium in Hoop Lane are located directly above those of Victor Dandre.
In her lifetime she inspired numerous choreographers and dancers including north London star Alicia Marcova.
And her tours to Australia and New Zealand in the 1920s inspired the Pavlova dessert.
A blue plaque marks the home where she lived for the final 20 years of her life.
There’s also a statue of Pavlova by George Henry Paulin in the pond, and a sculpture by Tom Merrifield of the great dancer as the Dragonfly outside the house.
