Let’s visit a 312 year old house – and its famous resident

This one's a three-parter. 1. Aperitif: A London history snippet: London authorities – they've always been good at putting lipstick on a pig. 2. Starter: David's identified 16 keys that help to "unlock" London, the most secretive of Western cities. Here's one of them. 3. Main course: The street (it's one of the two finest Queen Anne streets in London); the house (it's got a good claim to being the most important literary shrine in London); the occupant (any writer who holes up in a double-walled noise-cancelling garret to shut out a cacophony of  "dogs, cocks, pianofortes and insipid men" has to be worth getting to know). This was a man who meant business.