Soho is one of London’s coolest and most vibrant villages and, quite naturally we have several London walks that will introduce you to its secrets and treasures.
In the course of our Soho London walk we pass number 71 Brewer Street where we pause to tell the story of Le Chevalier De’on, diplomat, writer, and spy, and one of the best swordsmen France.
In 1762 De’eon arrived from France as an undercover agent for King Louis XV, who was planning to invade England.
The invasion never materialized, but the Chevalier remained in London, befriending important Londoners and acquiring a reputation as one of the 18th century’s most outrageous eccentrics.
Part of his fascination arose from the fact that it was not clear whether the Chevalier was a man or a woman. His features were beautiful and his figure curvaceous, but De’eon drank heavily, smoked cigars, and was an accomplished equestrian and duelist.
The Chevalier deliberately encouraged speculation by openly denying he was a man, although dressing as one.
In gentlemen’s clubs, bets were placed on his sex (seven to four that he was a man). Many of those bets were collected several years later, - when the Chevalier began appearing in public dressed as a woman.
By the time he died in 1816, at age 82, London accepted De’eon as a woman. When a postmortem examination revealed that he was, indeed, a man, the disclosure took the city by surprise.
This is typical of the sort of tale that you will hear on our Soho London walks, and is illustrative of just what fun it can be to uncover the different, and surpring, neighbourhoods that you will find across London.
Tags: King Louis XV, Le Chevalier De'on, London walks, Soho
