The Bentley Boys

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Grosvenor Square was the de facto headquarters of a group of famous men of the late 1920s: the infamous Bentley Boys. This group of young, wealthy, socialites and adventurers took their name from their preference for Bentley motor cars, both for regular transport and on race tracks around Europe. Between them, members of the group won the 24 Hours of Le Mans race on no fewer than five straight occasions between 1927 and 1931.

Four of the Bentley Boys - Woolf Barnato, Tim Birkin, Glen Kidston and Bernard Rubin - took adjacent flats in the fasionable south-east corner of the square, where their day-long parties became something of social legend. So common was the sight of their large, green sports cars parked ad hoc outside their flats, that for many years London cab drivers referred to the spot as "Bentley Corner".

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