While England was where Melba went to establish herself in the European world of opera, it was not her favourite place to live. She much preferred Paris.
Initially, Melba lived at the Savoy Hotel and over the years at the Metropole and Ladies Athenaeum Club. However, during the summers Melba would lease homes along the Thames River where she relaxed and entertained her friends.

In 1900 when Melba spent more time in London than Paris she rented a house in Great Cumberland Place and gave up her apartment in the Rue Prony. This was her home base for many years and scene of many parties given for her many musical friends.

Pamela Vestey wrote about the Great Cumberland Place which was now ready for Melba on her return from America in 1901(1):

The house in Great Cumberland Place was now in order and she was happy to return to it. She had collected good pictures and furniture, her own taste augmented by the knowledge she was gaining all the time. It had become her greatest pleasure to collect beautiful things. Her spare time was spent most happily at art exhibitions and sale rooms or making expeditions to the markets and little shops wherever she was, her eye quick to pick out the good from the indifferent. Nellie loved to have everything perfect in her house: delicate linen and lawn, fine embroidery, lacy table cloths for her tea table, and fine damask in her dining room. Everything must be fresh and clean, her pretty china and shining silver setting off every meal.

Great Cumberland Place seems to be the least attractive house she decorated; the only existing photographs are of the main reception rooms dressed up for a concert. The heavy white panelling with columns in each doorway does not add to its charm.

In 1905, Melba’s summer home was Blounts near Marlow and later Quarrywood. (2)

In the summer of 1906 Melba rented a home at Kingston Hill called Coombe Cottage. Her opera sponsor Lady de Grey lived nearby as did several other old friends. It must have been a memorable time for Melba because as three years later when she purchased her home at Coldstream, she immediately called it Coombe Cottage in honour of the home in England. (3)

Melba returned to England via America in May 1919 and stayed at the Ladies Athenaeum Club until she could move into Frank Schuster’s home at 22 Great Queen Street in Westminster. The home overlooked St James’ Park. (4)

Melba rented various homes in London until 1922 when she bought the lease on a house at 15 Mansfield Street, London. After delays, the decorating was finished and Melba was able to move in with her belongings in April 1923. It was to be the last home Melba owned in England was at 15 Mansfield Street.

When she returned to England in January 1925, Melba invited a few guests around and had a few small parties.
Melba found the Mansfield Street home cold and it was too big for her and expensive to run. Melba was also under financial pressure as her American investments had been badly affected by the Wall Street slump. Also, the Income Tax Man in Britain was also after her.
However, the property was important in Melba’s life as it was here in the final few days of her ownership that she dictated her autobiography to author Beverley Nichols. (5)

In a letter to Evie Armstrong dated February 23, 1925, Nichols wrote:

Mansfield Street has hardly been opened at all but we have had one or two rather amusing dinners there – all the old familiar faces … in amongst these celebrities have floated the flotsam and jetsam of Australian society. They really made me feel almost homesick with their delightful Toorak accents, and their costumes designed by Mr Myers.
I am working terribly hard on the Autobiography and it looks as if it really will be finished in a month or two. Madre has been wonderful about it, and has put me down on the sofa for hours at a time, while she paces round the room remembering the most wonderful stories about her career …..
Yours ever, Beverley.(6)

During her years in Mansfield Street Melba had a neighbour who was famous in his own field – architect Sir Edwin Lutyens who was appointed as one of two principal architects to the War Graves Commission in 1918.
He was responsible for the design of 128 cemeteries, together with the great Thiepvel Arch on the Somme, the Arras Memorial, the Australian National Memorial at Villers Bretonneux, and London, Whitehall the Cenotaph.

On the sale of her home in December 1925 the newspapers reported:

Melba’s Neighbour
London will be much the poorer in its music now that Dame Nellie Melba has sold her lovely Adams House in Mansfield Street, for her musical parties have always been a sheer delight. She is said to be thinking of taking a Palazzo in Naples for the coming summer. Sir Edward Lutyens the famous Architect is among the Melba “mourners” for as her neighbour he could sometimes hear the faint sound of her singing. “Now the lark is flying away,” he says.(7)

And

One remembers that during an interview with Dame Nellie Melba last year she spoke of Sir Edwin Lutyens in connection with the famous Queens doll house of which he was the architect. “He is quite a pal of mine” said Dame Nellie “we are next-door neighbours and sometimes ask each other to breakfast”.” I have just cabled him to have a lift put in my house. I don’t know how on earth he’s going to do it, but he will ” she added with conviction.(8)

References:

(1) P. Vestey, Melba A Family Memoir, Pamela Vestey, Coldstream, 2000, pg pg103.
(2) Op. cit., pg122.
(3) Op. cit., pg123.
(4) Frank Schuster (24 September 1852 – 26 December 1927), was a British music-lover and patron of the arts. His home overlooking St James’s Park[1] at 22 Old Queen Street, London, part of which now contains offices of The Spectator magazine, became a meeting-place for artists, writers and musicians. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Schuster_(music_patron)
(5) Op. cit., pg210-211. The 18th century home at 15 Mansfield Street, London was designed by architect Robert Adam and is now the home of the Royal College of Midwives (RCM).
(6) Op. cit., pg 210.
(7) The Mail, Saturday December 19, 1925.
(8) The Register, Thursday January 22, 1925.