U.S. President Martin Van Buren: Lived in London?

U.S. President Martin Van Buren...located just off Oxford Street

We were strolling along Oxford Street the other day when Mike spotted some embassy's so we took a left and which embassy's we actually saw have left me, but what hasn't was the Blue Plaque (or blue dot as I like to say)  that I spotted, it was the "U.S. President Martin Van Buren lived here" blue dot.  This not only excited me, but it made me curious. Why did he live here? I had no idea so I went home and did some research as I usually do...

Martin Van Buren, Eighth President of the United States

Credit: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-BH82401-5239 DLC

Now I will share what I learned:

• He was the first president born an American citizen as his predecessors all were born before the Declaration of Independence and therefore born British subjects
• 8th U.S. President 1837-1841
• Born in Kinderhook, New York in 1782
• Died in Kinderhook, New York in 1862
• His parents were Dutch
• English was not his first Language
• He was 5 ft. 6 inches tall
• He was referred to as "a little squirt"
• He had crazy large chop sideburns (as you can see from the picture above)
• His wife Hannah died at age 35 (1819) and he never remarried
• He was a father
• New York State Senator 1813-1815
• New York Attorney-General 1815-19
• United States Senator, 1821-29 
• Governor of New York, 1829 
• Secretary of State, 1829-1831 (under Jackson) 
• Minister to England, 1831 (hence the blue dot)
• Vice President, 1833-1837 (under Jackson) 
• Major Events While in Office:
• Panic of 1837 (1837)
• Caroline Affair (1837)