Madame Bertha Trost, an unusual figure in the undercurrents of London society, who went about dressed in Victorian clothes and riding in a carriage, deported as 'an undesirable' during the First World War. Madame Trost, who had moved to London from Potsdam in about 1895, ran two shops - a beauty salon and an antiquarian shop - in Clifford Street and gave Bohemian parties in her house which was said to be furnished will all sorts of exotic curiosities, including a rosewood coffin she had made for her own demise. Many curious rumours had circulated around her name and, as it was said she was one of the most active spies in London, it was unsurprising that she was arrested and deported.