A LATERAL
RETRIBUTION
See Also: THE CROWN ESTATE; ROYAL RESIDENCES Marlborough House;
That Marlborough
House is approached from the side rather than from the front, as Wren's plan
had intended, stems from the conduct of the duchess. Blenheim Palace, the Marlboroughs country
house in Oxfordshire had been designed by Sir John Vanbrugh. Her grace treated the latter architect in an
appalling manner, both failing to pay him money that he was owed and barring
him from entering Blenheim's grounds after she had promised him that he would
have a residence there. Vanbrugh
informed Sir Robert Walpole, the 1st Lord of the Treasury (Prime
Minister), of what had happened. The
premier straightened the architect financially and then chose to avenge the man
by waging his own vendetta against the duchess, for whom he had no love lost.1 Marlborough House provided him with a means
by which he was able to harry her.
Wren s
plan for the building required that two townhouses on the southern side of Pall
Mall should be acquired and torn down so that the property could have a formal
entrance onto the street. For the interim,
its entrance was a gateway to its south that opened out onto St James s
Park. Walpole had King George I revoke
the duchess's right to have her carriages driven into the park. This stopped her using the entryway. The freeholds of the two properties on Pall
Mall were owned by the Crown.2
The premier had their leases extended.
He then had the lease of one house transferred to his brother and that
of the other to one of his own sons, giving the duchess two Walpoles as her
neighbours and leaving her with no choice other than to have Marlborough
House's tradesmen's gate converted into being its principal entrance.
Location:
Marlborough Road, SW1A 1DD (blue, yellow)
Website:
https://thecommonwealth.org/marlborough-house
1. During the war, Sir Robert had been a close associate of her husband
the 1st Duke of Marlborough.
2. On what is now the site of the United Oxford & Cambridge
University Club.
David
Backhouse 2024