TOWNHOUSES

Aberconway House

Aberconway House (1920) was built at No. 38 South Street on the southern edge of the Grosvenor Estates. The building has a 90ft. frontage and a 65ft.-long entrance hall.

In 1943 the McLaren family moved out. Subsequently, the building became the headquarters of the Rank Organisation, a flour milling company-turned-film studio.

During the 1980s Westminster Council decreed that Aberconway House should be restored to residential use.

Location: 38 South Street, W1K 1DJ (orange, pink)

Apsley House

Apsley House (1778) was built for Lord Apsley. In 1804 the building was bought by the Marquis of Wellesley who, in 1817, sold it to his younger brother the 1^st Duke of Wellington. Until his death in 1852, the House was his grace's London home. He replaced the Portland stone on the building's exterior with Bath stone.

In 1947 Apsley House was presented to the nation by the 7^th Duke under the Wellington Museums Act of 1947; the family retained apartments within the building. In 1952 the house was opened as the Wellington Museum.

Location: 149 Piccadilly, W1J 7NT (red, brown)

Website: www.apsleyhouse.org.uk

Argyll House

Princess Louise was the fourth daughter of Queen Victoria. She married the 9^th Duke of Argyll who may have been a bisexual. She is reputed to have had all the private exits of their townhouse bricked up in order to try to prevent him going cruising for sex with men.

Burlington House

Burlington House is the only survivor of the great Piccadilly townhouses. However, the building has been much altered and now has a front that dates from the 1870s.

The House acquired its name in 1667 when the property was bought by the 1^st Earl of Burlington. During the first half of the 18^thC, its extension and rebuilding were one of the amusements of the architect-peer the 3^rd Earl. In the late 1710s he commissioned Colen Campbell to carry out a number of alterations to the building. These gave it a Palladian appearance.

Location: Burlington House, 50 Piccadilly, W1J 0BD (orange, brown)

Website: https://burlingtonhouse.org

Cambridge House

Egremont House (1758) was designed by Matthew Brettingham. The building's name was changed to Cambridge House.

In the 1850s and 1860s the property was the home of Lord Palmerston. The politician's nicknames included Lord Cupid . In 1863 the Irish journalist Timothy O Kane cited the Prime Minister as being the co-respondent in his divorce case. At the time, the premier was 79-years-old. The opposition leader Benjamin Disraeli was against trying to make political capital from the matter, as he felt that there was no way in which the peer would come out of such without his standing having been enhanced - either through the purity of his conduct or through testimony to his vigour in old age.

Two years later Palmerston was found dead on the billiards table of Brocket Hall in Hertfordshire. Reputedly, this followed a mutual entanglement with one of the country house's maids.

Location: 94 Piccadilly, W1J 7BP (purple, turquoise)

Eldon House

The lawyer and politician the 1^st Earl of Eldon (1751-1838) resided in Bedford Square for a decade and a half. One day, the Prince Regent called upon the then baron. He was informed that the peer was ill and had taken to his bed. The prince strode into the house and started to search it systematically. Eventually, he came across the room where Eldon was lying prostrate in his sick-bed. The prince informed the baron that he wanted one of his friends to be appointed to a well-remunerated legal office, which was in the peer's gift since he then held the office of Lord Chancellor. Eldon stated categorically that he would do no such thing. The prince sat down upon the bed and made it very clear that he was going to stay there until what he wanted to be done had been done. The baron, his will having been sapped by his malady, relented and undertook to make the appointment.

Subsequently, with the passage of the years, the prince was to develop a deep respect of Eldon and affection for him.

Location: 6 Bedford Square, WC1B 3RA (red, brown)

Mr Feltham's

In 1884 the 4^th Marquis of Ailesbury married a dancer and barmaid; her manners were much better than his. In 1887 he was expelled from the Jockey Club and barred from it for life. He was declared a bankrupt in 1892 with debts of £345,462. Two years later he died in the Brixton home of his agent Mr Feltham. The marquis sold the Savernake estate in Wiltshire to Lord Iveagh for £750,000. Ailesbury's uncle and heir-presumptive challenged the transaction. The House of Lords refused to sanction the sale.

Location: 121 Leander Road, Brixton, SW2 2LJ

Website: www.savernakeestate.co.uk www.thejockeyclub.co.uk

25 Kensington Gore

25 Kensington Gore was built for the merchant banker Sir Samuel Montagu (1832-1911).

The Sassoons were Baghdadi Jews who built up a pan-Asian trading business. At the start of the 20^thC the family transferred their headquarters from Bombay to London. They acquired the house.

Location: 25 Kensington Gore, SW7 2ET (blue red)

Website: www.historichouses.org/house/25-kensington-gore

Lambeth Palace

Lambeth Palace is the London home of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Lollard's Tower is its oldest portion of the complex and dates from the mid-15^thC. The brick gatehouse (Morton's Tower) dates from the close of that century.

Location: 5 Lambeth Palace Road, SE1 7JU

Website: www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/lambeth-palace/about/inside-lambeth-palace

Lancaster House

Lancaster House acquired its present name early in the 20^thC. In 1807 Frederick Duke of York moved into what was then Godolphin House. A decade later, following the death of his niece Princess Charlotte, the duke became the heir-apparent to the throne. Both he and his elder brother King George IV were of the opinion that he should have a residence that was commensurate with his new status. In 1825 work upon a Benjamin Wyatt designed townhouse was begun.

In 1827 the duke died deeply in debt while the building work was still in progress. The government financially tidied up his estate and in 1842 sold the property to the immensely wealthy 1^st Duke of Sutherland, who had been one of York's principal creditors. The building became known as Stafford House, one of Sutherland's titles being the Marquisate of Stafford. As such, it became one of the principal venues of 19^thC aristocratic life in London; its brilliance glowed all the brighter because, under Queen Victoria, the court played a limited role in the capital's social life.

In 1913 a lease on the House was given to the nation by Sir William Lever, a soap magnate who was one of the founding fathers of what became Unilever. The house was renamed Lancaster House in honour of his native county of Lancashire.

After the Second World War, many of the constitutional conferences that were held prior to individual territories achieving independence from Britain took place in either Lancaster House or Marlborough House.

Location: Stable Yard Road, SW1A 1BB (orange, yellow)

Website: www.gov.uk/government/history/lancaster-house

Lindsey Houses

The Berties were Lincolnshire landowners who held the Earldom of Lindsey and the Dukedom of Ancaster. A number of the family's London townhouses have survived bearing the name Lindsey House .

Cheyne Walk

After Chelsea Old Church, Lindsey House is the oldest building in Chelsea. In the 1660s the family of Sir Theodore de Mayerne sold the riverside property to the 3^rd Earl of Lindsey. In the early 1670s the building was subjected to a remodelling that gave it its current front.

In 1750 Lindsey House was sold by the Bertie family to the Moravian religious community. In 1774 the building was acquired by developers. The property was divided into seven separate residences.

Location: 100 Cheyne Walk, SW10 0DQ (orange, brown)

Website: www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol4/pt2/pp35-41

Lincoln's Inn Fields

The Lindsey House (1640) in Lincoln's Inn Fields has been attributed to Inigo Jones. While there is no contemporary documentation that links the architect to the building, the property has his imprint and was regarded by the architectural profession as having been of his creation. It acquired the Lindsey moniker at the start of the 18^thC when the 4^th Earl of Lindsey took up residence there. He changed his title to become the 1^st Duke of Ancaster. The house did likewise although subsequently it reverted to Lindsey.

In the mid-18^thC the property was divided into two separate residences.

Location: 59-60 Lincoln's Inn Fields, WC2A 3LJ (blue, pink)

Website: www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol3/pt1/pp96-103

Lonsdale House

Hugh Lowther the 5^th Earl of Lonsdale (1857-1944) became known as the Yellow Earl because of love of the colour.

King Edward VII described him as being almost an emperor, not quite a gentleman . He died without issue, having run down much of the family's wealth. As a result, his successor auctioned off the contents of Lowther Castle in what was the largest country house sale of the 20^thC.

Location: 1 Kensington Gore, SW7 2AR

The Regent's Park Villas

Schomberg House

The 1^st Duke of Schomberg was a pan-European warlord. He served as King William III's second-in-command at the Battle of the Boyne (1690). Schomberg House (1698) was built for his younger son the 3^rd Duke.

Location: 80-82 Pall Mall, SW1Y 5ES (orange, orange)

Website: www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vols29-30/pt1/pp368-377

Spencer House

Spencer House is the former townhouse of the Spencer family. The building overlooks Green Park. The 1^st Baron Montfort commissioned the architect John Vardy to design a townhouse for him on a plot of land in St James s. The peer was an inveterate and ultimately unselective gambler, who had received his peerage through having paid money for it. Having ruined his estate, he committed suicide in 1755. The vacant site's lease was then bought by the 1^st Earl Spencer. The Spencer family stopped living in the building during the 1920s. In 1985 the 8^th Earl Spencer granted a 125-year-long lease on the building.

Location: 27 St James's Place, SW1A 1NR (orange, turquoise)

Website: https://spencerhouse.co.uk

The Spicer House

The Spicer House (1904) is a rare example of a townhouse in the Arts & Crafts style. It was designed by Frank W. Troup for a member of a family whose wealth came from wholesaling paper that had been manufactured by mechanised processes.

Location: 20 Old Queen Street, SW1H 9HP (red, purple)

An Urban Gentleman

Philip Metcalfe (1733-1818) started his business life in the wine trade. In 1759 he took a stake in Three Mills and over the years became the principal figure in the business. In 1780 he acquired control of the business. Four years later he was elected an M.P.. He was a supporter of Pitt the Younger's administration. He had an interest in prisons and as a result had dealings with Jeremy Bentham.

Metcalfe lived the life of a cultured urban gentlemen. The quality of his hospitality was much admired. Metcalfe was a friend of Samuel Johnson, although he and James Boswell appear to have shared a talent for irritating one another. He was one of the principal mourners at the lexicographer's funeral. He was a member of the committee that paid for the erection of the statue (1796) of Johnson that stands in St Paul's Cathedral. He was an art collector and became a close friend of the painter Sir Joshua Reynolds, ultimately acting as one of his executors. As such, he had to remind Catherine the Great of Russia that she owed the artist's estate money for the paintings that she had bought from it. He subscribed £200 towards the monument to Reynolds (1813) in the cathedral.

The organisations that he was a member of included the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce, the British Institution, the Society of Antiquaries, and the Society of Dilettanti. He moved in fashionable circles and was spent time participating in the social season in Brighton as one of the people who attended the Prince Regent's court. However, in 1806 he made an ill-judged remark. During a lavish dinner with the prince, one of the other guests commented to the M.P. about the sumptuousness of the occasion. The M.P. made the mistake of replying with the Spanish proverb, Luxury abounds, but who pays for it. The following day it became apparent that his remark had been relayed to the heir-apparent to the throne, who snubbed him. His fall from social grace proved to be permanent.

Metcalfe died in Brighton in 1817. He was estimated to be worth 400,000.

Location: 17 Savile Row, W1S 3PN. Metcalfe's townhouse. (red, turquoise)

30 Hill Street, W1J 5JW. Metcalfe's townhouse. (orange, brown)

David Backhouse 2024