Chapter 2

In Norfolk Street lived Lord William Russell, murdered by his valet in 1840; at 27 the Earl of Dunraven, 1895. In Upper Brook Street lived Lord George Gordon, b. 1750, and George Grenville; 3, Sir Lucas Pepys and the Countess of Rothes; 18, Hon. Mrs. Damer, sculptor, d. 1828; 27, "Single Speech" Hamilton, d. 1796; 18, Sir William Farrer, F.R.G.S.; 32, Marquis of Ormonde.

Upper Grosvenor Street contains Grosvenor House, the residence of the Duke of Westminster, a handsome building standing in a courtyard, with a garden at the back, skirting Park Lane as far as Mount Street. On its purchase in 1761 by the Duke of Gloucester, brother of George III., it was known as Gloucester House. The present screen and metal gates by Cundy were erected in 1842. The house contains a very fine collection of pictures.

In this street lived: No. 2, Lord Erskine; 11, Mr. Francis Hale Rigby, 1817; 16, the first Sir Robert Peel; 18, Lord Crewe, 1809.

Among present inhabitants are:

The Dowager Duchess of Northumberland; Dowager Countesses of Galloway and Wilton; Lord Templemore; Major-General Hon. H. F. Eaton; Prince Alexis Dolgorouki; Sir E. Chandos Leigh.

Balfour Place has been lately rebuilt, and was so named in 1892 instead of Portugal Street.

Mount Street (1740), called from the Fort of Oliver's Mount, was rebuilt with ornamental red-brick houses; it contains the Vestry Hall--now the Register Office for the district--built by Bolton in 1887, at a cost of £15,200, on the site of the old workhouse, now removed to the Fulham Road.

Inhabitants: Lady Mary Coke, 1810; Martin Van Butchell, d. 1810; Sir Henry Holland, 1816; No. 102, Madame d'Arblay, 1832; 111, on the site of an old manor-house, was in 1891 occupied by a college of Jesuit priests; 2, Sir Charles Hall, Q.C., M.P., d. 1900; 49, Earl of Selborne; 54, Lord Windsor; 105, Winston Churchill, M.P.; 113, Right Hon. Akers Douglas, M.P. In Carlos Place, so renamed in 1892 instead of Charles Street (1727), lives: No. 1, Sir George Chetwynd, Bt., 1896. Its prolongation, Duke Street, rebuilt in 1889 in red brick, dates from about 1770, and was named probably after the Duke of Cumberland. In that year a lying-in hospital stood in the street; opposite a small square is the King's Weigh House Congregational Chapel, a large building erected in 1891. Blocks of artisans' dwellings occupy the small streets round about.

In Gilbert Street are St George's, Hanover Square, District Schools, which replaced the old schools in South Molton Street. The building was erected in 1888 by Caroe on a site given by the Duke of Westminster, and cost £5,000. These schools were incorporated in 1818 with General Stewart's schools in South Street.

Davies Street is very narrow at its northern end, where it forms a prolongation of South Molton Lane, an old street known in 1708 as Shug Lane. It takes its name either from Miss Mary Davies, who is said to have lived in an old house still standing at the corner of Bourdon Street, or from Sir Thomas Davies, to whom Hugh Audley left his property. Here is the new church of St Anselm, built in Byzantine style, from designs by Balfour and Turner, at a cost of £20,000, and opened in February, 1896, to replace Hanover Chapel, Regent Street. At No. 8 are the Westminster Public Baths and Washhouses.

In Bourdon Street is St. Mary's Church, a chapel of ease to St. George's, built for £12,000 by the Duke of Westminster in 1881 to replace St. Mary's Church in Park Street. The building, from designs by Blomfield, is in medieval style. Adjoining is St. George's Workmen's Dwellings Association.

In Grosvenor Street (1726) lived: Countess of Hertford, 1740; Lord North, 1740; Sir Paul Methuen, 1740; Miss Vane, mistress of Frederick, Prince of Wales; Lord Crewe, 1784; Marquis Cornwallis, 1793-98; No. 13, William Sotheby; William Huskisson; at 16 was formerly the Royal Institution of British Architects; 17, Samuel Whitbread, 1800; 28, Sir Humphry Davy, 1818; 48, Earl St. Vincent, d. 1823; 72, Dr. Matthew Baillie, d. 1823; 6, Sir E. Ashmead Bartlett, M.P., d. 1902; 25, William Allingham, surgeon; 50, Earl Carrington; 59, Right Hon. James Lowther, M.P.; 72, Sir James Reid; and many others.

Brook Street was first called Little Brook Street, and afterwards Lower Brook Street. It takes its name from the Tyburn, which flowed down the course of South Molton Lane and Avery Row, by Bruton Mews to the bottom of Hay Hill, and through the gardens of Lansdowne House to Shepherd's Market. It then crossed Piccadilly at Engine Street, and flowed through the Green Park to Buckingham Palace.

In Brook Street is Claridge's (formerly Mivart's) Hotel. Here lived: No. 25 (now 72), Edmund Burke; Sir Henry Holland, 1820-73; 63, Sir William Jenner; 74, Sir William Gull; 57 (now 25), Handel, the composer; Lord Lake, d. 1808; Welbore Ellis, Lord Mendip, d. 1802; Mrs. Delany; 20, Gerald Vandergucht, engraver, and his son Benjamin Vandergucht, painter; Thomas Barker, painter; 25, Rev. Sydney Smith; 30, Sir Charles Bell, d. 1832; 34, Sir Thomas Troubridge, 1809; 63, Sir John Williams, physician; 66, Sir B. Savory, Bart.; 74, Lord Balcarres; 84, Sir William Broadbent, physician; 86, Lord Davey, P.C., F.R.S.

In South Molton Street, on the wall of No. 36, is an inscription: "This is South Molton Street, 1721." At No. 17 lived William Blake, poet and painter, in 1807. The St. George's Schools, at No. 53, were removed in 1889 to Gilbert Street, and the building sold for £2,500.

In Woodstock Street lived: Dr. Johnson, 1737; Prince Talleyrand, 1793; Dr. Parr, 1814. Running out of it are Sedley Place, so named in 1873 instead of Hanover Place, and Blenheim Street, up to 1760 called Pedley Street.

East of New Bond Street, Hanover Square, four acres in extent, was built as a fashionable place of residence in 1716-20. It was to have been called Oxford Square, but the name was changed in honour of the house of Hanover. A few of the old houses still remain, notably Nos. 17 and 23, but most of them have been rebuilt at various times, and are not in any way remarkable. The centre is enclosed and planted with trees, and at the southern end stands a bronze statue of Pitt by Chantrey, erected in 1831 at the cost of £7,000. The principal houses are: No. 3, the offices of the Zoological Society, established in 1826, and removed here in 1846; those of the Anthropological Society; 4, a large handsome building erected in 1774 by Sir George Gallini, and opened by him as the Hanover Square Concert and Ball Rooms. Here J. C. Bach, son of Sebastian Bach, gave concerts from 1785-93. The concerts of Ancient Music and those of the Philharmonic Society also took place here. In 1862 the rooms were redecorated and styled the Queen's Concert Rooms, but were in 1875 disposed of to the Hanover Square Club, established in that year.

No. 10 was formerly the Brunswick Hotel, but has been rebuilt as chambers.

No. 12, formerly the offices of the Royal Agricultural Society, now those of the Shire Horse Society and Kindred Associations.

No. 13, Harewood House, was built by W. Adam for the Duke of Roxburghe, and purchased in 1795 by Lord Harewood, in whose family it remained until 1894, when it was sold to the Royal Agricultural Society, established in 1838 for the improvement of agriculture.

No. 15 now forms part of the Orthopædic Hospital in Oxford Street.

No. 16 in 1845 was occupied by the Royal College of Chemistry, established in that year, and afterwards removed first to Oxford Street, and in 1835 to the School of Mines, Jermyn Street.

In No. 17 Mrs. Jordan is said to have lived under the protection of the Duke of Clarence, afterwards William IV. In 1864 it became the home of the Arts Club, established in that year for persons interested in art, literature, or science. The house contains a fine painted ceiling by Angelica Kaufmann, and some marble mantelpieces of Italian workmanship, but is soon to be demolished.

No. 18 is the Oriental Club, founded in 1824 by Sir John Malcolm for persons who have resided or travelled in the East. The present house, on the site of one occupied by Lord Le Despenser 1771-81, was built in 1827 by the Wyatts, and contains some good portraits of Lord Clive and other distinguished Anglo-Indians.

No. 20 is the offices of the Royal Medical, Pathological, and Clinical Societies, established 1867.

No. 21 was the site of Downshire House from 1793. It was before that date the property of the Earl of Hillsborough. Here, in 1835, lived Talleyrand, then French Ambassador; after him, Earl Grey. It has been rebuilt, and is now a bank, above which is the New County Club, located here in 1894.

No. 32 was the home of the Naval and Military Club from 1863-65.

At No. 23 lived Lord Palmerston, father of the Premier, in 1806, and the Duchess of Brunswick, daughter of Frederick, Prince of Wales, d. 1813.

Other inhabitants: the present No. 20, Field-Marshal Viscount Cobham, 1736-48; George Granville, Lord Lansdowne, d. 1735; Ambrose Phillips, poet, d. 1749. At the present No. 10: Admiral Lord Rodney, 1792-96; Admiral Lord Anson, 1762; "Single Speech" Hamilton, 1765; Percival Pott, surgeon, 1777-88; Thomas Campbell, poet; Sir James Clark, physician, 1841.

The streets round Hanover Square are mainly broad, well built, and lined with shops. Hanover Street and Princes Street were built about 1736. In the latter Sir John Malcolm died in 1833. Swallow Place and Passage recall Swallow Street, which was cleared away to make Regent Street in 1820.

In Regent Street stood, until recently, Hanover Chapel, with two towers, designed by C. R. Cockerell, and built in 1824 at a cost of £16,180. The Ionic portico was imitated from that of Minerva Polias at Priene. In the interior was a painting of "Christ's Agony in the Garden," by Northcote, presented 1828 by the British Institution.

Harewood Place was closed at its northern end by gates until 1893, when all gates and private bars were removed throughout the district. In Tenterden Street, No. 4 in 1776 became the residence of the Herberts, Earls of Carnarvon, who still own the property. It, with Nos. 5 and 6, is now occupied by the Royal Academy of music, founded in 1822 by the Earl of Westmoreland. Among eminent pupils have been Sterndale Bennett, Sir G. A. Macfarren, Sir J. Barnby, Mackenzie, Sir A. Sullivan, and Goring Thomas. At the end of Tenterden Street is Dering Street, so called in 1886 instead of Union Street.

At the southern end of the Square George Street was built about 1719, and at first named Great George Street, in honour of George I. It is wide at the Square end, but grows narrower till Maddox Street is reached. Its chief feature is the Parish Church of St. George, designed by John James, begun in 1713 and consecrated in 1724, one of Queen Anne's fifty churches. The style is Classical, the body plain, but having a Corinthian portico of good proportions, and a clock-tower 100 feet high. The interior contains a good Jesse window put in in 1841. In 1895 the building was redecorated, repaired, and reseated, and the old organ by Snitzler, put up in 1761, was replaced by a Hope Jones electric instrument. This church has been long celebrated for fashionable marriages. Among those in the register are:

1769. The Duke of Kingston to Miss Chudleigh, she being already married to Mr. Harvey, afterwards Earl of Bristol. She was afterwards tried and convicted of bigamy.

1771. Richard Cosway, R.A., to Maria Hatfield.

1793. H.R.H. the Duke of Sussex to Lady Augusta Murray. The marriage was declared void under the Royal Marriage Act.

1791. Sir William Hamilton to Emma Harte (Nelson's Lady Hamilton).

1797. The Earl of Derby to Miss Farren. The ceremony took place in Grosvenor Square.

1849. Mr. Heath to Lola Montes.

1880. Mr. J. W. Cross to George Eliot.

Among the Rectors of St. George's were Charles Moss, D.D., 1759-74, afterwards Bishop of Bath and Wells; and Henry Courtenay, 1774-1803, made Bishop of Exeter in 1795.

At the bottom of George Street is Limmer's Hotel, formerly a noted resort of sporting men, rebuilt and enlarged in 1876. No. 25 is a handsome stone-fronted mansion, built in 1864 for Earl Temple. In 1895 it was in possession of the Duchess of Buckinghamshire. In a house on the same site lived John Copley, the painter, and his son, Lord Lyndhurst, d. 1863.

Other inhabitants: No. 3, Madame de Staël; 7, Admiral Sir Edward Hawke; 8, David Mallet, poet, 1758-63; Sir William Beechey, R.A.; Sir Thomas Phillips, R.A., d. 1845; 9, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, 1803; 13, Lord Chancellor Cowper, 1723; 15, Sir George Wombwell, afterwards for a short time the Junior Travellers' Club; Earl of Albemarle, 1726; Lord Stair, 1726; Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, d. 1762; Sir Thomas Clarges, 1726; Colonel Francis Charteris, 1729; Lord Shelburne, 1748.

Maddox Street was built by the Earl of Burlington in 1721, and named after Sir Benjamin Maddox, the ground landlord (d. 1670). It contains a museum of building appliances established in 1866 in connection with the Institute of British Architects. Mill Street is so called from a mill which stood near the corner of Hanover Square; near it is Pollen Street; both are unimportant. Conduit Street, completed about 1713, is so called from the city conduit which carried water from the Tyburn to Cheapside. It was built for private residences, which have now been transformed into shops. On the south side, where is now a tailor's, stood, until 1877, Trinity Chapel, a plain, red-brick building built by Archbishop Tenison, in 1716, to replace the old wooden chapel which James II. had originally set up on Hounslow Heath, but which was brought to, and left at the top of, Old Bond Street about 1691. Four-fifths of the income derived from the three houses on this site are devoted to the maintenance of the district churches in the parish, the remainder going to the parish of St. Martin's. The share of St. George's parish now amounts to a capital sum of £5,075, and an income of £1,600.

At No. 9, once the town house of the Earls of Macclesfield, are the offices of the Royal Institute of British Architects, established 1835, and other kindred societies.

At the Princess of Wales' Tavern, now demolished, David Williams started the Royal Literary Fund in 1772.

In this street lived: Duke of Wharton, 1725; Charles James Fox, b. here 1749; Boswell, 1772; Wilberforce, 1786; Delmé Radcliffe, d. 1832; Balfe, composer; No. 36, Sir William Farquhar, physician to William Pitt; 37, George Canning, 1802-03, after him Dr. Elliotson (the house has since been rebuilt); 39, Sir Astley Cooper, surgeon, d. 1841.

Old and New Bond Street form a continuous thoroughfare, in which are situated some of the most fashionable shops in London. Though somewhat narrow, and architecturally uninteresting, it has always been a favourite society promenade, and when first built was "inhabited by the nobility and gentry" (Hatton). New Bond Street dates from about 1716, and occupies part of the site of Conduit Mead (twenty-seven acres), the property of the City of London. Of the houses the following are interesting:

No. 135, the Grosvenor Gallery, the chief of the many picture-galleries in Bond Street. The house was erected in 1877 for Sir Coutts Lindsey, Bart., and contains a lending library and until recently the Grosvenor Club (proprietary, social and non-political). The doorway, by Palladio, was brought from Venice, and the front is by Soames.

Nos. 15 and 16 are Long's Hotel, much frequented by Sir Walter Scott; it was rebuilt and enlarged in 1888.

At No. 18, now a jeweller's, was Steven's Hotel, fashionable during the Regency, and afterwards a haunt of Lord Byron's.

At No. 169, on the west side, was the Clarendon Hotel, formerly the town house of the Dukes of Grafton, and afterwards the residence, about 1741, of the elder Pitt. The hotel was closed in 1877, and replaced by a row of shops.

Inhabitants: Swift, 1727; Mrs. Delany, 1731; Lords Craven, Abergavenny, and Coventry, 1732; George Selwyn, 1751; Dr. Johnson, 1767; Thomson, the poet; No. 141, Lord Nelson, 1797; 146, Sir Thomas Picton, 1797-1800; 147, Mrs. and Miss Gunning, 1792; 148, Lord Camelford, 1803-04; 150, Lady Hamilton, 1813.

Old Bond Street, and the adjoining Stafford Street, Albemarle and Dover Streets, occupy the site of old Clarendon House, the grounds of which covered nearly 30 acres, granted to Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, by Charles II. The house, described by Evelyn as a noble pile, was erected in 1664, and after being leased, in 1670, to the Duke of Ormonde, was sold in 1675 to the second Duke of Albemarle, who parted with it to Sir Thomas Bond for £20,000. The latter, in 1686, built Bond Street, the west side of which was first called Albemarle Buildings. Residents: 1708, Lords Coningsby, Abingdon, and Anglesea; 1725, the Duke of St. Albans, Countess of Gainsborough; 1741, Duke of Kingston; 1753, Countess of Macclesfield; at the present No. 41, in 1768, died Laurence Sterne; Pascal Paoli, 1761; Boswell, 1769; No. 24, 1791, Sir Thomas Lawrence, R.A., afterwards the offices of the Artists' Benevolent Institution, founded 1814, the Artists' Orphan Fund, and the Arundel Society for promoting the knowledge of Art, established 1848. These have now been removed.

Halfway down on the west side is the Royal Arcade, a short passage leading to Albemarle Street, containing shops, with a handsome entrance at each end. It was opened in 1883.

In 1820, on the east side, stood another arcade, communicating with the Burlington Arcade, and named the Western Exchange. It failed, and was closed.

In Stafford Street a stone let into the wall of a public-house had the inscription: "This is Stafford Street, 1686." At the corner of Albemarle Street, in 1852, was the Stafford Street Club, formed by Roman Catholics.

Albemarle Street, Grafton Street, and Dover Street contain handsome houses, the residences still of many of the aristocracy. The former was built in 1684-1708 by Sir Thomas Bond, and named after the Duke of Albemarle. Its chief houses are: No. 21, the Royal Institution, established by Count Rumford in 1799, for "diffusing the Knowledge and facilitating the general introduction of useful mechanical inventions and improvements," etc.; has a stone front, with a row of half engaged Corinthian columns, designed by Louis Vulliamy, and erected in 1837. It contains a lecture-theatre, reading-room, and library of 50,000 volumes. Members are elected by ballot, and courses of lectures are delivered on science, philosophy, literature and art. Eminent men connected with the Institution: Faraday, 1830; Murchison, Lyell, Sedgewick, Whewell, Tyndall, Huxley, Lord Rayleigh, Professor Dewar. The President of the Society is the Duke of Northumberland.

Opposite is St. George's (proprietary) Chapel, a plain building, celebrated for its musical services.

No. 7 is the Royal Thames Yacht Club, instituted in 1823 for the encouragement of yacht building and sailing on the river Thames. It was formerly Grillion's Hotel. Here Louis XVIII. lodged in 1814, and Grillion's Club, formed 1813, had its meetings. The Roxburghe Club dinners also took place here.

No. 13 is the Albemarle Club, established in 1875, admits both sexes as members. Messrs. R. and J. Adam lived here in 1792, and the house was afterwards the Pulteney Hotel.

No. 22 is the office of the Royal Asiatic Society, founded in 1823, the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1831), the London Mathematical Society (1865), etc.

No. 23 was in 1808 the Alfred Club, which was succeeded by the Westminster Club, which shortly failed.

No. 41, the Amphitryon Club, was established 1870; it was celebrated for the excellence of its cuisine, and the high scale of its charges.

No. 43, the Junior Conservative Club, was established in 1889.

No. 50, the publishing house of John Murray, was removed here in 1812. His private house next door was, between 1812 and 1824, the resort of Byron and other literary celebrities.

The noted opposition club, the Coterie, formed in 1763, also met in this street.

Other inhabitants: Lords Portmore, Poulet, and Orkney, 1708; Duke of Rutland, Viscount St. John, 1725-41; Marquis of Granby, 1760; Lord Bute, 1764; Zoffany, artist, 1780; C. J. Fox; Richard Glover, 1785; Byron, 1807; No. 26, Sir James Mackintosh, 1811; 41, Hon. Hedworth Lambton; 41a, Earl of Sandwich.

Grafton Street was named after the Duke of Grafton, who, with Lord Grantham, bought the site in 1735. It was first called Ducking Pond Row, and in 1767 Evans Row.

No. 4, the New Club (proprietary), social and non-political, was established with a view to providing a club conducted with economy in administration. Here lived Lord Brougham (1849) till his death. The Turf Club afterwards occupied it until 1877.

No. 7 is the Grafton Galleries, where periodical exhibitions of pictures are held.

No. 10 is the Green Park Club for ladies, established in 1894, and removed here in 1896.

Other inhabitants: C. J. Fox, 1783; No. 24, Mrs. FitzHerbert, 1796; 11, Admiral Earl Howe, d. 1799; his daughter, the Marchioness of Sligo, and her husband; Lord Stowell, after 1813; 16, Lord Stowell up to 1813; Marquis Cornwallis, 1801; 20, Right Hon. George Tierney, 1809; 11, Sir Dyce Duckworth; 24, Viscount Cranborne, C.B., M.P.; 23, Oswald Partington, M.P.

Dover Street, built in 1686, was called after Henry Jermyn, Earl of Dover, who died here 1708.

At the top of Hay Hill was Ashburnham House (Earl of Ashburnham), a plain square building in a courtyard. It was occupied by the Russian Embassy in 1851. Now Nos. 28 and 29 are the premises of the Sesame Club for ladies.

No. 37, a stone-fronted house, is the town house of the Bishops of Ely, built in 1772, and granted by Government in exchange for Ely Place.

No. 34, the Bath Club, opened 1895, contains swimming and other baths for both sexes, gymnasium, etc. It has also an entrance in Berkeley Street.

No. 35, the Empress Club for ladies, is on a scale of great magnificence.

No. 36 was the Hogarth Club for gentlemen associated with the arts, founded as the Artists' Club at the Turk's Head, Gerrard Street; removed here from Henrietta Street, Cavendish Square, in 1888.

The Literary Club met in 1785 at Le Telier's in this street.

Other inhabitants: John Evelyn, 1699-1706; Marquis of Wharton; Harley, Earl of Oxford; Dr. Arbuthnot, 1714-21; Pope, 1729; Bolingbroke, 1730; Sir William Wyndham, 1731; Archdeacon Coxe, b. 1741; No. 23, Lady Byron, 1841; 29, John Nash, Architect; 35, Samuel Whitbread, M.P., d. 1815; 33, Earl of Mexborough, 1895.

The steep descent of Hay Hill was so called from a farm in the neighbourhood, which, perhaps, took its name from Tyburn (the "Ayburn," the "Eia Burn"), which flowed at the foot. Here in 1554 Sir Thomas Wyatt's head was exposed, and three of his companions hung in chains. In 1617 Hay Hill was granted to Hector Johnstone for services to the Elector Palatine. By Queen Anne it was granted to the Speaker of the House of Commons, who sold it for £200 and gave the proceeds to the poor. It afterwards came into the hands of the Pomfret family, and was sold prior to 1759 for £20,300.