Mayfair, Belgravia, and Bayswater Part 4

Stratton Street, a cul-de-sac, was built about 1693 by Lady Stratton. At No. 1 lived Mrs. Coutts (Miss Mellon), afterwards d.u.c.h.ess of St. Albans, d. 1837. It now belongs to her heir, the Baroness Burdett-Coutts.

Other inhabitants: Lord Willoughby, of Brook, 1698; Hon. George Berkeley, 1735; No. 2, Thomas Campbell, 1802; 7, William Gifford, 1797, Right Hon. Arnold Morley; 11, Roger Wilbraham, 1822-29, Lord Welby; 12, General Lord Lynedoch, d. 1803; 17, Earl of Clonmell.

At No. 80, Piccadilly, Sir Francis Burdett was arrested for treason in 1810, when he was imprisoned in the Tower. He was succeeded by the Duke of St. Albans. In 1849 Lady Guilford occupied the house.

At No. 81 in 1807 was established Watier's Gambling Club, which lasted until 1819; it was named after the Prince Regent's cook, the manager. It afterwards became a public gaming-house, and is now a private residence.

No. 82, Bath House, at the corner of Bolton Street, was built for Pulteney, Earl of Bath, who died 1764. The gardens then extended nearly to Curzon Street. It was rebuilt in 1821 for Lord Ashburton.

At No. 89, the east corner of Half-Moon Street, lived Madame d'Arblay.

At No. 94, Cambridge House (Naval and Military Club), standing in a courtyard, occupies the site of Carpenter's Statue Yard, which was succeeded by an inn. It was built in 1760 for the Earl of Egremont. The Marquis of Cholmondeley lived here 1809-29, after which the Duke of Cambridge was the owner until 1850. Lord Palmerston occupied it from 1855 till his death in 1865, when it was purchased by the Naval and Military Club, established 1862, for officers of the army and navy, who made extensive alterations in 1878. This was the first club located in Piccadilly.

No. 97, at the corner of Whitehorse Street, is a square white building; the New Travellers' Club (social and non-political) was established here. It now houses the Junior Naval and Military Club.

No. 100 is the Badminton Club (proprietary), built on the site of a mews, and established in 1876 for gentlemen interested in coaching and field sports. Next door is the palatial house of the Junior Const.i.tutional Club for members professing Conservative principles. On the site stood the town house of the Earls of Mexborough.

No. 105, on the site of Jan Van Nost's figure-yard, the Earl of Barrymore built a house in 1870, which remained unfinished at his death.

After being partially burned down, it was completed and opened as the Old Pulteney Hotel. Here the Emperor of Russia and his sister, the Grand d.u.c.h.ess of Oldenburg, stayed in 1814. In 1823 the house came into the possession of the Marquis of Hertford, who partially rebuilt it in 1861.

His son, Sir Richard Wallace, sold it to Sir Julian Goldsmid, M.P., who died 1896. It is now the Isthmian Club. Near here stood the Queen's Meadhouse.

No. 106, at the corner of Brick Street, stands on the site of the Greyhound Inn, which was purchased by Sir Henry Hunlocke in 1761. He was succeeded in 1764 by the Earl of Coventry, who built the present house, which became in 1829 the Coventry House Club. In 1854 it became the home of the St. James's Club, established in that year as a centre for the members of the British and foreign diplomatic bodies. Next door is the Savile Club, until 1836 the residence of Nathan Meyer Rothschild, the head of the banking firm.

No. 116, Hope House, at the corner of Down Street, a handsome structure, was built by Mr. Hope in 1849 at a cost of 30,600, and was sold by his widow to the members of the Junior Athenaeum Club (social and non-political), established in 1866, which is now located there. The house was enlarged in 1887.

The private houses west of Down Street were built about 1873.

Two handsome houses, Nos. 127 and 128, were built about 1887. The first is the Cavalry Club, established in 1890 for officers of the cavalry and Yeomanry, and the second the Hyde Park Club.

No. 137, Gloucester House, stands on the site of d.i.c.kinson's Statue Yard. It belonged to the Earl of Elgin in 1808, from whom it was purchased in 1811 by the Duke of Gloucester on his marriage with Princess Mary. He was succeeded by the present owner, the Duke of Cambridge.

Other inhabitants of Piccadilly were: No. 96 (No. 15 Piccadilly west), Mr. Dumergue, with whom Sir Walter Scott resided in 1800; 99 (then 23), Sir William Hamilton, d. 1803; next door, Sir Thomas Lawrence; 114, Lord Palmerston, before 1855; 133, Kitty Frederick, mistress of the Duke of Queensberry, who built the house 1779; 139 (13, Piccadilly Terrace), Lord Byron, 1815; 138 and 139, the Duke of Queensberry, 1778-1810.

Hamilton Place is a short but broad street, lined on the west with large and fashionable houses. The ground, then part of Hyde Park, was granted to Hamilton, Ranger of Hyde Park, 1660-84, who built a street of small houses, named Hamilton Street, a cul-de-sac. This was replaced in 1809 by a street built by the Adams. In 1871, to relieve the congestion of the traffic, the roadway was carried through the Park Lane.

Inhabitants: No. 1, Lord Montgomery, 1810 (Lord Chancellor Eldon built the present house); 2, Duke of Bedford, 1810-19, Earl Gower (Duke of Sutherland), Right Hon. Thomas Grenville, 1840-46, Duke of Argyle, 1847-51; 3, Earl of Cork, 1810-50, Earl of Dalkeith, 1870; 4, Earl of Lucan, 1810, Duke of Wellington, 1814, Lord Grenville, 1822, Messrs.

Labouchere, 1823-29, Henry Bevan, 1840-48, Earl of Northbrook, 1895; 5, Earl of Buckinghamshire, 1810-25, Marquis of Conyngham, 1870, Baron Leopold de Rothschild, 1895; 6, Right Hon. John Sullivan, 1810, Earl of Belmore, Lord Montagu, 1829, Earl of Home, 1843, Lord Southampton, 1847, W. Munro, 1848, Hon. B. J. Munro, 1870; 7, Earl of Shannon, 1810-22, William Miles, M.P., 1840-50. Nos. 7 and 8 are now the premises of the Bachelors' Club, established 1881, one of the most fashionable young men's clubs in London.

The s.p.a.ce between Hamilton Place and Apsley House is now occupied by six large houses.

It was up to the middle of last century a row of mean buildings, many of them public-houses. Next to Apsley House stood, up to 1797, a noted inn, the Pillars of Hercules. In 1787 M. de Calonne built a mansion on the site now occupied by Nos. 146 and 147.

Inhabitants: No. 142, Miss Alice de Rothschild, heiress of the late Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild; 145 was formerly Northampton House; 148, Nathaniel Meyer, first Baron Rothschild, G.C.V.O., P.C.

Apsley House was built in 1778 by Lord Chancellor Apsley, Earl Bathurst, to whom the site was granted by George III. The ground was formerly occupied by the old Ranger's Lodge, and adjoining it was a tenement granted by George II. to Allen, a veteran of Dettingen, for a permanent apple-stall. In 1808 the house came into the possession of the Marquis Wellesley, and in 1816 into that of his brother, the Duke of Wellington, and it is now held by the fourth Duke.

It was faced with stone, and enlarged by the Wyatts in 1828, and in 1830 the Crown sold its interest in the building for 9,530. Further alterations were made in 1853. In the west gallery was held annually the Waterloo Banquet during the great Duke's life, and his study is still preserved intact. The house contains a good collection of pictures and many relics of the Napoleonic era.

Hyde Park Corner was the entrance to London until 1825, when the turnpike was removed. Cottages existed here in 1655. It is now an open triangular s.p.a.ce, much enlarged when a portion of Green Park was thrown into the roadway in 1888. In the centre, about 1828, was erected a triumphal arch, an imitation of the arch of t.i.tus at Rome. This, in 1846, was surmounted by a colossal equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington by Matthew Wyatt, which, in 1888, was removed to Aldershot, and the arch shifted to the top of Const.i.tution Hill. The vacant s.p.a.ce is now occupied by an equestrian statue of Wellington by Boehm.

In 1642 one of the forts for the defence of London against the Royalists was erected on the ground opposite the present Apsley House.

The prolongation of Piccadilly to the westward is known generally as Knightsbridge, as far as the stone bridge which spanned the Westbourne at the present Albert Gate. Edward the Confessor granted the land to the Abbey of Westminster, and it was disafforested in 1218. After the Reformation Knightsbridge was preserved to the Abbey, and still belongs to the Dean and Chapter of Westminster. In 1725 the name was applied to the fields as far south as the King's Road (Eaton Square), but after the building of Belgravia it was restricted to the street fronting Hyde Park. Facing Hyde Park Corner is St. George's Hospital, established in 1733; the residence of the Earls of Lanesborough previously occupied the site. The present building was erected from designs by William Wilkins, R.A., in 1828, and enlarged in 1831, 1859, and 1868. In the latter year the south-west wing was added. The question of the removal of the hospital is exciting much attention at present. In connection with the hospital is Atkinson Morley's Convalescent Hospital at Wimbledon. The following celebrated doctors have been attached to this hospital: Matthew Baillie, 1787-1800; John Hunter, 1768-93; Sir Benjamin Brodie, 1808-40; Sir Prescott Hewett, 1848-91.

Facing Hyde Park a row of well-built private houses now forms St.

George's Place (1839), which, until lately, consisted of low brick buildings. One of these is now being pulled down to make way for the station of the new Piccadilly and Brompton Electric Railway. Close by is the Alexandra Hotel, built soon after the marriage of the present Queen, after whom it was named. Behind is Old Barrack Yard, which adjoined the old Guards Barracks, established about 1758. After being discontinued for troops, it was used as a depot until 1836, when the lease was sold and the building let out as tenements. The site is now occupied by St.

Paul's Schools in Wilton Place. The houses beyond Wilton Place are being rebuilt further back to widen the roadway, which has. .h.i.therto been very narrow, and which during the afternoon in the season is often blocked by the traffic.

Inhabitants: Dr. Parr; No. 14, Liston, actor, d. 1846.

Park Side, the north side of Knightsbridge, is freehold of the Dean and Chapter, and rented by the descendants of Mr. Gamble of Trinity Chapel.

Shops were erected here about 1810. At the east end stood the stocks in 1805, and in 1835, close by, a watch-house and pound. The Queen's Head, an old inn dating from 1576, was pulled down in 1843. Trinity Chapel belonged to an ancient lazar-house or hospital, held by the family of Gla.s.sington under the Abbey of Westminster in 1595. The chapel was rebuilt in 1629 and 1699, and repaired in 1789. It was entirely restored and remodelled in 1861 at a cost of 3,300. A charity school, inst.i.tuted about 1785, adjoined it until 1844, when it was removed and attached to St. Paul's. In Knightsbridge Chapel marriages were performed without banns or license in a manner similar to those at Mayfair Chapel.

The most celebrated of these are: Sir Robert Walpole to Katherine Shorter, 1700; Henry Graham to the Countess of Derwent.w.a.ter, daughter of Charles II., 1705.

West of the chapel on the site of the hospital stood the Cannon Brewery, erected in 1804, and demolished in 1841 to make Albert Gate. The French Emba.s.sy, east of the gate, was built by Cubitt in 1852 for Hudson, the Railway King, and has lately been enlarged. The stone bridge was removed, and the stream arched over in 1841.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MAYFAIR DISTRICT.

Published by A. & C. Black, London.]

In 1765 George II. attempted to buy the fields adjoining Buckingham Palace to the west, but as Granville refused to sanction the expenditure of 20,000 for the purpose, the property was bought by Lord Grosvenor for 30,000, and Grosvenor Place was built in 1767-70, overlooking the Palace gardens. It has always been a fashionable place of residence. The houses below St. George's Hospital were formerly small and plain. The best-known inhabitants were: No. 1, Dr. Lewes' School of Anatomy and Medicine; 4, Lord Egremont (the third); north corner of Halkin Street, the Earl of Carlisle, Byron's guardian.

These houses were replaced in 1873-76 by five palatial stone houses built for the Duke of Grafton, Duke of Northumberland, Sir Anthony Rothschild, and Earl Stanhope.

They are occupied now by: No. 1, the Wellington Club (proprietary), social and non-political; 2, Duke of Northumberland; 4 and 5, Lord Iveagh.

At the south corner of Chapel Street stood the Lock Hospital, established in 1747, attached to which was a chapel, built 1764, and an asylum for penitent females, founded by the Rev. Thomas Scott in 1787.

The chapel was celebrated for its preachers, which included Martin Madan, Thomas Scott, C. E. de Coetlogon, Dr. Dodd, Rowland Hill, etc.

The buildings, of red brick, and very plain, were pulled down in 1846, and the inst.i.tution removed to Harrow Road. On the site were built Grosvenor Place Houses, renamed 18, 19, 20, Grosvenor Place in 1875. At No. 20 now lives Earl Stanhope.

In Grosvenor Row, at the south end of Grosvenor Place, stood a court named Osnaburgh Row (1769), after the Duke of York, who was also Bishop of Osnaburgh. It was cleared away about 1843. Near it stood the Duke's Hospital for Invalid Guards, closed in 1846 and removed 1851. Adjoining it was an old inn, the Feathers.

Other inhabitants: No. 6, Sir H. Campbell Bannerman; 15, Duke of Atholl, 1773; 44, Hanoverian Emba.s.sy, 1859 (the King of Hanover stayed here in 1853); 24, Bishop of Worcester, 1859; 46, Sir James Graham, 1868; 19, Sir Anthony Rothschild, 1859; 20, Earl Stanhope; 31, Earl Cathcart.

The district bounded by Knightsbridge and Grosvenor Place, as far as Sloane Street and Ebury Street, is known as Belgravia, after Belgrave Square, which occupies the centre. Up to 1825 it was named the Five Fields, and was bare, swampy ground on which were a few market gardens.

Only one road, the King's Road (Eaton Square), crossed it, though there were numerous footpaths, rendered insecure by the highwaymen and footpads who infested them. It was also a favourite duelling-ground. In 1826 a special Act of Parliament empowered the owner, Lord Grosvenor, to drain the site, raise the level, etc., and in the course of the next few years Messrs. Cubitt and Seth Smith built the streets and squares which now rank as a fashionable centre with the neighbourhood of Grosvenor Square. The houses are mainly uniform in type--square, substantial, plaster-fronted structures, which give an aspect of monotony to the whole district.

Belgrave Square, 10 acres in extent, is 684 feet long by 637 feet wide, and was designed by Basevi and built by Cubitt in 1825-28. The detached houses in the corners are by Philip Hardwick, R.A., and H. E. Kendall (west side). An enclosed garden occupies the centre.

Inhabitants: No. 5, General Sir George Murray, d. 1846, Earl of Shaftesbury, d. 1886; 15, Duke of Bedford; 16, Sir Roderick Murchison, geologist, d. 1871; 12 (western corner house), the late Earl Brownlow, Earl of Ancaster; 18, Austro-Hungarian Emba.s.sy; 23, Viscountess Hambledon, widow of Right Hon. W. H. Smith; 32, Admiral Earl of Clanwilliam.

The south corner house was built for Mr. Kemp of Kemptown. No. 24 General Lord Hill occupied in 1837. After his death, Lord Ducie occupied it till 1853; 36, H.R.H. d.u.c.h.ess of Kent, 1840; 37, Earl of Sefton, 1896; 45, d.u.c.h.ess of Montrose, d. 1895; 48, Viscount Combermere, d.

1891; 49 was built in 1850 for Mr. Sidney Herbert, Duke of Richmond and Gordon; Earl of March.

The princ.i.p.al approach to Belgrave Square is by Grosvenor Crescent, a broad and handsome street commenced in 1837, but not completed until about 1860. Where is now the south-west wing of St. George's Hospital stood Tattersall's famous auction mart for horses, etc., and betting-rooms. The establishment was started by Richard Tattersall, trainer to the last Duke of Kingston, about 1774, and was long popularly known as "the Corner." It was pulled down in 1866, and removed to Knightsbridge Green.

Inhabitants: No. 5, Lord Ashbourne; 8, Right Hon. Sir George Trevelyan, Bart., M.P.; 11, Duke of Leeds; 14, C. Bulkeley Barrington, M.P.; 15, Grosvenor Crescent Club for Ladies. Behind the north-west side of the Square is Wilton Crescent, with a garden in the centre, and Wilton Place, both built by Seth Smith between 1824 and 1828.

Inhabitants, Wilton Crescent: No. 16, Right Hon. James Lowther, M.P.; 24, Henry Hallam, d. 1859; 20, Sir George Wombwell, Bart.; 26, Lord Lamington; 28, Lord De Ros; 30, Lord John Russell; 37, Lord Chewton, who was killed at the Battle of the Alma; 39, Rev. W. J. Bennett, 1850.