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Lansdowne House
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Lansdowne House
Lansdowne House, now 9 Fitzmaurice Place, is the remaining part of an aristocratic English town house to the south of Berkeley Square in the city of Westminster, England.
The initial name was for two decades Shelburne House, before it was changed to match its owner's elevation to a higher peerage, Marquess of Lansdowne, in 1784. In the 19th century, the house was frequently let, as a whole, to men of high wealth or income, such as Lord Rosebery of Mentmore Towers from 1878 to 1890. Some of its 18th-century interiors, among the best in England, were removed and taken elsewhere. It was at different times leased by three 19th century British prime ministers, by William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount Astor of Cliveden House, widely believed to be the richest man in America at the time of his tenancy (1891–1893), and also by Harry Gordon Selfridge in the 1920s. In 1929, two years after the death of the 5th Marquess of Lansdowne, a prominent government frontbencher, his heir sold the property.
The local authority had built an approach road in 1931 which saw the loss of approximately half of the rooms of its greater wing; it is today one of two buildings which open onto Fitzmaurice Place but is known as 9 Fitzmaurice Place. The surviving house was given Grade II* Listed Building status in 1970. The house was also the inspiration for Bingham House in Montreal, built by Lord Shelburne's great friend William Bingham in 1821, who was then the wealthiest man in North America and an associate of Alexander Hamilton.
Notable guests have included Benjamin Franklin, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, and the Comte de Mirabeau, among others.
The building now houses the Lansdowne Club of Mayfair. It co-serves as an address of Fitzmaurice House Ltd, the International Wine and Food Society which may meet here and The Junior League of London.
It was designed by Robert Adam as a house for John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute but in 1763 he sold it (one year into its building) to William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne (both men became Prime Minister); the structure was finished in 1768. Adam commissioned the local sculptor Thomas Carter the Younger to carve the chimney-pieces of his design. Shelburne retained Adam until 1771, when his wife died, with parts of the decoration still incomplete. George Dance the Younger (in the 1790s of George III's reign) and Robert Smirke (at the end of his associated Regency) worked on the house.
From 1763 to 1929, it belonged to the seniormost branch of the Petty-FitzMaurice family, elevated from 1784 to a high peerage, as Marquesses of Lansdowne. In 1931, the house, in compensation seeing its extension built to the south-west, saw half of its greater original wing, the east wing, demolished to allow the street Fitzmaurice Place to be built. Since 1935, the residue accommodates the Lansdowne Club.
Winston Churchill commented that in Victorian and Edwardian London, "glittering parties at Lansdowne House, Devonshire House or Stafford House (Lancaster House) comprised all the elements which made a gay and splendid social circle in close relation to the business of Parliament, the hierarchies of the Army and Navy, and the policy of the State".
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Lansdowne House
Lansdowne House, now 9 Fitzmaurice Place, is the remaining part of an aristocratic English town house to the south of Berkeley Square in the city of Westminster, England.
The initial name was for two decades Shelburne House, before it was changed to match its owner's elevation to a higher peerage, Marquess of Lansdowne, in 1784. In the 19th century, the house was frequently let, as a whole, to men of high wealth or income, such as Lord Rosebery of Mentmore Towers from 1878 to 1890. Some of its 18th-century interiors, among the best in England, were removed and taken elsewhere. It was at different times leased by three 19th century British prime ministers, by William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount Astor of Cliveden House, widely believed to be the richest man in America at the time of his tenancy (1891–1893), and also by Harry Gordon Selfridge in the 1920s. In 1929, two years after the death of the 5th Marquess of Lansdowne, a prominent government frontbencher, his heir sold the property.
The local authority had built an approach road in 1931 which saw the loss of approximately half of the rooms of its greater wing; it is today one of two buildings which open onto Fitzmaurice Place but is known as 9 Fitzmaurice Place. The surviving house was given Grade II* Listed Building status in 1970. The house was also the inspiration for Bingham House in Montreal, built by Lord Shelburne's great friend William Bingham in 1821, who was then the wealthiest man in North America and an associate of Alexander Hamilton.
Notable guests have included Benjamin Franklin, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, and the Comte de Mirabeau, among others.
The building now houses the Lansdowne Club of Mayfair. It co-serves as an address of Fitzmaurice House Ltd, the International Wine and Food Society which may meet here and The Junior League of London.
It was designed by Robert Adam as a house for John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute but in 1763 he sold it (one year into its building) to William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne (both men became Prime Minister); the structure was finished in 1768. Adam commissioned the local sculptor Thomas Carter the Younger to carve the chimney-pieces of his design. Shelburne retained Adam until 1771, when his wife died, with parts of the decoration still incomplete. George Dance the Younger (in the 1790s of George III's reign) and Robert Smirke (at the end of his associated Regency) worked on the house.
From 1763 to 1929, it belonged to the seniormost branch of the Petty-FitzMaurice family, elevated from 1784 to a high peerage, as Marquesses of Lansdowne. In 1931, the house, in compensation seeing its extension built to the south-west, saw half of its greater original wing, the east wing, demolished to allow the street Fitzmaurice Place to be built. Since 1935, the residue accommodates the Lansdowne Club.
Winston Churchill commented that in Victorian and Edwardian London, "glittering parties at Lansdowne House, Devonshire House or Stafford House (Lancaster House) comprised all the elements which made a gay and splendid social circle in close relation to the business of Parliament, the hierarchies of the Army and Navy, and the policy of the State".
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