Londonderry House

51°30′20″N 0°9′1″W / 51.50556°N 0.15028°W / 51.50556; -0.15028

Londonderry House was an aristocratic townhouse situated on Park Lane in the Mayfair district of London, England. The mansion served as the London residence of the Marquesses of Londonderry. It remained their London home until 1962. In that year, Londonderry House was sold by the Trustees of the 7th Marquess of Londonderry's Will Trust to a developer who built the "Londonderry Hotel" on the site, not (as is sometimes, erroneously, stated) the Hilton. The Hilton Hotel is on the other side of the street, and had already been opened. COMO Metropolitan London now occupies the site of Londonderry House.

Holderness House, later Londonderry House, was designed by Athenian Stuart for the 4th Earl of Holderness in the period c. 1760–5, with ceilings based on Robert Wood's Ruins of Palmyra. The Earl is thought to have acquired the building next door as well, but at a later date. He subsequently joined the two so that the house became a double-fronted London mansion.

The residence was purchased in 1819 by the 1st Baron Stewart, an Irish aristocrat, to serve as a home whilst the family stayed in London during the annual social season. Soon after the purchase, Lord Stewart began redecorating and spared no expense, as shown by his choice of architects: Benjamin Dean Wyatt and Philip Wyatt. In 1822, Lord Stewart became the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry. By 1835, the home's transformation was complete. Some half a century later, in 1882–83, the 5th Marquess of Londonderry commissioned James Brooks to build, in red brick with terracotta facings, a handsome new stable yard, coach houses, and accommodation for the stable staff of Londonderry House, arranged around an internal courtyard (all of which were accessible via wide double doors opening on to Brick Street).

Prince Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (later Emperor Napoléon III) often visited Londonderry House while exiled in London in 1836-40 and 1846–48.

During the First World War, the house was used as a military hospital. After the war, the 7th Marquess of Londonderry, a prominent Ulster Unionist politician, and his wife, Edith Helen Chaplin, continued to use the house and entertained extensively. After the Second World War, the house remained in the possession of the 7th Marquess of Londonderry; in 1946 a lease over most of the building was granted to the Royal Aero Club for a nominal rent, whilst Lord Londonderry's family retained twenty two rooms for their own use. Following the death of the 7th Marquess in 1949, ownership of the house was held in a discretionary trust, and his widow Edith was granted the use of a flat within the house by permission of the Trustees of her late husband's Will, which she retained until her own death in 1959.

The Londonderry age on Park Lane drew to a close after the death of Edith, Dowager Marchioness of Londonderry. The last social events hosted by the family in Londonderry House were the debutante balls of the Hon. Elizabeth Keppel in 1959 and the Hon. Rose Keppel in 1961, hosted by their mother, Lady Mairi Bury (youngest daughter of the 7th Marquess); the wedding reception of the Hon. Elizabeth Keppel, following her marriage to her cousin Alastair Villiers, in June 1962, and a subsequent, final, "farewell" party given by Alastair, 9th Marquess, the following month, for 300 guests, including Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney.

The house was sold at auction by the Trustees of the Estate of the 7th Marquess on 26 July 1962. The purchaser was former Tesco Director Isaac Klug, who purchased the site of Londonderry House (No. 19 Park Lane and 24 Hertford Street) and an adjoining lot at 22-23 Hertford Street (together totalling some 18,000 square feet) for £500,000 on behalf of his family's investment trust Budget Property Co.