Albemarle Street is a street in

Mayfair Mayfair is an affluent area in the West End of London towards the eastern edge of Hyde Park, in the City of Westminster, between Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly and Park Lane. It is one of the most expensive districts in the world. ...

central London Central London is the innermost part of London, in England, spanning several boroughs. Over time, a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of Central London for statistics, urban planning and local government. Its characteris ...

, off

Piccadilly Piccadilly () is a road in the City of Westminster, London, to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road that connects central London to Hammersmith, Earl's Court, ...

. It has historic associations with

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...

, whose publisher John Murray was based here, and

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

, a member of the Albemarle Club, where an insult he received led to his suing for libel and to his eventual imprisonment. It is also known for its art galleries and the

Brown's Hotel Brown's Hotel is a luxury hotel in Mayfair, London, established in 1837 and owned by Rocco Forte Hotels since 3 July 2003. It is considered one of London's oldest existing hotels. History Brown's Hotel was founded in 1837, by James and Sarah Br ...

is located at 33 Albemarle Street.

History

Albemarle Street was built by a syndicate of developers headed by

Sir Thomas Bond Sir Thomas Bond, 1st Baronet (–1685) was an English landowner and Comptroller of the household of Queen Henrietta Maria. Biography The son of Dr. Thomas Bond (1580–1662), by his marriage to Catherine, daughter of John Osbaldeston, Bond was ...

. The syndicate purchased a Piccadilly mansion called

Clarendon House Clarendon House was a town mansion which stood on Piccadilly in London, England, from the 1660s to the 1680s. It was built for the powerful politician Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, and was the grandest private London residence of its ...

from

Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albemarle Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albemarle (14 August 1653 – 6 October 1688) was an English soldier and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1667 to 1670 when he inherited the Dukedom and sat in the House of Lords. Origins Monc ...

in 1684, which had fallen into ruin due to neglect caused by the dissolute duke's spendthrift ways. It was sold for £20,000, a fifth less than the duke had paid for it only nine years previously despite the land values in the area increasing in the intervening period. The house was demolished and the syndicate proceeded to develop the area. At that time the house backed onto open fields and the development of the various estates in Mayfair was just getting underway. The syndicate also built

Old Bond Street Bond Street in the West End of London links Piccadilly in the south to Oxford Street in the north. Since the 18th century the street has housed many prestigious and upmarket fashion retailers. The southern section is Old Bond Street and the ...

Dover Street Dover Street is a street in Mayfair, London. The street is notable for its Georgian architecture as well as the location of historic London clubs and hotels, which have been frequented by world leaders and historic figures in the arts. It also ...

and Stafford Street. Albemarle Street was the first

one-way street One-way traffic (or uni-directional traffic) is traffic that moves in a single direction. A one-way street is a street either facilitating only one-way traffic, or designed to direct vehicles to move in one direction. One-way streets typical ...

created for the purpose of better traffic flow in London. The decision was taken after a series of lectures by

Humphry Davy Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet, (17 December 177829 May 1829) was a British chemist and inventor who invented the Davy lamp and a very early form of arc lamp. He is also remembered for isolating, by using electricity, several elements for t ...

at the Royal Institution caused long traffic jams in the capital because of the horrendous queues formed by horsedrawn carriages bringing in the eager audience. Albemarle Street was made a one-way street to avoid further incidents of such congestion.

Notable residents

Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, Order of the Garter, KG Privy Council of Great Britain, PC Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (5 December 1661 – 21 May 1724) was an English statesman and peer of the late Stuart dynasty, Stu ...

(1661–1724), a leading minister of Queen Anne, had a house in Albemarle Street where he died in 1724.

Victor Spencer, 1st Viscount Churchill Major Victor Albert Francis Charles Spencer, 1st Viscount Churchill (23 October 1864 – 3 January 1934), known as the Hon. Victor Albert Spencer until 1886 and as The Lord Churchill between 1886 and 1902, was a British peer and courtier. He w ...

(1864–1934), a

Page of Honour A Page of Honour is a ceremonial position in the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. It requires attendance on state occasions, but does not now involve the daily duties which were once attached to the office of page. The on ...

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

and British peer, was born at 32 Albemarle Street.

Anne Lister Anne Lister (3 April 1791 – 22 September 1840) was an English diarist, famous for revelations for which she was dubbed "the first modern lesbian". Lister was from a minor landowning family at Shibden in Calderdale, West Riding of Yorkshire, ...

(1791–1840), a notable early 19th-century lesbian, stayed at 29 Albemarle Street in rooms owned by Hawkins, who also had premises in

. In June 1834 Anne Lister stayed at number 13 with her wife Ann Walker (1803–1854). The Albemarle Club was originally in Albemarle Street and relocated to

nearby before its closure.

was a member. In 1895, the

Marquess of Queensberry Marquess of Queensberry is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. The title has been held since its creation in 1682 by a member of the Douglas family. The Marquesses also held the title of Duke of Queensberry from 1684 to 1810, when it was inh ...

left his calling card for Wilde with the infamous note "For Oscar Wilde, posing as a somdomite" 'sic'' This led to Wilde's failed libel action and subsequent criminal prosecution. The publisher John Murray was located at 50 Albemarle Street during the 19th and 20th centuries.

memoirs A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobiog ...

were destroyed in the fireplace on the first floor after his death. Sir

John Betjeman Sir John Betjeman (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, ...

, the poet and broadcaster was another Murray author. Murray also published Charles Darwin's ''The Origin of Species'' in 1859. Frenchman Alexander Grillion opened Grillion's Hotel at No. 7 in 1803.

Louis XVIII Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. He spent twenty-three years in ...

stayed here in 1814, before his return to France. It was also the meeting place of

Grillion's Grillion's is a London dining club founded in 1812. It was founded by the British diplomat Stratford Canning as a meeting place free from the violence of political controversy. The club had no premises but met at Grillion's Hotel on Albemarle Stre ...

dining club. The

Royal Thames Yacht Club The Royal Thames Yacht Club (RTYC) is the oldest continuously operating yacht club in the world, and the oldest yacht club in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are located at 60 Knightsbridge, London, England, overlooking Hyde Park. The club ...

was later based here. The Royal Institution is at 21 Albemarle Street and forms an imposing backdrop on the street with its row of classical columns on its frontage. The building has been greatly enlarged and redeveloped since 1799 when the Institution was founded, and is now a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. Because of the Institution's popularity (through its scientific lectures), Albemarle Street became London's first

to avoid traffic problems. The naturalist

Thomas Huxley Thomas Henry Huxley (4 May 1825 – 29 June 1895) was an English biologist and anthropologist specialising in comparative anatomy. He has become known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. The stor ...

founded the

X Club The X Club was a dining club of nine men who supported the theories of natural selection and academic liberalism in late 19th-century England. Thomas Henry Huxley was the initiator; he called the first meeting for 3 November 1864. The club m ...

as a dining club meeting for the first time on 3 November 1864 at St George's Hotel, Albemarle Street, with a select membership of nine proponents of the

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

ary "new reformation" in naturalism who supported the ideas of Charles Darwin and became increasingly influential in late 19th century science. Rev.

William Webb Ellis William Webb Ellis (24 November 1806 – 24 January 1872) was an English Anglican clergyman who, by tradition, has been credited as the inventor of rugby football while a pupil at Rugby School. According to legend, Webb Ellis picked up the ba ...

(1806–1872) was an Anglican clergyman who is famous for allegedly being the inventor of

Rugby football Rugby football is the collective name for the team sports of rugby union and rugby league. Canadian football and, to a lesser extent, American football were once considered forms of rugby football, but are seldom now referred to as such. The ...

whilst a pupil at Rugby School. He graduated from Oxford with a BA in 1829 and received his MA in 1831. He entered the Church and became chaplain of St George's Chapel, Albemarle Street, London (c. 1800–1903). Here he published his ''Sermons: Preached in St. George's Chapel, Albemarle Street; to Which Is Added, an Essay On the Prophecies Relative to Christ''. The Chapel was built on instructions of Lord Suffield who lived on Albemarle Street and leased land at number 27 on which at some time between 1800 and 1811 a proprietary chapel, St George's, was built (demolished in the early twentieth century). The Beaux-Arts building, the Mellier, at 26b Albemarle Street originally the home and showroom of Charles Mellier & Co. Mellier was born in France and became a successful high quality cabinet maker and decorator; one of his most famous commissions was for the liner RMS ''Mauretania''. In 1921 Lendrum Motors moved to Mayfair, taking the recently vacated ground floor and basement premises of the Mellier building, creating a fashionable and stylish motor showroom, renamed it ‘Buick House’ and from 1923 known as

Lendrum & Hartman Limited Lendrum & Hartman Ltd was a major London importer, the sole UK concessionaires of Buick and Cadillac cars from North America between 1919 and 1968. It became the most prestigious car dealership in the country, having sold a Buick in 1935 to the Pri ...

. It was a major London importer, and sole UK concessionaires of Buick and Cadillac cars from North America between 1919 and 1968. It became the most prestigious car dealership in the country, having sold a Buick to the Prince of Wales, later King

Edward VIII Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David; 23 June 1894 – 28 May 1972), later known as the Duke of Windsor, was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire and Emperor of India from 20 January 19 ...

in 1935. Today the building is renamed the Mellier again, has been transformed by architect

Eric Parry Eric Owen Parry (born 24 March 1952) is a British architect, designer, writer and educator. Parry is the founder and principal of Eric Parry Architects established in London in 1983. His built work includes the restoration and renewal of St Mar ...

from commercial use into apartments. In the 1950s,

Ernő Goldfinger Ernő Goldfinger (11 September 1902 – 15 November 1987) was a Hungarian-born architect and designer of furniture. He moved to the United Kingdom in the 1930s, and became a key member of the Modernist architectural movement. He is most prom ...

's design for two office buildings at 45–46 Albemarle Street was praised for its sensitivity to the surrounding Georgian architecture.Ernő Goldfinger / Designing Modern Britain — Design Museum
/ref> The private member's club Oswald's is based in a town house at 25 Albemarle Street.

Galleries

The street is host to a number of art galleries. These include: * Connaught Brown, 2 Albemarle Street * The Archeus Gallery, 3 Albemarle Street * Marlborough Fine Art, 6 Albemarle Street * W. H. Patterson Fine Arts, 19 Albemarle Street * Phillips de Pury & Company, 25–26 Albemarle Street * Mazzoleni Art, 27 Albemarle Street * The Grosvenor Gallery, 37 Albemarle Street * John Martin of London, 38 Albemarle Street * The Belgravia Gallery, 45 Albemarle Street * Gallery of African Art, 45 Albemarle Street * The Albemarle Gallery, 49 Albemarle Street * Faggionato Fine Arts, 49 Albemarle Street (first floor)

Location

To the south-east, the street adjoins

. Running parallel with Albemarle Street to the south-west is

and to the north-east are

New Bond Street Bond Street in the West End of London links Piccadilly in the south to Oxford Street in the north. Since the 18th century the street has housed many prestigious and upmarket fashion retailers. The southern section is Old Bond Street and the ...

and

. The nearest tube station is

Green Park Green Park, officially The Green Park, is one of the Royal Parks of London. It is in the southern part – the core part – of the City of Westminster, Central London, but before that zone was extended to the north, to take in Marylebo ...

References

External links