Dover House is a Grade I-listed mansion in

Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London. The road forms the first part of the A roads in Zone 3 of the Great Britain numbering scheme, A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea, London, Chelsea. It is the main ...

, and the London headquarters of the Office of the Secretary of State for Scotland. The building also houses the Office of the Advocate General for Scotland and the

Independent Commission for Aid Impact The Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) is an independent non-departmental public body tasked with the scrutiny of British Official development assistance (ODA). Launched in May 2011 by then Secretary of State for International Developm ...

History

Dover House was designed by James Paine as the London townhouse of Sir Matthew Fetherstonhaugh, Bart., MP, in the 1750s. It was remodelled by

Henry Flitcroft Henry Flitcroft (30 August 1697 – 25 February 1769) was a major English architect in the second generation of Palladianism. He came from a simple background: his father was a labourer in the gardens at Hampton Court and he began as a joiner by t ...

, as "Montagu House", for George Montagu, created 1st Duke of Montagu, who had moved from nearby

Bloomsbury Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural, intellectual, and educational institutions. Bloomsbury is home of the British Museum, the largest mus ...

. It was refurbished once again, by Henry Holland for the Prince Frederick, Duke of York, from 1788 to 1792. The building belonged to the Melbourne family from 1793 to 1830. It has also been home to a French ambassador and

Lady Caroline Lamb Lady Caroline Lamb (née Ponsonby; 13 November 1785 – 25 January 1828) was an Anglo-Irish aristocrat and novelist, best known for ''Glenarvon'', a Gothic novel. In 1812 she had an affair with Lord Byron, whom she described as "mad, bad, and ...

, with whom the

Romantic poet Romantic poetry is the poetry of the Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. It involved a reaction against prevailing Enlightenment ideas of the 18t ...

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 ...

famously had an affair. Its most notable feature is an entrance hall in the form of a rotunda inserted into the former forecourt by Holland, which is a unique entrance to a London mansion. The last private owners were the family of the Whig politician George James Welbore Agar-Ellis, created (1831)

Baron Dover Baron Dover is a title that has been created three times, once in the Peerage of England, once in the Peerage of Great Britain and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. All three creations are now extinct. The first creation came in the Pee ...

, whose title it has retained.

Government use

The Agar-Ellis heirs owned Dover House from 1830 to 1885, when it became the

Scottish Office The Scottish Office was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom from 1885 until 1999, exercising a wide range of government functions in relation to Scotland under the control of the Secretary of State for Scotland. Following the es ...

, the

UK government ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd , image = HM Government logo.svg , image_size = 220px , image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg , image_size2 = 180px , caption = Royal Arms , date_es ...

department responsible for Scottish affairs. Although mostly used for the Scottish Office, this building was used by the

Colonial Office The Colonial Office was a government department of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, first created to deal with the colonial affairs of British North America but required also to oversee the increasing number of col ...

for several years from 1941 onwards. In 1946 the Glasgow Herald speculated that "It will not be many years before the building will be put to demolition and new Government offices raised on the site." It was still in use by the Colonial Office when Zionist terrorists planted a bomb there in April 1947. When Scotland acquired a

devolved parliament In the United Kingdom, devolution is the Parliament of the United Kingdom's statutory granting of a greater level of self-government to the Scottish Parliament, the Senedd (Welsh Parliament), the Northern Ireland Assembly and the London ...

, the responsibilities of the Scottish Office were reduced and, in 1999, was renamed the

Scotland Office The Office of the Secretary of State for Scotland ( gd, Oifis Rùnaire Stàite na h-Alba), often referred to as, and formerly officially called, the Scotland Office, is a department of His Majesty's Government headed by the Secretary of Sta ...

with Dover House remaining as its chief London building. The Scotland Office also has a Scottish headquarters, on Melville Crescent in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

New Town New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

. The

is also based at Dover House.Contact ICAI
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References

Bibliography

External links

Dover House entry from The DiCamillo Database of British & Irish Country HousesDover House
page from the ''

Survey of London The Survey of London is a research project to produce a comprehensive architectural survey of central London and its suburbs, or the area formerly administered by the London County Council. It was founded in 1894 by Charles Robert Ashbee, an A ...

'' {{Royal palaces in the United Kingdom Houses in the City of Westminster National government buildings in London Grade I listed houses in London Grade I listed buildings in the City of Westminster 1750s establishments in England Georgian architecture in London Greek Revival houses in the United Kingdom Neoclassical architecture in London