![Lansdowne House, Devonshire House and Berkeley Square Map, 1895](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/Lansdowne_House%2C_Devonshire_House_and_Berkeley_Square_Map%2C_1895.jpg)
Lansdowne House now 9 Fitzmaurice Place is the remaining part of a building to the south of Berkeley Square in central London, England, not to be confused with 57 Berkeley Square – opposite – a much later quadrilateral building which takes its name as an extra line of address. The name was for two decades Shelb(o)urne House, then its title matched its owning family's elevation to a higher peerage in 1784. It was frequently let, as a whole, to families of very high wealth or income. Some of its 18th-century interiors, among the best in London, were taken elsewhere. It was occupied by three
British prime minister
The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern p ...
s,
William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount Astor
William Waldorf "Willy" Astor, 1st Viscount Astor (31 March 1848 – 18 October 1919) was an American-British attorney, politician, businessman (hotels and newspapers), and philanthropist. Astor was a scion of the very wealthy Astor family of ...
, widely believed to be the richest man in America at the time of his tenancy (1891–1893) and by
Harry Gordon Selfridge
Harry Gordon Selfridge, Sr. (11 January 1858 – 8 May 1947) was an American retail magnate who founded the London-based department store Selfridges. His 20-year leadership of Selfridges led to his becoming one of the most respected and wealthy ...
in the 1920s. The owning family sold the property in 1929, two years after the death of the
5th Marquess, a prominent
government frontbencher (cabinet minister).
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 extent was granted Grade II*
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 ...
status in 1970.
Current use
It houses the
Lansdowne Club
The Lansdowne Club is a Social club, private members' club in London, England occupying a large building, notable in its own right. It was established in 1935 and occupies most of 9 Fitzmaurice Place, a street connecting Berkeley Square to Curzo ...
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. ...
.
[ 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.
]
History
It was designed by Robert Adam
Robert Adam (3 July 17283 March 1792) was a British neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam (1689–1748), Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him. With his o ...
as a house for John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute
John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, (; 25 May 1713 – 10 March 1792), styled Lord Mount Stuart between 1713 and 1723, was a British nobleman who served as the 7th Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1762 to 1763 under George III. He was arguabl ...
but in 1763 he sold it (one year into its building) to William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne
William Petty Fitzmaurice, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne, (2 May 17377 May 1805; known as the Earl of Shelburne between 1761 and 1784, by which title he is generally known to history), was an Irish-born British Whig statesman who was the first ...
(both men became Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
); 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
George Dance the Younger RA (1 April 1741 – 14 January 1825) was an English architect and surveyor as well as a portraitist.
The fifth and youngest son of the architect George Dance the Elder, he came from a family of architects, artists a ...
(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
Marquess of Lansdowne is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain created in 1784, and held by the head of the Petty-Fitzmaurice family. The first Marquess served as Prime Minister of Great Britain.
Origins
This branch of the Fitzmaurice family ...
.[ 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
The Lansdowne Club is a Social club, private members' club in London, England occupying a large building, notable in its own right. It was established in 1935 and occupies most of 9 Fitzmaurice Place, a street connecting Berkeley Square to Curzo ...
.
Its front private garden exceeded its building's footprint but was subject to another's restrictive covenant
A covenant, in its most general sense and historical sense, is a solemn promise to engage in or refrain from a specified action. Under historical English common law, a covenant was distinguished from an ordinary contract by the presence of a se ...
s. Its main front lay further forward and was a garden front to this green expanse (between Berkeley Square and Devonshire House's gardens). This conservation guaranteed for Devonshire House
Devonshire House in Piccadilly, was the London townhouse of the Dukes of Devonshire during the 18th and 19th centuries. Following a fire in 1733 it was rebuilt by William Cavendish, 3rd Duke of Devonshire, in the Palladian style, to designs ...
on 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, ...
open aspects (greenery-covered land save for discreet fences/railings) up to and including all of Berkeley Square
Berkeley Square is a garden square in the West End of London. It is one of the best known of the many squares in London, located in Mayfair in the City of Westminster. It was laid out in the mid 18th century by the architect William Kent ...
. These reasons are set out in the Square's article.
In 2022, Blackstone finalized an agreement to redevelop Lansdowne House as its European headquarters. Prime Minister Liz Truss
Mary Elizabeth Truss (born 26 July 1975) is a British politician who briefly served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from September to October 2022. On her fiftieth day in office, she stepped down ...
called the agreement "a resounding vote of confidence in the United Kingdom as Europe’s leading financial centre."
Famous residents
Owner, resident:-
*William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne
William Petty Fitzmaurice, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne, (2 May 17377 May 1805; known as the Earl of Shelburne between 1761 and 1784, by which title he is generally known to history), was an Irish-born British Whig statesman who was the first ...
(later 1st Marquess of Lansdowne
Marquess of Lansdowne is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain created in 1784, and held by the head of the Petty-Fitzmaurice family. The first Marquess served as Prime Minister of Great Britain.
Origins
This branch of the Fitzmaurice famil ...
), British prime minister (1782–83)
Tenants:-
* John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute
John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, (; 25 May 1713 – 10 March 1792), styled Lord Mount Stuart between 1713 and 1723, was a British nobleman who served as the 7th Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1762 to 1763 under George III. He was arguabl ...
, British prime minister
The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern p ...
(1762–63)
* William Pitt the Younger
William Pitt the Younger (28 May 175923 January 1806) was a British statesman, the youngest and last prime minister of Great Britain (before the Acts of Union 1800) and then first prime minister of the United Kingdom (of Great Britain and Ire ...
, British prime minister (1783–1801, 1804–1806)
* William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount Astor
William Waldorf "Willy" Astor, 1st Viscount Astor (31 March 1848 – 18 October 1919) was an American-British attorney, politician, businessman (hotels and newspapers), and philanthropist. Astor was a scion of the very wealthy Astor family of ...
, widely believed to be the richest man in America at the time (1891–1893)
* Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery
Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, 1st Earl of Midlothian, (7 May 1847 – 21 May 1929) was a British Liberal Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from March 1894 to June 1895. Between the death of ...
, was a British Liberal statesman and Prime Minister (1894–1895)
* Harry Gordon Selfridge
Harry Gordon Selfridge, Sr. (11 January 1858 – 8 May 1947) was an American retail magnate who founded the London-based department store Selfridges. His 20-year leadership of Selfridges led to his becoming one of the most respected and wealthy ...
, founder of the Selfridges
Selfridges, also known as Selfridges & Co., is a chain of high-end department stores in the United Kingdom that is operated by Selfridges Retail Limited, part of the Selfridges Group of department stores. It was founded by Harry Gordon Selfridge ...
department store
A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...
Partial demolition and dispersal of name
In the 1930s, the Metropolitan Borough of Westminster
The Metropolitan Borough of Westminster was a metropolitan borough in the County of London, England, from 1900 to 1965.
City status
By royal charter dated 29 October 1900, the borough was granted the title City of Westminster. Westminster had o ...
Council decided to build a road from Berkeley Square to Curzon Street
Curzon Street is located within the Mayfair district of London. The street is located entirely within the W1J postcode district; the eastern end is north-east of Green Park underground station. It is within the City of Westminster, running ap ...
, which required the demolition of all the garden front rooms of Lansdowne House. One of Adam's three drawing room
A drawing room is a room in a house where visitors may be entertained, and an alternative name for a living room. The name is derived from the 16th-century terms withdrawing room and withdrawing chamber, which remained in use through the 17th cent ...
s was removed and installed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...
, while the Dining Room went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
in New York City. The façade was rebuilt in a modified form at the front of the reduced house; about half of the north-west corner has also been lost.
On 1 May 1935, the Lansdowne Club opened as a 'social, residential and athletic Club for members of social standing...'. It comprises the remaining 18th-century rooms plus a large 1930s extension in the Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
style.
Many collections, such as the Lansdowne Amazon and the Lansdowne Hercules, were also bought by American and British museums. Other objects moved to Bowood House
Bowood is a Grade I listed Georgian country house in Wiltshire, England, that has been owned for more than 250 years by the Fitzmaurice family. The house, with interiors by Robert Adam, stands in extensive grounds which include a garden designe ...
, the Lansdowne country house, where Adam also worked. This remains in the family, though large parts of it were demolished, in 1956.
A large office block, having classical fronts with surrounding roads occupies what was the garden: 57 Berkeley Square. This has as a preceding line of its official address the name of the old house. The house's remnant part, extended, forms 9 Fitzmaurice Place
Fitzmaurice is a Hiberno-Norman, Cambro-Norman, Anglo-Normans, Anglo-Norman surname. It is patronymic as the prefix ''Fitz-'' derives from the Latin'' filius'', meaning "son of".
According to Irish genealogist Edward MacLysaght:
Fitzmauric ...
.
Extensive renovations began in 2000.
Gallery
File:Robert Adam and his brothers; their lives, work and influence on English architecture, decoration and furniture (1915) (14773243271).jpg, The room now in Philadelphia, before 1915
File:Lansdowne House ceiling..TIF, Part of the ceiling now in Philadelphia
File:Lloyd's Building - Adam Room 2.jpg, The Adam room in the Lloyd's Building
The Lloyd's building (sometimes known as the Inside-Out Building) is the home of the insurance institution Lloyd's of London. It is located on the former site of East India House in Lime Street, in London's main financial district, the City of ...
File:Brayley(1820) p4.079 - Lansdown House, Westminster.jpg, View in 1820
Notes and references
;Footnotes
;Citations
External links
{{commons category, Lansdowne House
The Lansdowne Club
Lansdowne House entry from The DiCamillo Companion to British & Irish Country Houses
''Europe in the age of enlightenment and revolution''
a catalogue from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on this house (see index)
''Period Rooms in the Metropolitan Museum of Art ''
a publication from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on this house (see index)
1935 establishments in England
Former houses in the City of Westminster
Petty-Fitzmaurice family
Georgian architecture in London
Buildings and structures in Mayfair
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Grade II* listed buildings in the City of Westminster
Grade II* listed houses in London
Art Deco architecture in London