Montagu House from the Illustrated London News, 1864

Canaletto - London, Whitehall and the Privy Garden looking North Buccleuch

Montagu House 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 ...

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, England, was the

town house A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type of city residence ...

built by

John Montagu, 2nd Duke of Montagu John Montagu, 2nd Duke of Montagu, (1690 – 5 July 1749), styled Viscount Monthermer until 1705 and Marquess of Monthermer between 1705 and 1709, was a British peer. Life Montagu was an owner of a coal mine. Montagu went on the grand tour wi ...

(1690–1749), whose country seat was

Boughton House Boughton House is a country house in the parish of Weekley in Northamptonshire, England, situated about north-east of Kettering. It is situated within an estate of . The present house was built by Ralph Montagu, 1st Duke of Montagu (d.1709), ...

in Northamptonshire.

History

In 1731,

, abandoned the existing grand Montagu House in the socially declining district of

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 ...

, which was later to become the premises of the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, and purchased a site that had once been occupied by the Archbishops of York's London residence and had later been part of the site of

Whitehall Palace The Palace of Whitehall (also spelt White Hall) at Westminster was the main residence of the English monarchs from 1530 until 1698, when most of its structures, except notably Inigo Jones's Banqueting House of 1622, were destroyed by fire. Hen ...

. He built himself a relatively modest mansion in the conventional style of the day, which can be seen in

Canaletto Giovanni Antonio Canal (18 October 1697 – 19 April 1768), commonly known as Canaletto (), was an Italian painter from the Republic of Venice, considered an important member of the 18th-century Venetian school. Painter of city views or ...

's painting of Whitehall. In the late 1850s, the 2nd Duke of Montagu's descendant,

Walter Montagu Douglas Scott, 5th Duke of Buccleuch Walter Francis Montagu Douglas Scott, 5th Duke of Buccleuch, 7th Duke of Queensberry, (born Walter Francis Montagu-Scott; 25 November 1806 – 16 April 1884), styled Lord Eskdail between 1808 and 1812 and Earl of Dalkeith between 1812 and 18 ...

, one of the United Kingdom's three or four richest landowners, replaced the Georgian house with one of the grandest private mansions in London. It was designed by the versatile Scottish architect

William Burn William Burn (20 December 1789 – 15 February 1870) was a Scottish architect. He received major commissions from the age of 20 until his death at 81. He built in many styles and was a pioneer of the Scottish Baronial Revival,often referred t ...

in the style of a

French Renaissance The French Renaissance was the cultural and artistic movement in France between the 15th and early 17th centuries. The period is associated with the pan-European Renaissance, a word first used by the French historian Jules Michelet to define th ...

chateau. The building was admired in its day. It was built of

Portland stone Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries are cut in beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building sto ...

, with a steep

mansard roof A mansard or mansard roof (also called a French roof or curb roof) is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope, punctured by dormer windows, at a steeper angle than the upper. The ...

, corner towers and a skyline peppered with stone chimneys. The interior featured a top-lit central saloon and a grand staircase, heavily coffered ceilings and elaborately carved furnishings. It housed part of the exceptional Buccleuch art collection, including works by

Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque traditio ...

and

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally consid ...

and the finest British collection of miniatures apart from the

Royal Collection The Royal Collection of the British royal family is the largest private art collection in the world. Spread among 13 occupied and historic royal residences in the United Kingdom, the collection is owned by King Charles III and overseen by the ...

Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, (born Lady Alice Christabel Montagu Douglas Scott; 25 December 1901 – 29 October 2004) was the wife of Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, the third son of King George V and Queen Mary. She was the mother ...

, was born there in 1901. In 1917 the house was taken over for use as government offices, and in 1949–50 it was demolished. The site forms roughly the southern half of that of the current main Ministry of Defence building in Whitehall.

References

External links

Montagu House
at 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 Ar ...

'' online.
Plans of the ground and principal floors
Former houses in the City of Westminster Houses completed in the 19th century Buildings and structures demolished in 1950

History

See also

References

Further reading

External links