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Leicester House was a large aristocratic townhouse in
Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...
, London, to the north of where
Leicester Square Leicester Square ( ) is a pedestrianised town square, square in the West End of London, England, and is the centre of London's entertainment district. It was laid out in 1670 as Leicester Fields, which was named after the recently built Leice ...
now is. Built by the Earl of Leicester and completed in , it was later occupied by Elizabeth Stuart, a British princess and former Queen of
Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...
, and in the 1700s by the two successive Hanoverian princes of Wales. From 1775 to 1788, the
Leverian collection The Leverian collection was a natural history and ethnographic collection assembled by Ashton Lever. It was noted for the content it acquired from the voyages of Captain James Cook. For three decades it was displayed in London, being broken up ...
was on display in Leicester House. The house was sold and demolished in .


History

Leicester House was named for Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester, who bought four acres of land in this part of Westminster, St Martin's Field, intending to build a new town house there. The area was not then built up, and the only nearby buildings were the armoury of the Military Company in Westminster to the north and the new town house of Sir William Howard, called Newport House, to the east.Sheppard (1966)
pp. 441–472
/ref> In August 1631, King Charles I ordered his Attorney General, Sir
Robert Heath Sir Robert Heath (20 May 1575 – 30 August 1649) was an English judge and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1621 to 1625. Early life Heath was the son of Robert Heath, attorney, and Anne Posyer. He was educated at Tunbridge gra ...
, to prepare a licence for Leicester to build a house "with necessary outhouses buildinges and gardens", but this stipulated that the outer walls must be wholly of brick or stone and added also "the forefronts to bee made in that uniforme sort and order as may best bewtifie the place". The house was completed about 1635, according to Lord Leicester at a total cost of £8,000, . A map of 1658 by Richard Newcourt and William Faithorne shows it as an asymmetrical group of buildings around a courtyard, with a huge gatehouse taking up most of the southern range. This is very different from the house pictured in 1727 by Sutton Nicholls, and nothing is known which records a rebuilding. However, what is shown on the map of 1658 may simply be intended as a cartographic symbol for a great house. To build the house and its outbuildings, Lord Leicester had had to enclose some of his four acres, all of which was
common land Common land is collective land (sometimes only open to those whose nation governs the land) in which all persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect wood, or to cut turf for fuel. A person ...
in the parish of St Martin in the Fields. The commoners appealed to the king, and he appointed three members of the Privy Council to arbitrate. They ordered that the part of the land still unenclosed be kept open, and this became known as Leicester Fields. From April to August 1640, the new house was occupied by
Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford (13 April 1593 (New Style, N.S.)12 May 1641), was an English people, English statesman and a major figure in the period leading up to the English Civil War. He served in Parliament of England, Parliament ...
, soon after his return from meetings in Dublin as Lord Deputy of Ireland. Development in and around London and Westminster continued during the 17th century, and the size and importance of Lord Leicester's house encouraged the building of other smart town houses nearby.Laura Reynolds
11 Secrets of Leicester Square
at londonist.com, accessed 14 May 2020
For a short time in 1662, Leicester House was occupied by Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia, the eldest daughter of
James VI and I James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and King of Ireland, Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 M ...
and the mother of
Prince Rupert of the Rhine Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Duke of Cumberland, (17 December 1619 ( O.S.) 7 December 1619 (N.S.)– 29 November 1682 (O.S.) December 1682 (N.S) was an English-German army officer, admiral, scientist, and colonial governor. He first rose to ...
and Electress
Sophia of Hanover Sophia (born Princess Sophia of the Palatinate; – ) was Electress of Hanover from 19 December 1692 until 23 January 1698 as the consort of Prince-Elector Ernest Augustus. She was later the heiress presumptive to the thrones of England and ...
; Elizabeth Stuart died in the house on 13 February 1662, Thomas Allen later noting that she "ended her unfortunate life" there. In 1672, Lady Sunderland, the wife of
Robert Spencer, 2nd Earl of Sunderland Robert Spencer, 2nd Earl of Sunderland, (5 September 164128 September 1702) was an English nobleman and politician of the Spencer family. An able and gifted statesman, his caustic temper and belief in absolute monarchy nevertheless made him n ...
, Lord Leicester's grandson, gave a dinner at the house attended by
John Evelyn John Evelyn (31 October 162027 February 1706) was an English writer, landowner, gardener, courtier and minor government official, who is now best known as a diary, diarist. He was a founding Fellow of the Royal Society. John Evelyn's Diary, ...
, who recalled that afterwards a fire-eater called Richardson entertained the company and "before us devour'd Brimston on glowing coales, chewing and swallowing them downe." In 1674, Ralph, Lord Montagu, Master of the Great Wardrobe and later first Duke of Montagu, took a lease on Leicester House, after marrying Lady Northumberland, the widow of Josceline Percy, 11th Earl of Northumberland, a nephew of Lady Leicester. In 1676 Montagu was sent as English ambassador to Paris and ended his occupation. In 1677 the elderly Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester died and was succeeded by his son Philip, 3rd Earl, who sold a large area of the garden for building Leicester Street, Lisle Street, and part of what is now
Leicester Square Leicester Square ( ) is a pedestrianised town square, square in the West End of London, England, and is the centre of London's entertainment district. It was laid out in 1670 as Leicester Fields, which was named after the recently built Leice ...
. He also built a tavern in front of the courtyard and died in the house in 1698. About November 1742, Frederick, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of George II, moved into the house, after agreeing to lease it. In July 1743 Jocelyn Sidney, 7th Earl of Leicester, died without a successor, and the house was inherited by two sisters, Lady Sherard and Elizabeth Perry. On 16 August 1743, they granted a fourteen-year lease to the prince, running from
Michaelmas Michaelmas ( ; also known as the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, the Feast of the Archangels, or the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels) is a Christian festival observed in many Western Christian liturgical calendars on 29 Se ...
of 1742, and in 1744 Elizabeth Perry paid her sister £4,000 for her half-share. The successive Princes of Wales were natural alternative centres of political opposition, and the term "Leicester House faction" was used to describe the public men who were swayed by the Princes of Wales holding court there. On Frederick's death in 1751, the lease was inherited by his son the future
George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...
, who was a minor, and for some twenty years Frederick's widow Augusta, Princess of Wales, continued the tradition of an alternative court at Leicester House. In 1774, Sir Ashton Lever took a lease on the house, converting the rooms on the first floor into a single large gallery running the length of the house, and in February 1775 opened a museum to display his
Leverian collection The Leverian collection was a natural history and ethnographic collection assembled by Ashton Lever. It was noted for the content it acquired from the voyages of Captain James Cook. For three decades it was displayed in London, being broken up ...
. It had around 25,000 exhibits, said to be a small fraction of Lever's collections, and remained at Leicester House until 1788.Abstract of a Petition of Sir Ashton Lever
for a Bill to enable him to dispose of his museum at bopcris.ac.uk, 29 September 2007

/ref> Thanks to his mounting debts, George, Prince of Wales, the future
George IV George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 29 January 1820 until his death in 1830. At the time of his accession to the throne, h ...
, sold the freehold of the house. After it was demolished in 1791, the house and its gardens were redeveloped as numbers 7–15, Leicester Square (on its north side), and some new houses on Leicester Place, Leicester Street, Lisle Street, and Sidney Street (now Sidney Place). After the redevelopment, the area lost prestige and became an entertainment and shopping district. When the main house was pulled down, some of its stables became part of a new property on Lisle Street built between 1792 and 1795, later known as the White Bear Yard livery stables. These survived until demolished in 1906.


Notes


References

* * Cowie, Leonard W. "Leicester House," ''History Today'' (Jan 1973), Vol. 23 Issue 1, pp 30–37, online * {{Royal palaces in the United Kingdom 1635 establishments in England 1791 disestablishments in England Former houses in the City of Westminster Buildings and structures demolished in 1791 Houses completed in 1635 History of the City of Westminster Demolished buildings and structures in London Leicester Square Frederick, Prince of Wales Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha Townhouses in the United Kingdom