Background The land on which Carlton House Terrace was built had once been part of the grounds of
St James's Palace, known as "the Royal Garden" and "the Wilderness". The latter was at one time in the possession of
Prince Rupert of the Rhine (cousin of
Charles II) and was later called Upper Spring Garden. From 1700 the land was leased by
Henry Boyle, who spent £2,835 on improving the existing house in the royal garden.
Queen Anne issued
letters patent granting Boyle a lease for a term of 31 years from 2 November 1709 at £35 per annum. By 1829 the Commissioners reported that the site was completely cleared and that part of it had already been let on building leases. Materials from the demolition were sold by public auction, with some fixtures transferred to
Windsor Castle and to "The King's House, Pimlico". Columns of the portico were re-used in the design for the new
National Gallery in
Trafalgar Square, interior Ionic columns were moved to the conservatories of Buckingham Palace, and some of the armorial stained glass was incorporated in windows of Windsor Castle.
Construction After Carlton House was demolished the development of its former site was originally intended to be part of a scheme for improving St James's Park. For this
John Nash proposed three terraces of houses along the north of the park, balanced by three along the south side, overlooking
Birdcage Walk. None of the three southern terraces and only two of the three northern ones were built, the latter being the west (No.1–9) and east (No. 10–18) sections of Carlton House Terrace. These two blocks were designed by Nash and
Decimus Burton, with
James Pennethorne in charge of the construction. Decimus Burton exclusively designed No. 3 and No. 4. Carlton House Terrace. These
townhouses took the place of Carlton House, and the freehold still belongs to the Crown Estate. Nash planned to connect the two blocks with a large domed fountain between them (re-using the old columns of the Carlton House portico), but the idea was vetoed by the King; the present-day Duke of York's Steps took the place of the fountain. In 1834 the
Duke of York's Column was erected at the top of the steps. It consists of a granite column designed by
Benjamin Wyatt topped with a bronze statue by
Richard Westmacott of Frederick, Duke of York. The terraces, which are four storeys in height above a basement, were designed in a
Neoclassical style, stucco clad, with a Corinthian columned façade overlooking St James's Park, surmounted by an elaborate frieze and pediment. At the south side, facing the park, the lower frontage has a series of squat Doric columns, supporting a substantial podium terrace at a level between the street entrances to the north and the ground floor level of the modern Mall. According to the architectural historian Sir
John Summerson Nash's designs were inspired by
Ange-Jacques Gabriel's buildings in the
Place de la Concorde, Paris. Summerson's praise of the buildings is muted: The authors of the
Survey of London take a more favourable view: Although Nash delegated the supervision of building to Pennethorne, he kept the letting of the sites firmly in his own hands. Ground rents, payable to the Crown, were set at the high rate of 4 guineas per foot frontage. Nash himself took leases of five sites – numbers 11–15 intending to let them on the open market at a substantial profit. In the event he could not cover his total costs and made a small loss on the transactions.
Later history In the 20th century the terrace came under threat of partial or complete demolition and redevelopment,
as were many country houses at that time. By the 1930s there was little demand for large central London houses, and the
Commissioners of Crown Lands were having difficulty in letting the properties. Two properties were let to clubs: no 1 to the
Savage Club and no 16 to
Crockford's gambling club, but residential tenants became hard to find. Proposals for redevelopment were put forward by the architect Sir
Reginald Blomfield, who had earlier been one of those responsible for replacing Nash's
Regent Street buildings with larger structures in the Edwardian neo-classical style. Blomfield proposed rebuilding "in a manner suitable for hotels, large company offices, flats and similar purposes". The suggested new buildings were to be two storeys higher than Nash's houses, and there was an outcry that persuaded the Commissioners not to proceed with the scheme. The terrace was severely damaged by German bombing during the
Second World War. In the 1950s the British government considered acquiring the terrace as the site for a new
Foreign Office headquarters. The Nash façades were to be preserved, but it was widely felt that the height of the redevelopment behind them would be unacceptable and the plans were not taken forward.
Occupants The terrace has had notable residents, both corporate and individual: • Number 1 was the headquarters of the
Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining from 1972 to 2015.
Joseph Hodges Choate (US Ambassador to the Court of Saint James) lived at number 1 from 1899 to 1904.
Lord Curzon (
Foreign Secretary and
Viceroy of India) lived there from 1905 to 1925, a
statue of whom stands opposite. In 2020 it was owned by the Saudi businessman Salah Hamdan Albluewi. • Number 2 is the UK office of the French asset management firm
Carmignac. • Numbers 3–4 house the
Royal Academy of Engineering. Number 4 was the home of
William Ewart Gladstone (Prime Minister) in 1856 (see also number 11 below).
Lord Revelstoke (
Baring family and
Barings bank principal partner) lived at number 3 from 1904 to 1929. • Numbers 6–9 are now the home of the
Royal Society. Numbers 7–9, then known as
Prussia House, was the
Prussian, then
German Embassy until 1939; that is now in
Belgrave Square. The house was home to
Joachim von Ribbentrop (German Ambassador) from 1936 to 1938, and his predecessor
Leopold von Hoesch. Von Hoesch's dog,
Giro, is buried in the garden of number 9. The run retains interiors designed in 1937 by
Albert Speer. • Numbers 10–11 house the
British Academy. William Gladstone lived at number 11 from 1857 to 1875. In the post-war period the houses were offices for the
Information Research Department (IRD), a secret branch of the
Foreign Office dedicated to creating pro-colonial and anti-communist propaganda. • Numbers 13–16 are owned on a long lease by the
Hinduja brothers (including
S. P. Hinduja,
Gopichand Hinduja, and
Prakash Hinduja), Indian industrialists. Number 13 was the home of
Earl Grey (Prime Minister) from 1851 to 1857 and again from 1859 to 1880. • Number 17 is home to the
Federation of British Artists and the
Mall Galleries. It was formerly the home of
Lord Cardigan (leader of the
Charge of the Light Brigade) from 1832 to 1836. • Number 18 is a private residence. At the time of its sale in 2013, for a guide price of £250 million for the remaining 78-year lease, it was described variously as London, or the world's, most expensive house.
William Waldorf Astor, 1st
Viscount Astor (American-born businessman) lived there between 1906 and 1909. • The
Survey of London records that numbers 18–24 were of later construction, being built on the site of the Carlton House riding stables between 1866 and 1868. ==Carlton Gardens==