London In the
Middle Ages, the London residences of the nobility were generally situated within the walls or boundary of the
City of London, often known as "Inns", as the French equivalents are termed . For example,
Lincoln's Inn was the town house of the 3rd
Earl of Lincoln, and
Gray's Inn was a manor held by the 1st
Baron Grey de Wilton. At that time the
Tower of London, within the city, was still in use as a royal palace. They gradually spread onto
the Strand, the main ceremonial thoroughfare from the city to the
Palace of Westminster, where parliamentary and court business were transacted. Areas such as
Kensington and
Hampstead were countryside hamlets outside London until the 19th century, so mansions in these areas, such as
Holland House, cannot be considered as true historical townhouses. Bishops also had London residences, generally termed
palaces, listed below. The greatest residence on the Strand was the
Savoy Palace, residence of
John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the richest man in the kingdom in his age and the father of
King Henry IV. His chief seat was
Bolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire. The Strand had the advantage of frontage to the
River Thames, which gave the nobles their own private landing places, as had the royal palaces of Whitehall and Westminster and, further out from the city,
Greenwich and
Hampton Court. The next fashion was to move still further westwards to
St James's, to be near the Tudor royal court. In the 18th century,
Covent Garden was developed by the Duke of Bedford on his
Bedford Estate, and
Mayfair by the Grosvenor family on their
Grosvenor Estate. The final fashion before the modern era was for a residence on the former marshland of
Belgravia, on the southern part of the Grosvenor Estate, developed after the establishment of Mayfair by the
Duke of Westminster. Many aristocratic townhouses were demolished or ceased to be used for residential purposes after the
First World War, when the scarcity and greater expense of domestic servants made living on a grand scale impractical. The following examples, most of which are now demolished, are comparable to the Parisian :
Secular houses ,
Piccadilly, in 1896 on Leicester Fields, 1748 •
The Albany •
Apsley House,
Duke of Wellington •
Baynard's Castle, City of London, Earls of Pembroke 1551–1666 • Berkeley House, residence of
Baron Berkeley of Stratton (a junior branch of
Baron Berkeley of
Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire), seated at
Bruton Abbey in Somerset, was on the site of
Bruton Street, Stratton Street and Berkeley Square in Mayfair, and later became
Devonshire House. • Berkeley's Inn,
Baynard's Castle,
City of London, town house of
Thomas de Berkeley, 5th Baron Berkeley (1353–1417), which he gave in his will to Robert Knollis, a citizen of London. •
Bedford House •
Bridgewater House, Westminster •
Buckingham House (now
Buckingham Palace) •
Burlington House (now home of the
Royal Academy) •
Cambridge House •
Chandos House, 2 Queen Anne Street, Marylebone; 3rd
Duke of Chandos •
Chesterfield House (demolished 1937, now eponymous Mayfair block of flats) • Chudleigh House,
Knightsbridge, Westminster, later called
Kingston House •
Clarence House, the residence of the late
Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and now the residence of
King Charles III •
Clarendon House • Crewe House,
Curzon Street, Mayfair, currently the
Saudi Arabian embassy •
Devonshire House (formerly on Piccadilly, opposite present Ritz Hotel. Formerly Berkeley House) •
Dorchester House •
Dudley House, London •
Essex House •
Forbes House •
Grosvenor House (replaced by eponymous hotel); see also
Peterborough House •
Harrington House formerly the London residence of the
Earl of Harrington •
Hertford House, Cannon Row, home of
Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford (1539–1621), son of the first builder of
Somerset House. The present Hertford House in Manchester Square, home of the
Wallace Collection, was built by one of his very distant cousins. • Hungerford House, residence of
Baron Hungerford until 1669. It later became the site of
Hungerford Market and then
Charing Cross railway station •
Kingston House,
Knightsbridge, Westminster, formerly called Chudleigh House • Knyvet House, residence of
Thomas Knyvet, 1st Baron Knyvet (died 1622); one of three houses merged to form
10 Downing Street •
Lancaster House •
Lansdowne House •
Leicester House, Westminster •
Londonderry House (formerly on Piccadilly) •
Marlborough House, once a royal residence, now the
Commonwealth Secretariat •
Montagu House •
Norfolk House •
Northumberland House (demolished) •
Pembroke House, Whitehall •
Peterborough House, Millbank, Westminster. •
Richmond House, built c.1660 by
Charles Stewart, 3rd Duke of Richmond (of
Cobham Hall in Kent) on the site of the bowling green of the
Palace of Whitehall. •
Somerset House, Strand •
Somerset House, Park Lane (built 1769–70; demolished 1915) •
Spencer House, formerly the London residence of the
Earls Spencer •
Stratford House, built 1770–66 by
Edward Stratford, 2nd Earl of Aldborough. •
Suffolk Place,
Southwark (
Duke of Suffolk) • Wentworth House,
5, St James's Square, built in 1748–51 by
William Wentworth, 2nd Earl of Strafford, to the design of Matthew Brettingham The Elder. in 1984 it was the Libyan "People's Bureau", gunshots from which caused the
murder of Yvonne Fletcher.
Episcopal palaces •
Ely Palace (
Bishop of Ely) •
Arundel House (
Bishop of Bath and Wells) •
Durham House (
Bishop of Durham) •
Fulham Palace (
Bishop of London) •
Lambeth Palace (
Archbishop of Canterbury) •
Winchester Palace (
Bishop of Winchester), Southwark; •
Rochester House (
Bishop of Rochester), Southwark; •
Waverley House (
Abbot of Waverley), Southwark; •
York House (
Archbishop of York)
English provinces Whilst most English examples of the townhouse occur in London, provincial cities also contain some historical examples, for example Bampfylde House (destroyed in World War II) in
Exeter, the county seat of
Devon, the townhouse of
Baron Poltimore of the Bampfylde family, whose main country seat was Poltimore House in Devon. Also in Exeter was Bedford House, also demolished, the town residence of the
Duke of Bedford who resided principally at
Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire but required a base in the West Country from which to administer his vast estates there. ==Scotland==