Somerset House, Park Lane
Encyclopedia
Somerset House, Park Lane (built 1769-70, demolished
1915), was an 18th century town house
on the east side of Park Lane
, where it meets Oxford Street
, in the Mayfair
area of London
, England
. It was also known as 40 Park Lane, although a renumbering means that the site is now called 140 Park Lane.
The freehold of the house was always with the Grosvenor family
, while the successive owners of the lease
were the 2nd Viscount Bateman
, followed by Warren Hastings
, a former Governor-General of India
, the third Earl of Rosebery
, the Dukes of Somerset
, after whom the house took its longest-surviving name, and finally the publisher George Murray Smith
and his widow.
and was designed by the master carpenter John Phillips, who was the "undertaker" for the whole north-west corner of the Grosvenor estate.
The new house was built with one side facing Park Lane, the main entrance being from a courtyard which continued the line of Hereford Street. It had four storey
s above ground, with bay window
s extending through the floors. One bay faced Park Lane, and two more faced the garden, which ran down to North Row. Although all surviving pictures of the house show it cased in stucco
, at the outset the façades
may have been bare brick
, with the windows dressed in Portland stone
. On the ground floor, the entrance hall was paved in Portland stone and leading from it were the dining room, the drawing room and a dressing room. The staircase rose from the hall, with stone steps and iron railings, to the second floor, which had three principal rooms, including Lady Bateman's bedroom and her dressing-room. Of the chimneypieces
in the main rooms, some cost £25 each, others £50.
At the northern end of the courtyard, where it met Oxford Street
, there was a stable building, and under it with the kitchen, connected to the house by an underground passage from basement to basement.
Bateman agreed to pay Phillips £7,000 for the work to complete the house.
, a former Governor-General of India
, for about £8,000, of which half was paid at once, with Hastings moving in during November 1789. This was shortly after he had been impeached
, and he used the house as his London home throughout several years of a long trial which led to his acquittal in 1795. In 1797 he sold the house at auction, when it was bought by the third Earl of Rosebery
for £9,450. Rosebery was offered the pictures on the walls but declined them, and Hastings later noted in his diary that they were "sold at Christie's for nothing".
(1775–1855), when it was described as "a very good one".
The 11th Duke renamed the house "Somerset House", which Sir John Colville later called "a shade presumptuous of him, for there was another more splendid establishment
bearing the name..." The house thus became the third 'Somerset House' in London.
The Duke negotiated unsuccessfully with his neighbour Lord Grenville, who lived at Camelford House, Park Lane, as he wished to add to his new house, but enlarging it to the south would have detracted from Camelford, so in 1810 Somerset approached the second Earl Grosvenor about building in the courtyard between the house and the stables. However, there was doubt about the status of the yard, and Grosvenor thought the extension would darken Hereford Street.
In 1813 the Duke wrote to his brother, Lord Webb John Seymour (1777–1819), about his wife: "Charlotte is as busy as a bee upon a bank of thyme. Furnishing her house has been one occupation, and she has the fashionable predilection for old things". In 1819 the Duke again thought of building on his garden, and after negotiations with Grenville and Grosvenor a short two-storey extension close to the windows of the library at Camelford House was built, and in 1821 or 1822 a single-storey entrance corridor was added on the north side.
The Duke's first duchess died at Somerset House in 1827, and he himself died there in 1855. After that, his second wife remained at the house until she died in 1880. The twelfth Duke
made repairs, carried out by William Cubitt and Co., but after he died in 1885 the house was empty for some years.
The 12th Duke used the address "40, Park Lane". He left the house to his daughter Lady Hermione Graham, who became a widow in 1888. In 1890, she and her son Sir Richard Graham sold it to George Murray Smith
, of Smith, Elder & Co.
, the publishers.
, as freeholder, was uneasy about allowing the two demolitions, "having regard to No. 40 having historical associations", but in the end he agreed to the scheme. Camelford House was demolished in 1913. When Mrs Murray Smith left she claimed that the house possessed "vaults with chains in them", including a cell said to have been used for prisoners being taken to Tyburn
, but when this was investigated by the Grosvenor estate surveyor, Edmund Wimperis, he found nothing of the kind.
complained that Park Lane's former "casual elegance" was being replaced by a "frippery and extravagance" which looked like converting it into another Fifth Avenue. In 1905 a newspaper noted that "the thoroughfare is becoming a less popular place of residence, eight of the houses being to be let or sold". Soon, there were complaints of noise from motor buses, and by 1909 property values had fallen. These factors led to the demolition
of the house in 1915, to be replaced by the first flats
built in Park Lane. There was public opposition to the development, but the flats, designed by Frank Verity
, were built on the site in 1915–19.
When Somerset House was demolished, four of its chimneypieces were moved to other houses of the Grosvenor estate. Two went to 11, Green Street, and two to 50, Park Street, where they were still surviving in 1980. The site is now occupied by the Marriott London Park Lane
.
Demolition
Demolition is the tearing-down of buildings and other structures, the opposite of construction. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a building apart while carefully preserving valuable elements for re-use....
1915), was an 18th century town house
Townhouse
A townhouse is the term historically used in the United Kingdom, Ireland and in many other countries to describe a residence of a peer or member of the aristocracy in the capital or major city. Most such figures owned one or more country houses in which they lived for much of the year...
on the east side of Park Lane
Park Lane (road)
Park Lane is a major road in the City of Westminster, in Central London.-History:Originally a country lane running north-south along what is now the eastern boundary of Hyde Park, it became a fashionable residential address from the eighteenth century onwards, offering both views across Hyde Park...
, where it meets Oxford Street
Oxford Street
Oxford Street is a major thoroughfare in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, United Kingdom. It is Europe's busiest shopping street, as well as its most dense, and currently has approximately 300 shops. The street was formerly part of the London-Oxford road which began at Newgate,...
, in the Mayfair
Mayfair
Mayfair is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster.-History:Mayfair is named after the annual fortnight-long May Fair that took place on the site that is Shepherd Market today...
area of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It was also known as 40 Park Lane, although a renumbering means that the site is now called 140 Park Lane.
The freehold of the house was always with the Grosvenor family
Duke of Westminster
The title Duke of Westminster was created by Queen Victoria in 1874 and bestowed upon Hugh Grosvenor, 3rd Marquess of Westminster. The current holder of the title is Gerald Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster....
, while the successive owners of the lease
Leasehold estate
A leasehold estate is an ownership of a temporary right to land or property in which a lessee or a tenant holds rights of real property by some form of title from a lessor or landlord....
were the 2nd Viscount Bateman
Viscount Bateman
Viscount Bateman was a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created on 12 July 1725 for William Bateman, previously Member of Parliament for Leominster and the son of Sir James Bateman, Lord Mayor of London from 1716 to 1717. He was made Baron Culmore, in the County of Londonderry, at the same...
, followed by Warren Hastings
Warren Hastings
Warren Hastings PC was the first Governor-General of India, from 1773 to 1785. He was famously accused of corruption in an impeachment in 1787, but was acquitted in 1795. He was made a Privy Councillor in 1814.-Early life:...
, a former Governor-General of India
Governor-General of India
The Governor-General of India was the head of the British administration in India, and later, after Indian independence, the representative of the monarch and de facto head of state. The office was created in 1773, with the title of Governor-General of the Presidency of Fort William...
, the third Earl of Rosebery
Earl of Rosebery
Earl of Rosebery is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1703 for Archibald Primrose, 1st Viscount of Rosebery, with remainder to his issue male and female successively...
, the Dukes of Somerset
Duke of Somerset
Duke of Somerset is a title in the peerage of England that has been created several times. Derived from Somerset, it is particularly associated with two families; the Beauforts who held the title from the creation of 1448 and the Seymours, from the creation of 1547 and in whose name the title is...
, after whom the house took its longest-surviving name, and finally the publisher George Murray Smith
George Murray Smith
George Murray Smith was the son of George Smith who with Alexander Elder started the Victorian publishing firm of Smith, Elder & Co.. His brainchild, The Cornhill Magazine, was the premier fiction-carrying magazine of the 19th century.The firm was extremely successful. G. M...
and his widow.
Lord Bateman, 1769–1789
The house was built between 1769 and 1770 for John Bateman, 2nd Viscount BatemanViscount Bateman
Viscount Bateman was a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created on 12 July 1725 for William Bateman, previously Member of Parliament for Leominster and the son of Sir James Bateman, Lord Mayor of London from 1716 to 1717. He was made Baron Culmore, in the County of Londonderry, at the same...
and was designed by the master carpenter John Phillips, who was the "undertaker" for the whole north-west corner of the Grosvenor estate.
The new house was built with one side facing Park Lane, the main entrance being from a courtyard which continued the line of Hereford Street. It had four storey
Storey
A storey or story is any level part of a building that could be used by people...
s above ground, with bay window
Bay window
A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room, either square or polygonal in plan. The angles most commonly used on the inside corners of the bay are 90, 135 and 150 degrees. Bay windows are often associated with Victorian architecture...
s extending through the floors. One bay faced Park Lane, and two more faced the garden, which ran down to North Row. Although all surviving pictures of the house show it cased in stucco
Stucco
Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...
, at the outset the façades
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
may have been bare brick
Brick
A brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using various kinds of mortar. It has been regarded as one of the longest lasting and strongest building materials used throughout history.-History:...
, with the windows dressed in Portland stone
Portland stone
Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries consist of beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building stone throughout the British Isles, notably in major...
. On the ground floor, the entrance hall was paved in Portland stone and leading from it were the dining room, the drawing room and a dressing room. The staircase rose from the hall, with stone steps and iron railings, to the second floor, which had three principal rooms, including Lady Bateman's bedroom and her dressing-room. Of the chimneypieces
Fireplace mantel
Fireplace mantel or mantelpiece, also known as a chimneypiece, originated in medieval times as a hood that projected over a grate to catch the smoke. The term has evolved to include the decorative framework around the fireplace, and can include elaborate designs extending to the ceiling...
in the main rooms, some cost £25 each, others £50.
At the northern end of the courtyard, where it met Oxford Street
Oxford Street
Oxford Street is a major thoroughfare in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, United Kingdom. It is Europe's busiest shopping street, as well as its most dense, and currently has approximately 300 shops. The street was formerly part of the London-Oxford road which began at Newgate,...
, there was a stable building, and under it with the kitchen, connected to the house by an underground passage from basement to basement.
Bateman agreed to pay Phillips £7,000 for the work to complete the house.
Warren Hastings, 1789–1797
In 1789 Bateman sold the house to Warren HastingsWarren Hastings
Warren Hastings PC was the first Governor-General of India, from 1773 to 1785. He was famously accused of corruption in an impeachment in 1787, but was acquitted in 1795. He was made a Privy Councillor in 1814.-Early life:...
, a former Governor-General of India
Governor-General of India
The Governor-General of India was the head of the British administration in India, and later, after Indian independence, the representative of the monarch and de facto head of state. The office was created in 1773, with the title of Governor-General of the Presidency of Fort William...
, for about £8,000, of which half was paid at once, with Hastings moving in during November 1789. This was shortly after he had been impeached
Impeachment of Warren Hastings
The Impeachment of Warren Hastings was a failed attempt to impeach the former Governor-General of India Warren Hastings in the Parliament of Great Britain between 1788 and 1795. Hastings was accused of misconduct during his time in Calcutta particularly relating to mismanagement and personal...
, and he used the house as his London home throughout several years of a long trial which led to his acquittal in 1795. In 1797 he sold the house at auction, when it was bought by the third Earl of Rosebery
Earl of Rosebery
Earl of Rosebery is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1703 for Archibald Primrose, 1st Viscount of Rosebery, with remainder to his issue male and female successively...
for £9,450. Rosebery was offered the pictures on the walls but declined them, and Hastings later noted in his diary that they were "sold at Christie's for nothing".
Lord Rosebery, 1797–1808
Little is known of Lord Rosebery's eleven years of occupation. In 1808 the house was sold to the eleventh Duke of SomersetEdward St Maur, 11th Duke of Somerset
Edward Adolphus St. Maur, 11th Duke of Somerset KG FRS was the son of Webb Seymour, 10th Duke of Somerset and Mary Bonnell. He was also a baronet....
(1775–1855), when it was described as "a very good one".
Dukes of Somerset, 1808–1885
Somerset House
Somerset House is a large building situated on the south side of the Strand in central London, England, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The central block of the Neoclassical building, the outstanding project of the architect Sir William Chambers, dates from 1776–96. It...
bearing the name..." The house thus became the third 'Somerset House' in London.
The Duke negotiated unsuccessfully with his neighbour Lord Grenville, who lived at Camelford House, Park Lane, as he wished to add to his new house, but enlarging it to the south would have detracted from Camelford, so in 1810 Somerset approached the second Earl Grosvenor about building in the courtyard between the house and the stables. However, there was doubt about the status of the yard, and Grosvenor thought the extension would darken Hereford Street.
In 1813 the Duke wrote to his brother, Lord Webb John Seymour (1777–1819), about his wife: "Charlotte is as busy as a bee upon a bank of thyme. Furnishing her house has been one occupation, and she has the fashionable predilection for old things". In 1819 the Duke again thought of building on his garden, and after negotiations with Grenville and Grosvenor a short two-storey extension close to the windows of the library at Camelford House was built, and in 1821 or 1822 a single-storey entrance corridor was added on the north side.
The Duke's first duchess died at Somerset House in 1827, and he himself died there in 1855. After that, his second wife remained at the house until she died in 1880. The twelfth Duke
Edward Seymour, 12th Duke of Somerset
Sir Edward Adolphus Seymour , 12th Duke of Somerset, etc. KG, PC , styled Baron Seymour until 1855, was a British Whig aristocrat and politician, who served in various cabinet positions in the mid-19th century...
made repairs, carried out by William Cubitt and Co., but after he died in 1885 the house was empty for some years.
The 12th Duke used the address "40, Park Lane". He left the house to his daughter Lady Hermione Graham, who became a widow in 1888. In 1890, she and her son Sir Richard Graham sold it to George Murray Smith
George Murray Smith
George Murray Smith was the son of George Smith who with Alexander Elder started the Victorian publishing firm of Smith, Elder & Co.. His brainchild, The Cornhill Magazine, was the premier fiction-carrying magazine of the 19th century.The firm was extremely successful. G. M...
, of Smith, Elder & Co.
Smith, Elder & Co.
Smith, Elder & Co. was a firm of British publishers who were most noted for the works they published in the 19th century.The firm was founded by George Smith and Alexander Elder and successfully continued by George Murray Smith .They are notable for producing the first edition of the Dictionary...
, the publishers.
The Murray Smiths, 1890–1915
George Murray Smith, born in 1824, occupied the house, which became known as 40, Park Lane, until he died in 1901. The lease continued in his family until 1915, his widow remaining living there until May 1914, but in 1906, negotiations began for the redevelopment of the Somerset House site together with Camelford House. The 2nd Duke of WestminsterHugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster
Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster GCVO DSO was the son of Victor Alexander Grosvenor, Earl Grosvenor and Lady Sibell Mary Lumley, the daughter of the 9th Earl of Scarborough...
, as freeholder, was uneasy about allowing the two demolitions, "having regard to No. 40 having historical associations", but in the end he agreed to the scheme. Camelford House was demolished in 1913. When Mrs Murray Smith left she claimed that the house possessed "vaults with chains in them", including a cell said to have been used for prisoners being taken to Tyburn
Tyburn
Tyburn is a former village just outside the then boundaries of London that was best known as a place of public execution.Tyburn may also refer to:* Tyburn , river and historical water source in London...
, but when this was investigated by the Grosvenor estate surveyor, Edmund Wimperis, he found nothing of the kind.
Demolition
In 1901, a writer in The Architectural ReviewArchitectural Review
The Architectural Review is a monthly international architectural magazine published in London since 1896. Articles cover the built environment which includes landscape, building design, interior design and urbanism as well as theory of these subjects....
complained that Park Lane's former "casual elegance" was being replaced by a "frippery and extravagance" which looked like converting it into another Fifth Avenue. In 1905 a newspaper noted that "the thoroughfare is becoming a less popular place of residence, eight of the houses being to be let or sold". Soon, there were complaints of noise from motor buses, and by 1909 property values had fallen. These factors led to the demolition
Demolition
Demolition is the tearing-down of buildings and other structures, the opposite of construction. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a building apart while carefully preserving valuable elements for re-use....
of the house in 1915, to be replaced by the first flats
Apartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
built in Park Lane. There was public opposition to the development, but the flats, designed by Frank Verity
Frank Verity
Francis Thomas Verity was an English cinema architect during the cinema building boom of the post-war years.Verity was born in London, educated at Cranleigh and joined Thomas Verity, his father, in his architectural practice, which specialised in theatre building.Both Veritys bought an interest...
, were built on the site in 1915–19.
When Somerset House was demolished, four of its chimneypieces were moved to other houses of the Grosvenor estate. Two went to 11, Green Street, and two to 50, Park Street, where they were still surviving in 1980. The site is now occupied by the Marriott London Park Lane
Marriott London Park Lane
Marriott London Park Lane Hotel is a luxury 5-star hotel in London, England. It is located at 140 Park Lane and is run by the Marriott Hotels group...
.