Devonshire House
Devonshire House in
Many of Britain's great noblemen maintained large London houses that bore their names. As a ducal house (only in mainland Europe were such houses referred to as palaces), Devonshire House was one of the largest and grandest, ranking alongside Burlington House, Montague House, Lansdowne House, Londonderry House, Northumberland House, and Norfolk House. All of these have long been demolished, except Burlington and Lansdowne, both of which have been substantially altered.
Today the site is occupied by a namesake modern office building.
The site
Devonshire House occupied the site of Berkeley House, which was built between 1665 and 1673 and at a cost of over £30,000, by
Berkeley House, a classical mansion built by Hugh May, having been purchased in 1696 by William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire, was renamed "Devonshire House". As part of the agreement, John Berkeley, 3rd Baron Berkeley of Stratton (c. 1663–1697) undertook not to build on that part of the land he retained which lay directly behind the house to the north, so preserving the Duke's view. This covenant was still in force when the Berkeley land was developed after 1730, and the gardens of Berkeley Square represent the northern termination of that undeveloped strip, combined in the south with the gardens of Lansdowne House.[1]
On 16 October 1733, whilst undergoing refurbishment, the former Berkeley House was completely destroyed by fire, despite firefighting efforts by the Regiment of Guards, whose barracks were nearby, led by Willem van Keppel, 2nd Earl of Albemarle, and by other local troops led by Frederick, Prince of Wales. The cause was attributed to careless labourers.[2] Ironically, the Duke's former London residence, Old Devonshire House, at 48 Boswell Street, Bloomsbury, survived both its successors until The Blitz during World War II.
Ethos
During the 18th century forms of entertainment began to change and large
The 3rd Duke chose the fashionable architect William Kent, for whom this was a first commission for a London house. It was built between 1734 and about 1740.[4] Kent was the protégé of the immensely cultivated 3rd Earl of Burlington and had worked on his Chiswick House, built in 1729, and also at Holkham Hall, completed circa 1741, both in the Palladian style and considered the epitome of fashion and sophistication. Chiswick House later came, with other estates, into the possession of the Dukes of Devonshire through the marriage of the 4th Duke to Lady Charlotte Boyle, daughter and heiress of Lord Burlington.[5]
Architecture
In typical
The plan of Devonshire House defines it as one of the earliest of the great 18th-century
At Devonshire House, Kent's exterior stairs led up to a
Usage
Alterations were made to Devonshire House by the architect James Wyatt, over the long period 1776–90,[15] and later by Decimus Burton, who in 1843 constructed a new portico, entrance hall and grand staircase for the 6th Duke.[16] At that time the external double staircase was swept away, allowing for formal entrance to be made into the ground floor through the new portico. Hitherto the ground floor had contained only secondary rooms and in 18th century fashion had been the domain of servants. The new staircase conveyed guests directly to the piano nobile, from a low entrance hall, in a newly created recess formed by creating a convex bow at the centre of the rear garden facade.[17] Known as the "Crystal Staircase", it had a glass handrail and newel posts.[18] Burton amalgamated several of the principal rooms; he created a vast heavily gilded ballroom from two former drawing rooms and often created double height rooms at the expense of the bedrooms above, causing the house to become even more of a place for display and entertaining rather than for living.
Devonshire House was the setting for the brilliant social and political life of the circle around
Demolition
During World War I Devonshire House was used by the Red Cross, including for dealing with post. Gertrude Bacon was later in charge of this operation.[21]
After the war, many aristocratic families gave up their London houses and Devonshire House was deserted in 1919.[22] The demolition was mentioned nostalgically several times in literature and caused Virginia Woolf's Clarissa Dalloway to think, as she passed down Piccadilly, of "Devonshire House without its gilt leopards", a reference to the house's gilded gates.[23] It also inspired Siegfried Sassoon's "Monody on the Demolition of Devonshire House".[24]
The reason for the abandonment was that the
Legacy
In 1924-1926 Holland, Hannen & Cubitts built a new office building on the site, fronting directly onto Piccadilly, also known as "Devonshire House".[30] The building became the UK headquarters of the automobile manufacturer Citroën, with showrooms occupying the lower three floors. Citroën remained the chief occupant of the building until 1936. It was also the headquarters of The Rootes Group until the 1960s. During World War II it was occupied by the headquarters of the War Damage Commission.
Some of the paintings and furniture from Devonshire House survive at the Duke's principal seat,
Most of the great detached houses of noblemen which existed in the West End of London, where even the grandest persons often lived in
See also
- List of demolished buildings and structures in London
- Destruction of country houses in 20th-century Britain
References
- ^ 'Berkeley Square, North Side,' in Survey of London: Volume 40, the Grosvenor Estate in Mayfair, Part 2 (The Buildings), ed. F H W Sheppard (London: London County Council, 1980), 64-67, accessed 21 November 2015, online
- ^ London Online; Berkeley House and Devonshire House Archived 22 November 2015 at the Wayback Machine retrieved 30 September 2010; Sykes, Christopher Simon. Private Palaces: Life in the Great London Houses, p. 98, Chatto & Windus, 1985
- ^ Girouard, p194 explains this phenomenon.
- ^ Howard Colvin A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840, 3rd ed. 1995, s.v. "Kent, William".
- ^ Chatsworth, p52. "The Dowager Duchess of Devonshire". Derbyshire Countryside Ltd. 2005
- ^ E. Beresford Chancellor, The Private Palaces of London. Chapter E: "It is spacious, and so are the East India Company's Warehouses."
- ^ Michael I. Wilson, William Kent, Architect, Designer, Painter, Gardener, 1685—1748 1984:172, who adds "the fact that the house was hidden from public gaze behind a high wall must have helped still further to give it the appearance of a penitentiary"
- quattrocento paintingsincluding a so-called Bellini.
- ^ B. Lambert, The History and Survey of London and its Environs, 1806:529.
- ^ Noted in a brief notice in The Crayon, 1.12 (21 March 1855:184).
- Vitruvius Britannicusvolume iv (1767, pls. 19 and 20, illustration).
- ^ Tait A. A. ‘Adam, Robert (1728–1792)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2009 accessed 4 Oct 2010
- ^ The great height of the grander saloons pictured in The Illustrated London News was effected in the extensive restructuring under Decimus Burton by taking into the public spaces former upstairs accommodations, making of Devonshire House even more a site purely for public receptions and gallery display.
- ^ Girouard, pp 194 & 195.
- ^ Colvin 1995, s.v. "Wyatt, James".
- ^ Colvin 1995, s.v. "Burton, Decimus".
- ^ British History Online retrieved 5 October 2010.
- ^ Maev Kennedy, "Chatsworth House Auction". Guardian Online, Wednesday 29 September 2010, retrieved 5 October 2010.
- ^ Hugh Stokes, The Devonshire House Circle, 1916.
- ^ A light modern memoir of the ball, written by the daughter of the 11th duke and duchess, is Sophia Murphy, The Duchess of Devonshire's Ball, 1984. See also some images of guests in costume here: http://www.rvondeh.dircon.co.uk/incalmprose/index.html
- ^ Prosser, Sian. "Bacon [married name Foggitt], Gertrude". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 14 September 2022.
- ^ Noted by Fiske Kimball, in describing interiors from Lansdowne House re-erected in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, "Lansdowne House Redivivus". The Philadelphia Museum of Art Bulletin, 1943.
- ^ Virginia Woolf, "Mrs Dalloway in Bond Street", 1923.
- ^ a b Richard Davenport-Hines, "Cavendish, Victor Christian William, ninth Duke of Devonshire (1868–1938)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2009 accessed 4 Oct 2010.
- ^ "Inflation calculator". www.bankofengland.co.uk. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
- ^ Now in the Huntington Library, California
- ^ "Inflation calculator". www.bankofengland.co.uk. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
- ^ Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, p. 54.
- ^ Laura Battle, "An aristocrat's London residence gives way to modern life, 1925". FT Magazine, 21 August 2010.
- ^ Holland, Hannen, and Cubitts (1920) The Inception and Development of a Great Building Firm, page 42
- ^ Sotheby's catalog[permanent dead link]
- ^ The Times, 29 Sep 2010; Ben Hoyle, p. 55.
- ^ A complete list (see Townhouse (Great Britain)) would also include Melbourne House, remodelled as The Albany; Dover House in Whitehall, now government offices; Derby House in Stratford Place off Oxford Street; Crewe House,in Curzon Street; Bourdon House at the northeast end of Berkeley Square; Egremont House, Piccadilly, housing the Naval and Military Club; and Bath House. These are mentioned by Nikolaus Pevsner, London I: The Cities of London and Westminster (Buildings of England series) 1962. 78f.
Bibliography
- Trease, George (1975). London. London: Thames & Hudson. p. 161.