Northumberland House (also known as Suffolk House when owned by the Earls of Suffolk) was a large
Jacobean townhouse in London, so-called because it was, for most of its history, the London residence of the
Percy family, who were the Earls and later
Dukes of Northumberland and one of England's richest and most prominent aristocratic dynasties for many centuries. It stood at the far western end of the
Strand from around 1605 until it was
demolished in 1874. In its later years it overlooked
Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square ( ) is a public square in the City of Westminster, Central London, laid out in the early 19th century around the area formerly known as Charing Cross. At its centre is a high column bearing a statue of Admiral Nelson comm ...
.
Background
In the 16th century the Strand, which connects the
City of London
The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...
with the royal centre of
Westminster
Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster.
The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...
, was lined with the mansions of some of England's richest
prelate
A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Christian clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which means 'carry before', 'be set above or over' or 'pre ...
s and
noblemen
Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. The characteristi ...
. Most of the grandest houses were on the southern side of the road and had gardens stretching down to the
River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...
e.g.
Durham House.
Construction
In around 1605
Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton cleared a site at
Charing Cross
Charing Cross ( ) is a junction in Westminster, London, England, where six routes meet. Clockwise from north these are: the east side of Trafalgar Square leading to St Martin's Place and then Charing Cross Road; the Strand leading to the City ...
on the site of a convent
and built himself a mansion, at first known as Northampton House. The Strand facade was 162 feet (49 m) wide and the house's depth was marginally greater. It had a single central courtyard and turrets in each corner.
The layout reflected
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
traditions, with a
great hall
A great hall is the main room of a royal palace, castle or a large manor house or hall house in the Middle Ages, and continued to be built in the country houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries, although by then the family used the gr ...
as the principal room. It had separate apartments for members of the household, who would still at that time have included gentlemen attendants such as Jassintour Rozea, French Master Chef, who arranged sumptuous banquets for the Duke, Charles Seymour, one of London's wealthiest aristocrats. Many of the apartments were reached from external doors in the courtyard, in the manner still seen at
Oxbridge
Oxbridge is a portmanteau of Oxford and Cambridge, the two oldest, wealthiest, and most famous universities in the United Kingdom. The term is used to refer to them collectively, in contrast to other British universities, and more broadly to de ...
colleges. The exterior was embellished with classical ornament in the loose way of ambitious Jacobean buildings. The Strand's most striking external feature was its elaborate four-storey carved stone gateway. During the funeral of
Anne of Denmark
Anne of Denmark (; 12 December 1574 – 2 March 1619) was the wife of King James VI and I; as such, she was Queen of Scotland from their marriage on 20 August 1589 and Queen of England and Ireland from the union of the Scottish and Eng ...
in May 1619, a large stone letter 'S' fell from the battlements of the gatehouse onto spectators of the procession, killing one William Appleyard. According to
Nathaniel Brent
Sir Nathaniel Brent (c. 1573 – 6 November 1652) was an English college head.
Life
He was the son of Anchor Brent of Little Wolford, Warwickshire, where he was born about 1573. He became 'portionist,' or postmaster, of Merton College, Oxford, i ...
, the stone was part of a motto and was "thrust down by a gentlewoman who put her foot against it, not thinking it had been so brickle
rittle.
The garden was wide and over long, but unlike those of neighbouring mansions to the east, it did not reach all the way down to the river.
Seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
The house passed from Lord Northampton to the
Earls of Suffolk, another branch of the powerful Howard family headed by the
Dukes of Norfolk. In the 1640s it was sold to the
Earl of Northumberland, at the discounted price of £15,000, as part of the marriage settlement when he married a Howard.
Regular alterations were made over the next two centuries in response to fashion and to make the layout more convenient for the lifestyle of the day.
John Webb was employed from 1657 to 1660 to relocate the family's living accommodation from the Strand front to the garden front. In the 1740s and 1750s the Strand front was largely reconstructed and two wings were added which projected from the ends of the garden front at right angles. These were over long, in late
palladian
Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...
style, and contained a ballroom and a picture gallery, the latter itself 106 feet (32 m) long. The architects were
Daniel Garrett, until his death in 1753; and then the better known
James Paine. In the mid-1760s
Robert Mylne was employed to reface the courtyard in stone; he may also have been responsible for extensions to the two garden wings which were made at that time. In the 1770s
Robert Adam was commissioned to redecorate the state rooms on the garden front, and the Glass Drawing Room at Northumberland House was one of his most celebrated interiors. Part of the Strand front had to be rebuilt after a fire in 1780.
[
]
Nineteenth century
In 1819 Thomas Cundy was employed to rebuild the Garden (South) Front, which had become unstable, moving it south; he subsequently added the final main staircase.[
By the end of the mid-19th century the other mansions on the Strand had been demolished. The area was largely commercial and its entertainment industry had grown, meaning it was no longer a fashionable place for aristocracy to live. The current Duke of Northumberland was reluctant to leave his generations-held home, although he was pressured to do so by the ]Metropolitan Board of Works
The Metropolitan Board of Works (MBW) was the principal instrument of local government in a wide area of Middlesex, Surrey, and Kent, defined by the Metropolis Management Act 1855, from December 1855 until the establishment of the London Coun ...
, which wished to build a road through the middle of the site to connect to the new roads by the Embankment. After a fire which caused substantial damage, the Duke accepted an offer of £500,000 in 1874 (). Northumberland House was demolished and Northumberland Avenue, including its buildings fronting, was built in its place.[
]
Northumberland Avenue
One of the largest buildings on the newly built Northumberland Avenue was the 500-bedroom Hotel Victoria, which in its arched entrance, and oriel window above it, imitated Northumberland House. During the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
it was taken over by the Ministry of Defence
{{unsourced, date=February 2021
A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in state ...
and renamed Northumberland House. It is now known as No. 8 Northumberland Avenue.
Remains
An archway from Northumberland House, designed by William Kent
William Kent (c. 1685 – 12 April 1748) was an English architect, landscape architect, painter and furniture designer of the early 18th century. He began his career as a painter, and became Principal Painter in Ordinary or court painter, bu ...
, was sold for the entrance to the garden of Tudor House, which formerly stood in Bromley-by-Bow. It was moved in 1998 to form the principal entrance to the Bromley by Bow Centre.
See also
* Alnwick Castle – the Percy family's main seat.
* List of demolished buildings and structures in London
*Syon House
Syon House is the west London residence of the Duke of Northumberland. A Grade I listed building, it lies within the 200-acre (80 hectare) Syon Park, in the London Borough of Hounslow.
The family's traditional central London residence h ...
– the Percy family's west London residence.
Notes, references and sources
;Notes and references
;Sources
*''London's Mansions'' David Pearce (BT Batsford Ltd., 1986)
External links
Northumberland House
at the '' Survey of London'' online
Northumberland House and its associations
– section of Old and New London Volume 3 (1878)
{{Trafalgar Square
1605 establishments in England
Houses completed in 1605
1874 disestablishments in England
Buildings and structures demolished in 1874
Former houses in the City of Westminster
Percy family residences
+
Demolished buildings and structures in London
Strand, London