Royal Philatelic Society London 12 Sept 2015 04

Devonshire Place is a street in the

City of Westminster The City of Westminster is a city and borough in Inner London. It is the site of the United Kingdom's Houses of Parliament and much of the British government. It occupies a large area of central Greater London, including most of the West En ...

, London, that runs from

Marylebone Road Marylebone Road ( ) is an important thoroughfare in central London, within the City of Westminster. It runs east–west from the Euston Road at Regent's Park to the A40 Westway at Paddington. The road which runs in three lanes in both direction ...

in the north to Devonshire Street in the south. A number of literary and society figures have lived in the street. At the north of the street is

The London Clinic The London Clinic is a private healthcare organisation and registered charity based on the corner of Devonshire Place and Marylebone Road in central London. According to HealthInvestor, it is one of England's largest private hospitals. History ...

, one of England's largest private hospitals.

History

Devonshire Place was built between c1788 and 1800 on the Portland Estate (Howard de Walden since c1900). Originally part of Upper Wimpole Street, it took its present name by 1791. The name reflects the close family connection between the Dukes of Portland and the Duke of Devonshire. Most of the original houses survive, built under the supervision of builder and surveyor John White. They were big houses with large frontages and White built his own house at the top end - Devonshire Place House.

Buildings and inhabitants

William Beckford, millionaire landowner, politician and author of the Gothic novel ''

Vathek ''Vathek'' (alternatively titled ''Vathek, an Arabian Tale'' or ''The History of the Caliph Vathek'') is a Gothic novel written by William Beckford. It was composed in French beginning in 1782, and then translated into English by Reverend S ...

'', lived for a time at No. 4. Matthew Lewis, author of another Gothic novel, ''

The Monk ''The Monk: A Romance'' is a Gothic novel by Matthew Gregory Lewis, published in 1796. A quickly written book from early in Lewis's career (in one letter he claimed to have written it in ten weeks, but other correspondence suggests that he h ...

'', lived at No. 9 and

William Rothenstein Sir William Rothenstein (29 January 1872 – 14 February 1945) was an English painter, printmaker, draughtsman, lecturer, and writer on art. Emerging during the early 1890s, Rothenstein continued to make art right up until his death. Though he c ...

lived at No. 10.Williams, George G. Assisted by Marian and Geoffrey Williams. (1973) ''Guide to Literary London''. London:

Batsford Batsford is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England. The village is about 1½ miles north-west of Moreton-in-Marsh. There is a falconry centre close to the village and Batsford Arboretum is nearb ...

, p. 286.

Sir Thomas Baring, 2nd Baronet Sir Thomas Baring, 2nd Baronet (12 June 1772 – 3 April 1848), was a British banker and Member of Parliament. Early life Baring was born on 12 June 1772. A member of the Baring family, he was the eldest son of Harriet (née Herring) Baring and ...

, banker and politician, lived at No. 21 between 1804 and 1840, The

Royal Philatelic Society London The Royal Philatelic Society London (RPSL) is the oldest philatelic society in the world. It was founded on 10 April 1869 as ''The Philatelic Society, London''. The society runs a postal museum, the Spear Museum of Philatelic History, at its ...

was located on the corner of Devonshire Street and Devonshire Place at the south end of the street until 2019.Royal Philatelic Society London.
Retrieved 17 September 2015.

References

External links

Streets in the City of Westminster {{London-road-stub