Stratford Place is a small road in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, off

Oxford Street Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, running between Marble Arch and Tottenham Court Road via Oxford Circus. It marks the notional boundary between the areas of Fitzrovia and Marylebone to t ...

, opposite

Bond Street Bond Street in the West End of London links Piccadilly in the south to Oxford Street in the north. Since the 18th century the street has housed many prestigious and upmarket fashion retailers. The southern section is Old Bond Street and the l ...

underground station. The road is a

cul-de-sac A dead end, also known as a ''cul-de-sac'' (; , ), a no-through road or a no-exit road, is a street with only one combined inlet and outlet. Dead ends are added to roads in urban planning designs to limit traffic in residential areas. Some d ...

Stratford House

Stratford House was built as the London

town house A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type of city residen ...

of the

Stratford family The House of Stratford () is a British aristocratic family, originating in Stratford-on-Avon between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. The family has produced multiple titles, including Earl of Aldborough, Viscount Amiens, Baron Baltin ...

between 1770 and 1776 for

Edward Stratford, 2nd Earl of Aldborough Edward Augustus Stratford, 2nd Earl of Aldborough, (1736 – 2 January 1801) of Belan house, styled The Honourable from 1763 to 1777 and Viscount Amiens in the latter year, was an Irish peer, Whig (British political faction), Whig politician, a ...

, who paid £4,000 for the site.About and History
at Oriental Club web site (accessed 28 January 2008) The central range was designed by

Robert Adam Robert Adam (3 July 17283 March 1792) was a British neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam (architect), William Adam (1689–1748), Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and train ...

. It had previously been the location of the

Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the Mayors in England, mayor of the City of London, England, and the Leader of the council, leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded Order of precedence, precedence over a ...

's Banqueting House, built in 1565. There have been several people of note who stayed there including the sons of the Tzar of Russia, and Clementine Hozier was born there, and the house until 1832 was owned by the Wingfield Stratford branch of the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

who inherited it through Edward's will.Stratford, Gerald H. ''The Stratfords'', (Chapter 13, Belan, Aldborough, and Stratford House) online a
Chapter 13, Belan, Aldborough, and Stratford House
(accessed 27 January 2008) It belonged briefly to Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich, a son of

Tsar Nicholas I of Russia Nicholas I, group=pron (Russian: Николай I Павлович; – ) was Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland from 1825 to 1855. He was the third son of Paul I and younger brother of his predecessor, Al ...

.AN OASIS IN LONDON'S WEST END
at asia-major.com (accessed 27 January 2008) The house was little altered until 1894, when its then owner, Mr Murray Guthrie, added a second storey to the east and west wings and a colonnade in front. In 1903, a new owner, the Liberal politician Sir Edward Colebrook, later Lord Colebrooke, reconstructed the Library to an Adam design. In 1908,

Lord Derby Edward George Geoffrey Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby (29 March 1799 – 23 October 1869), known as Lord Stanley from 1834 to 1851, was a British statesman and Conservative politician who served three times as Prime Minister of the United K ...

bought a lease and began more alterations, removing the colonnade and adding a third storey to both wings. He took out the original bifurcated staircase (replacing it with a less elegant single one), demolished the stables and built a Banqueting Hall with a grand ballroom above. In 1960 the house was purchased by the

Oriental Club The Oriental Club in London is a private members' club that was established in 1824. Charles Graves described it in 1963 as fine in quality as White's but with the space of infinitely larger clubs. It is now located in Stratford Place, near O ...

and converted to its present state. The ballroom was turned into two floors of new bedrooms, further lifts were added, and the banqueting hall was divided into a dining room and other rooms. The house now has a main drawing room, as well as others, a members' bar, a library and an ante-room, a billiards room, an internet suite and business room, and two (non)smoking rooms, as well as a dining room and 32 bedrooms. Stratford House is a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

Notable buildings and occupants

* Stratford House (home to the

) * Number 4 Stratford Place was the headquarters of the Apollinaris Company Ltd in the early 1900s. * The High Commission of

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

is at 6 Stratford Place. The building is Grade II listed. * The High Commission of Tanzania * Number 7 Stratford Place was the London home of

Martin van Buren Martin Van Buren ( ; ; December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862) was the eighth president of the United States, serving from 1837 to 1841. A primary founder of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as Attorney General o ...

. * A

Kabbalah Centre The Kabbalah Centre International is a non-profit organizationworldwide located in Los Angeles, California that provides courses on the Zohar and Kabbalistic teachings online as well as through its regional and city-based centers and study group ...

* Nos 12-13 are listed townhouses dating from 1774, designed by Richard Edwin.

References

Bibliography

* {{Coord, 51.5149, -0.1493, type:landmark_region:GB-WSM, display=title Roads in London Transport in the City of Westminster Stratford family Townhouses in the United Kingdom

Stratford House

Notable buildings and occupants

See also

References

Bibliography