Part 8

Adjoining Hatchett's is the Hotel Avondale, named after the Duke of Clarence and Avondale. The house was opened as a dining club, the "Cercle de Luxe," in 1892, after the failure of which it was reopened as an hotel in 1895.

No. 75 is the site of the Three Kings' Inn, where stood up to 1864 two pillars taken from Clarendon House.

At the corner of Berkeley Street is the Berkeley Hotel and Restaurant, formerly the St. James's Hotel, which stands on the site of the Gloucester coffee-house.

Opposite, at the corner of the Green Park, is Walsingham House, an enormous block built by Lord Walsingham in 1887, and on which he is said to have spent L300,000. It has been used as an hotel, and is shortly to be pulled down and rebuilt. Part of it was occupied by the Isthmian Club, established in 1882 for gentlemen interested in cricket, rowing, and other sports, which removed here from Grafton Street in 1887.

Opposite Berkeley Street stood the toll-gate, removed to Hyde Park Corner in 1725. No. 78, adjoining it, is Devonshire House, the residence of the Dukes of Devonshire, which stands in a courtyard concealed from the street by a high brick wall, in which are handsome iron gates. It is an unpretending brick building built by Kent in 1735, with a large garden at the back. The interior is handsome, and contains a gallery of pictures by old masters, a large collection of prints, and the famous Devonshire collection of gems. On this site stood Berkeley House, built about 1655 by Sir John Berkeley on a property called Hay Hill Farm, the grounds then covering the present Lansdowne House and Berkeley Square, as well as Berkeley and Stratton Street. It came into the possession of the Cavendish family before 1697, but was destroyed by fire in 1733. Queen Anne, when Princess of Denmark, lived here from 1692 to 1695. Stratton Street, a cul-de-sac, was built about 1693 by Lady Stratton. At No. 1 lived Mrs. Coutts (Miss Mellon), afterwards Duchess of St. Albans, d. 1837. It now belongs to her heir, the Baroness Burdett-Coutts.

Other inhabitants: Lord Willoughby, of Brook, 1698; Hon. George Berkeley, 1735; No. 2, Thomas Campbell, 1802; 7, William Gifford, 1797, Right Hon. Arnold Morley; 11, Roger Wilbraham, 1822-29, Lord Welby; 12, General Lord Lynedoch, d. 1803; 17, Earl of Clonmell.

At No. 80, Piccadilly, Sir Francis Burdett was arrested for treason in 1810, when he was imprisoned in the Tower. He was succeeded by the Duke of St. Albans. In 1849 Lady Guilford occupied the house.

At No. 81 in 1807 was established Watier's Gambling Club, which lasted until 1819; it was named after the Prince Regent's cook, the manager. It afterwards became a public gaming-house, and is now a private residence.

No. 82, Bath House, at the corner of Bolton Street, was built for Pulteney, Earl of Bath, who died 1764. The gardens then extended nearly to Curzon Street. It was rebuilt in 1821 for Lord Ashburton.

At No. 89, the east corner of Half-Moon Street, lived Madame d'Arblay.

At No. 94, Cambridge House (Naval and Military Club), standing in a courtyard, occupies the site of Carpenter's Statue Yard, which was succeeded by an inn. It was built in 1760 for the Earl of Egremont. The Marquis of Cholmondeley lived here 1809-29, after which the Duke of Cambridge was the owner until 1850. Lord Palmerston occupied it from 1855 till his death in 1865, when it was purchased by the Naval and Military Club, established 1862, for officers of the army and navy, who made extensive alterations in 1878. This was the first club located in Piccadilly.

No. 97, at the corner of Whitehorse Street, is a square white building; the New Travellers' Club (social and non-political) was established here. It now houses the Junior Naval and Military Club.

No. 100 is the Badminton Club (proprietary), built on the site of a mews, and established in 1876 for gentlemen interested in coaching and field sports. Next door is the palatial house of the Junior Constitutional Club for members professing Conservative principles. On the site stood the town house of the Earls of Mexborough.

No. 105, on the site of Jan Van Nost's figure-yard, the Earl of Barrymore built a house in 1870, which remained unfinished at his death. After being partially burned down, it was completed and opened as the Old Pulteney Hotel. Here the Emperor of Russia and his sister, the Grand Duchess of Oldenburg, stayed in 1814. In 1823 the house came into the possession of the Marquis of Hertford, who partially rebuilt it in 1861. His son, Sir Richard Wallace, sold it to Sir Julian Goldsmid, M.P., who died 1896. It is now the Isthmian Club. Near here stood the Queen's Meadhouse.

No. 106, at the corner of Brick Street, stands on the site of the Greyhound Inn, which was purchased by Sir Henry Hunlocke in 1761. He was succeeded in 1764 by the Earl of Coventry, who built the present house, which became in 1829 the Coventry House Club. In 1854 it became the home of the St. James's Club, established in that year as a centre for the members of the British and foreign diplomatic bodies. Next door is the Savile Club, until 1836 the residence of Nathan Meyer Rothschild, the head of the banking firm.

No. 116, Hope House, at the corner of Down Street, a handsome structure, was built by Mr. Hope in 1849 at a cost of L30,600, and was sold by his widow to the members of the Junior Athenaeum Club (social and non-political), established in 1866, which is now located there. The house was enlarged in 1887.

The private houses west of Down Street were built about 1873.

Two handsome houses, Nos. 127 and 128, were built about 1887. The first is the Cavalry Club, established in 1890 for officers of the cavalry and Yeomanry, and the second the Hyde Park Club.

No. 137, Gloucester House, stands on the site of Dickinson's Statue Yard. It belonged to the Earl of Elgin in 1808, from whom it was purchased in 1811 by the Duke of Gloucester on his marriage with Princess Mary. He was succeeded by the present owner, the Duke of Cambridge.

Other inhabitants of Piccadilly were: No. 96 (No. 15 Piccadilly west), Mr. Dumergue, with whom Sir Walter Scott resided in 1800; 99 (then 23), Sir William Hamilton, d. 1803; next door, Sir Thomas Lawrence; 114, Lord Palmerston, before 1855; 133, Kitty Frederick, mistress of the Duke of Queensberry, who built the house 1779; 139 (13, Piccadilly Terrace), Lord Byron, 1815; 138 and 139, the Duke of Queensberry, 1778-1810.

Hamilton Place is a short but broad street, lined on the west with large and fashionable houses. The ground, then part of Hyde Park, was granted to Hamilton, Ranger of Hyde Park, 1660-84, who built a street of small houses, named Hamilton Street, a cul-de-sac. This was replaced in 1809 by a street built by the Adams. In 1871, to relieve the congestion of the traffic, the roadway was carried through the Park Lane.

Inhabitants: No. 1, Lord Montgomery, 1810 (Lord Chancellor Eldon built the present house); 2, Duke of Bedford, 1810-19, Earl Gower (Duke of Sutherland), Right Hon. Thomas Grenville, 1840-46, Duke of Argyle, 1847-51; 3, Earl of Cork, 1810-50, Earl of Dalkeith, 1870; 4, Earl of Lucan, 1810, Duke of Wellington, 1814, Lord Grenville, 1822, Messrs. Labouchere, 1823-29, Henry Bevan, 1840-48, Earl of Northbrook, 1895; 5, Earl of Buckinghamshire, 1810-25, Marquis of Conyngham, 1870, Baron Leopold de Rothschild, 1895; 6, Right Hon. John Sullivan, 1810, Earl of Belmore, Lord Montagu, 1829, Earl of Home, 1843, Lord Southampton, 1847, W. Munro, 1848, Hon. B. J. Munro, 1870; 7, Earl of Shannon, 1810-22, William Miles, M.P., 1840-50. Nos. 7 and 8 are now the premises of the Bachelors' Club, established 1881, one of the most fashionable young men's clubs in London.

The space between Hamilton Place and Apsley House is now occupied by six large houses.

It was up to the middle of last century a row of mean buildings, many of them public-houses. Next to Apsley House stood, up to 1797, a noted inn, the Pillars of Hercules. In 1787 M. de Calonne built a mansion on the site now occupied by Nos. 146 and 147.

Inhabitants: No. 142, Miss Alice de Rothschild, heiress of the late Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild; 145 was formerly Northampton House; 148, Nathaniel Meyer, first Baron Rothschild, G.C.V.O., P.C.

Apsley House was built in 1778 by Lord Chancellor Apsley, Earl Bathurst, to whom the site was granted by George III. The ground was formerly occupied by the old Ranger's Lodge, and adjoining it was a tenement granted by George II. to Allen, a veteran of Dettingen, for a permanent apple-stall. In 1808 the house came into the possession of the Marquis Wellesley, and in 1816 into that of his brother, the Duke of Wellington, and it is now held by the fourth Duke.

It was faced with stone, and enlarged by the Wyatts in 1828, and in 1830 the Crown sold its interest in the building for L9,530. Further alterations were made in 1853. In the west gallery was held annually the Waterloo Banquet during the great Duke's life, and his study is still preserved intact. The house contains a good collection of pictures and many relics of the Napoleonic era.

Hyde Park Corner was the entrance to London until 1825, when the turnpike was removed. Cottages existed here in 1655. It is now an open triangular space, much enlarged when a portion of Green Park was thrown into the roadway in 1888. In the centre, about 1828, was erected a triumphal arch, an imitation of the arch of Titus at Rome. This, in 1846, was surmounted by a colossal equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington by Matthew Wyatt, which, in 1888, was removed to Aldershot, and the arch shifted to the top of Constitution Hill. The vacant space is now occupied by an equestrian statue of Wellington by Boehm.