Mayfair, London, England

Camelford House

Camelford House The Marriott London Park Lane, at No. 140 Park Lane, opened in 1919.[22] The site was once occupied by Somerset House and Camelford House. The 11th Duke of Somerset, renamed his house "Somerset House", which Sir John Colville later called "a shade presumptuous of him, for there was another more splendid establishment bearing the name..."[4] The house thus became the third 'Somerset House' in London.[5] The Duke negotiated unsuccessfully with his neighbour Lord Grenville, who lived at Camelford House, Park Lane, as he wished to add to his new house, but enlarging it to the south would have detracted from Camelford, so in 1810 Somerset approached the second Earl Grosvenor about building in the courtyard between the house and the stables. However, there was doubt about the status of the yard, and Grosvenor thought the extension would darken Hereford Street.The Marriott London Park Lane, at No. 140 Park Lane, opened in 1919.[22]

Chesterfield House

Chesterfield House was a grand London townhouse built between 1747-52 by Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773), statesman and man of letters. The exterior was in the Palladian style, the interior Baroque. It was demolished in 1937 and on its site now stands an eponymous block of flats. It stood in Mayfair on the north side of Curzon Street, between South Audley Street and what is now Chesterfield Street.

The French travel-writer Pierre-Jean Grosley in his 1770 book Londres (translated as Tour to London) considered the house to be equal to the hotels of the nobility in Paris. Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, who built Chesterfield House It was built on land belonging to Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe [1] by Isaac Ware. In his “'Letters to his Son” Chesterfield wrote from “Hotel Chesterfield” on 31 March 1749: “I have yet finished nothing but my boudoir and my library; the former is the gayest and most cheerful room in England; the latter the best. My garden is now turfed, planted and sown, and will in two months more make a scene of verdure and flowers not common in London. ”

Dudley House

Dudley House is a Grade II* listed house located at 100 Park Lane in Mayfair, London.[1] It is one of the few surviving aristocratic private palaces in London. Dudley House is named after the Ward family, holders of the titles Baron Ward, Viscount Dudley and Ward, and Earl of Dudley. An earlier house with stabling on the site was acquired by the John, 6th Baron Ward in 1742. In 1759, the 3rd Viscount Dudley and Ward undertook substantial alterations to the property. Between 1827 and 1829 the 1st Earl of Dudley, of the first creation, rebuilt the house to the plans of the architect William Atkinson. The Earl died childless and insane in 1833, and the house was leased to the 2nd Marquess Conyngham, and then to the 2nd Marquess of Abercorn. In 1847 the Earl's cousin, the 11th Lord Ward took over the house, and remained until his death in 1885, by which time he had become 1st Earl of Dudley, of the second creation. In 1855 he commissioned alterations from architect Samuel Whitfield Daukes that were most impressive, including an 81 ft picture gallery and a 50 ft ballroom. After inheriting from his father, the 2nd Earl of Dudley extended the conservatory over the porch.[2] In 1895 the house was sold to Sir Joseph Robinson, 1st Baronet, a South African mining magnate.[3] Robinson frequently used the house for entertaining, hosting performances by singers Nellie Melba and Clara Butt at the house.[3] In 1912 Sir John Hubert Ward bought the building back for 10,000 pounds, and remained there until his death in 1938. Dudley House was severely damaged in the Blitz in World War II, and the property reverted into the possession of the Grosvenor Estate. It became a temporary office, before it began to deteriorate into a near ruin. Hammerson, a British property development and investment company, converted the house into offices, to designs by architects Sir Basil Spence and Anthony Blee in 1969-70.

The architects remained sympathetic to Dudley House's historic interiors,[3] but the rear of the house was completely reconstructed, the war-damaged ballroom and picture gallery disappearing, with only sections of the ceiling of the latter surviving under a false-ceiling. The house remained as offices for sixty years before its reversion to a private residence.[3] In 2006, Hammerson and the freeholder, the Grosvenor Estate, sold the leasehold for £37.4 million to Bristol Isles Ltd., a private investment company controlled by the Emir of Qatar.[4] The house was subject to a major refurbishment to the designs of Albert Pinto, and restoration which included a rebuilding of the historic picture gallery and ballroom. The house is now the London residence of Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah Al-Thani, son of Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa Al-Thani, a brother of the former Emir of Qatar, and first cousin of the current emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani. A 2015 Vanity Fair magazine profile of the house described it as London's most valuable private residence, at about $400 million, and that Queen Elizabeth II, a visitor, had supposedly said that the house "...makes Buckingham Palace look rather dull".[5]

Grosvenor House

Grosvenor House The Grosvenor House Hotel was built in the 1920s and opened in 1929 on the site of Grosvenor House, the former London residence of the Dukes of Westminster, whose family name is Grosvenor. The hotel owed its existence to Albert Octavius Edwards who conceived and built it, then presided over it as chairman for 10 years. Key to the story of the hotel was A.H. Jones, who had worked for Edwards in Doncaster. In January 1929, six months after the completion of the first block of apartments, and six months before completion of the hotel, Edwards brought Jones to Grosvenor House as accountant. In 1936, at the age of 29, Jones became general manager of Grosvenor House. Apart from the war years, when he served with the Royal Artillery and later in the NAAFI, Jones held this position until he retired in 1965. The hotel was not finally completed until the 1950s because Baron Bruno Schröder, who had acquired the lease of 35 Park Street in about 1910, had refused to give it up to Edwards. Schröder remained in the house until his death in 1943, and permission to demolish the house was finally given in 1956. The house was replaced with a 92-bedroom extension which was officially opened in 1957 by the Chancellor of the Exchequer Peter Thorneycroft. Grosvenor House managed to have a ‘good’ World War II. Ten thousand sandbags and five miles of blackout material protected the building, and its entertaining space was used in the war effort. The Great Room initially became home to the Officers’ Sunday Club and then, in 1943, to the US officers’ mess. Generals Dwight D. Eisenhower and George S. Patton were regular visitors.

Londonderry House

Londonderry House was an aristocratic townhouse situated on Park Lane in the Mayfair district of London, England. The house was the home to the Irish, titled family called the Stewarts who are better known as the Marquesses of Londonderry. It remained their London residence until its demolition in 1965. [1]

Londonderry House was bought by The Rt. Hon. The 1st Baron Stewart, a British aristocrat, in 1819 to serve as a home whilst the family stayed in London during the season. Lord Stewart succeeded as The Most Hon. The 3rd Marquess of Londonderry in 1822. Although the house was in their possession for more than 150 years, it actually started life before the Londonderrys.

The house was bought by the Sixth Earl of Holdernesse in the 1760s, when the Earl is thought to have bought the house next door as well but at a later date. He later joined the two so the house became a double-fronted London Mansion.
In 1819, Lord Stewart (later Marquess of Londonderry) bought the huge house to become the London home of the family during their long stays in the capital. (The family also owned the palatial Wynyard Park, County Durham, and Mount Stewart in the Province of Ulster in Ireland). Soon after this, he began redecorating. The Marquess spared no expense, as shown by his taste of architects: Benjamin Dean Wyatt and Philip Wyatt.

By 1835 the grand transformation was complete and it was the awe of London. The main stairway was meant to outdo that of nearby Lancaster House in nearby St James's. It succeeded in this: it had a large skylight, Rococo chandelier and two individual flights of stairs flanking each other. This graceful stairway led into the Grand Ballroom which, rather individually held pictures of the Stewart family men in Garter Robes. Said to have been inspired by the 'Waterloo Chamber' of Apsley House, it also outdid that. Around the room were large Marble statues by Canova and chairs in the French style.

Much of the famous Londonderry Silver can be seen at the Royal Pavilion, Brighton.
On from that was the Dining Room which held the Londonderrys' amazing collection of silver, known as the 'Londonderry Silver' (most of which was bought by the Brighton council for the Royal Pavilion where it can be seen today, along with the Ormonde silver too).

Another elegant room was the tripartite Drawing Room which held more Londonderry Silver, French furniture, international paintings and painted ceilings with birds. During World War I the house was used as a military hospital. After the war, Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, and his wife, Edith Helen Chaplin, continued to use the house and entertained extensively. After World War II, the house remained in the possession of the Londonderry family. The Londonderry age was over by the late 1950s due to the huge expense a house of that size would create. It was sold in 1962 and demolished, to make way for the London Hilton.

Queensberry House

Queensberry House 7 Burlington Gardens is a Grade II* building in Mayfair, London. Formerly known as Queensberry House, it was later called Uxbridge House. The building is now home to the London flagship store of the American fashion retailer Abercrombie & Fitch.