Month: August 2022

The answer to last weeks’ post is ‘Albany’, previously home to all those listed in the post such as Thomas Babington Macaulay (whose ghost is said to haunt the building), Edward Heath, Lord Byron, William Gladstone, Jacob Rees-Mogg and lots more.

You may well have walked along Piccadilly without noticing the Albany which sits back from the main road near the Royal Academy.

A previous property on the site was bought in 1771 by Penistone Lamb, Lord Melbourne, the father of the future prime minister, William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne. Well, I say ‘father’ but the paternity is questionable. His mother was Elizabeth Milbanke, Lady Melbourne, who had six children surviving beyond infancy, only one of whom, also called Penistone, appears to have been the child of Penistone Lamb senior. The future prime minister, William, along with two other children, was probably the son of Lord Egremont who is reputed to have actually bought Elizabeth Milbanke from her previous lover. A further child, George, was possibly the son of the future King George IV. Amazingly Elizabeth appears to have avoided scandal, believing in secrecy, discretion and saying nowt.

Melbourne demolished the orignal house on the site and built Melbourne House, a palatial three-story, mansion in the Georgian style. A large, sumptuous property was needed because Lady Melbourne possessed the required social skills and ambition to become one of the leading society hostesses of the age. Guests included Richard Brinsley Sheridan and Charles James Fox, and Elizabeth made sure she was also friendly with rival salon hostess, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire and her sister Henrietta. It was Henrietta’s daughter, Caroline, who later married the 2nd Viscount Melbourne and then had a famous affair with Lord Byron.

But all that was a bit later, after the Melbournes had exchanged their house with the Whitehall property of Frederick, Duke of York and Albany. This later became known as Dover House, now home to the Scottish Office. It appears the Melbournes’ financial dificulties may have prompted their agreement to the swap. The Duke of York and Albany was the brother of the future George IV and Melbourne House became known as ‘Albany’.

The Duke of York also proved incapable of managing his finances and in 1802 the mansion was sold to Alexander Copeland who hired architect Henry Holland to subdivide the mansion and convert the entire site into 69 different living ‘sets’. A co-ownership scheme was established, the sets being owned by wealthy bachelors, hence the long list of illustrious residents over the next 200 years. Women are now allowed to take on a ‘set’, one previous resident being the novelist, Georgette Heyer.

The origin of the term ‘set’ is unclear but possibly comes from the particular lifestyle of badgers. It seems to have been successful as Albany is said to be the longest continually occupied co-ownership scheme in the world.

When you’re next walking in Piccadilly be sure to take a minute to admire Albany and ponder the impressive list of past occupants.

True or false:

a) The Duke of York and Albany is the chap on the top of the column just off the Mall

b) The Duke of York and Albany is the subject of the well known rhyme, ‘The Grand Old Duke of York’

c) The Australian city of Melbourne is named after William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne.

Friday, 9th September 2pm

Take the afternoon off work and enjoy a fascinating tour of one of London’s most attractive areas.

The Remarkable Women of Marylebone

Lots more walks available.

Last week’s blog posed a riddle: what links a cat; Henry III; comic opera; the Highway Code; and Henry VII?

The answer is The Savoy.

In 1236 Henry III married Eleanor of Provence who invited her relatives to England, including Peter of Savoy. Peter acquired the land around the current hotel from the king in 1245 and constructed Savoy Palace in 1263. There is a statue of Peter of Savoy over the entrance to the hotel.

Later owned by John of Gaunt, the third son of Edward III, the palace was largely destroyed in the peasant’s revolt of 1381 and the remains became a prison. In 1505 Henry VII built a ‘hospital’ on the site for the ‘poor and needy’. Later used as a barracks and a prison, it was gradually destroyed by the construction of both Waterloo Bridge in 1817 and the Embankment in the 1860s. Only the hospital chapel remains, now called the Queen’s Chapel of the Savoy. This was pictured in last week’s post.

In 1881 Richard d’Oyly Carte acquired the site and built the Savoy Theatre specifically for the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. The three men famously fell out over the funding of a carpet but their enormous financial success enabled D’Oyly Carte to build the magnificent Savoy hotel in 1889.

The High way Code? The entrance road to the hotel is often identified as the only road in London on which you drive on the right (or wrong) side of the road.

And the cat?! In 1898, a wealthy South African named Woolf Joel hosted a private dinner at the hotel. Thirteen people gathered for dinner and guests discussed the superstition associated with the unlucky number, suggesting that the first person to get up from the table would be the first to die. Scoffing at the superstition, Woolf Joel left the table first. Back home in Johannesburg a few weeks later, Joel was shot dead.

As a result the Savoy decreed that in future any table of thirteen would be joined by a member of staff as a fourteenth guest, and for the next twenty-five years a waiter would sit at the table if there were 13 guests. The presence of a complete stranger at the table was unpopular with guests and the hotel had one less waiter available. An alternative approach was required. The solution was Kaspar the Cat, sculpted in the 1920s, who now, when required, sits silently on the fourteenth chair with a napkin around his neck, and is served with each course along with the other thirteen guests. Visitors can see Kaspar on a cabinet in the main reception area of the hotel.

Another tasty morsel: An early chef at the Savoy was Auguste Escoffier. It is often said that the word ‘to scoff’, as in ‘to scoff your food’, derives from his name. Unfortunately it appears the word was already in use by the middle of the 19th century and derives from ‘scarf’ which was probably an Africaan or Dutch word for food. But why ruin a good story?!

This week’s question: which building in the Borough of Westminster connects these people, and many more?!

Althorp, Lord, later third Earl Spencer

Armstrong-Jones, A. C. R., later Earl of Snowdon

Basevi, George, architect

Brougham, Henry, politician

Bryant, Arthur, historian

Lord Byron, poet

Canning, George, statesman

Clark, Sir Kenneth, Chairman of the Arts Council, broadcaster

Gladstone, William Ewart, statesman

Greene, Graham, novelist

Hamilton, Patrick, novelist and playwright

Huxley, Aldous, author

Kinnaird, Arthur, M.P. and footballer

Macaulay, Thomas Babington, historian

Muggeridge, Malcolm, journalist

Priestley, J. B., writer

Rattigan, Terence, playwright

Smirke, (Sir) Robert, architect

Edward Heath, Prime Minister

Stanley, Lord, M.P., later fifteenth Earl of Derby, Prime Minister

Isaiah Berlin, philosopher

Bill Nighy, Actor

Edward de Bono, psychologist, philosopher

Alan Clark MP

Norman Foster, architect

Georgette Heyer, writer

Dame Edith Evans, actor

Jacob Rees Mogg, MP

Send your answer via comments!

The answer to last week’s post was Westminster Cathedral, built on the site of Tothill Fields prison and featuring the works of the infamous sculptor, Eric Gill. I will leave you to look him up if the name is unfamiliar.

The post before that was about nursing reformer, Ethel Gordon Fenwick.

A bit of a riddle this week along the lines of the Round Britain quiz (which is far too difficult for me). Explain how all these are connected:

A cat; Henry III; comic opera; the Highway Code; and Henry VII.

The riddle provides an excuse to feature this rather beautiful building.

A full explanation will be in next week’s post.

Three walks this weekend, Friday to Sunday. Link below.

Walks in London

This week’s quiz: which London church?

It was built on the site of a large prison that was closed because it was allegedly too liberal to act as a deterrent.

It contains art works by an artist subsequently discovered to be incestuous.

The architect who designed it was awarded the ‘Gold medal’ but died before he could receive it.

A monkey is supposedly missing.

It features in an Alfred Hitchcock film.

The church is still unfinished.

Any ideas?