Strand, The (London, England); Streets -- England -- London
Next to this, at the south corner of Charles Street, is Derby House,
with handsome iron veranda and railings running round it. It was built
by Lord Bellasis, and one of the earliest occupants was Aubrey de Vere,
twentieth Earl of Oxford. Dasent says there is some reason for supposing
it to have been occupied by Sir Robert Walpole between the years
1732-35. It was bought by the Earl of Derby about the middle of the
present century. All the houses on this side of the square are of dull
brick, in formal style, with neither beauty nor originality. The next,
at the northern corner of Charles Street (now the West End branch of the
London and Westminster Bank), was known as Ossulston House until 1753,
and belonged for a long period to the Bennet family. It covered two
numbers, of which one was occupied by Lord Dartmouth, Lord Privy Seal
under Lord North's Administration, and is now the bank, and the other
was bought by the second Viscount Falmouth, and is now occupied by the
seventh Viscount of that name.
No. 3 has passed through the hands of many titled and distinguished
owners, and is at present the property of the Duke of Leeds. It was
occupied by the Copyhold Inclosure and the Tithe Commission Office, now
the Board of Agriculture.
No. 4, in the corner, belongs to Lord Cowper, and No. 5 to the Earl of
Strafford.
The next two belong to Lord Avebury and Earl Egerton.
No. 8 has had many vicissitudes. It was for a time occupied as the
French Embassy, later by Sir Cyril Wyche, President of the Royal
Society, also by Monmouth's widow, Josiah Wedgwood, and by many
intervening tenants of distinction. After the occupancy of Wedgwood, the
second Earl of Romney was here for eight years, until 1839, and then the
house became successively the home of the Erectheum Club, of the
Charity Commissioners, the Junior Oxford and Cambridge Club, Vine Club,
York Club, Junior Travellers' Club, and at present it is the Sports
Club. Ormond or Chandos House, which took up three numbers at the west
corner of York Street, has a history. It was built by Lord St. Albans in
place of his first house in the south-eastern corner of the square, and
passed into the possession of the Duke of Ormond, the only man who was
four times Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Entertainments on a large scale
took place during this period. Perhaps the most interesting fact in the
history of the house is that a meeting of noblemen and gentlemen was
held here in 1688, at which an address of welcome to the Prince of
Orange was drawn up, in which he was besought to carry on the Government
until a Convention could meet. The Spanish Embassy was here in 1718. The
Duke of Chandos bought the mansion a year later, and in 1735 it was
pulled down, and the present three houses built on its site. These three
houses have been well tenanted, especially the centre one, No. 10, which
can boast the successive occupancy of Pitt, Lady Blessington, the great
Earl of Derby, and Mr. Gladstone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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