Albemarle Street history
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Date: 07 March 2008 |
This part of Mayfair (named after the annual fair held here by permission of James II and later suppressed on account of its extraordinary popularity) was laid out across the site of Clarendon House which Pepys had described as ‘the noblest prospect I ever saw in my life, Greenwich notwithstanding’) Purchased and torn down by developers who had purchased it from the Duke of Albemarle the area was described by 1720 as ‘looking like the ruins of Troy’. It was conceived as an aristocratic quarter in close relationship to the court of St James’. The names of the developers survive in the streets which were finally completed in the mid 18th century; Sir Thomas Bond, financier and courtier, his fellow courtier Henry Jermyn (later Lord Dover), Margaret Stafford, Lord Curzon…The street’s early residents included the architect Robert Adam and the society painter Zoffany. By the 19th century commerce and particularly the art trade had began to invade the territory. No’s 50 and 49, on the west side, were built by Benjamin Jackson, Master Mason to the Crown: ‘three bays, four storeys each, keyblocks and modallion cornices c 1717-1719’, Pevsner, Buildings of England vol V1. Number 50 became the home of the publishers John Murray in 1812, and the family lived there until 1929. John Murray II bought Number 50 from William Miller the bookseller and the house still retains some fine features that were present at that time. The Main first floor room has a dazzling ceiling after Inigo Jones and a substantial marble chimney piece dates from the 1830s. Lord Byron met Sir Walter Scott in this drawing room which attracted writers, scholars, politicians from all over the world. The house remained the offices of John Murray (Publishers) until 2002, when the company was sold and moved in with its new owners Hodder Headline. The house is still owned and carefully looked after by the Murray family, who invited The Marsh Agency to rent the top two floors in March 2008. |
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