Albemarle Street has been noted for its hotels. Here was Dorant’s, where Byron stayed, when he was publishing his “Hours of Idleness”; and the famous Grillion’s, where Louis XVIII. in exile held his Court.
The name of Byron brings us appropriately enough to No. 50, Albemarle Street—for here the great publishing firm of Murray, so closely connected with his name, has been settled since John Murray removed hither from Fleet Street, in 1812.
The columnar façade of the Royal Institution, the work of Vulliamy, forms a curiously solemn note in Albemarle Street, but its importance as a great scientific centre more than justifies its severe, almost melancholy, appearance.
DOVER STREET.
Dover Street, to which we come a few steps further west, was built about 1686, and was named after Henry Jermyn, Lord Dover. He lived in a house which was subsequently advertised for sale in the “Daily Journal” for January, 1727. It would appear that after his death his widow had been residing here, for the notice indicates that the cause of the sale was that lady’s decease. Mention is particularly made of a beautiful staircase painted by Laguerre, as well as “all manner of conveniences for a great family.” The house was on the east side, and not far from it, Evelyn came to dwell in 1699, having taken the lease of a residence on the same side of the street. That mad Duke of Wharton whom I have already mentioned, also lived in Dover Street, “in a most sumptuous building, finely finished and furnished”; so did the great Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, as well as his son, the second Earl, who married the heiress of the Duke of Newcastle. Pope used to stay here as a guest at this time; and as Arbuthnot was also living in the same street these two friends would often, we are to suppose, discuss that “half pint of claret” which the latter humorously told Pope, he could still afford. Another of this coterie, Bolingbroke, was wont to lodge at “Mr. Chetwynd’s,” as Gay informs Swift, probably with a view to a philosophic, albeit, a merry meeting there. Sir William Wyndham was also a former resident; so was Miss Reynolds, the sister of Sir Joshua, whom Johnson used to visit; Lord King, the biographer of Locke; Archdeacon Coxe, who wrote ponderous tomes about Sir Robert Walpole and the House of Austria, and Nash, the architect, who built the more imposing portion of Regent Street.
But the two most interesting houses were (for one has disappeared, and its site is covered by a mushroom block of red brick flats, and although the other still remains, it is empty and will probably soon go the way of all old buildings) Ashburnham House and Ely House.
The former, with its gateway and lodge designed by Robert Adam in 1773, was the town house of the Earls of Ashburnham, but others beside that family occasionally inhabited it, and for a time it was the Russian Embassy; Prince Lieven being the first ambassador residing here, and Pozzo di Borgo the last.
Ely House, designed by Sir Robert Taylor, has been, since 1772, the town residence of the Bishops of Ely, and was conveyed to that See in exchange for Ely Place, Holborn.
Dover Street has always been rather famous for its hotels, and in this respect at least, its reputation is well sustained. Le Telier’s was one of the older ones, and is notable as being the house to which the Literary Club moved from Sackville Street, before going into St. James’s Street.
THE WHITE HORSE CELLAR.