Park Lane, up to 1769 called Tyburn Lane, was in the reign of Queen Anne a desolate by-road, but is now a favourite place of residence for the fashionable persons in the Metropolis. It is open to Hyde Park as far as Hamilton Place, whence it reaches Piccadilly by a narrow street. At its junction with the former stands an ornamental fountain by Thorneycroft, erected in 1875 at a cost of £5,000, the property of a lady who died intestate and without heirs. At the base are the muses of Tragedy, Comedy, and History in bronze, above Chaucer, Shakespeare and Milton in marble, the whole being surmounted by a bronze statue of Fame. The principal mansions in Park Lane are: Brook House, at the north corner of Upper Brook Street, designed by T. H. Wyatt, and the residence of the Earl of Tweedmouth, and next to it Dudley House. Dorchester House (Captain Holford) was built by Vulliamy in 1852 on the site of the town house of the Damers, Earls of Dorchester. The building, which stands in its own grounds, is rectangular, and constructed of Portland stone in Italian Renaissance style. On the narrow front is a carriage portico. The reception rooms and marble staircase have few rivals in London; they contain two libraries and a collection of pictures by old and modern masters. Here died in 1842 the Marquis of Hertford. Londonderry House, No. 18 (Marquis of Londonderry), was built in 1850 by S. and J. Wyatt on the site of the residence of the D'Arcys, Earls of Holdernesse. It contains a fine gallery of pictures and sculpture. Other inhabitants: the Duke of Somerset, in a house adjoining Camelford House, No. 35; Sir Moses Montefiore, d. 1885; Park Lane Chambers, Earl Sondes, Lord Monkbretton.
At the corner of Upper Grosvenor Street (then No. 1, Grosvenor Gate) Benjamin Disraeli lived 1839-73. No. 24, Lord Brassey. No. 21, for many years the Marquis of Breadalbane, and afterwards Lady Palmerston, when left a widow in 1850; Earl of Scarborough. Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton at a house then numbered 1. In 23, Richard Sharp, 1822-24; Mrs. Fitzherbert, 1785; Warren Hastings, 1790-97; Marquis Wellesley, 1796.
Grosvenor Square and the surrounding streets have always been the centre of the aristocratic world; the Square, which includes about six acres, was built in 1695. The garden was laid out by Kent, and in the centre stood formerly an equestrian statue of George I., by Van Nost, placed there in 1726. On the site, in 1642, was erected a fort named Oliver's Mount, which stood as one of the defences against the Royalists until 1647. Owing to the prejudices of the inhabitants, Grosvenor Square was not lit by gas until 1842.
Inhabitants: Duchess of Kendal, d. 1743; Earl of Chesterfield, 1733-50; Bishop Warburton, 1757; Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, 1758-64; Lord Rockingham, d. 1782; Henry Thrale, d. 1781; Lord North, d. 1792; Thomas Raikes, 1832; Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles; 10, Lord Canning and Lord Granville, 1841; 22, William Beckford, 1800; 23, the Earl of Derby here married Miss Farren, actress, in 1797; his successors resided here until 1832; Lord Stratford de Redclyffe, d. 1880; 24, the Earl of Shaftesbury; 29, Sir John Beaumont; 30, John Wilkes, d. 1797; 39 (now 44), the Earl of Harrowby, 1820 (here the Cato Street conspirators proposed to murder the Ministry); 44, Countess of Pembroke. The houses have since been renumbered. To give a list of the present inhabitants of note would be impossible; it would be like copying a page out of the Red Book. Suffice to say there are living in the Square two Dukes, one Marquess, three Earls, six Barons, and five Baronets, beside many other persons of distinction.
At the corner end of Park Street, and in South Street and Aldford Street, the old houses have been pulled down and have been replaced by large, red-brick, ornamented structures, such as have also been erected in Mount Street, Grosvenor Street, and North and South Audley Street. The spaces behind the houses are occupied by mews. Great improvements have also been effected since 1887 in the housing of the working classes, particularly in the neighbourhood of Oxford Street, and in Bourdon Street and Mount Row, by the erection of blocks of industrial dwellings by the St. George's and Improved Industrial Dwellings Companies, under the auspices of the Duke of Westminster.
In Park Street, formerly called Hyde Park Street, lived Miss Nelly O'Brien, 1768; 7, Sir William Stirling Maxwell, M.P.; 26, Sir Humphry Davy, 1825, till his death; 113, Miss Lydia White, d. 1827; 123, Richard Ford, author of "The Handbook for Spain." In North Audley Street, opposite Green Street, is St. Mark's Church, built from designs by J. P. Deering in 1825-28, and reconstructed in Romanesque style in 1878. Adjoining is the Vicarage, built in 1887, and at the back the St. Mark's Institute, containing a church-room, mission-room, gymnasium, and a working men's club. Attached to the institute are the parish schools, built soon after 1830, and enlarged and repaired in 1894.
Near the church lived the Countess of Suffolk, mistress of George II.; at 1, Maria Edgeworth; 26, the Misses Berry.
South Audley Street takes its name from Hugh Audley (d. 1662), the owner of some land in the neighbourhood. It has several interesting houses. No. 8, Alington House (Lord Alington), was, in 1826, Cambridge House, the residence of the Duke of York, and afterwards, until 1876, belonged to the Curzons, Earls Howe. In 73, Bute House, lived, in 1769, the great Earl of Bute, and near him his friend Home, author of "Douglas." Chesterfield House, a large mansion standing in a courtyard at the corner of Curzon Street, was built by Ware in 1749 for the fourth Earl of Chesterfield, d. 1773, who wrote the "Letters" in the library. The portico and marble staircase, with bronze balustrade, were brought from Canons, the seat of the Duke of Chandos. In 1869 the house was sold to Mr. Magniac for £175,000, and he built over the gardens. It is now the town house of Lord Burton.
Opposite Aldford Street is Grosvenor Chapel, erected in 1730; an ugly building, with sittings for 1,200. It is now a chapel of ease to St. George's. Here were buried Lord Chesterfield, 1773; Ambrose Phillips, poet, 1749; Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, 1762; David Mallet, poet, 1765; William Whitehead, poet, 1785; John Wilkes, 1797; Elizabeth Carter, 1806. The churchyard at the back was, in 1889, converted into a public garden. Just outside the gate is the Public Free Library, erected in 1894 under the Free Libraries Act.
Other inhabitants: General Paoli; Holcroft, dramatist, 1761; Sir William Jones; Lord John Russell; Lord Sydenham, 1841; 8, Archbishop Markham, d. 1807; 14, Sir R. Westmacott, sculptor, d. 1856; 15, Baron Bunsen, 1841; 72, Charles X., when in exile, and in 1816 the Duchesse d'Angoulême; Louis XVIII., in 1814, also lived in this street; 74, the Portuguese Embassy early in the eighteenth century; 77, Sir Matthew Wood; here Queen Caroline resided in 1820. In the enlargement of the street called Audley Square Spencer Perceval was born. North Row has no interest. In Green Street lived Sydney Smith, d. 1845; Lord Cochrane, d. 1814; 61 is Hampden House, residence of the Duke of Abercorn. At the corner of Park Street stood St. Mary's Church, pulled down in 1880.