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. Here old link-extinguishers still remain on the posts before the door.
No. 9 is now the home of the Portland Club.
No. 12 has also its string of names, but, for fear of degenerating into a mere catalogue, we will only mention a few of the most important, Sir Cyril Wyche was the first owner in 1676, and he was succeeded in 1678 by Aubrey de Vere, twentieth Earl of Oxford. The Dukes of Roxburgh were in possession from 1796 to 1812, and at the latter date the famous Roxburgh Library was sold. The last private occupier was J. W. Spencer Churchill, seventh Duke of Marlborough. After this the house was used successively by the Salisbury Club, the Nimrod Club, and the Pall Mall Club, the last of which remains here at present.
No. 13, the corner house, has passed through many hands, and is now in the occupation of the Windham Club. The London Library is well known to all book-lovers.
Wheatley states that Philip Francis lived at No. 14 until his death in 1818, but the houses have been renumbered since then, and his 14 is now 16.
No. 15 is known as Lichfield House from its former owner. It was built by Stuart (known as "Athenian Stuart") in 1763-65. In 1855 it was the home of the Junior United Service Club. In 1856 it was bought by the Clerical, Medical, and General Life Assurance Society. The chief event in its history took place on June 28, 1815, when the Prince Regent displayed the trophies and banners just brought from Waterloo to the crowd below.
No. 16, which is now amalgamated with 17, is occupied by the East India United Service Club.