Apsley House
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Apsley House in 1829 by TH Shepherd. The main gateway to Hyde Park can be glimpsed on the left. |
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The Waterloo Gallery at Apsley House by Joseph Nash, 1852. |
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Apsley House, as it is today, Hyde Park Corner, London. |
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Apsley House on an 1869 Ordnance Survey map, showing its position at the end of a terrace. The neighbouring houses were demolished in the post World War II period to allow Park Lane to be widened. The Wellington Arch has been moved since this time. |
Apsley House, also known as
Number One, London, was the
London residence of the
Dukes of Wellington and stands alone at
Hyde Park Corner, on the south-east corner of
Hyde Park, facing south towards the busy traffic circulation system.
The house is now run by
English Heritage and is open as a museum and art gallery, although the current Dukes of Wellington still use part of the building as a part-time residence. It is sometimes referred to as the
Wellington Museum. It is perhaps the only preserved example of an English aristocratic town house from its period. The practice has been to maintain the rooms as far as possible in the original style and decor. It contains the 1st Duke's collection of paintings by
Goya,
Velasquez,
Rubens and
Brueghel among others, porcelain, the silver centrepiece made for the Duke in Portugal, c 1815, sculpture and furniture.
Antonio Canova's heroic nude
Napoleon holding a gilded
Nike in the palm of his hand, made 1802-10 and set up for a time in the
Louvre, was bought by the Government for Wellington in 1816 (Pevsner) and stands in Adam's Stairwell.
The house was originally built in red brick by
Robert Adam between
1771 and
1778 for
Lord Apsley, the
Lord Chancellor, who gave the house its name. Some Adam interiors survive: the semi-circular Staircase, the Drawing Room with its
apsidal end, and the Portico Room, behind the giant
Corinthian portico added by Wellington.
In
1807 the house was purchased by
Lord Richard Wellesley, the elder brother of
Sir Arthur Wellesley, but in
1817 financial difficulties forced him to sell it to his famous brother, by then the Duke of Wellington, who needed a London base from which to pursue his new career in politics.
Wellington employed the architect
Benjamin Dean Wyatt to carry out renovations between
1818 and
1819. He extended the house by adding two bays westward to the original five; built the Waterloo Gallery for the Duke's paintings, and faced the red brick with the grander golden
Bath stone. He also introduced his own version of French style to the interior, notable in the Waterloo Gallery and the florid wrought iron stair-rail, "just turning from Empire to a neo-Rococo" (Pevsner).
The house was given the popular nickname of Number One, London, since it was the first house passed by visitors who travelled from the countryside after the toll gates at
Knightsbridge. It was originally part of a contiguous line of great houses on Piccadilly, demolished to widen
Park Lane: its official address remains 149 Piccadilly, W1J 7NT.
During the
Second World War, it was rumoured that
King George VI and
Queen Elizabeth heard that the treasures of the house hadn't been evacuated. The story goes that they both arrived in a van and quickly had the objects moved to
Frogmore for safekeeping.
[Blaikie, Thomas, You look awfully like the Queen: Wit and Wisdom from the House of Windsor. Harper Collins, 2002. ISBN 0007148747.]The 7th Duke gave the house to the nation in 1947, but the family retains an apartment on the second floor (U.S. third floor). The house is now managed by
English Heritage and is open to the public.
*
Stratfield Saye House - the country house of the Dukes of Wellington
* Jervis, Simon and Tomlin, Maurice (revised by Voak, Jonathon) (1984, revisions 1989 & 1995)
Apsley House Wellington Museum published by the Trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London ISBN 1851771611
*
Nikolaus Pevsner,
The Buildings of England: London vol. I, p 463.
*
Page on English Heritage's website*
Aerial photo and map - Apsley House is marked "Wellington Museum".
