Dudley House, London

The portico of Dudley House

Dudley House is a Grade II* listed house with 44,000 square feet (4,100 m²) located at 100 Park Lane in Mayfair, London.^[1] It is one of the few surviving aristocratic private palaces in London. Dudley House is named after the Ward family, holders of the titles Baron Ward, Viscount Dudley and Ward, and Earl of Dudley.

History

An earlier house with stabling on the site was acquired by the John, 6th Baron Ward in 1742. In 1759, the 3rd Viscount Dudley and Ward undertook substantial alterations to the property. Between 1827 and 1829 the 1st Earl of Dudley, of the first creation, rebuilt the house to the plans of the architect William Atkinson. The Earl died childless and insane in 1833, and the house was leased to the 2nd Marquess Conyngham, and then to the 2nd Marquess of Abercorn. In 1847 the Earl's cousin, the 11th Lord Ward took over the house, and remained until his death in 1885, by which time he had become 1st Earl of Dudley, of the second creation. In 1855 he commissioned alterations from architect Samuel Whitfield Daukes that were most impressive, including an 81 ft picture gallery and a 50 ft ballroom. After inheriting from his father, the 2nd Earl of Dudley extended the conservatory over the porch.^[2]

In 1895 the house was sold to Sir Joseph Robinson, 1st Baronet, a South African mining magnate.^[3] Robinson frequently used the house for entertaining, hosting performances by singers Nellie Melba and Clara Butt at the house.^[3] In 1912 Sir John Hubert Ward bought the building back for 10,000 pounds, and remained there until his death in 1938.

Dudley House was severely damaged in the Blitz in World War II, and the property reverted into the possession of the Grosvenor Estate. It became a temporary office, before it began to deteriorate into a near ruin. Hammerson, a British property development and investment company, converted the house into offices, to designs by architects Sir Basil Spence and Anthony Blee in 1969-70. The architects remained sympathetic to Dudley House's historic interiors,^[3] but the rear of the house was completely reconstructed, the war-damaged ballroom and picture gallery disappearing, with only sections of the ceiling of the latter surviving under a false-ceiling. The house remained as offices for sixty years before its reversion to a private residence.^[4]

In 2006, Hammerson and the freeholder, the Grosvenor Estate, sold the leasehold for £37.4 million to Bristol Isles Ltd., a private investment company controlled by the Emir of Qatar.^[5] The house was subject to a major refurbishment to the designs of Albert Pinto, and restoration which included a rebuilding of the historic picture gallery and ballroom. The house is now the London residence of Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah Al-Thani, son of Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa Al-Thani, a brother of the former Emir of Qatar, and first cousin of the current emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.

A 2015 Vanity Fair magazine profile of the house described it as London's most valuable private residence, at about $400 million, and that Queen Elizabeth II, a visitor, had supposedly said that the house "...makes Buckingham Palace look rather dull".^[6]

Soon after the article was published, Westminster Council rejected a Qatari planning application to combine two mansions in Cornwall Terrace in Regent's Park to create a 17 bedroom palace. The Guardian alleged that the previous publicity had caused concern among the ruling family of Qatar, quoting a source as saying that Qatar was seen as "very bling” with a view that this "...needs to be brought under control.”^[7]

Together with Lancaster House, Bridgewater House, Apsley House, and Spencer House, Dudley House is an outstanding survival from the many private palaces which once adorned central London.

References

Bibliography

• Stourton, James (2012). Great Houses of London (Hardback)|format= requires |url= (help). London: Frances Lincoln. ISBN 978-0-7112-3366-9. 

Coordinates: 51°30′38″N 0°09′24″W / 51.51063°N 0.15660°W / 51.51063; -0.15660