Arlington Street

Arlington Street, Piccadilly, west of and parallel with St. James's Street. Built 1689,¹ on ground granted by Charles II. to Henry Bennet, Earl of Arlington, by deed dated February 6, 1681. Lord Arlington sold the property the same year to a Mr. Pym, who for many years inhabited one of the largest houses in this street, and in whose family the ground still remains.

Sir Dudley North, the famous merchant (d. 1691), had a passion for watching buildings in progress. His brother Roger says: "Wherever there was a parcel of building going on he went to survey it; and particularly the high buildings in Arlington Street, which were scarce covered in before all the windows were wry-mouthed, fascias turned SS., and divers stacks of chimnies sunk right down, drawing roof and floors with them; and the point was to find out from whence all this decay proceeded.—Lives of the Norths, vol. iii. p. 210.

Eminent Inhabitants. Duchess of Cleveland (1691–1696), after the death of Charles II., and when her means were too small to allow of her living any longer in Cleveland House. Duchess of Buckingham (1692–1694), the widow of Villiers, second Duke of Buckingham, and daughter of Fairfax, the Parliamentary general. She was neglected by the Duke, and was called in derision, during the Duke's lifetime, the "Duchess Dowager." Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, before her marriage, in the house of her father, the Marquis of Dorchester, afterwards Duke of Kingston.

In Arlington Street, next door to the Marquis of Dorchester, is a large house to be let, with a garden and a door into the Park. Advertisement in No. 207 of The Tatler, August 5, 1710.

William Pulteney, Earl of Bath (1715), in a house on the west or Green Park side. Sir Robert Walpole became a resident here in 1716, and lived next door to Pulteney.

We're often taught it doth behove us
To think those greater who're above us;
Another instance of my glory,
Who live above you twice two story;
And from my garret can look down
On the whole street of Arlington.

Fielding, Epistle to Sir Robert Walpole, 1730.

His son Horace was born here in 1717. When Sir Robert went out of office in 1742, he bought a smaller house, No. 5, on the east or "non-ministerial side," in which he died (1745–1746), and the lease of which he left to Horace, who lived in it till his removal, in 1779, to Berkeley Square.

June 30, 1742.—He (Sir Robert Walpole) goes into a small house of his own in Arlington Street, opposite to where we formerly lived.—Horace Walpole to Sir H. Mann (Letters, vol. i. p. 181).

January 6, 1743.—Next, as to Arlington Street: Sir Robert is in a middling kind of house, which has long been his, and was let; he has taken a small one next to it for me, and they are laid together.—Walpole to Mann (Letters, vol. i. p. 223).

September 30, 1750.—I was sitting in my own dining-room on Sunday night, the clock had not struck eleven, when I heard a loud cry of "Stop thief!" a highwayman had attacked a post-chaise in Piccadilly, within fifty yards of this house: the fellow was pursued, rode over the watchman, almost killed him and escaped.—Walpole to Mann (Letters, vol. ii. p. 227).

December 1, 1768.—Nothing can be more dignified than this position. From my earliest memory Arlington Street has been the ministerial street. The Duke of Grafton is actually coming into the house of Mr. Pelham, which my Lord President is quitting, and which occupies too the ground on which my father lived; and Lord Weymouth has just taken the Duke of Dorset's: yet you and I, I doubt, shall always be on the wrong side of the way.—Walpole to George Montagu {Letters, vol. v. p. 136).

October 21, 1779.—You perceive by the date that I have removed into my new house [Berkeley Square]. It is seeming to take a new lease of life. I was born in Arlington Street, lived there about fourteen years, returned thither, and passed thirty-seven more.—Walpole to Mason (Letters, vol. vii. p. 262).

Walpole's house, after passing through many hands, became the property of Edward Ellice, Esq., M.P., and then till his death of the Right Hon. Sir R. J. Phillimore. A Society of Arts tablet has been placed on the front of the house. No. 18 is the residence of Sir John Fender, M.P., and contains a fine collection of modern pictures, including, among others, Landseer's Highland Shepherd in a Storm and Dead Stag; Venice, Mercury and Argus, and Wreckers, by Turner; Gipseys' Toilette and La Gloria, by Philip; Napoleon crossing the Alps, by Delaroche; Francesca and Paolo, by Ary Scheffer, and others by Stanfield, Nasmyth, Creswick, Linnell, Faed, and Millais.

Lord Carteret lived at the last house in the street on the Green Park side.—Lord Carteret to Swift, Arlington Street, June 20, 1724. He built the present house about 1734. Henry Pelham, at No. 17, on the site where Sir R. Walpole had lived, the house built by William Kent, now the Earl of Yarborough's. Walpole speaks of "the great room" as "remarkable for magnificence."

August 7, 1732.—Lady Carteret writes me word that she has bought the ground her house stood on in Arlington Street, and that my Lord designs to build there.—Mrs. Delany, Correspondence, vol. i. p. 369.

Hough, the good old Bishop of Worcester, is dead. I have been looking at the "fathers in God," that have been flocking over the way this morning to Mr. Pelham, who is just come to his new house. This is absolutely the ministerial street: Carteret has a house here too; and Lord Bath seems to have lost his chance by quitting this street.—Walpole to Mann, Arlington Street, May 12, 1743.

Among the works of art at Lord Yarborough's are—Bust of Laurence Sterne, by Nollekens; marble group of Neptune and Tritons, by Bernini, purchased of the executors of Sir Joshua Reynolds for £500; Frost Scene, by Cuyp, a first-rate specimen; two fine pictures (The Wreck and The Vintage) by J.M.W. Turner, R.A.

No. 19 is the Earl of Zetland's. No. 20, the town-house of the Marquises of Salisbury, was lately rebuilt by the present Marquis.

David Mallet was living here 1746–1747. Charles James Fox, for a short time, at No. 14. At No. 14 lived and died General Fitzpatrick.—Dyce's Table Talk of Samuel Rogers, p. 105. Lord Melville, First Lord of the Admiralty, the friend of Pitt, lived at No. 6.

Lord Nelson—

In the winter of 1800–1801 [January 13, 1801] I was breakfasting with Lord and Lady Nelson, at their lodgings in Arlington Street, and a cheerful conversation was passing on indifferent subjects, when Lord Nelson spoke of something which had been done or said by "dear Lady Hamilton," upon which Lady Nelson rose from her chair, and exclaimed with much vehemence, "I am sick of hearing of dear Lady Hamilton, and am resolved that you shall give up either her or me." Lord Nelson with perfect calmness said, "Take care, Fanny, what you say; I love you sincerely; but I cannot forget my obligations to Lady Hamilton, or speak of her otherwise than with affection and admiration." Without one soothing word or gesture, but muttering something about her mind being made up, Lady Nelson left the room, and shortly after drove from the house. They never lived together afterwards.—Mr. Haslewood (Lord Nelson's executor) to Sir Harris Nicolas (Despatches, vol. vii. p. 392).

The Duke of York, who died (1827) in the house of the Duke of Rutland (No. 16) in this street. The house was afterwards occupied by the Viscount Dudley. No. 21 was the residence of Lord Sefton, renowned for his dinners, dressed by Ude. It was afterwards long occupied by M. Van der Weyer, the distinguished Belgian minister and accomplished scholar. No. 22 was long the residence of the Marquis Camden. It was afterwards the residence of the Duke of Beaufort, who had the house decorated in fresco work by Mr. E. Latilla, 1839–1840, the drawing-room by Mr. Owen Jones. It was purchased by the Duke of Hamilton in December 1852 for £60,000. Hamilton house, as it was then called, covers nearly half an acre, and has a frontage to the Green Park corresponding to that in Arlington Street. It was sold by auction in December 1867, and is now occupied by Sir Ivor Bertie Guest, Bart.

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¹ Rate-books of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields.