Home › Buildings › Buildings: James

Buildings: James

St. James's Palace marks the site of an ancient leper hospital dedicated to St. James the Less, Bishop of Jerusalem. The present edifice was built by Henry VIII. in 1530. Buckingham Palace displaced old Buckingham House, the town mansion of John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, in the year 1825. The total cost to the nation of this "desirable residence" was £1,000,000. Marlborough House was originally the town residence of John, Duke of Marlborough, erected by Sir Christopher Wren in 1709. Somerset House reverted to the Crown by the attainder of its owner, Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, the Lord Protector of Edward VI., executed January 22, 1552. Whitehall received its name from the fresh appearance of its exterior as contrasted with the ancient buildings on the opposite side of the way. The present fabric, viz., The Banquetting Hall, is merely a vestige of the palace originally set apart by Cardinal Wolsey for the London See of York: whence he gave it the name of "York House." The Horse Guards is so called because a troop of Horse Guards are regularly quartered here. Dover House was named after its owner, the Hon. George Agar Ellis, afterwards created Lord Dover; and York House, after the Duke of York and Albany who bought it in 1789.

Devonshire House, Piccadilly, is the town residence of the Duke of Devonshire. Apsley House, Hyde Park Corner, well known as the residence of the Duke of Wellington, received its name from Henry Apsley, Lord Chancellor, afterwards created Lord Bathurst, who built it in 1784. Chandos House, Cavendish Square, was the residence of James Brydges, "the Princely Duke of Chandos." The Albany, Piccadilly, perpetuates the memory of the Duke of York and Albany, who acquired it from Lord Melbourne London Churches and Buildings. 221 in exchange for his older residence, York House, in Whitehall. Burlington House, the home of the Royal Academy of Arts and quite a number of learned societies, was built by Sir John Denham, the poet and judge, in 1718, and refronted by the celebrated amateur architect, Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington and Cork, in 1731. This palatial edifice was purchased by the State in 1854. The Soane Museum, Lincoln's Inn Fields, was the private collection of Sir John Soane, the architect and antiquary, who died in 1837. The Rolls Chapel, Chancery Lane, bears this name because it was annexed by patent to the office of the Master of the Rolls of Chancery after the banishment of the Jews from England in the year 1290. The history of the chapel dates from 1283, when Henry III. founded it for the reception of the Jewish rabbis converted to Christianity.

The Painted Hall, Greenwich Hospital, owes its name to its magnificently decorated ceiling. Vanburgh Castle, Blackheath, was built in the castellated style by Sir John Vanburgh, in 1717. Rye House, famous for being the scene of the conspiracy to assassinate Charles II., which was discovered June 12, 1683, is so called from the rye on which it stands; RYE being an Old English term for a common, derived from ree, a watercourse: hence