61 New Cavendish Street London W1G 7AR and We Abroad to Marrowbone, and There Walked in the Garden, the First Time I Ever Was There, and a Pretty Place It Is”

Open House 17 September 2016

The story of 61 New Cavendish Street London W1G 7AR And we abroad to Marrowbone, and there walked in the garden, the first time I ever was there, and a pretty place it is”. Samuel Pepys, 7 May 1668

The fields and waters of Old Marylebone

oday we know Had you come to Marylebone three Marylebone’s manor house stood hundred years ago, a very different on the site of the present day Marylebone as one scene would have greeted you. Devonshire Mews and had been of the most fashion- Then, Marylebone was on the edge used as a hunting lodge by Henry T of London, with fields and market VIII before becoming a boarding able and exclusive areas of London. There are shops gardens as far as one could see, school. In the mid seventeenth engaged in the serious business century, part of the land from and boutiques to dazzle, of feeding the city. Further to the the manor house was acquired eateries to tempt you, the north were the King’s hunting and merged with bowling greens wonderful Daunt Books to grounds (now Regent’s Park). adjoining the Rose of Normandy while away a little time Marylebone itself clustered tavern in Marylebone High Street round the banks of the river to form the 8 acre Marylebone and the occasional celebrity Tyburn, which made its way into Gardens, spanning present day to be spotted going about central London from Hampstead, Marylebone High Street, Wey- their business. crossing Oxford Street at Tyburn mouth Street, Harley Street and village and its famous gibbet, and Marylebone Road. Handel gave meeting the Thames at Thorney performances, and Dick Turpin Island – the Houses of Parliament. is reputed to have visited. Less Today, the contour of Marylebone salubrious entertainments included Lane still meanders to accommo- gambling and cock fighting. date the path of the Tyburn. Cross The gardens were built over in over Oxford Street just inside 1788 - and the manor house itself Davies Street and you can glimpse was eventually demolished in 1791, the remains of the Tyburn in the a few years after 61 New Caven- basement of Grays Antiques – now dish Street, or No 8 as it was then, with added goldfish. was built amidst the eighteenth century building boom. For a short while, it seems that ancient and modern dwelt side by side: the fast spreading new streets of inner north London, and the remnants of old Marylebone.

The Tyburn Tree (Gibbet) Keeping it in the family – the Holles, Harleys, Cavendishes and Bentincks

any of the streets The great wealth of the Cavendishes Harley) had always intended to came from the estate of John Holles, develop the area, and commissioned in and around 1st Duke of Newcastle and his wife architect John Prince to draw out MMarylebone, Lady Margaret Cavendish. plans in 1719. However, it was the including New Cavendish In 1711 their only child Henrietta Cavendish-Bentincks who seriously Street, take their name married Edward Harley, second Earl rolled up their sleeves. By the end of Oxford and Earl Mortimer (later of the century most of the area from the various titles of Lord Harley of Oxford). The Harleys, between Oxford Street and the complexly interlinked who had made their home at Marylebone Road had been Holles, Harley, Cavendish Wimpole Hall in Cambridgeshire, developed into an area of Georgian and Bentinck families. in turn also had just one child, the grace and formality however as in intellectually gifted Lady Margaret other parts of London, there were The Cavendishes, also the Harley, who became the richest pockets of extreme poverty. Dukes of Devonshire, are woman in England. Much later, in 1879, the Portland now probably best known Margaret was a member of the Estate became the Howard de as the owners of Chatsworth women’s intellectual society, the Walden Estate. House. Bluestockings, an avid collector of objects in particular Above: The sweeping staircase at from the natural world 61 New Cavendish Street and a friend of Swift and Pope. She married William Bentinck, second Duke of Portland. Her son William Marquess of Titchfield, again married a Cavendish, Lady Dorothy, daughter of William, fourth Duke of Devonshire. He added the Cavendish name to his own and as William Cavendish-Bentinck, he served as prime minister twice, for 6 months in 1783 and then a further 18 months in 1807-9. Lord and Lady Oxford (Edward and Henrietta

Left: Lady Margaret Cavendish-Holles-Harley, Duchess of Portland, 1744, Thomas Hudson. Oil on canvas by kind permission of the Harley Gallery The building of 61 New Cavendish Street

he building we know By all accounts the scale would or of the County of Essex). today as 61 New Cav- have been immense, hardly Houses had been codified by the a townhouse at all. Plans in the Building Act of 1774 to avoid poor Tendish Street almost possession of the Soane Museum quality in construction and to reduce never came into being. show there would have been thir- fire risk, and were rated according In the 1770s William teen bays, a bold columned porti- to their value and floor area. Nos Cavendish-Bentinck had co, stables and a walled garden. 8 and 9 New Cavendish Street, as It seems that Cavendish- they were then, were houses of the approached Robert Adam Bentinck’s plan fell on hard times. first rate – top quality, spacious and to design a new London Eventually, between 1775 and 1777 desirable dwellings. Both were residence in a plot on New construction went ahead but to the fitted out according to the wishes Cavendish Street. It was to plans of John Johnson (1732-1814), of their first occupants, William who had been involved in specula- Udney, and at No 8, Sir Charles be called Portland House tive building in the area since the Bampfylde (1753-1823). and would face into Mans- 1760s (he later became the Survey- field Street to give the new building impact.

Coade Stone detail – 61 New Cavendish Street ‘Mr Huddesford and Mr Bampfylde’ c 1778, Sir Joshua Reynolds’ (1723- 1792) © Tate Gallery, London 2016.

However it appears that peaceful, later gate-crashed a supper attend- Trouble at the things weren’t. On the death of ed by Mary and Sir Joshua and was his father Sir Richard Bamfylde, carted away, only to later appear at Charles became responsible for the Sir Joshua’s house again behaving in a Bampfyldes’ welfare of his younger brother, the violent manner. John was eventually highly musically talented and oth- consigned to a private madhouse ir Charles was the MP erworldly poet John. As a younger in Sloane Street. He regained his for Exeter for a total sibling in a respectable family, health 20 years later, only to die of of 32 years between John’s career had all been planned consumption shortly after. S out for him, whether he wanted it His poems attracted the interest 1774 and 1812, and was of or not. He had enrolled at Trinity of Robert Southey and Samuel an eminently respectable College in Cambridge in 1771, and Taylor Coleridge, but are now and ancient family. He then, after a period of travel, at rarely remembered aside from ap- Lincolns Inn, only to pack it all in pearing in occasional anthologies. In married Catherine, the in the mid-1770s and retreat to the words of Roger Lonsdale writing eldest daughter of Sir John a farm in Devon to write sonnets about Bampfylde in the London Moore in 1776, and it there- ‘about the picturesque valley of Review of Books in 1988, ‘it fore seems likely that the the River Teign, the farm, and his becomes hard to read John love of solitude’ . Bampfylde’s descriptions of a house at 8 Cavendish Street Sometime around 1776, Charles happy village evening, or of his was designed with all the seems to have decided that it was cottage garden, or of the pleasant wishes and ambitions of a time for John to pull himself melancholy of a wet summer’s day, fashionable newly married together, and hauled him back without remembering what was to up to London and respectabil- come’. couple in mind. ity. Presumably John stayed at The Bampfyldes became the the house for a time and was a subject of society gossip again in frequent visitor. But instead of 1823, when Sir Charles was the stability he turned to debauchery subject of a murder attempt by ex and the bad company of his old servant J Morland. According to school friend George Huddesford John Thomas Smith in his “A Top- who proceeded to poke fun at Sir ographical and Historical Account Charles and his wife in his poem of the Parish of St Mary-le-Bone”, Warley, a satire. Morland’s wife was still in Bamp- Meanwhile John developed an fylde’s employ and Morland had obsession with Mary Palmer, niece become wracked with jealousy, and companion of Sir Joshua Reyn- though Thomas Smith leaves it to olds, and declared himself madly in the imagination as to why. Mor- love. Trouble was brewing. land accosted Bampfylde and shot After his proposal to Mary him before turning the gun on was rejected and he was refused himself. The wound wasn’t fatal admittance to Sir Joshua’s house, for Bampfylde, but the gangrene John smashed the windows and which set in afterwards was. He was escorted to Newgate. Meet- died two weeks later. By then the ing Mary again unexpectedly at a Bampfyldes had for a while been performance of Philidor’s Carmen living a few streets away, in Mon- Seculare in Lincolns Inn Fields, tague Street. an event apparently attended by everyone who was anyone, John Diana – relief wall sculpture at the began to behave erratically. He bottom of the staircase – 61 New Cavendish Street Into the Nineteenth century

ittle is known of the Wellington is reputed to have In 1872 Johnson’s original one hun- occupants who followed remarked that he had never dred year lease expired and a new the Bampfyldes, though been mistaken for Jones. No lease was signed by Alfred Water- L house. The street had also been the neighbourhood continued 11 (now 96) was the home renumbered in the preceding year, to attract the notable and of another painter, William and 8 New Cavendish Street was fashionable. By 1826 No 10 Collins, whose work was more now the new number 20. was occupied by George Jones popular in his time than that RA (1786-1869), the famous of Turner. His son, the famous painter of battle scenes, who author Wilkie Collins was was apparently often mis- born there in 1811. taken for Wellington , though

The Waterhouses at 61 New Cavendish Street

hough the lease began Waterhouse had been in 1872, it appears born in Aigburth, Liver- Alfred Waterhouse pool in 1830. His father T was a cotton broker, actually first set up his home and his family devout and architectural practice at Quakers. He was ed- 61 New Cavendish Street ucated in Tottenham, several years earlier in 1865. at the Grove House The building was to provide School, where according to the Dictionary offices for Waterhouse and of National Biography, his son Paul, also an architect, many of his wealthy terhouse found himself with the into the next century. schoolmates were to become commission to build the new Natu- future clients. ral History Museum. This ultimately Architecture hadn’t been Water- transformed into responsibility for house’s first choice – he wanted to realising the vision of the museum’s be an artist, but art was deemed creator, Sir Richard Owen, to create a frivolous career for a promising a cathedral to nature. There was a young man of his background. long hard slog, and much political After being apprenticed to Richard wrangling, between the first draw- Lane in Manchester, he set up on ings of the 1860s, and the museum his own in 1854, taking commis- opening its doors in 1881. sions from Quaker families includ- One of Waterhouse’s concerns was ing the Barclays, and meanwhile the effects of pollution on buildings, becoming increasingly interested in which led him to experiment with the Gothic revival and the ideas of self washing terracotta. He was an Pugin, Scott and Ruskin. early member of the Smoke Abate- The catalyst for Waterhouse’s ment Society, and the Natural Histo- This page: ‘Alfred Waterhouse’, Sir move to London was a commission ry Museum was the first building to William Quiller Orchardson (1832- to build a bank in Lombard Street use terracotta throughout. It is still 1910) © RIBA Images and a competition to design the the largest building in the United Opposite: The Natural History new Law Courts in the Strand. In Kingdom to do so. Museum and above the ‘blue the event, the contract for the We know little of the Water- plaque’ at 61 New Cavendish Street Strand went to G E Street, but Wa- houses home life at New Cavendish Street, except that he Royal reorganised the house after Academy he took up residence. The Frank Dick- drawing offices of the practice see, writer were on the ground floor, and sec- Mr Humphrey Ward held ond floor was adapted to accom- and writer and activist weekly modate his children. There were Mary Ward. candle lit din- five bedrooms in the attic, presuma- At the height of his career, ners at the house which included bly for domestic staff, and unusual- Waterhouse was probably the most the artistic great and the good, ly, a wine cellar. We do know how- successful architect of his age. Not including sculptor Hamo Thorny- ever, from an account provided by everyone loved his work – some croft, Dutch painter Sir Lawrence Paul Waterhouse, that through the felt that it was conservative - but as Alma-Tadema, the writer and critic spring of each year the Waterhouses a man he was widely respected. Edmund Gosse, President of the He was elected President of RIBA from 1888 to 1891. Having once given up the prospect of a career art for architecture, he later became respected for his fine watercolours and was elected to the Royal Academy in 1888. In his last years he mostly lived at Yatten- don, Berkshire in a house that he had designed for himself. Water- house died at Yattendon in 1905, leaving a legacy of 650 buildings, including the Natural History Mu- seum, Manchester Town Hall, the National Liberal Club and Balliol College. The practice was taken over by his son Paul, who continued to specialise in the design of large public buildings. When Paul Water- house departed in 1909 the lease was taken up by the widow of Lord and Mercan- Alexander Paget, Lady Hestor, who tile Insurance lived there with her family includ- Company. Aris- ing her daughter Constance and tocratic connec- her first husband, Captain Charles tions continued: John Alton, Viscount Ingestre. Brand’s mother Alton perished in the First World was daughter of War, not on active service - he was Lord Cavendish, unable to go to the front line due and his wife was to varicose veins - but from a bout a sister of Nancy of flu which turned to pneumonia. Astor, the first Constance married again, and sur- female Member rendered the lease in 1935. of Parliament to of Polish airmen, with the upper It was then taken up until 1952 take up her seat. floors divided into accommodation. by the British serviceman and But Brand did not get the full At one point it was the home of businessman, the Right Honour- benefit of his lease. With the WRENS working at the Admiralty. able Robert Henry Brand (1878- outbreak of war, No 61 was requi- 1963), Managing Director of asset sitioned by the War Office for the and investment company Lazards, use of the Air Ministry, and was and Chairman of the North British apparently used for the training

Two of Waterhouse’s most famous designs – above, Manchester Town Hall and left, the Natural History Museum, ‘a cathedral to nature’ Bannister detail from the staircase at 61 New Cavnedish Street

A new home

n the early 1950s, the I saw a number of buildings and glass by a dozen feet and my some- Institute of Petroleum finally I came to the last on my what hopeless voice, telling them agents list – No 61 New Cavendish why the building could give us (IP) was in need of new I Street. In 1941 or 1942 the Germans absolutely everything we required. premises. Derek Hough Hon dropped a ‘blockbuster’ on the Records uncovered during a FEI, at that time the General BBC (200 yards from No 61 as the survey completed by Alan Baxter Secretary of IP, takes up the crow flies) and part of our roof was Associates in 2013 show that No story: Somewhere about the damaged and the glass dome over 61 was indeed in something of a the staircase was shattered into a state at the time. In addition to early 1950s, the Council felt thousand pieces, all of which [had] the smashed lantern light over the we had outgrown our building descended into the hall and onto stairway, there was cracked brick- near the BBC and set up a … the stairway. For the next fifteen work, blown in doors and damage building committee to consider years or so it remained empty, and to the back bay on the second the matter… the rain soaked steadily through a floor. The building and mews were pretty useless tarpaulin. apparently hit twice, although this The agent obviously thought that incident is not recorded in Lon- No 61 was a hopeless proposition, don’s bomb damage maps. but I was absolutely delighted with At the time there was a restric- it!...it would require a fair sum of tion on the kind of organisations money to make it habitable again, that Westminster would allow to but it was a splendid Adam man- take up office accommodation in sion (sic), and the main rooms of the area, to cultural or learned so- the ground and first floor would cieties. This, and the parlous state make admirable accommodation of the building, meant that the for Council, the library and reading Institute of Petroleum was able to room. acquire the building, on a 999 year In due course I escorted the lease, for just £19,500. The industry members of the building committee stepped forward to help meet the on a tour of inspection. It was, I costs of restoration and refurbish- well remember, a terrible winter ment, donating over £120,000. afternoon, cold and pouring with The building was Grade II* listed rain, and our only light was my in 1954 and a rear extension was small electric torch. built in 1956-7. The building reo- Looking back I don’t remember pened as the new headquarters of anyone talking during their tramp the Institute of Petroleum in 1958. round the building, the only noises Its most recent refurbishment was were the dismal crunching of broken completed in 2016.

Sir H Stephen Gibson, IP President 1952-1954 – around the time 61 New Cavendish Street was purchased by the IP. About the building

umbers 61 and 63 New Cavendish Street were Nbuilt as a pair in 1775- 7. (No 63, Asia House, is open to the public for special events and also retains many original architectural features).

No 63 has four bays and No 61 three. Both have rusticated arches of Coade Stone housing the main entrance. The front of the building is in a the present day 33 and 33a Wey- this was rather wishful thinking. simple uncomplicated style, typical mouth Mews). No 61 once had a Robert and James Adam were of buildings in this area. The green large garden, though it was gone indeed commissioned to design a canopies on the second and third by 1870 and the arch, too, was building for the space but plans did storeys and the balcony on the first gone by the start of the First World not come to fruition. However, the were probably a mid-nineteenth War, blocked off by the construc- 1770s was a time of intense devel- century addition, to shade the tion of No 59 New Cavendish Street opment in the area: perhaps some windows from the direct sunlight (now home of the Nuffield Trust). of the same craftsmen were used. resulting from the building’s un- Some aspects of the interior have And perhaps Adam was more obstructed position at the end of been described as of Adam quality involved that we now know. One Mansfield Street (there is specula- and style – for example in the use thing is certain: Adam and John- tion that they may have been add- of different room shapes, ornate son were at least acquainted, even ed by Waterhouse but no evidence ceilings and Roman and Etruscan if the relationship was somewhat survives to confirm this). motifs - and at various times it has strained – Johnson tried to patent To the left of the building there been suggested that the building a stucco composition and Adam was once an arch which led into was by Adam. The EI’s predecessor successfully challenged it in court, Weymouth Mews and stabling organisations had inhabited Adam on the basis that it was too close to accommodation (the stables for 61 buildings previously, in the Adelphi his own. and 63 New Cavendish Street are and in Portland Place, and perhaps The Council, Waterhouse Rooms and Stairway hese two rooms were The Waterhouse Room would The Stairway used as the drawing have been the ‘Morning Room’ – a The dramatic stairway is very office for Alfred family room for breakfast and high similar to that found in houses by T tea. It has a more feminine feel Adam in the area. The original Waterhouse’s practice, than the Council Room and a more glass dome was shattered in the although nothing of the decorated interior. The fireplace Second World War and was re- décor or furniture survive is thought to be original and has a placed during the restoration in from that time to tell us more. hob grate, with ledges which could the 1950s when the Institute of In the eighteenth century, the be used to keep the kettle warm. Petroleum came to New Cavendish The mantel would have been plain Street. Council Room would have marble originally – either white been the Dining Room, and or grey – it appears that the grey the area behind the columns marbled effect has been painted would have been used for on. The non rectangular shape of food service. the room is characteristic of architecture of the time, and one of the often imitated devices employed in Post-refurbishment Adam’s buildings. Above: the Council Room with detail from the pillars. Below left: the Waterhouse Room with detail from the mantlepiece below right the ceiling lantern in the hallway The Library, Reading Room Above: ceiling detail and right, and Kelvin the Kelvin Room Room

he library was originally the Drawing Room, the Tmost formal room in the house. It now holds the EI’s extensive collection of books and periodicals.

Looking up at the ceiling, the inset Reading Room central panel depicts the Roman Again, despite the good quality Goddess Aurora on her Chariot of the decorative scheme, anal- and is a copy of Guercino’s ceiling ysis shows that this room once at the Villa Aurora in Rome of had a different colour scheme, 1623. The other panels depict the and what we can see today is times of day (Dawn, Day, Dusk, and the result of a series of redeco- probably not white as they are Night). There has been speculation rations. now. Furnishing is likely to have that this and the other panels in The central circular ceiling panel been quite simple – the aim of the building may have been paint- depicts the god Apollo. He is sur- the room was to impress, with the ed by Biagio Rebecca (1731-1808) rounded by four panels showing emphasis on the dramatic ceiling. who often worked on decorative females attending a censer. The The original use of this room is not schemes with Robert Adam and next four panels moving outward clear, but it may have been an ante also collaborated with Angelica from the centre represent the arts room, or perhaps a dressing room. Kauffmann. – Poetry, Painting, Sculpture and Analysis shows that the colour Architecture. scheme has changed significantly since the 18th century. The oval The Kelvin Room border with figures in relief was The Kelvin Room features a high originally pale blue rather than quality pendative ceiling. Its central turquoise. The background to the image is Peace and Plenty, and the acanthus motifs were also yellow, surrounding cherubs represent the not bright red as they are now. four seasons – Spring, Summer, The inner part of the oval was pink Autumn and Winter. Opposite: the Library and the with purple borders around the The walls were likely to have Reading Room, with detail from the painted panels. been plain originally, though ceiling ‘Dawn, Day, Dusk and Night’

The Energy Institute

oday 61 New Cavendish Its predecessor body, the Institute 1947 and becoming the Institute Street is the home of the of Petroleum (IP), acquired the of Energy in 1978. Energy Institute – the lease after the Second World War, The Institute of Petroleum and T having outgrown its premises the Institute of Energy merged to professional body for the at 26 Portland Place. The IP had form the Energy Institute in 2003, energy sector. begun its life as the Institution of consolidating staff and facilities Petroleum Technologists under the under one roof at 61 New Caven- presidency of Sir Boverton Red- dish Street. wood in 1914, before becoming Today the Energy Institute works the Institute of Petroleum in 1938. with professionals across the en- Another predecessor body, the ergy sector, championing knowl- Institute of Fuel Economy Engi- edge, skills and good practice in neers had been formed in 1925, everything from petroleum tech- followed by the Institution of nology to energy management Fuel Technology in 1927, partly in and renewables, with the aim, response to new concerns about to meet our modern day energy fuel following the General Strike. needs while working towards a It gained its Royal Charter in 1946, sustainable future. moving to 18 Devonshire Street in Above: the newly refurbished reception and right, the ground floor office

Sources and further reading Victoria County History Middlesex (volumes published 1911-69) Cunningham, George London (1927) Webb, Donna Terracotta and the London Natural His- Dictionary of National Biography entry for Sir Alfred tory Museum published in Ceramics: Art & Perception Waterhouse ceramicart.com.au Girouard, Marc Alfred Waterhouse and the Natural Wikipedia: entries for Alfred Waterhouse, Paul Water- History Museum (1999) house, Charles Bampfylde, Robert Henry Brand, Lady Margaret Cavendish, retrieved April 2016 Howard de Walden Estate About Marylebone www.hdwe.co.uk/about-marylebone-history.aspx National Portrait Gallery entry for portrait of Alfred retrieved from website April 2016 Waterhouse retrieved April 2016 Lonsdale, Roger The strange case of John Bampfylde London Review of Books March (1988) With special thanks to Smith, J Thomas A Topographical and Historical The Georgian Society Account of the Parish of St Mary-le-Bone, (1833) Energy Institute Library and Archive Soane Museum Adam’s London Then and Now - Portland House Cavendish Street retrieved from Westminster archive website www.soane.org April 2016 Wellington Press Summerson, Sir John Georgian London (1946) Images: RIBA, The Harley Gallery, Tate Galery