Carlton House was the town house of the Prince Regent for several decades from 1783 until it was demolished forty years later. It faced the south side of Pall Mall, and its gardens abutted St. James’s Park in the St James’s district of London. The location of the house, now replaced by Carlton House Terrace, was a main reason for the creation of John Nash’s ceremonial route from St James’s to Regent’s Park via Regent Street, All Souls, Langham Place and Park Square. Lower Regent Street and Waterloo Place were originally laid out to form the approach to its front entrance
An existing early eighteenth century house had been sold in 1732 to Frederick, Prince of Wales, and son of George I. William Kent had been employed to lay out the garden of which no trace remains. Frederick’s widow, Augusta, enlarged the house, had the entrance gates and porter’s lodge redesigned and a colonnaded porch built. She died in 1772 and for some years the house was unoccupied.
Portrait of The Prince of Wales, later King George IV (1762 – 1830) 1790. John Russell RA
In 1783 George III handed the house over, with £60,000 to refurbish it, to George, Prince of Wales on his coming of age. During the following years the interiors were remodelled and refurnished on a palatial scale.
Carlton House ca.1825. As published in Britton and Pugin, Public Buildings of London. 1825. Patrick has worked on elements from the areas marked with a cross
Initially Sir William Chambers was appointed as architect, but he was quickly replaced by Henry Holland. Both Chambers and Holland were proponents of the French neoclassical style of architecture, and Carlton House would be extremely influential in introducing the Louis XVI style to England.
The Grand Staircase
Holland began working first on the State Apartments along the south (garden) front, the principal reception rooms of the house. Construction commenced in 1784. By the time of his marriage to Mrs Fitzherbert in December 1785, however, construction at Carlton House came to a halt because of the Prince of Wales’ mounting debts. Costs continued to soar and more money had to be found by the Prince… Continue to read this post on Patrick Baty’s blog.
Inquiring Readers, Patrick Baty is one of the foremost authorities on architectural paint and colour on historic architecture and interiors. These days, the majority of Patrick’s time is spent as a historic paint consultant, sampling paint layers on buildings, bridges and architectural details to produce a forensic history of the decoration from creation to the present day. He has graciously allowed me to link to his post about Carlton House.
Other posts by Patrick Baty on this blog:
- Painting a House During the Regency Era: Q&A With Colourman Patrick Baty
- Invisible Green: A Farvorite Colour for Georgian Landscape Buildings and Garden Fences
- The Paint Detective
When I first left the sixth form at the age of 19 and before I decided to train as a teacher, I lived in London with some friends in Bayswater. I worked in St James’s Square and knew this area well. Pall Mall is still full of, what we term, “Gentlemens Clubs.”I must have walked past the spot where Carlton House was situated many times.
A work colleague informed me one day as we walked along Pall Mall that we were passing a high class brothel. The aristocracy have their needs I suppose. Brothel, it looked very ordinary to me.Then what did I know.
Sorry about the preamble, Vic. A very interesting article.
Tony
The saddest thing about this house, Tony, is how quickly it was torn down after it was built. I don’t think this lavish house lasted more than forty years. All those beautiful interiors, including that grand staircase, gone. What a waste.
I see! Now I know why I was unable to find this building during my walk on Pall Mall.
Thanks for the images.
Oh, such a shame!
And why did you frequent the area so much, Tony, hmmm? I just like how you mention the plethora of gentlemen’s clubs along with your frequenting the area! Oh, teasing.
Hope the rest of the article explains WHY it was razed. Ugh.
From the rest of the article: ‘ . . On becoming King George IV in 1820 the Prince Regent felt that his own residence; the official royal residence of St. James’s Palace and his father’s Buckingham House were all inadequate for his needs.
Some consideration was given to rebuilding Carlton House on a far larger scale, but in the end Buckingham House was rebuilt as Buckingham Palace instead.
Carlton House was demolished in 1826-27 and replaced with two grand white stuccoed terraces of houses known as Carlton House Terrace. The proceeds of the leases were put towards the cost of Buckingham Palace.’
Well, this was very interesting. I have often wondered what happened to Carlton House and what it looked like today. Thanks for the info!
Thank you so much for bringing this article to our attention. It was very well written and it was a treat to see the images, particularly the two from the Blue Velvet suite, which are not easily found on the web. The Prince had one of the finest collections of Dutch paintings in England, and most of them were displayed in the Blue Velvet Room.
As a point of interest, Sir William Chambers was replaced by Henry Holland because Chambers was the choice of Prinny’s father, King George III. Chambers had been architectural tutor to George III and took that same tone with the Prince. Prinny hated his condescending attitude and as soon as he could, he replaced Chambers with Holland.
The demolition of Carlton House was indeed a loss, but so was the demolition of much of the original Buckingham House. It contained some very fine Adam interiors, done for Queen Charlotte soon after George III had purchased it, which are now lost as well. It is a pity they could not have been saved, but Prinny thought they were too old fashioned. However, it is interesting that he was willing to sacrifice Carlton House to rebuild on what was essentially his childhood home.
As always, thank you for keeping Jane Austen’s World both fascinating and informative. It is always a treat to visit here.
Regards,
Kat
Hi Kathryn. What was the Prince Regents childhood home?
I’ve contacted The Georgian Group to ask about recycled features from Carlton house. There must be something left, somewhere.
All the best,
Tony
Worked it out Kathryn. So Buckingham House which became Buckingham Palace was the prince’s childhood home.
That’s why Patrick has a got a ,” By Royal Appointment ,”coat of arms attached to his company’s website. We are in illustrious company.The rooms he refers to having worked on must be at Buckingham Palace. Many features from Carlton House were transferred there.
Tony
Kat,
Praise coming from you is high praise indeed. Thank you. I may say the same thing about your wonderful site!
You are quite right, Buckingham House, known more commonly as the Queen’s House during the Regency, was purchased by George III for Queen Charlotte in 1761, because the official royal residence, St. James’s Palace, was so old and run-down. The Prince of Wales was born there the following year, and it was his home until 1771, when his father decided he wanted his growing family to be raised in a more rural environment and moved the royal family to what was then known as the White House, at Kew.
But what became Kew Palace was soon too small for King George’s rapidly increasing family, (ultimately 15 children), so he sent his two eldest sons, George and Frederick, to live at the nearby Dutch House, with a stern “governor,” a flock of “sub-governors” and tutors. The boys were subject to an extremely rigorous and staunchly pious education at the hands of these men, they were allowed no friends of their own age and only saw their parents and younger siblings a few times a week. It is little wonder George IV still felt nostalgia for the one place where he had probably experienced the only really family life he was ever to know.
As to the remains of Carlton House, as Mr. Baty noted in his article, the columns of the portico were donated to the National Gallery, and to this day mark the front entrance of the building on Trafalgar Square. Most of the Prince’s fine collection of art was moved to the new Buckingham Palace, along with much of his finer furniture. That which was not wanted at Buckingham Palace seems to have made its way to other royal residences. A number of the doors, as Mr. Baty also noted, were used at Windsor Castle, which George IV was also “improving” at that time.
Royal possessions are typically inventoried and their locations routinely updated as needed, so there may well be records as to exactly which items in which royal residence are from Carlton House, but, even with access to these records, such a search could easily take years. Perhaps, one day, some determined scholar will undertake the task. We can but hope.
Kat
Kat, Thanks for your comments. You are absolutely right. It is known that as early as 1824 Charles Long had attended the King to discuss the disposition of the Carlton House elements in Windsor Castle and detailed inventories and pictorial records were made. The inventory appears on pp.139 et. seq, of Works 1/14 in the Public Record Office (according to The History of The King’s Works. Vol. VI, 1973, 321). Clifford Smith in his book on Buckingham Palace (1931, 122) refers to a three volume document.
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