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Grosvenor House
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Grosvenor House was one of the largest private houses situated on London's exclusive Park Lane in the district of Mayfair. The house was the home of the Grosvenor family - (better known as the Dukes of Westminster) for more than a century. Their original London house was on Millbank, but after the family had developed their Mayfair estates, they move to Park Lane to build a house worthy of their wealth (a vast amount) and of their status and influence in the 19th century.
The site was occupied by a small house named 'Gloucester House' (after the Duke of Gloucester who owned it) with the front entrance on Upper Grosvenor Street. This house was bought for £20,000 in 1805. After that, the newly created Earl Grosvenor spent £17,000 on extending the house to make it more fashionable with the times. In 1821 , a large picture gallery 50 feet long was added to the west of the house. It was in here that many of the Grosvenor treasures were held.
Another extension was added in 1842, it was the addition of a large Roman style Colonnaded entrance screen on Upper Grosvenor Street. It was 110 feet long and all along it were the arms of the wealthy inhabitants. Thomas Cundy, the architect of this vast house then proposed a larger mansio to go all the way along to Park Street extending all the way to 230 feet. This was dropped as the 2nd Marquess thought it was to be too lavish.
In 1870 the 3rd Marquess (later the 1st Duke ) had Henry Clutton add a Porte-Cochére added to the north and has many of the State rooms redesigned. Then in 1889 electricity was introduced- being one of the firt building in London to do so.
The house was in the Grosvenor's possession until the First World War as the government requested it for their use. After the war the family decided it was too lavish to maintain so it was sold and the site is now the home to the Grosvenor House Hotel.
It is said that the house housed one of the best private art collections in the world with paintings by Gainsborough, Velasquez and other old masters. Some of these were sold between the wars but most remain in the other Grosvenor homes, mainly their country seat - Eaton Hall in Cheshire.