Description

1900/80/81 FITZMAURICE PLACE W1
14-JAN-70 9
Lansdowne Club

II*

Also Known As: LANSDOWNE HOUSE, FITZMAURICE PLACE W1
Shelburne House, FITZMAURICE PLACE W1

Detached town house, 1762 - 68 by Robert Adam for Lord Bute. 1765 sold to Earl of Shelburne, later Lord Lansdowne. 1791 - 4, interiors by George Dance the younger, 1816 - 19 alterations by Robert Smirke, 1870' s by T.H. Wyatt. 1929 sold to the Bruton Club. 1931 - 2, front tier demolished, facade reinstated, building extended by Charles Fox. Interiors by White Allom. 1935 opened as Lansdowne Club. Originally Shelburne, later Lansdowne House. Portland stone ashlar, slate mansard roofs. Three storeys attics and basement, eight bays, of which five bays are reconstructed facade, the proportions heightened and contracted in the reconstruction. Rusticated ground floor. Former pedimented centrepiece slightly set forward. Giant order tetrastyle Ionic pilasters to upper floors. Entrance under square overlight flanked by tall square - headed windows, all of 1930's. Flanking round - headed windows, glazed the full height with balustraded window guards, based on original wings. Upper floor windows square headed, taller in proportion to Adam's originals. Slender first floor cill band, enriched second floor band and frieze derived from original house. Steep mansard roof with small full height dormers. Entrance hall, 1930's, stone, and painted trompe l'oeil. Central steps to desk flanked by former doorways; side steps with iron balustrade. Recessed windows and entrance. Former First Drawing Room, now Adam Bar. Proportions altered from original. Decoration based on former Ante Room; ceiling, originally in Ante Room, with lunettes by Cipriani, Marble chimneypiece formerly in Third Drawing Room. Round Room, also Second Drawing Room or Bow Room; Adam, completed 1776, remodelled 1792 by Dance. Circular domed chamber with painted neo- classical frieze, possibly by Cipriani. Marble chimney piece, flanking alcoves. Fine mahogony doors in doorcases with enriched friezes. A rare survival of a Dance interior. Draft treaty for Independence for America drawn up in this room. Hall, formerly Third Drawing Room. Adam, dismantled and reconstructed 1935 when lift installed. Ceiling modified, wall treatment largely intact. Paired mahogony doors in painted architraves, stone classical panel to each frieze. Library/sculpture gallery, later ballroom. Scheme for Adam library, built as a carcass, redesigned by Dance 1788 - 9 4, completed as a sculpture gallery by Smirke 1819, altered 1935 to become ballroom. Conceived as a Roman Imperial hall, with segmental coffered ceiling, reset by Fox to carry upper floors, retaining Smirke's rosettes. Giant pilasters to walls, Smirke. Former high domed rotundas altered to alcoves by Fox, ceilings flattened, windows removed, balconies installed using iron balustrade from original grand staircase, sculpture niches removed. Main walls articulated by round headed niches, plaster panels above, uplighters between. Wall connecting to Wyatt's gallery, altered 1870's, Chimneypiece, Dance, fitted by Smirke, removed 1930's. Gallery, Wyatt;five bays,rib vaulted, terminating in coffered alcove. Pilasters formerly marbled. Parquetry floor. Said to be original wall brackets. Restaurant, largely 1935, but with renewed colour scheme, added wall paintings and glazed panels. Uplighters, 1935 one with replicated bowl. Ladies lounge and boudoir with dressing tables. Smoking Room, 1935, round edged pilaster strips, to simple cornice, each bay with round headed panel. Wood veneers replaced by paint. Red marble chimneypiece and flanking pedestals with uplighters. Swimming Pool and bar. Sunk pool formerly with diving boards; gallery above now fitness suite, and bar, tasselled fluted frieze to piers and ceiling, balustrade with uplighters, mostly original, some replicas. Etched glass plates of Shell Building and Tower of London, part of series of views from River Thames, from fomer cocktail bar, relocated on first floor. Sun Room, truncated and reglazed, veneered walls.
The Principal Drawing Room of the Adam house is now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Dining Room in The Metropolitan Museum, New York.

S.Barson, Lansdowne House, Westminster, English Heritage August 1999
Marta Galicki, Lansdowne House, 9 Fitzmaurice Place, December 1988
A Great Country House Reconstructed, Country Life, May 11 1935
Drawing Room from Lansdowne House, Bulletin of Philadelphia Museum of Art, Vol.82, Nos. 351 - 52, Summer 1986

Listing NGR: TQ2880380447

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Lansdowne Club at Wikipedia
• Lansdowne Club official website
• Wikidata Q6487379

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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