Lancaster House
The Lancaster House is a palatial mansion in London district of St James's . It is located, overlooking Green Park , on the neighboring property on The Mall, separated from St James's Palace by Stable Yard Road . Large parts of the property, which is now administered by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office , once belonged to the palace complex.
history
The city residence was from 1825 for Friedrich August, Duke of York and Albany , second son of George III. and brother George IV. , built in the classical style. After the builder died in 1827, the half-finished York House came into the possession of the wealthy and aristocratic Stafford-Sutherland family. The Stafford House, completed in 1843, became one of the centers of social life in London. Up to a thousand guests indulged in the splendor of large evening parties, balls and banquets.
The name Lancaster House goes back to William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme , who bought the property in 1912 and renamed it in honor of the county of his birth. In 1913 he donated the building to the state. Until the Second World War it housed the Museum of London ; today it is used for state receptions and conferences. In 1979 the Lancaster House Agreement was concluded here, which created the international legal basis for Zimbabwe's independence .
interior
Mainly created by Charles Barry and Benjamin Dean Wyatt , the Lancaster House interior is still gorgeous, with bold colors in a white and gold setting. One of the architectural highlights is the central staircase hall that extends to the roof of the building. The conclusion is a vaulted ceiling supported by caryatids with a huge lantern. The Grand Staircase designed by Wyatt and the gallery on the first floor that extends the entire length of the house are also outstanding.
Trivia
The stairwell and the premises of Lancaster House served as the backdrop in the US-British-French comedy Seriously Being Is Everything (based on Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest ) from 2002 , for the final scene in The King's Speech (2010) and as Stairwell at Buckingham Palace for the Netflix series The Crown (since 2016).
literature
- Bamber Gascoigne: Encyclopedia of Britain . BCA, London et al. 1993, ISBN 0-333-54764-0 , p. 359.
- Peter Furtado, Nathaniel Harris, Hazel Harrison, Paul Pettit: The Country Life Book of Castles and Houses in Britain . Newnes Books, Twickenham 1986, ISBN 0-600-56400-2 , p. 83.
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 30 ′ 14 ″ N , 0 ° 8 ′ 21 ″ W.