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For some reason I had not realised until fairly recently
that the general public could visit the 18
th century splendours of
Spence House close by London’s Green Park and a mere stone’s throw from the
Tudor palace of St James. The fact that the mansion is open during the winter
months is a boon when so many other stately homes are closed for the season. The 1
st Earl Spencer began work on
his new mansion in 1756. The exterior and the ground floor interior were
designed by John Vardy, an acolyte of William Kent whose work can be seen at
Kensington Palace,
Hampton Court and
Chiswick House.
Following in Kent’s
footsteps Vardy drew heavily on Ancient Rome for his designs at Spencer House.
That proved to be his undoing. Two years into the project, the Earl was
persuaded by his close friend, Colonel Gray, to dump Vardy and commission James
'Athenian' Stuart to complete the upper floors in the Greek revival style.
The Earl had wanted his town house to stand as a monument to
marital bliss. At the age of 21 he married his sweetheart in private. The guide
at Spencer House was at pains to point out that a public ceremony had been
planned but that the bride was getting cold feet; hence the clandestine
marriage. The wedding ceremony was held on the same day that the Earl came into
his majority and gained control of two large fortunes, one of which was from
his great grandmother, Sarah Churchill, who built nearby
Marlborough House
in the opening decades of the 18
th century.
The happiness of the 1
st Earl’s own marriage did
not prove an enduring template for some of the Spencer women who followed him.
One such woman became famous for her beauty, her fashionable clothes and for
the fact that there were “three people in this marriage”: the young bride, her older
husband and his married mistress. In the 18
th century Georgiana
Spencer, daughter of the first Earl, had to share her husband and her home with
his mistress. In the 20
th century her kinswoman Diana, Princess of Wales, was not
inclined to participate in a ménage à trios and her marriage notoriously ended in divorce.
Unlike Georgiana, Diana had not been raised at Spencer House, the family having
leased out the property in the 19
th century. During World War Two the
Spencers removed key architectural pieces, such as doors, chair rails,
architrave s and fireplaces, and stored them at Althorp, their ancestral estate
in Northampton
where Diana was later buried. This spared the items from bomb damage but it had
an unexpected consequence when such pieces were incorporated into the fabric of
Althorp. In the 1980s Lord Rothschild, whose company leased offices in the
house, decided to fund a major restoration of Spencer House and open up the
state rooms to the general public. Unfortunately, original pieces sent to
Althorp for safe keeping could not be reinstated. After the war Althorp was granted
grade one listed building status. As a consequence, anything in situ at the
time of the listing had to remain at Althorp. Even the fact they had been originally
designed for Spencer House was not deemed a compelling enough argument for
their return. However, a solution was found in the commissioning of new pieces
from master craftsmen, who were often able to go to the source material to
perfect their copies. Expense did not seem to be an issue which is why, for
example, the replica fireplaces are so magnificent and in an entirely different
class altogether to the modern replicas at the
Queen’s House, Greenwich and
Marble Hill House.
 |
| Arthur Young |
When I realised I would be obliged to go around the house on
a timed tour and not wander at leisure, I decided to abandon my usual modus
operandi and tried to discover as much about Spencer House as possible in
advance, so I would know what to look out for. In my endeavours I was greatly
helped by Arthur Young who wrote “A six weeks tour through the southern
counties of England
and Wales,”
first published in 1768. Arthur was very taken with Spencer House declaring in
his book: “I do not apprehend there is a house in Europe of its size better
worth the view of the curious in architecture and the fitting up and furnishing
great houses than Lord Spencers in St James's Place Nothing can be more
pleasingly elegant than the park front which is ornamented to an high degree
and yet not with profusion I know not in England a more beautiful piece of
architecture Nor is the sitting up and furniture of the rooms inferior to the beauties
of the outside.”
When I set out at the weekend I was determined to see whether
Arthur Young’s fulsome praises still held water. The Tube took me to the
entrance of Green
Park. I was determined to
take some exterior shots of the house from the park before dusk as I had
already ascertained that the gardens were closed to the public during the
winter. Whether by accident or design I was able to find breaks in the
shrubbery by the park fencing through which to view the exterior of the house.
I discovered afterwards that Spencer House originally opened directly onto Green Park.
Later, the Crown allowed the surrounding town houses to lease land from the
royal park to form private gardens.
Three distinctly weather-beaten statues grace the roof of the
façade directly facing the park. They represent Ceres the goddess of fertility flanked on one side by
Flora, a lesser goddess but also of fertility on her other side by Bacchus, the original hard
living party boy.
I took a short cut between two buildings to get to the side
of the house facing the street. It is no longer possible to take a picture
which incorporates the whole of this façade. Rather annoyingly, an adjacent 20th
century block of flats gets in the way. The location of the block alone makes
these flats very expensive. Apparently one recently sold for £13.5 million.
Personally, I would rather have had the money than the flat, not that I will
ever be in the fortunate position of having to choose between those two stupendous options. Nevertheless, I was able to capture the Venetian window which lights
the main staircase and the warm honey tones of this façade which was in contrast to the white stucco of the front overlooking the park.
I bought my ticket in the Entrance Hall. The latter is
dominated by an oversized marble bust of Lucius Verus who, until his death, jointly
ruled Ancient Rome alongside the emperor Marcus Aurelius. Unlike Marcus, Lucius
was deemed a pretty mediocre emperor.
If Lucius had been more like his co-ruler then perhaps the fictional
“Maximus
Decimus Meridius. Commander of the Armies of the North. General of the Felix
Legions” might have been a loyal servant to him as well as to “the true Emperor,
Marcus
Aurelius.” A bas relief of the latter’s father, the Emperor Antoninus
Pius, hung above the fireplace. Its dusty condition occasioned the guide to declare
that she longed to take a duster to it. The eponymous cinematic
Gladiator might well have recognised the sacrificial instruments as well as the
beribboned skulls of oxen represented in the Doric
frieze. The latter was inspired by the Temple
of Jupiter the Thunderer and the tomb of Cecilia Metella, the latter a Roman
matron and daughter of a Consul.
I found myself with a quarter of an hour to spare before the
tour was scheduled to start and so descended down a stairwell lined with 18th
century prints to make use of the facilities below. A statue of a young Roman
woman stood on a pedestal by the wash basins. Or perhaps she was a former
cloakroom attendant who had been turned to stone.
I then returned to the Morning Room to watch a short film
about the house. The Morning Room had a coved ceiling, plaster and timber wall
panelling, 6 panel mahogany wooden doors with egg and dart architraves above
them, a plain white marble fireplace and Georgian small panelled shutters. Of
particular interest to me were the bronze pendant and table lamps and the
elaborate gilt door furnishings, fashioned into the letter S for Spencer with a
miniature head of Bacchus at the centre. I failed to notice the portraits of
King Charles II and his brother James on the wall. Much of what I saw were specially
commissioned replicas or else brought to the house from elsewhere, either on
loan or purchased as part of the restoration project. To my relief, just as the video ended a
young Australian woman came into the Morning Room to join me.It meant I could scribble notes to my hearty's content without feeling obliged to retain a constant eye contact with the guide.
Our guide, Jenny, led us into the Ante Room,
which had once formed the Little Eating Parlour for the newly married 1
st
Earl Spencer and his wife. Henry Holland, one of the men involved in the design
of the
Royal Pavilion at Brighton, made further alterations to Spencer
House when it became the property of the 2
nd Earl. One such change
was the insertion of double doors leading off into the Vestibule. There had
been doors before but they were far smaller and positioned within the alcoves
flanking the double doors. In the 1
st Earl’s time the arrangement
would have allowed a permanent sideboard to be placed below the splendid apse,
based upon one in the Temple
of Venus. Above the
marble topped pier table by the other wall was a painting by the 17th century Italian artist Pietro da Cortona. For some reason a reclining marble
statue of Venus had been shoved underneath the same table. By the window was a 1740s mahogany knee-hole writing table, which we were informed was a very important piece of furniture, but my attention was fixed on the beautiful mid-18
th century oval
gilt mirror, but then beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Around the room was a set of 5 mahogany chairs upholstered in red
fabric. They had been specially made for Spencer House but over the centuries
had been dispersed elsewhere. The restoration project enabled their welcome
return.
Henry Holland also made changes to what is now the Library,
such as widening the sash windows so that one could step out onto the terrace
beyond and enjoy the view across Green
Park. The Library steps
possess the singular ability to be converted into a table and back again, or so we were told.The green
upholstered chairs and sofas all date from the Regency period. Of the prints
around the room, one was of my erstwhile neighbour
Admiral Lord Nelson who, it
seems, was a frequent visitor to Spencer House. I admired the ebony and gilt
clock above the fireplace with its seated winged goddess diligently reading a
manuscript. The fireplace in this room, as in most of the other state rooms at
Spencer House, is a stunning 20
th century replica made by the stone
and wood carver, Dick Reid. The talented Mr Reid retired in 2004 but his legacy
continues on in those he taught and in the spectacular commissioned works he
produced.
The fireplace in the Dining Room is another masterpiece from
the workshops of Dick Reid. The polished scagliola columns made to imitate
Sienna marble reminded me of similar columns in the Ante Room at
Syon House.
The ceiling was based on Inigo Jones’s compartmented ceiling at the
Banqueting House in Whitehall but minus Ruben’s paintings commemorating the Stuart
dynasty. The frieze of sacrificial oxen
heads and cupids holding garlands was inspired by the Temple of Fortuna Virilis
in Rome.
Set
against the wall at either end of the Dining Room is a pair of console tables
designed by John Vardy for Spencer House. Winged lions at the base of the table
hold vines, heavy with grapes, in their mouths. A mask of Apollo decorates the
centre. As with the red chairs in the Ante Room, the tables were only returned
to Spencer House in the 1980s. The appearance of these tables was once rendered
even more magnificent by the addition of wine buckets made of solid gold. The
unusual glass chandelier was commissioned by King George III as a gift for an
Indian prince; hence the storm shades to protect the candles.
In one of the windows overlooking Green Park
is a contemporary 18th century political satire in marble showing
the infant Hercules, in the guise of William Pitt the Younger, strangling two
snakes, with the heads of his political foes Charles James Fox and Lord North. No
doubt it occasioned much merriment in the past but now looks distinctly creepy, like some prop from a horror film.
When King Charles II invited John Webb to build him a new
palace at Greenwich,
Webb was only able to complete a single building before the death of his
sovereign prematurely ended his commission. Webb’s King Charles Court is currently home to the
Trinity College of Music. I had no idea what plans Webb had for the interior until
I went to Spencer House. The so-called Palm Room, where the 1
st Earl
entertained his male cronies, draws on John Webb’s designs for King Charles’s
proposed bedroom at Greenwich.
The palm trees were symbols of marital fertility. The libidinous Charles was able to sire
plenty of children but not alas a single legitimate heir. The Palm Room at Spencer
House has a nude statue of Venus at its centre. Given King Charles’s reputation
as a womaniser, he probably had more than his fair share of naked women taking
centre stage in his various bedchambers. The gilded frieze of winged griffins (a
Spencer heraldic beast) is taken from the Temple of Antoninus
and Faustina, also known as the Emperor Antoninus Pius and his wife. The
Regency lantern purchased for the restored room continues the palm tree motif. The master carver Ben
Bacon was commissioned to produce the sofas and chairs in the late 20
th
century. The original of the replica fireplace is to be found in the Marlborough
Room at Althorp. The side tables incorporate authentic 2
nd century Roman mosaics
in the top and a palm tree design for the base.
We passed through a jib door in the Palm Room and
along the service corridor leading to the main staircase. The latter was
somewhat plain after the riotous Palm Room but nevertheless pleasingly elegant. The bottom
half of the stair hall reflects Vardy’s taste for the style of Ancient Rome. A
statue of a centaur sits at the base of the stairwell. The Ancient Greeks . thought centaurs represented unbridled passions. I have no idea whether the Ancient Romans thought the same.
The upper part of the
staircase reflects James Stuart’s preference for the Ancient Greek. The treads
are of stone and the walls painted to resemble stone. The sheet metal balustrades
have been painted to give the optical illusions of garlands. James Stuart
wanted the barrel vaulted ceiling to give the impression that visitors were
inside an ancient Grecian temple. The average Ancient Greek would have been
hard pressed to have seen anything on a par with the huge 18th
century Venetian lantern suspended from the ceiling. It has gilded statuettes
of naked men around the top and lions at the base. It seems this enormous
lantern was once one of several placed around the Doge’s state barge. It is
amazing the barge was able to keep afloat under what looks to be a considerable
weight. The top of the staircase leads to the state rooms decorated by James Smith to which I shall return anon.
