court nor entertaining on anything like the
same scale as they had done in centuries
past. The smaller flats and houses going up
in Kensington and Chelsea were just as fit
for their new postwar life, if not more so, and
certainly much cheaper to run.
In the late Georgian era, however, a
grand town house had been a necessity
for a peer of the realm. Politically minded
aristocrats needed a base close to Parliament
and the Court at St James’s, and the more
spectacular the house, the better it advertised
their wealth, power and fashionable status.
Spacious apartments fit for entertaining large
numbers of guests were also essential, and
Devonshire House had those in abundance.
Facing on to Piccadilly, Devonshire
House stood almost directly opposite what is
now the Ritz Hotel, enjoying uninterrupted
views across Green Park, which was then
a fashionable place to promenade. Set
back from the road, the house had a large
courtyard in front and to the rear three acres
of its own gardens, a rare luxury in London,
even in the 18th century.
A mansion house on the site was
originally acquired in 1696 by the 1st Duke
of Devonshire, who promptly renamed
it Devonshire House. Built just after the
Restoration of Charles II for the 1st Lord
Berkeley, the house was completely gutted
by fire in 1733, so the Devonshire House that
Jane Austen and her contemporaries would
have recognised was that rebuilt in the time
of the 3rd Duke to a design by William Kent,
the Palladian architect.
Kent’s sumptuous interiors were at
odds with the very simple and minimalist
style of his design for the exterior of the
house. Brick-built (possibly for financial
reasons), it was long and low, with very
little decorative detail. Its relative starkness,
combined with its sheer size, led one
contemporary to compare it unfavourably
to an East India Company Warehouse.
Aesthetically, the house was not helped by
the 10ft brick wall that shielded it from the
street, hiding the ground-floor windows
from view. Many people complained that
the wall was unsightly and spoiled the view
from the street, not least because it became
a magnet for the capital’s graffiti writers. It
was not until the mid-19th century that a
pair of decorative ironwork gates was added,
increasing the property’s kerb appeal.
Inside, however, it was among the most
opulent and spacious of the aristocratic
London residences of the Georgian age,
more aptly referred to as “private palaces”.
It boasted an impressive double-height