Mayfair, Belgravia, and Bayswater | Page 5

which includes about six acres, was built in 1695. The garden was laid out by Kent, and in the centre stood formerly an equestrian statue of George I., by Van Nost, placed there in 1726. On the site, in 1642, was erected a fort named Oliver's Mount, which stood as one of the defences against the Royalists until 1647. Owing to the prejudices of the inhabitants, Grosvenor Square was not lit by gas until 1842.
Inhabitants: Duchess of Kendal, d. 1743; Earl of Chesterfield, 1733-50; Bishop Warburton, 1757; Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, 1758-64; Lord Rockingham, d. 1782; Henry Thrale, d. 1781; Lord North, d. 1792; Thomas Raikes, 1832; Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles; 10, Lord Canning and Lord Granville, 1841; 22, William Beckford, 1800; 23, the Earl of Derby here married Miss Farren, actress, in 1797; his successors resided here until 1832; Lord Stratford de Redclyffe, d. 1880; 24, the Earl of Shaftesbury; 29, Sir John Beaumont; 30, John Wilkes, d. 1797; 39 (now 44), the Earl of Harrowby, 1820 (here the Cato Street conspirators proposed to murder the Ministry); 44, Countess of Pembroke. The houses have since been renumbered. To give a list of the present inhabitants of note would be impossible; it would be like copying a page out of the Red Book. Suffice to say there are living in the Square two Dukes, one Marquess, three Earls, six Barons, and five Baronets, beside many other persons of distinction.
At the corner end of Park Street, and in South Street and Aldford Street, the old houses have been pulled down and have been replaced by large, red-brick, ornamented structures, such as have also been erected in Mount Street, Grosvenor Street, and North and South Audley Street. The spaces behind the houses are occupied by mews. Great improvements have also been effected since 1887 in the housing of the working classes, particularly in the neighbourhood of Oxford Street, and in Bourdon Street and Mount Row, by the erection of blocks of industrial dwellings by the St. George's and Improved Industrial Dwellings Companies, under the auspices of the Duke of Westminster.
In Park Street, formerly called Hyde Park Street, lived Miss Nelly O'Brien, 1768; 7, Sir William Stirling Maxwell, M.P.; 26, Sir Humphry Davy, 1825, till his death; 113, Miss Lydia White, d. 1827; 123, Richard Ford, author of "The Handbook for Spain." In North Audley Street, opposite Green Street, is St. Mark's Church, built from designs by J. P. Deering in 1825-28, and reconstructed in Romanesque style in 1878. Adjoining is the Vicarage, built in 1887, and at the back the St. Mark's Institute, containing a church-room, mission-room, gymnasium, and a working men's club. Attached to the institute are the parish schools, built soon after 1830, and enlarged and repaired in 1894.
Near the church lived the Countess of Suffolk, mistress of George II.; at 1, Maria Edgeworth; 26, the Misses Berry.
South Audley Street takes its name from Hugh Audley (d. 1662), the owner of some land in the neighbourhood. It has several interesting houses. No. 8, Alington House (Lord Alington), was, in 1826, Cambridge House, the residence of the Duke of York, and afterwards, until 1876, belonged to the Curzons, Earls Howe. In 73, Bute House, lived, in 1769, the great Earl of Bute, and near him his friend Home, author of "Douglas." Chesterfield House, a large mansion standing in a courtyard at the corner of Curzon Street, was built by Ware in 1749 for the fourth Earl of Chesterfield, d. 1773, who wrote the "Letters" in the library. The portico and marble staircase, with bronze balustrade, were brought from Canons, the seat of the Duke of Chandos. In 1869 the house was sold to Mr. Magniac for ��175,000, and he built over the gardens. It is now the town house of Lord Burton.
Opposite Aldford Street is Grosvenor Chapel, erected in 1730; an ugly building, with sittings for 1,200. It is now a chapel of ease to St. George's. Here were buried Lord Chesterfield, 1773; Ambrose Phillips, poet, 1749; Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, 1762; David Mallet, poet, 1765; William Whitehead, poet, 1785; John Wilkes, 1797; Elizabeth Carter, 1806. The churchyard at the back was, in 1889, converted into a public garden. Just outside the gate is the Public Free Library, erected in 1894 under the Free Libraries Act.
Other inhabitants: General Paoli; Holcroft, dramatist, 1761; Sir William Jones; Lord John Russell; Lord Sydenham, 1841; 8, Archbishop Markham, d. 1807; 14, Sir R. Westmacott, sculptor, d. 1856; 15, Baron Bunsen, 1841; 72, Charles X., when in exile, and in 1816 the Duchesse d'Angoul��me; Louis XVIII., in 1814, also lived in this street; 74, the Portuguese Embassy early in the eighteenth century; 77, Sir Matthew Wood; here Queen Caroline resided in 1820. In the enlargement of the street called Audley Square Spencer Perceval was born. North Row