Albany (London)

"The Albany" redirects here. For the theatre in Deptford, see The Albany Theatre. For other uses, see Albany (disambiguation).

The Albany or Albany (since the mid-20th century some sources have claimed that the article is not in use among the fashionable) is an apartment complex in Piccadilly, London.

Building

The Albany was built 1770-74 by Sir William Chambers for Viscount Melbourne, as Melbourne House. It is a three-storey mansion seven bays (windows) wide, with a pair of service wings flanking a front courtyard. In 1791, Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany abandoned Dover House, Whitehall (now a government office) and took up residence. In 1802 the duke gave up the house and it was converted by Henry Holland into 69 bachelor apartments (known as "sets"). This was achieved not only by subdividing the main block and the two service wings, but also by adding two parallel sets of buildings running the length of the garden.

History

Since its conversion, the Albany has been the best known and most prestigious set of bachelor apartments in London. The residents have included such famous names as the poet Lord Byron and the future Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, and numerous members of the aristocracy. Nonetheless, occupants have been known to complain that the accommodation is often rather cramped.

Residents no longer have to be bachelors.

Governance

About half of the freehold of the Albany is now owned by Peterhouse, a small Cambridge College. The Albany is governed by a Board of Trustees. Rents are well below commercial levels and the apartments or "sets" are rumored to be allocated on the basis of social connections.

"Albany" or " The Albany"?

There has been dispute as to whether the name of the building is "Albany" or "the Albany." The rules adopted in 1804 laid down that "the Premises mentioned in the foregoing Articles shall be called Albany". However, 19th century sources refer to it as "the Albany," such as the play The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde which repeatedly refers to the character Jack Worthing's residence at "the Albany," and in Charles Dickens's novel Our Mutual Friend. Raffles, the gentleman thief in the stories by E. W. Hornung is referred to as living at "the Albany". Beginning in the early 20th century, "Albany" without the article again became the accepted usage, memorialised, for example, in the early 20th century novels of Dornford Yates, a careful observer of upper class manners. The historian Hugh Trevor-Roper, perhaps an even more careful observer of upper class manners than Yates, refers to the home of Macaulay as "the Albany". In the words of the English Heritage Survey of London, "the present resolute omission of the article seems to spring not so much from awareness of correct usage as from a sense, about the beginning of the 20th century, that 'the Albany' sounded 'like a publichouse'".

In a 1958 review of a book about the building, Peace in Piccadilly, The Times wrote, "Albany or the Albany? It has long been a snobbish test of intimate knowledge of the West End. If one was in use, a man could feel superior by using the other. When G. S. Street wrote The Ghosts of Piccadilly more than 50 years ago, he said that 'the Albany' was then 'universal', but that to the earliest tenants it was 'Albany'."

Tenants

The list below is based mainly on the much longer list in the Survey of London. Many tenants were in residence for only a short time when they were quite young.

• Antony Armstrong-Jones, later 1st Earl of Snowdon, photographer.
• Sir Squire Bancroft, actor.
• George Basevi, architect.
• Sybille Bedford, writer, lived in Aldous Huxley's servant's room.
• Sir Thomas Beecham, conductor.
• Isaiah Berlin, philosopher.
• Philip Bobbitt, scholar.
• Henry Brougham, later Lord Chancellor.
• Lord Byron, poet.
• George Canning, politician.
• George Cattermole, artist.
• Bruce Chatwin, writer.
• Alan Clark, historian and politician.
• Sir Kenneth Clark, art historian.
• George Basevi, architect.
• Keith Coventry, artist.
• William Ewart Gladstone, later Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• Dame Edith Evans, actress.
• Bryan Guinness, poet.
• Edward Heath, later Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• Georgette Heyer, writer.
• David Nightingale Hicks, interior decorator and designer.
• Henry Holland, architect.
• Aldous Huxley, writer.
• Sir Simon Jenkins, newspaper editor and author.
• Edward Knoblock, playwright and author.
• John Lane, publisher.
• Lord Lee of Fareham, politician.
• Edward Bulwer Lytton, writer and politician.
• Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, historian and politician.
• Lord John Manners, politician.
• John Morgan, writer on etiquette.
• Malcolm Muggeridge, journalist and broadcaster.
• Sir Harold Nicolson, writer and politician.
• J.B. Priestley, writer.
• A.J. Raffles, fictional gentleman burglar in the works of E.W. Hornung.
• Terence Rattigan, playwright.
• Baroness Pauline de Rothschild (socialite, writer, fashion designer).
• Roger Scruton, philosopher.
• Sebastian Shaw, actor.
• Sir Robert Smirke, architect.
• Terence Stamp, actor.
• Lord Stanley, politician, later 15th Earl of Derby.
• Martin Stevens, actor.
• William Henry Fox Talbot, pioneer photographer.
• Herbert Beerbohm Tree, actor-manager.

External links

• Survey of London - detailed history with plans and photographs.
• Page on georgianindex.net - but note that the picture at the top of the page is not the Albany. While a number of the residences of past Dukes of York have been known as York House (including the Albany during the residence of Frederick Duke of York), the illustration is of the past York House which went on to acquire an extra storey and to be renamed Stafford House and then Lancaster House