Chesterfield House was a grand London townhouse built between 1747 and 1752 by Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773), statesman and man of letters. The exterior was in the Palladian style, the interior Baroque. It stood in Mayfair on the north side of Curzon Street, between South Audley Street and what is now Chesterfield Street. It was demolished in 1937 and on its site now stands a block of flats of the same name.
The French travel writer Pierre-Jean Grosley in his book Londres (1770, translated as Tour to London) considered the house to be equal to the hotels particuliers of the nobility in Paris.
The house was built on land belonging to Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe[1] by Isaac Ware. In his "Letters to his Son", Chesterfield wrote from "Hotel Chesterfield" on 31 March 1749: "I have yet finished nothing but my boudoir and my library; the former is the gayest and most cheerful room in England; the latter the best. My garden is now turfed, planted and sown, and will in two months more make a scene of verdure and flowers not common in London."
The Quarterly Review (founded 1809), no. 125, reported:
The columns of the screen facing the courtyard and the marble staircase with bronze balustrade came from Cannons, near Edgware, the mansion of James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos (d.1744) which was demolished shortly after his death, the materials being sold at auction in 1747. Chesterfield also bought at the auction the portico and railings. Chesterfield also furnished his new mansion with artefacts from the sale at Houghton Hall, the country house of Robert Walpole, including an 18-candle copper-gilt lantern. The library was hung with portraits of the earl's ancestors. As a piece of satire concerning the fashion for boasts of ancient ancestry, he placed amongst these portraits two old portraits which he inscribed "Adam de Stanhope" and "Eve de Stanhope".
Chesterfield formed Stanhope Street on adjoining land purchased from the Dean and Chapter of Westminster.
The following description is reproduced in Edward Walford's Old & New London:George Capel-Coningsby, 5th Earl of Essex (d.1839) remembered seeing the earl sitting on a rustic seat in front of his mansion, basking in the sun.
Faced with the prospect of demolition in 1869, the house was purchased by the City merchant Charles Magniac, for a reported sum of £175,000.[2] Magniac considerably curtailed the grounds in the rear, and erected a row of buildings overlooking Chesterfield Street, named Chesterfield Gardens.[3]
The house was later purchased in 1919 by Viscount Lascelles, who later married Princess Mary in 1923. The couple moved out of the house on the weekend of 19-20 December 1931.[4]