The Secrets Of Spencer House | A Stately Home In Central London

[Music] tucked away in the heart of saint james is one of london's most sumptuous buildings it's the london house of the spencer family that's the family of the infamous georgina duchess of devonshire and the late princess diana today i'm having a sneak peek inside we'll be going above stairs we'll be going below says and we'll even be going underground these are the secrets of spencer house [Music] so who were the spencer family and how did they land such a fine pierre de terre as this well they originally came from warwickshire they were based in a village called wormleyton and made their fortune from sheep farming when their warwickshire home was destroyed in the civil war to prevent it falling into the hands of the roundheads they settled for good in their northamptonshire estate ortho which remains the family's country's seat to this very day they worked their way up from barons to earls and soon there were spencers working as powerful statesmen principal advisers to the monarchy and foreign ambassadors but it was john the first el spencer who was born in 1734 who we're concerned with today he was the great grandson of sarah duchess of marlborough that's the lady who built blenheim palace he was also the grandson of the third earl of sunderland and so young john inherited both these fortunes he became one of the wealthiest young men in the land not only was john lucky in his birth he was lucky in love too he married his childhood sweetheart georgiana points unusually for the 18th century the couple didn't detest each other they were genuinely in love shortly after their marriage and equipped with a vast fortune they built a splendid new london house in saint james's overlooking green park as a compliment to all thorpe the country estate it was to be a temple of the arts a setting for the earl's art collection some of which he inherited some of which he bought during his grand tour it was also to be a pian of the spencer's connubial bliss a celebration of their happy marriage but there was a practical reason too georgiana was a society hostess and she needed somewhere to whine and dine fashionable london society in 1756 the 21 year old john spencer set to work or at least set other people to work his new london pad was to be built in the classical style he was greatly interested in the antiquities of the ancient world and would later become a keen member of the society of dilitante a group of men who were dedicated to roman taste and greek gusto the design was pretty groundbreaking for the time but it set the ball rolling for the neoclassical style to dominate in england in the second half of the 18th century english baroque was out classical was in the earl hired the acclaimed architect john vardy a pupil of william kent vardy was responsible for the ground floor rooms and the external elevations the facades that is his work was inspired by imperial rome and this is the result handsome and dignified this is the main facade faced in portland stone looking over green park we have this rusticated stonework on the base this lower story then the ground floor which is more refined it's got large windows with plain arches up again it's the first floor with the grand state rooms the windows framed by delicate delaying pediments on the windows alternating between rounded and pointed and each window is separated by a sturdy doric column and it's topped off by this overhanging cornice with a classical freeze and then an enormous predator with the restrained muted decoration to top it all off it's crowned with statues of bacchus flora and ceres representing hospitality beauty and fertility [Music] the main entrance is found on this street facade on st james's place it's obvious from the moment you step foot inside that they really went heavy on the classical theme in fact almost every detail every cornice every molding here is based on examples from classical antiquity which many young aristos were becoming familiar with because of their trips to the continent which were known as the grand tour this oval relief above the fireplace represents anthonus the favorite of emperor hadrian it's a plaster cast of the high marble relief from antiquity which was excavated at hadrian's villa in 1735. in fact some people have said that this is the very first depiction of a man playing the air guitar lord spencer saw the house as an embodiment of his own classical taste writing i have not lost the taste i acquired in italy my house in town is at last near being finished and as i have an aversion to china and japan i shall endeavor to finish it as much as possible with this sort of thing the first earl had five children three of whom survived to adulthood the eldest was the beautiful georgina duchess of devonshire who was known as dear little g by her mother she became a favorite of fashionable london society and was played by kieran knightley in the film the duchess it's a trauma it is the duke of devonshire their eldest son george became the second earl spencer and the first lord of the admiralty during the french revolutionary war he was also a member of the whig circle which revolved around the future george iv and charles james fox the politician there was a second daughter too henrietta who became countess of bezber the famous writer arthur young visited the house and wrote about it in 1772 from hence you enter the dining room he said the decorations in their finest taste the richest of their kind the ceiling and cornicing of white and green beautiful the slabs of sienna marble on the side tables large and finely veined and the chimney piece a basso relief of white marble finely polished the ceiling is based on indigo jones's ceiling in the banqueting house in whitehall this elegant freeze with festoons of laurel sacred to apollo this derives from the temple of fortuna varilis in rome some of the original decoration by vardy was updated in the 1780s by henry holland the son-in-law of the landscape architect capability brown he added these four greek ionic columns now i know what you're thinking i know you're thinking that these are sienna marble well no they are faced in scaliola now scaliola was what they used to simulate marble it's a composite substance made from the mineral selenite and glue and other natural pigments it's veined with colours and then polished with flax oil for brightness and wax for protection lovely we know that this must have been a room for partying when even the putty on the fireplace are having a whale of a time they've got wine they've got grapes we've got an urn here fomo this is probably one of the weirdest sculptures i've ever seen it was based on a satirical print by thomas rowlandson which was published originally in february 1784. the subject refers to a scene from classical mythology where the infant hercules strangled the serpent sent to kill him by juno it's also a scene which features in the disney cartoon hercules but in this sculpture as it was in the original print the infant hercules here is replaced by the british prime minister william pitt the younger and the serpents are replaced by his political rivals nord north and charles james fox it represents pitt's triumph in defeating the north fox coalition pitt became prime minister at the age of just 24 and it was according to contemporaries a site to make all nations stand and stare a kingdom trusted to a schoolboy's care next is the palm room this is where the gentleman retired after dinner no doubt to drink copious amounts of wine and discuss the war with france palm trees were seen as a symbol of marital fertility and so probably a hint to the spencer's own happy marriage these natural forms also underline the 18th century belief that classical architecture and nature were intrinsically and notice the freeze of griffins this is based on the temple of antoninus and faustina in rome but it's also got an extra special meaning here for the griffin is the heraldic supporter of the spencer arms here we arrive at the stone cantilever stairs and look at this little trick of the eye here in the balustrade now it's cut of sheet metal painted with trump ploy and pretending to be three-dimensional festooned drapery sneaky as we walk up this staircase we are leaving behind the world of ancient rome and entering the world of ancient greece for halfway through the building project in the autumn of 1758 when the shell of the building and the ground floor decorations were almost completed vardy was replaced by a new architect he was james stewart who had recently returned from greece he was so famed for his designs in the ancient greek style he was dubbed james athenian stewart as you walk up the staircase you can see the work of the two architects and the two styles meeting each other look at this barrel ceiling this is the work of james athenian stewart it gives the impression of a greek temple interior with festive garlands threaded between these ionic pilisters now john vardy mostly completed his work in two years but james athenian stuart a man after my own heart was notoriously lazy he was known to prefer an easy and convivial life to the exacting routine of a busy architect's office so these first floor rooms which i'm about to show you took eight years to complete this was lady spencer's private drawing room where she received guests it's lavishly decorated but of course james athenian stewart never actually finished it look at these circular panels these were supposed to be painted with classical scenes and although we might not think much of it today visitors did notice and comment at the time it wasn't completed when a friend visited in 1764 she wrote to lady spencer commenting on the gaps the ceilings go on very well she began but then added none of the compartments in your dressing room are yet begun but arthur young was suitably impressed especially with this fireplace describing it as finely designed and admirably executed it is a white marble wrought only with the utmost taste and beautifully polished over the cornice are festoons of the lightest carving and two eagles with a very fine basso relief in the center from the first floor you can see this delightful half acre garden when spencer house was first built this wasn't actually here the house stood directly beside the park and the public footpath passed just outside the windows and so o horror the london riffraff were able to peer through the glass at close quarters this was not to be born the spencer's thought and in the 1790s the crown estate granted a strip of land to give the house a garden and push the footpath and the hoi polloi on it well away from the house crisis over this is the great room it was much admired in the 18th century with contemporaries describing the ceiling being covered in mosaic compartments green and white and gold there are three shallow domes and the bronze plaster medallions on each side and all of these features here the vases in the corner the the coffering the freeze are taken directly from designs from antiquity it was in rooms such as these where the spencers may have had their own private balls typically a ball began at 9 or 10 pm and lasted until 5 am the next morning where they might be served at breakfast jane austen once wrote of a ball she attended in 1800 there were only 12 dancers she wrote of which i danced 9 and was merely prevented from dancing the rest by a want of a partner we began at 10 sucked at 1 and were a dean before 5. there were but 50 people in the room these mirrors are known as pier glasses as they're placed between these two windows in this pier now look at the crest at the top there are miniature griffins symbols of the spencer family drawing the chariots of love to represent the first earl's marriage and on the chariots are amarini that's those chubby naked boys posing as cupids tolerable but not handsome enough to tempt me look at these guilt metal handles on the doors these are in the shape of an s s for spencer that is this backhead forming the handle was actually taken from the design of a roman sarcophagus this room is decorated to celebrate the triumph of love and look over here here is the judgment of paris from the trojan wars and there's hera athena and aphrodite the oval panel over this door shows venus being unveiled by hyman the god of marriage and look closely at the face of the goddess venus this is believed to be the face of lady spencer herself architectural historians get very excited when they come in this room and that's not just because of the raunchy scenes of love and lust this room is perhaps the most important 18th century interior in england being the first room decorated entirely in the near classical style you might be struck by the pristine condition spencer house appears to be in the colours are vivid the gold detailing shines bright and there's not an inch of cracked plaster or peeling paper to be seen well there's good reason for this spencer house is one of the textbook examples of historical restoration work in 1941 fearing bomb damage during the second world war many of the original architectural fixtures the chimney pieces the doors the chair rails the skirting moldings the architraves were removed and taken to all thought for safety this proved to be a good move for shortly after the house was damaged by a blast the packers were actually still at work when shortly after midnight on the 11th of may 1941 a 500 kilogram bomb fell on bridgewater house a few yards to the south wrecking the stables and shattering the windows in the house itself and on the other side another building was hit and completely demolished later on in the war all of this greatly weakened the fabric of the house and the ceiling of the painted room almost collapsed after the war the house was then leased out to various companies first by christie's the art auctioneers whose offices were bombed then it was the home of the british oxygen company then the economist intelligence unit and then in january 1985 the investment trust rit capital partners plc under the chairmanship of lord rothschild they secured a 96 year lease with an additional 24-year option from 1987 lord rothschild who described the place as a wreck when he found it began an extensive painstaking restoration expert art historians were commissioned to produce surveys of the house to establish its original character using this research and detailed paint analysis which confirmed the existence of original colours and decorative schemes they decided to restore the house to the state it was in in the second half of the 18th century this involved replicating the original furniture and fittings which had been moved to orthop during the war the most skilled craftsmen in the country were called in and original methods and techniques were used wherever possible then came the paintings and furniture the original works were acquired on loan from the v a leeds museum and tate the result is nothing short of exquisite this has been seen as a benchmark example for historical restoration and you can actually play quite a fun game of is it original or is it a replica you might think the dining room fireplace has stood here forever but this was actually carved in the 1990s these two smaller mahogany bookcases flanking the chimney piece date from around 1810 but the large one on the opposite side of the wall here was made to match in the late 1980s you'd never guess oh it's my favorite i love this one the story of a piece of coal gripping stuff the door cases chair rail and skirting moldings in lady spencer's room were all recarved to the original patterns this chimney piece was installed in 1992 and it took 5 800 man hours to carve of course spencer house has had its fair share of vip guests over the years in july 1857 the spencers held a ball in honor of queen victoria the house was illuminated with singular brilliancy and redelent of the choicest flowers in 1992 luncheon was held at spencer house attended by the queen and all of her living prime ministers which included prime minister john major and the former prime ministers harold wilson edward heath james callahan and margaret thatcher it was even here where prince charles had his 70th birthday party of course it wasn't the l spencer who was doing all the cooking for these parties there was a lot of work going on behind the scenes these corridors are hidden between the grand rooms and would have been used to keep the servants and staff out of sight and out of mind this is the most important room of the whole house this is the wine cellar which has no doubt supplied many of the vip guests of spencer house over the years in fact britain's oldest wine and spirits merchant berry brothers and rudd which was founded in 1698 is just around the corner on st james street so there's every chance they could have been stocking up these spencer stores here's a sneak peek into the ladies lavatory gentleman a virtual gaze look at this extraordinary miniature version of the painted room upstairs all with the decorations and furniture faithfully recreated and this is the half acre garden the original layout was formal yet relaxed with shrubbery and plants dotted around the edges for security an iron railing was put in on this side while brick walls were built to the north and south so they had a beautiful house they had a beautiful garden but when it was originally installed there was no way of traveling between the two the answer was to build a little tunnel just to the side of the house down they came along these stone steps and through this vaulted tunnel it passes a small storeroom which was probably where they stored gardening equipment so this is where the monty dom types would hang out so there you have it the perfect miniature stately home in the heart of the city as arthur young wrote in 1772 i know not a more beautiful piece of architecture all in richness elegance and taste superior to any house i have seen thanks for watching this video on the history hit youtube channel you can subscribe right here to make sure you don't miss any of our great films that are coming out or if you are a true history fan check out our special dedicated history channel historyhit.tv you're going to love it

Channel: History Hit

Views: 200,816

Keywords: history hit, history hit youtube, stately homes of england, spencer house tour, spencer house london, spencer house diana, earl spencer, lady diana spencer, spencer family, the secrets of spencer house, althorp, althorp estate, alice loxton, spencer house history, georgiana duchess of devonshire, georgiana duchess of devonshire documentary, stately homes of england documentary, history hit london, london history, famous london buildings, most expensive house london

Id: ePgHkGIYSg4

Length: 21min 11sec (1271 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 08 2022