4 Hamilton Place

4 Hamilton Place
View of the building from the front
General information
Type	conference centre and wedding venue
Location	Mayfair
Address	4 Hamilton Place
Town or city	London
Country	United Kingdom
Current tenants	The Royal Aeronatical Society
Completed	17th Century
Cost	£50,000
Design and construction
Architect	A.N. Prentice

4 Hamilton Place is a Grade II listed building in Mayfair, London. It is used as a conference centre and wedding venue, located on the north-east edge of Hyde Park Corner, with the nearest access being Hyde Park Corner tube station. Since 1939 it has been the headquarters of The Royal Aeronautical Society. The venue is also part of The Westminster Collection, a selection of Westminster's finest venues.

The first reference to the short street now known as Hamilton Place appears in the latter half of the 17th century. On the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Charles II granted James Hamilton, a ranger of Hyde Park and later groom of the bedchamber, a corner of land which had been excluded from Hyde Park when it was walled. A street bearing Hamilton’s name (which eventually became Hamilton Place) was constructed from Piccadilly to the park wall but the houses on it were small with none of the elegance which later came to be associated with the area.

Towards the end of the 18th century, by which time Hamilton’s lease had been acquired by others, the houses in Hamilton Street were said to be “in a ruinous condition and intended to be removed.” They were replaced by a row of houses with a view over the park. Plans were then produced to build three new houses on Piccadilly to make a symmetrical group. Those surviving (141–144 Piccadilly) were demolished in the early 1970s, at the same time as 2–3 Hamilton place, to build the hotel InterContinental.

The architect Thomas Leverton (he also planned Bedford Square) was mentioned as a surveyor to the Hamilton Place scheme and he is referred to as the builder “acting on his own plans.” Documentary evidence shows that Leverton designed 4 Hamilton Place in 1807 for his client, the 2nd Earl of Lucan, who took up the lease in 1810.