Apsley House

Apsley House
Apsley House, as it is today, Hyde Park Corner, London.
General information
Architectural style	Neo-classical
Town or city	London, W1
Country	United Kingdom
Coordinates	51°30′12″N 0°09′05″W / 51.5032°N 0.151491°W / 51.5032; -0.151491
Construction started	1771
Client	Henry Bathurst, Lord Apsley; Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Design and construction
Architect	Robert Adam Benjamin Dean Wyatt (extensive renovations)
Website
Apsley House - English Heritage
Listed Building – Grade I
Reference no.	1226873

Apsley House, also known as Number One, London, is the London townhouse of the Dukes of Wellington. It stands alone at Hyde Park Corner, on the south-east corner of Hyde Park, facing south towards the busy traffic roundabout in the centre of which stands the Wellington Arch. It is a Grade I listed building.

It is sometimes referred to as the Wellington Museum. The house is now run by English Heritage and is open to the public as a museum and art gallery, exhibiting 83 paintings from the Spanish royal collection. The 9th Duke of Wellington retains the use of part of the buildings. It is perhaps the only preserved example of an English aristocratic town house from its period. The practice has been to maintain the rooms as far as possible in the original style and decor. It contains the 1st Duke's collection of paintings, porcelain, the silver centrepiece made for the Duke in Portugal, c. 1815, sculpture and furniture. Antonio Canova's heroic marble nude of Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker made 1802–10, holding a gilded Nike in the palm of his right hand, and standing 3.45 metres (11.3 ft) to the raised left hand holding a staff. It was set up for a time in the Louvre and was bought by the Government for Wellington in 1816 (according to Nikolaus Pevsner) and stands in Adam's Stairwell.

Apsley House stands at the site of an old lodge that belonged to the crown. During the Interregnum newer buildings were erected between what is now Old Regent Street and Hyde Park Corner. In the 1600s after the Restoration they were leased by James Hamilton (died 1673) and renewed by Elizabeth his widow in 1692 on a 99-year lease (Hamilton Place takes its name from that family). Immediately before Apsley House was built the site was occupied by a tavern called the Hercules Pillars (immortalised by Henry Fielding in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling as the location where Squire Western resides when he first journeys up to London).