Hamilton Palace

Hamilton Palace was a large country house located north-east of Hamilton in Lanarkshire, Scotland. The former seat of the Dukes of Hamilton, it was built in 1695 and subsequently much enlarged. Widely acknowledged as having been one of the grandest houses in Britain, the palace was demolished in 1927, due to the prohibitive cost of upkeep and the subsidence caused by nearby coal mines.

Built on the site of a 13th-century tower house, the south front of Hamilton Palace was erected in 1695 in the Palladian style, with a huge Corinthian pedimented frontispiece, by architect James Smith for William, 3rd Duke of Hamilton and his wife Duchess Anne. A new North Front had been planned by the fifth Duke in the 1730s, and extensive plans were prepared by William Adam. The external plans were never executed, but Adam did redesign several important staterooms, with stucco work by Clayton. However, the Duke's early death and the significant costs involved postponed further major work, although modifications and additions continued during the next century, including the purchase or exchange of land surrounding the palace, enabling extensive landscaping to take place.

The tenth Duke, who succeeded in 1819, began a wave of total refurbishment, using the almost limitless wealth falling upon the family from their ownership of the Lanarkshire coalfields. This included heraldic carvings in the main pediment over the entrance, carved by John Greenshields in 1822. The North Front itself was finally completed 1842 by architect David Hamilton using Adam's original plans as a structure. Carving was by the 16-year-old Patric Park. The north front was 265 feet (81 m) long and 60 feet (18 m) high, adorned with a Corinthian portico of monolithic columns 25 feet (7.6 m) high. The state rooms, which included extensive stucco-work, were by Smith and Adam. These held much fine furniture and by the mid-19th century housed one of the best private collections of paintings in Scotland, including works by Peter Paul Rubens (see below), Titian, Anthony van Dyck, and other masters. This largely ensued from his wife Susan/Susanna's inheritance of an existing huge collection from her father William Thomas Beckford. A sumptuous chimneypiece by William Morgan adorned the Dining Room's fireplace.

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