The Albany

The Albany
The Albany in 2014
Location within Central London
Former names	Melbourne House
Alternative names	Albany
Etymology	Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany
General information
Type	Residential apartment block
Location	Piccadilly, London
Country	United Kingdom
Coordinates	51°30′32″N 0°8′19″W / 51.50889°N 0.13861°W / 51.50889; -0.13861Coordinates: 51°30′32″N 0°8′19″W / 51.50889°N 0.13861°W / 51.50889; -0.13861
Current tenants	Various
Construction started	1770
Completed	1774
Owner	Various
Design and construction
Architect	Sir William Chambers Henry Holland
Listed Building – Grade I

The Albany, or simply Albany, is an apartment complex in Piccadilly, London.

The Albany was built in 1770–74 by Sir William Chambers for the newly created 1st Viscount Melbourne as Melbourne House. It is a three-storey mansion, seven bays (windows) wide, with a pair of service wings flanking a front courtyard. In 1791, Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany abandoned Dover House, Whitehall (now a government office), and took up residence. In 1802 the Duke in turn gave up the house and it was converted by Henry Holland into 69 bachelor apartments (known as "sets"). This was achieved by subdividing the main block and its two service wings, and by adding two new parallel long buildings covering most of the garden, running as far as a new rear gate building on Burlington Gardens. Holland's new buildings of 1802-3 flank a covered walkway supported on thin iron columns and with an upswept roof. The blocks are white painted render in a simpler Regency style than Chambers' work. Most sets are accessed off common staircases without doors, like Oxbridge colleges and the Inns of Court.

Since its conversion, the Albany has been a prestigious set of bachelor apartments in London. The residents have included such famous names as the poet Lord Byron and the future Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, and numerous members of the aristocracy.

During the Second World War, one of the buildings received significant damage from a German bomb, but was reconstructed after the war to appear as an exact replica.

Residents no longer have to be bachelors, although children under the age of 14 are not permitted to live there.

The apartments or "sets" are individually owned as flying freeholds, with the owners known as "Proprietors"; a set that came up for sale in 2007 had an advertised guide price of £2 million.

Around half the sets are owned by Peterhouse, a college of the University of Cambridge. These were acquired by William Stone (1857–1958) during World War 2. Stone, nicknamed the "Squire of Piccadilly", was a former scholar of Peterhouse, a bachelor and a lifelong resident of the Albany. He bequeathed 37 sets to the college, along with other endowments.