Marlborough House & the Queen's Chapel
Why is it significant?
Through the gates on Pall Mall, behind a forecourt, sits a broad red brick mansion with stone corners, calmer and plainer than its royal neighbours. It was built in the 1710s for one of the most powerful women in English history, and for a quarrel.
Key Facts
| Place | Marlborough House & the Queen's Chapel |
|---|---|
| Address | Marlborough House, Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5HX, United Kingdom |
| Geo Coordinates | 51.50540, -0.13580 |
| Part of Walk | Crowns, Pelicans and Bearskins: Royal London from The Mall to St James's |
| Generated | Generated |
Through the gates on Pall Mall, behind a forecourt, sits a broad red brick mansion with stone corners, calmer and plainer than its royal neighbours. It was built in the 1710s for one of the most powerful women in English history, and for a quarrel.
Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, was the closest friend of Queen Anne. In their letters they used pet names, Mrs Morley for the Queen and Mrs Freeman for Sarah, so that they could write as equals. Sarah had Christopher Wren design this house, then fell out with him and finished it herself. Then she fell out with the Queen too, spectacularly, and lost her place at court. She was not a woman who lost arguments gracefully.
A century later the house came back to the Crown, and it became a home for queens and heirs. Edward the Seventh lived here as Prince of Wales and filled it with a fast, fashionable crowd known as the Marlborough House set. His widow Queen Alexandra lived here, and Queen Mary, grandmother of Elizabeth the Second, died here in 1953. Since 1965 it has housed the Commonwealth Secretariat.
Now glance down Marlborough Road, the little street between this house and St James's Palace. On one side, set into the wall, is an art nouveau bronze fountain to Queen Alexandra by Alfred Gilbert, the sculptor of the figure on the fountain at Piccadilly Circus. On the other side stands a plain classical chapel, the Queen's Chapel, designed by Inigo Jones in the 1620s for a Spanish princess Prince Charles was meant to marry. The match collapsed, and the chapel was finished instead for his French Catholic queen, Henrietta Maria.
Walk on east along Pall Mall. Number 79, on your right, stands where Nell Gwyn lived, the orange seller turned actress who became the mistress of Charles the Second. The story goes that she refused to take her house on a lease and demanded the freehold, and got it. Keep going to the grand grey palazzo near the end of the street.