Thomas Gainsborough

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*DJ ENGLISH ROSS LONDON TELESCOPE NO.82220 PATTERN 373
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VINTAGE CABINET PLATE CRIES OF LONDON YELLOW PRIMROSES
30 Jun 2010 at 5:02am
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Sir Walter Besant, in The Fascination of London, published in 1903, continues his survey of Pall Mall with a look at a house once occupied by the famous portrait painter Thomas Gainsborough:

The north side of Pall Mall is the poorer of the two.

Beginning at the western end on the south side, we have the New Oxford and Cambridge Club, the Guards, and the Oxford and Cambridge University Clubs.

The first of these has a very massive entrance; the house has only a north aspect, the windows at the back being glazed with ground-glass so as not to overlook Marlborough House.

A little further on is an old red-brick house with a portico on which is a female figure in bas-relief with palette and brushes.

This is in great contrast to its neighbours; it is what remains (centre and west wing) of Schomberg House, built about the middle of the seventeenth century.

The first Schomberg came over in the train of William of Orange; he was Count in his own country, bore several French titles, and was created an English Duke.

He was killed at the Battle of the Boyne.

The house was later occupied by Cumberland of Culloden, George III's uncle, and subsequently by Astley the painter.

Astley divided it into three parts, reserving the centre for his own use.

Among the tenants who succeeded him we find the names of Cosway, Paine the bookseller, and Nathaniel Hone.

In the western wing Thomas Gainsborough lived, so the building has every right to its distinguishing panel of palette and brushes.

During Gainsborough's occupancy everyone of wealth, beauty or fashion in the society of the day resorted here to have their features immortalized.

This house is now (1903) part of the War Office, which, in a previous stage of its career, was the Ordnance Office.

Next: Pall Mall: The Reform Club: Sir Charles Barry