Description:The document above is a ‘Statement of Payments & Estimate for Stafford House’ which was made in November 1837. The document tells us about the people and money involved in the completion of Stafford House between 1827 and 1837.
The statement includes an entry for £72,000 which was paid by George Granville Leveson-Gower (1758-1833), the Marquis of Stafford, in order to purchase the remainder of the Duke of York’s lease from the Crown. In addition to this sum, the statement reveals that £644, 18s, 1d was paid to the Duke of York’s executors.
Entries for payments tell us that ‘Builders, Bricklayers and Carpenters’ who worked on Stafford House were paid over £43,913. Other tradesmen included slaters, plasterers, plumbers, glaziers, painters, Blacksmiths and Ironmongers. The Blacksmiths and Ironmongers were paid £9328, 3s, 6d followed by the plasterer was paid £6932, 2s. However, the workmen who earned the most were the ‘Carver & Gilder’ who were paid £10,493, 15s, 7d.
Sir Robert Smirke and Mr Benjamin Wyatt, architects who worked on York House and Stafford House are listed in the payments. Benjamin Wyatt was paid over six thousand pounds for his architectural work on the property.
The document tells us that £1896, 8s was spent on ‘Book Cases’, whilst the ‘Upholster & Decorator’ received £24, 903, 7s. An annotation relating to this payment notes ‘a considerable portion of this’ was for ‘decoration fastened to the Walls’.
The sum total at the end of the list reveals that £213, 850, 14s, 9d – two hundred and thirteen thousand, eight hundred and fifty pounds, fourteen shillings and nine pence - was spent on Stafford House between 1827 and 1837.