Description:Amongst papers relating to Stafford House are a large number of letters written to George Granville Sutherland-Leveson-Gower (1786-1861), the second Duke of Sutherland, by Benjamin Wyatt, the architect who had been employed by the Duke of York to work on York House. Wyatt was subsequently employed by the Duke of Sutherland to produce architectural designs for the house. John Martin Robinson writes that Wyatt’s architectural work on Stafford House was his ‘chief work’ which took over ten years to complete.
Johnson describes Stafford House, now known as Lancaster House, as ‘notable for its rich French and gilt interior decoration inspired by the Versailles of Louis X1V and Louis LV’. He comments that Wyatt was recognized as a pioneer of this style which was called ‘Louis Quatorze’. The style remained ‘fashionable in smart London interiors for over a century’. Wyatt designed ‘richly decorated’ interiors for Stafford House, including the famous ‘theatrical’ staircase.
In August 1833 Wyatt wrote to the Duke of Sutherland concerning the completion of Stafford House. After the death of the Duke's father, George Granville Leveson-Gower, the first Duke of Sutherland in July 1833, Wyatt wrote to the new Duke eager to ensure that he would be involved in ‘the completion of your Grace’s house in the stable yard at St. James’s’. Wyatt refers to the ‘great condescension & kindness’ which he had received from the first Duke. He writes ‘I trust that I shall not be deemed too presumptuous in again offering myself to your Grace’s consideration’.
Wyatt appeals to the Duke to confer on him ‘the honor of acting as your architect’ for the completion of Stafford House. His letter describes his ‘mortification’ should he lose his place as architect of Stafford House. Wyatt describes his anxiety that a building of such ‘distinction’ which ‘had been originally designed’ by him ‘and advanced to its present state’ under his ‘superintendence’ should ‘pass into other hands for completion’.
Click on the images on the left to learn more about Benjamin Wyatt and Stafford House.
Contextual Information from: John Martin Johnson, ‘Wyatt, Benjamin Dean (bap. 1775, d. 1855)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/30101]