Bedford House, Strand

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Bedford House was the Elizabethan and Jacobean London home of the Russell family, Earls of Bedford, situated on the Strand.

Bedford House, also called Russell House was on the site of the present Southampton Street on the north side of the Strand. It was demolished in 1704 after the family had relocated to Bloomsbury.

The site was on or adjacent to the lodging or Inn of the Bishops of Carlisle.[1] John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford acquired the land, Longacre, in May 1552 at the fall of Protector Somerset.[2] The Russell family already had a house on the south side of the Strand, with land running down to the Thames near Ivybridge Street. This property passed to Bridget Hussey, the widow of Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford, and was sold.[3]

Architecture[]

The house on the north side of the Strand was constructed of timber,[4] perhaps by Edward Russell, 3rd Earl of Bedford directed by his aunt and guardian Anne Russell, Countess of Warwick,[5] in the early 1590s.[6] Sir Robert Cecil built Cecil House (or Salisbury House) next door.[7]

There was a forecourt on the Strand for arriving coaches. The garden had a brick wall with a terrace walk,[8] and a "wilderness".[9]

The main reception rooms of the house included a gallery known as the terrace room overlooking the walk, and another long gallery faced the forecourt and the Strand. The servants were lodged in rooms in the top floor.[10] There were summer houses with domed roofs for banquetting in the garden.[11]

Residents[]

Lucy Russell, Countess of Bedford lived in Bedford House, and the marriage of her cousin Mary Sutton Dudley to the Scottish Earl of Home was held there on 11 July 1605. In 1616 the Countess of Bedford stayed at Bedford House because it was conveniently near to Whitehall Palace, where she could attend on Anne of Denmark.[12]

In 1619 Lady Bedford transferred much of the Russell estate to the heir Francis Russell, but reserving her and her husband's right to reside in Bedford House.[13] She let the house to Francis Manners, 6th Earl of Rutland in 1623.[14] Lady Bedford had another London residence, Fisher's Folly, which was known as Harington House after 1616.[15]

In 1641 Francis Russell, now 4th Earl of Bedford kept a gilded barge with bargemen dressed in his livery on the Thames at nearby Rayner's Yard.[16] The Earl was declared a delinquent in October 1643 and his furniture and tapestries were confiscated from Bedford House.[17]

External links[]

References[]

  1. ^ James Howell, Londinopolis (London, 1657), p. 349.
  2. ^ E.J. Burford, Wits, Wenchers and Wantons: London's Low Life: Covent Garden in the Eighteenth Century (London, 1986), pp. 1–3.
  3. ^ Gladys Scott Thomson, Life In A Noble Household 1641-1700 (London, 1950), p. 37.
  4. ^ See, 'Plan of Bedford House around the year 1690', external links.
  5. ^ Marion O'Connor, 'Godly Patronage: Lucy Harington Russell, Countess of Bedord', Johanna Harris & Elizabeth Scott-Baumann The Intellectual Culture of Puritan Women, 1558–1680 (Palgrave, 2010), p. 71.
  6. ^ Lesley Lawson, Out of the Shadows: The Life of Lucy, Countess of Bedford (London, 2007), p. 21.
  7. ^ Manolo Guerci, 'Salisbury House in London, 1599-1694: The Strand Palace of Sir Robert Cecil', Architectural History, 52 (2009), pp. 31-78.
  8. ^ Peter Cunningham, A Handbook for London: Past and Present, vol. 1 (London, 1849), pp. 71-2.
  9. ^ Gladys Scott Thomson, Life In A Noble Household 1641-1700 (London, 1950), p. 239.
  10. ^ Gladys Scott Thomson, Life In A Noble Household 1641-1700 (London, 1950), p. 38
  11. ^ Willis's Current Notes, vol. 5 no. 51 (March 1855), pp. 17-8 citing an engraving by Bernard Lens of the return of William III in 1690.
  12. ^ Joanna Moody, Correspondence of Lady Cornwallis Bacon (Cranbury NJ, 2003) p. 84.
  13. ^ Marion O'Connor, 'Godly Patronage', Johanna Harris & Elizabeth Scott-Baumann, The Intellectual Culture of Puritan Women (Palgrave, 2011), p. 75.
  14. ^ HMC Rutland, vol. 4 (London, 1905), p. 526.
  15. ^ Marion O'Connor, 'Godly Patronage', Johanna Harris & Elizabeth Scott-Baumann, The Intellectual Culture of Puritan Women (Palgrave, 2011), p. 78.
  16. ^ Gladys Scott Thomson, Life In A Noble Household 1641-1700 (London, 1950), p. 56.
  17. ^ Gladys Scott Thomson, Life In A Noble Household 1641-1700 (London, 1950), pp. 70-71.

Coordinates: 51°30′40″N 0°07′19″W / 51.511°N 0.122°W / 51.511; -0.122

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