No. 71 Pall Mall: Sir Edward Walpole's house
Occupied part of the site of the Oxford and Cambridge
University Club
In December 1726 Thomas Ripley, Comptroller of the King's Works, petitioned the Crown for
a lease of a plot on the south side of Pall Mall on
which stood three small houses, one fronting the
street and the other two at the back. (ref. 254) Shortly
afterwards he was granted a reversionary lease
from 1740 to 1776, and in about 1737 he received
a further extension to 1786. After this second
extension he rebuilt the three small houses as one,
which may be identified in Coney's strip elevation
(pocket, drawing B). In 1740 this new house
was said to be in the possession of (Sir) Edward
Walpole, (ref. 255) second son of Sir Robert Walpole. A
draft or copy of an assignment of the house, dated
1738, from Ripley to Sir Robert Walpole survives at the Public Record Office. (ref. 256) Sir Edward
Walpole occupied the house until about 1778,
when he was succeeded by his natural daughter
Laura, widow of the Hon. Frederick Keppel,
bishop of Exeter. She and subsequently her son,
Frederick Keppel, continued in occupation until
the death of the latter in 1830. (ref. 71) The house was
demolished shortly afterwards to make way for the
Oxford and Cambridge University Club building,
the western part of which stands upon its site (see
page 419).
The house had an L-shaped plan, being narrow
in front towards Pall Mall and wide at the back.
Coney's drawing shows a simple but dignified
Palladian front that could, quite reasonably, be
attributed to Ripley. The central doorway was
dressed with a doorcase of Ionic columns supporting a triangular-pedimented entablature, and on
either side was a window. The upper part, underlined by a pedestal, contained two storeys, each
with two widely spaced windows, and was finished
with a large triangular pediment having a lunette
window in its tympanum.
It has often been alleged that Sir Robert Walpole possessed himself of this house in order to
frustrate the wishes of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, to acquire direct access to her house from
Pall Mall. This story, which is probably true,
appears to have originated in a statement in London
and Its Environs Described, which was 'Printed by
R. and J. Dodsley in Pall Mall' in 1761. There it
is stated that 'The late Duchess of Marlborough
. . . intended to have opened a way to it [Marlborough House] from Pallmall, directly in the
front, as is evident from the manner in which the
court yard is finished; but Sir Robert Walpole
having purchased the house before it, and being
upon no good terms with the Duchess, she was
prevented in her design.' (ref. 257)
In 1725 the Duchess complained to the
Treasury, where Sir Robert Walpole was then
First Lord, about encroachments which had been
made along the entrance to her house. (ref. 258) At
about that time she had been refused her long
enjoyed privilege of going from Marlborough
House through St. James's Park in her coach. (ref. 259)
There is no known documentary evidence that in
consequence of this refusal she tried to obtain
access from Pall Mall, but the northern wall of the
courtyard on the north side of Marlborough
House (fn. a) was built with a gateway (never used) in
the centre, and an entrance through the site
occupied by No. 71 Pall Mall was clearly intended.
When Ripley submitted his petition to the
Treasury for a reversionary lease of this site in
December 1726, the Duchess's relations with
Walpole were particularly bad. (ref. 260) Ripley had no
existing interest in the site as occupier or lessee,
yet his request was nevertheless granted—a most
unusual proceeding—Walpole, as First Lord of
the Treasury, being the principal signatory of the
warrant for the lease. (ref. 261) Ripley was moreover a
protégé of Walpole, one of whose servants he had
married. (ref. 108) At the same time he was also granted
a reversionary lease in identical circumstances of
the site later numbered 69 Pall Mall (ref. 262) (see page
381) and by 1740 he had possessed himself of the
intervening site later numbered 70 Pall Mall (ref. 263)
(see below). If the Duchess had intended to
form an entrance to the north of her house, her
wishes were thus effectively baulked.
In 1729 her trustee was granted a Crown lease
of four old houses at the western extremity of the
south side of Pall Mall. These houses were subsequently taken down by the Duchess and an entrance way was formed upon their site. (ref. 264) The
poky entrance which Marlborough House thus
acquired probably reflects the defeat by Walpole of
the more ambitious schemes previously put forward by the Duchess.