Albemarle Buildings

Albemarle Buildings, so called, as being the Seat of the Duke of Albemarle, who bought it of the Earl of Clarendon, and before called by his Name: Which said House and Gardens being sold by the said Duke, was, by the Undertakers, laid out into Streets, who not being in a Condition to finish so great a Work, made Mortgages, and so intangled the Title, that it is not to this Day finished, and God knows when it will. So that it lyeth like the Ruins of Troy, some having only the Foundations begun, others carry'd up to the Roofs, and others covered, but none of the Inside Work done: Yet those Houses that are finished, which are towards Pickadilly, meet with Tenants. In this Building, which takes the general Name of Albemarle Buildings, are these Streets, viz. Bond-street; at the upper End of which, in the Fields, is a curious, neat, but small Chapel, serving as a Chapel of Ease for the Inhabitants of these Parts: Which said Chapel was built by King James the Second, at Hounslow Heath, for his Use, when he had his Camp there, and was by the late King William given to the Inhabitants, who here erected it. Albemarle-street, in the Midst, which fronts St. James's-street. Dover-street, the best of all for large Buildings, and hath the most finished and inhabited Houses for Gentry, especially the West Side. Stafford-street, which butts against Bond-street and Dover-street, and crosseth Albemarle-street.

Albemarle buildings, Bond street, so called from the Duke of Albemarle, who bought the Earl of Clarendon’s seat, which stood here, and afterwards selling the house and gardens, they were laid out into streets, whence arose this and the two following streets [Albemarle Mews, Dover Street; and Albemarle Street].

Albemarle Buildings, the original name of the houses first built in the streets laid out on the site of Albemarle House. The name was derived from Christopher, second Duke of Albemarle, who, as noticed under Albemarle Street, bought the Earl of Clarendon's mansion, and afterwards sold the house and gardens to building speculators. Albemarle Buildings occurs for the first time in the rate-books of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields under the year 1685. There were then seven inhabitants, the last on the list being "Will Longland, at the Ducking Pond." Stafford Street was built in 1693, and Ducking Pond Row (now Grafton Street) in 1723.