Duke Street

Duke-St., Westminster, is three houses on the left from Story's-gate, St. James's-park.

Duke-Street, Westminster,—the first W. parallel to part of King-st. extending from Crown-st. to Delahay-street and Great George-street, three doors from St. James's Park.

Duke Street, Westminster, from Delahay Street to St. James's Park. Renamed Delahay Street in 1874.

At the south end of this street is seated a large house, made use of for the Admiralty Office, until it was thence removed to Wallingford House against Whitehall, as more convenient, and built at King William's charge. This house was first built for the late Lord Jefferies, Lord Chancellor to King James II., and for his accommodation the said King permitted a fair pair of freestone stairs to be made into the park. Then, passing by this house, on the same side beginneth a short street, called De la Hay Street.—R.B., in Strype, B. vi. p. 64.

The chapel in Duke Street, Westminster, is a relic of Lord Jefferies. It was the great hall of a mansion erected by him, and there he used to transact his judicial business out of term.—Quarterly Review, No. 153, p. 37.

Matthew Prior, the poet, resided in this street,² in a house immediately facing Charles Street.

Our weekly friends to-morrow meet
At Matthew's Palace in Duke Street.
Extempore Invitation to Lord Oxford.

July 30, 1717.—I have been made to believe that we may see your reverend person this summer in England; if so, I shall be glad to meet you at any place; but when you come to London do not go to the Cocoa Tree (as you sent your letter) but come immediately to Duke Street, where you shall find a bed, a book, and a candle; so pray think of sojourning no where else.—Prior to Swift.³

Lord Orrery was living here in 1741, and from his house, on March 22 of that year, Pope wrote his last letter to Swift.⁴ Matthew Hutton, Archbishop of York and of Canterbury, died here in 1758. Here Thomas Campbell and his Polish Association had their chambers. William Cobbett was living here in 1802.

August 25, 1832.—Here, in the Polish Chambers, I daily parade the main room—a superb hall—where all my books are esconced, and where old Noll used to give audience to his foreign ambassadors. Opposite to me, and divided by a wooden staircase, are Milton's apartments, in which he wrote his immortal Defence of the British People. I am thus on holy, haunted ground! and here I defy the Emperor Nicholas, the cholera, and all the attacks of the Devil.—T. Campbell to his Sister, Life, vol. iii. p. 131.

At No. 18 Sir I.K. Brunel, the engineer of the Thames Tunnel, died December 12, 1849, aged eighty. The street is now largely occupied by civil engineers.

I yet remain and ply my busy feet,
From Duke Street hither, hence to Downing Street
Political Eclogues, Rose, or the Complaint.

---

² Letter to Lord Halifax, Addit. MS. Brit. Mus. No. 7121.
³ See also Prior's letter of December 8, 1719.
⁴ Elwin's Pope, vol. vii. p. 391.