Bedford Ground
Bedford House
Demolished
Bedford House on the north side of the Strand
was built for the third Earl of Bedford in c. 1586.
It stood on part of the land called Friars Pyes
which John Russell, later first Earl of Bedford,
had acquired in 1541 and its garden occupied part
of the site of the former convent garden which he
had acquired in 1552. This house of c. 1586 is
said to have replaced an earlier mansion erected
there by the first Earl (ref. 1) but the documents which
mention Bedford House before 1586 evidently
refer to the earlier family mansion which stood
on the south side of the Strand, and which was
variously known as Russell House, Russell Place
or Bedford House. (ref. 2) A description of Friars Pyes
contained in the inquisition taken after the second
Earl's death in 1585 makes clear that there was no
large house there then and that both he and his
father, the first Earl, lived and died at Russell
House on the south side of the Strand. (ref. 3)
After the second Earl's death in 1585 Russell
House descended to his female grandchildren,
Elizabeth and Anne Russell, (ref. 3) and the contents,
which belonged to his grandson Edward, the
third Earl, then a minor, were sold. (ref. 4) To provide
the new Earl with a home, Bedford House was
built on Friars Pyes (which had descended to him)
and, from Michaelmas 1586, his revenues were
credited with 6s. 8d. annually for 'The newe
Rent of the Capitall messuage called Bedford
house newly buylded & letten during my Lo.
mynoryty'. (ref. 5) The money for building it was probably lent by the Earl's aunt, the Countess of
Warwick, with whom he lived. (ref. 6) He and his
aunt were evidently lodged at Bedford House
in 1590, for the Earl of Warwick died there in
February of that year. (ref. 7) In 1593 the Earl of
Bedford came of age and in the following January
his aunt released to him 'all maner of ymplementes, seelinges, portalles, and other houshold
stuffe and furniture of myne whatsoever, nowe
remayninge and being in … Bedford howse'. (ref. 8)
The fragmentary information about the appearance of Bedford House is mainly derived
from an inventory of 1643, (ref. 9) some vouchers of
1657–94 relating to repairs and additions, (ref. 10)
and a few map-views and plans which, however
they may vary, prove it to have been a large
accretive building of irregular plan. The inventory of 1643 was occasioned by the sequestration
of Bedford House and its contents. In August
of that year the fifth Earl had removed to Oxford,
where Charles I had established his court. The
House of Commons authorized Sir William
Waller to live in the house with his family, but the
Earl's furniture and household goods, valued at
£765, were ordered to be sold. (ref. 11)
The inventory describes the contents of fortyfive rooms, including closets. Of these, twentythree appear to have been equipped with
fireplaces, but in 1673 the Earl was taxed for
sixty hearths. Tapestry hangings adorned the walls
in the family's apartments, and the gallery next the
Strand, where the chairs were covered with
crimson velvet, was hung with green cloth and
gilt leather. Many of the rooms had carpets,
most of them being described as 'turkey'. In the
drawing-parlour were 'brancht' green velvet
chairs, and the dining-parlour had carpets, a screen
and ten gilt leather chairs. There was also a
'great chamber' furnished with nine tapestries,
carpets and twenty-four back chairs covered in
blue kersey. The 'waiteing roome' contained
chairs, stools, three screens, a couch of green and
silver and a court cupboard; in the turret room
were high stools covered with figured satin and
silver lace, chairs in red velvet, a green couch
'flowered' with gold, a matching set of folding
stools, a table, ten gilt candlesticks and a 'seller of
glasses with 39 glasses and silver screwes'.
Vouchers of later date than the inventory show
that many of the rooms were wainscoted, but
there was some variation in finishing, a closet
being painted 'white and vained' and a parlour
'painted and grained'.
The earliest and most complete view of the
house is that given by Hollar in his bird's-eye
view, probably dating from the mid seventeenth
century (Plate 1). By contrast with the stylized
'views' given on later maps, Hollar depicts certain
features which can be identified in the inventory
quoted above and from the vouchers. The house
is shown fronting the north side of the Strand,
where Southampton Street is now, with a shallow
range, probably timber-framed, about 100 feet
long and two storeys high. (fn. *) At the east end of the
ground storey was an arched opening containing
the 'great gates'. (fn. †) Adjoining the gateway was a
porter's lodge, having next to it the Earl's agent's
office. In the second storey were three evenly
spaced oriel windows, lighting the 'gallery next the
Strand' and the 'turret room'. The front finished
with a line of seven gables intersecting with the
steep roof. Behind the west end of the front
range rose an ogee-capped turret, perhaps a stairtower, that must have given its name to the
'turret room'. Through the gateway was a deep
oblong forecourt, having on its west side a long
and low range, presumably also timber-framed,
with a central entrance passage leading, perhaps,
to a great hall. This range was adjoined on the
north by a two-storeyed building with garrets,
composed of four short ranges of which three
formed the sides of a court open towards the west,
and the fourth range projected north and closed
Maiden Lane.
A gateway in the north-east angle of the forecourt opened to a walled carriageway leading east
into the large stable court, with ranges of stables
and offices on its north and part of its east and west
sides. This stable court was entered through a
gatehouse at the south-west junction of Charles
and York Streets. On the north side of the house,
forecourt and carriageway was the spacious garden, extending to a raised terrace overlooking the
Piazza. Hollar shows the west two-thirds of the
garden divided by paths to form four grass plats
surrounding a circular feature, perhaps a fountain, and the east part planted with a grove of
trees, perhaps the 'wilderness' mentioned in the
vouchers.
Apart from general repairs to the whole complex of buildings, most of the improvements mentioned in the vouchers were made in the north
part of the house, where the family had their
private apartments, generally overlooking the
garden. These works culminated in 1680–2
when a 'New Building for the Earle of Bedforde
… in his Garden' was erected under the supervision and perhaps to the design of Captain
Richard Ryder. Venterus Mandey, the bricklayer to Lincoln's Inn, (ref. 13) was employed on the
brickwork of this extension, which contained
a 'ground chamber', the Earl's new bedchamber,
closet and 'stoole room' on the first floor, and a
new wardrobe in the garret storey. William
Cleare, the joiner, wainscoted the Earl's three
rooms in a manner appropriate to their importance and size. In the bedchamber the panels
were framed with a 'stone' moulding, 3 inches
wide, the base and sub-base panels being raised.
A wainscot cornice, 11 inches deep, finished the
walls, and the mantel had a cornice-shelf. There
were two doorways with a 'stone' moulding 6
inches wide, presumably a classical architrave, and
two sash windows with lines and pulleys. The
closet had large bolection mouldings framing the
panels, those of the base and sub-base being
raised. The cornice was 11 inches deep, the doorcase had a 'stone' moulding 6 inches wide, and the
one sash window was equipped with lines and
pulleys. The 'stoole room' wainscot was simply
'mitred with a bead', the base and sub-base
panels being raised. The cornice was only 6
inches deep and the doorcase had a 5-inch archi
trave. Externally the new building was faced with
stock bricks and finished with a wooden cornice.
The three large sash windows were finished with
pediments and there were two lucarne windows,
with ornaments, in the roof.
The new sashes were glazed with 'Normandy'
squares whereas the older casement windows had
the diamond-shaped leaded lights called 'quarries'.
In a bill receipted in 1660, the joiner was paid for
'Cutting the Frames of the paper windowes and
new paperinge of them'.
The balconies or 'purgulas' so prevalent elsewhere in Covent Garden were also to be found at
Bedford House. In 1658 Richard Ryder provided wood for the balcony case and doors for the
western banqueting house in the garden. In 1681
John Channell mended the balcony at the evidence house (see below) and in 1685 he repaired
the iron balcony in the garden. He made similar
repairs to the 'belcony foreward to the street' and
mended the rails and 'balisters' of the balcony over
the stable door in 1687. In 1692 John Pincke
was paid for a considerable amount of painting,
including the balcony belonging to Robert
Russell's chamber and a balcony in the garden,
which he also gilded.
Lacy's generally accurate survey of 1673
(Plates 2, 3) includes a plan of Bedford House
which accords with Hollar's view of the southern
ranges, but not with the northern part where some
rebuilding had evidently taken place, presumably
that referred to in the vouchers dated from c. 1657
to c. 1660 and carried out under the supervision
of the fifth Earl's surveyor, John Davenport.
Changes can also be seen in the garden layout;
a formal maze had replaced the grove of trees on
the east side, and each of the four grass plats had
a central ornament, shown by the accounts to
consist of a statue on a pedestal. (ref. 10) Lacy also shows
the large semi-circular projection out of the
west wall, containing the 'halfe round banqueting
house' which was repaired in 1660. To the
south, outside the garden wall and with a doorway
to Maiden Lane, was the 'evidence' house—the
repository for family and estate papers. In 1705
the contents of this building were removed to
Southampton House. (ref. 14) One of the items mentioned in the bills for demolition work in 1705
was a grotto, but whether this was inside the
house, like the grotto at Woburn Abbey, or outside in the garden is not clear. Against the eastern
boundary wall stood the wash-house or laundry,
with an opening on its south side leading to the
stable-yard.
Water was supplied to Bedford House in various
ways. Rain water was stored in 'holes' in the
garden and there was a pond, presumably in the
stable-yard, which was supplied with water pumped
from a cistern in the garden. There are also
references to a cistern in the garden from which
water was piped into the kitchen and to a 'great'
cistern by the evidence house. The laundry was
probably supplied with water from a well in the
wilderness. In 1641 the Corporation of London
granted the Earl a 'quill' (i.e. pipe) of water from
the main supply in the Strand; this provided the
house with two gallons of water an hour. (ref. 15)
Bedford House remained the London home of
the Earls of Bedford until the death of the fifth
Earl and first Duke in 1700. It then passed with
the rest of the Covent Garden estate to the Duke's
grandson, Wriothesley, who preferred to live in
his mother's house in Bloomsbury. Bedford
House was demolished in 1705–6, and its site was
laid out for building. This development is described in the general account of the Bedford
Estate in Chapter 1 (pages 37–9). Fig. 32
shows the layout of the site.