The Italian Embassy in London

The Italian Embassy at No. 4 Grosvenor Square is a fascinating place both for its art collection and for the history of the building in which it is housed.  
The land occupied today by the square and the surrounding area were once part of the Manor of Ebury, which belonged to Westminster Abbey, and later came into the possession of the Crown. James I sold it in 1623 to private purchasers, and then in 1626 the Manor of Ebury was bought by Hugh Audley, who at his death passed to his wife, Mary Davies. She later married Sir Thomas Grosvenor, whose son, Sir Richard, started the development of the area around 1710. Sir Richard’ s plans were ambitious.
In his mind, Grosvenor Square had to be one of the largest in London, extending over six acres of land. Its buildings had to be imposing and elegant at the same time, all part of a harmonic architectural plan that had to be set along the four sides of the square. The East flank (where the Embassy is located) was originally designed in 1725 by the Scottish architect Colen Campbell (1676-1729), but his ideas were never transformed into reality. A drawing by Campbell showing the Neo-Palladian characteristics of his project still exists in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. It is unclear why the plan by Campbell was discarded, but in any case work began on the site in 1725 under the direction of John Simmons. No. 4, the house at the centre of the East side, therefore the most important of it, was finished in 1728, and the construction of the whole group of seven houses was completed by 1735. No. 4 was larger than the other buildings and had a prominent centre crowned with a pediment. Some of the decorative elements were repeated on the end houses, which gave to the block the aspect of a single palatial building.
Despite the exceptionality of the position and the beauty of the architecture, the house where the Italian Embassy is failed to sell, until in June 1739 Simmons very originally resorted to make it the prize of a raffle. The new owner was Francis Howard, 1st Earl of Effingham, doubtless in trust for the first tenant, Edward Howard, 9th Duke of Norfolk, who lived in it until 1741. In February 1742 Lord Effingham sold the house for £ 5,500 to Thomas Watson-Wentworth, Earl of Malton and later 1st Marquess of Rockingham, who decided to alterate it profoundly, particularly by changing the disposition of the interior and adding plastered ceilings. His son, Charles, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham and Prime Minister in 1765 and 1782, used No. 4 Grosvenor Square as his home from 1751 until his death in 1782, and then passed it to his nephew, William Wentworth, 4th Earl Fitzwilliam, who resided there for fifty years. Lord Fitzwilliam was an important politician of his time, and held the post of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1795 for only eight days, after which he was dismissed by Pitt who was annoyed by his resolute stand in favour of immediate measures to implement Catholic Emancipation. He put large sums of money in the house, like in 1785, when he spent £ 3,986. The Fitzwilliams renovated the house again in 1872 and in 1902, adding an extra floor and a rear extension linked with the buildings on Three Kings Yard where the Chancery is today.
In 1931 the 7th Earl Fitzwilliam surrendered the lease back to the Grosvenors, and on 25 March of the same year Hugh Grosvenor, Duke of Westminster, granted a 200-year lease to the Italian State.

 

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