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Pembroke House, London

Pembroke House, Privy Gardens, Whitehall, London.
London town house of the Earls of Pembroke.
See Location of Pembroke House.

References:
- Vitruvius Britannicus by Colen Campbell.
  - Vol.3, 1725. Features Pembroke House and Wilton House.
- The Buildings of England. London 6: Westminster. Simon Bradley and Nikolaus Pevsner. 2005 edn.
Sources yet to be consulted:
- "Pembroke House", in Survey of London: volume 13 (1930), pp. 167-179.
- "Pembroke House, Whitehall", Steven Brindle, The Georgian Group Journal, vol. VIII, 1998, pp.88-113.

Pembroke House when first built.
From p.48 of [Campbell, vol.3, 1725].
See print at Victoria and Albert Museum.

Pembroke House was built by the 9th Earl of Pembroke (not then the Earl) in 1723-24, on the E (River Thames) side of Whitehall.
[Campbell, vol.3, 1725] gives the building date 1724. See introduction on p.9.

The 9th Earl had obtained a lease in 1717.
The site was formerly part of the great Palace of Whitehall which burned down in 1698.
Pembroke House had its own entrance lodge on the W (inland) side.
The back (E side) looked directly onto the River Thames.
See Location of Pembroke House.

The 9th Earl succ as Earl in 1733.
His son the 10th Earl of Pembroke was born at Pembroke House in 1734.
The 9th Earl died there in 1750.
Pembroke House was re-built 1756-59 by the 10th Earl.
Mary Fitzwilliam (wife of 9th Earl and mother of 10th Earl) died there 1769.
11th Earl of Pembroke died there in Oct 1827.
His nephew Rev. George Augustus Montgomery wrote a letter of Nov 1827 from there, just after his uncle's death.

The Victoria Embankment was built 1865 to 1870 out into the river, and there was now more land at the back (to the E of) Pembroke House. This was laid out as a garden.

Pembroke House was demolished 1938, but parts of it were saved.
The site is now the massive Ministry of Defence building (built in phases 1939-59).
The Ministry of Defence is an unusual building that has preserved inside it some of the former architecture of the site, including the 1514-16 wine cellar from the Palace of Whitehall.
The Ministry of Defence also preserves inside it 4 rooms saved from Pembroke House,
[Bradley and Pevsner, 2005] details these 4 rooms. They are "within the courtyard spaces on the third and fourth floors" and were "reassembled from parts stored in 1936". These rooms are called:

Room 27 - The former gallery.
Room 25.
Room 24 - A former bedroom, from the N wing of Pembroke House.
Room 13 - A former bedroom, from the N wing of Pembroke House.

The balustrade of Pembroke House (presumably the rooftop one) was saved and is now at Queen's House, Greenwich.

Plan of Pembroke House when first built.
See full size.
From p.48 of [Campbell, vol.3, 1725].

Pembroke House, view from W (inland) side, showing entrance lodge and main building.
From Illustrated London News, 30 Dec 1854.
From here.

Extract from Letter of Nov 1827 from Rev. George Augustus Montgomery to his sister Elizabeth, written from Pembroke House just after the death of their uncle the 11th Earl of Pembroke.
See full size.

Riverfront of buildings on E side of Whitehall.
From "The Opening of Waterloo Bridge seen from Whitehall Stairs" by John Constable (painted 1832, depicts the opening of 1817).
The view is looking N up the river towards Waterloo Bridge. Whitehall Stairs was a dock just to the N of Pembroke House.
The picture shows the Prince Regent about to board the Royal barge at Whitehall Stairs.
Pembroke House may be the house at extreme left, to the left of the tree.
See larger and full size. From here.

Location of Pembroke House