Spencer House

Spencer House is a town mansion dating from 1752 to 1754, originally designed by John Vardy, with traditional attribution also given to General Gray. Further building and decoration occurred between 1756 and 1766, incorporating interior work by James Stuart around 1759, alterations by Sir Robert Taylor around 1772, and later work by Henry Holland around 1785. The house is constructed of Portland stone with a slate roof.

The architectural style is purely Palladian, particularly evident in the Green Park facade which takes inspiration from Palladio's designs, mediated through Burlington’s General Wade House. The Green Park facade presents a two-storey, pedimented design, featuring an arcaded and rusticated podium storey supporting a piano nobile framed by engaged Doric order. The building rises above a sub-basement balustraded terrace with vermiculated rustication and semicircular arched openings. The facade is seven windows wide. The basement level features flat-arched, glazing bar sashes recessed within panels and set within the arcade, with impost strings. The first floor has architraved glazing bar sashes, each with alternating segmental-triangular pediments framed by the Doric order, terminal pilasters, and supporting an enriched Doric entablature. The entablature leads to a broad pediment containing a palm-wreathed oculus over the central five bays, and a balustraded parapet with carved urns and statues on the dies and pediment.

The flank elevation to St. James's Place is three storeys high with a basement and contains pedimented dormers to the attic. It is six windows wide. The ground floor is rusticated and features a cornice and blind balustrade at the level of the first floor, with an arcaded design linked by an impost string. The entrance, located in the bay adjoining the pedimented pavilion return to the Park front, is itself pedimented and features a rusticated surround and lamp standards with extinguishers. A Palladian window sits above the entrance, while the other first-floor windows are accented by cornices on consoles. The corner pavilion features a pediment framed by a pilaster order similar to that on the Park front, with flanking niches.

The interiors are exceptionally classical, notably those in the west range, which include the first "Etruscan" room in Europe, alongside significant contributions from Taylor and Holland.