Dudley House

Dudley House is a town mansion located on Park Lane in the City of Westminster. It was rebuilt between 1827 and 1828, likely incorporating parts of an 18th-century house, by architect William Atkinson for the 1st Earl of Derby. Internal alterations were made by S.W. Daukes for Lord Ward in 1855, and the building underwent major renovation and refurbishment by Sir Basil Spence and Anthony Blee from 1969 to 1970.

The exterior is stuccoed with a slate roof and features a restrained Grecian design. The building has three storeys, a basement, and a dormered attic, with a façade that is nine windows wide. The front has a shallow three-window centre break and a long asymmetrical return to Culross Street. The ground floor is screened by a projecting stone colonnade of coupled Ionic columns, which forms a tetrastyle portico in front of the entrance lobby. Above this colonnade is a conservatory-verandah-balcony with decorative ironwork standards and spandrels, spanning the full width of the first floor, possibly added by Daukes in 1855. The second-floor sash windows are set in shallow architrave surrounds, and there are sill bands on the first and second floors, along with a cornice and a balustraded parapet that is solid over the centre break where it displays the Dudley arms. The return has similar details, including a pedimented rectangular stucco bay on the first floor to the left and a three-window break to the right, along with spearhead area railings.

Inside, Dudley House retains four impressive gilded plasterwork ceilings in the Graeco-Roman style from the 1820s, although one is covered up on the first floor. There are also several fine chimney pieces, some from the 18th century and reset. The main staircase compartment and entrance hall appear to have been redecorated in a style that reflects the opulent "Louis XVI" design of Daukes' destroyed ballroom and picture gallery, though the ironwork stair balustrade is likely by Atkinson. A fine 18th-century wrought iron stair balustrade at the rear may have been retained from the earlier house, and there is a new classical upper hall designed by Spence. Dudley House is notable for being the only early mansion on Park Lane that has survived.