Albany

Albany is a three-storey apartment complex in Piccadilly, London. Built in the 1770s as Melbourne House for the first Viscount Melbourne, it became the Duke of York’s residence in 1791. In 1802 the house was converted into 69 bachelor apartments known as sets. Two new parallel buildings called The Ropewalk were added, creating a covered walkway supported by thin iron columns. The main block and its service wings were subdivided, while the garden was largely built over. The result is a quiet enclave hidden behind white-painted Regency façades. The building has housed many notable figures since it opened as apartments. Lord Byron lived there in the early 19th century, as did future prime minister William Ewart Gladstone. During the Second World War a German bomb damaged one wing, which was rebuilt to match the original. The Albany Trust held its first meetings here in the late 1950s, hosted by Jacquetta Hawkes and J. B. Priestley. Residents once had to be bachelors, and children under 14 are still not permitted to live there. Visitors cannot enter the private apartments, but the exterior and the Ropewalk walkway can be viewed from the street. The main courtyard remains, flanked by the original service wings. The covered passage of The Ropewalk runs the length of the garden site, ending at a rear gate on Burlington Gardens. The arrangement of staircases without doors recalls Oxbridge colleges and the Inns of Court. Though the sets are privately owned, the building’s history is visible in every detail of its architecture.