Arundel House

Arundel House stands on the north bank of the Thames, between the Strand and the river, close to St Clement Danes church. Once it was Bath Inn, a medieval London town-house belonging to the Bishops of Bath and Wells. In 1539 Henry VIII gave it to the Earl of Southampton, and later it passed to Thomas Seymour, brother of Jane Seymour. After Seymour’s execution the house was bought for about forty pounds by Henry Fitz Alan, Earl of Arundel. The Howards inherited it and filled its galleries with the Arundel Marbles, part of which are now at the Ashmolean in Oxford. The first performance of Thomas Tallis’s forty-part motet Spem in alium probably took place in the Long Gallery in 1568 or 1569. Inigo Jones designed an Italianate gateway and a wing in the early 17th century. William Oughtred taught mathematics here to the Earl’s son, and the Royal Society met here in the late 1660s. The house also sheltered Wenceslaus Hollar and briefly housed the 9th Earl of Northumberland after his release from the Tower. Today the site is marked by Arundel Street and Surrey Street. The Strand Lane Baths occupy part of the old grounds and are now cared for by the National Trust. A later building in Tudor Revival style, also called Arundel House, stands at the foot of Arundel Street. It serves as a conference centre and headquarters of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.