FROM NORTHAMPTON TO NORTHUMBERLAND: THE STRAND PALACE DURING THE SUFFOLK OWNERSHIP AND THE TRANSFORMATIONS OF ALGERNON PERCY, TENTH EARL OF NORTHUMBERLAND, 1614–68

Abstract

This paper is a continuation of one that appeared in this journal in 2010.1 That earlier paper explored the house built by Lord Henry Howard, first Earl of Northampton, between 1605 and his death in 1614. This one investigates the Suffolk ownership in the years between Howard’s death and 1642, as well as the subsequent acquisition and transformation of the house by Algernon Percy, tenth Earl of Northumberland, between 1642 and 1668. The first period has never been studied with the benefit of archival research and, if architecturally uneventful, offers interesting insights into the political and patrimonial affairs of the time. The second was analysed by Jeremy Wood in 1993 within an essay dealing with the whole of Algernon’s building activity,2 and not therefore in relation to the architectural development of Northumberland House specifically. It is argued here that Northumberland’s work is of crucial importance, as he turned this predominantly urban palace, with its public rooms overlooking the Strand, into a rus in urbe, an aspect that was to be a decisive influence on its many later refurbishments. In addition, investigating Algernon’s work through a close analysis of the primary sources sheds new light on the debate about the development of architecture during the English Civil War.