If I had to pick my favourite surviving aristocratic townhouse in central London, it would be the Spencer family’s neoclassical pile overlooking Green Park. This Portland stone palace, with its classical columns and romantic symbolism, is one of the last great 18th-century mansions in the heart of the city.
And yes, this is the ancestral London home of Diana, Princess of Wales.
Step inside Spencer House to discover how a love match between two young aristocrats created one of the most influential buildings in British architectural history.
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A House Built on Love
John Spencer cut a dashingly romantic figure: handsome, cultured and willing to defy convention for love. Born in 1734, he became one of the wealthiest aristocrats in England after inheriting the fortune of Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, when he was just twelve years old.
In 1754, when John was twenty and on his Grand Tour, he met seventeen-year-old Georgiana Poyntz, daughter of a diplomat and a maid to the Queen. They fell head over heels in love, which was rare in an era when aristocratic relationships were essentially business transactions. So concerned was John that his family wouldn’t approve of the match that they married secretly in December 1755, a week before their official wedding ceremony.
The young couple had the family seat at Althorp in Northamptonshire, but they lacked a suitable London home for entertaining and displaying their growing art collection. And so Spencer House was born, not out of duty or dynasty, but out of love and the desire to create a beautiful space together.
Construction began in 1756, and John Spencer initially hired John Vardy, a pupil of William Kent, to design the building. He created the Portland stone exterior and designed the ground-floor rooms.
But then something interesting happened. Vardy’s Palladian style was beginning to feel outdated, and John Spencer wanted something more cutting-edge. Enter James ‘Athenian’ Stuart, who had just returned from Greece with his head full of classical inspiration.
In 1758, Stuart superseded Vardy as the house’s architect, and the result was revolutionary. Spencer House became the first building in London to apply Greek detail to interior decoration. The house that John and Georgiana built would go on to influence the design of countless English country houses for the next century.
Inside Spencer House: A Tour of the State Rooms
Greeted by our Blue Badge guide, I joined a small group for a tour of the eight magnificent State Rooms.
What struck me immediately was how intimate the experience felt compared to larger stately homes. With a maximum of twenty people per tour, there was space to really appreciate the details.
The first stop on our tour was the Ante Room, a compact space with a Neo-Classical vibe that was used by the First Lord and Lady Spencer for family dining and small dinner parties. A gorgeous semi-circular alcove with gilded coffering frames the doors leading out to the Staircase Hall.
This was later connected to the adjoining Library, restored to reflect the period of the Second Earl’s residence at Spencer House.
Ante Room- The Library
The largest of the ground-floor State Rooms, the Dining Room is where the Spencers entertained large numbers of guests.
Vardy designed the ceiling, which is based on Inigo Jones’s masterpiece at Banqueting House in Whitehall. I loved the Carrara marble chimneypiece with its relief of two drunken cherubs in a vineyard, reflecting the Bacchic theme of hospitality.
Don’t miss the striking sculpture in front of the window. Based on a satirical cartoon by Thomas Rowlandson published in February 1784, it refers to an incident in classical mythology in which the infant Hercules strangles two serpents sent to kill him by the goddess Hera. Here, Hercules’ head is that of the British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger, and his political rivals, Lord North and Charles James Fox, take the places of the serpents.
Walking into the Palm Room is like stepping into an exotic fantasy.
Eight spectacular palm trees, carved from wood and gilded, soar up to support the coffered ceiling. These aren’t just decorative flourishes; palms were symbols of fertility in the 18th century, and the room’s design was actually based on a concept initially intended for King Charles II’s bedchamber at Greenwich Palace.
A frieze featuring griffins encircles the ceiling, replicating motifs from the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina in Rome. The griffin is particularly significant as it appears in the Spencer family’s coat of arms.
A glorious domed apse frames a copy of the famous Medici Venus.
It was now time to take the original stone staircase to Spencer House’s first-floor rooms. Hanging from the domed ceiling is a theatrical copper, bronze and glass lantern that is thought to have come from the Bucentaur, the famous state barge of the Doge of Venice.
Painted in a calming shade of blue, the Music Room was once the setting for concerts and recitals. Lady Spencer’s sumptuous dressing room was, in fact, a salon where she entertained her friends and served as an anteroom to the Great Room next door.
- Music Room
- Lady Spencer’s Room
The largest and most magnificent of the first-floor State Rooms, the Great Room has witnessed over two centuries of London high society, from Georgian balls to Victorian soirées.
But if there’s one room that encapsulates Spencer House’s status as a palace of love, it’s the Painted Room. This is justly famous as one of the earliest complete neoclassical interiors in Europe, and James Stuart’s masterpiece.
It’s a stunner.
The decoration was inspired by Roman painted interiors from Pompeii and Herculaneum, which were being excavated at the time. But the primary theme of the room is love, and it’s a celebration of John and Georgiana’s happy marriage.
Above the chimneypiece is a frieze painted with a copy of the Aldobrandini Wedding, a fragment of Roman fresco from the first century AD believed to depict a secret wedding ceremony. This was perhaps a playful allusion to the Spencers’ own secret marriage.
A Story of Survival
The Spencer family occupied the house continuously until the 1880s, when financial pressures forced them to let it to a succession of private tenants. The last Spencer to live in the house was the Seventh Earl, who moved back in 1923 and attempted to return the State Rooms to something closer to their Georgian appearance.
But by 1926, financial pressures again forced the Spencers to move out, this time for good. Thankfully, the Seventh Earl didn’t sell Spencer House as so many of his contemporaries were doing with their London mansions.
He let it to the Ladies’ Army and Navy Club, saving it from being demolished to make way for hotels and office blocks. After the war, the premises were used by Christie’s auction house and then leased to various companies as office space.
In 1985, Spencer House was leased by RIT Capital Partners under the chairmanship of Jacob, 4th Lord Rothschild, launching one of the most ambitious restoration projects of the 20th century. Over ten years, a team of architects, historians, and specialist craftspeople meticulously restored the house to its 18th-century splendour, creating perfect replicas of the original fixtures that had been removed to Althorp during the war.
On 19th November 1990, the newly restored Spencer House was officially opened by Diana, Princess of Wales, a direct descendant of the First Lord and Lady Spencer. The palace of love, built by two people who defied convention to marry for love, was reopened by arguably the most famous Spencer of all time, and the so-called Queen of Hearts.
Why I Love Spencer House
As I walked back through Green Park, I reflected on what makes Spencer House so special. It’s not just the architectural innovation or the neoclassical interiors, or the fact that it’s one of the few great aristocratic mansions still standing in central London (another is Apsley House)
It’s that this house was built on love. It is woven into every frieze, every painted panel, every symbolic detail. And somehow, more than 250 years later, you can still feel it.
About Bridget
Bridget Coleman has been a passionate traveller for more than 30 years. She has visited 70+ countries, most as a solo traveller.
Articles on this site reflect her first-hand experiences.
To get in touch, email her at hello@theflashpacker.net or follow her on social media.