The Albany, home to AJ Raffles
Albany's bachelor flats - home to AJ Raffles and Lord Byron.
Location: Albany Court, St James, London
Description: Part club, part cloister, the Albany, is a discreet 18th centuiry mansion. It was named after the Duke of York, the second son of George III, who owned the central block. In 1804 it was converted into 69 chambers for bachelors. The grandest 15 are in the main mansion, others accessed via marble-lined corridors filled with stone busts of former residents.
According to the late antiques dealer and resident Christopher Gibbs, there was/is a rule list that goes 'no pets, no children, no whistling, no noise and absolutely no publicity'. Women were not permitted until the 1880's. When Prime Minister William Lambs wife Caroline Lamb disguised herself as a page boy to sneak into Lord Byrons set.
Famous tenants included William Gladstone, William Lamb, Edward Heath, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Bill Nighy, Lord Byron, Lord Snowdon, Aldous Huxley, Kenneth Clark, Terence Rattigan, JB Priestley, Canning and Lord Lytton.
Author EW Hordung, who was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's brother in law, created the fictional gentleman thief AJ Raffles, a diametric opposite of Sherlock Holmes, lived here.
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Albany's bachelor flats - home to AJ Raffles and Lord Byron. |
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pinpointing the forgotten and lost history of London
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