51°30′47.7″N0°5′21.7″W / 51.513250°N 0.089361°W /51.513250; -0.089361
| Mansion House | |
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 Interactive map of the Mansion House area | |
| General information | |
| Architectural style | Palladian |
| Location | London,EC4, United Kingdom |
| Current tenants | Lord Mayor of London |
| Construction started | 1739 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | George Dance the Elder |
| Website | |
| Mansion House | |
TheMansion House is theofficial residence of theLord Mayor of London. It is a Grade Ilisted building.[1] Designed byGeorge Dance in thePalladian style, it was built primarily in the 1740s.
The Mansion House is used for some of theCity of London's most formalofficial functions, including two annualwhite tie dinners. At the Easter banquet, the main speaker is theForeign Secretary, who then receives a reply from theDean of the Diplomatic Corps, i.e. the longest-serving ambassador. In early June, it is the turn of theChancellor of the Exchequer to give his or her "Mansion House Speech" about the state of the British economy. The most famous was theMansion House Speech of 1911 by David Lloyd George, which warned theGerman Empire against opposing British influence during the period leading up to theFirst World War.
The Mansion House was built between 1739 and 1752, in thePalladian style, by thesurveyor andarchitectGeorge Dance the Elder. The Master Mason wasJohn Deval.[2]
The site, at the east end ofPoultry, London, had previously been occupied by theStocks Market,[3] which by the time of its closure was mostly used for the sale of herbs.[4] The construction was prompted by a wish to put an end to the inconvenient practice of lodging the Lord Mayor in one of the Citylivery company halls. Dance won a competition over designs solicited fromJames Gibbs andGiacomo Leoni, and uninvited submissions byBatty Langley andIsaac Ware.[5] Construction was slowed down by the discovery of springs on the site, which meant piles had to be sunk to lay adequate foundations.[4]
The original building had twoclerestory roof extensions, nicknamed the "Mayor's Nest" (a pun on "mare's nest") and "Noah's Ark". In 1795George Dance the Younger re-roofed the central courtyard, and had the "Noah's Ark" demolished. In the same year, the original grand staircase was removed to make way for a further two rooms. In 1835 the entrance steps were reduced to one flight, and in 1842 the "Mayor's Nest" was demolished after theballroom was reconstructed. The Lord Mayor's private entrance inWalbrook was created in 1845, and in 1849 the former Swordbearer's Room was converted into the Justice Room, effectively themagistrates' court of the City, until 1999 when the court removed to a building on the opposite side of Walbrook.[6]
From 1873, with the Lord Mayor as its president, committee meetings of theMetropolitan Hospital Sunday Fund met at the Mansion House.[7][8]
The Mansion House was paid for in an unusual way: the City authorities, allChurch of England men, found a way to tax those of other Christian denominations, particularly theRational Dissenters. AUnitarian namedSamuel Sharpe, banker by day and amateur Egyptologist by night, wrote about it in the 1830s, striking a blow against theTest and Corporate Acts. The article was republished in 1872. Sharpe argues that the Mansion House "remains as a monument of the unjust manner in which Dissenters were treated in the last century" (i.e. the 18th, in contrast to his own 19th, century).[9]William Edward Hartpole Lecky in hisHistory of England during the Eighteenth Century (1878) describes the funding of the construction of the Mansion House as "a very scandalous form of persecution".[10]
There are over one hundredlivery companies, the senior members of which form a special electorate known asCommon Hall. In 1748 theCity of London Corporation devised aCatch-22 situation to raise money, passing a by-law levying a heavy fine on any man who refused to stand for election, or who, once elected to office, refused to serve. In order to serve as aSheriff of the City of London, the individual had to have "takenthe sacrament according to theAnglican rite" within the past year. This was exactly whatEnglish Dissenters could not, in conscience, do:
"It would appear almost incredible, if the facts were not widely attested, that under these circumstances the City of London systematically elected wealthy Dissenters to the office in order that they should be objected to and fined, and that in this manner it extorted no less than £15,000. The electors appointed these Dissenters with a clear knowledge that they would not serve, and with the sole purpose of extorting money. One of those whom they selected was blind; another was bedridden."[11]
Some tried to appeal, but the process was immensely risky and costly, with the City holding all the cards. Eventually a man named Evans began a challenge which lasted ten years; in 1767, the House of Lords, drawing on theToleration Act 1688, agreed withLord Mansfield and ruled to curtail the City's abuse of power.[12][13] In order to avoidcivil disabilities such as this financially ruinous persecution, some Dissenters were known to take Communion in theirparish church once a year; in the phraseology of the time, "occasional conformity" (seeOccasional Conformity Act 1711).Thomas Abney rose to be Lord Mayor in this fashion.[14]
The American authorMark Twain recounts the story inA Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889):
It reminded me of something I had read in my youth about the ingenious way in which the aldermen of London raised the money that built the Mansion House. A person who had not taken the Sacrament according to the Anglican rite could not stand as a candidate for sheriff of London. Thus Dissenters were ineligible; they could not run if asked, they could not serve if elected. The aldermen, who without any question were Yankees in disguise, hit upon this neat device: they passed a by-law imposing a fine of £400 upon any one who should refuse to be a candidate for sheriff, and a fine of £600 upon any person who, after being elected sheriff, refused to serve. Then they went to work and elected a lot of Dissenters, one after another, and kept it up until they had collected £15,000 in fines; and there stands the stately Mansion House to this day, to keep the blushing citizen in mind of a long past and lamented day when a band of Yankees slipped into London and played games of the sort that has given their race a unique and shady reputation among all truly good and holy peoples that be in the earth.[15]
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The Mansion House has three main storeys over a rusticated basement. The entrance facade has aportico with sixCorinthian columns, supporting a pediment with a tympanum sculpture by Sir Robert Taylor, in the centre of which is a symbolic figure of the City of London trampling on her enemies.[16] The building originally had two prominent and unusual attic structures at either end,[4] which were removed in 1794 and 1843. The building is on a confined site. SirJohn Summerson wrote that "it leaves an impression of uneasily constricted bulk", adding that "on the whole, the building is a striking reminder that good taste was not a universal attribute in the eighteenth century".[5] The main reception room, the columned "Egyptian Hall", was so named because Dance used an arrangement of columns deemed to be "Egyptian" byVitruvius. No Egyptian motifs were employed.[5] It has twenty niches for sculpture.[16] There was originally an open courtyard, later occupied by a saloon.[16]
The residence used to have its owncourt of law, since the Lord Mayor is thechief magistrate of the City while in office. There were eleven holding cells (ten for men and one, nicknamed "the birdcage", for women). A famous prisoner here was the early 20th-centurysuffragette women's rights campaignerSylvia Pankhurst.[17]
The Mansion House is home to theHarold Samuel Collection of Dutch and Flemish Seventeenth Century Paintings, described as "the finest collection of such works to be formed in Britain this century".[18] It consists of 84 paintings and includes some outstanding works by artists includingHendrick Avercamp,Gerard Ter Borch,Pieter Claesz,Aelbert Cuyp,Frans Hals,Pieter de Hooch,Jacob van Ruisdael,Jan Steen,David Teniers the Younger andWillem van de Velde. The Mansion House also houses a plate collection, which includes among other treasures, the five ceremonialCity of London swords.[19]
The Mansion House is not generally open to the public. However, tours can be arranged through the diary office, and there are public tours most Tuesdays.[20]
Mansion House Street is the short street at the front of the Mansion House, which connectsPoultry,Queen Victoria Street andBank Junction aboveBank Underground station.[21]
Guildhall is another venue used for important City functions.[22]
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