Thrale history

Grosvenor Square, Middlesex, England

Tree: UK Thrale family

Notes:

Initially, Henry wanted to rent Prime Minister Lord Shelburne’s house in Berkeley Square, known as Lansdowne House. Instead they rented 1 Grosvenor Square (from Sir Richard Heron MP, Chief Secretary for Ireland). Hester wrote in Thraliana on 26 January 1781 …

Mr. Thrale and I settled upon 1 Grosvenor Square, which we took furnished from Sir Richard Heron at a cost of 11 Guineas a week and came to it yesterday.

… and again on 29 January 1781 she wrote …

So we are to spend this Winter in Grosvenor Square; my master has taken a ready furnished Lodging house there, and we go in tomorrow: He frightened me cruelly a while ago, he would have Lady Shelburne’s House—one of the finest in London: he would buy, he would build, he would give 20, 30 Guineas a Week for a House.

… and again on 1 February 1781 she wrote …

We are at last settled in a ready furnished House Grosvenor Square for the three following months.

The Thrale home in Grosvenor Square was a large and elegant townhouse. It had a number of grand features, including a large ballroom, a library, and a music room. Hester’s joy was muted by worries about her husband and the future of the brewery. It was, however, much easier to see her friends. Their children went with them and the garden at Grosvenor Square was more fun for her daughters Cecilia and Harriett to play in than ‘Palmyra’[^2] - the garden the Thrales had constructed out of rubble at Brewery House on the far side of Deadman’s Place.

At that time Henry Thrale was the sole businessman residing in Grosvenor Square. The others were all from the aristocracy and ruling class, including:

• Lord North (Prime Minister);
• the Marquess of Rockingham (Prime Minister);
• a future Archbishop of Canterbury;
• two bishops;
• a field marshal;
• four Dukes; including:
  • the Duke of Beaufort;
  • Lord Grosvenor;
  • the Earl of Thanet;
  • dowager Duchess of Chandos;
• numerous Members of Parliament; and
• other lesser Peers.

The Thrales moved out of the house in March 1789 after Hester Lynch Thrale remarried. They sold their furniture.

The house was demolished 90-years later in 1879. Today, the site is occupied by a modern office building.

Location : Latitude: 51.5121093, Longitude: -0.1516451