SELWYN HOUSE · ST JAMES
Short History of Selwyn House from 1543
The history of the Selwyn House site dates from 1543, spanning five centuries in a part of St. James’s that once looked entirely different from the London of today. The site has changed through successive phases of development, forming part of the wider landscape that would gradually become one of the capital’s most distinguished urban quarters.
A major change came around 1630, when the Earl of Berkshire began building a mansion across land that is now occupied by Lancaster House, Warwick House, Selwyn House and Bridgewater House. The booklet follows the subsequent development of this site through a series of historical maps, plans and views, showing how large estates and open ground were progressively divided, rebuilt and absorbed into the evolving streets of St. James’s.
The maps reproduced in the history are particularly revealing. They place the site within an area that changed repeatedly as London expanded westwards. What had once been open land gradually became a dense arrangement of houses, courts, gardens and streets. Later historical views of London reproduced in the booklet show this transformation on a broader scale, with the future Selwyn House site identified within an increasingly established cityscape.
Across these centuries, the houses associated with the site were occupied and visited by people of historical significance. The booklet specifically records connections with John Evelyn and Samuel Pepys, placing the story of Selwyn House within the wider social history of seventeenth-century London. Rather than describing the property as a single unchanged building surviving from that period, the history traces a succession of development and occupation on the same important St. James’s site.
The surrounding urban fabric continued to evolve during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Successive maps reproduced in the booklet document changes to the neighbouring streets and properties as St. James’s became increasingly formalised. The relationship between the house, Cleveland Row and the adjoining estates became part of this gradual transformation, while the site retained its close connection with the prominent houses and gardens surrounding it.
The Selwyn name has been associated with the property since 1694. The history of the site itself reaches further back, to 1543, and traces successive phases of development and occupation rather than a single unchanged building.
One of the final illustrations in the booklet records the appearance of Selwyn House in the twentieth century through an architectural drawing by A. S. Cook. Seen alongside the much earlier maps and panoramic views, the drawing brings the chronology back to the individual building: from open ground, through centuries of urban development, to the recognisable house occupying its prominent position in St. James’s.
Published as A Short History of Selwyn House and its Site, the booklet brings these fragments together into a record spanning several centuries. Its significance lies not only in the history of one house, but in the way a relatively small London site reflects the continuous transformation of St. James’s itself — from open land to aristocratic estates, changing streets and, ultimately, the urban setting in which Selwyn House stands today.