Suffolk House

Model of Suffolk House on the Strand, based on drawings by surveyor and architect John Smithson in c.1650. The house was first built by the Earl of Northampton in around 1605 and was one of a string of noble palaces on the south side of the Strand with gardens stretching down to the Thames. In 1614 Northampton’s nephew, Thomas Howard, Earl of Suffolk, took over the ownership of the house, which therefore became known as Suffolk House. Its name later changed to Northumberland House after it was sold to the Earl of Northumberland in the 1640s. The house was bought by the Metropolitan Board of Works and demolished in 1874 to make way for a new road, Northumberland Avenue, which linked the Strand to the Embankment.