Spencer House

Major study of Spencer House, one of London’s most important historic buildings and arguably its greatest surviving 18th-century town house.

This major study of Spencer House, backed by extensive new research, builds on the author’s acclaimed history published in 1993 to produce a fascinating reappraisal of one of London’s most important historic buildings and arguably its greatest surviving 18th-century town house.

This handsomely illustrated volume includes specially commissioned photographs by architectural photographer Paul Highnam , which present Spencer House in a dramatic, fresh perspective. An extended introduction sets the survival and revival of Spencer House against the loss of many other great historic London houses, particularly in the period since the First World War, highlighting its unique importance in the cultural and social life of London.

The history of the house itself, enriched with a wealth of previously unpublished material, includes a new chapter which explores the background to its construction for the 1st Earl Spencer, looking at his forebears’ growing engagement with London and the increasing splendour of their previous houses in and around the capital, situating the building as the culmination of a process stretching back almost 200 years.

Joseph Friedman is an independent art historian and consultant and has published and lectured widely on the history of the fine and decorative arts and collecting, including a previous edition of the present study marking the restoration of Spencer House, on which he advised.