While Durham House remained an episcopal palace, Catherine of Aragon lived as a virtual prisoner there between her marriages to Arthur, Prince of Wales and King Henry VIII.

Mary's predecessor, Lady Jane Grey, the "Nine Days" Queen of England, was married at Durham House on May 21 or 25, 1553 to Guilford Dudley.

John Aubrey said that he well remembered the room which Raleigh used as his study; it was in a little turret that looked over the Thames and had a view of Westminster, Whitehall Palace and the Surrey hills.

Early encounters with the natives were friendly and, despite the difficulties in communication, the explorers were able to persuade "two of the savages, being lustie men, whose names were Wanchese and Manteo" to accompany them on the return voyage to London.

Raleigh's priority however was not publicity but rather intelligence about his new land of Virginia, and he restricted access to the exotic newcomers, assigning the scientist Thomas Harriot the job of deciphering and learning the Carolina Algonquian language,[6] using a phonetic alphabet of his own invention in order to effect the translation.

The stables were demolished for construction of the New Exchange, a market which was occupied by milliners and seamstresses in shops along upper and lower tiers on each side of a central alley.

[11] Instead, Pembroke built on a site in Durham Street, which ran through the old remains down to the River Thames and the upper portion of which survives at its junction with the Strand.