Old Devonshire House

James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde, William Stanley, 9th Earl of Derby and his wife Lady Elizabeth Butler, Lord Colchester, Hugh Cholmondeley, 1st Earl of Cholmondeley were friends and habitués of the house, which became a sort of centre for the leading lights in the political and social world during the reign of Anne, Queen of Great Britain.

[14] Old Madam Legh died in 1728 aged 85 and her will left the lease of the London house to her granddaughter Elizabeth together with her pew, No.48, in St George the Martyr, Holborn, for which she paid a rent of £2 5s a year.

An upholsterer and cabinet maker with a sideline as an auctioneer, an engineer and a linen draper lived there in 1841 are followed in 1851 by a lathe and toolmaker, a barrister's clerk and a house servant.

In 1861 the occupations included a map engraver, a retired customs officer, a coach trimmer, a clerk to a navy agent, a servant, a musician and a carpenter.

In 1881 the occupations mentioned included a gun engraver called Richard Pope, a picture restorer, an unemployed printer compositor, a journeyman plasterer, a teacher, a bookbinder and a 15 year old embroideress.

In 1891 the occupations mentioned included a cabinet finishing father and son, a cab driver's groom, a tailor and a paper embosser; the doctor and gun engraver were still present.

Benton Fletcher's radio talk, "Early Music at Old Devonshire House", published in The Listener in 1937 described the occupancy when he bought Old Devonshire House in 1934: "Thirty-five men, women and children were living in about a dozen rooms: a family of seven crowded into one room, and in another an old man, who bolted his door against all comers, made and mended his own shirts, but to everyone’s surprise died leaving over £100,000 in the bank.

Benton Fletcher recalled in Sept 1938; "It was entirely through Mr Humphrey Talbot"[18][19](a vice-chairman of the SPAB), "whom I had known as a small boy that I heard of the house which he had discovered after the death of the owner Mrs Hawker whose family I happened to know.

"[20] Benton Fletcher was "searching for a suitable building with the right atmosphere, in central London, where lovers of old music might study and practise on early keyboard instruments.

[4]" In September 1937, the journalist and poet Hubert Nicholson[21][22] wrote "it was bought three years ago by Major Benton Fletcher, who has not only transformed its appearance, restored its ancient magnificence, hung Delft on the wall of one room, a Gainsborough in another and furnished it with fine Caroline and Jacobean chairs and other interesting antiques, but has housed in it his unique collection of old musical stringed instruments."...

[25] Vita Sackville-West said that, "taking the long view, the only future for the great homes of England and even for the small manor houses of the Cotswolds, was to bring them inside the fold of the scheme propounded by the National Trust".

Margaret Wyndham, honoured Major Benton Fletcher with a visit to Old Devonshire House, Bloomsbury, yesterday afternoon and expressed her interest in the collection of musical instruments and antique furniture.