Peterborough House

[3] Before 1708 it had been let to Mr. Bull, a merchant,[4] at which time the Earl of Peterborough was serving his country in Spain, and in the years 1710 and 1711 was employed on an embassy to Turin, and other Italian courts.

Lord Delaval then had it in his own occupation, and occasionally lived in it for nearly 20 years, until 1809, when it was demolished to facilitate the redevelopment of Millbank by the Grosvenor Estate.

Peterborough House and grounds occupied about seven acres, bounded on the east by the River Thames on the south by the former estate of the Marquis of Salisbury, later owned by the UK Government, on the west by Tothill Fields, owned by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey, and on the north by the Horseferry Road, originally leading from the fields to the ferry to Lambeth.

It was whilst living here, in 1735, that Charles Mordaunt, 3rd Earl of Peterborough (d.1735), was privately married to his second wife, Mrs. Anastasia Robinson, the celebrated contralto vocalist.

Another joke is recorded as follows: As the dramatist and poet William Congreve (1670-1729) was being rowed in a ferry up the Thames at Millbank, the waterman remarked that, owing to its bad foundation, Peterborough House had sunk a story.