gh somewhat
narrow, and architecturally uninteresting, it has always been a
favourite society promenade, and when first built was "inhabited by the
nobility and gentry" (Hatton). New Bond Street dates from about 1716,
and occupies part of the site of Conduit Mead (twenty-seven acres), the
property of the City of London. Of the houses the following are
interesting:

No. 135, the Grosvenor Gallery, the chief of the many picture-galleries
in Bond Street. The house was erected in 1877 for Sir Coutts Lindsey,
Bart., and contains a lending library and until recently the Grosvenor
Club (proprietary, social and non-political). The doorway, by Palladio,
was brought from Venice, and the front is by Soames.

Nos. 15 and 16 are Long's Hotel, much frequented by Sir Walter Scott; it
was rebuilt and enlarged in 1888.

At No. 18, now a jeweller's, was Steven's Hotel, fashionable during the
Regency, and afterwards a haunt of Lord Byron's.

At No. 169, on the west side, was the Clarendon Hotel, formerly the town
house of the Dukes of Grafton, and afterwards the residence, about 1741,
of the elder Pitt. The hotel was closed in 1877, and replaced by a row
of shops.

Inhabitants: Swift, 1727; Mrs. Delany, 1731; Lords Craven, Abergavenny,
and Coventry, 1732; George Selwyn, 1751; Dr. Johnson, 1767; Thomson,
the poet; No. 141, Lord Nelson, 1797; 146, Sir Thomas Picton, 1797-1800;
147, Mrs. and Miss Gunning, 1792; 148, Lord Camelford, 1803-04; 150,
Lady Hamilton, 1813.

Old Bond Street, and the adjoining Stafford Street, Albemarle and Dover
Streets, occupy the site of old Clarendon House, the grounds of which
covered nearly 30 acres, granted to Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, by Charles
II. The house, described by Evelyn as a noble pile, was erected in 1664,
and after being leased, in 1670, to the Duke of Ormonde, was sold in
1675 to the second Duke of Albemarle, who parted with it to Sir Thomas
Bond for L20,000. The latter, in 1686, built Bond Street, the west side
of which was first called Albemarle Buildings. Residents: 1708, Lords
Coningsby, Abingdon, and Anglesea; 1725, the Duke of St. Albans,
Countess of Gainsborough; 1741, Duke of Kingston; 1753, Countess of
Macclesfield; at the present No. 41, in 1768, died Laurence Sterne;
Pascal Paoli, 1761; Boswell, 1769; No. 24, 1791, Sir Thomas Lawrence,
R.A., afterwards the offices of the Artists' Benevolent Institution,
founded 1814, the Artists' Orphan Fund, and the Arundel Society for
promotin