Lindsey House

59-60 Lincolns Inn Fields, London WC2A

Built in 1641, and attributed to "the first significant architect in England," Inigo Jones (1573-1652). It is the oldest house in Lincoln's Inns Fields and is often mistakenly thought to have been built and named for Robert Bertie (1582-1642), 1st Earl of Lindsey, but in fact he neither built it nor lived here. It was built as an investment by Sir David Cunningham who three months after its completion sold it to Henry Murray (d.1672), Groom of the Bedchamber to King Charles I, and his wife, Anne (1619-1678), Viscountess Bayning of Foxley, who were the first to live here....

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It became known as Lindsey House (and was also known as Ancaster House) during the first half of the 18th century for the 5th and 6th Earls of Lindsey who were also later styled as the 2nd and 3rd Dukes of Ancaster - though this house is not to be confused with Lindsey House in Chelsea built by the 1st Duke. Shortly after the death of the 6th Earl, it was divided into two residences by Isaac Ware in 1751-52 as it has since remained, except when briefly joined up again by Sir John Soane between 1802 and 1808 for Prime Minister Sir Spencer Perceval (1762-1812). Lindsey House served as the inspiration for Mrs Alva Vanderbilt Belmont's mansion at 477 Madison Avenue in New York City.