Lancaster House, Stable Yard, St James’s, SW1
At the end of Pall Mall, past royal residences St James’s Palace and Clarence House, stands Lancaster House. “I have come from my house to your palace” said a suitably impressed Queen Victoria on a visit to the overwhelmingly grand house. It’s now owned by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and, although conferences are held here, the breathtaking red and gold Louis XIV interior is rarely open to the general public. You’ll probably have to content yourself with seeing it on screen.
Lancaster House became the Tsar’s ‘St Petersburg Winter Palace’ in Warren Beatty’s historical epic Reds. “Kerensky’s some Socialist, huh?” observes John Reed (Beatty) wryly to Louise Bryant (Diane Keaton) as they make their way up the opulent staircase to interview the revolutionary leader in his newly-acquired office.
The same interior appears as itself for the Lancaster House costume ball, where Fanny Assingham (Anjelica Huston) is shocked by Charlotte Stant (Uma Thurman) turning up accompanied by her son-in-law Prince Amerigo (Jeremy Northam), in the Merchant-Ivory film of Henry James’ The Golden Bowl.
Lancaster House provided the grand staircase of Buckingham Palace in King Ralph, as well as the improbably lavish home of Lady Bracknell (Judi Dench) in Oliver Parker’s adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance Of Being Earnest.
Reds (1981, dir: Warren Beatty)
The Golden Bowl (2000, dir: James Ivory)
King Ralph (1991, dir: David S Ward)
The Importance of Being Earnest (2002, dir: Oliver Parker)
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