Private Palaces, Christopher Simon Sykes (ex. lib)

Condition:  GOOD (Ex Library copy)

Edition/Year:  2016

Publisher:  Penguin Portfolio

Pages:  270

Format:  Paperback

Whereas English country houses are, quite rightly, celebrated throughout the world, much less attention has been paid to the great town houses of the aristocracy: yet within living memory London was Studded with vast and often very beautiful private palaces in which the rich and influential - whether landed nobility up for the Season or flashy South African diamond millionaires - lived lives of fabulous ostentation.  Few of these houses, alas , are still with us; and in this fascinating, lavishly illustrated recreation of a world that has gone for ever, Christopher Simon Sykes takes us from the great Strand palaces of the seventeenth century to the melancholy demolition of Londonderry House in the early 1960's, from the Earl of Clarendon to Chips Channon, from the drudgery of life below stairs to the Bright Young Things.  Making extensive use of contemporary letters and diaries, Christopher Sykes has written a stunning combination of architectural and social history - and in doing so he has provided us with the first full account of a rich and unjustly neglected corner of English life.