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Lancaster House

Charles Barry buildingsGeorgian architecture in LondonGrade I listed buildings in the City of WestminsterGrade I listed government buildingsGrade I listed houses in London
Houses completed in 1840Houses in the City of WestminsterLeveson-Gower familyNational government buildings in LondonNeoclassical architecture in LondonSt James's
Lancaster House (5880536589)
Lancaster House (5880536589)

Lancaster House (originally known as York House and then Stafford House) is a mansion in the St James's district in the West End of London. It is close to St James's Palace, and much of the site was once part of the palace complex. This Grade I listed building is now managed by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Lancaster House (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Lancaster House
Stable Yard Road, London Victoria

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 51.503888888889 ° E -0.13916666666667 °
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Lancaster House

Stable Yard Road
SW1A 1BH London, Victoria
England, United Kingdom
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Lancaster House (5880536589)
Lancaster House (5880536589)
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Government Wine Cellar
Government Wine Cellar

The Government Wine Cellar (GWC) is a provider of wine to support the hospitality work of the United Kingdom's government. It was founded in 1908 and since 1922 has been housed in a cellar of Lancaster House in London. The cellar is estimated to contain around 39,000 bottles of wine and spirits estimated at a value of over £2 million. The cellar is managed day-to-day by the Government Butler and is overseen by the head of Government Hospitality coming under the jurisdiction of the Foreign Office. It was originally stocked on the advice of the Government Hospitality Advisory Committee for the Purchase of Wine, a quango that was abolished in 2010. Before its abolition, the committee met two or three times a year in the cellar, around a table carved from an elm tree that blew down in St James's Park in around 1830. The role of the committee was to taste the wines, make recommendations for new purchases to keep the cellar stocked, and to sell a portion on the open market to fund the restocking process. They also graded the wines and offered serving suggestions.Since 2010 cellar has been stocked according to recommendations from a specialist committee of Masters of Wine, chaired by a former diplomat. Aside from the Government Butler, access to the cellar is strictly limited to Permanent Secretaries and Ministers.The wine is served according to a complex system. Ministers are asked to give their preferences when they take office. Food being served at the banquet or function is usually factored in. National sensitivities and customs are also considered – for example when there is a Chinese delegation vintages from 1988 are used, as '8' is considered a lucky number in China.The cellar includes wines from Château Lafite, Cheval Blanc, Cos d’Estournel, Mouton Rothschild and Le Pin. It had previously held over seventeen different types of Champagne including a magnum of Champagne Krug 1964 and still holds such valuable spirits as an 1878 Grand Fins Bois Cognac and 1931 Quinta do Noval Port. English and Welsh wines are estimated to make up 44% of all those served in 2016, including Nyetimber’s demi-sec. The Foreign Office have stated that the most the cellar has ever spent on a single bottle of wine is £100.

York House, St James's Palace
York House, St James's Palace

York House is a historic wing of St James's Palace, London, built for Frederick, Prince of Wales, on his marriage in 1736. It is in the north-western part of the palace on the site of a former suttling-house (canteen) for the Guards; it overlooks Ambassadors' Court and Cleveland Row to the west of the old Chapel Royal. Prince Frederick occupied it for about a year, until his quarrel with the his father drove him from Court. In 1795, Princess Caroline resided here before her marriage with the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV. Prince Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, subsequently King of Hanover, lived here for a great many years; and the Duchess of Cambridge was identified with it from 1851 until her death in 1889. Later occupants included the future George V, the late Duke and Duchess of Gloucester from 1936 to 1970, and Princes Charles, William and Harry, who used it before moving to Clarence House.As Edward, Prince of Wales, the future Edward VIII lived at York House, before his refurbishment of Fort Belvedere in Windsor Great Park.The building includes a suite of somewhat low-pitched rooms on the ground-floor, several drawing-rooms on the first floor, a corridor in the rear, and the servants' rooms on the top storey; all facing Cleveland Row. The ceilings of the top floor are low, height having been sacrificed to that of the drawing-room floor; during the nineteenth century this was a common practice in London mansions. The name York House has been used at various times for other houses occupied by various Dukes of York, including those now known as Cumberland House, Dover House, Lancaster House and The Albany.

St James's Palace
St James's Palace

St James's Palace is the most senior royal palace in London, the capital of the United Kingdom. The palace gives its name to the Court of St James's, which is the monarch's royal court, and is located in the City of Westminster in London. Although no longer the principal residence of the monarch, it is the ceremonial meeting place of the Accession Council, the office of the Marshal of the Diplomatic Corps, and the London residence of several members of the royal family. Built by order of Henry VIII in the 1530s on the site of an isolated leper hospital dedicated to Saint James the Less, the palace was secondary in importance to the Palace of Whitehall for most Tudor and Stuart monarchs. Initially surrounded by a deer park and gardens, it was generally used as a hunting lodge and retreat from the formal court and occasionally a royal guest house. After the destruction by fire of Whitehall, the palace increased in importance during the reigns of the early Hanoverian monarchs but was displaced by Buckingham Palace in the late 18th and the early 19th centuries. After decades of being used increasingly for only formal occasions, the move was formalised by Queen Victoria in 1837. The palace now houses a number of official offices, societies and collections, and all ambassadors and high commissioners to the United Kingdom are still accredited to the Court of St James's. The palace's Chapel Royal is still used for functions of the British royal family. The palace was mainly built between 1531 and 1536 in red-brick, and its architecture is primarily Tudor in style. The Queen's Chapel was added in 1620s, and Clarence House was built directly next to it in the 1820s. A fire in 1809 destroyed parts of the palace, including the monarch's private apartments, which were never replaced. Some 17th-century interiors survive, but most were remodelled in the 19th century.