Dover Street is notable for its Georgian architecture as well as the location of historic London clubs and hotels.
Dover Street was built by a syndicate of developers which had purchased a Piccadilly mansion called Clarendon House from Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albemarle in 1683. The house backed onto open fields - the development of the various estates in Mayfair was just getting underway. The syndicate, headed by Sir Thomas Bond, demolished the house and developed the area. The syndicate also built nearby Bond Street and Albemarle Street. The street is named after Henry Jermyn, 1st Baron Dover, one of the syndicate partners.
Brown’s Hotel was established in 1837 by James Brown (Lord Byron’s valet) who took a lease on 23 Dover Street to cater for those who were in town ’for the Season’. Brown ran it with his wife, Sarah Willis, the personal maid of Lady Byron. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell made the first successful telephone call in Britain from the hotel.
Frédéric Chopin lodged in Dover Street in 1848 when he performed a number of piano recitals in London.
Green Park Underground station was originally known as Dover Street station as the original Leslie Green-designed building was located in the street. Following work in the 1930s to install escalators, the entrance was moved to Piccadilly and the station renamed.
The street is historically and currently the location of a number of well-known London clubs and one fictional one - the Drones Club, the gentlemen’s club of many PG Wodehouse’s novels was located in Dover Street.
