[edit] First houses on the site
[edit] Goring House
Possibly the first house erected within the site was that of a Sir William Blake, around 1624.[11] The next owner was Lord Goring, who from 1633 extended Blake's house and developed much of today's garden, then known as Goring Great Garden.[12][13] He did not, however, manage to obtain freehold interest in the mulberry garden. Unbeknown to Goring, in 1640 the document "failed to pass the Great Seal before King Charles I fled London, which it needed to do for legal execution".[14] (It was this critical omission that helped the British royal family regain the freehold under King George III.)[15]
[edit] Arlington House
Goring defaulted on his rents;[16] Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington obtained the mansion and was occupying it, now known as Goring House, when it burned down in 1674.[17] Arlington House rose on the site—the southern wing of today's palace—the next year,[18] and its freehold was bought in 1702.
[edit] Buckingham House
The house which forms the architectural core of the present palace was built for the first Duke of Buckingham and Normanby in 1703 to the design of William Winde. The style chosen was of a large, three-floored central block with two smaller flanking service wings.[19] Buckingham House was eventually sold by Buckingham's descendant, Sir Charles Sheffield, in 1761[2] to George III for £21,000.[20]
Like his grandfather, George II, George III refused to sell the mulberry garden interest, so that Sheffield had been unable to purchase the full freehold of the site. When Sheffield sold Buckingham House it came into the hands of the Royal Family.
[edit] From Queen's House to palace
The house was originally intended as a private retreat, and in particular for Queen Charlotte, and was known as The Queen's House[21]—14 of their 15 children were born there. St. James's Palace remained the official and ceremonial royal residence.[22]
Remodelling of the structure began in 1762.[23] After his accession to the throne in 1820, George IV continued the renovation with the idea in mind of a small, comfortable home. While the work was in progress, in 1826, the King decided to modify the house into a palace with the help of his architect John Nash.[24] Some furnishings were transferred from Carlton House, and others had been bought in France after the French Revolution.[25] The external facade was designed in the French neo-classical influence preferred by George IV. The cost of the renovations grew exponentially and by 1829, the extravagance of Nash's designs resulted in his removal as architect. On the death of George IV in 1830, his younger brother William IV hired Edward Blore to finish the work.[26][27] At one stage, William considered converting the palace into the new Houses of Parliament, after the destruction of the existing namesake by fire in 1834.[28]
