Cambridge House

Cambridge House is a grade I listed mansion on the northern side of Piccadilly (Number 94) in central London, England. It was built for Charles Wyndham, 2nd Earl of Egremont, by architect Matthew Brettingham in 1756-1761. It was initially known as Egremont House. The house is in a late Palladian style. It has three main storeys plus basement and attics and is seven bays wide. As is usual in a London mansion of the period the first floor (second floor in American English) is the principal floor, containing a circuit of reception rooms. This floor has the highest ceilings and its status is emphasised externally by a Venetian window in the centre.

The house changed hands several times. For several years in the 1820s it was occupied by George Cholmondeley, 1st Marquess of Cholmondeley and known as Cholmondeley House. From 1829 to 1850 it was the London residence of Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, and became known as Cambridge House. Due to his royal status, that name has persisted.

After the Duke died in 1850, the house was purchased by Lord Palmerston, who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for most of the decade from 1855 to 1865. It was his London residence and the site of many splendid social and political gatherings. After Palmerston's death at Brocket Hall in Hertfordshire in 1865, his body was taken to Cambridge House from which his funeral procession departed to Westminster Abbey.

Shortly after Palmerston's death, Cambridge House was purchased by the Naval and Military Club, which had outgrown its previous premises. The Club came to be known as the "In and Out", from the prominent signs on the entrance and exit gates of 94 Piccadilly.

In 1999, the Club moved to new premises, having sold Cambridge House in 1996 to entrepreneur Simon Halabi for £50 million. Halabi planned to convert the property into a private members club and hotel, part of his Mentmore Towers project. Halabi had intended to place a swimming pool and squash courts underneath the forecourt of the house.

The project was halted in 2009, when Halabi's companies went into bankruptcy. Cambridge House and several adjacent buildings were offered for sale through property brokers Jones Lang Lasalle. However, no purchaser had been found as of August 2011.

The building has been vacant since the Naval and Military Club left in 1999, and has fallen into a state of disrepair. Plaster is falling off the ceiling in the first floor rooms, while many floorboards have been pulled up.

In 2012, the site was acquired by the Reuben brothers who plan a full refurbishment as a private residence.