Albany (London) - Naming Dispute

Naming Dispute

There has been dispute as to whether the name of the building is "Albany" or "the Albany." The rules adopted in 1804 laid down that "the Premises mentioned in the foregoing Articles shall be called Albany". However, 19th century sources refer to it as "the Albany," such as the play The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde which repeatedly refers to the character Jack Worthing's residence at "the Albany," and in Charles Dickens's novel Our Mutual Friend. Raffles, the gentleman thief in the stories by E. W. Hornung is referred to as living at "the Albany". Beginning in the early 20th century, "Albany" without the article again became the accepted usage, memorialised, for example, in the early 20th century novels of Dornford Yates, a careful observer of upper class manners. The historian Hugh Trevor-Roper, perhaps an even more careful observer of upper class manners than Yates, refers to the home of Macaulay as "the Albany". In the words of the English Heritage Survey of London, "the present resolute omission of the article seems to spring not so much from awareness of correct usage as from a sense, about the beginning of the 20th century, that 'the Albany' sounded 'like a publichouse'".

In a 1958 review of a book about the building, Peace in Piccadilly, The Times wrote, "Albany or the Albany? It has long been a snobbish test of intimate knowledge of the West End. If one was in use, a man could feel superior by using the other. When G. S. Street wrote The Ghosts of Piccadilly in 1907, he said that 'the Albany' was then 'universal', but that to the earliest tenants it was 'Albany'."