NO ELECTRIC LIGHT

Evening Star, Issue 22723, 10 August 1937, Page 2

NO ELECTRIC LIGHT

YEARS STAND STILL AT APSLEY HOUSE In these days, when even small dwellings are equipped with modern lighting systems and other appointments it is interesting, and perhaps surprising to learn, that in London there is yet a residence in which the centuries have stood still. Apsley House, the residence of the Duke of Wellington at Hyde Park Corner, has a value of probably a million pounds, but still there is no electric light. Apsley House was purchased by the great Duke of Wellington out of the £750,000 presented to him by a grateful nation. Gas and • candles are still the only illuminants used. In the grand gallery the huge crystal chandeliers are fitted with gas jets. They replaced candles back in the days of the Crimean War. Chromium-plated fittings for bathrooms have never been thought of in Apsley House. There are just two tiny bathrooms, constructed many, many years ago, which remain in their original form. One bathroom is for the nso of the servants, the other for the family. ; Long years’ ago, too, another improvement was effected: a service lift was fitted to carry food from the kitchens to the dining hall. It saved the servants long walks. The lift is operated to-day as. on the first day it was introduced —by means of a rope hauled over a wheel. Accommodation is limited. Sleeping apartments seem to have been almost entirely overlooked when the house was built in 1785-86. For the family there are only five bedrooms. There are more rooms for the servants. Nor is there any modern furniture in the house. Practically every article is' of the Empire period, and was originally owned by the Iron Duke, or early Victorian. Most of the rooms are as they were when the Iron Duke lived there after Waterloo. There is a museum in the house, reputed to contain more than one ton of gold ornaments, gifts to the first duke by admirers from all over Europe. A staff of about eight servants “ live in.” The house is visited occasionally by the present duke, who prefers Strathsfieldsaye House, his country residence in Berkshire. A London newspaper representative, asked a member of the duke’s family why it was that no modern improve ments had been attempted at Apsley House, and the reply was; “The house is certainly not a convenient one for a •family to live in, and in these days of high taxation and general expenses, the cost -of makinfc. iinpro vements and modernising the place .have to be con-sidered,’--A '' ‘