Burlington House is a building on Piccadilly in London. It was originally a private Palladian mansion, and was expanded in the mid-19th century after being purchased by the British government. The main building is at the northern end of the courtyard and houses the Royal Academy, while five learned societies occupy the two wings on the east and west sides of the courtyard and the Piccadilly wing at the southern end. These societies, collectively known as the Courtyard Societies are:
Geological Society of London is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with over 9,000 Fellows.
Linnean Society of London is the world’s premier society for the study and dissemination of taxonomy and natural history. It publishes a zoological journal, as well as botanical and biological journals.
Royal Astronomical Society bgean as the Astronomical Society of London in 1820 to support astronomical research (mainly carried on at the time by gentleman astronomers rather than professionals). It became the Royal Astronomical Society in 1831 on receiving its Royal Charter from William IV.
Society of Antiquaries of London is “charged by its Royal Charter of 1751 with ‘the encouragement, advancement and furtherance of the study and knowledge of the antiquities and history of this and other countries’.”
The house was one of the earliest of a number of very large private residences built on the north side of Piccadilly, previously a country lane, from the 1660s onwards. The first version was begun by Sir John Denham about 1664. It was a red-brick double-pile hip-roofed mansion with a recessed centre, typical of the style of the time, or perhaps even a little old fashioned. Denham may have acted as his own architect, or he may have employed Hugh May, who certainly became involved in the construction after the house was sold in an incomplete state in 1667 to Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Burlington, from whom it derives its name. Burlington had the house completed.
Burlington House is most familiar to the general public as the venue for the Royal Academy’s temporary art exhibitions. The courtyard of Burlington House is open to the public during the day. The Royal Academy’s public art exhibitions are staged in nineteenth-century additions to the main block which are of little architectural interest. However in 2004 the principal reception rooms on the piano nobile were opened to the public after restoration as the “John Madejski Fine Rooms”. They contain many of the principal works in the academy’s permanent collection, which predominantly features works by Royal Academicians, and small temporary exhibitions drawn from the collection. The east, west and Piccadilly wings are occupied by the learned societies, and are generally not open to the public.
