Northumberland House was a Jacobean mansion on Trafalgar Square belonging to the aristocratic Percy family. Built in 1605, it was one of the largest and last surviving of the row of stately townhouses which once lined the south side of the Strand, the road linking the City of London with the royal centre in Westminster. The house, named after the Duke of Northumberland title which the Percys held, occupied a prime site at the street’s western end where it backed onto the government buildings of Whitehall.

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