Townhouse (Great Britain)
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In British usage, the term townhouse originally referred to the opulent town or city residence of a member of the nobility or gentry, as opposed to their country seat, generally known as a country hou
Spencer House in St James's, London, one of the last surviving true townhouses still owned by the noble family that built it, the Spencers, although it is now generally leased out commercially. The corresponding country house is Althorp in Northamptonshire.
Northumberland House by Canaletto, 1752. The Strand front of Northumberland House, the townhouse of the Dukes of Northumberland. Note the "Percy Lion" atop the central façade.
Devonshire House, Piccadilly, in 1896
Leicester House on Leicester Fields, 1748
Hôtel particulier
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Hôtel particulier is the French term for a grand urban mansion, comparable to a British townhouse. Whereas an ordinary maison was built as part of a row, sharing party walls with the houses on either
Townhouse (Great Britain)
…country house or, colloquially, for the larger ones, stately home. The grandest of the London townhouses were stand-alone buildings, comparable to the hôtel particulier, which notably housed the French nobleman in Paris, as well as to the urban domus of the nobiles of Ancient Rome, but many were terraced buildings…
The Hôtel de Soubise in Paris now houses part of the French National Archives.
Hôtel de Guénégaud in Paris
Hôtel Prouvost in Roubaix
Hôtel de Caumont in Aix-en-Provence