London - Wellington Museum / Apsley House

The Wellington Museum is in Apsley House, for many years the town house of the first Duke of Wellington (1769-1852). Apsley House was built by Robert Adam between 1771 and 1778 for Baron Apsley, later the second Earl of Bathurst, and was bought by Wellington after his victory at Waterloo. The Duke made many changes to the house: originally of red brick, it was refaced with Bath stone in 1828-29 by Benjamin Dean Wyatt, who also added the Corinthian portico and the famous Waterloo Gallery in which the Waterloo Banquet was held annually until the Duke's death. In 1947 Apsley House was presented to the nation by the Seventh Duke of Wellington, and in 1952 it was opened to the public as the Wellington Museum, a branch of the Victoria and Albert Museum. The house has recently undergone major refurbishment to restore it to its appearance during the time of the First Duke.

The house contains the First Duke's magnificent collections of paintings, including Velázquez's "Waterseller of Seville", ceramic and silver dinner and dessert services presented to him by the grateful kings and emperors of Europe, presentation plate, sculpture, orders and medals, swords and batons, and other Wellington memorabilia.

Some 83 of the 200 pictures in the collection come from the Spanish royal collection which Wellington captured from Joseph Bonaparte at the Battle of Victoria (1813) and which subsequently were presented to him by the King of Spain. Masterpieces by Velázquez, van Dyck, Correggio, Rubens, Bruegel and Murillo were in Joseph Bonaparte's baggage train. There are also Dutch genre paintings and contemporary British paintings including Wilkie's "Chelsea Pensioners Reading the Waterloo Despatch" and portraits of his comrades at arms and Napoleon and his family.