Apsley House

This stunning house, which contains exhibits devoted to the life and times of the Duke of Wellington, was once the first building to come into view when entering the city from the west and was therefore known as ‘No 1 London’. Still one of London’s finest but overlooking the nightmarish Hyde Park Corner roundabout, Apsley House was designed by Robert Adam for Baron Apsley in the late 18th century, but was later sold to the first Duke of Wellington, who cut Napoleon down to size in the Battle of Waterloo and lived here for 35 years until his death in 1852. In 1947 the house was given to the nation, which must have come as a surprise to the duke’s descendants who still live in a flat here; 10 of its rooms are open to the public and visited on a self-paced audio-guide tour. Wellington memorabilia, including the Iron Duke’s medals, some entertaining old cartoons and his death mask, fill the basement gallery, while there’s an astonishing collection of china, including some of his personal silverware, on the ground floor. The stairwell is dominated by Antonio Canova’s staggering 3.4m-high statue of a fig-leafed Napoleon, adjudged by the subject as ‘too athletic’. The 1st-floor Wellington Gallery contains paintings by Velasquez, Rubens, Van Dyck, Brueghel and Murillo, but the most interesting is Goya’s portrait of the duke, which some years ago was discovered to have the face of Napoleon’s brother, Joseph Bonaparte, beneath the duke’s. Apparently, the artist had taken a punt on Napoleon winning the Battle of Waterloo and had to do a quick ‘about face’ when news of Wellington’s victory arrived.