Buckingham Palace

===First houses on the site (1624–1761)===
[[File:Buckingham House 1710.jpeg|thumb|upright=1.2|Engraving of Buckingham House, {{c.|1710}}]]
Possibly the first house erected within the site was that of William Blake, around 1624.<ref>Wright, p. 83.</ref> The next owner was [[George Goring, 1st Earl of Norwich]], who from 1633 extended Blake's house, which came to be known as Goring House, and developed much of today's garden, then known as Goring Great Garden.<ref>Goring, Chapter V</ref><ref name="Harris, p.21">Harris, p. 21.</ref> He did not, however, obtain the freehold interest in the mulberry garden. Unbeknown to Goring, in 1640 the document "failed to pass the [[Great Seal of the Realm|Great Seal]] before [[Charles I of England|Charles I]] fled London, which it needed to do for legal execution".<ref>Wright, p. 96.</ref> It was this critical omission that would help the British royal family regain the freehold under [[George III]].<ref>Goring, p. 62.</ref> When the improvident Goring defaulted on his rents,<ref>Goring, p. 58.</ref> [[Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington]] was able to purchase the lease of Goring House and he was occupying it when it burned down in 1674,<ref name="Harris, p.21"/> following which he constructed Arlington House on the site – the location of the southern wing of today's palace – the next year.<ref name="Harris, p.21"/> In 1698, [[John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby|John Sheffield]] acquired the lease. He later became the first [[Duke of Buckingham and Normanby]].<ref name="who built">{{Cite web |title=Who built Buckingham Palace? |url=https://www.royalcollection.org.uk/visit/buckinghampalace/about/who-built-the-palace |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170624153126/https://www.royalcollection.org.uk/visit/buckinghampalace/about/who-built-the-palace |archive-date=24 June 2017 |access-date=8 March 2016 |publisher=Royal Collection Trust}}</ref> Buckingham House was built for Sheffield in 1703 to the design of [[William Winde]]. The style chosen was of a large, three-floored central block with two smaller flanking service wings.<ref name="harris22">Harris, p. 22.</ref> It was eventually sold by Buckingham's illegitimate son, [[Sir Charles Herbert Sheffield, 1st Baronet|Charles Sheffield]], in 1761<ref name="rob14">Robinson, p. 14.</ref> to George III for £21,000.<ref>Mackenzie, p. 12 and Nash, p. 18.</ref>{{efn|The purchase price is given by Wright p. 142 as £28,000.}} Sheffield's [[leasehold]] on the mulberry garden site, the freehold of which was still owned by the royal family, was due to expire in 1774.<ref>Mackenzie, p. 12.</ref>