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Historic Buildings of Middlesex
England
now mostly part of Greater London, with small sections in neighbouring counties.
Image right - Tower of London as seen from the Shard
Image by © Hilarmont (Kempten), CC BY-SA 3.0 de, WIKI
The object of this project is to provide information about historic buildings in the county of Middlesex, with links to sub-projects for specific buildings as appropriate. GENi profiles of people associated with those establishments can be linked to this project and/or to individual projects where they have been set up.
See Historic Buildings of Britain and Ireland - Main Page
If you have information about any of the Buildings mentioned below please share it here. If you have ancestors linked to any of the places please add them to the project.
Royal Palaces & Residences
Other Palaces
● Fulham Palace is a remarkable place, the estate was owned by the Bishops of London for over 1500 years and the Palace was their country home from at least the 11th century.
Abbeys and Priories
● Syon Abbey - a medieval monastery of the Bridgettine Order, founded in 1415 on a site near Syon Park House by King Henry V. The Abbey moved to the site now occupied by Syon Park House in 1431. It was one of the wealthiest nunneries in the country and a local legend recalls that the monks of Sheen had a Ley tunnel running to the nunnery at Syon. In 1539, the abbey was closed by royal agents during the Dissolution of the Monasteries and the monastic community was expelled.
Historic houses in alphabetical order
Including Manor Houses, Mansions, Stately Homes, Country houses, Estate houses, Courts, Halls, Parks and other listed buildings of historic interest
Full sizes of the thumbnail images can be seen in the Gallery attached to the project or by clicking the thumbnail image. TIP - Use ctrl+the link to open the image in a separate tab, or use "back" to return to this project page) Sources for the images can be found in the image details as seen in the gallery.
Names with Bold links are to Geni profiles or projects. Other links take you to external biographical web pages. Please copy and paste the bullet used - ● - instead of * when adding items to the list.
A
● Apsley House Death place of Catherine Sarah Dorothea Pakenham in 1835 who was the wife of Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
● Ashburnham House see Westminster & Palace of Westminster
● Avery Hill House a palatial dwelling built by John Thomas North who had made his fortune in the sodium nitrate trade.[2] Following North's death the house was acquired by the London County Council and its grounds extended to create Avery Hill Park in 1903.[3] North's House became Avery Hill College and is owned by the University of Greenwich, although currently up for sale[4]
B
● Bridgewater House, Westminster see Westminster & Palace of Westminster
● Buckingham House, Pall Mall (See Buckingham Palace.) The 2nd Duke of Buckingham, through his mother Anna was descended from the House of Plantagenet and was an active member of the Royal Buckinghamshire Yeomanry. His support of which added to the debts of £1,464,959 he had accrued by 1845. He was called the Greatest Debtor in the world.[6] The Duke left to live abroad in August 1847 to escape his creditors. That year saw the sale of the family's London home Buckingham House[7] in Pall Mall. In March 1848 the family estates in Ireland, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Cornwall, Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire & Middlesex some 36,000 acres (15,000 ha) of land, were sold. Followed by the most valuable of the paintings, furniture and other art works at Stowe, over 21,000 bottles of wine and over 500 of spirits in the wine cellars below the Marble Saloon, were all sold from 15 August to 7 October 1848 by Christie's. The auction was held in The State Dining Room, but only raised £75,400.[8] At the end of the sales the estate had contract to the core 10,000 acres (4,000 ha) in Buckinghamshire. The garden staff were cut from 40 to 4.
C
● Camelford House see Mayfair, London
● Canons Park "Canons" refers to the canons or monks of the Augustinian priory of St Bartholomew in Smithfield, London, who owned the manor of Stanmore before the Reformation. Canons Park is largely located on the site of Cannons, a magnificent early 18th-century country estate built between 1713–25, by James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos. A few years after the Duke's death in 1744 the big house was demolished and the estate was divided and sold in parcels; the last, the original house-site, transformed into ambitious Edwardian gardens then put on the market in 1929, was bought by the North London Collegiate School in 1929 for the sum of £17,500. Although the original Cannons mansion no longer exists, the later building on the site, erected by the gentleman cabinet-maker William Hallett in 1760, now houses the School. A large portion of the original gardens of the Cannons estate now form the public pleasure gardens of Canons Park. The modern park includes the Memorial Gardens, a folly known as 'the Temple' (not to be confused with a different folly of the same name within the North London Collegiate School grounds) and an orchard. Canons Drive, follows the original path of the entrance to the Cannons estate, retaining the two large pillars which acted as gateposts where it met the Edgware Road. The remains of a second, raised, carriageway running from Cannons can be traced through Canons Park in the direction of Whitchurch Lane. A 7-acre (28,000 m2) lake and separate duck pond also formed part of the original Cannons Estate and survive within the boundaries of the Canons Drive residential area.
● Chandos House is a grade I listed building at no.2 Queen Anne Street, Marylebone, in central London. It was designed by Robert Adam, the most prominent architect in Georgian Britain, and built by William Adam and Company. It is seen as the first of a series of large townhouses in London including 20 St. James's Square and Derby House. The house was built speculatively with monies from the Adam family and from the banker Sir George Colebrooke, later to be an Adam client himself. It was started in 1769 and finished in 1771 on a plot between another Adam house to the west, and the garden wall of Foley House to the east, on land which was part of the Duke of Portland's estate. The facade is of Craigleith stone, perhaps as an advert for the quarry to the west of Edinburgh on which the Adam brothers' firm had recently taken a lease. In 1813 the house was still home to Anna Eliza Brydges, Duchess of Chandos, whom the 3rd Duke had married as his second wife in 1777. However, following the sudden death of the Duke in 1789, the Duchess was declared a lunatic. As a consequence she was confined to the house and lost control of her estates. In May 1815 the unexpired portion of the lease (51 years) was sold by her executors and purchased by the Austrian embassy. The first resident ambassador was Prince Esterházy, and for the next 25 years Chandos was the scene of entertainment on the most lavish scale. Contemporary newspapers record his wasteful splendour and oriental pomp. Eventually his extravagance proved his ruin. He left the embassy in 1842 and was succeeded by Baron Neumann. In 1866 the Austrian embassy moved to Belgravia where it now houses the Embassy of Austria.
● Charlton House - see Kent
● Chatham House the Royal Institute of International Affairs, is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation based in London whose mission is to analyse and promote the understanding of major international issues and current affairs. It is the originator of the Chatham House Rule. It takes its name from its premises, a Grade I listed 18th-century house in St. James's Square designed in part by Henry Flitcroft and occupied by three British prime ministers, including William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham.
● Chessington Hall see Surrey
● Chesterfield House see Mayfair London
● Clementi House - the London home of Muzio Clementi (1752-1832), composer, pianist, and ‘Father of the Pianoforte’, in the words of the composer’s plaque in Westminster Abbey (where he is buried), during the second and third decades of the 19th century.
● Crewe House 28, Charles Street, is a detached mansion built by Edward Shepherd in 1730.[16] It has been listed as Grade II● since 24 February 1958
● Crosby Place See: Old Chelsea
● Croydon Palace Formerly Surrey
● Cumberland House was a mansion on the south side of Pall Mall in London, England. It was built in the 1760s by Matthew Brettingham for Prince Edward, Duke of York and Albany and was originally called York House. The Duke of York died in 1767 aged just twenty eight and the house was taken over by Prince Henry, Duke of Cumberland and Strathearn, whose name it has retained. Brettingham's house was in a late Palladian style. It was seven bays wide with three main storeys plus basement and attics and was built of brick with stone dressings. The Duke of Cumberland made various alterations. He built a projecting west wing on the site of a neighbouring house that he purchased and added a pair of lodges flanking the forecourt, probably all to designs by Robert Adam. Adam also made many designs for remodelling the interiors, which are now in the collection at the Sir John Soane's Museum, but only a few of them were carried out. The house was sold to the Union Club in 1801 and in 1806 it was purchased by the Board of Ordnance. From 1858 it housed the War Office. An eastern counterpart to the west wing was added in 1809. Cumberland House was used by the government for just over a hundred years. The War Office also acquired several neighbouring houses, including Schomberg House, and knocked them together to form a large office complex. Cumberland House was demolished in stages between 1908 and 1911. The site is now occupied by the Royal Automobile Club.
D
● Danson House, Bexley, formerly Kent
● Debenham House (or Peacock House) at 8 Addison Road is a large detached house in the Holland Park district of Kensington and Chelsea, W14. Built in the Arts and Crafts style by the architect Halsey Ricardo, it is a Grade I listed building.[1] The house was designed in 1905 for department store owner Ernest Ridley Debenham.[2] Debenham had previously lived in another house designed by Halsey, at 57 Melbury Road in Holland Park.[2] The house only became known as Debenham House after it was sold on Sir Ernest's death. The building is currently owned by Ford Motor Company through Blue Oval Holdings Limited. The exterior of Debenham House is Italianate, while the interior style is Arts and Crafts. It is richly coloured everywhere. The main parts of exterior are clad in variegated Royal Doulton Carrara ware with inset panels faced with green and blue Burmantofts bricks. Ricardo was an advocate of ‘structural polychromy’. The glazed materials were also intended to resist the aging effects of the polluted London air. Critic Jonathan Meades has described the house as "structurally stodgy – an alderman dressed as a hippy."[3] The interior contains tiles designed by William De Morgan, a mosaic dome painted by Gaetano Meo and ceilings painted by Ernest Gimson.[4] The domed hall, the central interior feature, has a first-floor gallery connecting the upstairs rooms. Decoration throughout the house is extraordinarily lavish. Mosaics depict members of the Debenham family as well as subjects from classical mythology. There are marble and tile fireplaces, stained glass designed by E. S. Prior and mahogany bookcases with Art Nouveau inlays in wood and mother of pearl. The light switches were specially designed and made by the Birmingham Guild of Handicraft.[3] The interior were featured prominently in Iain Softley's The Wings of the Dove (1997 film). The exterior of the house was used in the film Secret Ceremony, directed by Joseph Losey. Elizabeth Taylor's character Leonora resided at the house in the film.[5] Debenham House has also featured in the television series What the Butler Saw and Spooks.[4] The house was also used as the filming location of Agatha Christie's Poirot Lord Edgeware Dies and Cards on the Table.
● Dennis Severs' House in Folgate Street is a "still-life drama" created by the previous owner as an "historical imagination" of what life would have been like inside for a family of Huguenot silk weavers.[1][2] It is a Grade II listed Georgian terraced house in Spitalfields, London, England. From 1979 to 1999 it was lived in by Dennis Severs, who gradually recreated the rooms as a time capsule in the style of former centuries. It is now open to the public.
● Devonshire House, Battersea is a Grade II● listed building at 44 Vicarage Crescent, Battersea, London. It dates from the early 18th century.
● Down House Formerly Kent
● Dover House Dover House was designed by James Paine for Sir Matthew Fetherstonhaugh, Bart., MP, in the 1750s and remodelled by Henry Flitcroft, as "Montagu House", for George Montagu, created 1st Duke of Montagu, who had removed from Bloomsbury. It was refurbished once again, by Henry Holland for HRH The Prince Frederick, Duke of York, from 1788 to 1792. The building belonged to the Melbourne family from 1793 to 1830. It has also been home to a French ambassador and Lady Caroline, with whom the romantic poet Lord Byron famously had an affair. Its most notable feature is an entrance hall in the form of a rotunda inserted into the former forecourt by Holland, which is a unique entrance to a London mansion. The last private owners were the family of the Whig politician George James Welbore Agar-Ellis, created (1831) Baron Dover, whose title it has retained.
● Dudley House see Mayfair, London
E
● Eagle House is a Queen Anne house built in the Dutch style. It is on London Road, Mitcham, in the London Borough of Merton, the grounds forming a triangle bounded by London Road, Bond Road and Western Road. The building dates back to 1705, having been commissioned by the Marrano doctor Fernando Mendes (1647–1724), former physician to Charles II, and in whose family it remained for three generations.[1] Following the death in 1821 of the last private occupant—the widow of City banker John Bond—the property was converted into a private boarding school for young gentlemen[2] (presumably nearby Bond Road reflects the Bond connection). In the early days of the Holborn Union Industrial Schools, built in the northern part of the estate, it served as the school infirmary. In 1933, the building was bought by the Surrey County Council, for the care of 'mentally deficient girls'. Since 2005, the building has been a school for children and young people with autism.
● Eastbury Manor House Formerly Essex
● Essex House was a house that fronted the Strand in London. Originally called Leicester House, it was built around 1575 for Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, and was renamed Essex House after being inherited by his stepson, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, after Leicester's death in 1588. The property occupied the site where the Outer Temple, part of the London headquarters of the Knights Templar, had previously stood, and was immediately adjacent to the Middle Temple, then one of the four principal Inns of Court.[1] The house was substantial; in 1590, it was recorded as having 42 bedrooms, plus a picture gallery, kitchens, outhouses, a banqueting suite and a chapel. Essex’s mother, Lettice Knollys, leased out the house for a while, but she moved in later with her new husband, Sir Christopher Blount, as well as her son and his family. After the executions of Blount and Essex in 1601, she continued to live there until her death, leasing part of the house to James Hay, the first Earl of Carlisle. The house then became the property of Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, who leased part of it to his brother-in-law, William Seymour, 1st Marquess of Hertford. After the English Civil War, the family lost ownership as a result of their debts. Following the Restoration and the death of William Seymour, Sir Orlando Bridgeman lived in the house for a time. When the Duchess of Somerset died in 1674, she left the house to her granddaughter, whose husband, Sir Thomas Thynne, sold it, along with the adjoining lands and properties. The main part of the house was demolished some time between 1674 and 1679. Essex Street was built on part of the site.
F
● Fenton Houseis a 17th-century merchant's house in Hampstead in North London which belongs to the National Trust, bequeathed to them in 1952 by Lady Binning, its last owner and resident. It is a detached house with a walled garden, which is large by London standards, and features roses, an orchard and a working kitchen garden. The interior houses the Benton Fletcher collection of early keyboard instruments, some of which are often played for visitors during operational hours, and collections of paintings (including the collection of Peter Barkworth, and loans of' Sir William Nicholson paintings), porcelain, 17th-century needlework pictures and Georgian furniture. It also has fine portraits of Dorothea Jordan, William IV, George IV, Frederick FitzClarence and Adolphus Fitzclarence - one of Jordan's daughters by William IV lived in the house.
● Freud Museum in London is a museum dedicated to Sigmund Freud, who lived there with his family during the last year of his life. In 1938, after escaping Nazi annexation of Austria he came to London via Paris and stayed for a short while at 39 Elsworthy Road before moving to 20 Maresfield Gardens, where the museum is situated. Although he died a year later in the same house, his daughter Anna Freud continued to stay there until her death in 1982. It was her wish that after her death it be converted into a museum. It was opened to the public in July 1986.
G
● Garden Corner see Old Chelsea
● Grim's Dyke (sometimes called Graeme's Dyke until late 1891)[1] is the name of a house and estate in Harrow Weald, in northwest London, England. The house was built from 1870 to 1872 by Richard Norman Shaw for painter Frederick Goodall and named after the nearby prehistoric earthwork known as Grim's Ditch.
The house is best known as the home of the dramatist W.S. Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan, who lived and farmed there for the last two decades of his life. He died while attempting to save a girl from drowning in his lake. Lady Gilbert lived there until her death in 1936. The statue of Charles II now found in Soho Square stood on the property from about 1880 to 1938. The house was then used as a rehabilitation centre until 1963. From 1963, the house was used mainly as a location for films and television including Futtocks End with Ronnie Barker. It was converted into Grim's Dyke Hotel in 1970, but continues to be used as a film location. The hotel retains 30 of the original 110 acres of land that Gilbert purchased with the house.
● Grosvenor House see Mayfair, London
● Grovelands Park The mansion, which was initially called 'Southgate Grove', was built in 1797-98 to the designs of John Nash for Walker Gray, a Quaker brewer. The grounds were landscaped by Humphry Repton. In 1816 the building was described as being "a regular building of Ionic order, and presents a fine example of that beautiful style".[1] Lucinda Lambton has called the building an "idiosyncratically flounced, classical villa", and mentions that the owner bought much of the parkland to avoid the sight of other people's chimneys. She goes on to describe the interior: "Inside, there survives one of the most delicate delights in all London: Nash's octagonal dining-room, painted as if you are in a bamboo birdcage, looking our through the bars at the fields, woods and sky."[2] After Gray's death the property was acquired by John Donnithorne Taylor (also connected to the Taylor Walker & Co Brewery), whose family continued to live at Grovelands up to World War I.[citation needed] Part of the estate was purchased by the Municipal Borough of Southgate in 1913 to become a public park. The house is part of the Priory Clinic. In 1998, General Pinochet was held under house arrest initially in Grovelands House while a patient at the Priory Clinic
H
● Hall Place Formerly Kent
● Ham House Formerly Surrey
● Harcourt House Cavendish Square, London. Death place of Simon Harcourt, 1st Viscount Harcourt, of Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire, PC
● Hare Hall Formerly Essex
● Hertford House Manchester Square, Marylebone, London Home of the world famous Wallace Collection.
● Home House is a Georgian town house at 20 Portman Square, London.[1] James Wyatt was appointed to design it by Elizabeth, Countess of Home in 1776, but by 1777 he had been dismissed and replaced by Robert Adam. Elizabeth left the completed house on her death in 1784 to her nephew William Gale, who in turn left it to one of his aunts, Mrs Walsh, in 1785. Its later occupants included the Marquis de la Luzerne during his time as French ambassador to the Court of St. James's (1788 to 1791), the 4th Duke of Atholl (1798 to 1808), the Duke of Newcastle (1820 to 1861), Sir Francis Henry Goldsmid (1862 to 1919), and Lord and Lady Islington (1919 to 1926). In 1926 it was leased by Samuel Courtauld to house his growing art collection. On his wife's death in 1931, he gave the house and the collection to the fledgling Courtauld Institute of Art (which he had played a major part in founding), as temporary accommodation. That accommodation was not forthcoming, and the Institute remained in the building until 1989, when it moved to its present home of Somerset House. Home House was appointed a Grade I listed building in 1954.[1] Home House then remained vacant for seven years, until it was acquired by Berkeley Adam Ltd. They kept it until 2004, when it passed to its present owners, who use it as a private members' club.
I
J
K
● Kelmscott House is a Georgian brick mansion at 26 Upper Mall in Hammersmith, overlooking the River Thames. It was the London home of English textile designer, artist, writer and socialist William Morris from April 1879 until his death in October 1896. Originally called The Retreat, Morris renamed it after the Oxfordshire village of Kelmscott where he had lived at Kelmscott Manor from June 1871. Nearby, Morris began his "adventure in printing" with his private press, the Kelmscott Press, which he started nearby at 16 Upper Mall in 1891. The property was once owned by Sir Francis Ronalds. In 1816, he built the first electric telegraph in its garden.[1] From 1867, then called The Retreat, it was the family home of poet, minister and novelist George MacDonald[1] who wrote two of his most popular children's books, At the Back of the North Wind (1871) and The Princess and the Goblin (1873), there.
● Kneller Hall takes its name from Sir Godfrey Kneller, court painter to British monarchs from Charles II to George I. Today it houses the Royal Military School of Music, training musicians for the British Army’s 22 military bands, having been acquired by the Army in the mid-19th century. It is also home to the school's Museum of Army Music. The current building is the third house constructed on this site. The first was built by Edmund Cooke between 1635 and 1646 and in 1664 was the fourth largest house in Twickenham.[1] After being purchased by Sir Godfrey Kneller in 1709 this was demolished and replaced by a new building (reputedly designed by Sir Christopher Wren). Originally known as Whitton Hall, it was renamed Kneller Hall by Kneller’s widow after his death. In 1757, the house was sold to Sir Samuel Prime, a prominent London lawyer, who, with his son of the same name, extended it significantly and landscaped the grounds. After Samuel Prime junior died in 1813, the hall was sold to Charles Calvert, Whig MP for Southwark from 1812–1832. He further expanded the house (to designs by architect Philip Hardwick), adding drawing rooms at the east and west ends of the building.
L
● Lauderdale House is an arts and education centre based in Waterlow Park, Highgate in north London, England. As an arts centre, it runs an extensive programme of performances, workshops, outreach projects and exhibitions. Lauderdale House was one of the finest country houses in Highgate and was originally built in 1582 with a timber frame. In 1645 it was inherited by the Earl of Lauderdale (hence its name) and in 1666 it was visited by Charles II and Samuel Pepys, while Nell Gwyn is said to have lived there briefly in 1670. It was converted to a neoclassical style in 1760, and John Wesley preached here in 1782, and in 1882 the then owner, Sir Sydney Waterlow, the famous printer, donated it 'for the enjoyment of Londoners'.
● Leicester Square (incl. Leicester House)
● Lichfield House was reputedly designed by Christopher Wren; built for George Nevill, 1st Earl of Abergavenny, it later became the palace for the Bishop of Lichfield. Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1837–1915), novelist, lived at Lichfield House from 1901 and died there.[2] The house and grounds were acquired in 1933 by George Broadbridge and redeveloped into the present two blocks of flats.Designed by Bertram Carter and built in fine Streamline Moderne style, it was completed in 1935.
● Lindsey House See: Old Chelsea
● Little Holland House was the dower house of Holland House in Kensington, England.[1] It was at one point occupied by Charles Richard Fox and his wife, Lady Mary Fox, daughter of King William IV. Henry Thoby Prinsep, a director of East India Company family, gained a 21-year lease on it from Henry Fox, 4th Baron Holland thanks to the painter George Frederic Watts, a friend of both the Hollands and the Prinseps. Watts, the Prinseps and Henry's sisters-in-law such as Julia Margaret Cameron lived, worked and entertained here for 21 years, making it the centre of their salon. When the lease expired in 1871, the Prinseps moved out and the Hollands demolished the building. Thobey Prinsep then leased a large plot of land on Melbury Road (abutting the estate of Lord Leighton) from the Earl of Ilchester, part of which he gave to Watts. On his plot, Watts had Frederick Cockerell build New Little Holland House, in which he lived from 1876 until his death in 1904.[2] The house was destroyed in a bombing raid during World War II
● Londonderry House see Mayfair, London
● Lowther Lodge South Kensington>Built by William Lowther (1821-1912) who bought land in Kensington and erected Lowther Lodge, an exemplar of Queen Anne Style architecture. The cost was partly defrayed by a bequest from his uncle William Lowther, 2nd Earl of Lonsdale, who died in 1872. He and his wife lived there until his death in 1912. Premises of The Royal Geographical Society Designed by Richard Norman Shaw and built between approximately 1872 and 1875.
M
● Malplaquet House is a Grade II listed Georgian house at 137–139 Mile End Road, Stepney, London. The four-storey house was built as one of three in 1742 by Thomas Andrews; only two of the houses survive to the present day.[1][2] A wealthy Jewish widow was the first occupier of the house, with the brewer Harry Charrington living there from 1794 to 1833 (Charrington Brewery had offices in the Mile End Road). Charrington greatly altered the house, and following his occupancy the house was subdivided, and shops built on the front garden.[2] Malplaquet House is named after the Battle of Malplaquet, one of the main battles of the War of the Spanish Succession, which took place in France in 1709. However, it is not known whether this naming came from the Jewish widow of the London merchant, who made his living selling war salvage, or from a later resident, the military surgeon Edward Lee.[3] During the rest of the 19th century, the house played host to a variety of small businesses including a bookmaker and a printer, before being occupied in 1910 by the Union of Stepney Ratepayers.[2] The Stepney union remained in the house until 1975. During their occupation, Malplaquet House was further subdivided and additions made to its structure. Malplaquet House was damaged during the London Blitz, but repairs began in 1951 after a £100 donation from the War Damage Association.[2] The architect Richard Seifert provided new shop fronts for the house.[2] Malplaquet House was badly degraded by the 1990s, and the intervention of the Spitalfields Trust helped save it from potential demolition.[2] In 1998, Tim Knox, former director of Sir John Soane's Museum, now director of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, and landscape gardener Todd Longstaffe-Gowan purchased the house from the Spitalfields Trust for £250,000. It had been uninhabited for over a century.[1] Knox and Longstaffe-Gowan's collections of objet d'art and esoteric objects, obtained from Portobello Market, auctions and flea markets, expanded to fill Malplaquet House.[2][3] In 2010, it was described by The Daily Telegraph as "possibly the most superbly restored, privately owned Georgian house in the country
● Montagu House, 22,Portman Square was a historic London house. Occupying a site at the northwest corner of the square, in the angle between Gloucester Place and Upper Berkeley Street, it was built for Mrs Elizabeth Montagu, a wealthy widow and patroness of the arts, to the design of the neoclassicist architect James Stuart. Construction began in 1777 and the house was completed in 1781, whereupon it became Mrs Montagu's London residence until her death on 25 August 1800. The house was destroyed by an incendiary bomb in the Blitz of London and the site is now occupied by the Radisson SAS Portman Hotel.
● Montagu House, Whitehall See Westminster & Palace of Westminster
N
● Norfolk House at 31 St James's Square, London, was built in 1722 for the Duke of Norfolk. It was a royal residence for a short time only, when Frederick, Prince of Wales, father of King George III, lived there 1737-1741, after his marriage in 1736 to Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, daughter of Frederick II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha. King George III was born in the house, which was offered to the royal couple by the 9th Duke of Norfolk. The family moved to Leicester House in 1742, and it was to remain the prince’s home until his death nine years later, and that of his widow until her death in 1764. The original Norfolk House remained in the ownership of the Dukes of Norfolk until 1938 when it was pulled down, and the site became an office building. During the Second World War this building served as offices for senior officers from a variety of Allied armed forces, including the Canadian 1st Army and the Supreme headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force under General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Two plaques on the exterior of the building acknowledge the role of the building in the War. Today the 1930s building on the site is occupied by offices, the interior having been fully refitted in recent years. Parts of the interior of the eighteenth-century house survive, having been removed before demolition, including the Music Room, designed by Giovanni Battista Borra for the ninth Duke's wife Mary. Having been in storage, the room is now displayed in the Victoria and Albert Museum, restored and redecorated to its original scheme of brilliant white paintwork with gilt, carved woodwork.
● Northumberland House (Suffolk House)
O
● Old Rectory, Wimbledon (formerly Surrey)
● Ormonde House(see: St. James Park)
P
● Pembroke House, Whitehall was the London residence of the earls of Pembroke. It was built by the architect earl Henry Herbert in 1723–24 (under Colen Campbell and latterly his assistant Roger Morris), on ground leased by the earl in 1717 and 1729 amidst the ruins of the parts of Whitehall Palace that burned down in 1698 (and still covered in its rubble). Its design inspired the 9th earl's designs for Marble Hill House. The 9th earl died here in 1733, as did his great-grandson the 11th Earl, in 1827. It was the subject of a major rebuild by the 10th Earl in 1756–59, and in 1762 Lady Hervey wrote that it was "taken for the Duc de Nivernois, the French Ambassador". Gardens were created in 1818 by demolishing the house's riding-house and stables, and the main floor-level terrace (including the portion over the water-gate) was retained. The lease was repeatedly renewed (passing to the Earl of Harrington) until in or around 1853, when the land and house became crown freehold
● Pope's villa ‘Alexander Pope's Villa’, Twickenham (built c. 1845,by Henry Edward Kendall Jr. & demolished 1808/09) Now the site of St. Catharine's School some former pupils include: Dirk Bogarde,Olivia Hallinan,Patsy Kensit,Bonnie Langford, Clemency Hallinan, Linda Brava, Yashini Doonga, Loren Mensah
● Powis House was an 18th-century mansion in London, England. It stood on the northern side of Great Ormond Street, not far from Queen Square. The first version of Powis House was built in the 1690s for William Herbert, 2nd Marquess of Powis. No drawings of this version survive. At some point it was let for use as the French embassy, and on 26 January 1713 it burned to the ground. Jonathan Swift attributed this event to "the carelessness of the rascally French servants". A replacement house was soon built. It had three main storeys above an arched basement and was 104 feet (32 metres) wide. The subtle but lively façade featured Corinthian pilasters and a phoenix above the front door. The architect is unknown, but may have been French. The staircase walls were painted by the Venetian painter of the rococo, Giacomo Amiconi. Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke leased the house in the mid 18th century and from 1764 to 1783 it was the Spanish embassy. However, the locality was rapidly falling from favour with the aristocracy, making the demise of the house more or less inevitable, and by the end of the 18th century it had been demolished. There is now a small access street to Great Ormond Street Hospital called Powis Place.
Q
● Queensberry House See Mayfair, London
R
● Raine's House was built in 1719, and founded as a charity school by Henry Raine (1679–1738),[1] who had made a large sum of money from selling alcohol. As a devout Christian, he felt that he should be philanthropic, and decided to found a school where poor children could get a free education. This school was built in the neighborhood where he lived and he named it "the Lower School". It originally accommodated 50 boys and 50 girls.[2] In recent years, this building has been used as a community center, and as offices of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. The original school moved, and is now called the Raine's Foundation School, on Approach Road, Bethnal Green.
● Red House (formerly Kent)
● Ruskin House (formerly Surrey)
● Rutland House on Aldersgate Street, near Charterhouse Square in the City of London, close to Smithfield Market, was leased by the playwright and impresario Sir William Davenant (1606–1668). In 1656, freshly released from imprisonment, Davenant turned a room of the house into what was, at first, a private theatre performing his own plays. Soon the performances were advertised and semi-open to the public at a cost of 5 shillings a head, a figure that ensured that only persons of quality would be able to attend. The reason for Rutland House being used rather than a conventional theatre was to overcome the laws of censorship which operated in all public places following the closures of all public theatres by the Puritan government of Oliver Cromwell. The house seems to have been not totally suitable for theatrical use; however, a low narrow hall, or salon, at the rear of the house was adapted for the performances. Rather than sitting in comfort, the audience had to sit on improvised benches, and so confined was the space available that the benches had to be arranged at an angle to the small stage to accommodate the large audiences who came. The small stage, described by Davenant as a "Cup-board stage", was adorned with gold and purple curtains. Above the stage in what was contemporarily described as a "louver hole" was concealed a small orchestra.
Davenant had seen Italian opera sung in Paris; this inspired him to conceive a cunning plan: as the Puritan government had no objection to music, only drama, he obtained permission to stage a performance of his opera The Siege of Rhodes, to be sung in "recitative music". Thus, the first English opera was performed at Rutland House in May 1656 , simultaneously overcoming the prohibition of drama. The Rutland House production also included England's first professional actress, Mrs. Coleman [1] and was later transferred to the Cockpit Theatre in Drury Lane.[2] Davenant established at least two other "private performance houses" in Lincoln's Inn Fields and Drury Lane. After Davenant opened more conventional theatres, he continued to use Rutland House to preview new productions, to gauge audience reaction.
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● Seaford House originally called Sefton House, is an aristocratic mansion in London, England. It is the largest of the three detached houses which occupy three corners of Belgrave Square in the district of Belgravia.[1] Seaford House is a white stucco building with four main stories. Dated 1842, it was designed by Philip Hardwick for the Earl of Sefton.[2] It is a Grade II● listed building. In 1902, Sefton House was remodeled for Lord Howard de Walden, who was also Baron Seaford. It was at this time that it became known as Seaford House. Howard de Walden had a marble staircase, friezes and paneling installed.[3] It is now the home of Royal College of Defence Studies, and is usually open to the public free of charge on Open House Weekend each September. Seaford House stood in as the exterior of the home of Maggie Gyllenhaal's character Nessa Stein in the BBC and SundanceTV television miniseries The Honourable Woman in 2014.
● Sir Thomas Gresham's House Sir Thomas Gresham (1518-1579) built his London Mansion House, Gresham House in Bishopsgate, in collegiate form. In his Will, Gresham House and the Royal Exchange were left to the City Corporation and the Worshipful Company of Mercers.
● Southside House is a 17th-century house located on the south side of Wimbledon Common. (grid reference TQ2370) It is Grade II listed[1] The house was built for Robert Pennington, who had shared Charles II's exile in Holland. In 1687 after losing his son to the Bubonic Plague, Pennington left London for Holme Farm, Wimbledon, which at that time was a separate village several miles from the capital. Pennington commissioned Dutch architects to build the house, incorporating an existing farmhouse into the design. Two niches either side of the front door contain statues of Plenty and Spring, they are said to bear the likenesses of Pennington's wife and daughter. Inside, the house contains many examples of 17th century furniture, and memorabilia connected to the Pennington family. The house's musick room was prepared for the entertainment of Frederick, Prince of Wales, who visited in 1750. Later visitors to the house were Sir William Hamilton and Emma, Lady Hamilton, together with Lord Nelson. Lord Byron talked in the gardens with his publisher, John Murray (second of that name), while generations later, Axel Munthe talked in the same gardens with his publisher, John Murray (fourth or fifth of that name). The house passed through the Pennington-Mellor family, eventually coming into the possession of Malcolm Munthe, the son of Hilda Pennington-Mellor and Axel Munthe. During the Second World War Southside House was damaged by German bombs, and Malcolm Munthe spent much of his later life restoring the house and another family property, Hellens to pristine historic condition. Southside House is still run by Robert Pennington's descendants today, serving partly as a residence but also as a museum, administered by the Pennington-Mellor-Munthe Charity Trust, and hosting tour groups as well as cultural events such as lectures, concerts, and literary discussions.
● Spencer House - built 1756-66 for John, first Earl Spencer, an ancestor of Diana, Princess of Wales (1961-97).
● Stratford House see Westminster & Palace of Westminster
● Streatham Park The area takes its name from a Georgian country mansion built by the brewer Ralph Thrale. Streatham Park later passed to Ralph's son Henry Thrale, who with his wife Hester Thrale entertained many of the leading literary and artistic characters of the day, most notably the lexicographer Samuel Johnson, who was fond of a summer house in the grounds.Former residents and guests of Streatham Park, or "Streathamites", include many notable 18th century people: Samuel Johnson, David Garrick, Arthur Murphy, Joshua Reynolds, William Seward, James Boswell, Oliver Goldsmith, Giuseppe Marc'Antonio Baretti, Edmund Burke, Edwin Sandys, William Henry Lyttelton, Sir Robert Chambers, Charles Burney and Frances Burney, along with James and Hester Thrale.[1] The dining room contained 12 portraits of Henry's guests painted by Reynolds. These pictures were wittily labelled by Frances Burney as the Streatham Worthies.
Streatham Park was later leased to the Prime Minister Lord Shelburne, and was the venue of the negotiated peace with France in 1783. The Streatham Park mansion was demolished in 1863 and the estate and adjacent fields were laid out for suburban development. Although much of the area was destroyed by bombing in World War II and redeveloped by the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth as council housing in the 1950s, both the avenues of trees of the Georgian estate and much of the Victorian era tree planting survive, and the area is now a conservation area. The remaining pre-war buildings include Dixcote (8 North Drive), a rare urban example of a house by the Arts and Crafts architect Charles Voysey.[2] A plaque erected by the Streatham Society on one of the small modern houses marks the site of the Streatham Park mansion.[3]
● Sutton House Originally known as 'Bryck Place', Sutton House was built in 1535 by Sir Ralph Sadleir, Principal Secretary of State to Henry VIII, and is the oldest residential building in Hackney. It is a rare example of a red brick building from the Tudor period. Sutton House became home to a succession of merchants, sea captains, Huguenot silk-weavers, Victorian schoolmistresses and Edwardian clergy. The frontage was modified in the Georgian period, but the core remains an essentially Tudor building. Oak panelled rooms, including a rare 'linen fold' room, Tudor windows and carved fireplaces survive intact, and an exhibition tells the history of the house and its former occupants. At the turn of the 18th century, Hackney was renowned for its many schools, and Sutton House contained a boys' school, with headmaster Dr Burnet, which was attended in 1818 by the novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton. The building next became Milford House girls' school.[1] The name is a mis-attribution to Thomas Sutton, founder of Charterhouse School, who was another notable Hackney resident, in the adjacent Tan House. This was demolished in 1806 to allow for the extension of Sutton Place, a terrace of 16 Georgian Houses (Grade II listed). Sutton House was bought by the National Trust in the 1930s with the proceeds of a bequest. During World War II it was used as a centre for Fire Wardens, who kept watch from the roof. From the 1960s it was rented by the ASTMS Union, led by its charismatic general secretary Clive Jenkins. When the union left in the early 1980s, the house fell into disrepair.
● Syon Park House West London. In 1541 and part of the following year, Henry VIII's fifth wife, Catherine Howard, was brought to Syon for her long imprisonment. In February 1542, she was taken to the Tower of London and executed on charges of adultery. Five years later when King Henry VIII died, his coffin was brought to Syon on its way to be buried in Windsor. Syon became the property of the Crown for a short time before coming into the possession of the Edward Seymour 1st Duke of Somerset. He then had Syon built in the Italian Renaissance style before his death in 1552. Syon then was acquired by Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland, in 1594 and has remained in his family ever since. In the late 17th century, Syon was in the possession of Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, through his wife, Elizabeth Seymour (née Percy).
T
● Thatched House Lodge The residence was originally built as two houses in 1673 for two Richmond Park Keepers, as Aldridge Lodge. It was enlarged, possibly by William Kent,[8] in 1727 as a home for Sir Robert Walpole.[8] The two houses were joined in 1771 by Sir John Soane and renamed Thatched House Lodge. It had also been known as Burkitt's Lodge.[1] The house was used as a grace and favour residence by various members of the Royal Household including General Sir Edward Bowater,[9] and General Lynedoch Gardiner, respectively equerry to the Albert, Prince Consort and to Queen Victoria. Sir Frederick Treves, 1st Baronet retired to the house after he successfully operated on King Edward VII's appendix in 1902. Edward VII awarded use of the house to Sir Edmund Monson on his retirement from Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service in 1905.[10] Thatched House Lodge ceased to be a grace and favour property in 1927.[7] Thatched House Lodge was the home of Wing Commander Sir Louis Greig (equerry to King George VI when he was Duke of York), who was deputy Ranger of Richmond Park from 1932. It was then acquired by the 5th Duke of Sutherland. U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was allotted a suite there during the Second World War. Since 1963 Thatched House Lodge has been the residence of Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy (born Princess Alexandra of Kent)[3] [4] and, until his death in 2004, her husband Sir Angus Ogilvy.
● Two Temple Place known for many years as Astor House - late Victorian mansion built by William Waldorf Astor it has become one of London's most prestigious venues for corporate and private entertaining.
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W
● Wanstead House Essex
● Wesley's House Francis ("Frank") Owen Salisbury,English artist who specialised in portraits, arranged and paid for the restoration of Wesley’s House in 1934 which restoration stood the test of time for sixty years
● Westminster & Palace of Westminster
● The Wick (Formerly Surrey)
● Wimbourne House Henry Pelham, Prime Minister between 1743–54, hired William Kent to design the house located at 22 Arlington Street in two phases. The original construction began simultaneously with his elevation as prime minister[1] and continued even after the 1748 death of the architect Kent.[2] When Kent died, the work was completed by Stephen Wright.[3] In the 18th century, Arlington Street, was not only fashionable, but was known as the 'ministerial street'. Pelham's neighbours included Robert Walpole at No. 5, Lord Tyrconnel, the Duchess of Norfolk and his enemy Lord Carteret, later Earl Granville. The decoration and construction of the house was completed in early 1754, but Pelham died suddenly on 6[4] March, 1754[5] The house was then occupied by Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Gower, who would later become Marquess of Stafford. Leveson-Gower resided at 22 Arlington while the house he was having built by architect Sir William Chambers was being completed and he was followed by another Prime Minister Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton.[4] In 1774, Henry Pelham-Clinton, Earl of Lincoln took possession of his family's home and began renovations, which continued until his death in 1778.[6] The first owner of the house known in the 19th century was Marquess Camden John Jeffreys Pratt. In the year of his death, 1840, Marquess Camden sold the house to Major Henry Somerset, 7th Duke of Beaufort, who had served in the Peninsular War as an aide-de-camp to the Duke of Wellington.[7] When the Duke of Beaufort bought the house he renamed the house after his title and during his residency it was known as "Beaufort House." He hired architect Owen Jones, who had studied the Alhambra to embellish the interiors and expended enormous sums refurbishing the interior of the house. Beaufort sold the house a year before he died to William Hamilton, 11th Duke of Hamilton.[7] The Duke of Hamilton purchased the house in 1852 and promptly renamed the structure "Hamilton House". He purchased the house for £60,000 and lavished expenses on the house for approximately a decade, including installing iron firebacks with his coronet and motto. Upon his death, the house passed to his widow who sold it via auction in 1867 to Sir Ivor Bertie Guest, who was engaged to Lady Cornelia Spencer-Churchill, daughter of the 7th Duke of Marlborough. In 1880, the title Baron Wimborne was conveyed to Guest, who renamed the house as had been customary, to coincide with his title
● Woodlands House The building was built on a site leased in 1774 from Sir Gregory Page by John Julius Angerstein (a Lloyd's underwriter whose art collection was bought in 1824 to form the nucleus of the National Gallery, London). While Angerstein occupied a house in nearby Crooms Hill, Greenwich, the villa was constructed over the next two years to a design by local architect George Gibson[2] and was completed in the summer of 1776. It was described in Daniel Lysons' The Environs of London (1796):
Woodlands, the seat of John Julius Angerstein, Esq. (between East-Combe and West-Combe), occupies a situation uncommonly beautiful. The surrounding scenery is very picturesque; and the distant view of the river, and the Essex shore, is broken with good effect by the plantations near the house. The grounds were laid out, and the house built about the year 1772, by the present proprietor, who has a small but valuable collection of pictures; among which Sir Joshua Reynolds's celebrated portrait of Garrick between Tragedy and Comedy, the Venus, a well known picture, by the same artist; a fine portrait of Rubens, by Vandyke; and a very beautiful landscape, with cattle, by Cuyp, claim particular notice. The greenhouse is to be remarked for its collection of heaths.
Angerstein extended Woodlands in the late 18th century, adding a west wing, conservatory, out-buildings and a stable and riding school (most of these were demolished after the sale of the Westcombe estates in 1876). After Angerstein's death in 1823, the property became the family home of his son John Angerstein (who was elected Liberal MP for Greenwich in 1835 and devoted much of his time to development of the Angerstein estates). In the late 1890s, the property was purchased by the shipbuilder Sir Alfred Fernandez Yarrow. It became the Yarrow family home and later, during the First World War, served as a hostel for Belgian refugees. In the 1920s, it was sold to a Catholic religious order, the Little Sisters of the Assumption, for use as a convent.
X-Y-Z
● York House, St. James's Palace is a historic wing of St James's Palace, London, built for Frederick, Prince of Wales on his marriage in 1736. It is in the north-western part of the palace on the site of a former suttling-house (canteen) for the Guards; it overlooks Ambassadors' Court and Cleveland Row to the west of the old Chapel Royal. Prince Frederick occupied it for about a year, until his quarrel with the his father drove him from Court. In 1795, Princess Caroline resided here before her marriage with the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV. Prince Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, subsequently King of Hanover, lived here for a great many years; and the Duchess of Cambridge was identified with it from 1851 until her death in 1889. Later occupants included the future George V and Princes Charles, William and Harry, who used it before moving to Clarence House.[1] As Edward, Prince of Wales, the future Edward VIII lived at York House, before his refurbishment of Fort Belvedere in Windsor Great Park.[2] The plan of the building is as follows: a suite of somewhat low-pitched rooms on the ground-floor, several drawing-rooms on the first floor, a corridor in the rear, and the servants' rooms on the top story; all facing Cleveland Row. The ceilings of the top floor are low; height having been sacrificed to that of the drawing-room floor, during the nineteenth century a common practice in London mansions. The appellation York House has been applied at various times to other houses occupied by various Dukes of York, including those now known as Cumberland House, Dover House, Lancaster House and The Albany.
References and Sources
Middlesex Specific
- http://www.hha.org.uk/stately-homes-castles-and-gardens-to-visit-in... Stately homes, castles and gardens to visit in London]
General
- Stravaiging.com
- Secret Scotland
- Canmore
- Historic Scotland
- National Trust
- English Heritage
- WIKI List of country houses in the UK
- Britain's Finest
- Britain Express
- Lankdmark Trust
- Historic Houses Association - represents 1,500 houses in the UK
- Hudson's Historic Houses and Gardens - UK - guidebook of over 2,000 houses open to the public
- The DiCamillo Companion to British & Irish Country Houses - database of over 7,000 houses
- Lost Heritage - A Memorial to the Lost Country Houses of England - list of over 1,700 houses
- National Trust for Historic Preservation - online database of historic houses in the United States
- Historic Houses Association
- [http://www.hha.org.uk/ HHA
- WIKI Treasure Houses of England
- List of country houses in the United Kingdom
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