15 Cheyne Walk is a Grade II* listed house on Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London, built in 1718. [1] It was originally known as Carlton House. [2] It is considered to be a replica of 4 Cheyne Walk. [3]
Notable former residents include the landscape painter Cecil Gordon Lawson, the engraver Henry Thomas Ryall, the Allason family, well known for their political and literary influence, and the Baron and Baroness Courtney of Penwith.
When built, it would have been directly on the waterfront, and thus approachable by boat. With the building of Chelsea Embankment, it is now set some way back from the river, but it still has no buildings interrupting the view of the River Thames. It is a four-storey red-brick building with four windows on each floor at the front. The building is Grade II* listed but with a minimal description. [1]
The first person to live there was Admiral Sir John Balchen (then a captain), who lived there until his death at sea in 1744, aside from two periods in 1724 and 1725–28, when it was rented out to Captain Reginald RN and then to Captain Leonard Wynn RN. [3]
On Balchen's death the house passed to his son-in-law Commodore Temple West (later vice-admiral), who had married Balchen's daughter Frances. The Temple-Wests lived there until 1755, two years before West's death in 1757. [3]
In 1861, Henry Thomas Ryall was living there with his wife Georgina, niece and two servants. [4]
In 1871, Cecil Gordon Lawson (1849–1882), the landscape painter was living there with his parents (a number of his works still hang there), William Lawson of Edinburgh, a well-regarded portrait painter, and his wife also known for her flower pieces, along with his two older brothers Francis Wilfrid Lawson (1842–1935), a "historical painter and designer" and Malcolm Leonard Lawson (1847–1918), a "professor of music". [5]
In 1918, Baron Courtney of Penwith was living there at the time of his death. [6] Courtney was a member of Gladstone's second administration from 1880 to 1883 and served as Chairman of Ways and Means (Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons) from 1886 to 1893.
In 1919, the now widowed Lady Courtney hosted the first meeting of the Fight the Famine Committee at 15 Cheyne Walk. The Save the Children Fund was to develop from that committee. [7]
In 2002, as a "wreck in need of renovation" it was for sale for £5 million. [2]
For about 40 years prior to 2002, it had been home to Lieutenant-Colonel James Allason MP, the Conservative Party politician, then his wife Nuala Allason (they divorced in 1974) and their son, fellow former Tory MP Rupert Allason, who also writes spy novels using the pen name Nigel West. [2]
The empty house had subsequently been used as a location for the 2002 film The Gathering Storm , about Winston Churchill's wilderness years. It was used as the home of Churchill's friend Sir Desmond Morton, played by Jim Broadbent. [2]
Samuel Bamford was an English radical reformer and writer born in Middleton, Lancashire. He wrote on the subject of northern English dialect and wrote some of his better known verse in it.
Chelsea is an affluent area in west London, England, due south-west of Charing Cross by approximately 2.5 miles. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames and for postal purposes is part of the south-western postal area.
Cheyne Walk is an historic road in Chelsea, London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It runs parallel with the River Thames. Before the construction of Chelsea Embankment reduced the width of the Thames here, it fronted the river along its whole length.
Cecil Gordon Lawson was a British landscapist and illustrator.
Leonard Henry Courtney, 1st Baron Courtney of Penwith was a radical British politician, and an academic, who became famous after being advocate of proportional representation in Parliament and acting as an opponent of imperialism and militarism.
Carlyle's House, in Cheyne Row, Chelsea, central London, was the home of the Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher Thomas Carlyle and his wife Jane from 1834 until his death. The home of these writers was purchased by public subscription and placed in the care of the Carlyle's House Memorial Trust in 1895. They opened the house to the public and maintained it until 1936, when control of the property was assumed by the National Trust, inspired by co-founder Octavia Hill's earlier pledge of support for the house. It became a Grade II listed building in 1954 and is open to the public as a historic house museum.
Henry Thomas Ryall was an English line, stipple and mixed-method engraver and later used mixed mezzotint.
Lieutenant Colonel James Harry Allason, was a British Conservative Party politician, sportsman, and former military planner who worked with Lord Mountbatten and Winston Churchill. At the time of his death, he was the oldest living former member of the House of Commons.
Chelsea Old Church, also known as All Saints, is an Anglican church, on Old Church Street, Chelsea, London SW3, England, near Albert Bridge. It is the church for a parish in the Diocese of London, part of the Church of England. Inside the Grade I listed building, there is seating for 400 people. There is a memorial plaque to the author Henry James (1843–1916) who lived nearby on Cheyne Walk, and was buried in Cambridge, Massachusetts. To the west of the church is a small public garden containing a sculpture by Sir Jacob Epstein.
Lindsey House is a Grade II* listed villa in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London. It is owned by the National Trust but tenanted and only open by special arrangement.
Ladbroke Square is a garden square in Notting Hill, west London, England.
William Hunt Painter was an English botanist who made a significant contribution to the science of Derbyshire vascular plant flora. He was a keen and wide-ranging collector of plant specimens, and was a member of the Botanical Exchange Club. In 1889 he published the first in a series of four books, all by different authors and spanning 120 years, all called The Flora of Derbyshire.
Catherine "Kate" Courtney, Baroness Courtney of Penwith was a British social worker and internationalist. Active in charitable organisations in her early life, she later campaigned with her husband Leonard Courtney to end the Second Boer War and the First World War. She sought to bring attention to the plight of citizens of the enemy nations and was denounced as being overly sympathetic to the enemy during both wars.
5 Cheyne Walk is a Grade II* listed house on Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London, built in 1718.
6 Cheyne Walk is a Grade II* listed house on Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London, built in 1718.
4 Cheyne Walk is a Grade II* listed house on Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London, built in 1718 and architecturally in the Queen Anne style. There is a blue plaque noting that the novelist George Eliot lived there until her death. In 2015, it was acquired by former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Oakley Street is in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London. It runs roughly north to south from King's Road to the crossroads with Cheyne Walk and the River Thames, where it continues as the Albert Bridge and Albert Bridge Road. The street was named after Baron Cadogan of Oakley.
Brigadier General Walter Allason, was an award-winning swimmer, diver, and a senior officer of the British Army during the First World War.
Isabella Claude Potbury was a portrait painter, a member of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) and a militant suffragette who was arrested several times and imprisoned during which she was force-fed. She was awarded the Hunger Strike Medal by the leadership of the WSPU.