Petersham is a village in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames on the east of the bend in the River Thames south of Richmond, which it shares with neighbouring Ham. It provides the foreground of the scenic view from Richmond Hill across Petersham Meadows, with Ham House further along the river. Other nearby places include Twickenham, Isleworth, Teddington, Mortlake, and Roehampton.
John Nash was one of the foremost British architects of the Georgian and Regency eras, during which he was responsible for the design, in the neoclassical and picturesque styles, of many important areas of London. His designs were financed by the Prince Regent and by the era's most successful property developer, James Burton. Nash also collaborated extensively with Burton's son, Decimus Burton.
The Regency era of British history is commonly understood as the years between c. 1795 and 1837, although the official regency for which it is named only spanned the years 1811 to 1820. King George III first suffered debilitating illness in the late 1780s, and relapsed into his final mental illness in 1810. By the Regency Act 1811, his eldest son George, Prince of Wales, was appointed Prince Regent to discharge royal functions. When George III died in 1820, the Prince Regent succeeded him as George IV. In terms of periodisation, the longer timespan is roughly the final third of the Georgian era (1714–1837), encompassing the last 25 years or so of George III's reign, including the official Regency, and the complete reigns of both George IV and his brother and successor William IV. It ends with the accession of Queen Victoria in June 1837 and is followed by the Victorian era (1837–1901).
Carlton House, sometimes Carlton Palace, was a mansion in Westminster, best known as the town residence of King George IV, particularly during the regency era and his time as prince regent. It faced the south side of Pall Mall, and its gardens abutted St James's Park in the St James's district of London. The location of the house, now replaced by Carlton House Terrace, was a main reason for the creation of John Nash's ceremonial route from St James's to Regent's Park via Regent Street, Portland Place and Park Square: Lower Regent Street and Waterloo Place were originally laid out to form the approach to its front entrance.
Pembroke Lodge is a Georgian two-storey large house in Richmond Park in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It sits on high ground with views across the Thames valley to Windsor, the Chilterns and hills in the Borough of Runnymede. It has 11 acres (4.5 ha) of landscaped grounds, including part of King Henry's Mound from which there is a protected view of St Paul's Cathedral in the City of London. The grounds also include memorials to the 18th-century poet James Thomson and the 20th-century rock-and-roll singer and lyricist Ian Dury.
Thatched House Lodge is a Grade II-listed building, dating from the 17th century, in Richmond Park in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in London, England. It was the home of British prime minister Sir Robert Walpole and, since 1963, has been a royal residence, being leased from the Crown Estate by Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy, and, until his death in 2004, her husband, Sir Angus Ogilvy.
The present Richmond Theatre, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, is a British Victorian theatre located on Little Green, adjacent to Richmond Green. It opened on 18 September 1899 with a performance of As You Like It. One of the finest surviving examples of the work of theatre architect Frank Matcham, the building, in red brick with buff terracotta, is listed Grade II* by Historic England. John Earl, writing in 1982, described it as "[o]f outstanding importance as the most completely preserved Matcham theatre in Greater London and one of his most satisfying interiors."
Events from the year 1717 in Great Britain.
St Anne's Church, Kew, is a parish church in Kew in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. The building, which dates from 1714 and is Grade II* listed, forms the central focus of Kew Green. The raised churchyard, which is on three sides of the church, has two Grade II* listed monuments – the tombs of the artists Johan Zoffany and Thomas Gainsborough. The French Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro (1830–1903), who stayed in 1892 at 10 Kew Green, portrayed St Anne's in his painting Church at Kew (1892).
The Royal Star and Garter Home on Richmond Hill, in Richmond, London, was built between 1921 and 1924 to a design by Sir Edwin Cooper, based on a plan produced by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in 1915, to provide accommodation and nursing facilities for 180 seriously injured servicemen.
St Mary Magdalene, Richmond, in the Anglican Diocese of Southwark, is a Grade II* listed parish church on Paradise Road, Richmond, London. The church, dedicated to Jesus' companion Mary Magdalene, was built in the early 16th century but has been greatly altered so that, apart from the tower, the visible parts of the church date from the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries.
All Saints' Church, Petersham, in Bute Avenue, Petersham, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, is a Grade II listed former church which is now used as a private residence.
Montrose House is a late 17th-century Grade II* listed building at 186 Petersham Road, Petersham in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.
Douglas House is a Grade II* listed early 18th-century Queen Anne-style house in Petersham in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is now the site of the German School London.
Christ Church is a former Church of England church on Kew Road in Richmond, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its architect was Arthur Blomfield who, thirty years earlier, had designed another Anglican church of the same name in neighbouring East Sheen.
David Guy Blomfield was leader of the Liberal Party group on Richmond upon Thames Council, a writer, a book editor and a local historian.
Penelope Brudenell, Countess of Cardigan, was the wife of Robert Brudenell, 6th Earl of Cardigan. She served as a Lady of the Bedchamber to Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, queen consort of King George III of the United Kingdom.
Cutts Barton (1706–1780) D.D. was an English cleric, Dean of Bristol from 1763 to 1780.
England: Richmond Hill, on the Prince Regent's Birthday is an 1819 painting by the English artist J. M. W. Turner. It was displayed at the 1819 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition at Somerset House, the largest work that Turner had yet presented. It depicts a real event on Richmond Hill hosted by Lady Cardigan at Cardigan House on 12 August 1817 to celebrate the birthday of the Prince Regent. Petersham Meadows by the bend in the River Thames is in the background. Just across the river in Twickenham was Turner's own house Sandycombe Lodge. Ham House is also visible in the distance. The work appears to show the Regent just off the canvas as several of the guests turn to look. Turner's biographer James Hamilton describes it as featuring "flighty Watteauesque figures, ideal evanescent trees, and a horizon so extended as to be unreal". It may have been an attempt to secure the Regent's patronage. He did subsequently receive his only royal commission for the naval painting The Battle of Trafalgar in 1822.
