Forbes House, Ham Common in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames was built in 1996 for Sean O'Brien who founded Telstar Records. It replaced an earlier house built in 1936 which in turn had replaced the original Georgian House. It was once the home of Claude Bowes-Lyon, Lord Glamis. [1]
The present Forbes House overlooking Ham Common is a brick-built mansion in the Queen Anne style using two colours of brick, reconstituted stone, and wide timber window surrounds. It was designed by the architect Julian Bicknell. The front door case was carved by Dick Reid. [2] [3]
In the 1770s much of the land round Ham Common was owned by Thomas Masson. He sold the Ham Common Estate in 1790 to Fountain North and it remained in the North family until 1862 when it was bought by Lady Meade. The house was occupied by Otto Bayer in 1780 and then by the Earl of Haddington, Earl of Edgcumbe, Viscount Torrington, Sir Nathaniel Peacocke. [4]
From 1828 the house was occupied by Colonel Gordon Elliot Forbes (1783–1870), the 3rd son of British Army general Gordon Forbes (1738–1828). His wife Eliza died in March 1836 and three of his youngest children died on the 19 November 1836 of measles. There is a memorial in St Andrew's church but they are buried in the family vault in St Peter's Church, Petersham. He died 9 June 1870.
In 1872 the house was bought by Harry Warren Scott (1833–1889) the son of Sir William Scott, 6th Baronet, of Ancrum, after his marriage in 1870. His wife Louisa Scott (1832–1918) had a daughter, Cecilia Nina (1862–1938), from her first marriage who in 1881 married Claude George Bowes-Lyon, Lord Glamis, at St Peter's Church, Petersham. They went on to have ten children. Their first child, Violet Hyacinth Bowes-Lyon (1882–1893), died of diphtheria at Forbes House; she is buried in St Andrew's churchyard. Their youngest daughter, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (1900–2002), the late Queen Mother, used to come and stay with her grandmother at Forbes House. [5] [1] [6]
Henry Warren Scott died on 23 August 1889 at Forbes House and is buried in St Andrew's church; [7] [8] his stepdaughters Violet Cavendish-Bentinck and Hyacinth Mary Jessup commissioned Sir Ninian Comper to create the memorial east window in St Andrew's church. [9] Hyacinth died at Forbes House in 1916 and is buried at St Andrew's church. [10] Eleanor Countess of Suffolk and Berkshire, the widow of Henry Howard, 18th Earl of Suffolk, died on 31 October 1928 at Forbes House. [11] The house was then occupied by Caroline Muriel Baird (1861–1932), the widow of William Baird (1848–1918), who died there; she had her portrait painted as a child by George Frederic Watts. [12] [13]
Mrs Winifred Buckley purchased the Georgian House in 1935. [14] It was demolished, to be replaced in 1936 with a new house designed by Oswald P. Milne in the Queen Anne style; [15] she died in 1937. [16] The house was then owned by Sir Francis Peek from 1938 until 1946. [17]
Lady Grace Dance (1877–1960), the widow of Sir George Dance (1857–1932), lived here in the 1940s. [18] George Dance, a dramatist and theatrical manager, was the owner and manager of Richmond Theatre from 1902. [19] In St Andrew's church there is a memorial stained-glass window by Warren Wilson to George Dance and his son Eric who died in a prison camp during the Second World War. [20] Lady Dance planned to sell the house in November 1949 to the Association of Engineering and Shipbuilding Draughtsmen to use as offices but the sale was refused by Surrey County Council who wanted it for an old people's home. The Council were offering less than the £26,000 that Lady Dance had paid for the house. [21] In February 1950 Surrey Council's Town and County Planning Committee approved the plans of the County Welfare Committee to turn Forbes House into a home for the aged. [22] In 1958 Craig House was built in the grounds facing Craig Road. The Friends of Forbes House and Craig House held an annual garden party. [23] The house was used as an old people's home until this closed in 1992. [24] [1]
The house appeared in the film Up the Junction (1968) as the Chelsea home of Polly (Suzy Kendall). [25]
The 1936 house was then bought by John Beckwith who demolished it in October 1992 before selling the site. [3] A new house, designed in the Queen Anne style by Julian Bicknell for Sean O'Brien who founded Telstar Records, was completed in 1996. [2]
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.
Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne is a title in the Peerage of Scotland and the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The earl is also Chief of Clan Lyon.
Claude George Bowes-Lyon, 14th and 1st Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne,, styled as Lord Glamis from 1865 to 1904, was a British peer and landowner who was the father of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and the maternal grandfather of Queen Elizabeth II.
Michael Fergus Bowes-Lyon, 18th and 5th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne,, styled Lord Glamis between 1972 and 1987, also known as Mikey Strathmore, was a British Conservative politician, Scots Guards officer and stockbroker. He was a first cousin once removed of Queen Elizabeth II.
Ham is a suburban district in Richmond, south-west London. It has meadows adjoining the River Thames where the Thames Path National Trail also runs. Most of Ham is in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and, chiefly, within the ward of Ham, Petersham and Richmond Riverside; the rest is in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames. The district has modest convenience shops and amenities, including a petrol station and several pubs, but its commerce is subsidiary to the nearby regional-level economic centre of Kingston upon Thames.
Cecilia Nina Bowes-Lyon, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne was the mother of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and maternal grandmother and godmother of Queen Elizabeth II.
Caroline Louisa Cavendish-Bentinck was the maternal grandmother of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and a great-grandmother of Queen Elizabeth II.
Ormeley Lodge is a Grade II* listed early 18th-century Georgian house, set in 6 acres (2 ha) on the edge of Ham Common, near to Richmond Park in Ham, London. It is owned by Lady Annabel Goldsmith.
St Peter's Church is the parish church of the village of Petersham in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is part of the Diocese of Southwark in the Church of England. The main body of the church building dates from the 16th century, although parts of the chancel date from the 13th century, and evidence in Domesday Book suggests that there may have been a church on the site in Saxon times. Nikolaus Pevsner and Bridget Cherry describe it as a "church of uncommon charm... [whose] interior is well preserved in its pre-Victorian state". The church, which is Grade II* listed, includes Georgian box pews, a two-decker pulpit made in 1796, and a relief of the royal arms of the House of Hanover, installed in 1810. Its classical organ was installed at the south end in late 2009 by the Swiss builders Manufacture d'Orgues St Martin of Neuchâtel, and a separate parish room was added in 2018. Many notable people are buried in the churchyard, which includes some Grade II-listed tombs.
The Cassel Hospital is a psychiatric facility in a Grade II listed building at 1 Ham Common, Richmond, Ham in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is run by the West London NHS Trust.
St John the Divine, Richmond, in the Anglican Diocese of Southwark, is a Grade II listed church on Kew Road, in Richmond, London, near Richmond railway station. Built in 1836, and a parish in its own right since 1838, it was designed by Lewis Vulliamy in the Early Gothic Revival architectural style.
Sudbrook Park in Petersham was developed by John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll in the early 18th century. Sudbrook House, designed for Argyll by James Gibbs and now Grade I listed by Historic England, is considered a fine example of Palladian architecture. The house and its surrounding park have been the home of the Richmond Golf Club since 1891.
St Andrew's Church, Ham, is a Grade II listed Church of England church on Church Road, Ham Common in Ham in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.
St Thomas Aquinas Church, Ham is a Roman Catholic church on Ham Street on the western corner of Ham Common, Ham, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. The church is a former 19th-century school building, acquired in 1968 and converted for worship and community use.
Ham Common is an area of common land in Ham, London. It is a conservation area in, and managed by, the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It comprises 48.69 hectares, the second largest area of common land in the borough, 2 acres (0.81 ha) smaller than Barnes Common. It is divided into two distinct habitats, grassland and woodland, separated by the A307, Upper Ham Road. It is an area of ecological, historical and recreational interest, designated a Local Nature Reserve.
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.
Sir Lyonel Felix Carteret Eugene Tollemache, 4th Baronet was an English landowner.
Langham House is a Grade II-listed house facing Ham Common in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It was built in about 1709 and former home of several notable residents.
The Lyons family is an eminent Anglo-Norman family descended from Ingelram de Lyons, Lord of Lyons, who arrived in England with the Norman Conquest, and from his relation, Nicholas de Lyons, who emigrated from Normandy to England in 1080 and was granted lands at Warkworth, Northamptonshire by William of Normandy. The family originated in the district of the Forest of Lyons, north of the town of Lyons-la-Forêt, in Haute Normandie, where their seat was the Castle of Lyons. The original surname was 'de Lyons' : subsequently, the 'de' was removed from the name, and some branches removed the 's' from the end of the word, producing 'Lyon'.
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