The Tower House

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The Tower House
Tower House, Kensington, January 2015 03.jpg
Location Holland Park, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, West London, England
Coordinates 51°29′59″N0°12′11″W / 51.4998°N 0.2031°W / 51.4998; -0.2031
Built1875–1881;142 years ago (1881)
Architect William Burges
Architectural style(s) Gothic Revival
Governing bodyPrivately owned
Listed Building – Grade I
Official nameThe Tower House [1]
Designated29 July 1949;74 years ago (1949-07-29) [1]
Reference no.1225632 [1]
Kensington and Chelsea London UK location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London

The Tower House, 29 Melbury Road, is a late-Victorian townhouse in the Holland Park district of Kensington and Chelsea, London, built by the architect and designer William Burges as his home. Designed between 1875 and 1881, in the French Gothic Revival style, it was described by the architectural historian J. Mordaunt Crook as "the most complete example of a medieval secular interior produced by the Gothic Revival, and the last". [2] The house is built of red brick, with Bath stone dressings and green roof slates from Cumbria, and has a distinctive cylindrical tower and conical roof. The ground floor contains a drawing room, a dining room and a library, while the first floor has two bedrooms and an armoury. Its exterior and the interior echo elements of Burges's earlier work, particularly Park House in Cardiff and Castell Coch. It was designated a Grade I listed building in 1949.

Contents

Burges bought the lease on the plot of land in 1875. The house was built by the Ashby Brothers, with interior decoration by members of Burges's long-standing team of craftsmen such as Thomas Nicholls and Henry Stacy Marks. By 1878 the house was largely complete, although interior decoration and the designing of numerous items of furniture and metalwork continued until Burges's death in 1881. The house was inherited by his brother-in-law, Richard Popplewell Pullan. It was later sold to Colonel T. H. Minshall and then, in 1933, to Colonel E. R. B. Graham. The poet John Betjeman inherited the remaining lease in 1962 but did not extend it. Following a period when the house stood empty and suffered vandalism, it was purchased and restored, first by Lady Jane Turnbull, later by the actor Richard Harris and then by the musician Jimmy Page.

The house retains most of its internal structural decoration, but much of the furniture, fittings and contents that Burges designed has been dispersed. Many items, including the Great Bookcase, the Zodiac settle, the Golden Bed and the Red Bed, are now in museums such as the Ashmolean in Oxford, the Higgins in Bedford and the Victoria and Albert in London, while others are in private collections.

Location and setting

The Tower House is on a corner of Melbury Road, just north of Kensington High Street, in the district of Holland Park. [3] It stands opposite Stavordvale Lodge and next to Woodland House, built for the artist Luke Fildes. [4] The development of Melbury Road in the grounds of Little Holland House created an art colony in Holland Park, the Holland Park Circle. [5] Its most prominent member, Frederic, Lord Leighton, lived at Leighton House, [6] 12 Holland Park Road, and at the time of Leighton's death in 1896 six Royal Academicians, as well as one associate member, were living in Holland Park Road and Melbury Road. [7]

History

Design, construction and craftsmanship, 1875–78

The Tower House in 1878 The Tower House 1878.jpg
The Tower House in 1878

In 1863, William Burges gained his first major architectural commission, Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral, Cork, at the age of 35. [8] In the following twelve years, his architecture, metalwork, jewellery, furniture and stained glass led his biographer, J. Mordaunt Crook to suggest that Burges rivaled Pugin as "the greatest art-architect of the Gothic Revival". [9] But by 1875, his short career was largely over. Although he worked to finalise earlier projects, he received no further major commissions, and the design, construction, decoration and furnishing of the Tower House occupied much of the last six years of his life. In December 1875, after rejecting plots in Victoria Road, Kensington and Bayswater, [10] Burges purchased the leasehold of the plot in Melbury Road from the Earl of Ilchester, the owner of the Holland Estate. The ground rent was £100 per annum. Initial drawings for the house had been undertaken in July 1875 and the final form was decided upon by the end of the year. [7] Building began in 1876, contracted to the Ashby Brothers of Kingsland Road at a cost of £6,000. [11]

At the Tower House Burges drew on his own "experience of twenty years learning, travelling and building", [12] and used many of the artists and craftsmen who had worked with him on earlier buildings. [7] An estimate book compiled by him, and now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, contains the names of the individuals and companies that worked at the house. [7] Thomas Nicholls was responsible for the stone carving, including the capitals, corbels and the chimneypieces. The mosaic and marble work was contracted to Burke and Company of Regent Street, while the decorative tiles were supplied by W. B. Simpson and Sons Ltd of the Strand. [7] John Ayres Hatfield crafted the bronze decorations on the doors, while the woodwork was the responsibility of John Walden of Covent Garden. [7] Henry Stacy Marks and Frederick Weekes were employed to decorate the walls with murals, and Campbell and Smith of Southampton Row had responsibility for most of the painted decoration. Marks painted birds above the frieze in the library, and the illustrations of famous lovers in the drawing room were by Weekes. They also painted the figures on the bookcases in the library. [13] The stained glass was by Saunders and Company of Long Acre, with initial designs by Horatio Walter Lonsdale. [7]

Burges to Graham, 1878–1962

Burges in 1875 Burges as Burges.jpg
Burges in 1875

Burges spent his first night at the house on 5 March 1878. [2] It provided a suitable backdrop for entertaining his range of friends, "the whole gamut of Pre-Raphaelite London." [14] His dogs, Dandie, Bogie and Pinkie, are immortalised in paintings on various pieces of furniture such as the Dog Cabinet and the foot of The Red Bed. [15] Burges displayed his extensive collection of armour in the armoury. [16] The decoration of his bedroom hints at another of his passions: a fondness for opium. Stylised poppies cover the panels of a cupboard which was set next to his bed. [2]

In 1881, after catching a chill while overseeing work at Cardiff, Burges returned, half paralysed, to the house where he lay dying for some three weeks. [2] [lower-alpha 1] Among his last visitors were Oscar Wilde and James Whistler. [2] Burges died in the Red Bed on 20 April 1881, just over three years after moving into the Tower House; he was 53 years old. [14] He was buried in West Norwood Cemetery. [2]

The lease on the house was inherited by Burges's brother-in-law, Richard Popplewell Pullan. Pullan completed some of Burges's unfinished projects and wrote two studies of his work. The lease was then purchased by Colonel T. H. Minshall, author of What to Do with Germany and Future Germany, and father of Merlin Minshall. [18] Minshall sold his lease to Colonel E. R. B. and Mrs. Graham in 1933. [19] The Tower House was designated a Grade I listed building on 29 July 1949. [1]

Betjeman to Turnbull, 1962–69

John Betjeman was a friend of the Grahams and was given the remaining two-year lease on the house, together with some of the furniture, on Mrs. Graham's death in 1962. [20] Betjeman, a champion of Victorian Gothic Revival architecture, was an early admirer of Burges. In 1957 the Tower House had featured in the fifth episode of his BBC television series, An Englishman's Castle. [21] In a radio interview of 1952 about Cardiff Castle Betjeman spoke of the architect and his foremost work: "a great brain has made this place. I don't see how anyone can fail to be impressed by its weird beauty ... awed into silence from the force of this Victorian dream of the Middle Ages." [20]

Because of a potential liability for £10,000 of renovation work upon the expiry of the lease, Betjeman considered the house too costly to maintain, and subsequently vacated it. [20] From 1962 to 1966, the house stood empty and suffered vandalism and neglect. A survey undertaken in January 1965 revealed that the exterior stonework was badly decayed, dry rot had eaten through the roof and the structural floor timbers, and the attics were infested with pigeons. Vandals had stripped the lead from the water tanks and had damaged the mirrors, fireplaces and carving work. [22] The most notable loss was the theft of the carved figure of Fame from the Dining Room chimneypiece. [23] Betjeman suggested that the owner's agents had deliberately refused to let the house, and allowed it to decline, intending to demolish it and redevelop the site. [24] Writing in Country Life in 1966, Charles Handley-Read took a different view saying that "the Ilchester Estate, upon which the house is situated, are anxious that it should be preserved and [have] entered into a long lease conditional upon the house being put into a state of good repair." [23] In March 1965, the Historic Buildings Council obtained a preservation order on the house, enabling the purchaser of the lease, Lady Jane Turnbull, daughter of William Grey, 9th Earl of Stamford, to initiate a programme of restoration the following July. [19] [22] These renovations were supported by grants of £4,000 from the Historic Buildings Council and £3,000 from the Greater London Council. The lease was sold in 1969. [19]

Harris and Page, 1969 onwards

Jimmy Page, who purchased the house in 1972 Jimmy Page at the Echo music award 2013.jpg
Jimmy Page, who purchased the house in 1972

The actor Richard Harris bought the lease for £75,000 in 1969 after discovering that the American entertainer Liberace had made an offer but had not put down a deposit. [25] Reading of the intended sale in the Evening Standard , Harris bought it the following day, [25] describing his purchase as the biggest gift he had ever given himself. [25] In his autobiography, the entertainer Danny La Rue recalled visiting the house with Liberace, writing, "It was a strange building and had eerie murals painted on the ceiling [...] I sensed evil". [26] Meeting La Rue later, Harris said he had found the house haunted by the ghosts of children from an orphanage that he believed had previously occupied the site and that he had placated them by buying them toys. [26] Harris employed the original decorators, Campbell Smith & Company Ltd., to carry out restoration, [27] using Burges's drawings from the Victoria and Albert Museum. [25]

Jimmy Page, the Led Zeppelin guitarist, bought the house from Harris in 1972 for £350,000, [28] outbidding the musician David Bowie. [19] Page, an enthusiast of Burges and for the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, commented in an interview in 2012: "I was still finding things 20 years after being there – a little beetle on the wall or something like that; it's Burges's attention to detail that is so fascinating." [29] In 2015, Page successfully challenged a planning application lodged by the pop star Robbie Williams, who had purchased the adjacent Woodland House in 2013 and planned extensive renovations. Page argued that the alterations, particularly the intended underground excavations, would threaten the structure of the Tower House. [30] Ongoing disagreements between Williams and Page over Williams' development plans continue to feature in Britain's press. [31] [32]

Architecture

Exterior and design

"The house was exactly as he (Burges) had made and furnished it –massive, learned, glittering, amazing [...] It was strange and barbarously splendid; none more than he could be minutely intimate with the thought of old art or more saturated with a passion for colour, sheen and mystery. Here were silver and jade, onyx and malachite, bronze and ivory, jewelled casements, rock crystal orbs, marble inland with precious metal; lustre iridescence and colour everywhere; vermillion and black, gold and emerald; everywhere device and symbolism, and a fusion of Eastern feeling with his style."

The architectural historian William Lethaby describing the Tower House [33]

The cultural historian Caroline Dakers wrote that the Tower House was a "pledge to the spirit of Gothic in an area given over to Queen Anne". [34] Burges loathed the Queen Anne style prevalent in Holland Park, writing that it: "like other fashions [...] will have its day, I do not call it Queen Anne art, for, unfortunately I see no art in it at all". [35] His inspirations were French Gothic domestic architecture of the thirteenth century [7] and more recent models drawn from the work of the 19th-century French architect Viollet-le-Duc. [7] Architectural historians Gavin Stamp and Colin Amery considered that the building "sums up Burges in miniature. Although clearly a redbrick suburban house, it is massive, picturesquely composed, with a prominent tourelle [lower-alpha 2] for the staircase which is surmounted by a conical roofed turret." [37] Burges's neighbour Luke Fildes described the house as a "model modern house of moderately large size in the 13th-century style built to show what may be done for 19th-century everyday wants". [34]

The house has an L-shaped plan, and the exterior is plain, of red brick, with Bath stone dressings and green roof slates from Cumberland. [34] With a floor plan of 2,500 square feet (230 m2), [38] Burges went about its construction on a grand scale. The architect R. Norman Shaw remarked that the concrete foundations were suitable "for a fortress". [39] This approach, combined with Burges's architectural skills and the minimum of exterior decoration, created a building that Crook described as "simple and massive". [38] Following his usual pattern, Burges re-worked many elements of earlier designs, adapting them as appropriate. The frontages come from the other townhouse he designed, Park House, Cardiff, then known as the McConnochie House after its owner, although they have been reversed, with the arcaded, street front from Park House forming the garden front of the Tower House. [40] The staircase is consigned to the conical tower, avoiding the error Burges made at the earlier house, where he placed the staircase in the middle of the hall. [38] The cylindrical tower and conical roof derive from Castell Coch, and the interiors are inspired from examples at Cardiff Castle. [35] [38] The house has two main floors, with a basement below and a garret above. [7] The ground floor contains a drawing room, a dining room and a library, while the first floor has two bedrooms and an armoury.

Plan

Plan of the Tower House, London.png
Plan of the house:
  • A – kitchen
  • B – library
  • C – drawing room
  • D – dining room
  • E – hall
  • F – main bedroom
  • G – armoury
  • H – bathroom
  • I – guest room
See also: Ground floor plan

Interior

The architectural writer Bridget Cherry wrote that "the sturdy exterior gives little hint of the fantasy [Burges] created inside", [41] interiors which the art historian and Burges scholar Charles Handley-Read described as "at once opulent, aggressive, obsessional, enchanting, their grandeur border[ing] on grandiloquence". [40] Each room has a complex iconographic scheme of decoration: in the hall it is Time; in the drawing room, Love; in Burges's bedroom, the Sea. Massive fireplaces with elaborate overmantels were carved and installed, described by Crook as "veritable altars of art [...] some of the most amazing pieces of decoration Burges ever designed". [42] Handley-Read considered that Burges's decorations were "unique, almost magical [and] quite unlike anything designed by his contemporaries". [40]

Ground floor

A Burges decanter, made in 1865, which was once used by him in the house BLW Decanter.jpg
A Burges decanter, made in 1865, which was once used by him in the house

A bronze-covered door, with relief panels depicting figures, opens onto the entrance hall. [7] In Burges's time the door had a letterbox, in the form of Mercury, the messenger of the gods. [43] The letterbox is now lost, but a contemporary copy is in the collection of The Higgins Art Gallery & Museum. [44] The porch contains a white marble seat and column, and on the floor is a mosaic of Pinkie, a favourite poodle of Burges. Cartooned by H. W. Lonsdale, it resembles the cave canem floor at Pompei. [45]

The interior centres on the double-height entrance hall, with the theme of Time. The painted ceiling depicts the astrological signs of the constellations, arranged in the positions they held when the house was first occupied. [7] A large stained glass window contains four female figures representing Dawn, Noon, Twilight and Night. A mosaic floor in the entrance hall contains a labyrinth design, with the centre depicting the myth of Theseus slaying the Minotaur. [46] The garden's entrance door, also covered in bronze, is decorated with a relief of the Madonna and Child. [7] As elsewhere, Burges incorporated earlier designs, the bronze doors echoing those at Cork Cathedral, [47] and the maze floor recalling an earlier ceiling at Burges's office at 15 Buckingham Street. [47] Emblems adorn the five doors on the ground floor, each one relevant to their respective room. [43] A flower marked the door to the garden, with the front door marked by a key. The library is indicated by an open book, the drawing or music room by musical instruments, and the dining room by a bowl and flask of wine. [39]

The library, its walls lined with bookcases, [48] features a sculptured mantelpiece resembling the Tower of Babel. The hooded chimneypiece represents the "dispersion of languages", with figures depicting Nimrod ruling over the elements of speech. [40] Two trumpeters represent the pronouns, a queen embodies the verb, a porter the noun, and numerous other gilded and painted figures are displayed. The ceiling is divided into eight compartments, with depictions of the six founders of law and philosophy: Moses, St. Paul, Luther, Mahomet, Aristotle and Justinian. [42] An illuminated alphabet frieze of architecture and the visual arts running around the bookcases completes the scheme, with the letters of the alphabet incorporated, including a letter "H" falling below the cornice. [42] Due to H-dropping being a social taboo in Victorian times, Handley-Read described it as the "most celebrated of all Burges's jokes". [49] Artists and craftsmen are featured at work on each lettered door of the bookcases that surround the room. [7] In a panel in one of the glazed doors which open onto the garden, Burges is shown standing in front of a model of the Tower House. [50] He features as Architect, the 'A' forming the first letter of the alphabet frieze. Both the Architecture Cabinet and the Great Bookcase stood in this room. [51] The stained glass windows in the room represent painting, architecture and sculpture, and were painted by Weekes.

The dining room Tower House dining room.jpg
The dining room

On the wall opposite the library fireplace is an opening into the drawing room. Inside there are three stained glass windows which are set in ornamented marble linings. [7] Opposite the windows stood the Zodiac Settle, [52] which Burges moved from Buckingham Street. Love is the central decorative scheme to the room, [7] with the ceiling painted with medieval cupids, and the walls covered with mythical lovers. [48] Carved figures from the Roman de la Rose decorate the chimneypiece, [7] which Crook considered "one of the most glorious that Burges and Nicholls ever produced". [53] Echoing Crook, Charles Handley-Read wrote, "Working together, Burges and Nicholls had transposed a poem into sculpture with a delicacy that is very nearly musical. The Roman de la Rose has come to life." [54]

The dining room is devoted to Geoffrey Chaucer's The House of Fame and the art of story-telling, Crook explaining that "tall stories are part of the dining room rite". [55] The hooded chimneypiece, of Devonshire marble, contained a bronze figure above the fireplace representing the Goddess of Fame; [55] its hands and face were made of ivory, with sapphires for eyes. It was later stolen. [23] [56] The tiles on the walls depict fairy stories, including Reynard the Fox , Jack and the Beanstalk and Little Red Riding Hood . [lower-alpha 3] The room also shows Burges's innovative use of materials: Handley-Read observed that the Victorians had "a horror of food smells" [49] and therefore the room was constructed using materials that did not absorb odours and could be washed. The walls are covered with Devonshire marble, surmounted by glazed picture tiles, [43] while the ceiling is of sheet metal. [49] The ceiling is divided into coffered compartments by square beams and features symbols of the Sun, the planets and the signs of the Zodiac. [56] Burges designed most of the cutlery and plates used in this room, which display his skills as a designer of metalwork, including the claret jug and Cat Cup chosen by Lord and Lady Bute as mementoes from Burges's collection after his death. [57] The panels of the wine cupboard were decorated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. [53]

First floor and garret

Burges's bedroom The Bedroom of William Burges.jpg
Burges's bedroom
Guest bedroom Guest bedroom, Tower House.jpg
Guest bedroom

The windows of the stair turret represent "the Storming of the Castle of Love". [7] On the first floor are two bedrooms and an armoury. Burges's bedroom, with a theme of sea creatures, overlooks the garden. [7] Its elaborate ceiling is segmented into panels by gilded and painted beams, studded with miniature convex mirrors set in to gilt stars. Fish and eels swim in a frieze of waves painted under the ceiling, and fish are also carved in relief on the chimneypiece. On the fire-hood, a sculpted mermaid gazes into a looking-glass, with seashells, coral, seaweed and a baby mermaid also represented. [7] Charles Handley-Read described the frieze around the Mermaid fireplace as "proto-Art Nouveau" and noted "the debt of international art nouveau to Victorian Gothic designers, Burges included". [47] In this room, Burges placed two of his most personal pieces of furniture, the Red Bed, in which he died, and the Narcissus washstand, both of which originally came from Buckingham Street. [58] The bed is painted blood red and features a panel depicting Sleeping Beauty . The washstand is red and gold; its tip-up basin of marble inlaid with fishes is silver and gold. [59]

"The Earth and its productions" is the theme of the guest room facing the street. [7] Its ceiling is adorned with butterflies and fleurs-de-lis, and at the crossing of the main beams is a convex mirror in a gilded surround. Along the length of the beams are paintings of frogs and mice. A frieze of flowers, once painted over, has since been restored. [7] The Golden Bed and the Vita Nuova Washstand designed for this room are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. [60] [61]

Burges designated the final room on the first floor an armoury and used it to display his large collection of armour. The collection was bequeathed to the British Museum upon his death. [62] A carved chimneypiece in the armoury has three roundels carved with the goddesses Minerva, Venus and Juno in medieval attire. [7]

The garret originally contained day and night nurseries, which the author James Stourton considers a surprising choice of arrangement for the "childless bachelor Burges". [63] They contain a pair of decorated chimneypieces featuring the tale of Jack and the Beanstalk and three monkeys at play. [7]

Garden

The garden at the rear of the house featured raised flowerbeds which Dakers described as being "planned according to those pleasances depicted in medieval romances; beds of scarlet tulips, bordered with stone fencing". [11] On a mosaic terrace, around a statue of a boy holding a hawk, sculpted by Thomas Nicholls, [11] [lower-alpha 4] Burges and his guests would sit on "marble seats or on Persian rugs and embroidered cushions." [11] The garden, and that of the adjacent Woodland House, contain trees from the former Little Holland House. [34]

Furniture

The Red Bed, in which Burges died on 20 April 1881 SleepingBeautyBed.JPG
The Red Bed, in which Burges died on 20 April 1881

In creating the interior of the house, Burges demonstrated his skill as a jeweller, metalworker and designer. [64] He included some of his best pieces of furniture such as the Zodiac Settle, the Dog Cabinet and the Great Bookcase, the last of which Charles Handley-Read described as "occupying a unique position in the history of Victorian painted furniture". [65] The fittings were as elaborate as the furniture: the tap for one of the guest washstands was in the form of a bronze bull from whose throat water poured into a sink inlaid with silver fish. [66] Within the Tower House Burges placed some of his finest metalwork; the artist Henry Stacy Marks wrote, "he could design a chalice as well as a cathedral ... His decanters, cups, jugs, forks and spoons were designed with an equal ability to that with which he would design a castle." [67]

Burges's furniture did not receive universal acclaim. In his major study of English domestic architecture, Das englische Haus , published some twenty years after Burges's death, Hermann Muthesius wrote of The Tower House, "Worst of all, perhaps, is the furniture. Some of it is in the earlier manner, some of it box-like and painted all over. This style had now become fashionable, though with what historical justification it is not easy to say". [68]

Many of the early pieces of furniture, such as the Narcissus Washstand, the Zodiac Settle and the Great Bookcase, were originally made for Burges's office at Buckingham Street and were later moved to the Tower House. [69] The Great Bookcase was also part of Burges's contribution to the Medieval Court at the 1862 International Exhibition. [70] Later pieces, such as the Crocker Dressing Table and the Golden Bed, and its accompanying Vita Nuova Washstand, were made specifically for the house. [71] John Betjeman located the Narcissus Washstand in a junk shop in Lincoln and gave it to Evelyn Waugh, a fellow enthusiast for Victorian art and architecture, who featured it in his 1957 novel, The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold. [72] Betjeman later gave Waugh both the Zodiac Settle and the Philosophy Cabinet. [69]

Many of the decorative items Burges designed for the Tower House were dispersed in the decades following his death. Kenneth Clark purchased the Great Bookcase for the Ashmolean Museum. [lower-alpha 5] [73] Several pieces purchased by Charles Handley-Read, who was instrumental in reviving interest in Burges, were acquired by The Higgins Art Gallery & Museum, Bedford. The museum also bought the Zodiac Settle from the Waugh family in 2011. [69] [74]

Dispersed furniture and locations

The table below lists the known pieces of furniture originally in situ , with their dates of construction and their current location where known.

Original roomPieceDateLocation
Entrance hallBronze table1880Private collection
Library Great Bookcase, originally at Buckingham Street1859–62 Ashmolean Museum [69]
Architecture Cabinet, originally at Buckingham Street1858Unknown
Alphabet Bookcases1876In situ
Drawing roomCupboard doorsThe Higgins Art Gallery & Museum, Bedford [69]
Peacock Cabinet1873Private British collection [69]
Zodiac settle 1869–71The Higgins Art Gallery & Museum, Bedford [69] [74]
Dining RoomEscritoire, originally at Buckingham Street1867–68Unknown
Burges's bedroom The Red Bed 1865–67The Higgins Art Gallery & Museum, Bedford [69]
Crocker Dressing Table1867The Higgins Art Gallery & Museum, Bedford [69]
Narcissus washstand 1865–67The Higgins Art Gallery & Museum, Bedford [69]
WardrobePrivate British collection [69]
Chest of drawers and shelf unit Manchester City Art Gallery [69]
Guest bedroom Golden Bed 1879Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) [61]
Vita Nuova Washstand1879–80Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) [60]
Philosophy Cabinet1878–79Private collection of Andrew Lloyd Webber [69]
ArmouryDante Bookcase, originally at Buckingham Street1862–69In situ
Day nursery WardrobeThe Higgins Art Gallery & Museum, Bedford [69]
Dog Cabinet1869Unknown
Unknown roomTable1867 Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery [69]
Table1867 Lotherton Hall [69]
Two chairs William Morris Gallery [69]
Chest of drawers, originally at Buckingham StreetUnknown

Architectural coverage

Burges as Architect, by Frederick Weekes. A model of the Tower House is in the background. Burges as architect.jpg
Burges as Architect, by Frederick Weekes. A model of the Tower House is in the background.

Edward Godwin, fellow architect and close friend of Burges, wrote of Burges's unified approach to building and design in an article in The British Architect, published in 1878: "the interior and the exterior, the building and its furniture, the enclosed as well as the enclosure, are in full accord." [75] Richard Popplewell Pullan described the house in detail in the second of two works he wrote about his brother-in-law, The House of William Burges, A.R.A., published in 1886. [76] The book contains photographs of the interior of the house by Francis Bedford. [77] In 1893, the building was the only private house to be recorded in an article in The Builder, which gave an overview of the architecture of the previous fifty years. [39] It was referenced again a decade later by Muthesius, who described it as "the most highly developed Gothic house to have been built in the 19th century (and) the last to be built in England". [68] It was then largely ignored, with James Stourton describing its early twentieth-century decline as "a paradigm of the reputation of the Gothic Revival". [63]

A renewed understanding and appreciation of the building, and of Burges himself, began with Charles Handley-Read's essay on Burges in Peter Ferriday's collection Victorian Architecture, published in 1963. [78] In 1966 Handley-Read followed this with a substantial article on the house for Country Life, "Aladdin's Palace in Kensington". [49] His notes on Burges formed the basis of Mordaunt Crook's centenary volume, William Burges and the High Victorian Dream, published in 1981 and revised and reissued in 2013, in which Crook wrote at length on both the Tower House and its contents. [79]

More recent coverage was given in London 3: North West, the revision to the Buildings of England guide to London written by Nikolaus Pevsner and Bridget Cherry, published in 1991 (revised 2002). [80] The house is referenced in Matthew Williams's William Burges (2004), [81] and in Panoramas of Lost London by Philip Davies, published in 2011, which includes some of Francis Bedford's photographs of the house from 1885. [82] In a chapter on the building in Great Houses of London (2012), the author James Stourton called The Tower House "the most singular of London houses, even including the Soane Museum." [83]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Stuart House</span> Category A listed building on the Isle of Bute, Scotland

Mount Stuart House, on the east coast of the Isle of Bute, Scotland, is a country house built in the Gothic Revival style and the ancestral home of the Marquesses of Bute. It was designed by Sir Robert Rowand Anderson for the 3rd Marquess in the late 1870s, replacing an earlier house by Alexander McGill, which burnt down in 1877. The house is a Category A listed building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral</span> Gothic Revival three-spire cathedral in Cork, Ireland

Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral is a Gothic Revival three-spire Church of Ireland cathedral in the city of Cork. It is located on the south bank of the River Lee and dedicated to Finbarr of Cork, patron saint of the city. Formerly the sole cathedral of the Diocese of Cork, it is now one of three co-cathedrals in the United Dioceses of Cork, Cloyne and Ross in the ecclesiastical province of Dublin. Christian use of the site dates back 7th-century AD when, according to local lore, Finbarr of Cork founded a monastery. The original building survived until the 12th century, when it either fell into disuse or was destroyed during the Norman invasion of Ireland. Around 1536, during the Protestant Reformation, the cathedral became part of the established church, later known as the Church of Ireland. The previous building was constructed in the 1730s, but was widely regarded as plain and featureless.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knightshayes Court</span> Victorian country house in Devon, England

Knightshayes Court is a Victorian country house near Tiverton, Devon, England, designed by William Burges for the Heathcoat-Amory family. Nikolaus Pevsner describes it as "an eloquent expression of High Victorian ideals in a country house of moderate size." The house is Grade I listed. The gardens are Grade II* listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Burges</span> English Gothic revival architect and designer (1827–1881)

William Burges was an English architect and designer. Among the greatest of the Victorian art-architects, he sought in his work to escape from both nineteenth-century industrialisation and the Neoclassical architectural style and re-establish the architectural and social values of a utopian medieval England. Burges stands within the tradition of the Gothic Revival, his works echoing those of the Pre-Raphaelites and heralding those of the Arts and Crafts movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Park House, Cardiff</span> Town house in Cardiff, Wales

Park House, 20 Park Place, Cardiff, Wales, is a nineteenth century town house. It was built for John McConnochie, Chief Engineer to the Bute Docks, by the Gothic revivalist architect William Burges. It is a Grade I listed building. The architectural historian John Newman writes that the architectural style of the house "revolutionized Cardiff's domestic architecture," and Cadw considers the building "perhaps the most important 19th century house in Wales."

Combe Florey House in Combe Florey, Somerset, England is a country house dating from the early 18th century. It replaced an Elizabethan manor house which was pulled down after the English Civil War. The gatehouse to the original manor survives. In the mid-20th century, the house was home to the writer Evelyn Waugh who died there in 1966 and is buried next to the churchyard of the adjacent Church of St Peter & St Paul. Combe Florey House is a Grade II listed building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golden Bed</span>

The Golden Bed is a bed designed by the English architect and designer William Burges in 1879 for the guest bedroom of the home that he designed for himself in Holland Park, The Tower House. It is now in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) in South Kensington. The bed was made by John Walden and carved by Thomas Nicholls. The painting in the central panel of the headboard was executed by Henry Holiday, and the motifs and figures on the bed painted by Fred Weekes. The bed is made from polished hardwood, mahogany and pine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Pabst</span> American furniture designer

Daniel Pabst was a German-born American cabinetmaker of the Victorian Era. He is credited with some of the most extraordinary custom interiors and hand-crafted furniture in the United States. Sometimes working in collaboration with architect Frank Furness (1839–1912), he made pieces in the Renaissance Revival, Neo-Grec, Modern Gothic, and Colonial Revival styles. Examples of his work are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Handley-Read</span>

Charles Harry Ralph Handley-Read was an architectural writer and collector and the first serious 20th-century student of the work of William Burges, "a pioneer in Burges studies who was the first to assess the historical brilliance of Burges as gesamtkunstwerk architect and designer."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Bookcase</span> Bookcase designed by William Burges

The Great Bookcase is a large piece of painted furniture designed by the English architect and designer William Burges.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zodiac settle</span> Piece of furniture by William Burges

The Zodiac settle is a piece of painted furniture designed by the English architect and designer William Burges and made between 1869 and 1871. A wooden settle designed with Zodiac themes, it was made for Burges' rooms at Buckingham Street, and later moved to the drawing room of The Tower House, the home that he designed for himself in Holland Park. Burges desired to fill his home with furniture "covered with paintings, both ornaments and subjects; it not only did its duty as furniture, but spoke and told a story." At one stage the poet John Betjeman gave the settle to the novelist Evelyn Waugh, and it is now in the collection of The Higgins Art Gallery & Museum in Bedford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Narcissus washstand</span>

The Narcissus washstand is a piece of painted furniture made by the Victorian architect and designer William Burges in 1867. It was originally made for Burges's set of rooms at Buckingham Street and subsequently moved to his bedroom at The Tower House, the house he designed for himself in Holland Park in London. John Betjeman, later Poet Laureate and a leading champion of the art and architecture of the Victorian Gothic Revival, was left the remaining lease on the Tower House, including some of the furniture, by E. R. B. Graham in 1961. He gave the washstand, which he found in a second-hand shop in Lincoln, to the novelist Evelyn Waugh who featured it in his 1957 novel, The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold, mirroring a real-life incident when Waugh, in the grip of bromide poisoning, became convinced that an ornamental tap was missing from the washstand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Red Bed</span> Piece of painted furniture

The Red Bed is a piece of painted furniture designed by the English architect and designer William Burges made between 1865 and 1867. Built of mahogany, painted blood red and decorated with imagery of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, it was made for Burges's rooms at Buckingham Street, and later moved to his bedroom at The Tower House, the home he designed for himself in Holland Park. Burges wanted to fill his home with furniture decorated with paintings; they served not only their obvious practical purposes, “but spoke and told a story”. After catching a chill while engaged on works for the Marquess of Bute at Cardiff, Burges returned to the Tower House and died in the Red Bed, aged 53, on 20 April 1881.

The Flax and Wool Cabinet or the Flax and Wool Wardrobe is a large piece of painted furniture designed by the English architect and designer William Burges. It may have been the first large piece of painted furniture that Burges designed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Work of William Burges at Cardiff Castle</span> Reconstruction of Cardiff Castle, Wales

From 1865 until his death in 1881 the Victorian architect William Burges undertook the reconstruction of Cardiff Castle for his patron, John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute. The rebuilding saw the creation of some of the most significant Victorian interiors in Britain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swiss Bridge, Cardiff Castle</span> Bridge in Bute Park, Cardiff

The Swiss Bridge at Cardiff Castle was built by the architect William Burges for John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute in 1873. Modelled on the Kapellbrücke in the Swiss city of Lucerne, it provided a link from the castle into Bute's private gardens which now form Bute Park. By the 1960s, the bridge had become dilapidated and it was demolished in 1963.

References

Notes

  1. ↑ For much of the 19th century, "a chill" was used as a diagnosis for illness involving a fever and associated chills, in contrast to modern medical approaches which would regard a fever and chills as symptoms of an underlying disease. [17]
  2. ↑ A tourelle is a type of circular turret. [36]
  3. ↑ These were completed after Burges' death. [56]
  4. ↑ The statue was no longer in the garden by 1916. [46]
  5. ↑ Kenneth Clark’s purchase of the Great Bookcase in 1933 was farsighted. Acknowledging that it was “not acceptable to present taste”, he nonetheless recognised it as “an important document in the history of the Pre-Raphaelite movement.” [73]

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 Historic England. "The Tower House (1225632)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 9 July 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Crook 2013, p. 341.
  3. ↑ Google (30 January 2014). "The Tower House" (Map). Google Maps . Google. Retrieved 30 January 2014.
  4. ↑ Weinreb et al. 2011, p. 539.
  5. ↑ Dakers 1999, p. 4.
  6. ↑ Cherry & Pevsner 2002, p. 481.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 "Survey of London: volume 37: Northern Kensington". British History Online. Institute of Historical Research. Archived from the original on 24 October 2012. Retrieved 28 June 2012.
  8. ↑ Crook 2013, p. 160.
  9. ↑ Crook 2013, p. 13.
  10. ↑ Dakers 1999, p. 175.
  11. 1 2 3 4 Dakers 1999, p. 176.
  12. ↑ Crook 1981, p. 58.
  13. ↑ Willsdon 2000, p. 316.
  14. 1 2 Crook 2013, p. 11.
  15. ↑ Crook 2013, p. 334.
  16. ↑ Crook 2013, p. 78.
  17. ↑ Misselbrook 2001, p. 10.
  18. ↑ HMSO 2011, p. 27.
  19. 1 2 3 4 Crook 2013, p. 396.
  20. 1 2 3 Wilson 2011, p. 208.
  21. ↑ Betjeman 2010, p. 62.
  22. 1 2 Gelson 1967, p. 9.
  23. 1 2 3 Handley-Read 1966, p. 604.
  24. ↑ Betjeman & Green 1995, p. 289.
  25. 1 2 3 4 Callan 1990, p. 138.
  26. 1 2 La Rue 1987, p. 133.
  27. ↑ Dakers 1999, p. 276.
  28. ↑ Callan 1990, p. 157.
  29. ↑ "Rock legend's pilgrimage to castle". BBC News Online . BBC. 20 May 2004. Archived from the original on 8 April 2013. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
  30. ↑ Das, Jay (27 February 2015). "Listed building policies have ramifications for Jimmy Page and Robbie Williams". Construction News. EMAP Publishing Limited. Archived from the original on 13 January 2020. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
  31. ↑ "Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page and Robbie Williams continue planning battle". BBC News. 30 May 2018. Archived from the original on 9 November 2020. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
  32. ↑ "Here's the complete history of the three-year feud between Jimmy Page and his neighbour Robbie Williams". Led Zeppelin News. 27 February 2018. Archived from the original on 7 May 2018. Retrieved 6 May 2018.
  33. ↑ Rubens 2014, p. 58.
  34. 1 2 3 4 Dakers 1999, p. 173.
  35. 1 2 Dakers 1999, p. 174.
  36. ↑ Brebbia & Clark 2014, p. 182.
  37. ↑ Stamp & Amery 1980, p. 163.
  38. 1 2 3 4 Crook 2013, p. 308.
  39. 1 2 3 Crook 2013, p. 309.
  40. 1 2 3 4 Handley-Read 1966, p. 601.
  41. ↑ Cherry & Pevsner 2002, p. 511.
  42. 1 2 3 Crook 2013, p. 326.
  43. 1 2 3 Dakers 1999, p. 177.
  44. ↑ "Letterbox". The Higgins Art Gallery & Museum. Archived from the original on 16 March 2013. Retrieved 21 May 2013.
  45. ↑ Briggs 1916, p. 132.
  46. 1 2 Briggs 1916, p. 139.
  47. 1 2 3 Handley-Read 1966, p. 602.
  48. 1 2 Dakers 1999, p. 178.
  49. 1 2 3 4 Handley-Read 1966.
  50. ↑ Crook 2013, p. 327.
  51. ↑ Crook 2013, pp. 327–328.
  52. ↑ Crook 2013, p. 324.
  53. 1 2 Crook 2013, p. 323.
  54. ↑ Handley-Read 1966, pp. 601–602.
  55. 1 2 Crook 2013, p. 312.
  56. 1 2 3 Briggs 1916, p. 137.
  57. ↑ Crook 2013, p. 316.
  58. ↑ Crook 2013, pp. 338–340.
  59. ↑ Crook 2013, p. 340.
  60. 1 2 "Burges Washstand". Victoria and Albert Museum. Archived from the original on 2 August 2012. Retrieved 28 June 2012.
  61. 1 2 "The Golden Bed". Victoria and Albert Museum. Archived from the original on 29 June 2013. Retrieved 28 June 2012.
  62. ↑ "British Museum: William Burges". British Museum. Archived from the original on 3 May 2022. Retrieved 18 May 2013.
  63. 1 2 Stourton 2012, p. 227.
  64. ↑ Crook 2013, p. 314.
  65. ↑ Handley-Read 1963, pp. 496–509.
  66. ↑ Osband 2003, p. 112.
  67. ↑ Crook 2013, p. 319.
  68. 1 2 Muthesius 1979, p. 157.
  69. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 "Case 4 (2010–2011): A Zodiac settle designed by William Burges" (PDF). Arts Council. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 November 2013. Retrieved 21 May 2013.
  70. ↑ Crook 2013, p. 328.
  71. ↑ Crook 2013, p. 330.
  72. ↑ Crook 1981, p. 77.
  73. 1 2 Winterbottom 2016, p. 2.
  74. 1 2 "Zodiac Settle by William Burges". Art Fund. The Art Fund. Archived from the original on 10 November 2013. Retrieved 24 May 2013.
  75. ↑ Godwin 2005, p. 46.
  76. ↑ Crook 2013, p. 399.
  77. ↑ Francis Beford. "The House of William Burges, ARA". Royal Collection Trust . Inventory no. 2081191.
  78. ↑ Ferriday 1963, pp. 185–220.
  79. ↑ Crook 2013, pp. 306–341.
  80. ↑ Cherry & Pevsner 2002, pp. 510–411.
  81. ↑ Williams 2004, pp. 16–17.
  82. ↑ Davies 2011, pp. 136–142.
  83. ↑ Stourton 2012, p. 221.

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