| Thurloe Lodge | |
|---|---|
 | |
| General information | |
| Location | 17 Thurloe Place, London, United Kingdom |
| Coordinates | 51°29′44″N0°10′14″W / 51.49569°N 0.17068°W |
| Completed | 1843 |
Thurloe Lodge is a house at 17 Thurloe Place in the South Kensington district of London. It was the home of the actor manager Nigel Playfair and was subsequently the home of Mark Birley who founded Annabel's nightclub in Berkeley Square. Birley's daughter, India Jane Birley, sold Thurloe Lodge in 2011 for £17 million.
The house began as a pair of semi-detached cottages built in 1843. [1] The area in which the house stands was then considered to be Brompton. They were converted into a single residence in 1867. [1] In 1922 the actor-manager Nigel Playfair bought the house on a long lease from Lady George Campbell who had inherited the Thurloe Estate. [1] Playfair and his family had previously lived at 26 Pelham Crescent. [2] He bought the cottages with the proceeds from his successful revival of The Beggar's Opera at the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith. [1] Playfair engaged Darcy Braddell to remodel the house. Humphry Deane was jointly credited with the remodelling work. Deane was Braddell's partner and one of the first Anglo-Indians residing in England descending from Sake Dean Mahomed. Work began on the house in May 1922. In the spring of 1923, Playfair and his family moved into Thurloe Lodge. Giles Playfair, Nigel Playfair's son, wrote that his father "took as much interest in the building of his house as he had ever taken in one of his productions at the Lyric. Hardly a day passed without his meeting D'Arcy Braddell to discuss a new idea or to look over a new plan". [1] The remodelling had cost twice as much as anticipated, and proved a drain on his finances in the wake of the failure of his light opera Midsummer Madness. Playfair would hold rehearsals for Midsummer Madness in the garden of Thurloe Lodge. [3] [1] The Playfair family moved from the house in late 1924 or early 1925, and Playfair found that the house sold for a far higher sum than he had anticipated. [1] The actor John Gielgud attended Playfair's parties at the house and met the actors James Whale and his partner Doris Zinkeisen there. He recalled that they were the most "striking pair" in the room. [4]
Playfair's interior decoration of Thurloe Lodge under highly individualistic for the early 1920s, though less daring than his previous residence in Pelham Crescent. The dining room had "emerald green curtains and a green carpet with a magenta border" to contrast the "waxed silver spruce" woodwork. In Playfair's study the floor had a chequer-board pattern. [1]
Thurloe Lodge was the residence of Mark Birley for 30 years. [5] Birley founded Annabel's nightclub in Berkeley Square. He died in 2007. [6] Birley's daughter, India Jane Birley, sold Thurloe Lodge in 2011 for £17 million. [6] An auction of 500 of Mark Birley's possessions from the house was held at Sotheby's in March 2013. [6] The auction realised £3.85 million. [6] A design by Nicky Haslam for a room at Thurloe Lodge for Mark Birley sold at Bonhams auction house in 2019. [7] India Jane married the antiquarian horologist Sebastian Whitestone at the house in July 2008. [8]
Birley's extensive art collection was displayed throughout the house. [5] A planning application to demolish the house and replace it with a neoclassical residence with a two-storey basement was subsequently approved by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. [5] Birley's son, Robin, said that he would consider it "vandalism" if the house was to be demolished, feeling that "It is a handsome 1840s house and I am amazed they think they can get away with it". [5]
Birley's close friend, David Wynne-Morgan, lived in a cottage attached to Thurloe Lodge for over 10 years. [5] Wynne-Morgan described the house under Birley as " ... sensational and beautiful — the biggest bachelor pad in London — and it was beautifully done". [5]
Thurloe Lodge was not listed on the National Heritage List for England. [5]
Sir Arthur John Gielgud was an English actor and theatre director whose career spanned eight decades. With Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier, he was one of the trinity of actors who dominated the British stage for much of the 20th century. A member of the Terry family theatrical dynasty, he gained his first paid acting work as a junior member of his cousin Phyllis Neilson-Terry's company in 1922. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), he worked in repertory theatre and in the West End before establishing himself at the Old Vic as an exponent of Shakespeare in 1929–31.
Elias George Basevi FRS was a British architect who worked in both Neoclassical and Gothic Revival styles. A pupil of Sir John Soane, his designs included Belgrave Square in London, and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. He was surveyor to the Guardian Assurance Company, to the Trustees of Smith's Charity and to the Thurloe estate.
Sir Nigel Ross Playfair was an English actor and director, known particularly as actor-manager of the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, in the 1920s.
South Kensington is a district just west of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with the advent of the railways in the late 19th century and the opening and naming of local tube stations. The area has many museums and cultural landmarks with a high number of visitors, such as the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Adjacent affluent centres such as Knightsbridge, Chelsea and Kensington, have been considered as some of the most exclusive real estate in the world.
Lady Annabel Goldsmith is an English socialite and the eponym for a London nightclub of the late 20th century, Annabel's. She was first married for two decades to entrepreneur Mark Birley, the creator of Annabel's. Annabel's was her husband's inaugural members-only Mayfair club.
Lucy Margaret Mary Birley was a British model, photographer, and socialite.
Robin Marcus Birley is an English businessman, entrepreneur and political donor. He is the son of Lady Annabel Goldsmith and the nightclub owner Mark Birley. He had a brother, Rupert, who disappeared and is presumed deceased, and a sister, India Jane Birley. His half-brother is the former MP, now peer, Zac Goldsmith.
Annabel's is a private members' club at 46 Berkeley Square in Mayfair, London.
Marcus Oswald Hornby Lecky Birley, known as Mark Birley, was a British entrepreneur known for his investments in the hospitality industry.
India Jane Birley is a British artist and businesswoman. Her father, Mark Birley, opened the private member's club Annabel's, named after her mother, Lady Annabel Goldsmith, in the early 1960s and Birley ran the club with her brother, Robin Birley, during her father's ill health in the 2000s. She later became estranged from her brother, and her father's estate was left to her to be placed in trust for her son.
Nicholas Ponsonby Haslam is an English interior designer and socialite, and founder of the London-based interior design firm, Nicky Haslam Studio.
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.
William Leiper FRIBA RSA (1839–1916) was a Scottish architect known particularly for his domestic architecture in and around the town of Helensburgh. In addition, he produced a small amount of fine ecclesiastical and commercial architecture in Glasgow and the Scottish Lowlands. He was also an accomplished watercolour artist, and from the late 1870s spent much spare time painting in oils and watercolours.
Pelham Crescent is a circa 1825 Georgian crescent of houses in South Kensington, London SW7, England, designed by architect George Basevi. Numbers 1–14 and 15–27 are separately Grade II* listed.
Park House, at 7–11 Onslow Square, is a detached house in the South Kensington district of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London SW7. It is set in one acre (4,000 m2) of land and is shielded by trees from public view.
Rhoda Vava Mary Lecky, Lady Birley was an Anglo-Irish gardener, model, and artist. She developed the gardens at Charleston Manor in East Sussex where she founded the festival that has continued after her death.
The Crescent consists of rows of terraced houses and religious buildings laid out as a circus in the town of Wisbech, England. Initiated by the developer Joseph Medworth and built between 1794 and c1815, it is a rare examples of a Georgian circus to be found in the United Kingdom. Most properties have Grade I or Grade II listed building status. Although some changes have been made to the various sites over the years, much of the Georgian facade remains as it was when first built. This development now lies within the Wisbech Conservation Area.
Harry's Bar is a private members dining club at 26 South Audley Street in London's Mayfair district.
Girl with a Red Beret and Pompom is a 1937 painting by Pablo Picasso. It hangs in the main reception area of the private member's club Annabel's in Berkeley Square in London's Mayfair district.
46 Berkeley Square is a house on Berkeley Square in the Mayfair district of London, England. It was used as offices, including the London headquarters of the Chase Manhattan Bank, for several decades and has been the site of the private member's club Annabel's since 2018.