Home House is a Georgian town house at 20 Portman Square

Portman Square

Portman Square is a square in London, part of the Portman Estate. It is located at the western end of Wigmore Street, which connects it to Cavendish Square to its east. It is served by London bus route 274...

, London. James Wyatt

James Wyatt

James Wyatt RA , was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the neoclassical style, who far outdid Adam in his work in the neo-Gothic style.-Early classical career:...

 was appointed to design it by Elizabeth, Countess of Home

Elizabeth, Countess of Home

Elizabeth, Countess of Home was the wife of William Home, 8th Earl of Home. She had been born in Jamaica to William Gibbons, a wealthy West Indies merchant and his wife of Vere. She first married James Lawes, son of Nicholas Lawes, the island's governor. She inherited a great fortune on her...

 in 1776, but by 1777 he had been sacked and replaced by Robert Adam

Robert Adam

Robert Adam was a Scottish neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam , Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him...

. Elizabeth left the completed house on her death in 1784 to her nephew William Gale, who in turn left it to one of his aunts, Mrs Walsh, in 1785. Its later occupants included the Marquis de la Luzerne

Anne-César, Chevalier de la Luzerne

Anne-César, Chevalier de la Luzerne was a French soldier and diplomat. He served as the second French minister to the United States, from 1779 to 1784, succeeding Conrad Alexandre Gérard....

 during his time as French ambassador to the Court of St. James's

Court of St. James's

The Court of St James's is the royal court of the United Kingdom. It previously had the same function in the Kingdom of England and in the Kingdom of Great Britain .-Overview:...

 (1788 to 1791), the 4th Duke of Atholl

John Murray, 4th Duke of Atholl

John Murray, 4th Duke of Atholl KT, PC, FRS , styled Marquess of Tullibardine 1764 and 1774, was a Scottish peer.-Background:...

 (1798 to 1808), the Duke of Newcastle

Henry Pelham-Clinton, 4th Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne

Henry Pelham Fiennes Pelham-Clinton, 4th Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne KG was a British nobleman and politician who played a leading part in British politics in the late 1820s and early 1830s.-Early life:...

 (1820 to 1861), Sir Francis Henry Goldsmid

Francis Henry Goldsmid

Sir Francis Henry Goldsmid, 2nd Baronet was an Anglo-Jewish barrister and politician.The son of Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid and a member of the Goldsmid banking family, Francis was born in London, and privately educated. He was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1833, becoming the first Jew to...

 (1862 to 1919), and Lord and Lady Islington (1919 to 1926).

In 1926 it was leased by Samuel Courtauld

Samuel Courtauld (art collector)

Samuel Courtauld son of Sydney Courtauld and Sarah Lucy Sharpe was an English industrialist who is best remembered as an art collector...

 to house his growing art collection. On his wife's death in 1931, he gave the house and the collection to the fledgling Courtauld Institute of Art

Courtauld Institute of Art

The Courtauld Institute of Art is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art. The Courtauld is one of the premier centres for the teaching of art history in the world; it was the only History of Art department in the UK to be awarded a top...

 (which he had played a major part in founding), as temporary accommodation. That accommodation was not forthcoming, and the Institute remained in the building until 1989, when it moved to its present home of Somerset House

Somerset House

Somerset House is a large building situated on the south side of the Strand in central London, England, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The central block of the Neoclassical building, the outstanding project of the architect Sir William Chambers, dates from 1776–96. It...

. Home House then remained vacant for seven years, until it was acquired by Berkeley Adam Ltd. They kept it until 2004, when it passed to its present owners, who use it as a private members' club

Gentlemen's club

A gentlemen's club is a members-only private club of a type originally set up by and for British upper class men in the eighteenth century, and popularised by English upper-middle class men and women in the late nineteenth century. Today, some are more open about the gender and social status of...

.

Sources

• Courtauld Institute site
• Home House, London
• Lesley Lewis, 'Elizabeth, Countess of Home, and Her House in Portman Square', in The Burlington Magazine
  The Burlington Magazine
  The Burlington Magazine is a monthly academic journal that covers the fine and decorative arts. It is the longest running art journal in the English language and it is a charitable organisation since 1986. It was established in 1903 by a group of art historians and connoisseurs which included Roger...
  
  , Vol. 109, No. 773 (Aug., 1967), pp. 443–451+453
• Non-free image of a staircase at Home House