Home House is a Georgian town house at 20
Portman SquarePortman Square is a square in London, part of the Portman Estate. It is in the postal district of W1H, 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 WyattJames 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 HomeElizabeth, 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 AdamRobert 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 to her nephew William Gale on her death in 1784, who in turn left it to one of his aunts, Mrs Walsh, in 1785. Its later occupants included the
Marquis de la LuzerneAnne-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' (1788 to 1791), the
4th Duke of AthollJohn Murray, 4th Duke of Atholl KT PC FRS was the son of John Murray, 3rd Duke of Atholl and his wife, Charlotte.On 26 December 1774, he married Jane Cathcart, daughter of the 9th Lord Cathcart and they had three children:...
(1798 to 1808),
the Duke of NewcastleHenry Pelham Fiennes Pelham-Clinton, 4th Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne KG , styled Earl of Lincoln from 1794 to 1795, was a British nobleman and politician....
(1820 to 1861), Sir
Francis Henry GoldsmidSir 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 the art-collector
Samuel CourtauldSamuel Courtauld child of Samuel Courtauld and Louisa Perina Courtauld was an English industrialist who is best remembered as an art collector...
who leased it to house his growing collection.
Home House is a Georgian town house at 20
Portman SquarePortman Square is a square in London, part of the Portman Estate. It is in the postal district of W1H, 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 WyattJames 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 HomeElizabeth, 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 AdamRobert 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 to her nephew William Gale on her death in 1784, who in turn left it to one of his aunts, Mrs Walsh, in 1785. Its later occupants included the
Marquis de la LuzerneAnne-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' (1788 to 1791), the
4th Duke of AthollJohn Murray, 4th Duke of Atholl KT PC FRS was the son of John Murray, 3rd Duke of Atholl and his wife, Charlotte.On 26 December 1774, he married Jane Cathcart, daughter of the 9th Lord Cathcart and they had three children:...
(1798 to 1808),
the Duke of NewcastleHenry Pelham Fiennes Pelham-Clinton, 4th Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne KG , styled Earl of Lincoln from 1794 to 1795, was a British nobleman and politician....
(1820 to 1861), Sir
Francis Henry GoldsmidSir 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 the art-collector
Samuel CourtauldSamuel Courtauld child of Samuel Courtauld and Louisa Perina Courtauld was an English industrialist who is best remembered as an art collector...
who leased it to house his growing collection. On his wife's death in 1931, he gave the house and the collection to the fledgling
Courtauld Institute of ArtThe 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), to house it until it could find better accommodation. That accommodation was not forthcoming, and the Institute remained in the building until 1989, when it moved to its present home of
Somerset HouseSomerset 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 7 years, appearing on the World Monument Fund's list of most endangered buildings, 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' clubA gentlemen's club is a members-only private club of a type originally set up by and for English 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 is a monthly academic journal that covers the fine and decorative arts. It was founded in 1903 and is published in London. It was launched by a group of art historians and connoisseurs that included Roger Fry, Bernard Berenson, and Herbert Horne...
, Vol. 109, No. 773 (Aug., 1967), pp. 443-451+453
- Non-free image of a staircase at Home House