Lindsey House
- Not to be confused with Lindsey House, Lincoln's Inn Fields
| Lindsey House | |
|
National Trust | |
|---|---|
 Lindsey House | |
| Grid reference: | TQ26867750 |
| Location: | 51°28’56"N, 0°10’28"W |
| Address: | Cheyne Walk |
| Built 1674 | |
| Information | |
Lindsey House is a grand villa on Cheyne Walk in Chelsea, Middlesex. Today it is owned by The National Trust. The house is a Grade II* listed building.[1]
Though owned by the National Trust, it is tenanted and only open by special arrangement.
The gardens of Lindsey House are Grade II listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of special historic interest.[2]
History
The house was built in 1674 by the third Earl of Lindsey[3] on the riverside site of Thomas More's garden and is thought to be the oldest house in Kensington and Chelsea.[4] It was extensively remodelled in 1750 by Count Zinzendorf for the Moravian community in London.
In 1775, the house was divided into four separate dwellings. Today, it occupies nos. 96 to 101 of Cheyne Walk, covering a number of separate frontages and outbuildings.[1] Previous residents have included the historical painter John Martin, in one of the outbuildings at 4 Lindsey Row from 1849–53 and James McNeill Whistler between 1866–78 at 2 Lindsey Row (now 96 Cheyne Walk).[5] In 1808, the engineer Marc Brunel lived in the middle section of the house (now no. 98), and his son Isambard Kingdom Brunel grew up here.[4] These residencies are commemorated by Blue plaques on the walls of the house.[1]
The house was separated from the river by the construction of the Chelsea Embankment, completed in 1874, as a part of Joseph Bazalgette's grand scheme to create a modern sewage system.
One part of the house features a garden designed by Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll in 1911 for the Irish art dealer Sir Hugh Lane, who bought the west wing of the house in 1909.[6] This is a small garden of 50 feet by 30 feet, laid to grass, two broad paths with two narrow paths on the boundary run the length of the garden around an ancient mulberry tree and lily pond. This area is surrounded by statuary, a colonnade and a single flower border. The garden is said by Lennox-Boyd be "modest in its elements, quietly restful in its effect" and "to respect the simple formality of the house".[3] In 2000, the garden was restored and a glazed garden room was added to the house.[7]
See also
- Carlyle's House, a nearby National Trust property in Cheyne Row
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about House Lindsey House) |
- Lindsey House: National Trust
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 National Heritage List 1189891: 95-101, Cheyne Walk (Grade II* listing)
- ↑ National Heritage List 1000799: Lindsey House (Register of Historic Parks and Gardens)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Private Gardens of London – Lutyens Revisted Arabella Lennox-Boyd
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lindsey House Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea archives accessed 22 May 2008
- ↑ A History of the County of Middlesex - Volume 12 pp 102-106: Settlement and building: Artists and Chelsea (Victoria County History)
- ↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- ↑ Projects:Lindey House Marcus Beale Architects
- Kroyer, Peter: 'The Story of Lindsey House, Chelsea'