Montrose House
Map
General information
TypeResidential
LocationPetersham, London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England
Construction startedlate 17th century
Listed Building – Grade II*
Official nameMontrose House
Designated25 June 1983
Reference no.1065342

Montrose House is a late 17th-century Grade II* listed building[1] at 186 Petersham Road, Petersham in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.[1]

The house was built for Sir Thomas Jenner, Justice of the Common Pleas under James II, but is named after the Dowager Duchess of Montrose (widow of the 3rd Duke)[2] who lived there from 1837 to 1847.[2][3] In the 1870s it was occupied by John Master, a retired magistrate from the Indian Colonial Service, his wife Gertrude, and his children. One of his daughters, Hilda Master, went on to become the mother of Sir Anthony Blunt.[4] It was bought by the entertainer Tommy Steele in 1969[2][3] and sold by him in about 2004.[5]

The house is located at a sharp right-angled bend on Petersham Road (part of the A307). After a spate of serious accidents on the bend in the road, the neighbours formed a group in the 1850s called Trustees of the Road. The Hon. Algernon Tollemache of Ham House was their leader and they managed to persuade the owner of Montrose House to part with some land to reduce the sharpness of the bend. However, various dents in the brick wall today reveal that motorists are still taken unawares by it.[6]

Adjacent to Montrose House is Rutland Lodge, built in 1660 for a Lord Mayor of London.

Montrose House in art

A drawing of the rear of Montrose House was made by Wilfred Fairclough in July 1941 as part of the "Recording Britain" collection of topographical water-colours and drawings produced in the early 1940s during the Second World War. It is held at the Victoria and Albert Museum.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b Historic England (25 June 1983). "Montrose House, 186, Petersham Road (1065342)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
  2. ^ a b c Cloake, John (1998). "New Light on Old Petersham Houses – 2". Richmond History: Journal of the Richmond Local History Society. 19: 17. ISSN 0263-0958.
  3. ^ a b Hibbert, Christopher; Keay, John; Keay, Julia (2010). The London Encyclopaedia. Pan Macmillan. p. 559. ISBN 9781405049252.
  4. ^ Guardian Staff (15 November 2001). "Anthony Blunt: His Lives by Miranda Carter". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
  5. ^ Douglas, Rachel (21 April 2004). "Celebs in the move". Evening Standard. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  6. ^ Weinreb, Ben; Hibbert, Christopher (1992). The London Encyclopaedia (reprint ed.). Macmillan. p. 610.
  7. ^ "Montrose House, Petersham (Back); Recording Britain". Search the Collections. Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 21 September 2013.

51°26′46″N 0°18′10″W / 51.4460°N 0.3027°W / 51.4460; -0.3027

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