Bath House in

Piccadilly Piccadilly () is a road in the City of Westminster, London, to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road that connects central London to Hammersmith, Earl's Court, ...

was the

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

residence of the Barons Ashburton in the 19th century. Formerly the site of the Pulteney Hotel, the property was acquired by Mr. Alexander Baring from

William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath, (22 March 16847 July 1764) was a British Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1707 to 1742, when he was created the first Earl of Bath by King George II. Bath is sometimes stated to have b ...

in 1821 and rebuilt and renamed after the Earl.

History

Located at 82 Piccadilly on the western corner of Bolton Street, facing Piccadilly, it ranked alongside

Devonshire House Devonshire House in Piccadilly, was the London townhouse of the Dukes of Devonshire during the 18th and 19th centuries. Following a fire in 1733 it was rebuilt by William Cavendish, 3rd Duke of Devonshire, in the Palladian style, to designs ...

Burlington House Burlington House is a building on Piccadilly in Mayfair, London. It was originally a private Neo-Palladian mansion owned by the Earls of Burlington and was expanded in the mid-19th century after being purchased by the British government. Toda ...

, Montague House,

Lansdowne House Lansdowne House now 9 Fitzmaurice Place is the remaining part of a building to the south of Berkeley Square in central London, England, not to be confused with 57 Berkeley Square – opposite – a much later quadrilateral building which take ...

Londonderry House Londonderry House was an aristocratic townhouse situated on Park Lane in the Mayfair district of London, England. The mansion served as the London residence of the Marquesses of Londonderry. It remained their home until 1962. In that year London ...

Northumberland House Northumberland House (also known as Suffolk House when owned by the Earls of Suffolk) was a large Jacobean townhouse in London, so-called because it was, for most of its history, the London residence of the Percy family, who were the Earl ...

and

Norfolk House Norfolk House, 31 St James's Square, Westminster, was built between 1748 and 1752 as his London townhouse by Edward Howard, 9th Duke of Norfolk (1686–1777) to the design of Matthew Brettingham (1699–1769), "the Elder", and was demolished ...

. All of these have been long demolished, except Burlington and Lansdowne, both of which have been substantially altered. In 1858 the house witnessed a marriage of Louisa Caroline as she became Lady Ashburton but by 1866 the Dowager Lady Ashburton relinquished ownership of Bath House and its contents to her brother-in-law

Francis Baring, 3rd Baron Ashburton Francis Baring, 3rd Baron Ashburton (20 May 1800 – 6 September 1868) was a British peer Whig and later Tory politician. Early life He was born in Philadelphia, United States, the second son of Alexander Baring and Ann Louisa, the daughter and ...

. His son,

Alexander Baring, 4th Baron Ashburton Alexander Hugh Baring, 4th Baron Ashburton, (4 May 1835 – 18 July 1889) was a British landowner and Conservative Party politician. Early life Baring was the son of Francis Baring, 3rd Baron Ashburton (1800–1868), and his wife Hortense Eugen ...

succeeded to the peerage and the property on 6 September 1868 and died at the house on 18 July 1889. Bath House was sold to Baron

Maurice de Hirsch Moritz Freiherr von Hirsch auf Gereuth (german: Moritz Freiherr von Hirsch auf Gereuth; french: Maurice, baron de Hirsch de Gereuth; 9 December 1831 – 21 April 1896), commonly known as Maurice de Hirsch, was a German Jewish financier and phila ...

in 1890. After a while, it was bought by diamond mining magnate and art collector

Julius Wernher Sir Julius Charles Wernher, 1st Baronet (9 April 1850 – 21 May 1912) was a German-born Randlord and art collector who became part of the English establishment. Life history Born in Darmstadt, Hesse, Wernher was the son of Elisabeth (Weidenbusc ...

. The house was demolished in 1960.

Art collection

Walford noted that it contained "a fine collection of pictures, chiefly of the Dutch and Flemish schools, formed by the builder of the mansion ... afterwards the first Lord Ashburton of the present creation. Dr. Waagen gives a list of the pictures to be seen here, in his work on ''Art and Artists in England.''" Waagen included the 1st Lord Ashburton in a list of "the most distinguished collectors in England since 1792" (I:26-7) in the 1854 edition of his work, ''Treasures of Art in Great Britain.'' By 1873, the house held part of the collection formed by the 1st & 2nd Lord Ashburton. Julius Wernher also housed part of his art collection at Bath House (the rest was at his country house

Luton Hoo Luton Hoo is an English country house and Estate (land), estate near Luton in Bedfordshire and Harpenden in Hertfordshire. Most of the estate lies within the civil parish of Hyde, Bedfordshire. The Old English language, Saxon word wikt:hoo#Etym ...

1873 fire

On 31 January 1873 a fire at the house burned "until the splendid drawing room and its contents had been somewhat severely damaged" (

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

, 3 Feb 1873: 12). A letter from Charlotte Polidori, quoted in another letter to

Dante Gabriel Rossetti Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882), generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti (), was an English poet, illustrator, painter, translator and member of the Rossetti family. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhoo ...

summarized the damage: "''All'' the pictures except three eonardo, Titian, and Rubens.. in the Bath House drawing room are destroyed." The three paintings referred to were subsequently identified as ''Christ and the Baptist as children'' (likely by Bernardino Luini, now lost), ''Wolf and fox-hunt'' (Rubens, now in the Metropolitan Museum, from the collection of Lord Ashburton), and ''A woman with a dish of roasted apples'' (Pieter de Hooch, in fact destroyed in the fire). Rossetti's correspondence regarding the losses described two pictures attributed to Giorgione, two attributed to Titian or Paris Bordone, and a Velazquez.

References

;Additional sources *Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. ''The Correspondence of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Volume 6.'' Note on page 67. *Waagen, Gustav. ''Treasures of Art in Great Britain'' (new ed. 1854): 2: 97-112. *Walford, Edward.
Mansions in Piccadilly, Old and New London: Volume 4
' (1878), pp. 273–290. {{Coord, 51.506558, -0.143524, type:landmark, display=title Former houses in the City of Westminster Buildings and structures in Mayfair Baring family Buildings and structures demolished in 1960