Debenham House (or Peacock House) at 8 Addison Road is a large detached house in the

Holland Park Holland Park is an area of Kensington, on the western edge of Central London, that contains a street and public park of the same name. It has no official boundaries but is roughly bounded by Kensington High Street to the south, Holland Road to ...

district of Kensington and Chelsea, W14. Built in the Arts and Crafts style by the architect

Halsey Ricardo Halsey Ralph Ricardo (1854–1928) was an English architect and designer. He established his practice in 1878, and for 10 years worked in partnership with William De Morgan (1839–1917), for whom he designed tiles, vases, and other artefacts. ...

, it is a Grade I listed building.

History

The house was designed in 1905 for department store owner Ernest Ridley Debenham. Debenham had previously lived in another house designed by Ricardo, at 57 Melbury Road in Holland Park. The house only became known as Debenham House after it was sold on Sir Ernest's death. From 1955 to 1965 the house was used by the London College of Dance and Drama. In the 1990s it housed the headquarters of Richmond Fellowship and was the venue for Royal Garden Parties.

Architecture

The exterior of Debenham House is

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian ...

, while the interior style is

Arts and Crafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

. It is richly coloured everywhere. The main parts of exterior are clad in variegated

Royal Doulton Royal Doulton is an English ceramic and home accessories manufacturer that was founded in 1815. Operating originally in Vauxhall, London, and later moving to Lambeth, in 1882 it opened a factory in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, in the centre of Engl ...

Carrara Carrara ( , ; , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, in central Italy, of the province of Massa and Carrara, and notable for the white or blue-grey marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione River, some west-northwest of Florence. Its mot ...

ware with inset panels faced with green and blue

Burmantofts Burmantofts is an area of 1960s high-rise housing blocks in inner-city east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England adjacent to the city centre and St. James's Hospital. It is a racially diverse area, with sizable Afro-Caribbean and Irish communities, ...

bricks. Ricardo was an advocate of ‘structural

polychromy Polychrome is the "practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc., in a variety of colors." The term is used to refer to certain styles of architecture, pottery or sculpture in multiple colors. Ancient Egypt Colossal statu ...

’. The glazed materials were also intended to resist the aging effects of the polluted London air. Critic

Jonathan Meades Jonathan Turner Meades (born 21 January 1947) is an English writer and film-maker, primarily on the subjects of place, culture, architecture and food. His work spans journalism, fiction, essays, memoir and over fifty highly idiosyncratic tele ...

has described the house as "structurally stodgy – an alderman dressed as a hippy." The interior contains tiles designed by William De Morgan, a mosaic dome painted by

Gaetano Meo Gaetano Giuseppe Faostino Meo (1849, Basilicata, Italy – 16 January 1925, London, United Kingdom) was an Italian-British artist's model, landscape painter, and a noted craftsman in mosaic and stained glass. His unpublished autobiography is ...

and ceilings painted by

Ernest Gimson Ernest William Gimson (; 21 December 1864 – 12 August 1919) was an English furniture designer and architect. Gimson was described by the art critic Nikolaus Pevsner as "the greatest of the English architect-designers". Today his reputati ...

. The domed hall, the central interior feature, has a first-floor gallery connecting the upstairs rooms. Decoration throughout the house is extraordinarily lavish. Mosaics depict members of the Debenham family as well as subjects from

classical mythology Classical mythology, Greco-Roman mythology, or Greek and Roman mythology is both the body of and the study of myths from the ancient Greeks and ancient Romans as they are used or transformed by cultural reception. Along with philosophy and poli ...

. There are

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorphose ...

and tile fireplaces,

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

mahogany Mahogany is a straight- grained, reddish-brown timber of three tropical hardwood species of the genus '' Swietenia'', indigenous to the AmericasBridgewater, Samuel (2012). ''A Natural History of Belize: Inside the Maya Forest''. Austin: U ...

bookcases with

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

inlays in wood and mother of pearl. The light switches were specially designed and made by the

Birmingham Guild of Handicraft Birmingham Guild of Handicraft was an Arts and Crafts organisation operating in Birmingham, England, established at the end of the 19th century. History The Guild began as a loose part of the Birmingham Kyrle Society, then became a more fully f ...

Filming location

The interior were featured prominently in Iain Softley's ''The Wings of the Dove'' (1997 film). The exterior of the house was used in the film '' Secret Ceremony'', directed by

Joseph Losey Joseph Walton Losey III (; January 14, 1909 – June 22, 1984) was an American theatre and film director, producer, and screenwriter. Born in Wisconsin, he studied in Germany with Bertolt Brecht and then returned to the United States. Blacklisted ...

Elizabeth Taylor Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was a British-American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s. ...

's character Leonora resided at the house in the film. Debenham House has also featured in the television series '' What the Butler Saw'' and '' Spooks''. The house was used as the filming location of ''

Agatha Christie's Poirot ''Poirot'' (also known as ''Agatha Christie's Poirot'') is a British mystery drama television programme that aired on ITV from 8 January 1989 to 13 November 2013. David Suchet starred as the eponymous detective, Agatha Christie's fictional Her ...

'' ''

Lord Edgware Dies ''Lord Edgware Dies'' is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in September 1933 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year under the title of ''Thirtee ...

'' and '' Cards on the Table''. The house also features in the 1949 film ''

Trottie True ''Trottie True'' is a 1949 British musical comedy film directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and starring Jean Kent, James Donald and Hugh Sinclair. It was known as ''The Gay Lady'' in the US, and is an infrequent British Technicolor film of the per ...

''. The house features in BBC's Mrs. Bradley Murder Mysteries from 2000 episode 2 'Death at the Opera' Actors include Dame Diana Rigg, Neil Dudgeon dancing tango and

David Tennant David John Tennant (''né'' McDonald; born 18 April 1971) is a Scottish actor. He rose to fame for his role as the tenth incarnation of the Doctor (2005–2010 and 2013) in the BBC science-fiction TV show ''Doctor Who'', reprising the rol ...

. Live music is 'Jealousy' and 'Goodnight Vienna' played by Graham Dalby and The Grahamophones with Martin Loveday featured on violin.

References

Bibliography

External links

{{Commons category inline, Debenham House Houses completed in 1907 Arts and Crafts architecture in England Halsey Ricardo buildings Grade I listed houses in London Houses in Holland Park Art Nouveau architecture in London Art Nouveau houses History of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea