Montrose House is a late 17th-century

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

at 186 Petersham Road, Petersham in the

London Borough of Richmond upon Thames The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames () in southwest London forms part of Outer London and is the only London borough on both sides of the River Thames. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council areas amalgamated under the London ...

. The house was built for Sir

Thomas Jenner Sir Thomas Jenner (1637–1707) was an English barrister, Baron of the Exchequer and Justice of the Common Pleas, closely associated with the Stuart kings Charles II of England, Charles II and James II of England. Life He was born at Mayfield, S ...

Justice of the Common Pleas Justice of the Common Pleas was a puisne judicial position within the Court of Common Pleas of England and Wales, under the Chief Justice. The Common Pleas was the primary court of common law within England and Wales, dealing with "common" pleas ...

under James II, but is named after the Dowager Duchess of Montrose (widow of the 3rd Duke) who lived there from 1837 to 1847. 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. It was bought by the entertainer

Tommy Steele Sir Thomas Hicks (born 17 December 1936), known professionally as Tommy Steele, is an English entertainer, regarded as Britain's first teen idol and rock and roll star. After being discovered at the 2i's Coffee Bar in Soho, London, Steele reco ...

in 1969 and sold by him in about 2004. The house is located at a sharp right-angled bend on Petersham Road (part of the

A307 The A307 road runs through SW London and NW Surrey. It is primary at the north-east end; the remainder is non-primary, generally superseded in the mid-twentieth century in two stages by newer alignments of the Portsmouth Road, the Kingston byp ...

). 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 Algernon Gray Tollemache (24 September 1805 – 16 January 1892, London) was a British gentleman and politician. He was the sixth and youngest son of William Tollemache, Lord Huntingtower and Catherine Gray. Career He was Member of Parliament ...

Ham House Ham House is a 17th-century house set in formal gardens on the bank of the River Thames in Ham, south of Richmond in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. The original house was completed in 1610 by Thomas Vavasour, an Elizabethan cou ...

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. Adjacent to Montrose House is Rutland Lodge, built in 1660 for a

Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional powe ...

Montrose House in art

A drawing of the rear of Montrose House was made by

Wilfred Fairclough Wilfred Fairclough (1907 – 1996) was an English artist, engraver and printmaker. Early life and education Fairclough was born in Blackburn in 1907 and was educated at All Saints. In 1931 he secured a place at the Royal College of Art where he s ...

in July 1941 as part of the "

Recording Britain The Pilgrim Trust is a national grant-making trust in the United Kingdom. It is based in London and is a registered charity under English law. It was founded in 1930 with a two million pound grant by Edward Harkness, an American philanthropist. T ...

" collection of

topographical Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sci ...

water-colours and drawings produced in the early 1940s during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. It is held at the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

References

{{coord, 51.4460, -0.3027, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title 1600s establishments in England Grade II* listed buildings in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames Grade II* listed houses in London Houses completed in the 17th century Houses in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames Petersham, London