Swan House is a

Grade II* listed 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 Ire ...

house at 17

Chelsea Embankment Chelsea Embankment is part of the Thames Embankment, a road and walkway along the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. The western end of Chelsea Embankment, including a stretch of Cheyne Walk, is in the Royal Borough of ...

on the north bank of the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the ...

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament con ...

, central London, England. Built in 1876 by the architect

Richard Norman Shaw Richard Norman Shaw RA (7 May 1831 – 17 November 1912), also known as Norman Shaw, was a British architect who worked from the 1870s to the 1900s, known for his country houses and for commercial buildings. He is considered to be among the g ...

, architecturally it is relevant both to the Queen Anne Revival and to the

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 ...

movement. It was built by Shaw for the artistic patrons Wickham and Elizabeth Flower. Jones and Woodward, in their ''Guide to the Architecture of London'', consider Swan House to be the "finest Queen Anne Revival domestic building in London."

History

The building is one of eighteen elegant contiguous red-brick houses built in the late 1870s, adjacent to the

Chelsea Physic Garden The Chelsea Physic Garden was established as the Apothecaries' Garden in London, England, in 1673 by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries to grow plants to be used as medicines. This four acre physic garden, the term here referring to the sc ...

by notable architects of the day. In 1892, the journal ''The British Architect'' hailed Swan House and its neighbours as "some of the finest specimens of modern domestic architecture in London." The building owes its name to its location on the site of what was an inn named The Swan. Creating some confusion, now it is the newer, current structure, rather than the long-destroyed inn that is frequently called the Old Swan House. The old Swan Inn is sometimes misidentified with any of several Swan inns and taverns visited by diarist and politician

Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys (; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English diarist and naval administrator. He served as administrator of the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament and is most famous for the diary he kept for a decade. Pepys had no mari ...

. The house built in 1875-76 made a home for solicitor and art collector Wickham Flower and his artist wife Elizabeth.

Norman Shaw Richard Norman Shaw RA (7 May 1831 – 17 November 1912), also known as Norman Shaw, was a British architect who worked from the 1870s to the 1900s, known for his country houses and for commercial buildings. He is considered to be among the ...

, known for the Piccadilly Hotel in Piccadilly Circus,

Cragside Cragside is a Victorian country house near the town of Rothbury in Northumberland, England. It was the home of William Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong, founder of the Armstrong Whitworth armaments firm. An industrial magnate, scientist, philant ...

in Northumberland and Lowther Lodge in Kensington, now headquarters of the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

, served as the architect. Shaw designed the lower part of the building in the Queen Anne Revival style popular during the

Victorian Era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardi ...

. He incorporated bay windows on the second floor and dormer windows at the top floor for an unusual look. On the third floor, Shaw alternated flat narrow windows with caged oriel windows. In 1892, ''The British Architect'' hailed Swan House and the six other homes Shaw designed in the Chelsea Embankment as "masterpieces." Wickham Flower hired the firm of designer

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...

to decorate Swan House. Flower also bought two pieces from his good friend, American expatriate artist

James Whistler James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral allusion in painting and was a leading pr ...

— ''Sweet Shop - Note in Orange'' and ''Sun Cloud'' — to display in his home. The four-storey building with basement and dormers was listed as a Grade II building on 24 June 1954. Beginning in 1985, Swan House was an architectural studio and office space for many years. After undergoing a 10-year renovation, Swan House was put on sale as a private home in 2007 for £32 million. The home has a 44-by-18-foot ballroom, a cinema and a basement pool. The house was formerly the headquarters of

Securicor Securicor plc was one of the United Kingdom's largest security businesses. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but merged with Group 4 Falck in 2004. History The Company was founded by Edward Shortt, a former Liberal Cabinet Ministe ...

, and in 1981 presents for the royal wedding of Charles and Diana were stored there. The 19,000-square-foot home also has a dining room seating twenty, private terraces, an elevator, and parking for five cars.

References

External links

* A view o
Swan House
from the Thames * A photograph of th
hall at Swan House in 1884
by photographer Henry Bedford Lemere * A photograph of th
staircase at Swan House in 1884
by photographer Henry Bedford Lemere * A photograph of th
drawing room at Swan House in 1884
by photographer Henry Bedford Lemere * A photograph of one o
Swan House's original carpets
designed by William Morris {{coord, 51.48398, -0.16343, type:landmark_region:GB, format=dms, display=title Houses completed in 1876 Queen Anne Revival architecture in the United Kingdom Richard Norman Shaw buildings Grade II* listed buildings in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Grade II* listed houses in London Houses in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea