Lindsey 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 I ...

villa in

Cheyne Walk Cheyne Walk is an historic road in Chelsea, London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It runs parallel with the River Thames. Before the construction of Chelsea Embankment reduced the width of the Thames here, it fronted ...

Chelsea, London Chelsea is an affluent area in west London, England, due south-west of Charing Cross by approximately 2.5 miles. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames and for postal purposes is part of the south-western postal area. Chelsea histori ...

. It is owned by the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

but tenanted and only open by special arrangement. This house should not be confused with the eponymous 1640 house in

Lincoln's Inn Fields Lincoln's Inn Fields is the largest public square in London. It was laid out in the 1630s under the initiative of the speculative builder and contractor William Newton, "the first in a long series of entrepreneurs who took a hand in develo ...

. That house came to be known as Lindsey House for its occupation in the 18th century by later Earls of Lindsey. The gardens of Lindsey House are Grade II listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

History

The house was built in 1674 by the third

Earl of Lindsey Earl of Lindsey is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1626 for the 14th Baron Willoughby de Eresby (see Baron Willoughby de Eresby for earlier history of the family). He was First Lord of the Admiralty from 1635 to 1636 a ...

''Private Gardens of London – Lutyens Revisted'' Arabella Lennox-Boyd
/ref> on the riverside site of

Thomas More Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, and noted Renaissance humanist. He also served Henry VIII as Lord ...

's garden and is thought to be the oldest house in Kensington and Chelsea. It was extensively remodelled in 1750 by

Count Zinzendorf Nikolaus Ludwig, Reichsgraf von Zinzendorf und Pottendorf (26 May 1700 – 9 May 1760) was a German religious and social reformer, bishop of the Moravian Church, founder of the Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine, Christian mission pioneer and a major figu ...

for the Moravian community in London. The house was divided into four separate dwellings in 1775. Today, it occupies nos. 96 to 101 of Cheyne Walk, covering a number of separate frontages and outbuildings. Previous residents have included the historical painter John Martin, in one of the outbuildings at 4 Lindsey Row from 1849–53 and

James McNeill 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 ...

between 1866–78 at 2 Lindsey Row (now 96 Cheyne Walk). In 1808, engineer

Marc Brunel Sir Marc Isambard Brunel (, ; 25 April 1769 – 12 December 1849) was a French-British engineer who is most famous for the work he did in Britain. He constructed the Thames Tunnel and was the father of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Born in Fran ...

lived in the middle section of the house (now no. 98), and his son

Isambard Kingdom Brunel Isambard Kingdom Brunel (; 9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859) was a British civil engineer who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history," "one of the 19th-century engineering giants," and "on ...

grew up here.''Lindsey House'' Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea archives
accessed 22 May 2008 These residencies are commemorated by

Blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term ...

s on the walls of the house. The house was separated from the river by the construction of the

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 Boroug ...

, completed in 1874, as a part of Joseph Bazalgette's grand scheme to create a modern

sewage system Sewerage (or sewage system) is the infrastructure that conveys sewage or surface runoff (stormwater, meltwater, rainwater) using sewers. It encompasses components such as receiving drains, manholes, pumping stations, storm overflows, and scree ...

. One part of the house features a garden designed by

Edwin Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memor ...

and

Gertrude Jekyll Gertrude Jekyll ( ; 29 November 1843 – 8 December 1932) was a British horticulturist, garden designer, craftswoman, photographer, writer and artist. She created over 400 gardens in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States, and wrot ...

in 1911 for the Irish art dealer

Sir Hugh Lane Sir Hugh Percy Lane (9 November 1875 – 7 May 1915) was an Irish art dealer, collector and gallery director. He is best known for establishing Dublin's Municipal Gallery of Modern Art (the first known public gallery of modern art in the ...

, who bought the west wing of the house in 1909. This is a small garden of by , laid to grass, two broad paths with two narrow paths on the boundary run the length of the garden around an ancient

mulberry tree ''Morus'', a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae, consists of diverse species of deciduous trees commonly known as mulberries, growing wild and under cultivation in many temperate world regions. Generally, the genus has 64 ide ...

and lily pond. This area is surrounded by statuary, a

colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or cur ...

and a single flower border. The garden is said by Lennox-Boyd be "modest in its elements, quietly restful in its effect" and "to respect the simple formality of the house". In 2000, the garden was restored and a glazed garden room was added to the house by Marcus Beale Architects.''Projects:Lindey House'' Marcus Beale architects
accessed 24 May 2008

References

Bibliography

*''The Story of Lindsey House, Chelsea'' Peter Kroyer

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lindsey House Houses completed in 1674 History of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea National Trust properties in London Grade II* listed buildings in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Grade II listed parks and gardens in London Grade II* listed houses in London Houses in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Works of Edwin Lutyens in England Gardens by Gertrude Jekyll

History

See also

References

Bibliography

External links