123 Mortlake High Street, also known as The Limes or Limes House and previously referred to as Mortlake Terrace, is a

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

18th-century property on Mortlake High Street in

Mortlake Mortlake is a suburban district of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames on the south bank of the River Thames between Kew and Barnes, London, Barnes. Historically it was part of Surrey and until 1965 was in the Municipal Borough of Barnes ...

in the

London Borough of Richmond upon Thames The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames () in south-west Greater London, London, England, forms part of Outer London and is the only London boroughs, London borough on both sides of the River Thames. It was created in 1965 when three smaller ...

. The building is now used as commercial office space. It was originally a private house and in the 20th century it functioned as the local

town hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

. It is featured in two paintings by J. M. W. Turner.

History of the building

Turner Mortlake Terrace Early Summer Morning 1826

The house was built in about 1720 but the facade and

porch A porch (; , ) is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance to a building. A porch is placed in front of the façade of a building it commands, and forms a low front. Alternatively, it may be a vestibule (architecture), vestibule (a s ...

were added later. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with nine bays: the central section features a porch with four

Tuscan column The Tuscan order (Latin ''Ordo Tuscanicus'' or ''Ordo Tuscanus'', with the meaning of Etruscan order) is one of the two classical orders developed by the Romans, the other being the composite order. It is influenced by the Doric order, but wit ...

s. The building was the seat of local government for the Barnes Urban District from 1895 to 1932 and then of the

Municipal Borough of Barnes Barnes was a local government district in north west Surrey from 1894 to 1965, when its former area was absorbed into the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. History The parish of Barnes adopted the Local Government Act 1858 in 1893. It be ...

from 1932 until 1940, when it was damaged by wartime bombing. The house's of grounds have now been completely built over, and the building itself has been converted to commercial office space. The exterior is still similar to what it was in two oil paintings that

J. M. W. Turner Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbu ...

(1755–1851) made while visiting the house in 1827.

Artistic depictions

Turner's two paintings were made for William Moffatt, whose house it then was. '' Mortlake Terrace: Early Summer Morning'' (1826) is in the

Frick Collection The Frick Collection (colloquially known as the Frick) is an art museum on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was established in 1935 to preserve the collection of the industrialist Henry Clay Frick. The collection (museum) ...

, New York. It was shown in the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

exhibition of 1826 where it was praised for its "lightness and simplicity". ''Mortlake Terrace'' (1827) is in the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art is an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in ...

, Washington D.C. The

Museum of London London Museum (known from 1976 to 2024 as the Museum of London) is a museum in London, covering the history of the city from prehistoric to modern times, with a particular focus on social history. The Museum of London was formed in 1976 by ama ...

holds a wood engraving of people at The Limes, as it was then called, watching the

Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race The Boat Race is an annual set of rowing (sport), rowing races between the Cambridge University Boat Club and the Oxford University Boat Club, traditionally rowed between open-weight eight (rowing), eights on the River Thames in London, Englan ...

. ''The Limes – Mortlake: 1872'' is taken from '' London: A Pilgrimage'' by

Blanchard Jerrold William Blanchard Jerrold (London 23 December 1826 – 10 March 1884), was an English journalist and author. Biography He was born in London, the eldest son of the dramatist, Douglas William Jerrold. Due to his disagreements with the practi ...

and

Gustave Doré Paul Gustave Louis Christophe Doré ( , , ; 6January 1832 – 23January 1883) was a French printmaker, illustrator, painter, comics artist, caricaturist, and sculptor. He is best known for his prolific output of wood-engravings illustrati ...

, 1872. Jerrold describes how "the towing paths presented to the view of the more fortunate people upon the private river-side terraces, a mixed population ..." The house was, at the time, the residence of a Mr Marsh Nelson.

Former residents

The house's former residents include the Franks, a family of Jewish

merchant bank A merchant bank is historically a bank dealing in commercial loans and investment. In modern British usage, it is the same as an investment bank. Merchant banks were the first modern banks and evolved from medieval merchants who traded in comm ...

ers;

Lady Byron Anne Isabella Noel Byron, 11th Baroness Wentworth and Baroness Byron (; 17 May 1792 – 16 May 1860), nicknamed Annabella and commonly known as Lady Byron, was an educational reformer and philanthropist who established the first industrial s ...

, widow of the poet; the educational philanthropist Quintin Hogg; and

Garnet Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley Field Marshal Garnet Joseph Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley (4 June 183325 March 1913) was an Anglo-Irish officer in the British Army. He became one of the most influential British generals after a series of victories in Canada, West Africa and E ...

, who lived there from 1874 to 1875 and later became

Commander-in-Chief of the Forces Commander-in-Chief of the Forces, later Commander-in-Chief, British Army, or just Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C), was (intermittently) the title of the professional head of the English Army from 1660 to 1707 (the English Army, founded in 1645, wa ...

References

{{Authority control 1700s establishments in England City and town halls in London Government buildings completed in 1720 Grade II* listed houses in London Grade II* listed buildings in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames Houses completed in the 18th century Mortlake, London J. M. W. Turner