The Tower House

The Tower House is a late-Victorian town house, built between 1876 and 1877 in the 13th century French gothic style, by the Victorian art-architect William Burges for himself. It is located at 29 Melbury Road (formerly number 9) in Kensington, London and is a Grade I listed building as of the 29th July 1949.

The part of Kensington in which the house is located, Holland Park, had, by the 1870s, become a bohemian enclave of artists and architects, led by the artist Lord Leighton, whose Leighton House, begun in 1866, combined medieval and Moorish elements in a style with similarities to Burges' own. Burges purchased the plot of land in 1875, the house was substantially built by 1878, and the decoration of the interior, together with the designing of innumerable items of furniture and metalwork continued until Burges' early death in 1881.

Burges designed his home in the style of a substantial 13th century French townhouse, "a model residence of the 13th century." From 1875, although he continued to work on the completion of projects already begun, notably those undertaken for John Crichton-Stuart 3rd Marquess of Bute, Burges received no further major commissions, and the construction, decoration and furnishing of the Tower House filled much of the last six years of his life.

Both the exterior and the interior echo again and again the highlights of Burges' earlier career, revised and re-worked as appropriate. A frontage from the McConnochie House, a cylindrical tower and conical roof from Castell Coch, fireplaces from Cardiff Castle. The house is not large but Burges' architectural genius makes it seem so, a mediaeval French fortress on a Kensington street. Within, it is the apotheosis of Burges' sublime, dreamy vision and the furnishings, furniture, domestic vessels, carvings, almost all to his own designs, proclaim Burges' right to the title art-architect, one of the greatest designers of his or any other age.

The house is not open to the public, being the private residence of former Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, an avid Burges enthusiast. Previously, the house was owned by Irish actor Richard Harris.

References

* Crook, J. Mordaunt, "William Burges and the High Victorian Dream" (1981) John Murray
* Crook, J. Mordaunt, "The Strange Genius of William Burges" (1981) National Museum of Wales

External links

* [http://www.victorianweb.org/art/architecture/burges/1.html Victorian Web]
* [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=49971&strquery=melbury British History Online - Plates 85-89]
* [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=49871#s12 British History Online - The Holland Estate Since 1874]
* [http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/Planning/scripts/listeddetails.asp?ID=35/10 RBKC Listed Buildings Details Page]
* [http://hamiltonauctiongalleries.com/tower-house.htm A photo comparison of Tower House and the St. Anthony Hall chapter House of Trinity College (Connecticut), USA]