Municipal building in London, England
123 Mortlake High Street
, also known as
The Limes
or
Limes House
and previously referred to as
Mortlake Terrace
,
[1]
is a
Grade II* listed
[2]
18th-century property on
Mortlake High Street
in
Mortlake
in the
London Borough of Richmond upon Thames
. 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
. It is featured in two paintings by J. M. W. Turner.
History of the building
[
edit
]
The house was built in about 1720 but the facade and
porch
were added later.
[3]
The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with nine bays: the central section features a porch with four
Tuscan columns
.
[4]
The building was the seat of local government for the
Barnes Urban District
from 1895 to 1932
[5]
and then of the
Municipal Borough of Barnes
from 1932 until 1940, when it was damaged by wartime bombing.
[3]
The house's 7 acres (2.8 ha) 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
(1755?1851) made while visiting the house in 1827.
[3]
Artistic depictions
[
edit
]
Turner's two paintings were made for William Moffatt,
[1]
[6]
whose house it then was.
Mortlake Terrace: Early Summer Morning
(1826) is in the
Frick Collection
, New York.
[1]
[3]
It was shown in the
Royal Academy
exhibition of 1826 where it was praised for its "lightness and simplicity".
[1]
Mortlake Terrace
(1827) is in the
National Gallery of Art
, Washington D.C.
[1]
[6]
The
Museum of London
holds a wood engraving of people at The Limes, as it was then called, watching the
Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race
.
The Limes ? Mortlake: 1872
is taken from
London: A Pilgrimage
by
Blanchard Jerrold
and
Gustave Dore
, 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 ..."
[7]
The house was, at the time, the residence of a Mr Marsh Nelson.
[8]
Former residents
[
edit
]
The house's former residents include the Franks, a family of Jewish
merchant bankers
;
[9]
Lady Byron
, widow of the poet; the educational philanthropist
Quintin Hogg
;
[3]
and
Garnet Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley
,
[10]
who lived there from 1874 to 1875
[11]
and later became
Commander-in-Chief of the Forces
.
[12]
References
[
edit
]
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Districts
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Railway stations
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Streets and roads
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River Thames bridges, islands
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Breweries and pubs
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- Britannia, Richmond
- The Bull's Head, Barnes
- The Crown, Twickenham
- Dysart Arms, Petersham
- The Fox, Twickenham
- The George, Twickenham
- Hare and Hounds, East Sheen
- Jolly Coopers, Hampton
- Old Ship, Richmond
- Park Hotel, Teddington
- Richmond Brewery Stores
- Sun Inn, Barnes
- Twickenham Fine Ales
- Watney Combe & Reid
- White Cross, Richmond
- The White Swan, Twickenham
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