Home House

Home House is a Georgian town house at 20 Portman Square, London. James Wyatt was appointed to design it by Elizabeth, Countess of Home in 1776, but by 1777 he had been sacked and replaced by Robert Adam. Elizabeth left the completed house to her nephew William Gale on her death in 1784, who in turn left it to one of his aunts, Mrs Walsh, in 1785. Its later occupants included the Marquis de la Luzerne during his time as French ambassador to the Court of St James' (1788 to 1791), the 4th Duke of Atholl (1798 to 1808), the Duke of Newcastle (1820 to 1861), Sir Francis Henry Goldsmid (1862 to 1919), and Lord and Lady Islington (1919 to 1926).

In 1926 it was leased by the art-collector Samuel Courtauld who leased it to house his growing collection. On his wife's death in 1931, he gave the house and the collection to the fledgling Courtauld Institute of Art (which he had played a major part in founding), to house it until it could find better accommodation. That accommodation was not forthcoming, and the Institute remained in the building until 1989, when it moved to its present home of Somerset House. Home House then remained vacant for 7 years, appearing on the World Monument Fund's list of most endangered buildings, until it was acquired by Berkeley Adam Ltd. They kept it until 2004, when it passed to its present owners, who use it as a private members' club.

ources

* [http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/about/history.shtml Courtauld Institute site]
* [http://london.homehouseclub.com/ Home House, London]
* [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0007-6287(196708)109%3A773%3C443%3AECOHAH%3E2.0.CO%3B2-P Lesley Lewis, 'Elizabeth, Countess of Home, and Her House in Portman Square'] , in The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 109, No. 773 (Aug., 1967), pp. 443-451+453
* [http://viewfinder.english-heritage.org.uk/search/reference.asp?index=1&main_query=&theme=&period=&county=&district=&place_name=Mayfair&imageUID=75963 Non-free image of a staircase at Home House]