The Tower House is a late-Victorian town house, built between 1876 and 1878 in the 13th century French gothic style, by the Victorian art-architect William Burges

William Burges (architect)

William Burges was an English architect and designer. Amongst the greatest of the Victorian art-architects, Burges sought in his work an escape from 19th century industrialisation and a return to the values, architectural and social, of an imagined mediaeval England...

 for himself. It is located at 29 Melbury Road (formerly number 9) in Kensington

Kensington

Kensington is a district of west and central London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. An affluent and densely-populated area, its commercial heart is Kensington High Street, and it contains the well-known museum district of South Kensington.To the north, Kensington is...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 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

Holland Park

Holland Park is a district and a public park in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in west central London, England.Holland Park has a reputation as an affluent and fashionable area, known for attractive large Victorian townhouses, and high-class shopping and restaurants...

, had, by the 1870s, become a bohemian

Bohemianism

Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, with few permanent ties, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits...

 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

John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute

John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute KT, KSG, KGCHS was a landed aristocrat, industrial magnate, antiquarian, scholar, philanthropist and architectural patron.-Early life:...

, 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

Park House, Cardiff

Park House, formerly known as McConnochie House, is a town house in Cardiff. It was built for James McConnochie, Chief Engineer to the Bute Docks, by the Gothic revivalist architect William Burges. It is a Grade I listed building...

, a cylindrical tower and conical roof from Castell Coch

Castell Coch

Castell Coch is a 19th-century Gothic Revival castle built on the remains of a genuine 13th-century fortification. It is situated on a steep hillside high above the village of Tongwynlais, to the north of Cardiff in Wales, and is a Grade I listed building as of 28 January 1963.Designed by William...

, fireplaces from Cardiff Castle

Cardiff Castle

Cardiff Castle is a medieval castle and Victorian architecture Gothic revival mansion, transformed from a Norman keep erected over a Roman fort in the Castle Quarter of Cardiff, the capital of Wales. The Castle is a Grade I Listed Building.-The Roman fort:...

, Burges designed with "the experience of twenty years learning, travelling and building. The house was to be the "synthesis of his career and a glittering tribute to his achievement". Upon completion, the Tower House was sensationally received and its influence endured. In the 1893 survey of architecture of the last half century, it "was the only private town house to be included . The fireplaces Burges constructed, which, unlike many of the fittings, remain, were a particular tour-de-force, "veritable altars of art..some of the most amazing pieces of decoration Burges ever designed" . The Tower House stands as "the most complete example of a medieval secular interior produced by the Gothic Revival and the last, (representing) the ne plus ultra of domestic Gothic" , described by William Lethaby as "massive, learned, glittering, amazing".

The house is owned by Jimmy Page

Jimmy Page

James Patrick "Jimmy" Page, OBE is an English multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. He began his career as a studio session guitarist in London and was subsequently a member of The Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968, after which he founded the English rock band Led Zeppelin.Jimmy Page...

, ex-guitarist of Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...

 and avid Burges enthusiast. It is not open to the public. Page bought Burges' London residence in the mid-seventies, later commenting in an interview, "I was still finding things 20 years after being there - a little beetle on the wall or something like that, it's Burges' attention to detail that is so fascinating." The house had previously been owned by the Irish actor, Richard Harris

Richard Harris

Richard St John Harris was an Irish actor, singer-songwriter, theatrical producer, film director and writer....

. Colonel T H Minshall DSO, author of What to Do with Germany and Future Germany, owned and lived in the Tower House during the 1920's.

External links

• Victorian Web
• British History Online - Plates 85-89
• British History Online - The Holland Estate Since 1874
• Listed buildings in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
• http://hamiltonauctiongalleries.com/tower-house.htm A photo comparison of Tower House and the St. Anthony Hall
  St. Anthony Hall
  St. Anthony Hall, also known as Saint Anthony Hall and The Order of St. Anthony, is a national college literary society also known as the Fraternity of Delta Psi at colleges in the United States of America. St...
  
   chapter House of Trinity College (Connecticut)
  Trinity College (Connecticut)
  Trinity College is a private, liberal arts college in Hartford, Connecticut. Founded in 1823, it is the second-oldest college in the state of Connecticut after Yale University. The college enrolls 2,300 students and has been coeducational since 1969. Trinity offers 38 majors and 26 minors, and has...
  
  , USA]
• The Arts & Crafts Home website - The Tower House photographs