Woodland House

For the Georgian villa in south-east London, see Woodlands House. For Woodland House Wonderful, see List of Bear in the Big Blue House episodes.

Woodland House
Woodland House
LocationHolland Park, W14, London, England
Coordinates51°29′59.51″N 0°12′10.02″W / 51.4998639°N 0.2027833°W / 51.4998639; -0.2027833
Built1876–77
ArchitectRichard Norman Shaw
Architectural style(s)Queen Anne style
Governing bodyAs of 2013, leasehold privately owned, freehold owned by the Ilchester Estate[1]
Listed Building – Grade II*
Official nameWoodland House
Designated29 July 1949[2]
Reference no.1188804
Woodland House is located in Greater London
Woodland House
Location of Woodland House in Greater London

Woodland House is a large detached house at 31 Melbury Road in the Holland Park district of Kensington and Chelsea, West London, England. Built from 1875 to 1877 in the Queen Anne style[3] by the architect Richard Norman Shaw, it is a Grade II* listed building.[2] Commissioned by the painter Luke Fildes,[4] Woodland House is next to William Burges's Grade I listed Tower House.[4]

Originally 11 Melbury Road, the house was renumbered as 31 Melbury Road in 1967.[5] It was the second of two houses in Melbury Road designed by Shaw, the first, 8 Melbury Road, was designed for another painter Marcus Stone.[5] Fildes and Stone were artistic rivals and each naturally regarded their own Shaw-designed house as superior.[5] Of the construction of Woodland House Fildes wrote in November 1876 that "The house is getting on famously and looks stunning ... It is a long way the most superior house of the whole lot; I consider it knocks Stone's to fits, though of course he wouldn't have that by what I hear he says of his, but my opinion is the universal one."[5] Fildes moved into the house in October 1877 and it remained his home until his death there in February 1927.[6] In 1959, the London County Council commemorated Fildes at Woodland House with a blue plaque.[7]

Woodland House was later the home of the film director Michael Winner.[8] His father purchased the lease for the property after the Second World War and, buying the outstanding lease from his father in 1972, Winner lived at the house until his own death at the house in 2013. It was subsequently purchased by the singer Robbie Williams.[9]

  1. ^ "Owning swans is a privilege only one landowner shares with the Queen". The Evening Standard. Retrieved 23 January 2013.
  2. ^ a b Historic England. "Woodlands House (1225541)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 22 January 2013.
  3. ^ Cherry/Pevsner 2002, p. 510.
  4. ^ a b Christopher Hibbert Ben Weinreb; John & Julia Keay (9 May 2011). The London Encyclopaedia (3rd ed.). Pan Macmillan. pp. 539–. ISBN 978-0-230-73878-2. Retrieved 21 June 2012.
  5. ^ a b c d Sheppard, F.H.W. "The Holland estate: Since 1874. Survey of London: Volume 37, Northern Kensington". British History Online. London County Council. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
  6. ^ *Davis, Janet E. "Fildes, Sir (Samuel) Luke". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/33127. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  7. ^ "FILDES, Sir Luke (1844-1927)". English Heritage. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  8. ^ "Interview: Michael Winner on collecting Donald McGill". The Arts Desk. Retrieved 1 July 2012.
  9. ^ Leon Watson (3 November 2016). "Robbie Williams calls in healer 'to drive out spirit of Michael Winner' from £17.5m house". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 10 January 2017.