Stratheden House and Rutland Court
This section deals with the west side of Rutland Gardens
north of Kent Yard. Now covered by Edwardian flats, it was
formerly occupied by a single dwelling, latterly known as
Stratheden House.
Stratheden House (demolished)
The mansion which became known in the nineteenth century as Stratheden House was designed by Sir William
Chambers for the politician and army contractor John Calcraft the elder (1726–72), who took a long lease from the
freeholders, William and John Shakespear. (ref. 84) It was built in
1770–2 on a joint contract by Chambers and the decorative
plasterer Thomas Collins. The house is described by
Chambers's biographer as square in plan with a handsome
staircase, but containing only 'a small number of rooms
suitable to the needs of a bachelor' – a somewhat ambiguous description, in view of the fact that Calcraft fathered at
least two illegitimate families. (ref. 85) He owned several estates,
including much of the town of Wareham in Dorset; early
death, however, denied him the chance of settling in at
Knightsbridge. Little is known of the appearance of the
house. Distant views indicate a tall, plain building with a
hipped roof (Plates 6b, 7).
Calcraft's house was for many years the residence of
William Marsh, senior partner in a banking house which
failed in 1824 following embezzlement by another of the
partners, Henry Fauntleroy, who was hanged in consequence, despite widespread protest. (ref. 86) Subsequently the
house was occupied by Lord de Dunstanville, formerly MP
for Penryn, and became known as Dunstanville House.
The best known occupant, however, was Lord Campbell,
Lord Chief Justice in 1850 and later the Lord Chancellor,
and it was from his wife, Baroness Stratheden of Cupar,
that the house took its final name. Campbell bought it from
de Dunstanville's daughter, Baroness Basset, in 1842.
Savouring the view over Hyde Park and air as pure, he felt,
as any in England, he set about his great work, The Lives of
the Chancellors. (ref. 87) Later his view was marred by the erection
of the Crystal Palace. On the closure of the Great Exhibition, Campbell took an active part in the debate on whether
to preserve or demolish the building. 'I have been the
leader of the pulling-down faction', he recorded, 'and our
triumph has covered me with glory, although I have
been scurrilously abused in the newspapers, and at all
the public meetings which have been held'. (ref. 88)
The last occupant was Mitchell Henry MP (1826–1910),
who purchased the freehold of the Stratheden House and
Kent House estate in 1863. Born in Manchester of Irish
stock, he was the son of Alexander Henry, a textile merchant and Liberal MP for South Lancashire. Mitchell
trained and practised as a surgeon, but after his father's
death joined the family firm, A. & S. Henry, and went into
polities, becoming a significant figure in Irish affairs as MP
for County Galway. He also acquired a large estate in Galway, where he built a vast Gothie pile called Kylemore
Castle (now well known as Kylemore Abbey, a Benedictine
convent). The Campbell family, too, had links with Galway,
but whether this had any bearing on Henry's acquisition of
Stratheden House is not known.
Mitchell Henry transformed Stratheden House in keeping with his status as both public figure and connoisseur of
the arts. The work was carried out by the architect T. H.
Wyatt and, as decorator, the architect Frederick Sang.
Most of the ornamentation was Italianate in style, befitting
a collection of furniture and objects d'art which ranged from
an antique bust of Agrippa to a carved settee from a Florentine mansion. The furniture also included modern Italian replicas of originals in the Vatican and the Pitti Palace.
One of the most elaborate rooms was the library, fitted up
with ebonized woodwork and gold mouldings, green silkhung walls, and an ornate ceiling and frieze in Venetian
cinquecento style, embellished with portraits of philosophers and poets. The showpiece of the house was The Pompeian Mother, Giosuè Meli's statue of a woman and child
fleeing from the eruption of Vesuvius. This was displayed
in its own Pompeian-style temple within the house. Among
other items in the Henry collection were a Puck by J. G.
Lough (another example of which is in the V & A) and statuary by Woolf of Rome. (ref. 89)
Possibly as a result of extravagance in building and collecting, Henry's financial position deteriorated; and his life
seems to have been marred by family tragedies. Having
retired as chairman of V. & S. Henry in 1893, he disposed
of all his holding in the firm over the next few years. (ref. 90)
Stratheden House was sold up and pulled down about
1900; the site is now occupied by Rutland Court. Kylemore
was sold at a heavy loss in 1902, (ref. 91) and Henry died a few
years later, leaving barely £400. (ref. 92)
Rutland Court
In 1899 plans were proposed for a block of flats on the site
of Stratheden House. The building, designed by the architect William Isaac Chambers, was to have comprised a
number of balconied apartments, each of fourteen large
rooms. (ref. 93) Nothing came of this scheme, however. In June
1900 the cleared ground was put up for auction but was
withdrawn when bidding failed to go higher than £89,000.
It had been sold, reportedly for £85,000, by September
1901, when work began on the blocks of apartments which
make up Rutland Court. The architect of the new building
was Delissa Joseph, and the builder Henry Lovatt of
Wolverhampton. (ref. 94) The 'developer' was probably the North
British Mercantile Insurance Company, Mitchell Henry's
mortgagee, which was named as the freeholder some years
later. (ref. 95) Finished in 1903, Rutland Court cost £120,000 to
build. (ref. 96)
Figure 54:
Rutland Court, ground-floor plan. Delissa Joseph, architect, 1901–3
Figure 55:
South Lodge, Knightsbridge entrance, gates erected c. 1895
The complex was planned as a mixture of flats and
maisonettes (fig. 54). Faced in red brick and Portland stone,
it has the French-inspired appearance of much of Delissa
Joseph's work and some well-executed ornamental details
(Plate 34). The tall main block fronting Kensington Road,
of nine storeys, is surmounted by a Baroque dome and
cupola; the portico is an attenuated substitute for that
intended, which the London County Council would not
allow. (ref. 97) The blocks to the rear, fronting Rutland Gardens,
are lower in height and much plainer.
The photographer Cecil Beaton occupied a flat in Rutland Court (Plate 111c) for a few years until the outbreak of
the Second World War.