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Lowther Lodge is a house in
After Lowther died in 1912, his son sold the house to the Royal Geographical Society. The Society converted the building into its headquarters and commissioned extensions, including the Society's lecture theatre, from G. L. Kennedy and F. B. Nightingale in 1928 to 1930. A further extension, including a new exhibition space, reading room and storage area for the Society's collections, was completed in 2004.
Survey of London entry
(one quarter of the way down the page)
History of Lowther Lodge
(pdf file from Royal Geographical Society website)
Albertopolis: Lowther Lodge
Architecture and history of the building 1872 establishments in England Residential buildings completed in 1875 Grade II* listed buildings in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Grade II* listed houses in London Houses in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Richard Norman Shaw buildings Royal Geographical Society
Lowther Lodge is a house in South Kensington
South Kensington, nicknamed Little Paris, is a district just west of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with ...
, London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, England, immediately south of Hyde Park, which has housed the Royal Geographical Society since 1912.
History
Lowther Lodge was designed byRichard Norman Shaw
Richard Norman Shaw RA (7 May 1831 – 17 November 1912), also known as Norman Shaw, was a British architect who worked from the 1870s to the 1900s, known for his country houses and for commercial buildings. He is considered to be among the g ...
and built between approximately 1872 and 1875. The client was William Lowther, an MP who was a nephew of the Earl of Lonsdale
Earl of Lonsdale is a title that has been created twice in British history, firstly in the Peerage of Great Britain in 1784 (becoming extinct in 1802), and then in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1807, both times for members of the Lowth ...
, the head of the Lowther landowning family of Westmorland
Westmorland (, formerly also spelt ''Westmoreland'';R. Wilkinson The British Isles, Sheet The British IslesVision of Britain/ref> is a historic county in North West England spanning the southern Lake District and the northern Dales. It had an ...
and Cumberland.
After Lowther died in 1912, his son sold the house to the Royal Geographical Society. The Society converted the building into its headquarters and commissioned extensions, including the Society's lecture theatre, from G. L. Kennedy and F. B. Nightingale in 1928 to 1930. A further extension, including a new exhibition space, reading room and storage area for the Society's collections, was completed in 2004.
Architecture
The building is an important example of Victorian Queen Anne architecture, withgothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
influences. The building is also notable for having one of the first passenger lifts in a private house. It is a Grade II* listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
.
See also
*Richard Norman Shaw
Richard Norman Shaw RA (7 May 1831 – 17 November 1912), also known as Norman Shaw, was a British architect who worked from the 1870s to the 1900s, known for his country houses and for commercial buildings. He is considered to be among the g ...
* William Lowther
* Royal Geographical Society
References
{{reflistExternal links
Survey of London entry
(one quarter of the way down the page)
History of Lowther Lodge
(pdf file from Royal Geographical Society website)
Albertopolis: Lowther Lodge
Architecture and history of the building 1872 establishments in England Residential buildings completed in 1875 Grade II* listed buildings in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Grade II* listed houses in London Houses in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Richard Norman Shaw buildings Royal Geographical Society