West House is a

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

Queen Anne revival house at 35

Glebe Place Glebe Place is a street in Chelsea, London. It runs roughly north to south from King's Road to the crossroads with Upper Cheyne Row, where it becomes Cheyne Row, leading down to Cheyne Walk and the River Thames. It also has a junction with Br ...

Chelsea, London Chelsea is an area in West London, England, due south-west of Kilometre zero#Great Britain, Charing Cross by approximately . It lies on the north bank of the River Thames and for postal purposes is part of the SW postcode area, south-western p ...

. It was built in 1868–69 by the architect

Philip Webb Philip Speakman Webb (12 January 1831 – 17 April 1915) was a British architect and designer sometimes called the Father of Arts and Crafts Architecture. His use of vernacular architecture demonstrated his commitment to "the art of common ...

, on behalf of the artist

George Price Boyce George Price Boyce (24 September 1826 – 9 February 1897) was a British watercolour painter of landscapes and vernacular architecture in the Pre-Raphaelite style. He was a patron and friend of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Life Boyce was born in ...

. It was extended in 1876 by Webb, and in 1901 by an unknown architect.

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

have described West House as "one of the earliest examples of the Queen Anne Revival style". West House possesses one of the few triple-height ceilings in London.

Residents

The artist

lived at West House from 1870, and died there in 1897.The reason that there were three doors was because Trades people would enter one and models would enter another with the main door being for the family. After Boyce's death, Scottish artists

James Guthrie (artist) Sir James Guthrie (10 June 1859 – 6 September 1930) was a Scotland, Scottish painter, associated with the Glasgow Boys. He is best known in his own lifetime for his portraiture, although today more generally regarded as a painter of Scotti ...

and

Edward Arthur Walton Edward Arthur Walton (15 April 1860 in Glanderston House, Barrhead, Renfrewshire – 18 March 1922 in Edinburgh) was a Scottish painter of landscapes and portraits, associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting. Life Edward was one ...

occupied West House. Guthrie, one of the

Glasgow Boys The Glasgow School was a circle of influential artists and designers that began to coalesce in Glasgow, Scotland in the 1870s, and flourished from the 1890s to around 1910. Representative groups included The Four (also known as the Spook Schoo ...

, who were influenced by Impressionism and who used more realistic and contemporary themes than was usual in

Victorian painting Victorian painting refers to the distinctive styles of painting in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901). Victoria's early reign was characterised by rapid industrial deve ...

, both in his portraiture and landscapes, had his studios there. Walton was a painter of landscapes and portraits. The designer and academic Bernard Nevill bought the house in 1970 for about £80,000 (£ as of ). Nevil lived there until 2011. Nevill taught at

Saint Martin's School of Art Saint Martin's School of Art was an art school, art college in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1854, initially under the aegis of the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields. Saint Martin's beca ...

, and was Design Director for Liberty of London in the 1960s and 1970s. His paintings, furniture and furnishings, which appeared in the 1987 film ''

Withnail and I ''Withnail and I'' is a 1987 British black comedy film written and directed by Bruce Robinson. Loosely based on Robinson's life in London in the late 1960s, the plot follows two unemployed actors, Withnail and "I" (portrayed by Richard E. Gra ...

'' were auctioned by Christie's in 2011, and were anticipated to total about £200,000. The sale total was actually £471,400. West House was bought by the French businessman

François Pinault François Pinault (born 21 August 1936) is a French billionaire businessman, founder of the luxury group Kering and the investment holding company Artémis. Pinault started his business in the timber industry in the early 1960s. Taken public i ...

in 2011 for £20 million. In a subsequent planning application, Pinault proposed the "reinstatement of original features such as the main staircase", with the large studio to have new windows added. Additional proposals include the kitchen, bathrooms and bedrooms to be remodelled.

In popular culture

In the 1987 film ''

'' (portrayed by

Richard E. Grant Richard E. Grant (born Richard Grant Esterhuysen; 5 May 1957) is an Eswatini-born English actor and presenter. He made his film debut as Withnail in the comedy '' Withnail and I'' (1987). Grant received critical acclaim for his role as Jack H ...

and

Paul McGann Paul John McGann ( ; born 14 November 1959) is an English actor. He came to prominence for portraying Percy Toplis in the television serial '' The Monocled Mutineer'' (1986), then starred in the dark comedy '' Withnail and I'' (1987), which wa ...

), the house is Withnail's flamboyantly gay Uncle Monty (

Richard Griffiths Richard Thomas Griffiths (31 July 1947 – 28 March 2013) was an English actor. He was known for his portrayals of Vernon Dursley in the ''Harry Potter'' films (2001–2011), Uncle Monty in '' Withnail and I'' (1987), and Henry Crabbe in '' P ...

)' London home.

References

{{Commons category, West House, Chelsea Grade II* listed buildings in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Grade II* listed houses in London Houses completed in 1869 Houses in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Philip Webb buildings Queen Anne Revival architecture in the United Kingdom 1869 establishments in England