South Place and South Lodge
This section describes the development of the ground
between Rutland Gardens and the floorcloth factory in
Trevor Place, concluding with the joint redevelopment of
most of this site and that of the factory in the 1970s.
South Place
In the nineteenth century the name South Place was the
address of two, and eventually four, houses. It was abolished in 1903, when the houses were renumbered as part of
Knightsbridge. No. 1 South Place was a house attached to
the floorcloth factory built on the Trevor estate in the
1820s. George Shakespear's old house became No. 2 South
Place, and from c. 1845 (when another house was built at
the factory) No. 3. It was the residence from 1801 until his
death in 1811 of the Rev. John Gamble, minister of Trinity
Chapel in Knightsbridge. An authority on telegraphy,
Gamble held several appointments including chaplaincies
to the armed forces, and to the Duke of York, Commanderin-Chief of the army. (ref. 10) From the mid-1820s the house was
occupied by Edward Sterling, known from his leaderwriting as the 'Thunderer of The Times'. A frequent visitor
here was his elder son John, a writer who died young of
consumption and is chiefly remembered as the subject of a
biography by his friend Carlyle. The house is shown on
two aerial views of 1851 (Plates 6b, 7).
Figure 46:
Rutland Gardens and South Place area in the mid-1860s, before development
After his father's retirement in 1843 the younger son,
Anthony Coningham Sterling, took over the house, where
he lived with his wife and his late brother's children. (ref. 11)
By profession a soldier, Anthony Sterling was military
secretary to Sir Colin Campbell (later Baron Clyde) during
the suppression of the Indian Mutiny; he was knighted in
1860.
In 1851 or slightly earlier he constructed a 'studio' in the
garden behind the house, and, having acquired the freehold in 1862, set about turning this building, which seems
to have been known for a while as the 'White Cottage', into
a substantial house called South Lodge. The building in its
presumed original form is clearly discernible in one of the
aerial views published in 1851 (Plate 6b). (ref. 12) No. 3, meanwhile, was taken over by his nephew and heir, John Barton
Sterling, who had now come of age. In 1873 J. B. Sterling
replaced No. 3 with a pair of houses, Nos 3–4 South Place,
one of which became his own residence (see Nos 247–249
Knightsbridge below).
Figure 47:
Rutland Gardens and South Place area in 1906
South Lodge (demolished)
Sir Anthony's architect in the transformation of the 1851
'studio' into South Lodge was Henry Clutton, a member
of the well-known family of surveyors and third cousin to
the distinguished architect of the same name who later
designed the new Kent House. (ref. 13)
(fn. a)
Little is known of the old studio other than that it was of
oblong plan, corresponding to the entrance hall and library
of South Lodge (fig. 48). The work seems to have involved
making a new upper floor, building a large south extension,
and removing the entrance from the north front to the
west. The result, judging from its much later appearance,
was dignified with stucco and classical detail if slightly odd
in its proportions (Plate 69b).
South Lodge was sold by J. B. Sterling in 1871 to Baron
Henry De Worms (later Baron Pirbright), who became a
Conservative minister and a prominent figure in AngloJewish affairs. De Worms extended the house and had
some elaborate decoration carried out, much of it by Continental artists. Henry Petit of Welbeck Street, a young
London architect with strong Continental connections
himself, superintended the various works. (ref. 14)
(fn. b)
Figure 48:
South Lodge, plans in 1967, and diagram showing building phases, 1851–1907. Demolished
In 1877 South Lodge was bought by John Allan Rolls
(from 1892 Baron Llangattock), who, like his contemporary De Worms, became a Conservative MP in 1880.
T. H. Wyatt, Rolls's architect for alterations at his Monmouthshire seat, The Hendre, who looked over South
Lodge for him, had found it unusual and refined, furnished
and decorated 'very much beyond the average of London
houses'. But there were obvious drawbacks to the site,
which was hemmed in and already overlooked by houses on
the as yet only partly built-up Kent House estate. (ref. 16) Over
the years Rolls was able, by dint of considerable expenditure, to alleviate these problems. In 1881 he bought the
vacant ground south of Clifford's four houses in Rutland
Gardens; then in 1882 he purchased No. 3, the southernmost of these 'horrid houses', as he called them, and
demolished it. He used the space to make a side entrance to
South Lodge. This was built over in the 1970s as part of the
South Lodge redevelopment, but the gates, with his initials
prominent in the ironwork, remain (fig. 49). On the vacant
ground, he built a range of stables called Rutland Gardens
Mews. Rolls subsequently further enhanced the outlook
from South Lodge by acquiring and improving the stable
and coach-house (now called Balcony House) at the back of
Rutland House. (ref. 17)
In 1893 Rolls bought the long-vacant ground east of
Kent House, which enabled him to make a new and spacious approach to South Lodge from Knightsbridge, with
imposing gates and a two-storey lodge (fig. 55, Plate 69a).
The finely detailed ensemble, suggestive of extensive
grounds beyond, was designed by the architectural
practice of Boulnois & Warner. (ref. 18) The lodge was demolished
in the 1970s for the South Lodge redevelopment, but the
gates still stand, somewhat overshadowed by the tall
modern block behind them.
Figure 49:
South Lodge, Rutland Gardens entrance, gates erected c. 1882
The interior of South Lodge was rambling and probably
most inconvenient. Figure 48 shows the ground and first
floors as they were in 1967 and had been, in all essentials, in
Rolls's day. The third floor comprised bedrooms and a bathroom, with servants' bedrooms in the south wing. Menservants had their bedrooms in the basement, where the
servants' hall and housekeeper's room were also located. (ref. 19)
Of the decorative work carried out for De Worms, the
painted and gilded ceiling in the first-floor ballroom, or
salon as it was called during Rolls's occupancy, was by John
G. Crace & Son (Plate 70a). The ceiling in the first-floor
ante-room, depicting night, morning and the seasons, was
painted by Kriepenkerl, a pupil of Rahl and Piloti of
Munich. In the drawing-room (Plate 71), the richly ornate
ceiling was painted with representations of the continents
and attributes of the arts and sciences by Eduard
Charlemont of Vienna, a pupil of the fashionable artist
Hans Makart. The rest of the room was decorated by
Kieser, also of Vienna, with Renaissance-style woodwork in
oak and walnut, and large panels of old-gold silk. (ref. 20)
Rolls commissioned some striking decoration himself,
of which the most ambitious was for the Eastern Room,
described below, and he seems to have continued to
improve the house more or less for the rest of his life. The
entrance hall, in 1902 furnished with old oak, but later
redecorated in classical style and lined with columns, led to
an inner hall with the main staircase. This had ornately
carved walnut balustrading incorporating the initial double
letter of his title. (ref. 21)
The room behind the entrance hall, furnished as a
morning room in 1902, was subsequently made into a
library (with ornate brass-pillared bookcases), perhaps as
part of alterations in 1907, when a bow-fronted smokingroom was added on the north side. (fn. c) In the library was a
carved wooden chimneypiece of 1640, and the walls were
covered with Italian leather, also said to be of seventeenthcentury date. (ref. 23) The other large room on the ground floor
was the dining-room, hung with red and gold embossed
leather and a Flemish tapestry. (ref. 24)
Upstairs, the windows of the salon were fitted with mirrored sliding shutters. Strong colours characterized two of
the smaller rooms: crimson velvet for the walls of the anteroom, and a predominantly turquoise-blue scheme in the
Louis Seize-style boudoir or small drawing-room. (ref. 25)
Against these decorative backdrops and some good
furniture and paintings, Rolls displayed a collection of conversation pieces, ranging from a Sedan chair to the fly-swat
with which the Dey of Algiers, by striking the French
ambassador, precipitated the Franco-Algerian War of 1830. (ref. 26)
From the boudoir a few steps led down to the Eastern
Room, which also communicated with the downstairs
dining-room. This Arabian fantasy (Plate 70b) was created for Rolls in 1883 by the decorators H. & J. Cooper of
Soho at a cost of about £736. A certain amount of old
work was incorporated in the scheme, notably pieces of
Musharabeyeh lattice. Persian tiles, and 'two real old Damascus alcoves'. Lattice screening and a fretwork cornice
comprised the main background, the ceiling was tented in
striped Madagascar drapes, and more latticing covered the
'porthole' rooflights. Other hangings were of patterned
muslins, yellow and blue Indian matting, and Persian-style
unglazed chintzes. Red and blue distemper, black marble,
bronze stencilling, green-stained or ebonized furniture,
drapes and upholstery in various sorts of embroidery,
damask, velvet and plush, all added to the variety of
colour and texture. As well as a collection of china, numerous antiques and curios were on display, including
weapons, a Koran stand, mosque lamps, punkahs and a
hookah. A cabinet (to display china and conceal hot-air
pipes) was copied from a piece at the South Kensington
Museum. (ref. 27)
Figure 50:
Rutland Gardens Mews, north elevation. Holland & Hannen, builders, 1882
The Llangattocks lived at South Lodge with their three
bachelor sons and their daughter. The second son, Charles
Stewart Rolls, was the pioneer motorist and aviator who
co-founded the firm of Rolls-Royce. By 1899 he had an
engineering workshop in the stables at the rear of the
house; the business was moved to Fulham in 1902. (ref. 28)
The last member of the family to live here was Lady
Shelley-Rolls, C. S. Rolls's widowed sister, who died in
1961. Uncertainty then overshadowed South Lodge and its
grounds for some years. Plans by Westminster City Council to build a fire station there as part of a comprehensive
redevelopment of the whole site between Rutland Gardens
and Trevor Place were vetoed by the London County
Council as constituting overdevelopment. (ref. 29) Having escaped compulsory purchase, the South Lodge property
was sold by the Shelley-Rolls family in 1967. Shortly afterwards it was acquired by the Royal Academy of Dancing,
which, under its president Dame Margot Fonteyn, had
ambitious plans for the site. South Lodge and its best interiors were to have been refurbished as the Academy's headquarters and study centre, and the outbuildings replaced
by a studio and student accommodation. However, it
proved impossible to raise the money needed and within
weeks of the Academy's taking up residence in 1969 the
scheme had to be abandoned and the property put on the
market. (ref. 30) The Academy remained there until August 1972,
when the site was cleared for redevelopment. (ref. 31)
Rutland Gardens Mems
This group of stables and coach-houses, with living accommodation over (fig 50; Plate 78a), was built in 1882 for J. A.
Rolls of South Lodge, the four units being let by him on
leases or short tenancies. The builders were Holland &
Hannen; the architect's name is not known. (ref. 32) A glazed shelter formerly ran along the inside edge of the quadrangle. (ref. 33)
The South Lodge stables adjoining on the east side, now
demolished, were of broadly similar style and probably
built at or about the same time.
In the 1920s and '30s the buildings were converted into
private dwellings. (ref. 34) A plaque on the wall at No. 2 commemorates two former residents: Dame Margot Fonteyn,
who lived there during the Royal Academy's spell at South
Lodge, and the cellist Jacqueline du Pré.
Nos 247–249 Knightsbridge (demolished)
Known until 1903 as Nos 3 and 4 South Place, these tall
Italianate-style houses were built in 1873 for J. B. Sterling,
on the site of the old No. 3 South Place. They were
designed by J. W. Sanders (fn. d) and erected by T. H. Adamson
& Sons of Putney (who were building houses at about the
same time for Colonel Clifford in Rutland Gardens). (ref. 35)
After the Second World War the two buildings, which
had been knocked together and occupied by a bridge club,
were made into flats (Plate 69c). The cosmetician Helena
Rubinstein had a flat with a roof terrace here in the early
1960s. They were demolished in the early 1970s for the
South Lodge area redevelopment. (ref. 36)
Figure 51:
South Lodge area in 1991. Development by Chapman Taylor Partners, architects, 1974–81
Redevelopment of South Lodge and Nos 243–249
Knightsbridge
The large site occupied by South Lodge, the former floorcloth factory (latterly car-hire depot) in Trevor Place, its
entrance premises at No. 243 Knightsbridge, and the
houses at Nos 245–249, was redeveloped in the 1970s by
Trafalgar House Developments (fig. 51). Of the existing
structures on the site only the two pairs of gates to South
Lodge, in Knightsbridge and Rutland Gardens, and
Balcony House at the rear of Rutland House, were
retained. The architects of the scheme were Chapman
Taylor Partners.
The first buildings to be erected, in 1974–7, were an
office block on the corner of Trevor Place (No. 243
Knightsbridge), and a block of flats (No. 245) called South
Lodge. The others followed in the late 1970s and were
completed by about 1981. They consist largely of two rows
of houses, in Trevor Place and Garden Terrace. Two houses
forming the southernmost part of the development, Nos
44A and 44B Montpelier Square, occupied for some years as
the embassy of Oman, were demolished in 1997 and have
been replaced by a pair of traditional-style family houses.
In Rutland Gardens a period-looking 'cottage' was built on
the site of the side entrance to South Lodge. (ref. 37)
The development was one of the most expensive of its
day in central London, aimed particularly at Middle— and
Far-Eastern buyers. A feature of the show-house in Trevor
Place, fitted out at great expense by Faith Panton of Property Plan, was a 12-metre 'chandelier' of polycarbonate
tubes, containing 600 light bulbs, running through the
house from basement to third floor in the well of the Dshaped staircase. (ref. 38) Externally, the buildings are modern in
style, mostly faced in brick, with some stucco (Plate
58c, d).