LXIX—TAVISTOCK HOUSE
The position of this house is clearly shown on Davies' Map of
St. Marylebone (1834). It was built by James Burton, and while he was
developing this area he appears to have occupied the house himself. Burton
obtained leases, from the Duke of Bedford, of two plots of ground adjoining
the gardens of the houses that formed the east side of Tavistock Square.
The lease of the southern plot was dated 8th May, 1800, and was for 98
years from Christmas, 1795. That of the northern plot was dated 10th
February, 1801. Two roads were projected in continuation of the north
and south sides of the square, Tavistock Place North and Tavistock Place
South, to give frontages to the property, but only the southern street was
made. On the northern plot and part of the southern Burton built his house
within an ample garden. In 1805 Burton sold the lease to Thomas Murdock,
who resided here for some time. He sold the lease in 1811 to Benjamin
Oakley, who transferred it to James Perry in 1812. (ref. 94)
Figure 26:
Tavistock House
The building faced north and south and was approached by a drive
that was a continuation of the northern walk of the square, just below Upper
Woburn Place. Mr. E. J. Barron, writing at the time of its demolition (ref. 95)
(1901), says that Tavistock House was then one of a block of three houses
into which the original house had been divided, its neighbours on the east
being Bedford House and Russell House. There was an iron fence and
gates (to the drive) leading into a front court with carriage sweep and centre
bed before the three houses. Before it was divided it was the town house
of James Perry (1756–1821), the journalist, who, as noted above, bought
the lease in 1812. He was the first editor of the European Magazine, and
edited the Morning Chronicle with conspicuous success. Later Charles
Williams, stockbroker, a friend of Perry's, lived in the house and published
a volume of private letters and portraits of his family. (ref. 95) Perry had bequeathed
the house to his nephew Thomas Bentley and it was acquired eventually
by George Henry Robins of Covent Garden, auctioneer, who probably
divided it into three.
Charles Dickens moved into Tavistock House (the western section
after its division) in 1851. Here he wrote Bleak House, Hard Times, and
Little Dorrit, and it was here he got up the amateur theatricals which are
described in Forster's Life. In 1856 Dickens bought Gadshill Place but he
did not part with Tavistock House until 1860, after his daughter Kate's
marriage. He sold the lease to William Spencer Johnson and William Bush. (ref. 94)
Mrs. Georgina Weldon lived here later and had classes for the
cultivation of the voice. Mr. Cansick says that Charles Gounod lodged
with the Weldons and that the Gounod Choir met here weekly.
A woodcut of the house appears in Forster's Life of Charles Dickens.
Photographs of the building are in the Collections of the St. Pancras Public
Library and of the Council. For further particulars see The Dickensian,
XXII, No. 1 (Jan., 1926), p. 48, and XXVIII, No. 221 (Winter, 1931/32),
p. 39 (photograph).