Earlier Houses: The current house is built on the foundations of an earlier Tudor house.

House & Family History: Old Battersea is a fine brick manor house attributed to Christopher Wren (on stylistic grounds; there is no hard evidence) and built on the foundations of an earlier Tudor house. Though the official date is listed as 1699, it's likely the House is earlier, as much as 30 years earlier – possibly erected a few years after the Great Fire. Old Battersea House was once situated in the countryside, with a significant amount of land around it (sold separately by St. John's College when they vacated in the 1920s) and surrounded by lavender fields and watercress beds sloping down to the River Thames. The House is noted today for the exceptional collection of Victorian pictures collected by Malcolm Forbes and his son Christopher that hung throughout the House from 1975 until 2011. Old Battersea had many owners over the years, but it came to notoriety in the mid-1920s, when it was vacated by St. John's College (a training college for Church of England priests) and purchased by Battersea Council, who proposed to demolish the House and erect a block of council flats. The fight to save Old Battersea was led by Col. Charles G. Stirling and his wife, Wilhelmina, who, after an Act of Parliament, succeeded in saving the House, moved in themselves in 1931, renting it from the Council. The Stirlings arrived with a large collection of paintings by Mrs. Stirling's sister, Evelyn De Morgan (1855-1919), together with a collection of ceramics by Evelyn's husband, the famous William De Morgan (1839-1917), and good Jacobean and William Morris (circle of) furniture. Mrs. Stirling lived at Old Battersea House until her death in 1965, just short of her 100th birthday. Before her death she formed the De Morgan Foundation, to which she bequeathed her collection (it is today on view at West Hill Library in Wandsworth). After Mrs. Stirling's death Old Battersea House lay empty and neglected, virtually a roofless shell, until, in 1971, the American publisher Malcolm Forbes leased the House for 99 years from Battersea Council (in the early 21st century the Forbes family acquired the freehold). Mr. Forbes hired the architect Vernon Gibberd to restore the House, which became the Forbes family's London home and housed one of the most important collections of Victorian art in the world. Old Battersea House was a destination for many notables: President and Mrs. Reagan spent the night in the Black Bedroom; Elizabeth Taylor was a frequent guest, staying in the Red & White Bedroom; and Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales, was entertained here. In 2011 the House was listed for sale by Savills with a guide price of £12 million. The contents were auctioned in Edinburgh by Lyon & Turnbull on November 1, 2011.

Collections: On November 1, 2011 the Edinburgh auction firm of Lyon & Turnbull sold the remaining contents of Old Battersea House, for a total of £2.6 million. Highlights included On February 19 and 20, 2003 Christie's London sold the Forbes Collection of Victorian Art, housed at Old Battersea House. The proceeds from the sale totaled £16 million. Dermot Chichester, Chairman of Christie's UK, said at the time of the auction: "The Forbes Collection of Victorian art is remarkable for its breadth and diversity. Every aspect of Victorian painting is represented, from genre to social realism, from biblical and classical themes to fairy painting; these are major works by major artists. Highlights of the sale included "A Harvest Festival" by Lawrence Alma-Tadema for £149,650; John Martin's masterpiece, "Pandemonium," which sold for £1.6 million, against a high estimate of £1.2 million; "Death of the Wild Bull" by Edwin Landseer for £1.2 million; "Boyhood" by John Faed for £237,650; William Powell Frith's "For Better, For Worse" for £259,650; "Worn Out" by Thomas Faed for £259,650, against a high estimate of £200,000; John Morgan's "The Fight" for £259,650; "Leaving Home" by Henry Herbert LaThangue for £666,650, against a high estimate of £500,000; James Jacques Tissot's "Goodbye on the Mersey" for £831,650; "Midsummer Morning" by Henry Scott Tuke for £270,650; "Il Dolce far Niente" by William Holman Hunt, the artist's first ambitious painting of a life-sized figure, for £666,650; Albert Moore's "Lightning and Light" for £468,650; Lord Leighton's monumental marble sculpture "An Athlete Wrestling With a Python" for £446,650; "Mariamne" by John Waterhouse for £666,650; George Frederic Watts's "Sir Galahad" for £127,650; "Chivalry" by Francis Bernard Dicksee for £391,650; Walter Howell Deverell's "Twelfth Night" (Act II, Scene IV), one of the last major Pre-Raphaelite paintings to remain in private hands, for £600,650; "The Prodigal's Return" by Edward John Poynter for £116,650; Marcus Stone's "My Lady is a Widow and Childless" for £116,150; "The Chequered Shade" a joint work by Thomas Sidney Cooper and Frederick Richard Lee for £160,650, against a high estimate of £100,000; "Whitehall: January 30th, 1649" by Ernest Crofts for £47,800; Richard Dadd's "The Haunt of the Fairies" for £47,800; "Love's Shadow" by Anthony Sandys for £133,150, against a high estimate of £80,000' Edith Hayllar's "A Summer Shower" for £358,650, against a high estimate of £200,000; "Cold" by Edward Henry Corbould for £11,950, against a high estimate of £6,000; Simeon Solomon's "A Deacon" for £40,630, against a high estimate of £20,000; "Orpheus and Eurydice" by George Frederic Watts for £204,650, against a high estimate of £70,000; William Edward Frost's "Venus Disarming Cupid" for £38,240, against a high estimate of £15,000; "The Silver Ship" by James Jebusa Shannon for £33,460; John Henry Fuseli's "The Vision of the Deluge" for £100,150; "Lohengrin" by Walter Crane for £20,315, against a high estimate of £15,000; "A Maiden Holding a Book and Flowers" by Edward Reginald Frampton for £19,120, against a high estimate of £12,000; Thomas Cooper Gotch's "Alleluya" for £45,410, against a high estimate of £35,000; "Rose and Blanche(Les Marmitons)" by Charles Hazelwood Shannon for £53,775; Ford Maddox Brown's "Tell's Son" for £47,800; "The Peepshow" by John Burr for £41,825; Mary Hayllar's "For a Good Boy" for £26,290, against a high estimate of £18,000; "A Thing of Beauty is a Joy Forever" by Kate Hayllar for £50,190, against a high estimate of £30,000; Arthur Wardle's "A Comforting Friend in Her Moment of Grief" for £19,120, against a high estimate of £12,000; "A Coming Event" by Jessica Hayllar for £138,650; George Dunlop Leslie's "Five O'Clock" for £155,150, against a high estimate of £80,000; "A Cloud With a Silver Lining" by George Elgar Hicks for £20,315, against a high estimate of £15,000; William Frederick Yeames's "A Cottage Garden" for £14,938; "Bryam's Tryst" by Edward Robert Hughes for £8,365, against a high estimate of £6,000; John William Godward's "Venus Binding Her Hair" for £77,675; Sophie Anderson's "Guess Again" for £38,240; Lord Leighton's "Portrait of Ida, Adrian and Frederic Marryat" for £116,650; Valentine Cameron Prinsep's "La Festa di Lido" for £85,850 and "On the Lido, Venice" for £58,555, against a high estimate of £30,000; "The Washing Place" by John Roddam Spencer-Stanhope for £5,378; James Collinson's "The Holy Family" for £20,315; Thomas Sidney Cooper's "Reposing on God's Acre" for £171,650, against a high estimate of £100,000; "Manlius Hurled From the Rock" by William Etty for £9,560, against a high estimate of £6,000; Edmund Blair Leighton's "Till Death Us Do Part" for £71,700; "The Betrothal of Robert Burns and Highland Mary" by James Archer for £74,090, against a high estimate of £60,000; Joseph Farquharson's "A Winter Evening" for £38,240, against a high estimate of £15,000. The sale also featured drawings, watercolors, and sculpture relating to other works in the collection. Prior to the Forbes' occupation, Old Battersea contained the Stirlings' large collection of paintings by Evelyn De Morgan and a collection of ceramics by William De Morgan, as well as Jacobean furniture and furniture from the circle of William Morris.

House Listed: Grade II*

Park Listed: Not Listed

Current Seat / Home of: Forbes family; here since 1971.

Past Seat / Home of: Sir John Shaw-Lefevre, 19th century. Col. Charles and Wilhelmina Stirling, 20th century.

Current Ownership Type: Individual / Family Trust

Primary Current Ownership Use: Private Home

House Open to Public: No

Historic Houses Member: No