House & Family History: Stanley House was the London home of Richard William Hamilton (1777-1859), antiquarian, diplomat, and Lord Elgin's private secretary (Hamilton was in Egypt when the English took it over from the French and secured the Rosetta Stone). Not surprisingly, Hamilton, in 1815, added a huge new room (the Ballroom, the largest room in the House) to display a frieze of plaster cast reliefs of Lord Elgin's Parthenon marbles (the casts were made under Hamilton's supervision). In 1841 Hamilton sold Stanley House to the National Society, which built St. Mark's College in its grounds, with Stanley House used as the principal's residence. In 1973 the college moved to Plymouth and in 1975 the Greater London Council compulsorily purchased the property, subsequently selling it in 1980 to Chelsea College, which was taken over by King's College, who sold the estate in 1999. Stanley House and other buildings on the estate were converted into residential accommodation in 2000. When the current owners purchased Stanley House in the early 21st century they hired decorator Nicky Haslam to decorate the House, using an early 19th century watercolor of the Ballroom discovered by architectural historian John Harris as a guide for the restoration of that room.
Garden & Outbuildings: Stanley House sits in grounds of one acre, a huge setting for a London house.
Title: World of Interiors, The (magazine)
Author: NA
Year Published: NA
Reference: Mar 2007, pg. 152
Publisher: London: The Conde Nast Publications Ltd.
ISBN: 0264083X
Book Type: Magazine
House Listed: Grade II*
Park Listed: No Park
Current Seat / Home of: Natasha and Konstantin Kagalovsky
Past Seat / Home of: Sir Robert Stanley, 17th century. Henry Arundell, 7th Baron Arundell of Wardour, 18th century. John Jackson, 1754-72. Southwell family, 1773-77. Mary Eleanor Bowes, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne, 1777-80. Lochie or Lochee family, 1780-1815. Richard William Hamilton, 1815-41. Boris Berezovsky, 2002-06.
Current Ownership Type: Individual / Family Trust
Primary Current Ownership Use: Private Home
House Open to Public: No
Historic Houses Member: No