1) Grosvenor House was first recorded in 1831 as part of the new development of Grosvenor Square. The merchant William Oke is listed as its occupier in 1835. As a landowner in the district and owner of the nearby Grosvenor Mews, he may have been responsible for its original building. The house was later numbered 4 Grosvenor Square. Subsequent occupiers included General Archibald Dyce, the electrical engineer (later Sir) William Henry Preece and the Quaker corn merchant William C Westlake, succeeded by his widow Elizabeth. The property ceased to be known as Grosvenor House on the departure of Mrs Westlake in the late 1890s. The house was subsequently known as The Latimers and by 1948 as Latimer House.
Grosvenor House was one of the finest Georgian houses in the area. When it was sold, by order of the trustees of the late General Dyce, by auction in August 1868, it was described as a “handsome and convenient” residence, comprising large drawing and dressing rooms, ante-room, library, nine bed and two drawing rooms, bath room and very extensive kitchen, laundry and other offices, fitted with every modern appliance, and large vaulted cellars. It was sufficiently large to allow one of its subsequent owners, W C Westlake, to host annual general meetings of the Southampton Penny Bank - of which he was honorary secretary - in the house. A particular feature of the property was its extensive and beautiful pleasure grounds and gardens, extending over 1 acre and 2 roods, and with a 300-foot frontage on to Grosvenor Square. General Dyce had been a frequent exhibitor of produce from the garden at horticultural shows in Winchester and Southampton. Temperance teas, sometimes with 100 guests, were held in the gardens by William Westlake, a noted temperance advocate, in the 1870s. It is Grade II listed.
2) In the early 1900s (by 1903 at least), Miss Julia Mocatta moved her nursing home and private nurses' institution from Norfolk House in Cumberland Place to a large property on the east side of Grosvenor Square (image 3). This she renamed Grosvenor House (the original Grosvenor House having changed its name by this time; see above). It closed in the late 1920s and the area was later redeveloped.
1. Grosvenor House
Photograph, c.2000
2. Grosvenor House
Grosvenor House as it looked in the 1940s.
3. The Second Grosvenor House
The second Grosvenor House photographed c.1905
see also
Navigation
Browse A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y-Z
Get Involved
If you wish to
- suggest additional information for this entry
- suggest amendments to this entry
- offer your own research
- make a comment
then fill in the form on the Contact page.