Luxury Hotels Atlas / Places / United Kingdom / Richmond / The Petersham
The Petersham
Richmond, United Kingdom · Independent · Near Luxury
John Giles, fresh from the Langham, finished this in 1865 on Nightingale Lane: florid Italian Gothic, on the site of Nightingale Cottage, named for the birds Wordsworth wrote about. A Portland stone stair rises under a ceiling Ferdinando Galli painted in 1866, Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian and Annibale Carracci looking down. The Dare family bought it in 1978, when it was still the Star and Garter, and named it Petersham. Dinner looks over Petersham Meadows to the Thames bend, a view an Act of Parliament has kept since 1902.
- 61 rooms
- Opened 1865
- Neighborhood: Richmond Hill
- Architect: John Giles
About The Petersham
- The house has worn a stack of names: The Mansion from 1877, the New Star and Garter from 1922, then Nightingale Hall when the Bank of England used it as a staff hostel from 1945 to 1951.
- A sale brochure of 1866 shows a dining room, a ballroom and several suites, and only two bathrooms. The house now counts sixty-one.
- In the 1960s the owners tried to replace the Victorian building with an 18-storey tower. Planning permission was refused.
- The car park is common land leased in 1810 so the owner of Nightingale Cottage could lengthen his garden. The lease says it cannot be built on.
History
A cottage of about 1650 was rebuilt in the 1770s as Nightingale Cottage, later Ashburnham Lodge, on the strip between Richmond Hill Common and Petersham Common. The Richmond Hill Hotel Company bought it in 1863 and hired John Giles, architect of the Langham. The hotel was finished in 1865, the same year as E. M. Barry's French-chateau wing of the old Star and Garter higher up the hill. It was The Mansion from 1877, the New Star and Garter from 1922, the Bank of England's Nightingale Hall from 1945, and the Star and Garter again from 1951. Colin Dare bought it in 1978 and renamed it The Petersham. The family still owns it. A river-facing restaurant was built out in 1957, and a bedroom wing went up in 1971-72, hidden by the trees of Petersham Common.
The setting
Nightingale Lane runs down Richmond Hill between what is left of the two commons. The Rose of York, lower down, occupies the old stables. The view over Petersham Meadows to the bend in the Thames is the one protected in 1902 and renewed a century later. Turner painted this country from Twickenham, and Reynolds had Wick House built nearby. The Terrace walk at the top of the lane was laid out about 1700.
Restaurants and bars
- The Petersham Restaurant — Restaurant · British
- Rose Of York Pub & Hotel — Bar · Pub
- Eileen’s at Buccleuch Gardens Cafe — Café · Coffee shop
Open The Petersham in the atlas for live weekend rates, photos, and the full folio.
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