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Saturday 29 April 2017

A-Z Challenge 2017 - Houses, some real, some not - 'Y'

Y - York House

Having 'cheated' slightly on 'X' I was thinking of doing the same for 'Y' by posting on the royal members of the House of York.

But as you might expect there are many houses in England call 'York House'. The one I have chosen is one at the home of rugby in Twickenham.


York House, Twickenham
(!7 January 2015, by Jim Linwood - CC BY-SA 2.0)
This historic stately home currently serves as the Town Hall for the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.

It occupies part of the site belonging from at least Tudor times to Yorke Farm; its name derives from that family.

Over the centuries the house passed through several owners after Queen Elizabeth I and King Edward VI granted Yorke farm to members of their household.

In 1897 the house was sold to the Duc of Orleans who had been a Pretender to be King of France, but by 1906 it was acquired by an Indian merchant Prince, Sir Rata J Tata. He was to be the last private owner.

Subsequently in 1924 the property was purchased by Twickenham Urban District Council. In August 1926, Twickenham received its Charter of Incorporation and in November the new borough held its first council meeting in York House. Appropriately the building was officially opened by the Duke of York (later George VI) on 16th November 1926. 

6 comments:

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Bob - how interesting and at the end to note there's a connection with the Tata family - I'll have to look further about that after the A-Z ... cheers - looks pretty impressive ... Hilary

http://positiveletters.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/y-is-for-y-artists.html

FinnBadger said...

Fascinating that it has been over 90 years since it was privately owned. I love the part with the glass roof - the conservatory, perhaps?

Phillip | Y is for Year of the Monkey | Y is also for Yellow

Deepa said...

I wonder, how do you know such much about the fascinating houses?/

A Peice Of My Life

sage said...

Didn't know that the British housed a pretender to the French throne, but I supposed that's payback for the French providing refugee for Bonnie Prince Charles... A beautiful building.

http://sagecoveredhills.blogspot.com

Jo said...

Another fascinating house Bob.

Kristin said...

Two Yorks for one.

Finding Eliza