Private Houses

Jan 26th, 2011 | | Private Houses | 7 Comments

Maids of Honour Row, Richmond

No 1 Maid's of Honour Row

Maids of Honour Row is ‘an excellent, entirely uniform, terrace’ of four three story houses each five windows wide with a parapet hiding the roof. They have distinctive pink “rubbed” brick dressings to the windows, set off by white-painted sash windows, keystones and cornices. The Row was built on the site of Henry VII’s Palace at Richmond, just beside the entrance gate.

It appears that the four houses were built as a speculative development by Thomas Honour, a carpenter, and that they were occupied by 1719. Two of them were rented by the Prince of Wales (the future George II) for his wife’s Maids of Honour.1

It is further understood that ‘The poor rate books survive from 1726, when the Maids of Honour were first recorded as paying rates’ and that rates continued to be charged until 1737 when it was noticed that they [the Maids of Honour] occupied the two middle houses.2

The maids received a stipend of £200 per year in addition to their board and lodgings in these houses. The rate books of 1780 and 1790 show that No 1 was occupied by Dr John Worgan (1724-90), organist of Vauxhall Gardens and of several London churches. Colonel Joseph Burton was a sub-tenant of that house in 1831, when his son Richard Burton, the explorer, attended Dr Delafosse’s school on Richmond Green.

Maids of Honour Row

Maids of Honour Row


In Charles DickensGreat Expectations Estella came to London to be introduced to aristocratic society by a Mrs Brandley who lived here.

No 1 was one of my first projects. I was asked to provide advice on the use of paint and colour for the interior.

Recently I had the pleasure of being asked to help a subsequent owner with paint colours in this house. Although I had only a dim memory of the main rooms it was wonderful to see the house again.


NOTES
1 Sally Jeffery. The Building of Maids of Honour Row, Richmond. The Georgian Group Journal Vol.XV111 2010. 65-76.
2 I am grateful to Hilary Barnfather for pointing out Sally Jeffery’s article to me.



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Comments (7)

Reply
junoNo Gravatar » 02. Mar, 2011

I googled the address and up came the house my Swiss grandmother worked at in the early 1900s!

Reply
PatrickNo Gravatar » 03. Mar, 2011

It’s a small world.

Reply
Kerry WorganNo Gravatar » 12. Aug, 2011

Dr. John Worgan was my g-g-g-g-g-grandfather, pretty cool that I can see where he lived over 200 years ago!
Thanks for posting the picture and the history associated with the house.

Kerry

Reply
PatrickNo Gravatar » 12. Aug, 2011

Kerry I am delighted that you were able to make the connection. Thanks.

Reply
Richmond Green | Patrick Baty – Historical paint consultant » 04. Jan, 2015

[...] survive at Abbotsdene on the Green, and in Palace Place. Of particular note on The Green is Maids of Honour Row, a terrace of houses built during the reign of George I to serve as lodgings for the Maids of [...]

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Hilary BarnfatherNo Gravatar » 05. Apr, 2019

Maids of Honour Row was built as a spec and was occupied by 1719 (not 1724) and not built for the Maids of Honour altho the Crown did rent 2 of them for a short time. The builder was Thomas Honour!
Please see the the article The building of Maids of Honour Row, Richmond by Dr. Sally Jeffery in Richmond History Journal of the Richmond Local History Society 2011 number 32
Also in The Georgian Group Journal Vol.XV111 2010

Reply
PatrickNo Gravatar » 06. Apr, 2019

Many thanks for your information. Corrections made.