Wikipedia:Today's featured article/May 1, 2015

Front of the Tower House

The Tower House in London's Holland Park district of Kensington and Chelsea is a late Victorian townhouse, built between 1875 and 1881 by the architect and designer William Burges as his personal residence. Designed in the French Gothic Revival style, it was described by the architectural historian J. Mordaunt Crook as "the most complete example of a medieval secular interior produced by the Gothic Revival, and the last". The exterior and the interior echo elements of Burges's earlier work. The house was built of red brick, with a distinctive cylindrical tower and conical roof, by the Ashby Brothers, with interior decoration by members of Burges's long-standing team of craftsmen including Thomas Nicholls and Henry Stacy Marks. The house retains most of its internal structural decoration, but much of the furniture, fittings and contents that Burges designed have been dispersed. Many items, including the Great Bookcase, the Zodiac Settle, the Golden Bed and the Red Bed, are now in institutions such as The Higgins Art Gallery & Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. It was designated a Grade I listed building in 1949. (Full article...)

Recently featured: