Lowther Lodge
Coordinates: 51°30′05″N 0°10′31″W / 51.5013°N 0.1754°W
Lowther Lodge is a house in South Kensington, London, England, immediately south of Hyde Park, which has housed the Royal Geographic Society since 1912.
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[edit] History
Lowther Lodge was designed by Richard Norman Shaw and built between approximately 1872 and 1875. The client was William Lowther, an MP who was a nephew of the Earl of Lonsdale, the head of the Lowther landowning family of Westmorland and Cumberland.
After Lowther died in 1912 his son sold the house[1] to the Royal Geographical Society, which converted it into its headquarters, commissioning extensions from G. L. Kennedy and F. B. Nightingale in 1928 to 1930, which included the Society's lecture theatre. A further extension, including a new exhibition space, reading room and storage area for the Society's collections, was completed in 2004.
[edit] Architecture
It is an important example of Victorian Queen Anne architecture, with gothic influences.
The building is also notable for having one of the first passenger lifts in a private house. It is a Grade II* listed building.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ "Royal Geographical Society". Royal Institute of British Architects. http://www.architecture.com/LibraryDrawingsAndPhotographs/Albertopolis/TheStoryOf/RoyalGeographicalSociety/RoyalGeographicalSociety.aspx. Retrieved 15 December 2010.
- ^ Details from listed building database (412995) - Grade II*. Images of England. English Heritage.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Survey of London entry (one quarter of the way down the page)
- History of Lowther Lodge (pdf file from Royal Geographical Society website)
- Albertopolis: Lowther Lodge Architecture and history of the building
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