Dorchester House

Dorchester House was a mansion in Park Lane, London, built in 1853 by Robert Stayner Holford. It was demolished in 1929 to make way for the present Dorchester Hotel.

Lewis Vulliamy, who was a notable architect of that time, was instructed to build a house in which a central staircase was a major feature. The main purpose of the building was to house the extensive collection of paintings that Holford had acquired over many years and at that time were temporarily lodged in a friend's residence in Russell Square. Vulliamy's assistant in this project was Jacob Wrey Mould. The 19th-century architecture critic Clarence Cook attributes the grand staircase specifically to Mould, who undertook that task while Vulliamy was incapacitated. Mould subsequently went on to work with Calvert Vaux on many of the initial buildings and design details of New York's Central Park, very notably, Bethesda Terrace.

A description of the house was provided by a publication of that time.

Dorchester House was one of the more palatial buildings in London at the turn of the twentieth century and was frequently mentioned in publications of the time. The staircase (see picture at right) was a notable feature that received much praise. Guy Cadogan Rothery in his book Staircases and Garden Steps said.

The Magazine of Art described it in the following terms.

The magazine illustrated its description of the staircase with a very detailed drawing (see picture left).

One of the most celebrated inclusions in Dorchester House was the chimneypiece in the dining room sculptured by Alfred Stevens (see picture at right). It was regarded as one of his finest works. The Magazine of Art in 1883 contained the following comment.

Rothery made similar laudatory expressions.

The two figures referred to are shown below.

Even though Stevens was credited with the work, he did not complete it before his death in 1875. The picture below, taken by the Magazine "British Architect" shortly after Stevens' death, shows the incomplete chimneypiece. The Victoria and Albert Museum now have the chimneypiece (picture shown below), and according to them it was finished later by Steven's former pupil, James Gamble.

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