Plaque

These plaques seem to relate to the maintenance and changing ownership of the grounds of "The Holly Lodge". The house (which was between Holly Lodge Gardens and the Holly Terrace section of Highgate West Hill) was built in 1798.

'The Story of Holly Lodge' by Margaret Downing, March 2009, has: "{George} Smart built Holly Terrace ... and below it an unpretentiously pretty villa set in its own 41 acres, two rods and four perches of garden and meadows, and named Holly Lodge (on the site now of 2 and 3 Holly Lodge Gardens)... Sir Henry Tempest bought the lease of the villa in 1808, then sold it two years later to the popular actress Harriot Mellon..."

Harriot had met the wealthy but married Thomas Coutts in 1805 and it seems probably that he bought the house for her. When they married in 1815 they used it as their summer residence, spending winters at their house in Stratton Street. Coutts died at the house in 1822. Harriot remarried to a man much younger than her and in her will left the Coutts fortune, including Holly Lodge, to one of Coutts' descendent but arranged for her husband to to have the use of Holly Lodge for his lifetime. So it was only on his death in 1849 that Holly Lodge became the home of Baroness Burdett-Coutts.

On her death in 1906 it was put on the market, but failed to sell, even with the magnificent development opportunities it offered. Her widower, William, continued to live there and it was after his death in 1921 that it was finally broken up and sold, 1922-3.

At her state funeral in 1906 the Baroness's coffin carried two wreathes: the Queen's lilies and her husband's posy of sweet herbs from "the garden on the hill".

Since the lower two plaques, C & D are identical we have replaced one of their photos with a close-up of the lovely gates.

For a very good description of Holly Lodge do see the Downing publication. and for more on the story of the banker, the actress and the inheritance, see our page for Angela.