St Helena Terrace BG
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Places in History is an ongoing project. It uses placemarks in Google Maps to identify the exact position of a building, street or other feature, with a satellite view of the location. The maps link to pages in HistoryWorld for historical details and images, and to timelines in TimeSearch for a broader range of data.
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Places in History
St Helena Terrace – Images
Alexander Herzen, by Nikolai Gay
Doukhobor Genealogy
Herzen left Russia in 1847 and was in England from 1852 to 1865. He lived at three addresses in the borough - St Helena Terrace in 1854, Richmond House in Twickenham in 1854-5 and Elmfield House in Teddington in 1862-4.
Twickenham Museum
Postcard of Ellaline Terriss, signed by her, c. 1902
Wikipedia
Ellaline Terriss lived in St Helena Terrace until 1964. She died in a Hampstead nursing home in 1971, two months after her hundredth birthday.
(Local knowledge and DNB)
Auction document (detail), Richmond 1833
(Richmond Local Studies)
The land being auctioned was part of what was once a friary of the Observant Friars, established by Henry VII and completed in about 1509. The friars were evicted in 1534 by Henry VIII and their land, which had remained Crown property, was offered for sale by William IV on 14 May 1833. Lot 6 (the one on the right in this detail of the ground plan), was the area used for the construction of St Helena Terrace. It was bought by Mr Downes - one of the owners of the five boathouses shown on the plan (RUTLS and Cloake 1)
The first appearance of St Helena Terrace, seen on the right
(Views at Richmond and its Vicinity, engraved by W.B. Cooke, London 1837)
BG This detail from a print, published in a book of 1837, is the reason for dating St Helena Terrace c. 1835 – between the publication of the book and the auction catalogue of 1832 advertising the site for sale.
However, there is a very misleading date on the print itself, 1832. And the reason is a cautionary tale in the use of topographical prints.
W.B. Cooke was a prolific publisher of prints of Richmond, and he was naturally eager to provide visiting tourists with an up-to-date souvenir of their day by the river. One such print no doubt sold well because it showed the river downstream from the bridge, a view seen by many on a day out. Cooke published it in 1832 as an unmounted print for the price of sixpence. But by around 1835 visitors would have begun to complain that a handsome new terrace on the south bank was missing from the image. So Cooke sent the plate back to the workshop, where the surface was beaten flat again in that area. The new terrace was then etched in. For good measure, Cooke paid a little extra to have the trees on the island extended to match their recent growth. But he felt there was no need to go to the extra expense of changing 1832, the date on the original print, to 1837.
In 1848 a further correction was needed. A famous new railway bridge (the first over the Thames) was by then a central feature when looking downstream. So Cooke sent the plate back for that to be added, and again included the new growth of the trees. But the date is still 1832.
The two views below are the related sections of the print in 1832 and 1837
Two free-standing buildings on the right bank in 1832
(W.B. Cooke, Cooke's Views at Richmond, London 1831-2)
St Helena Terrace has been etched in their place by 1837
(Views at Richmond and its Vicinity, engraved by W.B. Cooke, London 1837)
Map
List of places already entered
Richmond and Sheen timeline
Sources
Contributors to this page BG (RLHS)
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