Corunna House, No. 165 Hammersmith Road

LVII.—CORUNNA HOUSE, No. 165 HAMMERSMITH ROAD

Ground landlord, leaseholders, etc.

The house is occupied by the London Laundry.

General description and date of structure.

Corunna House is a simple Georgian building of three storeys dating back to the early years of the 18th century; it stands some distance back from the road, and has a good iron gateway with arch and lampholder above. The front walls of the ground floor are cemented to imitate stonework with rusticated joints. The original window frames and sashes remain, while the rooms in the roof are lighted by two dormers.

The principal feature of the interior is the staircase with continuous moulded string and slender turned balusters. The newels are treated as columns in the lower part of the stair and the handrail is ramped over them in the usual way. Above, however, the earlier method is used of a square newel, turned only beneath the handrail.

Condition of repair.

Good.

Historical and biographical notes.

In 1863 Eleanor Page Jago, wife of Francis Robert Jago, inherited from her husband two properties: (1) Corunna House, copyhold, and (2) Trejago, held on lease of three lives, both being held of the Bishop of London as lord of the manor. The copyhold property is thus described in Eleanor Jago's admission: "all that cottage or tenement in which Jane Chapman formerly dwelt, afterwards in the possession of Madam Smith, since of Mr. Plunkett, afterwards of Mr. Harrop, and after that of Mesdames Notre and Frith, near the Red Cow." Earlier entries can be traced in the Court Rolls as far as 1749, when John Smith Weston surrendered "the cottage near the Red Cow in which Jane Chapman formerly dwelt, afterwards in the possession of Madame Smith and late of Mr. Plunkett, with the colehouse and parcel of land belonging." Thereupon George Lewis was admitted, and in 1796 Mary, his widow, dies seised of the premises, which pass to John Francis Bell. At the latter's admission Mr. Harrop is mentioned as tenant. The admission of Francis Robert Jago was not until 1835.

In the Council's ms. collection are:

(fn. 1) Staircase (measured drawing).

Staircase (photograph).