Historical Research

Research related to the history and conservation of Kenwood has been summarised in the unpublished ‘Conservation plan: Kenwood, The Iveagh Bequest’, commissioned by English Heritage in 2011.^[1] This report used the curatorial research files at Kenwood and the well-researched guidebooks to Kenwood, particularly those by former curator Julius Bryant.^[2]

An overview of the early history of the site was published in 1936 in the Survey of London.^[3] Subsequent descriptions of the house and estate before the work of Robert Adam in the 18th century have largely been based on this account, although Lord Bute’s occupancy was detailed in the research of Francis Russell.^[4]

Kenwood and Adam

The Adam brothers’ contribution to the building and interior decoration of Kenwood has been discussed in a number of studies of their work.^[5]

Later History

The later architectural history of Kenwood up to the present day has not been published outside the guidebook, although a number of articles and books touch on the house during various periods of occupancy.^[6]

Collections

The development of Lord Iveagh’s collection and the installation of the Iveagh Bequest at Kenwood are documented in Julius Bryant’s catalogue of paintings.^[7]

Since the 1970s some of the original pieces of furniture designed by Adam and lost to the house at the Kenwood sale in 1922 have been reacquired after detective work on both sides of the Atlantic to discover their whereabouts (see Sources for Kenwood).

Restoration Project

The major refurbishment of Kenwood in 2012–13 involved significant research and discoveries that helped to guide the restoration process. Analysis of the house exterior, for example, revealed the sanded paint (now recreated on the north front) favoured by the 2nd Earl of Mansfield in the 1790s, when the house reached its present form.

Paint analysis of the interiors, and the evidence of bills and an inventory of 1796 in the Mansfield family archive at Scone Palace, made it possible to recreate the original colour schemes in the entrance hall, Great Stairs, ante-chamber and library.

Research Gaps

• The early house 1600–1754: there is a lack of information about the appearance and architectural history of the pre-Adam house and some confusion about its owners and occupants. The earliest known views of it date from 1755 and 1756 (see Sources for Kenwood).
• Dispersal of the Adam contents: the whereabouts of most of the contents originally designed by Robert Adam for his interiors at Kenwood, documented in the 1922 sale catalogue,^[8] are unknown.

Footnotes

1. J Weekes, ‘Conservation plan: Kenwood, The Iveagh Bequest’, 2 vols, unpublished report, The Built Heritage Consultancy/MRDA (2011).
2. J Bryant, The Iveagh Bequest, Kenwood (English Heritage guidebook, London, 1990); J Bryant, Kenwood: The Iveagh Bequest (English Heritage guidebook, London, 2001).
3. G Gater and W Godfrey (eds), Survey of London: The Parish of St Pancras, part 1: The Village of Highgate (London, 1936), 114–32 (accessed 11 October 2013).
4. F Russell, John, 3rd Earl of Bute: Patron and Collector (London, 2004).
5. For example E Harris, The Genius of Robert Adam: His Interiors (New Haven and London, 2001).
6. AT Bolton, ‘Kenwood, Hampstead. The residence of HIH The Grand Duke Michael of Russia’, Country Life, 34, no. 881 (22 Nov 1913), 710–18; R Trevelyan, Grand Dukes and Diamonds: The Wernhers of Luton Hoo (London, 1991).
7. J Bryant, Kenwood: Paintings in the Iveagh Bequest (London, 2003).
8. CB King, Catalogue of choice and valuable furnishings, ... within Kenwood Mansion, Hampstead, including French furniture, furniture designed for Kenwood by Robert Adam (sale catalogue, 6–9 November 1922).