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Old Battersea House is one of the oldest buildings in Battersea, and is Grade II* listed. It was built around 1699, and was once rumoured to have been designed by Sir Christopher Wren.
Building
The building was known until the 1930s as Terrace House. It was built for the "naval administrator" Samuel Pett, probably completed in 1699.
Battersea Council almost demolished the house in the 1920s and built St John's estate (now Battersea Village) on the grounds of the house in the 1930s. In 1931 it passed into the possession of novelist Wilhelmina Stirling, who renamed it Old Battersea House. Under her tenure the house served to house her collection of art by her sister, the Pre-Raphaelite painter Evelyn De Morgan, and her Evelyn's husband, the potter William De Morgan. This collection is now kept by the De Morgan Foundation.
The building was listed on 28 June 1954 and became derelict after Stirling's death in 1965. It was acquired by Malcolm Forbes in 1970, and housed some of his family's valuable art collection until 2011.