The former home of early 20th-century writer Virginia Woolf has been converted into two townhouses in Richmond, London. The townhouses are now selling for £3.75 million (US$4.91 million) each.
Virginia Woolf is considered a pioneer in the modernist movement of the last century. She and her husband, Leonard Woolf, moved into the house in Richmond in 1915 and lived there until 1924. A detailed account of the history of their Hogarth Press at the Yale Modernism Lab shows that two years later, the couple purchased a hand press and set it up in their drawing room. The company was named after their Richmond home, which was known as "Hogarth House."
While based in Richmond, the Hogarth Press published 40 books, including some that are now considered key texts in the development of the modernism movement, such as works by John Middleton Murry and Sigmund Freud, according to Yale Modernism Lab.
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This year marks 100 years since the Hogarth Press was founded in this building.
"In this centenary year, its significance as the birthplace of the Hogarth Press makes Hogarth House a very special place to call home," said Daniel Hutchins, head of sales at the Savills Richmond, in a news release. The converted townhouses were listed through Savills Richmond in October.
Built in 1750, the Hogarth House received a blue plaque to commemorate the residency of Virginia and Leonard Woolf in 1976. It was bought by property company Berwick Hill Properties in 2012 and it took around two years before planning was granted to restore the building and convert it back into two Georgian residential townhouses, reflecting its layout during the time of the Woolfs’ ownership, according to a news release from Savills Richmond.
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"We knew from day one that this was a very important building," said Jeremy Richardson, director of Berwick Hill Properties, in the news release. The restoration took around 18 months with the intention to keep as many of the original features as possible.
Named as "Leonard" and "Virginia" respectively, the two townhouses were designed to make the most of natural light with high ceilings and large scale rooms. Custom furnishings, bespoke storage solutions and hand-crafted kitchens satisfy all the requirements of modern living while keeping much of the original architecture intact.
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Leonard, which is on the left hand side, has 3,603 square feet of living space spread out across four floors, including four bedrooms, four bathrooms, a drawing room, a family room, a study and a laundry room. It also features an elegant staircase, wall panelling, a hand-crafted kitchen and a rear garden, according to the listing.
Meanwhile, the listing shows Virginia has also been carefully restored and appropriately decorated. The 3,728-square-feet home has four bedrooms, five bathrooms, a drawing room, a sitting room, kitchen/dining room and a study. There is also a dressing room off the master bedroom and a laundry room on the lower ground floor. A courtyard garden in the rear completes the townhouse.