Asgill House

Richmond Place, now known as Asgill House, is a Grade I listed 18th-century Palladian villa on Old Palace Lane in Richmond, London (historically in Surrey), overlooking the River Thames. The house is on the former site of the river frontage and later the brewhouse for the medieval and Tudor Richmond Palace. It is 8 miles (13 km) from Charing Cross and was built in 1757–58 by Sir Robert Taylor as a summer and weekend parkland villa beside the river for the merchant banker Sir Charles Asgill, who was Lord Mayor of London in 1757–58. It has been described as "among the last villas of importance to be erected on the banks of the Thames". It was returned to its original appearance in a restoration of 1969–70 by the then-leaseholder Fred Hauptfuhrer, aided by Donald Insall Associates. This included removing the Victorian extensions. Asgill House has been leased from the Crown Estate since 1983 by the Asgill House Trust. The trust preserves and maintains this historic house as a heritage asset. The rear garden contained a 200-year-old copper beech tree, one of the Great Trees of London, which had been planted by Mrs Elizabeth Palmer on 4 October 1813 to celebrate the birth of her grandson; the tree died in the winter of 2013/14.