Duff House, St John's Wood

For the former seat of the Earls of Fife, see Duff House.

51°32′12″N 0°10′16″W / 51.536772°N 0.1711953°W / 51.536772; -0.1711953 Duff House, St John's Wood is a name dating from the 1910s of a former private house at 43a Acacia Road, St John's Wood, in north-west London. Originally used as a private school running at least from the 1860s to about 1900, it was the site of a YWCA hall during World War I. The hall itself became a noted theatrical venue as the first Mermaid Theatre run by Bernard Miles, when he owned the house.

St John's Wood Proprietary School

Edward Ditcher Ward (1824–1912) was Principal of St John's Wood Proprietary School from 1861 to 1873, address in 1868 in Acacia Road. He then was vicar of Overchurch from 1873 to 1909.[1][2]

The Olivers' school

Henry Alfred Green Oliver (1844–1880) took over in 1873 the St John's Wood School in Acacia Road (no connection with the St John's Wood School of Art). He was educated at Tonbridge School, and was a graduate of Jesus College, Cambridge ordained a priest of the Church of England in 1871.[3][4] The house number was given in 1884 (so after his death) as 44.[5] He was succeeded as headmaster in 1880 by his elder brother George William Oliver (1836–1922), educated at Tonbridge School and a graduate of Christ's College, Cambridge, ordained priest in 1861. He retired in 1901, becoming the following year a curate at St Anselm's, Streatham, from 1882 a chapel of ease of St Leonard's Church, Streatham.[6][7][8] Andrew Stoddart was a pupil at the school, from about 1874, and Kennerley Rumford was an alumnus.[9][10]

Around 1890 Hubert William Ord, working his way to a London University degree, came to teach at the school through an agency, the only assistant master under Oliver and Sidney Jones. In his memoirs he mentioned that the astronomer Henry Park Hollis had taught there. The number of pupils was around 50, half of the peak value. Sons of the artists Onslow Ford and Briton Rivière were there.[11]

In March 1900 the Sesame House for Home-Life Training, Principal Miss Schepel, was being advertised at 43a Acacia Road.[12]

Lilian Duff

Lilian (Selina) Amy Duff (1862–1910) was an associate of Emily Kinnaird and superintendent of Finsbury House in London of the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA).[13] She was a younger daughter of James Duff the Member of Parliament for North Norfolk, and younger sister of Mildred Duff of the Salvation Army. She was called by the Norfolk Chronicle in 1911 "an earnest and devoted Y.W.C.A. worker". It reported that a new YWCA recreation hall in Norwich was being "happily associated" with her name.[14]

In 1917 there was a Duff House YMCA Training Centre at 43A Acacia Road, St John's Wood.[15] The YMCA formally opened Duff House as a National Training Centre in 1918.[16] In 1920 there was a headquarters for Girl Guides in north-west London in Duff House Hall, at 43A Acacia Road.[17] In 1923 a Montessori School class was advertised in Duff Hall, 43a Acacia Road.[18]

Hilda Dederich

The pianist Hilda Dederich (married name Mrs. Hilda Lindars) gave her address as Duff House, 43a Acacia Road during the 1930s.[19][20]

Miles family

The acting couple Bernard Miles and Josephine Wilson bought Duff House at 43a Acacia Road in 1945. They learned of the history of the house as a school from a visit by a son of Henry Alfred Green Oliver.[21] The hall at the back of the house was then in a poor condition.[22] In the late 1940s Miles built in wood a replica of Shakespeare's Globe in the hall.[23]

The conversion of the old school assembly hall into the first Mermaid Theatre was carried out in 1951 by Ernst Freud. He worked with Michael Stringer and C. Walter Hodges.[24] Hodges wrote that the stage "was intended as a free experiment in the Elizabethan style." It worked for Elizabethan drama and Restoration opera. It was in use "for two seasons."[25] While the stage was used, Freud's full conversion of the hall remained unbuilt.[26] The management committee of the theatre was set up around Peter Daubeny, who brought in Ivor Novello, the actor Derek Glynne, and George Bowthorpe.[27]

In the 1951 production of Dido and Aeneas, the baritone Thomas Hemsley made his debut in a major role, with Kirsten Flagstad as Dido.[28] Maggie Teyte sang the part of Belinda,[29] and Arda Mandikian the First Witch.[30] Edith Coates was the Sorceress, and Murray Dickie the Attendant Spirit.[31] The conductor was Geraint Iwan Jones.[32]

Leslie Boyce, then Lord Mayor of London, saw Macbeth performed at the theatre in 1952. At his suggestion, the stage was used the following year, to celebrate the Coronation of Elizabeth II.[33] It was rebuilt outside in the quadrangle at the Royal Exchange, London for a 13-week season. In May 1953 As You Like It was given.[34] This venue was used until 1959, when Miles used a site on Puddle Dock for the permanent home of the Mermaid Theatre.[35] In terms of theatre history and historically informed performance, the Mermaid's thrust stage was a first for London commercial playhouses.[36]

Wilson died in 1990, and Miles in 1991.[23] Within a few years, Duff House itself was demolished for redevelopment work.[37]

Notes

  1. ^ "Ward, Edward Ditcher (WRT843ED)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  2. ^ Crockford's Clerical Directory for 1868. BoD – Books on Demand. 7 May 2022. p. 686. ISBN 978-3-375-01329-5.
  3. ^ "Oliver, Henry Alfred Green (or Greene) (OLVR862HA)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  4. ^ University of Cambridge (1877). Local Examinations: Class Lists. p. 42.
  5. ^ Boyle's court and country guide. April 1884. p. 3.
  6. ^ "Oliver, George William (OLVR854GW)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  7. ^ Hughes-Hughes, Walter Oldham (1893). The Register of Tonbridge School, from 1820 to 1893: Also Lists of Exhibitioners, &c., Previous to 1820, and of Head Masters and Second Masters. London: Richard Bentley & Son. p. 81.
  8. ^ Parish of St Anselm, Streatham , Church of England - AIM25 - AtoM 2.8.2.
  9. ^ Frith, David. "Stoddart, Andrew Ernest (1863–1915)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/36310. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
  10. ^ "The storyteller". Hampstead News. 26 October 1950. p. 8.
  11. ^ Ord, Hubert William (1936). The Adventures of a Schoolmaster. Being the Autobiography of H.W. Ord. With Some Account of the Blackheath Proprietary School, Etc. [With Plates.]. London: Simpkin, Marshall Ltd. pp. 55–56.
  12. ^ "Sesame House for Home-Life Training". Hampstead & Highgate Express. 3 March 1900. p. 8.
  13. ^ "A Woman's Work for Women". Ladies' Field. 16 December 1899. p. 38.
  14. ^ "The Y.W.C.A." Norfolk Chronicle. 28 January 1911. p. 5.
  15. ^ "Where to Live". Common Cause. 21 September 1917. p. 12.
  16. ^ "Forthcoming Events". Hampstead News. 2 May 1918. p. 3.
  17. ^ "Girl Guides". Hampstead News. 18 November 1920. p. 5.
  18. ^ "Montessori Class". Hampstead News. 27 December 1923. p. 6.
  19. ^ R. A. M. Club Magazine No. 98 Mar 1934. 1 March 1934. p. 29.
  20. ^ Fifield, Christopher (22 November 2017). Ibbs and Tillett: The Rise and Fall of a Musical Empire. Routledge. p. 236. ISBN 978-1-351-12534-5.
  21. ^ Theatre Newsletter. Theatre News Service. 1950. p. 1.
  22. ^ Massai, Sonia (9 April 2020). Shakespeare's Accents: Voicing Identity in Performance. Cambridge University Press. pp. 89–80. ISBN 978-1-108-42962-7.
  23. ^ a b Morley, Sheridan. "Miles, Bernard James, Baron Miles (1907–1991)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/49899. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
  24. ^ Welter, Volker M. (1 October 2011). Ernst L. Freud, Architect: The Case of the Modern Bourgeois Home. Berghahn Books. p. 205. ISBN 978-0-85745-234-4.
  25. ^ Hodges, Cyril Walter (1973). The Globe restored; a study of the Elizabethan theatre. New York: Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-00691-9.
  26. ^ Shapira, Elana; Finzi, Daniela (16 October 2020). Freud and the Émigré: Austrian Émigrés, Exiles and the Legacy of Psychoanalysis in Britain, 1930s–1970s. Springer Nature. p. 73. ISBN 978-3-030-51787-8.
  27. ^ Daubeny, Peter (1952). Stage by Stage. J. Murray. p. 111.
  28. ^ Webber, Christopher. "Hemsley, Thomas Jeffrey (1927–2013)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/106921. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
  29. ^ Shawe-Taylor, Desmond. "Teyte, Dame Margaret [Maggie] (1888–1976)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/31750. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
  30. ^ Warrack, John. "Mandikian, Ardaunlocked (1924?–2009)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/101987. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
  31. ^ Mitchell, Ronald Elwy (1970). Opera: Dead Or Alive: Production, Performance, and Enjoyment of Musical Theatre. Univ of Wisconsin Press. p. 189. ISBN 978-0-299-05814-2.
  32. ^ Rose, Michael. "Jones, Geraint Iwan (1917–1998)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/69852. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
  33. ^ O'Shea, K. M. "The City's Theatre - 30 Nov 1962". The Spectator Archive.
  34. ^ Wearing, J. P. (16 September 2014). The London Stage 1950-1959: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. pp. 225–226. ISBN 979-8-216-29146-6.
  35. ^ Law, Jonathan (16 December 2013). The Methuen Drama Dictionary of the Theatre. A&C Black. p. 327. ISBN 978-1-4081-3148-0.
  36. ^ Massai, Sonia (9 April 2020). Shakespeare's Accents: Voicing Identity in Performance. Cambridge University Press. p. 95. ISBN 978-1-108-42962-7.
  37. ^ Tushingham, David (1995). Not what I Am: The Experience of Performing. Methuen. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-413-69010-4.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.