Hogarth House has been split into two townhouses, with Virginia on the right
(Picture: Savills)Virginia Woolf’s former home —and the birthplace of publishing house Hogarth Press— is currently on sale for £3.5 million.
The blue-plaqued townhouse, called Hogarth House, is located on Paradise Road in Richmond, and was home to the writer and her husband Leonard, also an author, between 1915 and 1924.
The Grade II-listed property, dating from 1750, was originally constructed as a single house and converted into two adjacent houses in 1870. This layout has been “painstakingly restored”, with the two townhouses fittingly named Virginia and Leonard. Now, Virginia is on sale.
The couple, who were both part of the Bloomsbury Set —a group of English writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists— split their time between Hogarth House and Monk’s House in Rodmell, Sussex.
In 1917, against the backdrop of the First World War, they established their publishing empire from the drawing room, and went on to publish some 527 titles, including leading works by T S Eliot, Katherine Mansfield and Sigmund Freud.
“I ought to be grateful to Richmond and Hogarth, and indeed, I am grateful,” wrote Woolf in a diary entry from 9 January 1924. “Nowhere else could we have started the Hogarth Press, whose very awkward beginning had rise in this very room. Here that strange offspring grew and throve; it ousted us from the dining room, which is now a dusty coffin; and crept all over the house.”
Hogarth Press began as a hobby, with just a hand press that the Woolfs learned to operate from a 16-page pamphlet. From there, it grew into a world-famous publishing house that championed key modernist writers. In 1938, Virginia Woolf relinquished the business, although Leonard Woolf continued to run it with John Lehmann until 1946. Hogarth continues today under Penguin Random House.
For Woolf, the house carried mixed emotions: when she moved there in 1915, she was recovering from a severe mental breakdown, and was put in the care of professional nurses.
The couple spent the First World War there, which formed an ominous background to their sociable lives. Friends would come for meals at the house or to stay overnight, including figures like Roger Fry, Desmond MacCarthy and Margaret Llywelyn Davies, the General Secretary of the Women’s Co-operative Guild.
At the house, Virginia Woolf wrote her novels Night and Day (1919), Jacob’s Room (1922) and Mrs Dalloway (1925), amongst other works.
Despite the charms of Richmond Woolf missed the noise and bustle of the city, and she andLeonard eventually sold the house to move to 52 Tavistock Square – close to the Bloomsbury Set and round the corner from her sister, Vanessa Bell, in Gordon Square.
Before she left Hogarth House, Woolf wrote: “Nor at the moment can I think of any farewell for this beautiful and loveable house, which has done us such a good turn for almost precisely nine years, so that, as I lay in bed last night, I nearly humanised it, and offered it my thanks.”
After the Woolfs moved, the building was divided into business premises. This was how it was used until 2012, when it was acquired by Berwick Hill Properties, who, together with architects and historic building consultants Donald Insall Associates, spent eighteen months restoring the building and converting it back into two residential townhouses.
Virginia, the property on sale, forms the right-hand side as you face Hogarth House, with Leonard on the left. Leonard was last sold for £3,075,000 in 2018.
Today, the house’s rich history is commemorated with a blue plaque. In Richmond town centre, Virginia covers 3,700 square feet across four storeys, with four ensuite bedrooms, three reception rooms, a study and private patio garden.
Some of the property’s original Georgian features remain in its high ceilings, elegant staircase and panelled main rooms.
The courtyard garden, meanwhile, was designed by RHS Chelsea medal winner Heather Appleton.
According to Daniel Hutchins, head of Savills’ Richmond office, the home is well-suited to families, or those splitting their time between home and the office. He says: “We are delighted to be bringing Hogarth House to the market.
“Having been meticulously refurbished, Hogarth House offers the very best of modern living and is a great turn-key home.
“Steeped in an incredible history, this property also offers a rare opportunity to own a very special piece of literary provenance.”
Indeed, as she prepared to leave Hogarth House in 1924, Virginia Woolf wrote from her bedroom: “[I have never] complained of Richmond, ‘til I shed it, like a loose skin.
“I’ve had some very curious visions in this room too, lying in bed, mad, and seeing the sunlight quivering like gold water on the wall. I’ve heard the voices of the dead here. And felt, through it all, exquisitely happy.”
Hogarth House is listed with Savills for £3.5 million.
