Photograph of the Pagoda House, St James' Lane, Winchester
Taken about 1870
The Pagoda House was built in the 1840s as a country cottage for Richard Andrews, coachbuilder and five times Mayor of Southampton; at that time there were still open fields on the south-west side of Winchester. Here the Mayor entertained his guests including the Italian politician Garibaldi and the Hungarian revolutionary and prime minister Kossuth.
Trade with China was developing during the first half of the nineteenth century and Chinese design was in fashion. Two decades later the house still maintained an oriental air with its striking fishscale tiles, chinoiserie glazing and balcony, although some of the more extravagantly Chinese style decorative features depicted in an early engraving of the building had been removed.
The photograph was taken by Winchester photographer William Savage (1817-87) and is found in an album entitled 'Hampshire Views of Churches, Country Houses and Public Buildings'.
