LONDON’S “FINEST HOUSE"

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 96, 19 February 1947, Page 3

LONDON’S “FINEST HOUSE"

SOLD FOR £300,000 PURCHASED FROM LORD DERBY One of London’s finest show houses—Derby House, within a stone’s throw of Oxford Street, where Christie’s have sold millions of pounds worth of treasures —is to have a new tenant. Mr Walter Hutchinson, the publisher and racehorse owner, has bought it from Lord Derby for about £300,000. And when Christie’s the auctioneers, move out next summer, Mr Hutchinson will use Derby House as a permanent art gallery in which to exhibit his collection of nearly 3000 sporting paintings and prints. Mr Hutchinson, who is 59, is founder of the National Gallery of British Sports and Pastimes. Recently he paid £43,050 for Constable’s “Stratford Mill,” an angling picture.

“I am sure nothing v/ould give Lord Derby more pleasure than that this collection of pictures should be permanently exhibited at Derby House,” said Mr Hutchinson. “The house has several magnificent galleries admirably suited to the exhibition. of paintings. “I could sell my collection to America by telephone today for £500,000 but it is one of my hobbies.” Derby House, which has been in Lord Derby’s possession since 1909, has been described as the finest and most dignified private house in London.

It is in Stratford Place, off Oxford Street—halfway between Oxford Circus and Selfridge’s,