The Tower House

LOCATION : The Tower House located in No 12, Melbury road, near to Design Museum and Holland park. You can enter the Holland park road from Kensington High Street road or directly from Addison road and from Holland park.

This mini castle with a tower was built in 1877 by William Burges, a well-known Victorian architect, as a home for himself. It has had many famous owners down the years.

In the 1920’s the house had belonged to Colonel T. H. Minshall, DSO, a well known newspaper and magazine magnate, and also the father of Merlin Minshall, the man Ian Fleming modelled his James Bond character after.

In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s the house belonged to the Irish actor and hell-raiser, Richard Harris.

Famous guitarist and music producer Jimmy Page is the present owner of the Tower House.

The Ghost story behind the Tower House:

Harris claimed that the building was haunted by the spirit of a small child. Before purchasing the house he had employed a professional burglar to break in to his home to see how “burglar-proof” it was. On entering the empty mansion the burglar was startled to hear the sound of a child crying in one of the upstairs rooms. After locating the room he was about to enter when the crying ceased.

The actor became obsessed by what the burglar had told him and carried out some research of his own. This led him to believe that a small child had been buried somewhere in the tower. Harris subsequently formed a relationship with the ghostly child and would frequently reprimand it for often awakening him in the middle of the night. In response to Harris’s angry outbursts the ghostly child would scamper about the stairs of the tower slamming doors. This became particularly irritating when Harris was trying to learn his lines for the film Cromwell and in an angry outburst cried out, “If you don’t shut up I’ll get a priest in to exorcise you!” This seemed to quell the spectral brat for a time. But it wasn’t until Harris built a nursery at the top of the stairs to the tower, and filled it with toys and games, that the child’s noisy antics calmed down.

As the present owner of the Tower House is Jimmy Page, of Led Zeppelin fame, the noisy child may have to compete with some of Jimmy’s ear-splitting guitar solos.

("The Ghost story behind the Tower House" copied from "GHOST WALK OF THE LANES". )

Beautiful house which has a very assiduous custodian at present, Mr James Page, who is rightfully seeking to protect this architectural delight with it's magnificent interiors from ghastly nearby developments that could undermine the fabric of Tower House.
Sadly, no matter how rich or poor one is, ''problem neighbours'' exist.
Hopefully Tower House will remain safe for future generations.

Tower House is a private home and not open to the public.

A masterpiece and great contribution in the history of architecture

Great place to view...lots of blue plaques around as well!

Tower Roofing Services Ltd team came to quote, and was fantastic, professional, and took time to give direct answers to all our questions. Gave a high specification for a replacement garage roof, and a reasonable price. Work was completed to a high standard, and the site was left neat and tidy afterwards. Very pleased with the workmanship.....

Gorgeous, historic, much-loved home of Jimmy Page. He's been its owner since 1971.

If you Google image search you can see inside this stunning historically beautiful building. I particularly like that you can easily see and even walk up to the front door of Jimmy's house and yet the preposterous Robbie Williams lives next door and he seems to think it necessary to live behind a huge wall and hedges. I know who is the more famous and respected musician Robbie and it ain't you!

It is indeed the home of guitar legend Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, and right next door is the former home of film director Michael Winner. Now the residence of the music artiste Robbie Williams of English band Take That. In fact within a one mile radius you have the likes of Queen guitarist Dr. Brian May, Gary Barlow, David Beckham and Simon Cowell all calling Holland Park their home. Well at least one of their homes!!