Built probably in 1824 or 1825 by Decimus Burton, it adjoined the northern end of Hanover Terrace.
In 1845 Elizabeth Gurney, daughter of the head of the Quaker banking family and niece of Elizabeth Fry, the reformer, married Christian, Freiherr von Bunsen; her father, who lived at 20 Hanover Terrace, gave them the villa as a wedding present; the Gothic arches and castellations were probably added at this time. The von Bunsens lived there till their deaths in 1903.
The remainder of the lease was purchased by their friend, the Austrian painter and sculptor Emil Fuchs, who was patronized by Edward VII. In 1911 he sold the last 13 years of the lease to Baroness Deichmann, the von Bunsens’ elder daughter. In 1928 the house was demolished and a block of flats, which bears its name, built in its place.
Excerpted from The London Encyclopaedia by kind permission of the Publishers, Pan MacMillan.
