Crosby Hall is a historic building in Cheyne Walk

Cheyne Walk

Cheyne Walk , is a historic street in Chelsea, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It takes its name from William Lord Cheyne who owned the manor of Chelsea until 1712. Most of the houses were built in the early 18th century. Before the construction in the 19th century of the busy...

, Chelsea

Chelsea, London

Chelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, England. It is a Grade II* listed building.

Part of the buildings architectural features are from the Great Hall, which is the only surviving part of the mansion of Crosby Hall, Bishopsgate

Bishopsgate

Bishopsgate is a road and ward in the northeast part of the City of London, extending north from Gracechurch Street to Norton Folgate. It is named after one of the original seven gates in London Wall...

 which was built in 1466 by the wool merchant John Crosby. Crosby rented it to Richard Duke of Gloucester

Richard III of England

Richard III was King of England for two years, from 1483 until his death in 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty...

 who used it as his London home. It was used as the setting for a scene in William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

's Richard III

Richard III (play)

Richard III is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1591. It depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England. The play is grouped among the histories in the First Folio and is most often classified...

. In the reign of Henry VIII it belonged to Antonio Bonvisi

Antonio Bonvisi

Antonio Bonvisi was an Anglo-Italian merchant in London. He was also a banker, and employed by the English government, as well as being an agent for the Italians appointed as Bishop of Worcester...

.

Following a fire in 1672 only the Great Hall and Parlour wing of the mansion survived, it then became a Presbyterian Meeting House and then a warehouse with an inserted floor.

In 1910 it was threatened with demolition and then moved brick by brick to its present site and the rest of the building by Walter Godfrey

Walter Godfrey

Walter Hindes Godfrey CBE, FSA, FRIBA , was an English architect, antiquary, and architectural and topographical historian. He was also a landscape architect and designer, and an accomplished draftsman and illustrator...

 constructed around it. The move was paid for by the Bank of India

Bank of India

Bank of India is a state-owned commercial bank with headquarters in Mumbai. Government-owned since nationalization in 1969, It is India's 4th largest bank, after State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and Bank of Baroda. It has 3415 branches, including 29 branches outside India...

 who had purchased the Bishopsgate site to build offices.

Godfrey also added the north wing in 1925-6 as a women's university hall of residence.

Crosby Hall was bought in 1989 by Christopher Moran, a businessman who is the Chairman of Co-operation Ireland

Co-operation Ireland

Co-operation Ireland is a non-political and non-denominational charity dedicated to peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Much of Co-operation Ireland's work focuses on bringing the two main communities in Northern Ireland together through programmes such as the...

.

Notable residents at the original site

• Richard Duke of Gloucester
  Richard III of England
  Richard III was King of England for two years, from 1483 until his death in 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty...
  
   1483.
• Sir Thomas More
  Thomas More
  Sir Thomas More , also known by Catholics as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was an important councillor to Henry VIII of England and, for three years toward the end of his life, Lord Chancellor...
  
   1523-4.
• William Roper, 1547.
• Sir Walter Raleigh 1601.
• Owned by the Earl of Northampton
  Earl of Northampton
  Earl of Northampton is a title that has been created five times.-Earls in for the Honour of Huntingdon, first Creation :*Waltheof *Maud, Countess of Huntingdon** m. Simon I de Senlis** m...
  
   between 1609 and 1671, and the residence of poet Mary Sidney
  Mary Sidney
  Mary Herbert , Countess of Pembroke , was one of the first English women to achieve a major reputation for her literary works, poetry, poetic translations and literary patronage.-Family:...
  
   from 1609 to 1615.
• Headquarters of the East India Company
  East India Company
  The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
  
  1621-38.

Further reading

• Knight, Charles. London, volume 1 (1841) pp. 317-332.