The Shrubbery, as appearing - 1860

Watercolour painting by S Henry depicting The Shrubbery, Battersea. 1880

Watercolour depicting a view of large house set in extensive grounds behind low walls.

A inscription written in ink on mount below painting:: Parochial building and site of St Barnabas Church as appearing in the year 1860 Then known as "The Shrubbery" Occupied at one time by Alderman Scholey - Sheriff 1804, Mayor 1812 - followed by Alderman John Humphrey - Lord Mayor of London 1842.

The Shrubbery is a neo-classical Georgian mansion, originally built around 1776–1796. According to the Survey of London " When first erected it was a smallish but ‘genteel’ house, with a coach-house, stables and out-buildings, and a 7-acre garden that stretched from Clapham Common to Lavender Hill—a ‘rural situation, environed with trees’(…) Construction of the house seems to have taken place in the late 1770s. Its first certain occupant was Richard Jackson"

After his death, Isaac Railton, a Cheapside linen draper, lived there from 1794–1807. Railton’s son, William Railton, was born here—he later designed Nelson’s Column.

Later owners included George Scholey, a City merchant and Lord Mayor of London (1812–13), and John Humphery, MP for Southwark, who added a grand hexagonal cupola and Italianate plasterwork.

From 1864 to 1885, Marie Spartali Stillman, a celebrated Pre-Raphaelite artist and model lived in the house. She trained under Ford Madox Brown and modelled for artists like Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Edward Burne-Jones. English Heritage installed a blue plaque in 2023 to commemorate her.

By the late 19th century, the surrounding gardens were sold off for housing developments such as Lavender Gardens. The Shrubbery itself narrowly escaped demolition in the 1960s. It served as St Barnabas parish halls before being sold in 1986 and converted into 16 flats in 1987.

The Shrubbery is one of the last surviving Georgian villas in Battersea, as most similar villas were demolished during the Victorian building boom of the 1880s.