Derwent Island House (often called Derwent Isle House) is an 18th-century Italianate house situated on Derwent Island, Derwent Water, Keswick, Cumbria, and in the ownership of the National Trust. It is leased as a private home, but is open to the public five days a year. The interior is classical in style.
History
Derwent Island was owned by Fountains Abbey but with the dissolution of the monasteries, it fell into the hands of the Crown and was sold off in 1569 to the Company of Mines Royal. In 1778 Joseph Pocklington bought the island (then known as Vicar's Island) and built a house, boathouse, fort and battery, and Druidcirclefolly on the land. Pocklington held regattas at which he fired off his cannon. Henry Marshall purchased the island in 1844 and employed architect Anthony Salvin to add a wing and a three-storey tower to Pocklington's house.
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth was upset by the building, feeling it spoiled the view, and described Pocklington as "a native of Nottinghamshire, who played strange pranks by his buildings and plantations upon Vicar's Island, in Derwentwater, which his admiration, such as it was, of the country, and probably a wish to be a leader in a new fashion, had tempted him to purchase."
Built in 1905, Island House served as the residence for the first British Police Magistrate appointed in 1898.
It was also the official residence of the North District Officer and the residences of District Commissioners for the New Territories. Island House had been resided in by a total of 15 District Commissioners since 1949. The last resident of the Island House was Sir David Akers-Jones, who became the Chief Secretary of Hong Kong in 1985.
Since then, the house has become the Island House Conservation Studies Centre (元洲仔自然環境保護研究中心) after it was passed to the custodianship of WWF HK.
It is one of the declared monuments of Hong Kong.
Built in 1912, by the architect G. E. Pepper, Island House vaguely resembled the Flatiron Building in New York City. However, although the Flatiron Building was built on a triangular plot of land, Island House was not restricted by land - one road (Fazeley Street) ran adjacent to the building, but there was ample development land to the north.
Located next to the Masshouse developments, Island House was occupied by teams from Birmingham City Council's arts team, including Film Birmingham, Urban Fusion and ArtsFest. The building was used in conjunction with other establishments in the city, including the Ikon Gallery.
Although Island House's future was jeopardised by the City Park Gate development, the building (along with local public house the Fox and Grapes) was included in these plans; with a refurbishment and an upwards extension designed by MAKE Architects for Quintain.
As of January 2012 there was a campaign to save Island House, which Quintain had successfully applied for permission to demolish. Permission, in principle, was given by Birmingham City Council Planning Committee on 26 January 2012. At that time, however, it emerged that there was an outstanding Section 106 agreement for refurbishment. Quintain applied for permission to vary the Section 106 agreement, but later withdrew their application, claiming that since no building work had commenced they did not need to honour the Section 106 Agreement, which is only triggered when building work commences. The validity of this claim was disputed. Campaigners pointed to Hotel la Tour, which is on part of the land covered by Quintain's original (2006) Planning Application.
