On the north side of the lower part of Elm Avenue, Nottingham, just before it crosses Cranmer Street, are the back gardens of the houses on Villa Road, and from the rear of No.24 a gate leads on to the Avenue. On each of the gate pillars is painted the name ‘Louise of Lorne House’. Above the name ‘Louise of Lorne House’ on the gate pillar, and barely legible, is a name which appears to be ‘Nickolls’. A Mr. William Nicholls bought the property in 1874 (while already owning the house next door), he is described in various directories as a Turf Commission Agent; he owned the house until his death in 1900.
Who was Louise of Lorne and why is the name there? Louise, or rather Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, was the fourth daughter of Queen Victoria, and was born in 1848; in 1871 she married John Douglas Sutherland, Marquess of Lorne and heir to the 8th Duke of Argyll. She thus became the Marchioness of Lorne, but what was her connection with Nottingham, and why was her name added to the gate pillars of a house, which had been built about twelve years earlier? In 1900, on her husband succeeding to the Argyll title she became Duchess of Argyll, so the Lorne associations with Nottingham must have been during those twenty nine years, 1871 to 1900, and most likely after 1883 after her return from Canada.
There are several uses of ‘Lorne’ in the vicinity; a Victorian street in St. Ann’s was named Lorne Grove and there are still Lorne Close and Lorne Walk in the redeveloped area. Radcliffe-on-Trent has a Lorne Grove while in Carlton is a Louise Avenue. The public house The Marquess of Lorne in Salisbury Street off Ilkeston Road is another reminder of the association.
Princess Louise was a talented sculptor, and an example of her work, a medallion head of Sybil, Duchess of St. Albans, who died in 1871 can be seen in Bestwood Church. She took a great interest in education, being involved as Patroness with the early days of the Girls Public Day School Company (later Trust) whose first school was opened in Chelsea in 1873.
In 1878 her husband was appointed Governor General of Canada and she accompanied him during his five years there, proving popular with the Canadians apparently, a lake and a town near Banff being called Lake Louise, the state itself using her third Christian name Alberta. There is also a Louise Island off the west coast of British Columbia. At the end of Lorne’s term of office the couple returned to Britain. Her association with the St. Albans family and Bestwood perhaps leading to her meeting Dr. John Brown Paton, Principal of the Congregational College on Forest Road West in 1885. She supported his idea for a National Association of Evening Classes, becoming its president, and helped to promote the Recreative Evening Schools Association, the forerunner of Adult Education Institutes.
According to J. Potter Briscoe in Allen's Illustrated Guide to Nottingham
published in 1888, County House on High Pavement, in use on occasions as the
Judge's Lodgings, had then 'recently' been the temporary home of Princess
Louise. No other reference to this episode has yet come to light.
The Marquess of Lorne succeeded as Duke of Argyll on his Father’s death
in 1900. Louise continued her interest in the arts and education; she was
an early member of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings and
in 1902 agreed to become President of the infant National Trust.
Louise died in 1939 shortly after the declaration of war.
NOTES: There may be no direct connection, but 24 Villa Road is named in an 1881 map and in an 1895 Directory as ‘Granville House’. Lord Granville, Colonial Secretary in 1868 was Foreign Secretary in the 1870s and was consulted by Queen Victoria prior to Louise’s marriage. He was Foreign Secretary again from 1880-85 and the Queen sought his advice on several occasions concerning suitable appointments for Lorne.
Neville Hoskins
July 2005
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