Historic Liverpool Dwellings - Holmstead

Holmstead was a large stone built Victorian house which is now a Grade 11 listed building standing on North Mossley Hill Road, set in its own extensive grounds with a massive conservatory, just to the east of the elegant and very desirable Sefton Park. It was originally built c.1845 by A.H. Holmein in a Gothic style with a fine Lodge and extensively remodelled and extended, probably by Culshaw & Sumners who added the tower, effectively doubling in size in 1869-70 by the then owner, Michael Belcher, a local cotton broker. It was then later purchased by the White Star Line owner,William Imrie, once known as 'the Prince of Shipowners'. In 1872 William Imrie and his wife Hannah had adopted the daughter of William Pollard, Amy Elizabeth Rosalie Pollard, to be known as Amy Elizabeth Imrie. Following his death in 1906, The Times published his will on the 15th of October - 'Mr. William Imrie, of Holmstead, Liverpool, and late of the firm of Ismay, Imrie, and Co., of the White Star line, who left by his will £264,378 in net personalty, and the gross value of the whole of his estate has been entered at £278, 472, bequeathed to his niece and adopted daughter, Miss Amy Elizabeth Rosalie Imrie, of Holmstead, £10,000, his household effects, and, during her life, certain pictures which, after her death, are to be offered to the National gallery, the Tate Gallery, the Walker Art Gallery, and the Seamen's Orphanage. Miss Imrie is to have the income from the residuary estate during her life, with power of appointment of £50,000 thereof in favor of her issue, and, subject to her interest, the testator, as already announced in The Times, left the ultimate residue of his estate in truest, as to one-third for the Liverpool Cathedral, as to one-third for the William Imrie Liverpool Clerks' Benevolent Fund, and as to one-third for the Seamen's Pension Fund, the Seamen's Orphan Institution, the Northern, Southern and Stanley Hospitals, and the Royal Infirmary'. Amy was, in 1910, to become responsible for funding of the building of St Mary of the Angel's Church in Fox Street, Liverpool and went on to enter the Convent of Poor Clares at Hertford, an order of nuns dedicated to the memory of St Francis. Amy then later gave the family home in Mossley Hill to the Poor Clares to become their first convent in Liverpool. Imrie's family property was originally The Hermitage in Hayman's Green, West Derby Village but in later years, as he excelled in business, they moved into the even grander Holmstead, with the house containing many fine examples of art including paintings by Strudwick, from whom Imrie was a patron.

Interior of the music room, photographed in July 1901 by H Bedford Lemere.

Imrie was also a patron of the Arts-and-Crafts movement and held regular concerts in his grand Music Room, decorated with William Morris' 'Acanthus' pattern wallpaper and Pre-Raphaelite paintings. These included the imposing Burne-Jones, 'The Tree of Forgiveness' and Stanhope, 'Why Seek Ye the Living Among the Dead', hanging on the walls.
 

The Library photographed in July 1901 by H Bedford Lemere.

 

The Library with stained glass windows by William Morris, and a painting, 'Gloria in Excelsis', by the artist Evelyn de Morgan, hangs on the chimney breast. There is also one of two versions, owned by William Imrie, of Dante Gabriel Rossetti's 'Dante's Dream'. 

The property, including the Lodge, have now been converted into apartments. 

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2022/04/historic-liverpool-dwellings.html