108 Harley Street

Description

In 1772 108 was the London town house of James Lowther the First Earl of Lonsdale In 1823 Henry Windsor son of the Earl of Plymouth owned the house

The first medical occupant was Dr Nathaniel Bishop Harman an Ophthalmic specialist who acquired the house in 1905 on a 999year lease from the Howard de Walden Estates His first daughter Elizabeth married Lord Longford and in her biography The Pebbled Shore recalls The Harmans early days in Harley Street

On his death in 1945 the house passed to his son John Bishop Harman a Consultant Physician at St Thomass Hospital born at 108 in 1907 He had four daughters all lawyers including Harriet Harman born in the house in 1950 later MP for Camberwell and Deputy Leader of The Labour Party

In 1990 the original 999year lease was purchased by Mr OJA Gilmore a prize winning Consultant Surgeon at St Bartholomews Hospital from 1976 The remaining 914year lease was sold by John Harman providing he could stay in residence on the top two floors until his death which occurred in 1994

Having refurbished the lower 3 floors installing a radiology department manned by renowned Radiologists and operating theatre Jerry Gilmore opened the practise on 1st November 1991

While at St Bartholomews Hospital he set up the Barts Breast Unit in 1981 In 1991 he established The London Breast Clinic and The Gilmore Groin amp Hernia Clinic

In 1995 he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the Institute of Sports Medicine because of his pioneering work and expertise in treating groin injuries in elite sportsmen and women

History

HARLEY STREET world renowned for its first class medical specialists was first rated in 1753 It takes its name from Edward Harley 2nd Earl of Oxford the ground landlord

Before the doctors moved in this was a street of rank and fashion In 1772 No 108 was briefly the London townhouse of James Lowther 1st Earl of Lonsdale 17361802 a man of immense wealth and political influence whose violence despotism and caprice constituted a form of madness Known from his acquisitive nature as Jemmy Graspall Earl of Toadstool he cared for nobody save his mistress who when she died he placed in a glasstopped coffin which he kept always beside him

By 1792 No 108 Harley Street was in the occupation of a very different sort of man Edward Bocham a captain in the Grenadier Guards Bocham was replaced here in 1796 by Charlotte Baillie the widow of William Baillie d1782 a LieutenantColonel in the army of the East India Company who had died in captivity after being defeated by Hyder Ali in 1780 His widow left No108 Harley Street in 1812 the year of Napoleons retreat from Moscow in favour of John Fisher a city mercer Fisher was in turn replaced here in 1815 the year of the battle of Waterloo by David Hall a prosperous actuary

Records for 1823 show the house in the possession of the Hon Henry Windsor a son of the 1st Earl of Plymouth It next passed to another aristocrat the Hon William Barrington who took possession about 1828 Barrington lived here with is wife Emily the fourth daughter of the 1st Lord Ravensworth In 1829 a year after taking up residence at No 108 Harley Street Barrington succeeded his father as 6th Viscount Barrington

When Viscount Barrington left this house in 1835 it was acquired by a widow named Ackland In 1843 it had passed to another widow Mary Hughes who bequeathed it to her son Thomas Hughes a barrister of Lincolns Inn a magistrate for his native county of Denbigh and a captain in the Denbighshire Rifle Militia Hughes lived at No 108 until about 1890

In 1905 No108 was acquired by the Ophthalmic Surgeon Nathaniel Bishop Harman 18691945 following his marriage His publications included Analysis of 4288 Cases of Blindness and The Eyes of Our Children In 1906 his daughter Elizabeth was born here Twelve years later she married from this house taking as her husband Frank Pakenham afterwards a brilliant Labour Cabinet Minister better known today as Lord Longford the penal reformer Lady Longford wrote in her biography The Pebbled Shore that when her father purchased No 108 on a 999 year lease he was allowed to put up only two other brass plates beside his own She added that as a child the face over the door always appeared to have a peculiarly nasty sneer

Nat Harman says his daughter was strikingly unlike her mother Katherine who was the first cousin of the future Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain Where she was small and dark he was over 6 foot 2 lanky and fair Both parents were doctors though only the father practised Katherine Chamberlain qualified at the Royal Free Hospital but earned only one private fee of pound3 for extracting a wisdom tooth before marrying Nat Harman She never practised again She was already thirtythree when I was born in 1906 and forty one when the last of her five children arrived We were all brought into the world at No 108 Harley Street

Lady Longford recalls that her fathers consultingroom here was something of a dragons den to us children when young for we were always supposed to walk past in dead silence on our way upstairs in case he had a patient with him If we occasionally forgot and passed his door in a spate of chatter he would burst out in a rage and roar at us to be quiet He must have frightened his patients far more than his children We regarded our mother as perfection him as a spoilsport

Nathaniel Harman continued to live and practice at No 108 Harley Street until his death in 1945 when the house passed to his son John Bishop Harman a Consultant Physician at St Thomas Hospital He was a popular doctor and teacher with a trim upright figure in a bowler hat His snuffbox was always at the ready old patients were often given a pinch and many a houseman was convulsed on ward rounds by accepting an injudiciously large helping He achieved national fame by appearing as a witness for the defence on behalf of Dr John Bodkin Adams in the notorious murder trial in 1957 His legalistic mind was put to good use on the Medical Defence Union of which he was president from 1976 to 1981 He was also a great supporter of the Royal College of Physicians of which he was 2nd vicepresident 19811982

In 1946 John Harman married Anna Spicer They had four daughters all of who became solicitors and one of them Harriet Harman becoming a Labour Member of Parliament He continued to live at No 108 Harley Street until his death in 1994

In 1990 the house was purchased by Mr O J A Gilmore a Consultant Surgeon on the staff of St Bartholomews Hospital who specialises in diseases of the breast and renowned for his operation Gilmores Groin a procedure undertaken on numerous sportsmen with torn groins in order to return to sport

In 1991 108 Harley Street was completely refurbished and an Xray Department was installed together with a Day Surgery Unit Thus today 108 Harley Street is able to offer first class facilities all on site