The villa was built from 1822 to 1824 as Grove House, and designed by the architect Decimus Burton as a bachelor residence for the geologist George Bellas Greenough (1778-1855). On the death of Greenough, the lease passed to Francis Smedley, the High Bailiff of Westminster, and then to his son the author Francis Edward Smedley and following his death in 1864 his cousin, Menella Bute Smedley, who had cared for him and acted as his private secretary continued to reside in the property until her death 1877.
