Grim's Dyke

Grim's Dyke (sometimes called Graeme's Dyke until late 1891) is a house and estate in Harrow Weald, in northwest London, England. The house was built from 1870 to 1872 by Richard Norman Shaw for painter Frederick Goodall and named after the nearby prehistoric earthwork known as Grim's Ditch. It was converted into a hotel, Grim's Dyke Hotel, in 1970. The house is best known as the home of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, of the opera partnership Gilbert and Sullivan, who lived and farmed there for the last two decades of his life. He died while attempting to save a girl from drowning in his lake. Lady Gilbert and the Gilberts' ward, Nancy McIntosh, lived there until her death in 1936. The statue of Charles II now found in Soho Square stood on the property from about 1880 to 1938. The house was then used as a rehabilitation centre until 1963. From 1963, the house was used mainly as a location for films and television, including Futtocks End and The Avengers. Since its conversion into a hotel, the house continues to be used as a film location. The hotel leases 30 of the original 110 acres of land that Gilbert purchased with the house.