16 New Street – The Georgian House Museum

The Georgian House Museum is at 16 New Street is a Regency house, which epitomises early Georgian taste.  Described as ‘A lost jewel in the crown of the architectural heritage of Jersey’, it was at one time threatened with demolition but was restored by a joint effort of Save Jersey’s Heritage, The National Trust for Jersey and the Department of Environment.  The Trust accepted it as a gift in 2003 and were able to secure it, but following a bequest of £1 million in 2004, from Mrs Mollie Houston, they were able to restore it and it opened to the public in November 2011.

Originally the house was part of a speculative development initiated by the Durell family.  It was bought by the Journeaux family in 1812, who refurbished it in Regency style.

This involved the replacement of all the windows at the front of the house, along with windowsills and door casings, the truncation of the roof, and the installation of a fine marble fire surround in the drawing-room.  Phillipe Journeaux went bankrupt in 1850 and the property passed to the firm of A. de Gruchy & Co.  It became a letting house before being taken on by the Liberty Gentlemen’s Club, which removed partitions on the first floor to install billiard tables.  That club departed in 1909, and then the Jersey Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) moved in.  They removed further partition walls for their snooker and table tennis tables.  But it is now fully restored and evokes the Regency era with its sounds and smells (clay pipes).