Ashburnham House
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Ashburnham House is an extended seventeenth-century house on Little Dean's Yard in Westminster, London, United Kingdom, which since 1882 has been part of Westminster School. It is occasionally open to the public, when its staircase and first floor drawing-rooms in particular can be seen.
Ashburnham House took its present form shortly after the
Medieval foundations
There has been a building on the site since the eleventh century. The current house incorporates the remains of the mediaeval Prior's House, and its garden is the site of the monks'
Cotton Library and Ashburnham House fire
Ashurnham House became[
Westminster School
In 1739 the Dean and Chapter bought back the property from the Crown for £500,[6] and it reverted to the use of the prior's direct equivalent, the sub-dean.
The house was the object of a scandalous legal and parliamentary battle between the
The house was the original location of Westminster's first day-house, also known as Ashburnham House, from when it was founded until it moved in 1951 to 6 Dean's Yard. The day-boys continued to lunch there until the 1970s, and the mediaeval ground floor is now primarily used for catering and social functions, while the seventeenth-century first floor drawing rooms, now extending right through into the former John Sergeant ante-room to School, form a superb library suite.
Second World War
During the Second World War, the library was used as a communications station for the Royal Air Force and a senior conference facility for secret military purposes, disguised by the use of the ground floor as "The Churchill Club" for senior American officers.
See also
References
- ^ Stourton. Page 27.
- ^ Stourton. Page 27.
- ^ Stourton. Page 29.
- ^ 'Westminster Abbey: Chapter House, cloister and Deanery', Old and New London: Volume 3 (1878), pp. 450–462. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=45167 Date accessed: 2 January 2010.
- ^ "Beowulf: Ashburnham House Fire" Archived 23 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Stourton. Page 29.
Bibliography
- Stourton, James (2012). Great Houses of London (Hardback). London: Frances Lincoln. ISBN 978-0-7112-3366-9.