Claremont (country house)
| Claremont House and Estate | ||
|---|---|---|
OS grid reference TQ1333363470 | | |
| Built | 1774 | |
| Architect | Lancelot "Capability" Brown National Trust | |
Listed Building – Grade I | ||
| Official name | Claremont House | |
| Designated | 14 August 1953 | |
| Reference no. | 1030202 | |
National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens | ||
| Official name | Claremont | |
| Designated | 1 June 1984 | |
| Reference no. | 1000324 | |
  Location of Claremont House and Estate in Surrey | ||
Claremont, also known historically as 'Clermont', is an 18th-century
Claremont estate
The first house on the Claremont estate was built in 1708 by Sir
In 1714, he sold the house to the wealthy
In the clear eighteenth-century air it was apparently possible to see Windsor Castle and St Paul's Cathedral. The Earl of Clare named his country seat Clare-mount, later contracted to Claremont. The two lodges at the Copsem Lane entrance were added at this time.
Landscape garden
Claremont landscape garden is one of the earliest surviving gardens of its kind of
Work on the gardens began around 1715 and, by 1727, they were described as "the noblest of any in Europe". Within the grounds, overlooking the lake, is an unusual turfed amphitheatre.
A feature in the grounds is the Belvedere Tower, designed by Vanbrugh for the
In 1949, the landscape garden was donated to the National Trust for stewardship and protection. A restoration programme was launched in 1975 following a significant donation by the Slater Foundation. The garden is Grade I listed on the
Capability Brown's mansion, built for Lord Clive of India
The Duke of Newcastle died in 1768 and, in 1769, his widow sold the estate to
Lord Clive, by now a rich Nabob, is reputed to have spent over £100,000 on rebuilding the house and the complete remodelling of the celebrated pleasure ground. However, Lord Clive ended up never living at the property, as he died in 1774—the year that the house was completed. The estate then passed through a rapid succession of owners; first being sold "for not more than one third of what the house and alterations had cost"[5] to Robert Monckton-Arundell, 4th Viscount Galway, and then to George Carpenter, 2nd Earl of Tyrconnell, and finally to Charles Ellis, 1st Baron Seaford.[6]
A large map entitled "Claremont Palace", situated in what is called "Clive's room" inside the mansion, shows the mansion and its surrounding grounds; giving a detailed overview of the campus. The map likely dates back to the 1860s, when the mansion was frequently occupied by Queen Victoria (thus it having been christened "palace"). However, the exact date is still unknown. The relief in Claremont's front pediment is of Clive's coat of arms impaled with that of Maskelyne, his wife's family.
Royal residence
| Act of Parliament | |
 56 Geo. 3. c. 115 | |
| Dates | |
|---|---|
| Royal assent | 1 July 1816 |
In 1816, Claremont was bought by the British Nation through an Act of Parliament as a wedding present for
In 1857, Offenbach and his Bouffes company performed three of his opéras bouffes there for Marie Amelie and her sons during an eight-week tour of England.[8]
In 1870, Queen Victoria commissioned Francis John Williamson to sculpt a marble memorial to Charlotte and Leopold which was erected inside the house.[9][10] (The memorial was subsequently moved to St George's Church, Esher.)[10]
Victoria bought Claremont for her fourth, and youngest, son
Claremont should have passed to Charles upon his mother's death in 1922, but because he served as a German general in the First World War, the British government disallowed the inheritance. Claremont was accordingly confiscated and sold by the Public Trustee to shipping magnate Sir William Corry, director of the Cunard Line. Two years after Sir William's death, in 1926, it was bought by Eugen Spier, a wealthy German financier.
In 1930, Claremont stood empty and was marked for demolition when it was bought, together with the Belvedere, the stables, and 30 acres (12 ha) of parkland, by the Governors of a south London school, later renamed Claremont School and, since 1978, has been known as Claremont Fan Court School.
The National Trust
The National Trust acquired 50 acres (0.20 km2) of the Claremont estate in 1949. In 1975, with a grant from the Slater Foundation, it set about restoring the eighteenth-century landscape garden. Now, the Claremont Landscape Garden displays the successive contributions of the great landscape gardeners who worked on it: Sir John Vanbrugh, Charles Bridgeman, William Kent, and Capability Brown.
In 1996, the school celebrated the National Trust's centenary by opening a feature of the grounds which had not previously been accessible to the garden's visitors: the 281-year-old Belvedere Tower.
See also
- A307, Portsmouth Road
- Claremont Fan Court School
- Claremont Landscape Garden
- St. George's Church, Esher
References
- ^ Historic England. "Claremont House (1030202)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
- ^ Turner, Roger, Capability Brown and the Eighteenth Century English Landscape, 2nd ed. Phillimore, Chichester, 1999, pp. 115- 118.
- ^ Historic England, "Edwardes Square (1000803)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 5 February 2016
- ^ du Prey, Pierre de la Ruffiniere, 'John Soane: the making of an architect'. London, University of Chicago Press. 1982. pp29-37
- ^ Cromwell, T. 'An excursion into the County of Surrey',London, Longman et al, 1821
- ^ "ELLIS, Charles Rose (1771-1845), of Claremont, Esher, Surrey". History of Parliament. Archived from the original on 20 April 2021.
- The European Magazine, and London Review, Volume 70. London, James Asperne for The Philological Society, July to Dec 1816
- ^ Lamb, Andrew. "Offenbach's conquest of London", About the House, Vol. 5, No. 12, Summer 1980, pp. 35–39. The article was originally published by the Offenbach 1980 Centenary Committee, London.
- ^ "Francis John Williamson". 2013. Archived from the original on 3 March 2015. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
- ^ a b "Memorial to Prince Leopold and Princess Charlotte". The Victorian Web. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
Bibliography
- Turner, Roger, Capability Brown and the Eighteenth Century English Landscape, 2nd ed. Phillimore, Chichester, 1999, pp. 115–118.
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