Wimbledon Manor House

Wimbledon Manor House
Location in London
Location	Wimbledon Park, London, SW19
Coordinates	51°25′46.3512″N 0°12′31.8204″W / 51.429542000°N 0.208839000°W / 51.429542000; -0.208839000
Founded	c.1328
Built	c.1500
Built for	The Church of England, Sir Thomas Cecil, Sir Theodore Janssen, The Duchess of Marlborough, Earl Spencer
Demolished	C.1725,1785,1900,1949
Rebuilt	1588, 1720, 1733, 1801
Architect	Colen Campbell, Henry Herbert, Henry Holland
Architectural style(s)	Tudor, Elizabethan, Palladian, Regency

Wimbledon manor house; the residence of the

The manor house passed through several further iterations, being entirely rebuilt three times. From the 18th Century onwards the manor lands began to reduce in size as various owners sold off parts. What was known as the 'Old Park', an area of around 300 acres stretching westwards from the present Cannizaro House (now a hotel) and public park, was sold off in 1705. Most of the present day Wimbledon Common was also once part of the manor, with grazing rights given to tenants of the lord of the manor.

The

The Old Rectory, Wimbledon's first known manor house and its oldest surviving residence, originally known as the Parsonage House, was commissioned by the church in the early 1500s and is Grade II* listed.

The Lethabys sold the house in 1947. In 1953, Russell Brock, later Baron Brock of Wimbledon, an eminent cardiologist, bought the house for £13,750. The Brock family sold it in 1978 and the kitchen garden was sold and developed for housing known today as Rectory Orchard. The Old Rectory was then bought by an Iraqi entrepreneur and philanthropist, Basil Faidhi. Faidhi had fled Iraq for Britain and though he spent vast sums^{[clarification needed]} restoring the house with assistance from English Heritage, he also created a basement discothèque for his daughter, Nina, and a bar. In 1992 Faidhi commissioned Wimbledon historian Richard Milward to write a history of the building: The Rectory – Wimbledon’s Oldest House.

In 1994, the astrophysicist, songwriter and lead guitarist of the rock band Queen, Brian May CBE, paid £4 million for the house, with the intention of living there with his partner and later wife, the long-running BBC TV soap opera Eastenders actress Anita Dobson. In 2006 May sold The Old Rectory for £16 million to an Italian architect-owner Antonella Carminati and her husband, who initiated further works with the help of the architect Sir Donald Insall CBE. In 2012, the Carminatis put The Old Rectory on the market for £26 million.^[9] The house standing in 2+1⁄2 acres, was sold in June 2013 for an undisclosed sum to Ian Taylor.^[10]

Cecil Wimbledon

Immediately after Viscount Wimbledon died, in 1638, the manor together with manor house was sold by his heirs to trustees for the queen of

The magnificent gardens which were created for the Queen by French garden designer Andre Mollet, were later described in a Parliamentary inventory taken in 1649; after noting the lower court and the upper court, the survey reported its several ascents in detail, counting the very steps:^[23]

The scite of this manor-house being placed on the side slipp of a rising ground, renders it to stand of that height that, betwixt the basis of the brick-wall of the sayd lower court, and the hall door of the sayd manor-house, there are five severall assents, consisting of three-score and ten stepps, which are distinguished in a very graceful manner; to witt, from the parke to a payre of rayled gates, set betwixt two large pillers of brick; in the middle of the wall standing on the north side of the sayd lower court is the first assent, consisting of eight stepps, of good freestone, layed in a long square, within which gates, levell with the highest of those eight stepps, is a pavement of freestone, leading to a payr of iron gates rayled on each side thereof with turned ballasters of freestone, within which is a little paved court leading to an arched vault neatly pillowred with brick, conteyning on each side of the pillers a little roome well arched, serving for celleridge of botteled wines; on each side of this vault are a payre of staires of stone stepps, twentie-three stepps in assent, eight foote nine inches broad; meeting an even landing-place in the height thereof, leading from the foresayed gates unto the lower court, and make the second assent; from the height of this assent a pavement of Flanders brickes thirteene foot six inches broad", leading "to the third assent, which stands on the south side of the lower courte, consisting of a round modell, in the middle whereof is a payre of iron gates rayled as aforesayd, within which is a fountayne fitted with a leaden cesterne fed with a pipe of lead; this round conteynes a payre of stone stayres of 26 stepps in assent, ordered and adorned as the second assent is, and leades into the sayd higher courte, and soe makes the third assent; from the height whereof a pavement of square stone nine foote broad and eightie-seaven foote long leades up to the fowerth assent, which consists of eleven stepps of freestone very well wrought and ordered, leading into a gallery paved with square stone, sixtie-two foote long and eight foote broad....

From the forementioned first assent there is a way cut forth of the parke, planted on each side thereof with elmes and other trees, in a very decent order, extending itself in a direct line two hundred thirty-one

perches from thence quite through the parke northward unto Putney-common

, being a very special ornament to the whole house.

As a consequence of the

monarchy was restored in 1660 with Charles II, Wimbledon manor was promptly given back to Charles' widow Henrietta-Maria, who sold it the following year to trustees for John Digby, 1st Earl of Bristol. Bristol's widow sold it to Thomas Osborne, Earl of Danby, the Lord Treasurer, who was afterwards created Duke of Leeds. John Evelyn's name is loosely connected with the gardens on the grounds he went with the Lord Treasurer to view the house and grounds, 18 March 1678: of an entry in his diary that same year: "My Lord Treasurer sent for me to accompany him.to Wimbledon, which he had lately purchased of the Earl of Bristol ; so breaking fast with him privately in his chamber, I accompanied him with two of his daughters, my lord Conway, and Sir Bernard Gascoyne, and having surveyed his gardens and alterations, returned late at night."^[25]

Sir Theodore Janssen

The Duke's heirs sold the manor in 1717, to

Bill enabling them to confiscate the assets of the directors. Parliament allowed him to keep £50,000 but in the end he evidently kept £100,000"^[26][27]

Consequently, in 1721, he was also stripped of Wimbledon manor by Parliament.

In 1741, Janssen, appears to be living next door to the house he had built, albeit with the Campbell design incomplete (see map). Because the house was sold in 1749, the year after his death, this might indicate that he at least continued to own the house, which had been separated from the manor estate, in 1721; with the Rush family as tenants (see map). This theory appears to be confirmed by the Wimbledon Museum: "Although he (Janssen) was allowed to keep his newly built house he preferred to live in another, nearer the High Street".[28] Reports that the Duchess of Marlborough owned and demolished this house, therefore, seem to be incorrect. Sir Theodore continued to live out his life quietly in Wimbledon. He died in 1748 aged 94 and is buried in the graveyard of St Mary's Church. So in 1749 the Janssen house and land comprising some 70 acres, was sold to Mrs Martha Rush. In 1759 it was inherited by her son Samuel. In 1782 alterations were made to the facade and a further storey was added; possibly completing the original Campbell design (see pic). In 1783 the estate was inherited by Sir William Beaumaris Rush who died there in 1833 aged 83. The family were for a century and a half the proprietors of a great vinegar yard in Southwark, afterwards Potts's, and from the last of those wealthy merchants Sir William inherited a large fortune. The house, which had become known as Belvedere House, stood at what became the rear gardens of today's Nos. 6-12 Alan Road, was eventually demolished in 1900, to make way for a housing development to be known as the Belvedere Estate.^[29]

The Duchess of Marlborough

Extract from Mogg's Twenty Four Miles Round London, 1820 shows the overall extent of the various parcels then forming the manor.

Vitruvius Britannicus

Vol.V, 1771. Burnt down 1785.

In 1723, the manor was purchased for £15,000 by

Roger Morris. Letters of the Duchess of Marlborough do mention Morris on the site, but implying that he was acting on Pembroke's behalf, and the architect-builder Francis Smith of Warwick is also mentioned, as surveyor.^[31]

Palladian Wimbledon manor was a compact house of gray brick with Portland stone dressings, of seven bays, its broader end bays slightly projecting; the three central bays were crowned with a pediment over a lightly projecting Ionic portico of four attached columns.The ground floor was sunken to allow the Duchess, who had gout, to enter at first floor level, without going up steps.^[32] Evidently the Duchess was not pleased with the finished house for she wrote to her granddaughter, Diana, Duchess of Bedford, sometime between 1732 and 1735 that the Earl's talent was little more than to "imitate ill whatever was useless" in Inigo Jones and Palladio's buildings.^[33]

Lancelot "Capability" Brown undertook landscaping projects in the park, which still comprised some 1200 acres; his work, which included the lake (Wimbledon Park Lake),^[36] was complete by 1768,^[37] In 1780, Hannah More visited the house as the guest of Jonathan Shipley, Bishop of St. Asaph, to whom Lord Spencer lent the house annually for a season: "I did not think there could have been so beautiful a place within seven miles of London. The park has as much variety of ground, and is as un-Londonish as if it were an hundred miles out." Hannah More enjoyed the Duchess of Marlborough's books in the library, where: "numbers of the books were presents to her from the great authors of her time, whose names she had carefully written in the blank leaves, for I believe she had the pride of being thought learned, as well as rich and beautiful."^[38] "elegantly fitted up, and are used as an occasional retirement by Lord Spencer's family. The situation is singularly eligible, having a beautiful home prospect of the park, with a fine piece of water towards the north, and an extensive view over the country of Surrey on the south."^[39] The house burnt down at Easter 1785, spreading from the laundry-room where linen was being aired in preparation for the return of the family after a brief absence.^[40]

Lord Spencer cleared away the ruins and leveled and turfed the ground, so that scarcely a trace remained of its foundations except for a tunnel, which still survives, which had linked the main house to the separate staff quarters.

Spencer Wimbledon

Between 1799 and 1802 the 2nd

incorporeal hereditament.^[53][54]

Notes

1. ^ Summerson 2012, 13.. 53Wimbledon and the H-plan," Architecture in Britain 1530-1830, 4th ed. p. 36.
2. ^ Jane Brown, Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, 1716-1783: The Omnipotent Magician, "Earl Spencer's Wimbledon", pp278f; she notes that the architectural historian Dorothy Stroud located the approximate site of the house on upper Home Park Road, near its intersection with Arthur Road.
3. ^ "Home". mertonpriory.org.
4. ^ "Victoria County History of Surrey, Vol.4 p.120-125". H.E Malden (Editor). 1912.
5. ^ Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1000852)". National Heritage List for England.
6. ^ H.E. Malden (1912). Victoria County History Vol.IV.
7. ^ Nares, Edward (1830). The Life and Administration of the Right Honourable William Cecil, Lord Burghley.
8. ^ "The Old Rectory, Country Life,2012".
9. ^ "A prestigious Wimbledon Property, Country Life, 2012".
10. ^ "Merton planning application". Retrieved 30 May 2020.
11. ^ "Mansion fit for a king, Henry VIII, the Cecils and 'The Old Rectory'".
12. ^ "Merton Council, report on Wimbledon Park area" (PDF).
13. ^ In the late 17th century the antiquary John Aubrey noted the inscription over the gate Extructae sunt hae AEdes Anno Mirabili 1588 quo Classis Hispanica hostiliter, sed frustra, tentavit Angliam, that is, "These premises were erected in the Miraculous Year 1588, when the Spanish fleet, with hostile intent, attempted in vain [the conquest of] England." (Aubrey, The Natural History and Antiquities of the County of Surrey vol. 1, p14, quoted in William Abraham Bartlett, 1865. The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Wimbledon, Surrey, p63).
14. ^ "Merton Council, Wimbledon Park area report" (PDF).
15. ^ Summerson 1963. loc. cit.
16. ^ Queen Elizabeth's Progresses, vol. ii: in the churchwardens' accounts, at Kingston, is the following entry, 1599: " Paid for "mending the wayes, when the Queen went from Wimbledon to Nonsuch, 20d.", quoted in Lysons 1799.
17. Soane Museum, London
    is published as Sir John Summerson, 1966. The Book of Architecture of John Thorpe in Sir John Soane's Museum, T113, 114; a schematic rendering is Summerson 1963, fig. 9.
18. ^ Roy StrongThe Renaissance Garden, p61; Janette Dillon 2010, The Language of Space in Court Performance, 1400-1625 p54.
19. ^ John Stow, Annals, sub 1628.
20. ^ Horace Walpole, Anecdotes of Painting in England, vol. ii, p. 128; John Aubrey, The Natural History and Antiquities of the County of Surrey, posthumously published ms, noted by Lysons 1792.
21. ^ Nikolaus Pevsner and Bridget Cherry, London: South (series Buildings of England) p451.
22. ^ Fuller 1684. Anglorum Speculum or the Worthies of England, part iii p28, noted in Lysons 1792 and Bartlett 1865.
23. ^ Quoted in Lysons 1792.
24. ^ Noted in Lysons 1792.
25. ^ Evelyn. The Diary of John Evelyn From 1641 to 1705-06; no direct intervention by Evelyn at Wimbledon can be supposed: his "surveyed", in this fashionable company, signifying simply "looked round".
26. ^ ^{a b c} "History of Parliament Online, Sir Theodore Janssen".
27. ^ The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715-1754, ed. R. Sedgwick, 1970.
28. ^ "Wimbledon Museum, Janssen's House".
29. ^ "Merton Council Conservation area 4report: Belvedere Estate" (PDF).
30. ^ Vitruvius Britannicus, v (1771), pls 20-22.
31. ^ Colvin 1995.
32. ^ "Merton Council, Conservation area 3 history and report" (PDF).
33. ^ Letters of a grandmother: being the correspondence of Sarah, duchess of Marlborough, with her granddaughter Diana, duchess of Bedford, ed. G. Scott Thomson (1943), page 54. 1943. p. 54.
34. ^ Historic England. "Wimbledon Park (1000852)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 1 September 2013.
35. ^ Full estate history details in Lysons 1792.
36. ^ Aubrey had noted that "the park is low marish ground."
37. ^ P. Willis, 1984. "Capability Brown's Account with Drummonds Bank, 1753-1783", Architectural History, notes a payment at Drummonds Bank, 6 April 1768; Jane Brown 2011, p. 179.
38. ^ ^{a b} Bartlett 1865, p. 70.
39. ^ Lysons 1792.
40. ^ Bartlett 1865, p. 69.
41. ^ "Merton Council, area 3 report" (PDF).
42. ^ The attribution is made by Bartlett, 1865, and repeated by English Heritage. Holland, architect of Wimbledon parish church, was working for Spencer elsewhere.
43. ^ Bartlett 1865, p.70.
44. ^ Patrick Taylor, ed. 2008. The Oxford Companion to the Garden, p.515.
45. ^ The estimate given in The Surveyor and Municipal and County Engineer, 1898.
46. ^ The Duke of Somerset remained in tenancy to the new owner until 1860 (Bartlett 1865, p. 70).
47. ^ English Heritage.
48. ^ "No. 22915". The London Gazette. 25 November 1864. pp. 5834–5835.
49. ^ Journals of the House of Commons, 120, p.49.
50. ^ "No. 23682". The London Gazette. 25 November 1870. pp. 5244–5245.
51. ^ http://www.wpcc.org.uk/ [The Board of] Wimbledon and Putney Commons Conservators
52. ^ "No. 23768". The London Gazette. 18 August 1871. p. 3643.
53. ^ "UK Gov: Titles in passports" (PDF).
54. ^ "Lords of the Manor no more". Wimbledon Society/Wimbledon Guardian. 2013.