Eltham Park House
As a part of my work as a Senior Information Officer at the London Metropolitan Archives (LMA), I am currently indexing the 65 volumes that make up the London County Council, Air Raid Fire Reports from WW2. It was during a recent indexing session that something piqued my interest and took me off down a…
https://s1.wp.com/i/favicon.ico
Research Rambles
As a part of my work as a Senior Information Officer at the London Metropolitan Archives (LMA), I am currently indexing the 65 volumes that make up the London County Council, Air Raid Fire Reports from WW2. It was during a recent indexing session that something piqued my interest and took me off down a rabbit hole of research on my hometown of Eltham in South East London.

It started off with an entry for a house in Glenhouse Road, the street where I lived for the first 13 years of my life and then for a couple more years when I returned to London to go to University. Over the next few pages, the street names were all very familiar to me. Dunvegan Road, Greenvale Road, Archery Road. Then I came across an entry for an Eltham Park House in Glenure Road. The building was seemingly large and being used by the government (H.M. Ministry of Supply). The only sizeable building in that road, bar the Baptist church on the corner, was one that I knew very well. St Mary’s Roman Catholic School was my primary school. I was one of the first students to attend the school on that site, when it moved from the High Street in 1984.

At this point I realised that I really didn’t know anything about the history of the Glenure Road site. The only thing I could remember being told, by a classmate when aged about 8 or 9, was that the toilets were haunted because it had been built on an old graveyard. Given the source of this information, it was safe to say that this was probably not historical fact. Was Eltham Park House (which had been hit at 21.36 on the evening of 19th March 1941 by Luftwaffe incendiary bombs, resulting in two thirds of the building and contents being severely damaged, with most of the roof off) actually the same site where I later went to school? This required further investigation.

A quick internet search revealed the recent history of the site via Peter Higginbotham’s wonderful Children’s Homes website, which gives a brief history of the property post 1901. http://www.childrenshomes.org.uk/ElthamPark/ The former old mansion Eltham Park House was initially acquired by the R.C. Diocese of Southwark and used as a home for children suffering from diseases of the scalp. The following year it became a certified school, allowing it to take children from workhouses. In 1903 that establishment moved to St Mary’s Home, 128 Eltham High Street and Eltham Park House became the St Joseph’s School for Boys. In 1910 the Southwark Diocese sold St Joseph’s to the congregation of St Clothilde and it became a convent and girls boarding school. By 1939 it had been acquired by the Sisters of Mercy to go with their convent and school in Eltham High Street. The site was indeed given over to the war office, damaged and subsequently repaired, then handed back in 1950. It became the home of their Ave Maria approved school which had relocated from West Croydon and housed up to 40 girls aged under 15. In 1973 the school became a community home with education until it closed in 1980 with only the convent remaining. That was until St Mary’s R.C. school relocated from Eltham High Street in 1984.

So, the site was definitely one and the same, but what intrigued me most was those three little words at the start of the article, ‘former old mansion’. When was it built? What did it look like? How big was it and most importantly, who lived in it?

Fortunately, within our library, we hold many published books on Eltham, including the invaluable The Story of Royal Eltham by R.C.C. Gregory. However, as a genealogist, I decided to start by looking at sources such as the census, which was taken every 10 years from 1801 (although it only records names from 1841 onward). Unfortunately, even for the most experienced genealogist, finding an address in the census can be particularly tricky when you don’t know the name of the individual who was living there. I therefore turned to our series of Kelly’s suburban directories including volumes for the years 1896 and 1872. These include notable residents who have paid to advertise their address. For 1896 the wonderfully named Baroness de Stern was listed and for 1872 it was Thomas Jackson who was resident at Eltham Park, as it was being called. (Name changes for this property are a common theme that we will return to later). Now with individuals to work with, I returned to the 1891 Census and found the widow Baroness Julia de Stern and her son Alfred, along with their six servants. Also, in the household on census night, was Henry MacDougall, a political agent who was born in the Bahamas. From 1851 all the way to 1881 it was the contractor Thomas Jackson, his family and servants. Jackson wasn’t there in 1841 but I did manage to locate the property and it showed that Benjamin Currey Esq, a clerk at the House of Lords, was resident.

Being confident of the residents from 1841-1901, I now turned to the printed histories of Eltham and particularly Gregory’s The Story of Royal Eltham published in 1909. For those who do not have their own copy of this, it has been digitised by Roy Ayres and can be found here http://gregory.elthamhistory.org.uk/index.htm

Gregory does indeed mention the property in his chapter on other old dwellings, not as Eltham Park House, but rather Park Farm Place. It is clearly one and the same, as he states that the old house stood on the site of the R.C. School at Eltham Park and now forms a portion of the Corbett Estate. He mentions several residents going back to the widow of Richard Nunn. Later tenants/owners mentioned include Sir Benjamin Hammett, Thomas Lucas of Lee, Sir William James, Lord Rancliffe, the three Misses Jones and then eventually Thomas Jackson. Also mentioning the property, albeit very briefly, was Darrell Spurgeon’s Discover Eltham and its Environs. In its section on great houses, it gives a date of 1749 for the property, stating that its vast lands covered the whole of Eltham Park and the Eltham Park estate and extended all the way to Shooters Hill Woods.

With this new information, I returned to the original primary documents held at LMA, and in these terms, I could not be more fortunate than having the original parish records of St John the Baptist Eltham deposited at my work. My colleague Clare Titley, to whom I am eternally grateful, has recently catalogued the whole collection (now available to access at LMA under the reference P97/JNB2) and managed to serve me up a regular diet of churchwardens accounts, poor rate assessments, and the amazing Tithe map of 1839 which shows the parish in a pre-railway age. At this point Eltham was very much a linear village, with a few large houses and of course, Eltham Palace. Alongside the parish records, I also found an amazing auction catalogue from 1829 for the property. This together with articles from the British Library Digitised Newspaper Collections, enabled me to build a timeline of the owners/residents of the property, together with a small biography of these notable individuals.

The widow Mrs Mary Nunn

The Nunn’s were in Eltham as early as 1724, however, Park Farm Place does not appear to be built until 1749. This looks to be borne out by the poor rate accounts which show two large properties together in that year, one in the name of Robert Green and one above it, in the name of Mrs Nunn. Nunn’s property was not there in the 1748 accounts, although there is other land in Eltham attributed to that name. Further information comes from the will of Richard Nunn in 1737, which mentions land of his currently occupied by Robert Green. The parish rate books suggest that this land was sold to Green around 1741/2, as from this point it is noted as his own, where previously it talked of being the land of Mr Nunn. Unfortunately, we can’t be certain whether it was sold or just leased, as both large areas of land, totalling some 400 acres combined, are listed together in an 1810 Act of Parliament. The other property at that point is being leased to Jospeh Faulder. What we can say is that Mrs Mary Nunn resides at Park Farm Place until her death. Her burial is recorded in the parish records in November 1768. After this, the property passed to their granddaughter, the Lady Mary Henrietta, wife of John Viscount Hinchingbrooke, being the only surviving child of their daughter Henrietta, by Lord Harry Powlett, afterwards Duke of Bolton.

The two larger properties belonging at this point to Nunn and Green alongside each other for the first time in the 1749 parish rate book (P97/JNB2/M/01/005)

Given the links between the two properties, I also briefly investigated the property that was with Robert Green. Tracing it through its subsequent owners/tenants, I discovered that it was known as Park Farm, (not in the slightest bit confusing). Park Farm was in the possession of Henry Morris in 1835, although he had to sell it that year owing to financial difficulties. All his debts were acquired by John Green, a major landowner in Eltham. It is this property, as opposed to Park Farm Place as R.C.C. Gregory stated, where the three Jones spinsters are resident in the late 1830’s. This is proved by the records of the Sun Fire Insurance Company, which contain a policy that they took out on the property and which also mentions John Green as an interested party.

Thomas Lucas

The next individual to either own or rent the property was Mr Thomas Lucas of Lee. Lucas was a city merchant, director of the Union Fire Office, director of the South Sea Company and a treasurer of Guys Hospital. He is recorded in a publication of St Thomas’ Hospital which refers to him as the owner of the manor house at nearby Lee, but also crucially states that this was not his first property in the area, citing Park Farm Place which he bought around 1764. It does however state that he may have actually never resided there and he certainly didn’t hold it for a great length of time. The date attributed to his acquisition of the property is somewhat questionable It is perhaps more likely that it was closer to 1774. British History Online suggests that Lady Mary Henrietta, the wife of John Viscount Hinchingbrooke possessed it by inheritance, by virtue of her grandfather’s will and that she sold it to Thomas Lucas, esq. of Lee, who quickly afterwards again disposed of it, about the year 1775.

Park Farm Place in Kent, the seat of Lady James taken from Environs of London vol 4 by Daniel Lysons (SC/GL/LYS/004/002)

Commodore Sir William James

Perhaps the most famous owner of the property, Sir William James, acquired it around 1775 and is credited with having almost rebuilt the house. He enclosed a park round it and gave it the name of Park Farm Place. He resides there until his sudden death in Dec 1783 on the occasion of the marriage of his daughter (Elizabeth Anne) to Thomas Boothby Parkyns latterly Lord Rancliffe.

Sir William James life at sea started aged 12. By 1747 he was working for the East India Company and two years later he was commander of a new war ship called ‘Guardian’, tasked with protecting trade along the Malabar Coast. In 1751 he was appointed Commander in Chief of Marine Forces of the East India Company. Four years later in April 1755 he attacked and destroyed the fortress of Conagee Angria at Sevendroog, along the coast of India between Mumbai and Goa. Angria was, according to the British, the leading local pirate, causing no end of trouble to the East India Company. Alternatively, he was the admiral of the Maratha empire, depending on which interpretation of history you go by. James continued his work for the East India Company in that locality and assisted in the capture of Gheriah the following year.

He returned to Britain in 1759, became a director of the East India Company, a governor of the Royal Hospital at Greenwich and deputy master of the Corporation of Trinity House. He entered politics but was defeated as a candidate for Shoreham in the election of 1770. Eventually he was elected as MP for West Looe in 1774 and again in 1780. In 1778 he was created a baronet. Following his death in 1783, his widow Lady James commissioned the building of Sevendroog Castle within their estate’s grounds close to Shooters Hill as a memorial to her late husband.

According to British History Online, Sir William left the possession of Park Farm Place to his widow, who is now entitled to it, but it is demised by her to Sir Benjamin Hammett, who now resides in it.

Sevendroog Castle as depicted in Environs of London by Daniel Lysons vol 4 (SC/GL/LYS/004/002)

Sir Benjamin Hammett

Sir Benjamin Hammett was born in Taunton 1737. He became MP for the borough of Taunton but was also an eminent banker situated mainly at Lombard Street in London. He was also involved in the governance of the City of London, firstly as an Alderman and later as Sheriff. He would’ve gone on to be the Lord Mayor of London, as most Sheriffs do, but unfortunately this did not take place due to ill health. According to the History and topography of Kent by Edward Hastead, Sir Benjamin Hammett was certainly residing at Park Farm Place in 1797.

Lord Rancliffe

Following Hammett’s short tenancy, the poor rate accounts of the parish show Lord Rancliffe (George Parkyns, 2nd Baron Rancliffe) as the owner of the property all the way through to 1813. In 1810 though, an Act of Parliament was passed in relation to his lands in Eltham which include both Park Farm Place and Park Farm. The act seems to indicate that the lands are to be parcelled up for sale or lease as soon as possible to the benefit of Lord and Lady Rancliffe and their heirs. (A report by Historic England into future potential archaeological investigations in the Borough of Greenwich, states that the Act was also used to change the name of the property to Eltham Park and for Benjamin Currey to purchase it in the same year. However, this is not apparent in the act itself, which can be viewed on the parliamentary archives website). In 1813, advertisements began to appear in a number of newspapers concerning an auction of the property in Eltham belonging to the Right Hon Lord Rancliffe. The auction was to take place in three lots. It was initially scheduled for 13th May, although it was eventually pushed back until 1st July 1813 .

1814 Churchwardens’ rate book showing the property has been split (P97/JNB2/H/05/002)

John Watchorn

The Churchwardens’ rate book for 1814 show that Lord Rancliffe now only owned the Castle & Woods, whilst the house itself and the majority of the land appears to have gone to John Watchorn. This would suggest that not all 3 lots were sold at the auction. John Watchorn only appears to retain the property for a year or so, before it is in the possession of Colonel John Baldwin.

Colonel John Baldwin

Colonel John Baldwin appears in the rate books at this property from 1816-1825. There are only a few mentions of him in the newspapers of the time. He is described by a journalist in the Morning Chronicle on Friday 17th November 1820 as ‘Colonel of the Police’. This article was in relation to the withdrawal of the Bill of Pains and Penalties, which had been introduced to parliament and the request of George IV and aimed to dissolve his marriage to Caroline of Brunswick and deprive her of her title of Queen of Great Britain and Ireland. The newspaper was interested in the joyous reaction shown by the general public and tradespersons of the town who ‘lit up’ or illuminated their houses, despite being under the threat of having the favours of the principal nobility in the area being removed. In an article from the same newspaper of 1822, Baldwin’s role turns out to be Treasurer of the Police, a post from which he resigned in January of that year. He is also mentioned in relation to excellent Christmas festivities (that he gave grand entertainment on Christmas Day 1820). In 1821 he is noted as a candidate for deputy lieutenant of the County of Kent.

1839 Tithe Map of the Parish of Eltham (P97/JNB2/D/06/001)

Benjamin Currey Esq

Auction notices again appear in the newspapers between mid-1824 and May 1825. By September 1825 Benjamin Currey Esq is the new owner.

Currey was a solicitor who operated out of Old Palace Yard Westminster. He founded the firm Currey & Co in 1812, which still operates today. The firm specialises in advising land owning families throughout the country, with a view to protecting wealth of the family for successive generations. Currey certainly moved in lofty circles. He was one of the key individuals who figured prominently in the initial stages of development of the Holland Estate, north of Kensington High Street. Currey was the family solicitor, but he acted in effect as the steward of the estate. He handled virtually the whole of its financial affairs including the collection of rents and by 1844 he was himself the lessee of several plots. Amongst his other clients, he is also noted as being the solicitor to the Duke of Gloucester and was an auditor for the Duke of Devonshire in 1838.

In 1819 he was deputy clerk of the House of Commons and by the 1841 census he is listed as a clerk at the House of Lords. On the 13th of March 1848, Hansard recorded that Benjamin Currey’s death was announced in the House of Lords. The Lord Chancellor stated that he should have been announcing Currey’s promotion to the office of Clerk Assistant of the Parliaments, but owing to the melancholy event that had just occurred, their lordships would unfortunately be deprived of the services of an able and excellent servant. He goes on to describe him as a man a ‘great experience’ and ‘possessed an amount of zeal and intelligence, which it was not likely would ever be exceeded’. The Earl of Devon also bore testimony to the much-lamented gentleman, whose loss they all so much deplored. He said that ‘he had sat by my side for nine years and never knew a man who possessed qualities better calculated to endear him to those who enjoyed his acquaintance’

Although Currey was resident between 1825 and 1848, the estate was put up for auction in 1829. Fortunately, at the LMA we have a wonderful auction catalogue among the collection of archives from Drivers Jonas & Company. This provides us with stunning detail of the specifications and a plan of the estate. The listing was as follows: –

Freehold Estate called Eltham Park Place delightfully situated at the east end of Eltham. In a highly respectable neighbourhood and a beautiful part of the County of Kent, a short distance from Blackheath and Woolwich, four miles from Foot’s Cray and eight miles from London

Comprising a substantial and well-built Ornamented Villa, in complete repair and well adapted for the residence of any respectable family. With all requisites attached and detached office. Extensive lawns and pleasure grounds, capital kitchen garden, shrubberies, groves and walks of great variety, beauty and extent. A park established with stately timber and thriving plantations. A good farmhouse, with excellent agricultural buildings and sundry enclosures of rich meadow, arable and wood land, containing in whole about one hundred and forty-three acres.

The specifications go into further details: –

1829 Auction brochure with detailed specifications of house and plan of grounds (LMA/4673/D/01/007/044)

The estate possesses a considerable frontage to the London Road and is enclosed therefrom by park paling. On each side of the entrance is an Octagon Lodge with folding iron gates. With a carriage approach therefrom over the Lawn and Park, nearly in the centre of which is the substantial well-built brick Villa. The apartments are planned with great attention to comfort and convenience and comprise:

On the principal story: A Portico paved with stone, an Entrance Hall, with study on the side and a Dressing Closet adjoining; A Capital Dining Room (24 ft 6 x 16 ft 6), an elegant Drawing Room with bow front (24 x 16 ft) with French windows opening to a long terrace walk, with Veranda, the whole south front of the building. Communicating with the Drawing Room by folding doors is a Library (about 26 x 16 ft), with large French windows and ornamented stained glass to the upper squares. At the east end of the Library, separated only by a glazed partition is a Conservatory (35 x 11 ft) with 6 pair of sashes in front and top sashes. There is also a Capital Billiard Room (24 x 18 ft). On the north side of the vestibule and enclosed therefrom is the principal Staircase which is of stone, with iron balusters and mahogany hand railing; and two Water Closets

On the upper story: A long Gallery communicating to three Principal Bed Chambers, each with Dressing Rooms finished to correspond; another Bed Chamber and an excellent room over the Hall (used as a School Room), with Bed Chamber adjoining. The wing at the east end comprises two good Bedrooms, two Servants’ Chambers, a Passage Room, a large Bedroom and one other.

The servant’s apartments on the ground floor comprise a Housekeeper’s room, Butler’s Room with Bedroom adjoining, another Bedroom, China Closet, Footman’s Room, Servant’s Hall, good Kitchen and Scullery.

The basement contains Capital Arched Wine and Beer Cellars

At the north east end is a paved yard with Wash House, Laundry, Meal House, a detached Larder and a Drying Ground.

The whole of the house and attached offices are well supplied by water by one of Braithwaite’s Engines, which raises water out of a well in a bed of chalk 216 ft and having a column of 47 feet of water, is forced over different parts of the house and offices.

A short distance from the residence and screened by shrubberies and plantations is an excellent range of offices. Forming three sides of a square and in which is a pump of water, consisting of Stalled Stabling for Nine Horses, Coach Houses for four carriages: Hay Room, Harness Room, Coachman’s Room and Gardener’s Sleeping Room.

The Grounds are laid out with much taste and comprise a good Kitchen Garden, screened on the North and West side by lofty walls, clothed with Fruit Trees. In this garden are Two Hot houses (each 50 x 17 ft) with a Green House in the centre (17 ft sq.) and Garden Sheds and Tool Houses at the back of the whole.

The grounds also include a Melon Ground with forcing pits, an Ice House, a Handsome Flower Garden, well stocked with American Plants, beautiful Lawn, Shrubberies, Pleasure Grounds and Grove at the end of which is a Gothic Summer House. The walks extend round the gardens and afford delightful prospects of the rich surrounding country.

The Park, which contain about sixty-five acres of rich land, is embellished with full grown timber and thriving plantations.

The Farm Buildings are at an agreeable distance from the mansion and consist of a good brick built Dwelling House, with excellent Brewhouse and Dairy. Adjoining is a range of buildings, consisting of Two Granaries, Cart Horse stables and Lofts over a Barn of four small bays and good oak thrashing floor. Two ranges of Piggeries, Slaughter House, Cattle Sheds and Workshop with Loft over a Double Row of excellent Fatting Houses and a range of Cow Houses and Calf Pens. These buildings enclose a comfortable Warm Yard, over which the Farm House has a full view. At the back of these buildings is another enclosed Yard with Sheds for Sheep. Detached is an excellent thatched Cart Lodge, for six carts and two waggons. A Kitchen Garden and Orchard enclosed with a Quickset Hedge and Oak Paling, also about Seventy-five acres of Rich Arable Land and about three acres of Coppice or Wood Land

1829 Auction brochure with detailed specifications of house and plan of grounds (LMA/4673/D/01/007/044)

Thomas Jackson

Eltham Park Place, as it was now being called, the former property of the late Benjamin Currey Esq, was once again up for auction in July 1848 and this time it was purchased by Thomas Jackson.

Born in Kings Norton, Worcestershire during the first decade of the Nineteenth century, Thomas Jackson had humble beginnings working as a plough boy and then subsequently on the Birmingham Canal. An account of a near drowning and resultant illness is recited in The Story of Royal Eltham by R.R.C. Gregory.

Jackson’s fortunes took an upward turn and by the late 1820’s he was a sub-contractor in the construction of the canal built near Market Drayton. He then moved into Railways with his first contract coming in 1837 on the Birmingham and Derby Railway. Further contracts followed on the Chester & Crewe Railway and the Tame Valley Canal. His major achievements during his career included the refurbishment of the previously unsuccessful Caledonian canal in the mid 1840’s, the breakwater on Alderney in the Channel Islands, where work lasted for some 25 years, the construction of the Tyne Dock at Jarrow as well as his work on the fresh water supply for Harrogate in North Yorkshire.

Of his work in railway construction, Gregory notes that the great George Stephenson associated with him and ‘left on record his high appreciation of the work of Mr Jackson’ Given his land in Eltham Park and his connection to railways, it was probably not a surprise that he was one of the shareholders involved in bringing the railway to Eltham in the form of the Bexleyheath Railway, although he would die shortly before its completion.

In terms of Eltham Park Place/Eltham Park House/Eltham Park which seems to be interchangeable by Jacksons time, the major event during his tenure was the discovery of the Eltham Denehole in 1878, as noted in the Victoria County History of Kent. The Denehole would be worthy of an article all to itself, but in brief for those unaware of its existence, it was discovered on the estates land whilst digging to find the cause of a leak in water pipes near the house. A brick drain was located and followed into the park. At its end they found a shaft some 140 feet deep. At the bottom of that shaft was a chamber hollowed out of the chalk ground, supported by three pillars along the middle. The dimensions of the chamber were 66 feet long, 33 feet wide and 8 feet high according to the article in the Kentish Mercury. Jackson was intrigued by its discovery and requested information from anyone who might know anything about it. Several explorers/archaeologists would visit to examine it including William Flinders Petrie who suggested that some 1000 tons of material must have been excavated and removed to the surface to create the chamber. Also noted was an iron candlestick stuck into the side of the chalk wall of the chamber.

Unfortunately, the exact age of the chamber and shaft, although being described as hundreds of years old, as well as its purpose, remained unknown. The hole itself became inaccessible when the area in question was built on by the large-scale development of the Corbett Estate.

Baroness Julia de Stern

Although the property seems to have still been owned by the widow of Thomas Jackson, after his death in 1885, the new residents were the widow Baroness Julia de Stern and her son Alfred. Julia was the widow of the late Baron Herman de Stern, a German born banker who moved to London in 1844. He was prominent in Portuguese finance and was created a baron by the Portuguese in 1869. De Stern was one of the wealthiest men of the era and had several directorships with prominent banks as well as the East London Waterworks Company. At the time of his death he left an estate worth over 3.5 million pounds.

The Baroness lived a further 14 years after the death of her husband. During her time at Eltham Park, the estate was once again put up for auction. In the summer of 1893, the newspaper advertisement talks of it ‘being capable of immediate development as a building estate’ and mentions the railway intersecting the land.

After her death at the beginning of 1899, her son Alfred who himself was said to have property worth 3 million sterling, was still residing in the property. Unfortunately, only two months later, he was the subject of a lunacy inquiry which took place at Eltham Park at the behest of one of his sisters, Lady Salomon.

According to newspaper accounts, some of his notable episodes included an attempt to force his way into Marlborough House and the belief that he was the Prince of Wales and should be addressed as ‘His Royal Highness’. One of his peculiarities was after finishing a bottle of wine at dinner, throwing the empty bottle through the window. (It doesn’t mention whether the window was open or shut). Apparently when strangers would approach him, he would cover his head with a towel or newspaper and when asked why he did this, his explanation was “Kinkelinky”. He would also get into states of violent rage and on one occasion tore his clothes. His most marked peculiarity was that several times a week, he used to clap his hands violently for half an hour at a time, in order to summon the ghosts of Wellington and Napoleon. He also stated that the reason the late president of France had died, was because he had discovered that ‘His Royal Highness’, meaning himself, was being shut up in Eltham Park. It was probably no surprise that the inquiry ruled that Alfred was incapable of looking after himself and managing his own affairs.

Image taken from The Story of Royal Eltham by R.R.C. Gregory

The end of the great estate and the beginning of a new one

The widow of Thomas Jackson also died in 1899 and the estate was firstly sold to James Ferguson Jamieson who immediately re-sold it to Archibald Cameron Corbett. Soon after the landscape of Eltham would be massively transformed. In 1899 the Kentish Mercury stated that ‘it understands that the estate of the late Mr Jackson has changed hands and that it is under contemplation to cut it into many miles of roads and erect many hundreds of houses. A month later the Kentish Independent wonderfully summed up the changing times by stating that Eltham was ‘about to be drawn into the vortex of the metropolis’ which is ‘borne out by the plans which are published for the laying out of the Eltham Park Estate for building’. Within a few years the vast leafy estate had been replaced by an impressive suburban estate of high-quality houses for the skilled working and middle classes and the old mansion house itself, began its second life as a children’s home and educational establishment.

All images reproduced courtesy of London Metropolitan Archives, City of London.

Image of Ave Maria School pamphlet, with kind permission of the Institute of Our Lady of Mercy