![Charlton House Porch](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Charlton_House_Porch.jpg)
Charlton House is a
Jacobean building in
Charlton, within the
Royal Borough of Greenwich
The Royal Borough of Greenwich (, , or ) is a London borough in southeast Greater London. The London Borough of Greenwich was formed in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963. The new borough covered the former area of the Metropolitan Borough ...
in south-east London. Originally it was a residence for a nobleman associated with the Stuart royal family. It later served as a wartime hospital, then a museum and library, and is now a community centre.
History
The house was built in 1607–12 of red brick with stone dressing, and has an "H"-plan layout. The interior features contemporary staircases, panelled rooms, ornamental ceilings and chimney pieces.
It was built by the crown to house
Sir Adam Newton
Sir Adam Newton, 1st Baronet (died 1630) was a Scottish scholar, royal tutor, dean of Durham and baronet.
Life
He spent part of his early life in France, passing himself off as a priest and teaching at the college of St. Maixant in Poitou. There, ...
and his royal charge. He was then
Dean of Durham
The Dean of Durham is the "head" (''primus inter pares'' – first among equals) and chair of the Chapter, the ruling body of Durham Cathedral. The dean and chapter are based at the ''Cathedral Church of Christ, Blessed Mary the Virgin and St Cu ...
and tutor to
Prince Henry Prince Henry (or Prince Harry) may refer to:
People
*Henry the Young King (1155–1183), son of Henry II of England, who was crowned king but predeceased his father
*Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal (1394–1460)
*Henry, Duke of Cornwall (Ja ...
, the son of
James I James I may refer to:
People
*James I of Aragon (1208–1276)
*James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327)
*James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu
*James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347)
*James I of Cyprus (1334–13 ...
, and older brother of the future
Charles I Charles I may refer to:
Kings and emperors
* Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings
* Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily
* Charles I of ...
.
Greenwich Palace
Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross.
Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...
, where their mother lived much of the time, was nearby. But the prince died almost as soon as the house was finished, in 1612. Newton became
Receiver-General
A receiver general (or receiver-general) is an officer responsible for accepting payments on behalf of a government, and for making payments to a government on behalf of other parties.
See also
* Treasurer
* Receiver General for Canada
* Recei ...
, sold his office as dean, and in 1620 became a
baronet
A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...
.
The diarist
John Evelyn
John Evelyn (31 October 162027 February 1706) was an English writer, landowner, gardener, courtier and minor government official, who is now best known as a diarist. He was a founding Fellow of the Royal Society.
John Evelyn's diary, or memo ...
, who knew the house and was well acquainted with Newton's son,
Sir Henry Newton, stated that the house had been built for Prince Henry. Because of Sir Adam's court connections, the designer of the house is often presumed to be
John Thorpe
John Thorpe or Thorp (c.1565–1655?; fl.1570–1618) was an English architect.
Life
Little is known of his life, and his work is dubiously inferred, rather than accurately known, from a folio of drawings in the Sir John Soane's Museum, to whic ...
, one of the first professional English
architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
s, who had served as Clerk of Works for the royal palace at nearby
Greenwich
Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross.
Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...
– the
Palace of Placentia
The Palace of Placentia, also known as Greenwich Palace,
was an English royal residence that was initially built by Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, in 1443. The palace was a pleasaunce; a place designed for pleasure, entertainment and an escape f ...
. Thorpe had left the
Office of Works
The Office of Works was established in the England, English Royal Household, royal household in 1378 to oversee the building and maintenance of the royal castles and residences. In 1832 it became the Works Department forces within the Office of W ...
in 1601 for private practice. Other royal connections are seen at Charlton House in the form of the
Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...
's feathers above the east door to the hall and in the saloon, where there is also the royal monogram, "JR" (for
James I James I may refer to:
People
*James I of Aragon (1208–1276)
*James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327)
*James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu
*James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347)
*James I of Cyprus (1334–13 ...
); the royal
Stuart coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...
in the west bay; and the
Garter
A garter is an article of clothing comprising a narrow band of fabric fastened about the leg to keep up stockings. In the eighteenth to twentieth centuries, they were tied just below the knee, where the leg is most slender, to keep the stocking ...
and Prince of Wales's motto, "
Ich Dien
Ich may refer to:
* Ich, a German pronoun meaning ''I'', also a Middle English form of ''I''
* The ego, one of the psychic apparatus defined in Sigmund Freud's structural model of the psyche
* ''Ich'' (album), an album by German rapper Sido
* ...
" in the east bay.
The
garden house, or
orangery
An orangery or orangerie was a room or a dedicated building on the grounds of fashionable residences of Northern Europe from the 17th to the 19th centuries where orange and other fruit trees were protected during the winter, as a very large ...
, which has been converted into a public toilet, is optimistically attributed to
Inigo Jones
Inigo Jones (; 15 July 1573 – 21 June 1652) was the first significant architect in England and Wales in the early modern period, and the first to employ Vitruvian rules of proportion and symmetry in his buildings.
As the most notable archit ...
,
who is not otherwise connected with the house. It is a
Grade I listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
. Behind the orangery is a
mulberry
''Morus'', a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae, consists of diverse species of deciduous trees commonly known as mulberries, growing wild and under cultivation in many temperate world regions. Generally, the genus has 64 identif ...
tree said to be the oldest of its species (''Morus nigra'') in the country, and has been afforded
Great Tree of London status. It is thought to have been planted in 1608 at the order of James I.
Giacomo Castelvetro
Giacomo Castelvetro (25 March 1546 – 21 March 1616) was an Italian expatriate in Europe and England, humanist, teacher and travel writer.
Life
Giacomo Castelvetro was born in Modena in 1546 to the banker Niccolò Castelvetro and his wife ...
, an Italian writer stayed at Charlton and in 1613 wrote a treatise on fruit and vegetables.
Adam Newton died in 1629 and his executors Peter Newton and the Scottish architect
David Cunningham of Auchenharvie
David Cunningham of Auchenharvie (died 1659) was the absentee owner of Auchenharvie Castle and a courtier in London. He was an administrator of royal rents to Charles I of England. A large number of his letters are preserved in the National Records ...
rebuilt nearby St Luke's Church.
Anne, Lady Halkett
Anne Halkett (née Murray) (c. 1623 – 1699), also known as Lady Halkett, was a religious writer and autobiographer.
Early life
Halkett's father Thomas Murray was tutor to King James I's children. He later became Provost of Eton College. H ...
was married in 1656 at Charlton House, the service was conducted in her brother-in-law Sir Henry Newton's closet by Mr Robert Gale, the chaplain of
Christian Cavendish, Countess of Devonshire
Christian Cavendish, Countess of Devonshire ( Bruce; 1595-1675) was an influential Anglo-Scottish landowner and royalist.
Life
Christian Bruce was the daughter of Edward Bruce, 1st Lord Kinloss and Master of the Rolls, and Magdalen Clerk, whos ...
.
[John Gough Nichols, ''Autobiography of the Lady Halkett'' (London, 1875), pp. xx, 102–103.]
In 1658 the estate was purchased by Sir
William Ducie
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...
; on his death, in 1680, it was bought by
Sir William Langhorne. It passed to his nephew,
Sir John Conyers
Sir John Conyers (died 1490), one of twenty-five children of Christopher Conyers (died 1460),Ross, C.D., ''Richard III'', London 1981, p.50 was a pre-eminent member of the gentry of Yorkshire, northern England, during the fifteenth century Wars ...
, in 1715, and remained in the family (being inherited by Jane (née Weller), the wife of Sir
Thomas Spencer Wilson
General Sir Thomas Spencer Wilson, 6th Baronet (25 January 1727 – 29 August 1798) was an officer of the British Army and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1774 to 1780.
The son of Sir Thomas Wilson, 4th Baronet, he was educated at ...
, in 1777). Under their grandson
Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson a wing was added to the house by
Norman Shaw
Richard Norman Shaw RA (7 May 1831 – 17 November 1912), also known as Norman Shaw, was a British architect who worked from the 1870s to the 1900s, known for his country houses and for commercial buildings. He is considered to be among the g ...
, in 1877.
During
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, Charlton House was the divisional headquarters of the
Red Cross
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...
for Greenwich and Woolwich. At the end of the war London's hospitals couldn't cope with the numbers of wounded, so Sir Spencer and Lady Maryon-Wilson made the entire house available to the Red Cross to serve as an auxiliary hospital; it operated from 14 October 1918 to 30 April 1919, with around 70 beds.
In 1925 Sir Spencer sold the house and grounds to the
Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich
The Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich was a Metropolitan boroughs of the County of London, metropolitan borough in the County of London between 1900 and 1965. It bordered the boroughs of Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich, Woolwich, Metropolitan B ...
.
The Chapel Wing was bombed during the Blitz and was subsequently rebuilt albeit with non-matching bricks such as were available in the immediate post-war period. Formerly housing a museum and library, the house is now a community centre,
and much of the former pleasure grounds now forms
Charlton Park, although remnants of the house gardens survive as does a short section of
Ha-Ha
A ha-ha (french: hâ-hâ or ), also known as a sunk fence, blind fence, ditch and fence, deer wall, or foss, is a recessed landscape design element that creates a vertical barrier (particularly on one side) while preserving an uninterrupted view ...
.
The walled gardens and some of the perennial borders were redesigned and re-planted by the landscape designer Andrew Fisher Tomlin in 2003–2004 for the then London, now
Royal Borough of Greenwich
The Royal Borough of Greenwich (, , or ) is a London borough in southeast Greater London. The London Borough of Greenwich was formed in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963. The new borough covered the former area of the Metropolitan Borough ...
with perennial meadow planting to the main walled kitchen garden retaining three ancient ''
Prunus
''Prunus'' is a genus of trees and shrubs, which includes (among many others) the fruits plums, cherries, peaches, nectarines, apricots, and almonds.
Native to the North American temperate regions, the neotropics of South America, and the p ...
app.'' trees. One of the spaces includes an
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
Peace Garden with planting also designed by Fisher Tomlin.
[ The house is looked after by Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust.][
]
Film location
In 1996 the house was the main location for the feature film ''Monarch
A monarch is a head of stateWebster's II New College DictionarMonarch Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority ...
'', released in 2000, produced and directed by local film maker John Walsh.
References
{{Commons category
External links
Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust
Charlton, London
Grade I listed buildings in the Royal Borough of Greenwich
Grade I listed houses in London
Houses in the Royal Borough of Greenwich
Houses completed in 1612
1612 establishments in England
Buildings and structures in the Royal Borough of Greenwich
Country houses in London
Health in the Royal Borough of Greenwich
Hospitals established in 1918
Defunct hospitals in London
Hospitals disestablished in 1919