Holwood House, Keston Geograph-3094831-by-Glyn-Baker

Holwood House is a country house in

Keston Keston is a village in Greater London, England, located within the London Borough of Bromley, Greater London. Prior to 1965 it was withing the historic county of Kent. It is part suburban, part rural in nature and lies on the edge of Hayes Com ...

, near Hayes, in the

London Borough of Bromley The London Borough of Bromley () is the southeasternmost of the London boroughs that make up Greater London, bordering the ceremonial county of Kent, which most of Bromley was part of before 1965. The borough's population is an estimated 332,336 ...

, England. The house was designed by

Decimus Burton Decimus Burton (30 September 1800 – 14 December 1881) was one of the foremost English architects and landscapers of the 19th century. He was the foremost Victorian architect in the Roman revival, Greek revival, Georgian neoclassical and Reg ...

, built between 1823 and 1826 and is in the

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

style. It was built for John Ward who later employed Burton to lay out his Calverley Park Estate in

Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the Weald, High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Roc ...

. The gate lodges of that estate take their names from the gate lodges on the Holwood Estate - Farnborough Lodge and Keston Lodge. Holwood 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 ...

, while its grounds, the Holwood Estate, are listed at grade II on the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England.

Home of William Pitt the Younger

Holwood House is on the site of an earlier building owned by

William Pitt the Younger William Pitt the Younger (28 May 175923 January 1806) was a British statesman, the youngest and last prime minister of Great Britain (before the Acts of Union 1800) and then first prime minister of the United Kingdom (of Great Britain and Ire ...

, and the grounds contain the remains of an

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

fort known as a " Caesar's Camp", which is a

Scheduled Ancient Monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

. Pitt is thought to have caused the Fort remains to be levelled in order to landscape the estate's gardens. The house was described in Thomas Wilson in his ''Accurate Description of Bromley in Kent'' of 1797 as " a small, neat, white building; it is more simple than elegant, and built on a rising ground, which commands one of the most fertile, variegated, and extensive inland prospects in the whole county". Wilson added " A stranger visiting this house, to view the country mansion of the prime minister of Great Britain, would be exceedingly surprised, to find it so insignificant in size and external appearance". Pitt engaged

John Soane Sir John Soane (; né Soan; 10 September 1753 – 20 January 1837) was an English architect who specialised in the Neoclassical architecture, Neo-Classical style. The son of a bricklayer, he rose to the top of his profession, becoming professo ...

to enlarge the house and

Humphrey Repton Humphry Repton (21 April 1752 – 24 March 1818) was the last great English landscape designer of the eighteenth century, often regarded as the successor to Capability Brown; he also sowed the seeds of the more intricate and eclectic styles of ...

to improve the grounds.

Wilberforce Oak

The grounds are close to the stump of an

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

tree known as the Wilberforce Oak, easily distinguished from the surrounding trees by a stone seat constructed in its shade. The Wilberforce Oak is part of the Holwood Estate, a private residential development that borders Holwood House and its grounds. A Wilberforce diary entry in 1788 reads: An oak sapling was planted in 1969 to replace the ageing original pollard oak (''

Quercus robur ''Quercus robur'', commonly known as common oak, pedunculate oak, European oak or English oak, is a species of flowering plant in the beech and oak family, Fagaceae. It is a large tree, native plant, native to most of Europe west of the Caucasus ...

'', also known as English brown oak). The work was carried out by the Forestry Section of

Kent County Council Kent County Council is a county council that governs most of the county of Kent in England. It is the upper tier of elected local government, below which are 12 district councils, and around 300 town and parish councils. The county council h ...

's Estates Department in collaboration with the Anti-Slavery Society of

Denison University Denison University is a private liberal arts college in Granville, Ohio. One of the earliest colleges established in the former Northwest Territory, Denison University was founded in 1831. The college was first called the Granville Literary and ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. By 1987 the original oak tree was a hollow shell surrounding a new sapling grown from one of its acorns. This young tree blew down in the 'Great storm' of 15/16 October 1987. Slices of it were sold off by the London Borough of Bromley's Parks Department as a fundraiser to plant trees to replace those lost through the borough. A new sapling, the third generation, taken from an acorn of the younger tree now stands beside the remains of the original tree.

Ownership

The house is privately owned. The property was marketed for sale by

Knight Frank Knight Frank LLP is an estate agency, residential and commercial property consultancy founded in London by John Knight, Howard Frank and William Rutley in 1896. Knight Frank together with its American affiliate Cresa is one of the world's large ...

in 2015 with a guide price of £12 million.
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References

{{coord, 51, 20, 52.56, N, 0, 2, 35.05, E, type:landmark, display=title Grade I listed buildings in the London Borough of Bromley Grade II listed parks and gardens in London Houses in the London Borough of Bromley Decimus Burton buildings Country houses in London Houses completed in 1826