Langtons House and Langtons Gardens are a

grade II listed 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 ...

18th century house and landscaped gardens located in

Hornchurch Hornchurch is a suburban town in East London, England, and part of the London Borough of Havering. It is located east-northeast of Charing Cross. It comprises a number of shopping streets and a large residential area. It historically formed ...

, in the

London Borough of Havering The London Borough of Havering () in East London, England, forms part of Outer London. It has a population of 259,552 inhabitants; the principal town is Romford, while other communities are Hornchurch, Upminster, Collier Row and Rainham. The ...

, Greater London. The house and gardens became local authority property in 1929 and are currently used as the borough

register office A register office or The General Register Office, much more commonly but erroneously registry office (except in official use), is a British government office where births, deaths, marriages, civil partnership, stillbirths and adoptions in England, ...

and a public park. Langtons House was used as the council offices of

Hornchurch Urban District Council Hornchurch was a local government district in southwest Essex from 1926 to 1965, formed as an Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland), urban district for the civil parish of Hornchurch. It was greatly expanded in 1934 with the addition of Cran ...

from 1929 to 1965.

History

The house, built on the foundations of an older house in the early 18th century, stands in a picturesque landscaped garden with a lake,

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 ...

bath house Public baths originated when most people in population centers did not have access to private bathing facilities. Though termed "public", they have often been restricted according to gender, religious affiliation, personal membership, and other cr ...

and a

gazebo A gazebo is a pavilion structure, sometimes octagonal or turret-shaped, often built in a park, garden or spacious public area. Some are used on occasions as bandstands. Etymology The etymology given by Oxford Dictionaries (website), Oxford D ...

, all dating from the end of the 18th century, when Hornchurch was a rural settlement. In 1776 Langtons and considerable property in Essex was owned by John Mayor a brewer who became MP for Abingdon and established HM Stationery Office. The house was purchased in 1797 by John Massu, whose family, originally

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

refugees, had become wealthy silk merchants in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

. He set about modernising Langtons, to which he added the two-storey wings that project on the south front. Langtons house london orangery

The grounds were and landscaped according to plans of

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 ...

. He created the serpentine pond with the bathhouse and

and planted

horse chestnuts The genus ''Aesculus'' ( or ), with species called buckeye and horse chestnut, comprises 13–19 species of flowering plants in the family Sapindaceae. They are trees and shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere, with six species n ...

to mask or frame the mid-18th century stables, to which he added an octagonal cupola. A

shrubbery A shrubbery, shrub border or shrub garden is a part of a garden where shrubs, mostly flowering species, are thickly planted. The original shrubberies were mostly sections of large gardens, with one or more paths winding through it, a less-rememb ...

walk with serpentining paths was planted east of the house and a balancing shrubbery belt to the west are probably part of Repton's plan; the

Cedar of Lebanon ''Cedrus libani'', the cedar of Lebanon or Lebanese cedar (), is a species of tree in the genus cedrus, a part of the pine family, native to the mountains of the Eastern Mediterranean basin. It is a large evergreen conifer that has great religi ...

was planted as a central feature of the lawn. By 1805 the gardens were sufficiently advanced to be illustrated in ''Peacock's Polite Repository''.Hazel Conway, "Surviving historic landscapes in the London Borough of Havering"
/ref> Langtons was given to

by Varco Williams and his daughter in 1929, under the condition that the building must be kept as it was and used for council purposes and that the six acres (24,000 m²) of grounds remain open to the public. The gardens, one of the surviving historic landscapes serve as one of the parks and open spaces in Havering. The

Fielders Sports Ground Fielders Sports Ground is a cricket ground in Hornchurch, England. It was formerly part of the grounds of Langtons House and was known as Langton Park when it was a first-class cricket ground. The ground is located on land that was part of the gro ...

, north of the site, was once also part of the gardens and was used as a venue for

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

. The building housed the council offices until the council was abolished in 1965 and Havering London Borough Council, based in

Romford Romford is a large town in east London and the administrative centre of the London Borough of Havering. It is located northeast of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Historically, Romford ...

, was created. In 2016 the gardens were extensively restored adding many new features such as a Victorian greenhouse, ornamental bridge, entrance pillars, cobbled stable yard and new tea room.

Havering register office

Langtons House is used as a

and function rooms, and has become a popular venue for

wedding A wedding is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of marriage vo ...

s. Due to an administration error it was found to be unlicensed from October 2004 to March 2005 with 193 marriages affected. Despite the error, all were later found by the High Court to be legally valid.

References

External links

Havering London Borough Council webpage about Langtons
{{LB Havering Parks and open spaces in the London Borough of Havering Local government buildings in London Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Havering Houses in the London Borough of Havering Country houses in London Hornchurch Houses completed in the 18th century 18th-century architecture in the United Kingdom Grade II listed houses in London