The Hermitage is a

cottage orné Cottage orné () dates back to a movement of "rustic" stylised cottages of the late 18th and early 19th centuries during the Romantic movement, when some sought to discover a more natural way of living as opposed to the formality of the preceding ...

Hanwell Hanwell () is a town in the London Borough of Ealing, in the historic County of Middlesex, England. It is about 1.5 miles west of Ealing Broadway and had a population of 28,768 as of 2011. It is the westernmost location of the London post t ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

built by rector

George Glasse George Henry Glasse (1761–1809) was a notable Oxford Greek and Latin scholar, domestic chaplain to the Duke of Cambridge. Biography Glasse was the son of Dr. Samuel Glasse, rector of St. Mary's in Hanwell, London and grew up in the rectory. ...

in 1809 on the site of a previous house called the Elms.

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

described the house as "a peach of an early c19 Gothic thatched cottage with two pointed windows, a

quatrefoil A quatrefoil (anciently caterfoil) is a decorative element consisting of a symmetrical shape which forms the overall outline of four partially overlapping circles of the same diameter. It is found in art, architecture, heraldry and traditional ...

, and an

ogee An ogee ( ) is the name given to objects, elements, and curves—often seen in architecture and building trades—that have been variously described as serpentine-, extended S-, or sigmoid-shaped. Ogees consist of a "double curve", the combinatio ...

arched door, all on a minute scale. Inside, an octagonal hall and reception room." It is

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 ...

building on

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked wit ...

National Heritage List The Australian National Heritage List or National Heritage List (NHL) is a heritage register, a list of national heritage places deemed to be of outstanding heritage significance to Australia, established in 2003. The list includes natural and ...

. Behind the cottage lies a spring, which may be the origin of 'well' being incorporated into the local place name of

. There is also a small lake and a barn. The barn was used in the mid-1960s by Pictorial Charts Educational Trust, for housing and shipping wall charts used by schools all over the country.

References

Grade II listed houses in London Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Ealing Houses in the London Borough of Ealing Cottage orné Houses completed in 1809 Hanwell {{London-struct-stub