Derwent House, on Camden Park Road,
Chislehurst,
Bromley
Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 87,889 as of 2011.
Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, c ...
, is one of a number of the locally renowned 'Willett-built' houses erected on the Camden Park Estate by high-class speculative builder
William Willett
William Willett (10 August 1856 – 4 March 1915) was a British builder and a promoter of British Summer Time.
Biography
Willett was born in Farnham, Surrey, and educated at the Philological School. After some commercial experience, he ente ...
in the 1900s.
Willett bought the entire estate in 1890 with the intention of building on it all but the venture was not successful and he erected only a small number of houses there and on Wilderness Road. The remainder of the estate became the Chislehurst Golf Club with the mansion, Camden Place, becoming its clubhouse.
Derwent House was erected in 1899. The design is inspired by the
arts and crafts movement. It is of red brick in with a red clay tiled roof. It was designed by
Ernest Newton
Ernest Newton (12 September 1856 – 25 January 1922) was an English architect, President of Royal Institute of British Architects and founding member of the Art Workers' Guild.
Life
Newton was the son of an estate manager of Bickley, Ke ...
and a ballroom was added in 1903 by
Amos Faulkner (Willett's in-house architect). Faulkner also designed the detached motor house with carriage-wash canopy. Derwent is a Grade II
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 ...
located within the Chislehurst Conservation Area.
Willett lived in a similar Newton house further along at 88 Camden Park Road. A blue plaque on that building commemorates Willett as the promoter of
daylight saving time
Daylight saving time (DST), also referred to as daylight savings time or simply daylight time (United States, Canada, and Australia), and summer time (United Kingdom, European Union, and others), is the practice of advancing clocks (typicall ...
.
References
Houses in the London Borough of Bromley
Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Bromley
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