Green Street House
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Green Street House, usually known as Boleyn Castle, was a stately home in
East Ham East Ham is a district of the London Borough of Newham, England, 8 miles (12.8 km) east of Charing Cross. East Ham is identified in the London Plan as a Major Centre. The population is 76,186. It was originally part of the Becontree Hun ...
in the modern
London Borough of Newham The London Borough of Newham is a London borough created in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963. It covers an area previously administered by the Essex county boroughs of West Ham and East Ham, authorities that were both abolished by the s ...
,
East London East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...
. The alternative name derives from the local legend linking the house with
Anne Boleyn Anne Boleyn (; 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and of her execution by beheading for treason and other charges made her a key ...
and from its imposing appearance, notably the castle-like structure called ''Anne Boleyn’s Tower'' which lay immediately adjacent to Green Street. The house lay at the southern end of Green Street, from which it takes its name, a street which forms the boundary between
West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...
and
East Ham East Ham is a district of the London Borough of Newham, England, 8 miles (12.8 km) east of Charing Cross. East Ham is identified in the London Plan as a Major Centre. The population is 76,186. It was originally part of the Becontree Hun ...
.
West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...
's former
Boleyn Ground The Boleyn Ground, often referred to as Upton Park, was a football stadium located in Upton Park, east London. It was the home of West Ham United from 1904 to 2016, and was briefly used by Charlton Athletic in the early 1990s during their years ...
was built immediately to the east of the House and took its name from the alternative name for the house. In its early years the club referred to their new ground as the Boleyn Castle with Boleyn Ground subsequently becoming the usual term.


Origin, and the Boleyn Legend

The estate was formed in the early 16th century, perhaps by Richard Breame (d. 1546) a servant of
Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
. The local legend is that
Anne Boleyn Anne Boleyn (; 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and of her execution by beheading for treason and other charges made her a key ...
lived there and Henry VIII came there to court her. There is no documentary evidence to support this belief.


Description

Green Street House was a red-brick building, mostly of two storeys which originally comprised a great hall at right angles to the street with a long range at its west end and a kitchen block at the east end. South of the kitchen block was a staircase wing with a three-storeyed tower east of that. At the north end of the west range, fronting Green Street, was an arched gateway. In the late 17th century the upper parts of the hall, the west range, the kitchen, and staircase wing were partly rebuilt. during the ownership of Sir Jacob and Sir Thomas Garrard. In the 18th century a wing was added east of the tower, and a later addition was made east of the kitchen. Inside the house there was panelling of the late 16th- or early 17th-century, and the main staircase was of the same period. In the garden, south of the west wing, was a detached tower, ''Anne Boleyn's Tower'', which overlooked the street and was the best-known feature of the house. This was an octagonal building of red brick with crenellated parapet and stair-turret. It was built about the middle of the 16th century, and may originally have been balanced by another tower at the south-east corner of the garden. The upper part of the tower was rebuilt by William Morley about 1800. Until the 18th century a room in the tower was hung with leather embossed with gold, but Morley's predecessor, Mrs. Whiteside, is said to have burnt these hangings and sold the gold. The sale catalogue of 1863 lists all the rooms in the house and its outbuildings, and describes the gardens, which contained several fine cedars. When the Roman Catholics bought the house they demolished the gateway and erected a range of buildings, including a church, along Green Street.


Owners and tenants

It has been suggested that Breame was followed in the late 16th and early 17th centuries by the Nevilles, whose monument is in St. Mary's church,
East Ham East Ham is a district of the London Borough of Newham, England, 8 miles (12.8 km) east of Charing Cross. East Ham is identified in the London Plan as a Major Centre. The population is 76,186. It was originally part of the Becontree Hun ...
. In the 1630s and 1640s the estate seems to have belonged to
Sir Henry Holcroft Sir Henry Holcroft (1586–1650) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons of England, House of Commons between 1624 and 1629 and held appointments in the Dublin Castle administration in Ireland. Biography Holcroft was the son of ...
(died circa 1651) a Parliamentarian prominent in
Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...
during the Civil War, and later to his widow. It was acquired about 1653 by Sir Jacob Garrard (Bt.), a London merchant of royalist sympathies who founded an apprenticing charity. Green Street House descended with the baronetcy until the death in 1728 of Sir Nicholas Garrard. Cecilia, widow of Sir Nicholas, retained it until her death in 1753, when it passed to his grandnephew Sir Jacob Downing, Bt. In 1755 Downing conveyed the estate, then comprising about , to James Barnard or Bernard (d. 1759). Bernard appears to have been succeeded by Mrs. Whiteside, who was probably his daughter and the estate was partly broken up about this time. In 1788–1789, Maurice Bernard sold Green Street House and grounds, totalling , to William Morley. Morley, a London corn merchant, lived there until his death in 1832. The house was subsequently bought by Mr. Henry Lee, for his daughter Mrs. Sarah Morley, who was related to the former owner by marriage. In 1839 James Morley (not her husband but possibly her uncle), owned and occupied the house. The occupation of the site by the different Morley families led to the junction of Green Street and
Barking Road List of A roads in zone 1 in Great Britain beginning north of the River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longe ...
, by the Boleyn Tavern, being known as ''Morley's Corner''. In 1863, the house and grounds, then comprising , were advertised for sale. They do not appear to have changed hands then, but in 1869 they were bought from the Morleys by Cardinal Manning, for use as a Roman Catholic reformatory school. After the reformatory was closed the southern part of the site was used for a Roman Catholic church and primary school. The house, after being used c. 1907–12 as a maternity home, was leased, with some adjoining land, to the West Ham United football club, which sub-let the house to the Boleyn Castle social club. The social club occupied the house until the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. After moving into the adjacent
Boleyn Ground The Boleyn Ground, often referred to as Upton Park, was a football stadium located in Upton Park, east London. It was the home of West Ham United from 1904 to 2016, and was briefly used by Charlton Athletic in the early 1990s during their years ...
, West Ham United trained on the grounds of Green Street House, before moving to
Chadwell Heath Chadwell Heath is an area in east London, England. It is situated on the boundary of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham and the London Borough of Redbridge, around west of Romford and east of Ilford, and north-east of Charing Cross. ...
.


Demolition

Like many stately homes at that time, the house became dilapidated, with bomb damage possibly a factor, and as a result was demolished in 1955.


Legacy

Until 2016, West Ham United played at the adjacent Boleyn Ground named after the House and the club's badge featured a stylised representation of the House. The ground's West Stand, redeveloped in 2001 included tower features as a stylised tribute to the club's badge and Green Street House itself. The Boleyn Ground was demolished after the 2015–16 season but the Boleyn Tavern, on the Morley's Corner junction with
Barking Road List of A roads in zone 1 in Great Britain beginning north of the River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longe ...
remains. Several nearby street names reflect the presence of the House. Castle Street immediately to the south and the cluster of streets with Tudor themed names a little to the north. Other roads in the immediate north of the site are named after the other wives of King Henry VIII - Parr Road, Cleves Road, Arragon Road, Seymour Road, etc. After West Ham United left the Boleyn Ground in 2016, archaeologists uncovered foundations of some of the buildings beneath the club's former carpark.


References

{{Coord, 51, 31, 53.21, N, 0, 2, 15.96, E, scale:6250_region:GB, display=title East Ham Former buildings and structures in the London Borough of Newham West Ham United F.C.