Kneller Hall is 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 I ...

mansion in Whitton, in the

London Borough of Richmond upon Thames The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames () in southwest London forms part of Outer London and is the only London borough on both sides of the River Thames. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council areas amalgamated under the Londo ...

. It housed the Royal Military School of Music, training musicians for the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...

, which acquired the building in the mid-19th century. It was also home to the school's Museum of Army Music. The Army vacated the site on 31 August 2021.

History and architecture

The first house on the site was built by Edmund Cooke between 1635 and 1646 and in 1664 was the fourth largest house in

Twickenham Twickenham is a suburban district in London, England. It is situated on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames since 1965, and the boro ...

. In 1709 the property was purchased by Sir

Godfrey Kneller Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1st Baronet (born Gottfried Kniller; 8 August 1646 – 19 October 1723), was the leading portrait painter in England during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and was court painter to English and British monarchs from ...

, court painter to British monarchs from Charles II to

George I George I or 1 may refer to: People * Patriarch George I of Alexandria (fl. 621–631) * George I of Constantinople (d. 686) * George I of Antioch (d. 790) * George I of Abkhazia (ruled 872/3–878/9) * George I of Georgia (d. 1027) * Yuri Dolgor ...

. He had the original house demolished and replaced by a new building, reputedly designed by Sir

Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 church ...

. This second house was known as Whitton Hall, after the village, but was renamed by Kneller's widow, in memory of her husband. In 1757, the house was sold to Sir Samuel Prime, a prominent London lawyer, who, with his son of the same name, extended it significantly and landscaped the grounds. After Samuel Prime junior died in 1813, the hall was sold to Charles Calvert, Whig MP for

Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...

from 1812 to 1832. He further expanded the house (to designs by

Philip Hardwick Philip Hardwick (15 June 1792 in London – 28 December 1870) was an English architect, particularly associated with railway stations and warehouses in London and elsewhere. Hardwick is probably best known for London's demolished Euston Arch ...

), adding

drawing room A drawing room is a room in a house where visitors may be entertained, and an alternative name for a living room. The name is derived from the 16th-century terms withdrawing room and withdrawing chamber, which remained in use through the 17th cen ...

s at the east and west ends of the building. Calvert died of cholera in 1832 and his widow inhabited until her death about 1845. The house was then acquired by the government as a

teacher training college A normal school or normal college is an institution created to train teachers by educating them in the norms of pedagogy and curriculum. In the 19th century in the United States, instruction in normal schools was at the high school level, turni ...

, but it needed substantial reconstruction. By 1850 much of the Wren bulk of the house had become dilapidated and so was demolished. The Hardwick additions were preserved to form the wings of the new house, designed by George Mair. This third building on the site, which still stands today, is stone-corniced, casemented and constructed as to its ground floor central range and otherwise built of red bricks, all in the neo- Jacobethan style suitable to 19th and 20th century mansions of its scale. It consists of 17 bays, the central of which is the widest and of stained glass and the two adjacent of which are arrow-slit windows. The bays are split into five recessed or projecting ranges. Two square, pavilion towers form the near left and right bays, each tower crowned by a stone and leaded

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 combinat ...

-shaped

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, f ...

. Its gatepiers and house are separately listed by

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 w ...

at Grade II.

Functions

From 1850 to 1856 Kneller Hall served as a teacher training college under principal

Frederick Temple Frederick Temple (30 November 1821 – 23 December 1902) was an English academic, teacher and churchman, who served as Bishop of Exeter (1869–1885), Bishop of London (1885–1896) and Archbishop of Canterbury (1896–1902). Early life T ...

and vice-principal

Francis Turner Palgrave Francis Turner Palgrave (; 28 September 1824 – 24 October 1897) was a British critic, anthologist and poet. Life He was born at Great Yarmouth, the eldest son of Sir Francis Palgrave, the (born Jewish) historian to his wife Elizabeth, daug ...

, known for his poetry anthology ''

Palgrave's Golden Treasury The ''Golden Treasury of English Songs and Lyrics'' is a popular anthology of English poetry, originally selected for publication by Francis Turner Palgrave in 1861. It was considerably revised, with input from Tennyson, about three decades la ...

''. In exchange for a two-year college education almost entirely subsidised by the state – one of the first forms of state-sponsored

social mobility Social mobility is the movement of individuals, families, households or other categories of people within or between social strata in a society. It is a change in social status relative to one's current social location within a given society ...

– graduates of the college were supposed to teach pauper and delinquent boys in specially built district schools. Though Kneller Hall itself was generously funded by the state, the larger scheme to build district schools never came to fruition owing to political and religious conflict (see Newcastle Commission). The college closed when it was unable to attract any more students, who were now expected to teach in miserable conditions in Britain's

workhouses In Britain, a workhouse () was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. (In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses.) The earliest known use of the term ''workhouse' ...

. On 3 March 1857 the building was taken over by the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

as the base for a school for army bandsmen; it then evolved into the Royal Military School of Music. During 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 opposi ...

the site was briefly the headquarters of the

Commander-in-Chief, Home Forces Commander-in-Chief, Home Forces was a senior officer in the British Army during the First and Second World Wars. The role of the appointment was firstly to oversee the training and equipment of formations in preparation for their deployment ove ...

from late 1939 until the headquarters moved out to St Paul's School in July 1940. On 18 January 2016 defence minister Mark Lancaster announced that Kneller Hall was one of 12

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in state ...

(MoD) sites proposed to be sold as part of the MoD's drive for greater efficiency. In November 2016 the MoD announced that the site would close in 2020. This was later extended to 31 August 2021. In September 2021 it was announced that the hall would become the Upper School for Radnor House School, Twickenham, currently housed in

Pope's Villa Pope's villa was the residence of Alexander Pope at Twickenham, then a village west of London in Middlesex. He moved there in 1719 and created gardens and an underground grotto. When Baroness Howe of Langar (1762–1835) purchased the house ...

History and architecture

Functions

References

Further reading