Verulam House was a building in

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

, built by

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England under King James I. Bacon argued for the importance of nat ...

to supplement his family home of

Gorhambury Old Gorhambury House located near St Albans, Hertfordshire, England, is a ruined Elizabethan mansion, a leading and early example of the Elizabethan prodigy house. History The old house It was built in 1563–68 by Nicholas Bacon (courtier), S ...

. The main source describing it is

John Aubrey John Aubrey (12 March 1626 – 7 June 1697) was an English antiquary, natural philosopher and writer. He was a pioneer archaeologist, who recorded (often for the first time) numerous megalithic and other field monuments in southern England ...

's ''

Brief Lives ''Brief Lives'' is a collection of short biographies written by John Aubrey (1626–1697) in the last decades of the 17th century. Writing Aubrey initially began collecting biographical material to assist the Oxford scholar Anthony Wood, who ...

'' (1669-1696). It was named after

Verulamium Verulamium was a town in Roman Britain. It was sited southwest of the modern city of St Albans in Hertfordshire, England. The major ancient Roman route Watling Street passed through the city, but was realigned in medieval times to bring trad ...

, the ancient Roman city of St Albans, though it was not sited within that city's walls as Aubrey asserted.

History

Bacon completed it around 1617, partly motivated by a drought which starved the advanced plumbing system built at Gorhambury by his father - Bacon stated that "since he could not carry the water to his house, he would carry his house to the water". He picked a site next to water gardens he had already constructed and Aubrey writes that he was assisted in the designs by the father of the painter

William Dobson William Dobson (4 March 1611 (baptised); 28 October 1646 (buried)) was a portraitist and one of the first significant English painters, praised by his contemporary John Aubrey as "''the most excellent painter that England has yet bred''". He ...

. Again according to Aubrey, it cost £9000-£10,000 and included underground larders, an underground kitchen and two rooms for

Turkish baths A hammam (), also often called a Turkish bath by Westerners, is a type of steam bath or a place of public bathing associated with the Islamic world. It is a prominent feature in the culture of the Muslim world and was inherited from the model ...

. Bacon died childless and so his will conveyed Verulam House to trustees for the use of his secretary

Thomas Meautys Sir Thomas Meautys (1592–1649) was an English civil servant and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1621 and 1640. Biography Meautys was the son of Thomas Meautys of West Ham and of St Julian's Hospital, Hertfordshire, and his ...

. It then passed to Bacon's widow Anne's second husband Sir Harbottle Grimston, who assigned Verulam House to his son George upon the latter's marriage. It was occupied by George's widow after his death without issue. Neglected during the

English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

, it was demolished in 1663 or 1665-1666 and the materials sold off to two carpenters for £400, who then sold them on for double the price they had paid for them.

References

{{coord missing, Hertfordshire category:Buildings and structures in St Albans Demolished buildings and structures in Hertfordshire category:17th-century architecture in England