Wimbledon

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Arthur Road

Park House School, the Middle School of 1972-4, occupies the site of Wimbledon Park House

Wimbledon Park House here until 1949. The Park remains as the Tennis Club and Golf Course which stand on the site now occupied by Park House Middle School. Wimbledon Park House, built by Henry Holland for Earl Spencer 1799-1802 on the foundations of the stables of the house built for the Duchess of Marlborough stables. It was sold in 1846 to a developer, J. A. Beaumont, but survived, hemmed in by later streets, until 1949. The park was landscaped by Capability Brown in 1765

Lodge for Wimbledon Park House stuccoed early c19

Well House 563' deep 1798 by Earl Spencer for water for the house.  Octagonal and dome house in 1975.  Artesian wells, one of the first deep wells outside London.  Deep sealed.  Octagonal with a dome. Converted to a house in 1975, with windows in the former recesses.

Church Road

Leads towards the parish church, and the sites of the Cecil and Spencer mansions

Cottages, 17th

Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum opened 1977; All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club Covered Tennis Court.

All England Lawn Tennis And Croquet Club.  The first championships were held at the old grounds in Worple Road in 1877. The present club in Church. Road dates from 1922. A short way from the championship courts a covered tennis court by C.J. Pell & Partners, engineers, 1958. A shell-concrete vault of 175 by 175 ft covers two existing courts. The vault is only 3 in. thick. Shallow segmental lunettes on all four sides. Centre with a i4-ft dome of glass-fibre laminate. In addition two hundred 21-in. glass domes for daylighting and a system of tubes for artificial lighting. Features in films 'Nobody Runs Forever’, ‘Players’, ‘Wimbledon’.

34c 1740

Old Rectory. 

This was leased by William Cecil, the later Lord Burghley, as a country retreat c. 1550. After 1558 it became the residence of his eldest son, Thomas Cecil, first Earl of Exeter. Originally one range with especially thick walls, two stair-turrets, and some interior features, including a pointed arch in the former chapel. Also good panelling of c. 1600, probably brought in.

Wimbledon House of Thomas Cecil. He acquired further land at Wimbledon and in 1588 began build a new manor house on a magnificent scale close to the church, the first of a sequence of great mansions which have disappeared. Cecil's house stood approximate astride Home Park Road, facing  downhill over a series terraced forecourts. It was altered in the 1640s for Queen Henrietta Maria, by Inigo Jones and Nicholas Stone. In 1732 Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, built a house, bunt down  in 1785,  designed by Henry Herbert, ninth Earl of Pembroke, and Roger Morris. The Tudor building was then cleared away to provide a northern vista. Inigo Jones inspired gardens.

House. A house. Begun c. 1720 by Colen Campbell and Lord Burlington for Sir Theodore Janssen, but never completed, on the same site again.

Hill Crest

Home Park Road

The rectory was leased by William Cecil, the later Lord Burghley, as a country retreat c. 1550. After 1558 it became the residence of his eldest son, Thomas Cecil, first Earl of Exeter who acquired further land at Wimbledon and in 1588 began build a new manor house on a magnificent scale close to the church. It has been shown that Cecil's house stood approximate astride Home Park Road, facing north downhill over a series terraced forecourts. It was altered in the 1640s for Queen Henrietta Maria, by Inigo Jones and Nicholas Stone. Another  house was begun c. 1720 by Colen Campbell and Lord Burlington for Sir Theodore Janssen, but never completed. When in 1732 Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, built a house - burnt down in 1785 - designed by Henry Herbert, ninth Earl of Pembroke, and Roger Morris, the Tudor building was cleared away to provide a northern vista. The next on the site, Wimbledon Park House, built by Henry Holland for Earl Spencer 1799-1802 on the foundations of the Marlborough stables was sold in 1846 to a developer, J. A. Beaumont, but survived, hemmed in by later streets, until 1949. Fragments of the park, landscaped by Capability Brown in 1765,  remain as a golf course, pub park, and the All England Tennis Club.

124 tunnel from The Marlborough House 1733-1785. It connected this large Palladian mansion to its servants' quarters some 50 yards away to keep the servants out of sight of the house. The House burned down and the servants' quarters were demolished.  The tunnel was used as an air raid shelter in World War 2 and came to light again in 1972 when foundations were dug for Park House Middle School.  Then A collapse occurred in the lawn at 124 - a circular hole some 30 cm in diameter which widened lower down. The top 1.3m was in moist clay; then comes a brick- lined shaft some 0.8m square, giving access to a passage averaging 1.2m high and 0.8m wide.   The passage section was in the form of a pointed arch and it was lined with bricks in good condition.  The floor was brick-lined and had become uneven with the passage or time.  A trickle of clear water appeared from under rubble and disappeared again.  A There blockage to the roof of mixed clay and bricks appeared man-made. An earthenware pipe entered from a side wall, and there was an attractive series of floor to ceiling stalactites.  The south-west wall of the passage has collapsed at this point, partly blocking the passage with clay and creating a clay alcove to one side. There were marks of previous human passage across this blockage. a wall with a single course of bricks across the passage at this point is a mystery.   A gap has been left at the base to permit the passage of water, and there are other gaps higher up to prevent it from acting as a dam.   A pile of clay from the surface had caused some ponding at this point to a depth of .25m.  There were some animal droppings on the floor, possibly from foxes.   There is a flowstone deposit on the wall and signs of root penetration.  A small feeder passage enters terminating where there is a brick dam and a continuation too tight to enter. There is 'a step down in the floor.  A rubble blockage fills the passage at this point, but there is daylight plus a number of golf balls on the floor. On the surface the course of the passage runs towards the house and parallel to the boundary upstream.  It is 'blocked' close to the house foundations. Downstream and to the north-west the surface descends in a series of platforms, once part of the landscaping of the old Manor House.   The tunnel passes the fence into land now belonging 118.   It skirts the edge of a deep swimming pool, bends north, and ends on the golf course.

1899 lane going to a Tudor Mansion, two clubhouses burnt down and another bombed.  Site of Cecil Mansion, demolished 1732.  Old Rectory used by Cecil as a country retreat

Wimbledon Golf Club. On the golf course is a low brick arch where the tunnel under the gardens ends in a patch of bushes on a golf course. This arch was reputedly incorporated into a pageant in the 1920s as a setting for Queen Matilda discovering a vault in Merton Abbey.   If also figured in news stories in the late '70s when police searched it for the body of Mrs Muriel MacKay, the wife of the then Editor of the News of the World.   This tunnel was built On the cut and cover principle.   It is still dutifully performing its original function of draining a natural spring to a hollow on what is now the golf course.

Park House School.  Middle School 1972.  Site of Wimbledon Park House until 1949.

Bishop Gilpin Primary School 1966; nicely detailed.

Ricards Lodge School, Victorian Gothic mansion, 1875, built by John Nicholls in 1875-7 for Percy Mortimer, the developer of the surrounding roads. Red brick with stone dressings; gables and a tower

Somerset Road

Cedar Court

Oakfield

St.Mary’s Road

St.Mary’s Church. The ancient parish church. Chancel masonry of the later Middle Ages, including a low side window The rest rebuilt first by John Johnson of Leicester in 1788 then again in 1843 by G. G. Scott &  Moffat. The Chancel largely rebuilt by Scott in 1860. Flint with stone dressings, tower with spire. Perpemdicular style details. Interior with three galleries. The  Cecil Chapel, built in 1626-36 containing the simple black marble monument to Sir Edward Cecil, Viscount Wimbledon, 1638  - No figures, nor any figural relief. The chapel is of brick with small windows below the roof and a simple rib-vault. There is some armour And stained glass -a handsome c 14 figure of St George and heraldic glass of the c 17/ Other stained glass - in one window three figures designed by Henry Holiday and made by Morris & Co., 1923. and another three panels by Morris & Co., 1925.  Monuments: James Perry 1821, erected by the Fox Club. Seated figure below a bust of Charles James Fox.  John Miland 1877 Bust by W Colder Marshall.  Sir Joseph Bazalgette 1891 by Gaffin. brasses.  1971 war memorial chapel. 

Churchyard:  many large monuments, notably Gerard de Visme 1797, a Zodiacal pyramid of blocks of vermiculated rustication with corner acroteria to the base. 1843 rebuilt.   Bazalgette monument.

Queen Alexandra's Court Royal Homes for Widows and Daughters of Naval Officers.  Royal  Homes for Widows and Daughters of Naval and Military Officers, 1904-5,1908, 1912, by Ernest George & Yeates with C. E. L. Parkinson. A formal layout of four tall blocks around three sides of a quadrangle. Brick, Georgian sashes, hipped roofs, but the plain stone panels in which the doors are set, with their circular and arched windows above, still with Arts-and-Crafts leanings. They are crowned by little pediments. On the fourth side of the quadrangle balustraded terraces with urns, and a low garden pavilion as centrepiece, with pediment, bold hipped roof, and tall clock tower.

Worple Road

All England Club used to be

Telephone Manager's Office, By W. S. Frost of the Ministry of Public Building and Works, 1958-62. Neat curtain-walling.