A HISTORY OF SURREY 



back to the Crown in I547." 6 Later it was granted 

 to the Duke of Suffolk, but was again resumed by the 

 Crown after his attainder in 1554. The monastery 

 was refounded for the remnant of English Carthu- 

 sians, to be finally dissolved by Elizabeth. It was 

 thus the latest founded and the last dissolved of the 

 greater English monasteries. The site was granted 

 by the queen to Sir Thomas Gorges and his wife, the 

 Marchioness of Northampton, in 1584.'" James, 

 Duke of Lennox, obtained a grant of it in 1638. 

 At the time of the Commonwealth a detailed survey 

 was taken of the buildings, and the site, valued at 

 92, was sold as Crown land to Alexander Easton. 1 * 9 

 In 1660 Charles II granted a lease of it for sixty 

 years to Viscount Lisle, 130 who made it his residence 

 for a time and transferred it to Lord Belasise about two 

 years later, the latter obtaining a new lease of it in 

 1662 for sixty years. 131 In 1675 a lease of the priory 

 was granted to certain persons in trust for Henry 

 (afterwards Viscount) Brouncker and Sir William 

 Temple.' 3 * Sir William had made the house which 

 occupied the site of the priory his home since 

 l663, 13> and constantly averred his delight in his 

 sequestered abode, 134 which, however, he eventually 

 gave to his son. 135 In 1696 another grant of the 

 site of the monastery was made to Charles Bertie 

 and others for thirty-one years, apparently in trust for 

 the Duke of Leeds. 136 Two leases dated 1750 and 

 1760 conveyed separate parts of the estate to John 

 Jefferys and Charles Buckworth for a term of years. 13 ' 

 No remains of the priory are now in existence, the 

 gateway which was the last survival having been taken 

 down in ij6<). lia 



The present town of Richmond has grown up for 

 the most part on the other side of the site of the 

 royal palace. During the 1 8th century the growth 

 of the parish, judged by the number of its inhabitants, 

 was considerable. 138 A place of entertainment called 

 Richmond Wells, which had been opened in 1696 

 near a medicinal spring that once existed in the 

 grounds of Cardigan House on the hill, attracted a 

 great many people during the early part of the 

 century, but it had lost its reputation when about 

 1755 the property was bought and the wells closed 

 by the Misses Houblon, then living in a house nearly 

 opposite, now Ellerker College. 140 In 1792 the 

 number of houses, exclusive of the new workhouse 

 built by George III about 1785, and the almshouses, 

 was 8 1 5.'" Apart from the few relics of the Tudor 

 Palace, and one or two other structures, old Rich- 

 mond is essentially a Queen Anne and Georgian 

 town. Among these exceptions is a bicycle-maker's 

 shop at the corner of Duke Street on the Green 

 which contains some early 1 7th-century oak panelling, 

 whilst it is said that a large Elizabethan fireplace was 

 found when the present shop-front was put in. A 

 shop next to the police station in the main road also 

 has an old fireplace with moulded jambs and lintel ot 

 grey marble with a black marble keystone ; it is not 

 unlike the fireplaces in Ham House of the time of 

 Charles II, and is probably contemporary. Of the 

 later period many examples could be enumerated. 



A large house with two projecting wings in the 

 Sheen Road, now divided into three houses, has an 

 18th-century brick front, but the side walls are 

 evidently of an earlier date. Streatham Lodge, as the 

 north wing is called, has mostly 18th-century or 

 modern fittings, but the staircase is evidently the 

 work of the beginning of the 1 7th century ; the three 

 upper flights are of exceptionally heavy woodwork, the 

 moulded hand-rail being 7 in. wide by 6 in. deep, and 

 the turned balusters 4 in. square ; the newels are 

 plain (7 in. square) with ball tops, and the stair 

 carriage or sloping string is also plain ; the lower 

 flights are early I gth-century. The staircase is also the 

 principal feature of Beverley Lodge, which occupies 

 the south wing of the house ; this is a very fine 

 example of early 18th-century workmanship ; the 

 treads have moulded soffits and carved ends, the 

 balusters are square with fluted sides, the newels are 

 fluted Corinthian columns, and the hand-rail is 

 moulded ; it is in four flights, and may have replaced 

 one like that in Streatham Lodge, than which it is 

 much wider, lighter, and more elegant. 



No. 5 Hill Street is a late l/th or early 18th- 

 century house with a staircase and fittings of the 

 period ; the stair has twisted balusters. A carved 

 over-door with fruit, flowers, &c., off the stair hall, is 

 reminiscent of the work of Grinling Gibbons, as is 

 also a carved picture-frame with a broken pediment 

 fixed in the wall in the upper part of the stair hall. 



' Queen Anne ' House (or No 1 1 The Green) is 

 a building, as its name implies, of the beginning of 

 the 1 8th century, with some good ironwork in 

 front. In the front hall or passage is an oak carved 

 and pierced screen which appears to be earlier than 

 the house and brought from elsewhere. In the base- 

 ment is a good lead cistern dated 1715. 



There are several other old lead cisterns remaining 

 in the neighbourhood ; at ' Abbotsdene ' on the Green 

 is one dated 1709 with ornamental work in relief 

 and the initials A B M ; in Palace Place adjacent 

 another dated 1718, another at the back of Mr. 

 Cockburn's shop inscribed 1735 G w I, and a 

 fourth in Gloucester Road, Kew, dated 1768, with 

 the letters T A A and with crests of stags in relief 

 upon it. 



Many of the doorways in Richmond are good 

 examples of 18th-century workmanship and carving. 

 Some in the Sheen Road are of similar character to 

 the carved over-door in No. 5 Hill Street ; in Church 

 Terrace are others worthy of notice ; and three in 

 Michels Terrace are striking with their winged 

 cherubs ; these all appear to be work of the first half 

 of the century. A very good example of the iron- 

 work of the period remains in the gateway to Marsh- 

 gate House, Sheen Road. On the other side of the 

 same road are the almshouses founded by Rebecca 

 and Susannah Houblon in 1757 ; the entrance to the 

 front quadrangle has some fairly good iron gates 

 bearing that date. Perhaps two other relics of older 

 Richmond are a gabled cottage in the passage east 

 of the church, of timber cemented over, and three 

 cottages in Vine Row of timber construction filled in 



156 Pat. I Edw. VI, pt. vi, m. 20. 



W Ibid. 26 Eliz. pt. iii, m. 15. 



128 Ibid. 14 Chas. I, pt. xliii, no. 23, m. IO. 



1M Dugdalc, Man. vi, 30. 



180 Cal. S.P. Dom. 1660-1, p. 208. 



181 Pat. 14 Chas. II, pt. ii, no. 5. 



183 Dugdale, Man. vi, 30. 

 188 Diet. Nat. Biog. Ivi, 43. 



184 Lysons, op. cit. i, 452. 

 13S Diet. Nat. Biog. Ivi, 48. 



1M Pat. 8 Will. Ill, pt. viii, no. 5. 

 I 8 ? Dugdale, Man. vi, 30. 



538 



188 Lysons, op. cit. i, 453. 

 " Ibid, i, 462. 



140 Chancellor, op. cit 12 1 ; Bell, op. 

 cit. 79. 



141 Lysons, op. cit. [,462 ; Burt, Rich- 

 mond Vestry^ 1 6. 



