History and modernity

A house that might have vanished beneath London’s spreading suburbs has been lovingly returned from institutional use and forms the heart of an estate within the capital. John Goodall reports

- John Goodall

Templeton House, Roehampton, London SW15 The home of David and Laura Rich-Jones

ON February 8, 1930, COUNTRY LIFE reported the sale of Templeton House in Roehampton on the edge of Richmond Park. As the correspondent matter-of-factly explains, the property ‘extends to 33 acres, possesses a covered tennis lawn and a polo ground. The mansion, typical Georgian, with a magnificent suite of reception rooms, has from time to time been brought up to date. The outbuildings include stabling for twenty-eight horses, garage and farm buildings... The estate is to be developed for housing, Messrs Pennington acting as agents. The remaining contents of the mansion, which comprise English and French period furniture and pictures, are being sold by auction’.

The 1930s were dark days for Georgian London, when both aristocratic town houses and suburban estates were being swallowed up by new development at an astonishing rate. Following the sale, Templeton House and its grounds must have seemed fixed on a familiar trajectory that led—quickly or slowly, but inevitably—towards demolition and oblivion.

The grounds of the house were, indeed, truncated for the development of Roehampton Gate in 1932. Yet, against all the odds, not only has the property otherwise survived but, over the past decade, it has been brilliantly restored, both as a family home and as the beating heart of a London estate.