BROCKWELL HALL
Client: London Borough of Lambeth
Architect: Pringle Richards Sharratt
Project overview: Brockwell Hall was built for John Blades (1751-1829) in c. 1811-18 as a compact ‘country’ house in the popular neo-classical style, with Grecian decoration, designed by the architect D R Roper (1774-1855). The grounds were laid out as a ‘Polite’ landscape with Pleasure Ground gardens with sinuous gravel walks through close kept lawns and with specimen trees (some saved from the hedgerows of the former agricultural landscape) in the style of Repton. The design of the layout and attached service wing, stable yard and stables was arranged so that the Hall was prominent on its elevated site, and the service wing/stables hidden within planting. In the late 1880s, Sir Thomas Lynn Bristowe (31 March 1833 – 6 June 1892), stockbroker and MP for Norwood, led a campaign to divert funds to secure this site for the creation of a new public park. In 1891 the London County Council (LCC) bought the Hall and part of the estate from J J Blackburn to form the new Brockwell Park, which was formally opened in June 1892.
The Conservation Plan was commissioned and produced as part of a package of information to support Lambeth Council’s application for National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) grant for the restoration of Brockwell Hall and the Stables, and putting them into a viable future use, reinstating the Hall as the centre-piece to the park and having a coherent relationship between the hall and the park.
Involvement included the compilation of a Conservation Plan, research, a Gazetteer and Appendices to accompany a National Lottery Heritage Fund application. Also, consultancy and advice in relation to changes, including a proposed new structure in the service yard and internal alterations to the service wing (including removal of the secondary staircase).
