Carshalton House

Carshalton House
General information
TypeOriginally residential
Architectural style
Georgian
LocationLondon, England
Coordinates51°21′52″N 0°10′08″W / 51.364477°N 0.168986°W / 51.364477; -0.168986
Completed
c. 1710
Listed Building – Grade II*
Official name
Carshalton House
Designated16 March 1954
Reference no.1065627

Carshalton House is a former country house in Carshalton now part of London. The house is Grade II* listed. It currently houses the St Philomena's School.

History and description

The house was built around 1710 for tobacco merchant Edward Carleton who became bankrupt just a few years later in 1713, and died that same year. The house was sold to John Radcliffe in 1714 before dying shortly after, with John Fellowes purchasing Carshalton House in 1715. A legal issue on the title arose however, as Edward Carleton, upon bankruptcy, had owed money to the Crown on his death. After the accession in 1714 of George I of Great Britain, properties held by Carleton were granted to Fellowes, including a copper mill. The legal and tax position was rectified, for the properties that had come to Fellowes from Carlton, by a device suggested by Sir William Scawen. It involved Thomas Scawen buying the house, and selling it on in 1716 to Fellowes.

Fellowes laid out gardens, employing Charles Bridgeman and Joseph Carpenter, nurseryman of Brompton Park. The gardens of the house feature an 18th-century Water Tower, Hermitage, possibly from the time of Bridgeman, which was restored in the early 1990s, as well as the rustic-style "Folly Bridge". Fellowes faced investigation and bankruptcy following the South Sea Bubble crash and South Sea Company Act 1720, with his personal fortune being distrained. Despite this, he kept the use of Carshalton House, living there until his death in 1724.

Later residents of the house include Thomas Walpole, nephew of Robert Walpole, who was likely the creator of the Blue or Adam Room. George Amyand, Admiral Lord Anson and Lord Chancellor Philip Yorke.

From 1847, the house began being used as a school of various kinds. First it was leased to the Board of Ordnance and used as a preparatory school and was sold around 1860 to a Reverend Alfred Barret who moved his school from North Cheam to Carshalton. Following his death, the estate was put up for sale with Alfred's son Charles moving the school once again to Wandsworth in 1887. The house eventually came into the ownership of the Daughters of the Cross and began being used for the St Philomena's Catholic High School for Girls which was founded in 1893. The school made extensions to the house, adding a gym and other facilities, and remain the current occupants.

Water Tower

The Water Tower

A significant feature of the house's grounds is the Grade II* listed Water Tower (or Bagnio as it was known at the time) which was built around 1721. It was put up under Fellowes with Henry Joynes likely its architect and Richard Cole as its engineer, primarily to house a water driven pump supplying water to the house and the fountains in its gardens. It was planned as a multi-purpose building, and also contains an orangery, a saloon and a bathroom which retains original Delft tiles.

The tower, a significant structure, is considered an exceptional example of surviving early Georgian water-architecture. Its original water wheel was removed in 1960.

References

  1. ↑ "Carshalton House, Non Civil Parish - 1065627 | Historic England". historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 2026-10-11.
  2. 1 2 "Carshalton House (St Philomena's School) , Non Civil Parish - 1000798 | Historic England". historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 2026-10-11.
  3. ↑ Surrey: Highways, Byways, and Waterways. Bliss, Sands, & Foster. 1895. p. 24.
  4. 1 2 Jacques, David (1 January 2017). Gardens of Court and Country: English Design, 1630-1730. Yale University Press. p. 236. ISBN 978-0-300-22201-2.
  5. ↑ Treasury, Great Britain (1883). Calendar of Treasury Papers. Longman & Company. p. 139.
  6. ↑ Parks and Gardens (31 December 1749). "Carshalton House – Sutton". Parks & Gardens.
  7. ↑ Malden, Henry Elliot (1967). The Victoria History of the County of Surrey. A. Constable, limited. p. 181.
  8. ↑ "13–13 Lower Mill, Carshalton". wandle.org.
  9. ↑ Denbigh, Kathleen (1978). Preserving London. R. Hale. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-7091-6732-7.
  10. ↑ Willis, Peter (2002). Charles Bridgeman and the English Landscape Garden. Elysium. p. 62. ISBN 978-0-904712-04-9.
  11. ↑ Campbell, Gordon (28 March 2013). The Hermit in the Garden: From Imperial Rome to Ornamental Gnome. Oxford: OUP. p. 150. ISBN 978-0-19-164448-1.
  12. ↑ "Hermitage Or Grotto at Carshalton House, Non Civil Parish - 1357608 | Historic England". historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 2026-10-11.
  13. ↑ The Statutes at Large. Vol. V. 1763. p. 358.
  14. ↑ Cherry, Bridget; Pevsner, Nikolaus, eds. (2002), The Buildings of England: London. 2: South (1 ed.), Harmondsworth: Yale University Press, pp. 646–647, ISBN 978-0-300-09651-4
  15. ↑ Rogers, Pat (17 February 2022). Defoe's Tour and Early Modern Britain: Panorama of the Nation. Cambridge University Press. pp. 165–166. ISBN 978-1-009-11649-7.
  16. ↑ H.E. Malden, ed. (1912). "Parishes: Carshalton". A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 4. Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 29 November 2012.
  17. 1 2 Weinreb, Ben; Hibbert, Christopher, eds. (1995). The London Encyclopaedia. London: Macmillan. pp. 125–126. ISBN 978-0-333-57688-5.
  18. ↑ Country Life Limited (1962). Country Houses Open to the Public: A Concise Guide to All the Greater Country Houses and to Many Lesser Houses of Architectural Or Historic Interest which are Now Open to the Public in Great Britain. Country Life Limited. p. 77.
  19. ↑ "Parishes: Carshalton | British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 2026-10-11.
  20. 1 2 "Water Pavilion at Carshalton House, Non Civil Parish - 1183926 | Historic England". historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 2026-10-11.
  21. ↑ "Carshalton Water Tower". Carshalton Water Tower & Historic Garden Trust. Retrieved 4 June 2012.
  22. ↑ Girouard, Mark (1 January 1978). Life in the English Country House: A Social and Architectural History. Yale University Press. p. 254. ISBN 978-0-300-05870-3.