View of Angerstein House ('Woodlands'), Westcombe Park
Mounted with PAF2844-PAF2872, PAF2874-PAF2927.; Page number 30. Although there are some variations from other contemporary views, this is clearly intended to show a view of the Angerstein house (Woodlands) in Westcombe Park. The house has very distinctive Ionic double-columns supporting a slightly different form of entablature on the front (facing) entrance, deeper first-floor windows and other differences. John Julius Angerstein (1735-1823) acquired the land (41 acres) from Sir Gregory Page-Turner in 1774 and built the house which subsequently, by 1800, had acquired a west wing and extensive outbuildings. It remained with his family until his grandson William surrendered the lease in 1870, three years before its expiration. The west wing and outbuildings were demolished by 1879 after land to the north was sold for development. In 1879-94 it was occupied by William Bristow, a solicitor, who in 1896 sold it to Sir Alfred Fernandez Yarrow, the shipping magnate, whose family lived there to 1906. It was then vacant to 1923 though Yarrow allowed Belgian refugees to live there during WWI. From 1923 to 1967 it was a convent, including a new 'novitiate house' to the west, before being purchased by Greenwich Council. It opened as the Local History Library and Art Gallery in 1972, the novitiate house becoming the Kidbrooke House Community Centre which still operates at time of writing (2007). The house was subsequently sold but still stands, local history library having moved to Woolwich Arsenal.
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