View of Park Corner House (part of Montagu House), Blackheath, seen among trees

Mounted with PAF2844-PAF2890, PAF2892-PAF2927.; Medium includes pen and black ink.; Page number 48. The view is along what is now Charlton Way, with the south wall of Greenwich Park, from its junction with Chesterfield Walk on the south-west corner. Montagu House, a country residence of the Duke of Montagu, is best known for the part-time residence there of George IV's estranged wife, Princess Caroline of Brunswick, from 1798 to 1812. In October 1805 she was appointed Ranger of Greenwich Park, which seems to have lapsed when she left the house 1812. Princess Sophia of Gloucester succeeded her by 1816, when -after Montagu House was demolished in 1815 - she was granted use of the present Ranger's House: she died there in 1844. Montagu House was a row comprising two 17th-century buildings combined, out of sight here to its left. The building shown (dating to 1729) was on land forming part of the Montagu House property and was called Park Corner House, though after being occupied by a George Moult gave rise to the name 'Mole's Corner' for this angle of the Park. The former slave and (later) writer, Ignatius Sancho, was butler to the Montagu family at Montagu House, who eventually set him up in business as a shopkeeper in London. The only parts of that building which survive are a rear wall, now forming part of the inner Park wall, and an exterior but formerly covered plunge bath on the Park side called 'Queen Caroline's bath'. Plaques commemorating both her residence and that of Sancho are set in the wall, facing into the Park. Park Carner House was demolished at the same time as Montagu House in 1815. Its plot is now a service yard and that of Montagu House hard tennis courts, both concealed between the outer and inner Park walls as rebuilt after the demolition. [PvdM amended 2/12, 10/14, 2/23]

Object Details

ID: PAF2891
Type: Drawing
Display location: Not on display
Creator: Charnock, John
Places: Unlinked place
Date made: circa 1790-1800
People: Beaufoy, Henry B H
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
Measurements: 169 mm x 223 mm
Parts: Charnock's Views. Volume III. Architecture. Lewisham, Wricklemarsh, Greenwich, Charlton, Eltham (Album)