Publications
The Revival of England's White House, by Tony Aldous, published October 1986 in History Today (vol. 36, issue 10, article) View Online
Abstract:A look into a building designed by an early American architect situated in Hammerwood Park near East Grinstead in Sussex.
Four Years ago England's only major building designed by Revolutionary America's first architect was derelict and on the verge of complete collapse. Today it hosts dinner parties and musical evenings ? but thanks to a court ruling the public may not be able to visit it at all in 1987.
The victim of this 'Mad Hatter' situation is Hammerwood Park near East Grinstead in Sussex, built in the Greek Revival style in 1792, by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, who three years later emigrated to America. There he became architectural adviser to Thomas Jefferson and the designer of much of the new Capitol in Washington as well as the porticos of the White House. Hammerwood was built originally as a hunting- lodge for John Sparling and throughout the nineteenth century was a family home. But with the Second World War it fell on hard times ? requisitioned for troops, it was subsequently left empty, then turned into flats. The rock group, Led Zeppelin, bought Hammerwood in 1973 intending to use it as a home- cum-recording-studio, but nothing came of restoration plans; after that massive vandalisation and the removal of tons of lead from the roof allowed the house to become saturated with water and a haven for fungus, wet and dry.
Four Years ago England's only major building designed by Revolutionary America's first architect was derelict and on the verge of complete collapse. Today it hosts dinner parties and musical evenings ? but thanks to a court ruling the public may not be able to visit it at all in 1987.
The victim of this 'Mad Hatter' situation is Hammerwood Park near East Grinstead in Sussex, built in the Greek Revival style in 1792, by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, who three years later emigrated to America. There he became architectural adviser to Thomas Jefferson and the designer of much of the new Capitol in Washington as well as the porticos of the White House. Hammerwood was built originally as a hunting- lodge for John Sparling and throughout the nineteenth century was a family home. But with the Second World War it fell on hard times ? requisitioned for troops, it was subsequently left empty, then turned into flats. The rock group, Led Zeppelin, bought Hammerwood in 1973 intending to use it as a home- cum-recording-studio, but nothing came of restoration plans; after that massive vandalisation and the removal of tons of lead from the roof allowed the house to become saturated with water and a haven for fungus, wet and dry.