Building   

Myddelton House

Categories: Property

Building

This site was previously occupied by an Elizabethan red-brick building known as Bowling Green House. In 1613 Hugh Myddelton, constructed the New River, the course of which bisected the land around the house.

In 1724 Michael Garnault (d 1746) purchased the property which stayed in the family until 1809 when Anne Bowles ((1771 - 1812, neé Garnault) inherited it. She had married Henry Carrington Bowles (1763 - 1830) in 1799. Bowles was one of five generations of print and map-makers, based at St Paul’s Churchyard.

When Anne died in 1812 Bowles replaced Bowling Green House with Myddelton House, completed in 1818 by George Ferry & John Wallen. The house was named in honour of Hugh Myddelton. 

c.1900 the gardens were created by E. A. Bowles, whose life and works are the subject of a museum in the grounds. The gardens are now (2020) open to the public. The New River was diverted to another course in 1968.

The listing entry is informative and gives some later history of the house, as follows: "The property stayed in the Bowles family until it was inherited by Henry Carrington Treacher through the female line in 1852, on the condition that he assume the surname of Bowles. Edward Augustus Bowles (1865-1954) resided at his father's house and from the 1890s began to develop the gardens there. From 1895, his brother, Henry Ferryman Bowles (1858-1943) lived at Forty Hall, which had been purchased for him in that year by his father. H C Bowles died in 1918 and E A Bowles inherited the property.

"Bowles died in 1954 and the gardens and house were transferred jointly to the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine and to the University of London's School of Pharmacy. The gardens were managed under the guidance of a Gardens Advisory Committee chaired by the garden writer Frances Perry. In 1968 the gardens and house were sold to the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority {see Alec Roy}, who use it as their headquarters. The School of Pharmacy Department retained the kitchen gardens and the Royal Free Hospital retained the fields, to be used as sports pitches. Since 1984 many of the garden areas have been restored by the garden team in the style of Bowles, with a restoration date of c 1920."

Henry Carrington Bowles Treacher (1830 - 1918, Governor of the New River Company) married Cornelia Bowles and changed his name to Henry Carington Bowles Bowles in order to inherit Myddelton House. See William Burdett-Coutts for more people who have changed their names as a condition of inheritance.

We believe the family who have owned this property have always had a close business relationship with the New River Company. For example, Samuel Garnault (d.1827) was treasurer of the New River Company "for more then twenty two years".

Building London reports that until his death in 1954 Bowles lived in the house without electricity, gas or water.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Myddelton House

Commemorated ati

E. A. Bowles - Myddelton House

Myddelton House. Edward Augustus Bowles, 1865 - 1954, botanist & horticul...

Read More

Other Subjects

Foxgrove Road

Foxgrove Road

Road in Beckenham, Kent. David Bowie lived at number 24 in Flat 1 from March to October 1969. The photograph is of Seychelle Court which is now number 24. We can find no mention of Bowie living in ...

Place, Property

1 memorial
The Crown Estate

The Crown Estate

Some of these plaques have an 'R' representing Regent Street which was (2024 defunct) a Crown Estate website promoting Regent Street as a shopping destination.  Wikipedia had (2025: the map is no ...

Group, Gardens / Agriculture, Property

3 memorials
Pitzhanger Manor

Pitzhanger Manor

In records prior to 1800 their names made it is easy to confuse the house that stood here with another which stood at what is now Pitzhanger Park, about a mile to the north. In 1768, George Dance ...

Building, Property

2 memorials
Moxhay's Hall of Commerce in Threadneedle Street

Moxhay's Hall of Commerce in Threadneedle Street

From British History: The Hall of Commerce, existing some years ago in Threadneedle Street, was begun in 1830 by Mr. Edward Moxhay, a speculative biscuit-baker, on the site of the old French church...

Building, Commerce, Property

1 memorial
Northumberland House - Charing Cross

Northumberland House - Charing Cross

Sited just to the east of Charing Cross and Nelson's column, where Northumberland Avenue and Waterstones now (2024) are, the picture source, Wikipedia, has a very useful map, but there we also read...

Building, Property

1 memorial

Previously viewed

Jonathan Carr

Jonathan Carr

Jonathan Thomas Carr. Founder of Bedford Park, the first garden suburb, in 1875. He lived in the suburb, first at Tower House, since replaced by St Catherine’s Court flats, which he left in 1904 to...

Person, Property

2 memorials