Egerton House, Berkhamsted
Encyclopedia
Egerton House was a small Elizabethan
mansion
which stood on the High Street in the town of Berkhamsted
, Hertfordshire
in England
. Built during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I
, it was demolished in 1937 and the site is now occupied by the Art Deco
Rex Cinema. As well as its architectural merit, Egerton House was noted for its literary association with J. M. Barrie
, author of the children's book Peter Pan
, and its occupancy by the Llewelyn Davies family
.
s with two smaller gabled dormer windows in between the gables in the steep tiled roof. When the house was sold at an auction held in the King's Arms Hotel in 1895, it recorded that the property afforded three sitting rooms, a dining room, a billiards
room, a conservatory, four bedrooms, four box rooms and stables. The sale also mentioned a coach house on Rectory Lane and Egerton Cottage, a gardener's cottage.
The garden was extensive, containing an orchard and stretched as far as the Ashlyns estate
. Part of this land was later acquired for the Three Close Lane Cemetery.
, located approximately 1 miles (1.6 km) north near to Berkhamsted Castle
; both mansions were demolished during the 20th Century.
The site of Egerton House is thought to have previously been the site of St Clement's Hospital, a medieval hospital. Cobb records that a seal inscribed with the name of the Fraternity
of St Clement was discovered in the garden behind Egerton House.
No exact date is known for the construction of Egerton House, nor is it known how it acquired its name, although it seems likely that its early owners were members of the Egerton family, possibly Thomas Egerton
, whose descendants were later Earls of Bridgewater
. It is known that by 1627 the house was the property of Edward Kellet, a local property owner. It was later owned, along with Harriots End Farm, by Rev Dr Robert Brabant who was rector
of the Church of St Peter, Great Berkhamsted
. Land documents survive which record that a Mr Lyttleton of Egerton House paid eight shilling
s for the orchard.
In 1840, Egerton House was bought for £700 by Wesleyan Methodist
s who opened it as a preaching house
in 1841. The Methodists sold the house in 1846 for the same sum to Dr Thomas Whately who lived there until he died in 1868. The house was auctioned in 1895, and then purchased in 1904 by the Llewellyn Davies family.
London barrister
Arthur Llewelyn Davies
and his wife Sylvia moved with their five sons in 1904 from Kensington Park Gardens in London to live in Egerton House. By this time, the family had become close friends with the Scottish
author and playwright J.M. Barrie, who had based his Peter Pan
on stories he had made up for the children while they lived in Kensington (the character of Peter Pan was based on the middle son, Peter Llewelyn Davies. Barrie's play, Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up
, debuted at London's Duke of York's Theatre
in the that same year.
During their three years in Berkhamsted, Barrie visited the Llewellyn Davies family frequently. Arthur developed cancer and during his illness, Barrie supported the family financially. When Arthur died at Egerton in 1907, Sylvia returned to London with her children; when she herself also died of cancer in 1910, Barrie became the children's guardian.
The Rex Cinema was designed in a striking Art Deco style architect David Evelyn Nye
and opened in 1938 by Viscountess Davidson
.
In 1953, Peter Llewelyn Davies wrote of a visit to Berkhamsted in a letter, lamenting the loss of his childhood home:
The Rex Cinema still stands on the site today and has been listed Grade II by English Heritage
. A plaque inside the cinema, unveiled on 14 February 1979 by actress Jane Asher
, commemorates the site's association with J.M. Barrie and Peter Pan.
Elizabethan architecture
Elizabethan architecture is the term given to early Renaissance architecture in England, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Historically, the period corresponds to the Cinquecento in Italy, the Early Renaissance in France, and the Plateresque style in Spain...
mansion
English country house
The English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a London house. This allowed to them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these people, the term distinguished between town and country...
which stood on the High Street in the town of Berkhamsted
Berkhamsted
-Climate:Berkhamsted experiences an oceanic climate similar to almost all of the United Kingdom.-Castle:...
, Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Built during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
, it was demolished in 1937 and the site is now occupied by the Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
Rex Cinema. As well as its architectural merit, Egerton House was noted for its literary association with J. M. Barrie
J. M. Barrie
Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM was a Scottish author and dramatist, best remembered today as the creator of Peter Pan. The child of a family of small-town weavers, he was educated in Scotland. He moved to London, where he developed a career as a novelist and playwright...
, author of the children's book Peter Pan
Peter Pan
Peter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie . A mischievous boy who can fly and magically refuses to grow up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of Neverland as the leader of his gang the Lost Boys, interacting with...
, and its occupancy by the Llewelyn Davies family
Llewelyn Davies boys
The Davies boys were the sons of Arthur and Sylvia Llewelyn Davies . They served as the inspiration for the characters of Peter Pan and the other boys of J. M...
.
Architecture
Egerton House was a two-storey mansion with attics. The front of the house had three gableGable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...
s with two smaller gabled dormer windows in between the gables in the steep tiled roof. When the house was sold at an auction held in the King's Arms Hotel in 1895, it recorded that the property afforded three sitting rooms, a dining room, a billiards
Billiards
Cue sports , also known as billiard sports, are a wide variety of games of skill generally played with a cue stick which is used to strike billiard balls, moving them around a cloth-covered billiards table bounded by rubber .Historically, the umbrella term was billiards...
room, a conservatory, four bedrooms, four box rooms and stables. The sale also mentioned a coach house on Rectory Lane and Egerton Cottage, a gardener's cottage.
The garden was extensive, containing an orchard and stretched as far as the Ashlyns estate
Ashlyns School
Ashlyns School is a school for pupils aged 13–18 in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England. Unlike many other areas in the UK, schools in the Berkhamsted area operate a three-tier system of lower, middle and upper schools , in contrast to the traditional Primary School and Secondary School...
. Part of this land was later acquired for the Three Close Lane Cemetery.
History
Egerton House was one of two Elizabethan mansions in Berkhamsted, the other being Berkhamsted PlaceBerkhamsted Place
Berkhamsted Place was an English country house which was erected sometime around 1580 in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England. It was built by Sir Edward Carey, the keeper of the Jewels to Queen Elizabeth I from stones removed from Berkhamsted Castle...
, located approximately 1 miles (1.6 km) north near to Berkhamsted Castle
Berkhamsted Castle
Berkhamsted Castle is a ruined Norman motte-and-bailey castle at Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire, England.The original fortification dates from Saxon times. Work on the Norman structure was started in 1066 by William the Conqueror who later passed the castle to his half-brother, Robert, Count of...
; both mansions were demolished during the 20th Century.
The site of Egerton House is thought to have previously been the site of St Clement's Hospital, a medieval hospital. Cobb records that a seal inscribed with the name of the Fraternity
Confraternity
A confraternity is normally a Roman Catholic or Orthodox organization of lay people created for the purpose of promoting special works of Christian charity or piety, and approved by the Church hierarchy...
of St Clement was discovered in the garden behind Egerton House.
No exact date is known for the construction of Egerton House, nor is it known how it acquired its name, although it seems likely that its early owners were members of the Egerton family, possibly Thomas Egerton
Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley
Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley PC was an English Nobleman, Judge and Statesman who served as Lord Keeper and Lord Chancellor for twenty-one years.-Early life, education and legal career:...
, whose descendants were later Earls of Bridgewater
Earl of Bridgewater
-History:The earldom was first created in 1538 for Henry Daubeny, 9th Baron Daubeny. The Daubeney family descended from Elias Daubeny, who in 1295 was summoned by writ to the Model Parliament as Lord Daubeny. The eighth Baron was created Baron Daubeny by letters patent in the Peerage of England in...
. It is known that by 1627 the house was the property of Edward Kellet, a local property owner. It was later owned, along with Harriots End Farm, by Rev Dr Robert Brabant who was rector
Rector
The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...
of the Church of St Peter, Great Berkhamsted
Church of St Peter, Great Berkhamsted
The Parish Church of St Peter, Great Berkhamsted is a Church of England, Grade II* listed church in the town of Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, in the United Kingdom...
. Land documents survive which record that a Mr Lyttleton of Egerton House paid eight shilling
Shilling
The shilling is a unit of currency used in some current and former British Commonwealth countries. The word shilling comes from scilling, an accounting term that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times where it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. The word is thought to derive...
s for the orchard.
In 1840, Egerton House was bought for £700 by Wesleyan Methodist
Wesleyan Methodist Church (Great Britain)
The Wesleyan Methodist Church was the name used by the major Methodist movement in Great Britain following its split from the Church of England after the death of John Wesley and the appearance of parallel Methodist movements...
s who opened it as a preaching house
Methodist local preacher
A Methodist local preacher is a lay person who has been accredited by a Methodist church to lead worship on a regular basis. Local preachers play an important role in the Methodist Church of Great Britain and other churches historically linked to it, and have also been important in English social...
in 1841. The Methodists sold the house in 1846 for the same sum to Dr Thomas Whately who lived there until he died in 1868. The house was auctioned in 1895, and then purchased in 1904 by the Llewellyn Davies family.
The Llewellyn Davies family
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
Arthur Llewelyn Davies
Arthur Llewelyn Davies
Arthur Llewelyn Davies was a respected barrister, but is best known as the father of the boys who served as the inspiration for Peter Pan and the other children of J. M. Barrie's stories of Neverland...
and his wife Sylvia moved with their five sons in 1904 from Kensington Park Gardens in London to live in Egerton House. By this time, the family had become close friends with the Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
author and playwright J.M. Barrie, who had based his Peter Pan
Peter Pan
Peter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie . A mischievous boy who can fly and magically refuses to grow up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of Neverland as the leader of his gang the Lost Boys, interacting with...
on stories he had made up for the children while they lived in Kensington (the character of Peter Pan was based on the middle son, Peter Llewelyn Davies. Barrie's play, Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up
Peter and Wendy
Peter and Wendy, published in 1911, is the novelisation by J. M. Barrie of his most famous play Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up...
, debuted at London's Duke of York's Theatre
Duke of York's Theatre
The Duke of York's Theatre is a West End Theatre in St Martin's Lane, in the City of Westminster. It was built for Frank Wyatt and his wife, Violet Melnotte, who retained ownership of the theatre, until her death in 1935. It opened on 10 September 1892 as the Trafalgar Square Theatre, with Wedding...
in the that same year.
During their three years in Berkhamsted, Barrie visited the Llewellyn Davies family frequently. Arthur developed cancer and during his illness, Barrie supported the family financially. When Arthur died at Egerton in 1907, Sylvia returned to London with her children; when she herself also died of cancer in 1910, Barrie became the children's guardian.
Demolition
The Shipman & King cinema circuit took ownership of the Court Cinema on Berkhamsted High Street, and planned to open a second cinema in the town. Originally they intended to build on a site at the eastern end of town on the corner of Swing Gate Lane, but in in 1936 S&K acquired Egerton House, a site closer to the centre of town which had spacious grounds for a cinema and car park. Egerton House was demolished and the Rex Cinema was erected in its place. Some of the interior oak panelling from Egerton House was saved prior to the demolition and was installed in a house called Four Oaks on Graemsdyke Road, and some other panels went into Boxwell House, the office of the Berkhampstead (sic) Rural District Council.The Rex Cinema was designed in a striking Art Deco style architect David Evelyn Nye
David Evelyn Nye
David Evelyn Nye was a British architect, born in 1906, who practised in Surrey, England. He was best known as a cinema architect, having designed many picture houses in the 1930s for the Shipman and King cinema circuit...
and opened in 1938 by Viscountess Davidson
Frances Davidson, Viscountess Davidson
Frances Joan Davidson, Viscountess Davidson DBE , styled Lady Davidson between 1935 and 1937 and as Viscountess Davidson between 1937 and 1985, was a British Conservative Party politician....
.
In 1953, Peter Llewelyn Davies wrote of a visit to Berkhamsted in a letter, lamenting the loss of his childhood home:
The Rex Cinema still stands on the site today and has been listed Grade II by English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
. A plaque inside the cinema, unveiled on 14 February 1979 by actress Jane Asher
Jane Asher
Jane Asher is an English actress. She has also developed a second career as a cake decorator and cake shop proprietor.-Early life:...
, commemorates the site's association with J.M. Barrie and Peter Pan.