Sunday 5 July 2009

Wimbledon Lodge - Murray Road



Between Nos. 4 and 5 lies Murray Road, built on the line of Margaret Hays (shown on the
1776 map) and Wimbledon Lodge (shown on the 1865 map). It was built in 1792
by Gerard de Visme for his daughter, the wife of the distinguished General, Hon. Sir Henry
Murray. Occupants included Lord Bathurst and the Rt. Hon. Ladies Ashburnham, and the
Murrays lived there from 1824 until the house was demolished in 1904 and the land sold to
The British Land Company [Norman-Smith, p.5]. According to Milward the house was
designed in the latest Greek Revival style:
The entrance gates were flanked by lodges, looking like small temples. The two-storied
house had round-headed windows on the ground floor and an elaborate pillared porch,
flanked by coad-stone lions…..Above the porch were statues, with others on a large pedestal
on the roof. The garden front was equally elaborate with a decorated balcony, supported by
large Greek caryatids. [Milward 1989 p.142]
In 1904 the estate was sold to the British Land Company, the house demolished and the land
divided into small plots. The original estate extended beyond the Ridgway, which is why
Murray Road extends from Southside as far as the escarpment above Worple Road.

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