TREASURE DESCRIPTION: A large mansion now a school but originally the Carew family home, containing a Tudor great hall with arched brace, hammer beam roof. The Carew family owned the estate from the late 14th Century to 1859 when it was sold. Nicholas Carew was involved in Henry VIII’s dynastic intrigues and was executed for treason. Mary I restored the estate to her son Francis who developed one of Elizabethan England’s finest gardens.
In 1860 the house became the Lambeth Female Orphanage Asylum, later the Royal Female Orphanage. It was evacuated in WWII and in 1954 was taken over by Surrey County Council as a school. Currently, it is a school for special education.
These treasures were made as part of The Building Exploratory, Wandle Treasures project. This project was part of the wider Living Wandle Landscape Partnership Scheme, funded by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund.
