Inventory Site Record

The site of Stanmore Recreation Ground was probablly once part of the estate of Stanmore Hall. The original house was built in the C18th by the Duke of Chandos who owned the Canons estate. Stanmore Hall was added to by later owners, and in 1847 it was re-sited, when the present house near Little Common was built by J M Derick for John Rhodes. The recreation ground was laid out in the 1930s and has fine trees at the entrance on Dennis Lane including mature oak and areas of shrub planting near the pavilions.

Previous / Other name:

Stanmore Hall

Site location:

Dennis Lane/Stanmore Hill

Postcode:

HA7

What 3 Words:

exile.keeps.weep

Type of site:

Public Park

Borough:

Harrow

Open to public?

Yes

Opening times:

7.30am - dusk

Special conditions:

Facilities:

Children's play area, football pitch, bowling green, car park

Events:

Public transport:

Tube: Stanmore (Jubilee). Bus: 142

Citymapper    
Google Map    
streetmap.co.uk

Research updated:

01/01/2012

Last minor changes:

19/07/2023

Please check with the site owner or manager for latest news. www.harrow.gov.uk

In the late C18th the owner of Stanmore Hall was James Forbes (1749-1819) who had married Rose Gayland of Stanmore in 1788. He had travelled to India for the East India Company between 1765 and 1784, and was very knowledgeable about Indian culture, flora and fauna, later publishing 'Oriental Memoirs'. He enlarged the house and undertook works in the garden, which included building a small octagonal pagoda in which he displayed Hindu sculptures that he had been given by the Brahmins of Hindustan. Stanmore Hall was conveyed by the then owner Thomas Teed to Matthew John Rhodes in 1842 and the house was re-sited in order to command south-easterly views. In 1847 Stanmore Hall was purchased by Teed's son-in-law Robert Hollond MP, whose widow Ellen Julia (nee Teed) lived here until her death in 1884. The Hollond mausoleum was in the old parish church at Great Stanmore (q.v.), but it was later vandalised and reduced to a slab.

In 1889 the estate was purchased by William Knox D'Arcy, who had made a fortune in Australia in partnership with 3 prospectors who found gold in 1882 and later developed the Anglo-Persian Oil Field. He not only modernised Stanmore Hall but also laid out the garden 'on a lavish scale. [. . . ] He introduced many rare and tropical plants and laid down magnificent glass houses, but the show piece was a waterfall and ornamental lakes, which he stocked with fish, plants, and waterfowl'. He lived here until his death in 1917. The house was then used as an assize court and during WWII was used by US troops and then a nurses' home for the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in 1947 until 1971. By the 1930s the grounds were already being built over by new houses and the recreation ground appears on OS Maps of the 1930s.

Sources consulted:

Walter W Druett 'The Stanmores and Harrow Weald Through the Ages' (The Hillingdon Press, 1938)

Grid ref:

TQ169925 (516980,192560)

Size in hectares:

2.63

Site ownership:

LB Harrow

Site management:

Environmental Services, Parks Services

Date(s):

1930s

Designer(s):

Listed structures:

None

On National Heritage List for England (NHLE), Parks & Gardens:

No

Registered common or village green on Commons Registration Act 1965:

No

Protected under London Squares Preservation Act 1931:

No

Local Authority Data

The information below is taken from the relevant Local Authority's planning legislation, which was correct at the time of research but may have been amended in the interim. Please check with the Local Authority for latest planning information.

On Local List:

No

In Conservation Area:

No

Tree Preservation Order:

Not known

Nature Conservation Area:

No

Green Belt:

No

Metropolitan Open Land:

No

Special Policy Area:

No

Other LA designation:

Open Space