Carshalton Park - The Grotto
Directions
A short detour can be made to Carshalton Park. Follow the dried-up canal along the side of Carshalton Place, a turning on the right off the High Street. After Talbot Road, the road becomes a path. At the end of the path, cross Ruskin Road and enter Carshalton Park. Make your way up through the park, following the canal as far as a brick grotto at its top. Return afterwards to Carshalton High Street and turn right.
Description
The next street on the right, Carshalton Place, perpetuates the name of a house that once stood to the south of the High Street and was demolished in 1927. A dried-up canal at the side of this street once carried water that emerged from the grotto in Carshalton Park (see below).
Carshalton Park is a former medieval deer park and once part of the extensive Carshalton Park Estate owned in the early 18th century by Sir William Scawen, ex-Governor of the Bank of England. The estate was inherited in 1722 by his nephew Thomas who continued formal landscaping works although never completed the new house. Features surviving from the 18th century garden include the large grotto and ornamental canal of c.1724; also visible are a circular depression (probably 19th century) known as the 'frying pan', and the Hogpit Pond, a rectangular pond with sloping grass sides built as a reservoir to supply water for mills down Mill Lane. Today the park is largely laid to grass with tarmac paths and some mature trees.
Further information on LGT Inventory
