Canons Park
| Canons Park | |
| Middlesex | |
|---|---|
 George V Memorial Garden in the Canons Park | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ184914 |
| Location: | 51°36’35"N, 0°17’29"W |
| Data | |
| Post town: | Edgware |
| Postcode: | HA8 |
| Dialling code: | 020 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Harrow |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Harrow East |
Canons Park is a public park and the name of its surrounding residential area, in the Edgware in Middlesex. This was once a country estate, which partially survives today as a public park. St Lawrence's Church, the parish church of Little Stanmore, and the accompanying Chandos Mausoleum are located here.
The area is served by Canons Park tube station of the London Underground.
Name and history
In the Middle Ages, the estate was part of the endowment of an Augustinian foundation – the Priory of St Bartholomew's which operated St Bartholomew's Hospital by London. From this comes the name 'Canons'
Following the dissolution of the monasteries the land was sold in 1543 into private hands. A large house was built there during the 16th and 17th centuries at one time owned by Thomas Lake, Chancellor of the Exchequer to King James I.
Canons Park is largely located on the site of a magnificent early 18th-century country house, Cannons, built between 1713 and 1725 by James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos. A few years after the Duke's death in 1744 this house was also demolished. The current building on the site housing the North London Collegiate School was built around 1760 by the gentleman cabinet-maker William Hallett. The original house-site, transformed into ambitious Edwardian gardens was bought in 1929 by the school for £17,500. A large portion of the original gardens of James Brydges's house now form the public pleasure gardens of Canons Park. The modern park includes the Memorial Gardens, a folly known as 'the Temple' (not to be confused with a different folly of the same name within the North London Collegiate School grounds) and an orchard.
Canons Drive follows the original path of the entrance to James Brydges' house, retaining the two large pillars which acted as gateposts where it met the Edgware Road. The remains of a second, raised, carriageway running from Cannons can be traced through Canons Park in the direction of Whitchurch Lane. A seven-acre lake and a separate duck pond also formed part of the original Cannons Estate and survive within the boundaries of the Canons Drive residential area.
Canons Park
Canons Park, 44½ acres in size, is listed as Grade II on the Register of Parks and Gardens.[1] The designation recognises features surviving from the ducal park (including two lakes, the Basin Lake and the Seven Acre Lake) as well as more recent features. The park contains several listed buildings.
The King George V Memorial Garden is a walled garden in the park. This area was originally part of the duke's kitchen gardens and was re-designed in the 1930s, after the park became public. The garden reflects the 1930s period, with a structure of evergreens highlighted by seasonal displays. It features a central square pool surrounded by a raised terrace with steps, formal flower beds and a pavilion.
St Lawrence Whitchurch
Situated adjacent to the public park is the church of St Lawrence Whitchurch, the parish church of Little Stanmore. The church has a stone tower dating from about 1360 and the main body of the church was rebuilt in a Continental Baroque style in 1714-16 for Brydges by John James (Colvin). The interior walls and ceiling are covered with paintings.
On the north side of the church is the Chandos Mausoleum, again built to the order of the first Duke of Chandos. The centrepiece documented by Grinling Gibbons, 1717, is a Baroque monument to the Duke and his first two wives, for which the Duke felt he had overpaid.[2] In addition to James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos and his first two wives, James Brydges, 3rd Duke of Chandos has also been buried here.
Outside links
References
- ↑ National Heritage List 1001394: Canons Park (Register of Historic Parks and Gardens)
- ↑ Rupert Gunnis, Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660–1851 (rev. ed.): "Grinling Gibbons"
- St Lawrence Little Stanmore
- Colvin, Howard: 'A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1660-1840' (3rd ed.) (Yale University Press, 1995)
- Thorne, James: 'Handbook to The Environs of London' (1876, reprinted 1983 Godfrey Cave Associates)