Royal Star and Garter Home

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The Royal Star and Garter Home

Surrey


The Royal Star and Garter Home
Location
Town: Richmond
History
Built 1921 – 1924
By: Edwin Cooper
Information
Condition: Converted to apartments

The Royal Star and Garter Home stands on Richmond Hill, in Richmond in Surrey; built between 1921 and 1924 to a design by Sir Edwin Cooper,[1] based on a plan produced by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in 1915. It is a Grade II listed building.[2]

The home was built to provide accommodation and nursing facilities for 180 seriously injured servicemen. In 2013 it was sold for conversion to luxury flats. It was owned and run by the Royal Star & Garter, a charitable trust. In 2011 the trust announced that it would be selling the building as it did not now meet modern requirements and could not be easily or economically upgraded.[3] The building was sold in April 2013 for £50 million to a housing developer, London Square,[4] which has restored the building and converted it into apartments.

The trust opened a new 60-room home in Solihull in Warwickshire in 2008 and the remaining residents at the Richmond home moved in 2013[5] to a new purpose-built 63-room building in Upper Brighton Road, Surbiton, also in Surrey.[3][6][7] A third home has now opened in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The possibility of opening a fourth home is also under consideration, and funds were set aside for this purpose.[8]

History

Riverside view from Twickenham bank
The Royal Star and Garter Home
The Bromhead Memorial commemorating deceased residents
Wick House; former nurses' home

The site is the location of the former Star and Garter Hotel, which closed in 1906. The building was used as a military hospital, known as the Star and Garter Home for Disabled Sailors and Soldiers, during First World War.[9]

The site was then donated to Queen Mary (consort of George V) in support of her plans to establish a home for paralysed and permanently disabled soldiers. The hotel banqueting hall and ballroom were temporarily used to house disabled soldiers, but they were found to be unsuitable for their specialised needs. Demolition of the hotel buildings commenced in 1919, and from 1920 to 1924 the home's residents were transferred to Sandgate in Kent, while the new Star and Garter Home for Disabled Sailors, Soldiers and Airmen was built on the site of the hotel.[9][10] The new building was formally opened by George V and Queen Mary on 10 July 1924,[11] dedicated as the Women of the Empire's Memorial of the Great War.[12]

In 1948 residents of the home took part in a forerunner of the Paralympic Games, the first national athletic event for disabled athletes, organised by Dr Ludwig Guttmann.

The Star and Garter Home received its royal charter in 1979, adding the prefix "Royal" to its name.[11] Since the opening of the second home at Solihull in 2008 the charity has used a plural form of the name, as "The Royal Star & Garter Homes".

Some of the residents who died at the home were buried in one of two dedicated sections in the nearby Richmond Cemetery. The cemetery contains two plots dedicated to deceased residents from the home, one of which is marked by the Bromhead Memorial, a large classical-style monument listing the names of those not commemorated elsewhere.[13]

References

  1. ↑ Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Surrey, 1962; 1971 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09675-0page 521
  2. ↑ National Heritage List 1254353: Royal Star and Garter Home (Grade II listing)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Teed, Paul (18 February 2011). "Royal Star and Garter home in Richmond Hill could be transformed into luxury hotel or student accommodation". Richmond and Twickenham Times. http://www.richmondandtwickenhamtimes.co.uk/news/8854593.Star_and_Garter_become_hotel_or_student_digs/. 
  4. ↑ Dyduch, Amy (9 April 2013). "Developer buys Royal Star and Garter for £50m". Richmond and Twickenham Times. http://www.richmondandtwickenhamtimes.co.uk/news/10340460.Royal_Star_and_Garter_home_sold_for___50m/?ref=mc. 
  5. ↑ Sharman, Jon (29 August 2013). "Residents move into new Royal Star and Garter home in Surbiton". Richmond and Twickenham Times. http://www.richmondandtwickenhamtimes.co.uk/news/10640013.Residents_move_into_new_Royal_Star_and_Garter_home_in_Surbiton/. 
  6. ↑ Hausmeister, Hana (11 June 2013). "'No all-night parties': Royal Star and Garter reassures residents". Richmond and Twickenham Times. http://www.richmondandtwickenhamtimes.co.uk/news/10474658._No_all_night_parties___Royal_Star_and_Garter_reassures_residents/. 
  7. ↑ Dyduch, Amy (16 May 2013). "Richmond's final farewell to Royal Star and Garter". Richmond and Twickenham Times. http://www.richmondandtwickenhamtimes.co.uk/news/10421824.Richmond_s_final_farewell_to_Royal_Star_and_Garter/. 
  8. ↑ The Royal Star & Garter Homes. "Investing in New Care Homes". Annual Review 2014/15. p. 12. 
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Royal Star and Garter Home". Lost Hospitals of London. http://ezitis.myzen.co.uk/royalstarandgarter.html. 
  10. ↑ Church, Judith M (2008). "The Royal Star and Garter Home on Richmond Hill". Richmond History: Journal of the Richmond Local History Society 29: 32–47. SSN 0263-0958. 
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Royal Star and Garter Home". GB 1992 Archive. The National Archives (UK). 11 December 1998. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/onlinelists/GB%201992%20Archive.pdf. 
  12. ↑ "Coming of Age of Star and Garter Home, Local News (England and Wales)". British Medical Journal. 23 January 1937. p. 190. http://www.bmj.com/cgi/issue_pdf/admin_pdf/1/3968.pdf. 
  13. ↑ National Heritage List 1409405: Bromhead Memorial (Grade II listing)

Further reading

  • Simon Fowler (author) (1999). "The Valhalla of British Heroism: The early years of the Star and Garter Home". Richmond History: Journal of the Richmond Local History Society 20: 33–36. SSN 0263-0958. 
  • Church, Judith M (2008). "The Royal Star and Garter Home on Richmond Hill". Richmond History: Journal of the Richmond Local History Society 29: 32–47. SSN 0263-0958. 
  • Spencer, Steven (2009). ""Mr Scott may be very upset": Giles Gilbert Scott, Edwin Cooper and the Building of the Star and Garter Home". Richmond History: Journal of the Richmond Local History Society 30: 24–33. SSN 0263-0958. 
  • Venus, Nigel; Willis, Patsy (2006). The Home on the Hill: The Story of the Royal Star and Garter Home, Richmond, for Disabled Ex-service Men and Women. Royal Star & Garter Home. ISBN 978-0952079323. 
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