The People of Camden Place

English antiquarian, poet, historian and educator, William Camden was a leading scholar in Elizabethan England and the Clarenceaux King of Arms.

Weston began to build the current house in 1717 and he gave it the Camden name. His vision of a lime tree driveway led to a 500 year lease from the vestry that incorporated a ransom strip.  That ransom strip led directly to Camden Place becoming home to a golf club rather than becoming a building site  in the 1890’s.

Lord Camden was Sir Charles Pratt when he purchased Camden House in 1760. He renamed it Camden Place and set about a 20 year building project to turn it into a Georgian mansion. His designers were George Dance and James ‘Athenian’ Stuart.

The Bonars continued the Georgian expansion of the house, adding a new dining wing with its distinctive Egyptian style fireplace – all the fashion in the early 1800’s. Sadly, the mark they left on the house was not its new library or oval shaped room but the blood stained image caused by their brutal murders.

Despite the recent murders in the house, Camden Place was still able to attract influential residents and their visitors. Between 1814 and 1821 the house was the residence for 3 important and influential ambassadors and so became the  backdrop for diplomatic discussions and social events with  royal and political visitors including the Duchess of York and the  Duke of Wellington.

Emily is something of a footnote in the Camden Place story but she does provide an important link to the French residents who made the house particularly noteworthy.

Emily lived at Camden Place for 3 years during her early childhood. Later, as a young debutante she met and fell in love with the exiled Prince Louis Napoleon. There was talk of an engagement but a second failed coup attempt and imprisonment at Ham Castle brought that to an end. It does seem that this relationship introduced the Prince to Camden Place and influenced its selection for development as a possible bolt hole in England should that be needed.

Though resident for just 10 years, the Imperial family made their mark on the house and Chislehurst, During those years there was the death of France’s last Emperor, huge Imperial funerals for him and later his son, celebrations for the Prince Imperial’s coming of age at 18. A procession of political and royal visitors came to the house and Chislehurst earned its name ‘Imperial Chislehurst’,

This is the pair who were together responsible for the creation of Chislehurst Golf Club. Willett the builder was thwarted by Travers Hawes who used the ransom strip to prevent Camden Place becoming a housing development. The compromise left half the estate for recreation to benefit the local community and so a golf club was born.

The two adversaries became friends and over the years both made a mark on club life. Willett was at first proprietor of the club and Travers Hawes became the architect of its transformation to a members  club.