The Architecture of Camden Place
Hidden in plain sight, learn more about the architectural secrets of this unique historic house.
- Camden Park Rd, Chislehurst, Kent, BR7 5HJ, United Kingdom
Sir Charles Pratt changes the name of the house to Camden Place. When he becomes Lord Chancellor he adopts the title Lord Camden of Camden Place.
He sets about a 20 year building programme to convert Weston’s country house into a Georgian mansion. He is working with George Dance (probably the senior) and James ‘Athenian’ Stuart, a personal friend.
He can be seen in his robes in the National Portrait Gallery image
Charles Pratt
Takes the title Lord Camden of Camden Place
Charles Pratt was born in 1714. In 1760 he purchased Camden House renaming it Camden Place. He was an ambitious and radical lawyer. By 1765 he was in the Pitt Government and became Attorney General, and like his father before him, Lord Chief Justice. In 1776 he was made an Earl when he became Lord Chancellor and took the title Baron Camden of Camden Place. We do sympathise with him perhaps preferring not to be Lord Pratt.
This caused comment at the time because no-one had ever taken someone else’s name when they were enobled. To add insult to injury, the name he took was that of a previous Clarenceux King of Arms.
‘it is an astonishing thing and without precedent that a man should be allowed to take another man’s surname as his title, but that is what happened.’
Sir Gerald Wollaston,
sometime Garter King of Arms
The Georgian expansion is huge
A magnificent entrance and sweeping staircase were built in what is now the Oval Room. This entrance led directly into the large drawing room. The bay window had views over the grounds which now included a temple shaped folly that Stuart had modelled on the Monument of Lysicrates at the bottom of the Acropolis in Athens.
Today, the folly has lost its columns but still stands as a unique emblem of the golf club and link to the house’s heritage.
The bath house off to the side was important to Charles Pratt. In a letter to his daughter (in the Kent archives) he tells his daughter he is happy with Stuart’s decoration of the house, dislikes the positioning of the folly, but implores her to get Stuart to finish the bath house.
Dance and James 'Athenian' Stuart work on the house
Camden Place now gets a three room, three storey high extension to the side and two rooms two storeys high at what is now the front of the property.
The Georgian windows ( 6 over 6) can still be seen on the upper floors of the house. On this George Dance plan of the house the entrance and sweeping staircase can be seen. In the drawing room the Stuart neo- classical elements are still evident in the plasterwork, the view of the folly and the caryatids which have now been relocated to the Oval Room.
Where did the money come from?
Like many properties of this time it is likely that some, if not all of the financing came from the slave trade. Lord Camden’s wife, Elizabeth Jeffries was a very wealthy woman. She inherited land in North London, which became Camden Town and property in the West Indies, still known as the Camden Plantations.
Support for the Americans
The Camden name is exported from Chislehurst all over the world.
Lord Camden had global interests and influence. Streets, towns and ships are given his name.
He entertained Benjamin Franklin at Camden Place to discuss taxation of the colonies. cp.pixelparlourdesign.co.uk/…/benjamin-franklins-visit
He is a strong supporter of the right of Americans not to be taxed without representation. Their interventions were too late to prevent the War of Independence – Franklin was still on board a ship home when the first battles took place. But still the American people recognised Camden’s support. As a result 32 places in America are named after him.
Camden Town in North London is not the only Camden link. He became Recorder of Bath in 1759 and Camden Crescent at the western end of Camden Road was built by architect John Eveleigh.
Places in New Zealand and Australia are named Camden after his son, the 2nd Marquis of Camden
Altogether over 50 places around the world bear the Camden name – directly linking William Camden with this global network.
https://www.camdenhistorysociety.org/camdens-around-the-world
Explore the History
Discover Camden Place’s unique history through the people and events that shaped its story that spans more than 400 years.
