Broome Hall

Broome Hall is a grade II-listed country house with grounds including cottages and outhouses on the wooded, upper southern slopes of the Greensand Ridge near Coldharbour in Surrey, England.

Broome Hall
Broome Hall, seen in 2006
EtymologyBroom is a generic and specific English term (along with gorse, lupins and laburnums) for the genisteae genus of plants and certain species; from this the tool is derived.
General information
StatusConverted to flats
TypeCountry house and estate
ClassificationGrade II listed
LocationNear Coldharbour, Surrey, England
Coordinates51.1705°N 0.3557°W / 51.1705; -0.3557
Completedc. 1830
Known forHome of Andrew Spottiswoode MP; Frederick Pennington MP; Oliver Reed
Andrew Spottiswoode (1787-1866),[1] first owner of Broome Hall.
Oliver Reed in 1968

It was built around 1830 for the politician and printer Andrew Spottiswoode, and had a succession of similarly wealthy family owners before the main house was converted into eleven flats, each separately owned, in the late 20th century. Broom(e) refers to the genus (and specifically several species) of often flowering plants (genisteae) which, with evergreens, dominate the sandy soil.

19th century

The house was built about 1830 for the printer-politician and investor Andrew Spottiswoode, and extended in the late 19th century for Sir Alexander Brown, 1st Baronet.[2] It was also home from 1865 to the international merchant-politician Frederick Pennington (died 1914) and his suffragette wife Margaret.[3][4]

20th century

In the Second World War, it served as headquarters of Canadian forces.[5]

In 1954, the White Fathers, Christian missionaries in Africa and an order of monks, bought the property and used it as their British novitiate, for training new monks.[5]

The actor Oliver Reed bought it from the monks, and lived there in the late 1960s until the 1980s.[5] According to Reed's biographer Robert Sellers, Reed only bought the house because he wanted a field to keep his horse in, but then spent a fortune renovating it.[6] The naked wrestling scene with Reed and Alan Bates in Ken Russell's 1969 film Women in Love is said to have been filmed there.[5] Reed was banned from his local pub there for descending a chimney naked and shouting out: "Ho! Ho! Ho! I'm Santa Claus."[5] According to legend, Reed buried the jewellery collection of a former girlfriend in the grounds where it still lies.[5]

The house was then bought by a property developer who converted it into flats.[5] It was assessed and recognised as a listed building in 1987.[2]

References
  1. Andrew Spottiswoode. National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
  2. Historic England. "Broome Hall  (Grade II) (1028759)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 11 August 2018.
  3. "The Country Estates - Dorking Museum & Heritage Centre". Dorking Museum & Heritage Centre. Retrieved 12 August 2018.
  4. Crawford, Elizabeth. (2006). The Women's Suffrage Movement in Britain and Ireland: A Regional Survey. Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN 9781136010545.
  5. Vendrickas, Ginetta (15 March 2007). "Still reeling from its colourful past". The Telegraph. Retrieved 12 August 2018.
  6. Martin, Guy (10 July 2013). "Oliver Reed's unique lifestyle remembered in new book". SurreyLive. Retrieved 12 August 2018.

Further reading
  • Sellers, Robert. (2014) What Fresh Lunacy is This? London: Constable.

Media related to Broome Hall at Wikimedia Commons

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