Mount Clare, Roehampton

Mount Clare is a Grade I listed house built in 1772 in Minstead Gardens, Roehampton, in the London Borough of Wandsworth.

Mount Clare
Mount Clare in an engraving from 1779 by William Watts
Listed Building – Grade I
Official name	Mount Clare, Minstead Gardens, SW15
Designated	14 July 1955
Reference no.	1184436

The architect was Sir Robert Taylor,[1] and the house was enlarged with a portico and other enrichments in 1780 by Placido Columbani. It was Grade I listed on 14 July 1955.[2]

The house was built for the politician George Clive[1] and the gardens were landscaped by Lancelot "Capability" Brown.[3]

Notable residents

Clive died in 1779. Subsequent residents have included:

• 1780–1804: Sir John Dick,[3] British Consul at Leghorn,[1] who died at the house on 2 December 1804[4]
• 1807–19: the chemist Charles Hatchett FRS, who discovered the element niobium[3]
• 1830–32: Humphrey St John-Mildmay, sixth son of the third Baronet, and Member of Parliament for Southampton[3]
• 1840–46: Admiral of the Fleet Sir Charles Ogle, 2nd Baronet[3]
• 1874–1908: Hugh Colin Smith, Governor of the Bank of England.[3] Smith's stockbroker descendants lived in the house until 1945.[3]

Requisition in 1945 and subsequent use

The house was requisitioned by Wandsworth Borough Council in 1945. In 1963 it became a hall of residence for Garnett College, the UK's only dedicated lecturer-training college. Garnett College became part of Woolwich Polytechnic, then Thames Polytechnic, then the University of Greenwich.

Today, Mount Clare is owned by the Southlands Methodist Trust[5] and used as a hall of residence for the University of Roehampton.[3]

Gallery

• 
  Mount Clare, front view
• 
  Mount Clare, rear view
• 
  Statue in memory of Hugh Colin Smith, Mount Clare

References

1. Cherry, Bridget and Pevsner, Nikolaus (1983). The Buildings of England – London 2: South. London: Penguin Books. pp. 694–5. ISBN 0 14 0710 47 7.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
2. Historic England (14 July 1955). "Mount Clare, Minstead Gardens, SW15 (1184436)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
3. Gerhold, Dorian (1997). Villas and Mansions of Roehampton and Putney Heath. Wandsworth Historical Society. pp. 31–33. ISBN 0 905121 05 8.
4. "John Dick – British Consul at Leghorn". James Boswell.info. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
5. Methodist Council (2015), Southlands College and the Southlands Methodist Trust, accessed 28 May 2018