Egerton House
Egerton House was a small country house on High Street in Berkhamsted in the English county of Hertfordshire . The house in Elizabethan style was demolished in 1937 and a movie theater called The Rex in Art Deco replaced style. Egerton House was known not only for its architecture but also as the home of the Llewelyn Davies family and for its association with JM Barrie , the author of Peter Pan .
architecture
Egerton House was a two-story country house with an attic. The main facade had three gables and between them two narrower gable dormers on the steep, shingled roof. When the house was sold at auction at the King's Arms Hotel in 1895 , it was stated that the house had three living rooms, a dining room, a billiard room, a greenhouse, four bedrooms, four storage rooms, and stables. The sales papers also mentioned a shed on Rectory Lane and Egerton Cottage , a small gardener's house.
The garden was enormous; it contained an orchard and extended all the way to Ashlyn's School . Part of this property was later acquired to create the Three Close Lane Cemetery .
history
Egerton House was one of two country houses from the reign of Elizabeth I in Berkhamsted; the other was Berkhamsted Place , about a mile further north, near Berkhamsted Castle . Both country houses were demolished in the 20th century.
It is believed that St Clement's Hospital , a medieval hospital, stood on this site before Egerton House was built. Cobb writes that a seal bearing the name of the Brotherhood of Saint Clement (later the Worshipful Company of Founders ) was discovered in the garden behind Egerton House.
The exact construction period of Egerton House is unknown, nor is the reason for its name. The first owners are said to have been from the Egerton family ; possibly it was Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley , whose descendants were named Earls of Bridgewater . The house is known to belong to Edward Kellet , a local property owner , in 1627 . Later it passed along with Harriots End Farm to Rev. Robert Brabant , Rector of St Peter's Church in Berkhamsted. Documents were found showing that a Mr. Lyttleton from Egerton House paid eight shillings for the orchard.
In 1840 the Weslyan Methodist Church bought Egerton House for £ 700 and opened a preaching house in it in 1841. The Methodists sold the house to Dr. in 1846 for the same amount they had paid 6 years earlier. Thomas Whatly , who lived there until his death in 1868. The house was auctioned in 1895 and then acquired by the Llewellyn Davies family in 1904 .
The Llewelyn Davies family
The London barrister Arthur Llewelyn Davies and his wife Sylvia moved into the house with their five children from Kensington Park Gardens (London) in 1904 . At that time, the family was close friends with the Scottish writer and playwright JM Barrie . He had his Peter Pan based on stories he had written for the children when they were still living in Kensington . The role of Peter Pan was based on all the boys in the family but was named after Peter. Barrie's play, Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up premiered that same year at London's Duke of York's Theater .
During the three years that Barrie spent in Berkhamsted, he visited the Llewelyn Davies family frequently. Arthur Llewlyn Davies became ill with cancer and Barrie provided financial support to the family during his illness. When his friend died in Egerton House in 1907, his widow returned to London with the children. When Sylvia Llewelyn Davies herself died of cancer in 1910, Barrie became her children's guardian.
demolition
The movie company Shipman & King took over the Court Cinema on High Street in Berkhamsted and was planning to open a second cinema in town. Originally, they wanted to build on a plot of land on the eastern outskirts of the city, at an intersection of Swing Gate Lane , but in 1936 the company acquired Egerton House, which was closer to the center of town and large enough for a cinema and parking lot. Egerton House was demolished in 1937 and The Rex cinema built in its place. Some pieces of Egerton House's oak paneling were saved from demolition and installed in a house called Four Oaks on Greamsdyke Road . Some more paneling went to Boxwell House , the local Rural District Council's office building .
The Rex cinema was designed in the Art Deco style by architect David Evelyn Nye and opened by Viscountess Davidson in 1938 .
In 1953, while visiting Berkhamsted, Peter Llewelyn Davies wrote in a letter lamenting the loss of his childhood home:
"Oh dear, oh dear, I was driving through Berkhamsted recently and the sight of the awful movie theater on the Egerton House property was almost more than I could bear and the garden has turned into a disgusting concrete parking lot."
The Rex cinema still stands today, and English Heritage has listed it as a Grade II Historic Building. A plaque in the movie theater, unveiled by actress Jane Asher on February 14, 1979 , commemorates the property's association with JM Barrie and Peter Pan.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Scott Hastie: Berkhamsted: an Illustrated History . Alpine Press, King's Langley 1999. ISBN 0-9528631-1-1 . P. 63.
- ^ John Wolstenholme Cobb: Two Lectures on the History and Antiquities of Berkhamsted . (Nichols & Sons 1855) Biling & Sons 1988. ISBN 1-871372-03-8 . Pp. 73-74. Retrieved March 18, 2016.
- ↑ The Gazette, Wed. 2nd June: 'Great literary figures influence movie world . The Dacorum Heritage Trust. Archived from the original on July 18, 2011. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 16, 2011.
- ↑ The Gazette, Wed. 15th September: Town's Long Battle to save a 1930s Jewel . The Dacorum Heritage Trust. Archived from the original on July 18, 2011. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 16, 2011.
- ↑ Peter Llewelyn Davies letters to Mary Hodgson, 1921-1953 . Retrieved January 16, 2011.
swell
- Allen Eyles: Cinemas of Hertfordshire . Hertfordshire Publications, Hatfield 2002. ISBN 978-0-9542189-0-4 .
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 45 ′ 30.5 " N , 0 ° 33 ′ 38.2" W.