London’s Country Houses, by our Fellow Caroline Knight, is part of the English Country House Series, which began with Fellow Nicholas Kingsley’s three fine volumes on Gloucestershire. In most of the series, authors dealt with a single county but, for her book, Knight had to include parts of Essex, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Middlesex, Surrey and Kent, as well as London itself. The houses that she discusses all lie within the boundary set now by the M25, or what would have been in very early days within a day’s travel from the city. In this book, the term ‘country house’ is a bit misleading, as what Knight has really written about is the less-idyllic sounding ‘suburban house’, a building type that deserves this more detailed study.

Knight concentrates on houses that have survived, although she includes some particularly important ones that have not (Wimbledon, Wanstead, Canons and others). Only a few of these houses date originally from the medieval period; more date from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and many from the eighteenth century, although almost all of these have undergone later alterations, sometimes completely obliterating any visual evidence of the original house. She includes only a few nineteenth-century houses and almost none built after 1900 (one of the exceptions being the fine art deco additions to Eltham Palace by the Courtauld family).

The book begins with a general introduction covering building materials, the social context, sources and the ‘destruction’ of historic suburban houses, primarily the result of urban sprawl and of improved transportation. It was the railroad, especially, that made true country houses more accessible, rendering suburban retreats redundant. Once suburban houses were part of a commuter belt, their use changed completely. Syon House, uniquely, remains in the same family and continues to function as a suburban retreat for the Duke of Northumberland. The houses themselves are covered in two parts, the largest devoted to the ‘major houses’, organized by parish, and a short final section on ‘minor’ houses, although some real gems fall into this group, including Vanbrugh Castle in Greenwich.

Perhaps the most important question is whether the functions of the suburban house engendered new architectural forms. Experiments in plan were done on suburban houses from the sixteenth century (Sutton House and Wimbledon in particular). Further innovations occurred in a group of very compact early seventeenth-century houses, including Holland House and Eagle House (Wimbledon again). By the late seventeenth century, major architects – May, Wren, Vanbrugh – were designing suburban houses and in the eighteenth century some of the greatest early Palladian buildings were erected around London, from the precious temple at Chiswick House to the sprawling mansion at Wanstead. Complementing the many restrained Georgian boxes that were erected were the quirky retreats of Alexander Pope and Horace Walpole, both in the desirable riverside suburb of Twickenham. At the same time, the most important landscape designers were employed: the names of London, Bridgeman, Kent, Brown and Repton (often working with Nash) appear frequently. Because these houses were often used for entertaining, the landscapes could be as impressive as those of any distant country estate; some even had hunting parks. Syon and Osterley still give some idea of the scale of gardens near the metropolis, but in most other cases the grounds, if they survive at all, have been converted to public parks or golf courses. What has been lost is sometimes recorded in maps, particularly John Rocque’s detailed Exact Survey of … London and the Country ten miles round of 1745, from which Knight has taken numerous details. These complement the excellent selection of old prints, paintings and more recent photographs that bring these buildings and landscapes to life.

Knight relishes a good story and the book is full of colourful anecdotes, often provided by early travel diaries. Suburban houses were quite often used for mistresses and illegitimate children. Many houses changed hands frequently and sequential owners could have remarkably different social positions: a house owned by an aristocrat might be bought by a wealthy merchant, who then sold it on to a minor member of the royal family, and so forth (the history of Brandenburg House, in Hammersmith, makes one’s head spin).

At the end of most entries, Knight writes about the present condition and use of the house and whether there is public access. Many larger houses have become schools, clubs, hotels or offices (although a surprising number have been reconverted to private residences). Some properties were bought by local authorities specifically for the land, and all too often they have not had the money to maintain the house. While sympathetic to budgeting constraints, Knight expresses concern for the condition of many of these houses and encourages easier public access and a greater appreciation of the importance of houses (Charlton House, for example, is ‘hardly recognized as the architectural masterpiece that it is’). Caroline Knight’s book will be instrumental in opening the eyes of councils and the general public to the significance of historic suburban houses and to the designed landscapes that can occasionally still be detected in surviving open spaces.