Roehampton, Wandsworth
‘The last village in London’, according to one historian, now augmented by assorted institutions and a pioneering council estate, lying on the western side of Putney
The Priory
The settlement gained an identity in the 14th century, at first as East Hampton and then Rokehampton. The ‘roke’ element may have referred to the presence of rooks, rocks or oaks.
By 1498 the village had an inn and 20 houses, but the first dwelling of significance was Roehampton House, which was rebuilt from a hunting lodge around 1630. For the third quarter of the 17th century this was the home of Christiana, Countess of Devonshire. Among her guests here were the political philosopher Thomas Hobbes and most of the leading figures of the Restoration court. In 1777 the house was demolished and replaced by Roehampton Grove, eliminating confusion with another Roehampton House that later became part of Queen Mary’s Hospital.
Medfield Street and Roehampton High Street constituted the nucleus of the village in the 18th century, while handsome villas peppered the surrounding hills and vales, occupied by a succession of eminent figures.
By the late 19th century, high-class suburban homes were increasingly in evidence and the aristocracy began to move away. Institutions and colleges took over some of the mansions but most were demolished during the 20th century. Private and council estates filled their former grounds, notably the innovative and influential Alton estate, built in the 1950s.
Roehampton Priory claims to be London’s oldest private psychiatric hospital and has treated many celebrities for problems such as exhaustion, depression and alcoholism. The former Roehampton Institute is now the University of Roehampton. Seven per cent of Roehampton’s residents live in communal establishments – an exceptionally high proportion.
The poet Gerard Manley Hopkins studied at the Jesuit seminary at Manresa House. In sharp contrast, the risqué writer Frank Harris twice lived in Roehampton with his extremely young wife-to-be, Nellie O’Hara. Harris said that Roehampton and the French Riviera were his favourite places in the world.
Benjamin Disraeli, prime minister and author, created an Earl and Countess of Roehampton in his autobiographical novel Endymion.
