Mount Clare, Roehampton Explained

Mount Clare
Embedded:	Embed: yes Designation1: Grade I Designation1 Offname: Mount Clare, Minstead Gardens, SW15 Designation1 Date: 14 July 1955

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

The architect was Sir Robert Taylor, 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.

The house was built for the politician George Clive^[1] and the gardens were landscaped by Lancelot "Capability" Brown.^[2]

Notable residents

Clive died in 1779. Subsequent residents have included:

• 1780–1804: Sir John Dick, British Consul at Leghorn,^[1] who died at the house on 2 December 1804^[3]
• 1807–1819: the chemist Charles Hatchett FRS, who discovered the element niobium
• 1830–1832: Humphrey St John-Mildmay, sixth son of the third Baronet, and Member of Parliament for Southampton
• 1840–1846: Admiral of the Fleet Sir Charles Ogle, 2nd Baronet
• 1874–1908: Hugh Colin Smith, Governor of the Bank of England. Smith's stockbroker descendants lived in the house until 1945.

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^[4] and used as a hall of residence for the University of Roehampton.

References

51.4519°N -0.2509°W

Notes and References

1. Book: The Buildings of England – London 2: South . . . 1983 . London . 694–5 . 0-14-0710-47-7.
2. Book: Gerhold, Dorian. Villas and Mansions of Roehampton and Putney Heath. 1997. Wandsworth Historical Society. 0-905121-05-8. 31–33.
3. Web site: John Dick – British Consul at Leghorn . James Boswell.info . 16 January 2014.
4. Methodist Council (2015), Southlands College and the Southlands Methodist Trust, Retrieved 28 May 2018