More information : TQ 3915 7735: Keepers' Lodge (site of), recorded during the RCHME Greenwich Park Survey, Sep-1993 to Feb-1994.
Documentary evidence:
The Keeper's House is shown on several early plans of Greenwich, situated near the centre of the park. The Travers map of 1695 depicts a `Lodge' within a rectangular enclosure (1a); slightly later, the same building is one of only two structures (the other being the Observatory) shown within the Park (1b). By c. 1750, when a plan of the Park was produced for the London Magazine, `The Keeper's House' had been enlarged to incorporate an outbuilding to the south, the whole within a large, open compound. This plan is reproduced in Webster, where it is dated to 1695 (3). In 1790, a sketch of the Park shows `The Keeper's Lodge' and an outbuilding situated within a large, oval enclosure bounded by a pale (1c).
The Sayer plan of 1840 shows a large, D-shaped enclosure, surrounded by a pale, covering an area roughly 1 ha (2.47 acres) in extent (1d). The west (straight) side of the enclosure ran parallel to the east side of the tree avenue running north to south between the Tea House and Lover's Walk; the northern boundary followed the south side of gravel pit TQ 37 NE 100.
The enclosure was subdivided into three areas. The Keeper's House and four `out-buildings' were arranged around a yard in the south-west corner. The keeper's garden occupied the north-western area, which included Queen Elizabeth's Oak and three `conduits'. The east side of the enclosure was a `deer paddock' with two rectangular sheds, presumably serving as shelters for the animals.
The Keeper's House was demolished in 1853 (2).
A photograph of the Keeper's House and the associated out-buildings is reproduced in Webster (2).
Description:
No trace of the Keeper's House or the associated structures survives on the ground (1).
However, the course of the enclosure pale is visible in two places. The south-western angle is marked by a scarp, up to 0.9m high, at TQ 3909 7730. The ground surface falls from south-west to north-east at this point, and the line of the pale has been cut back into the hillslope, giving the appearance of a square hollow. At TQ 3916 7730, the pale cut east to west across hollow way TQ 37 NE 109, effectively blocking it.
Other Features:
There are a number of subsidiary features in the area of the former enclosure. In June 1858, Lord Haddo, the Park Ranger proposed that a pump be installed in the Park to provide the visiting public with drinking water. The proposal pointed to the existance of `a well of excellent water on the ground which was formerly occupied by the Keeper's House (1e). The pump was erected near Queen Elizabeth's Oak (1f) and was still in existance in 1896, when the dry summer caused a shortage of water (1e).
The pump has now been removed, but is preserved as an iron fitting set into a stone platform at TQ 3913 7735. The water was supplied by an underground conduit (see TQ 37 NE 90), originally accessible at this point by a flight of stone steps (4). The steps led to an underground chamber in the conduit system, visible from the surface as a small roughly circular mound.
At TQ 3913 7739, there is a narrow concrete trough, 5.0m long and 0.3m deep. This is probably the drinking trough constructed for the deer in 1858 (1e, 5).
Brick foundations belonging to a rectangular structure, or close set group of buildings, are visible immediately north of the modern path leading to Queen Elizabeth's Oak (NGR TQ 3906 7740). The foundations suggest a building 14m long, oriented east to west and set on an irregular platform, the back of which is defined by a scarp adjacent to the modern path, 0.75m high. The building probably looked northwards over the valley of Lover's Walk (1) and is outside the enclosure associated with the Keeper's House or Lodge; it could not be identified with any documented structure.
See location plan at 1:1000 scale archived with record TQ 37 NE 69 (UID 610590). (1-5) |