Captain Gray's Houses: A History of Sion Row, Twickenham
Ebook
Twickenham is chiefly known today as the home of rugby, but its heyday could be said to be in the eighteenth century when first Alexander Pope and then Horace Walpole made it their home and extolled its Arcadian setting.
Captain Gray, a naval officer, acquired plots of land close to the river in Twickenham in 1718 on which he built two rows of houses, Sion Row and Montpelier Row, which survive to this day and are much admired.
This book tells the story of Sion Row, which was built for Gray by a remarkable local craftsman, Edward Reeves, who had ambition to become an architect. It explains the features of the houses and how they were built. It then follows them through to the present day showing how they were used and what modifications have been made to them and, not least, how they survived.
In parallel we learn of the owners and the residents, many of whom have fascinating stories to tell. They are immensely diverse, some international, some purely local, some disreputable, others pillars of respectability.
Their lives are put in the context of changes in Twickenham as it evolved from out of town retreat to prosperous commuter suburb. In telling the story of these houses and people, a remarkable social history is revealed.
This large volume details the building and social histories of two streets in Twickenham: Sion Row (dating from 1721) and Montpelier, both by Captain Gray. The first part provides an extraordinarily detailed overview of the buildings’ development. The author explains the whole process of planning, construction, fitting out and costs, which shed great insight into the evolution of building development. There are a few useful illustrations to aid their understanding.
Well explained, but with some admitted conjecture, are the alterations made dining succeeding decades to the houses. Some of these changes reflect the social aspirations of the owners or tenants but also how a building’s use has evolved. Changes also arose reflecting the fall and then rise of interest in Georgian buildings, culminating in the final phases of conservation, where the work of SPAB does receive mentions. The author also raises succinctly those dilemmas faced in ‘Listing’ interpretations.
The bulk of the book is however very much a social history and dispels many modern preconceived ideas of life from the 17th century onwards. The development of ‘suburbia’, the nature of those areas before development and the occupation of those living there is well detailed.
The occupants were primarily from the ‘middling’ sorts (today’s middle class). The author has unearthed many startlingly frank details of their lives. They also seemed to have travelled widely, had relatively few possessions and often lived to a great age.
Certainly an unusual book, but for someone interested in old houses or social history, a useful tool.
Shepherd’s book throws a revealing light on the material culture of the ‘middling orders’ who played a crucial part in the growth of what became outer London. … Engagingly written, well-illustrated and beautifully produced, this is a book to be dipped into, [adding] significantly to our knowledge of the history of outer west London, and it can be strongly recommended to anyone interested in the process of suburbanisation that has slowly transformed the lives of countless Londoners over the past three centuries.
It has been a pleasure to read what would probably be classified as a work on local history that is substantial, well written and handsomely produced. The author is not a professional historian … but he writes better and more interestingly than many academics. This is a welcome addition to the literature of the Georgian building world, not just for those interested in London’s history but for shedding light on the entrepreneurial and collaborative nature of so much eighteenth-century urban development.
- Title: Captain Gray's Houses: A History of Sion Row, Twickenham
- Author: R. Shepherd
- Publisher: Sacristy Press
- Print Publication Date: 2019
- Logos Release Date: 2023
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781789590029, 9781789590005, 1789590000, 9781789590012, 1789590019, 1789590027
- Resource ID: LLS:9781789590029
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2023-06-15T01:11:18Z
Robert Shepherd read history at Durham and worked in the oil and gas industry. He has had a lifelong interest in architecture, which led to researching the history of Sion Row and Captain Gray's houses.