LOOKING BACK WITH DR JONATHAN OATES
Soane’s
Ealing
legacy
Pitzhanger Manor has
been closed as part of a
large project to restore it
to its former Regency-era
glories – inspired by its
most famous past owner,
Sir John Soane. Its former
grounds, Walpole Park,
were reopened by the
council last year after a
similar makeover.
T
he association of Soane and
Pitzhanger Manor is well
known, and it is common
knowledge he bought the
house in 1800. But it is less well-known
that he had become aware of the house
many years previously.
This was because, when the bricklayer’s
son was a lad of just 15 years old, he
had worked in the offices of an architect
called George Dance when Dance was
employed to extend the original mansion
house in 1768.
And so, when Soane bought it for
himself in 1801 as a man in his late 40s,
Pitzhanger Manor House
he was buying somewhere
he had already worked on.
Between 1801 and 1803 he
demolished the original building
but kept the wing Dance and
he had worked on years before
(this is the southern portion of
the house).
By then Soane was a
renowned architect and surveyor
himself with a distinguished
portfolio of work, including
with the Bank of England and
Royal Hospital Chelsea.
A SECOND HOME
The house in Ealing was not
bought as a family residence,
however. Rather, Soane and
Sir John Soane
50
around ealing
Winter 2015/16