Lauderdale House

Lauderdale House is a house dating back to approximately 1582, with significant alterations and additions in later centuries. The exterior is a mix of roughcast timber framing and later rendered brick additions, all set beneath a tiled roof.

The northeast front, which serves as the main entrance, presents an asymmetrical two-story facade. It features a wooden Doric porch topped with a pediment containing a Diocletian window, a projecting brick chimney stack, four sash windows and a door on the ground floor and five sash windows above. String courses mark the levels, and a parapet tops the front.

The southeast front, facing the garden, has ground-floor canted bay windows flanked by two openings; one a window, the other a blocked doorway inscribed "LCC LAUDERDALE HOUSE RENOVATED AD 1893." A jettied upper story holds nine sash windows, and a central pedimental gable completes the front.

The southwest front, overlooking the park, incorporates a wooden Doric loggia with six columns and four French windows. The first floor features five symmetrical sash windows, a string course at second floor level, a central attic story with a Diocletian window, and a pedimented gable end. The loggia has been extended northward with four additional columns.

The interior has been extensively altered, but retains notable features. These include a late 17th-century carved wooden buffet with a marble shelf, known as “Nell Gwynne’s bath”, a similar-period wall painting depicting a trompe-l'oeil balustrade, and a plaster relief from the early 19th century portraying Achilles, Patroclus, and Briseis. A more recent replacement of an early 18th-century octagonal lantern over the stairs is made of fibre glass. A 90-foot-long gallery runs along the southeast front; it exposes original timbers and contains a late 17th-century plaster ceiling salvaged from a demolished house on Leadenhall Street.

The house was originally built around 1582 for Sir Roger Martin, and was substantially altered around 1640 by Lady Home. It was occupied by the Second Earl of Lauderdale in the 1640s and 1660s. By approximately 1760, the exterior underwent a notable transformation, moving from its original half-timbered appearance to the present rendered neo-Classical style. In 1889, Sir Sydney Waterlow donated the house and its 29 acres to the London County Council "for the enjoyment of Londoners," and it was extensively restored prior to opening in 1893. A major fire in 1963 caused significant damage, destroying the roof and much of the interior, although restoration work has continued since.