Dorset Hall

Dorset Hall is a substantial detached house dating to the late 18th century or possibly earlier. It is located on Kingston Road in the London Borough of Merton. The house is constructed of plum brick with red window heads. The roof is not visible. It is three storeys high and has a facade of four windows. A central, square-headed entrance with reeded detailing in the early 19th century features a Doric porch with a corniced top. The entrance has a 19th-century door. The windows are square-headed, flush-framed sashed windows with glazing bars, grouped in pairs, with a central blind bay above the doorway. A parapet tops the facade. Later extensions are present to the left and right of the original building. The interior has not been inspected.

Historically, Dorset Hall was the residence of Rose Larmatine Yates (1875-1954), a suffragette and social reformer, and her husband, solicitor Thomas Yates. Rose Yates was active in numerous causes, including becoming the first woman president of the Cyclist’s Touring Club in 1907 and serving as an independent member of London County Council from 1919 to 1922. She is primarily known as a suffragette, having been arrested during a deputation to the House of Commons in 1909 and serving as secretary of the Wimbledon branch of the Women’s Social and Political Union. She also publicly challenged the views of Christabel and Emmeline Pankhurst during the First World War.

Dorset Hall served as a favoured retreat for Yates’ suffragette friends, including Mary Gawthorpe, who recovered from illness there in 1910 and 1911, and Emily Wilding Davison, whose papers, subsequently forming the Suffragette Fellowship Collection, passed to Rose Yates following Davison’s death. Thomas Yates supported his wife's activities and represented the Davison family at the inquest into Davison's death. The list entry was amended in 2018 to mark the centenary of the 1918 Representation of the People Act.