Campaign to save grounds of Grade II* Listed building

Local residents are fighting plans by the University of Roehampton to erect 210 units of student accommodation on the historic grounds of Grade II* Listed Downshire House, which lies within the Alton West conservation area.





Downshire House was constructed circa 1770 for the Marquess of Downshires on the site of an earlier mid-C17th villa. It was extended and improved by the noted 18th Century architect Robert William Furze Brettingham, who was employed by the second Marquess of Downshire to around 1795. Today only a small part of the once extensive formal gardens of Downshire House remain, including brick walls, stone balustrades with pineapples and a hipped roof summer house by designed by Oswald Partridge Milne in the early 20th Century.






Local residents, assisted by the Queen Mary’s Place Residents Association, are engaging in a letter writing campaign, in order to persuade Wandsworth Council to reject the proposed development, which would see three modern accommodation blocks of between three and four stories built on each side of Downshire House and would result in the loss of 19 protected trees, as well as public views from Roehampton Lane across the remaining gardens.

Nationally only 5.5% of listed buildings are classified as Grade II* listed, which is reserved for “particularly important buildings of more than special interest”.



Public responses to the proposed development close on 23 May 2013 and can be submitted via letter to the council or via an online form. The Queen Mary’s Place Residents Association will be holding a 2 hour drop in session from noon until 2pm on Saturday 18 May 2013 for anyone who wants to know more about the proposed plans, or would like advice and assistance in submitting a response – for more information contact savedownshirehouse@outlook.com.

Thomas Howard

May 24, 2013