Hidden London | Sundridge Park

Although some maps identify Sundridge and Sundridge Park as discrete places, the latter is simply an evolution of the former – a more recent name for the estate of Sundridge, its mansion and parkland, now a management centre and a golf club. The two names are used interchangeably for the neighbouring residential area. Sundridge Park was created in the late 1790s for Sir Claude Scott. The stuccoed mansion was designed by John Nash and the work was completed under the direction of Samuel Wyatt. The surrounding farmland was transformed into parkland to a plan by Humphry Repton. When the railway line to Bromley North opened in 1878 the Scott family had a station built for their private use. Near the end of the century Sir Edward Scott began to sell off the estate and a rebuilt station opened to the public as Sundridge Park in 1896. The park became a golf course, with a new clubhouse opened by prime minister AJ Balfour in 1903. What began as a nine-hole course has since grown into a pair of what Nikolaus Pevsner calls ‘unusually umbrageous’ eighteen-hole courses. The mansion functioned as a luxury hotel until after the Second World War and became a management centre in 1956. A new block of residential accommodation was completed in 1970.

Sir Edward Scott gained fame for breeding pheasants and the Prince of Wales was equally well-known for his love of killing them. Understandably, the two men became friends and the future king often visited Sundridge Park for game-shooting weekends.