Spring Grove House

Spring Grove House

I have lived in The Grove, Isleworth most of my life. Spring Grove House is central to the horse shoe shape of The Grove. Moses Gover’s Map of 1635 has no record of Spring Grove House, but records show that a house was first built on the site by Sir John Offley around 1645. In 1745, a Elisha Biscoe bought the house, demolished it and built another. In 1779, this house was leased to Sir Joseph Banks, a naturalist and biologist who travelled on Captain Cook’s first voyage, who subsequently purchased it in 1808.

Sir Joseph Banks was a flamboyant character who travelled extensively around the world collecting and recording plants from the places he visited. His much recorded trips were of course with Captain Cook. It is believed on returning from trips with Cook that he kept his collected plants in the grounds of Spring Grove House until the site at Kew Gardens was established. A survey of 1800 recorded that the property had conservatories and hot houses. Alas, one does not live for ever, and Banks died in 1820 and is buried in St Leonards Church graveyard, Heston, although the position of his grave has now been lost.

On the death of Sir Joseph Banks, the house was purchased by Anne Fish who who subsequently died and the property was passed on to a relative Henry Pownell in 1834. Henry knocked the house around and extended it. The Ordnance Survey Map map of 1865 shows the estate, the house and also various structures within the grounds. Henry Pownell sold the house to H D Davies in 1850 who sold it on 36 years later to Andrew Pears (of Pears soap fame).

Spring Grove House Winter Garden Conservatory

Andrew Pears carried out alterations to the house but it is not clear how much of the original structure was rebuilt. The gatehouse/lodge in The Grove must have been built during the Pears period as this was the main entrance. The wrought iron gate which are now in the London Road adjacent to the fire station were originally situated in the Grove adjacent to the gatehouse/lodge. Surprisingly Andrew Pears and his family only lived in the property for eight years and the estate was sold in 1903. Since that period part of the grounds were sold for a new road and housing development (Harvard Road).

The housed exchanged han ds several times also being used for a hospital for First World War victims and then various education establishments. Isleworth Polytechnic being part of the educational history and it was during this period I attended. The building was part demolished in 1967 (North West section) to accommodate a hideous concrete structure. The Banksian Room (which I can recall) a conservatory glass structure, was part of the demolition.

It now thought that the Banksian Room could not have been built by Banks as the metal roof structure were of a later time and the probability is that they were built by Pears. However it could be that Pears replaced parts of the Banksian structure over the original site. I would suggest that in these glass houses and other outhouses in the grounds was where the the tropical plants brought back by Banks from his trips were temporarily kept until the grounds at Kew were established.

Spring Grove House West Elevation

A survey by English Heritage in 1993 found that the building is remarkably unaltered (ig: hinges, doors, floor mosaics etc) which is surprising when you think of the use of the building over the last one hundred years. Restoration works were carried out to many rooms between 1994 – 1996. The site is now undergoing a major rebuild and I hope the old building will be spared any major alterations.

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