3-003-782 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Manor House, Camberwell, [London], 1861. 'Besides the old mansions of London which have been swept away by fire, or have crumbled piecemeal under the tooth of Time, others are falling, and many more are doomed to fall, beneath a new ravager as potent and ruthless as either of these. Urban railways have become the order of the day, and are cutting their way sheer through many parts of the metropolis, in some cases, no doubt, doing good service by letting light and air into "rookeries" swarming with human beings half stifled in these fever-beds; but frequently also demolishing some ancient edifice that we would fain have preserved as one of those relics whose associations pleasantly bind the past with the present. Such a mansion is the Manor House at Camberwell, which is in process of removal, its site being required for the extension line of the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway. This fine old building, situated in the Camberwell-road, at a short distance from the Green, is built entirely of brick, with red facings, being the work of Inigo Jones. The Bowyer family, lords of the manor of Camberwell, resided here; and it was also the abode of Sir Christopher Wren...It contains a spacious picture-gallery'. From "Illustrated London News", 1861.