| Trumpeters' House | Richmond |
The main front of the Trumpeters' House with its grand portico faces the river across a lawn and gardens planted with numerous mature trees. The lawn was the former site of the Privy Lodgings of Richmond Palace. In the garden and close to the river is an C18th castellated summer house / gazebo, of one storey high but set on a high plinth in order to provide a good view over the river. Nearby is a knot garden and a modern aviary for doves. It gets its name from two medieval figures of trumpeters that once stood outside the entrance of Old Palace Yard.
The information shown above was correct at the time of the last update 01/03/2004
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The information below is taken from the relevant Local Authority's planning legislation, which was correct at the time of research but may have been amended in the interim. Please check with the Local Authority for latest planning information.
Trumpeters' House - Photo: Sue Lovell-Greene
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In 1700 the former Middle Gate House, adjoining Trumpeting or Garden Gate House and a long garden, were leased by the Hon. Richard Hill. Hill(1655-1727) had begun his career tutoring the children of the Earl of Burlington and then those of the Earl of Rochester, who lived at Petersham Lodge. He became Deputy Paymaster to the Army in Flanders from 1688-96, and subsequently an envoy in Bavaria and Ambassador to The Hague. He returned to England in 1700 to become a Lord of the Treasury and in 1702 became Councillor to George of Denmark, the Prince Consort of Queen Anne. Hill had the Gate House converted, possibly employing John Yeomans, a master bricklayer who had worked on Petersham Lodge and possibly with Christopher Wren on Winslow House in Buckinghamshire. In 1711 Hill exchanged part of his land with George Cholmondeley in order to acquire the old Great Orchard of the palace.
After his death Trumpeters' House was inherited by Hill's two nephews and thereafter was leased by a succession of residents, including numerous members of the aristocracy. The last private owner left in 1942 and in 1943 it was used as the American Red Cross Day Club until the house suffered bombing. After the war it was used by the Inland Revenue and in 1951 was converted by C Bernard Brown into four apartments and a small house that Brown kept for himself, together with the garden. This was later replanted with plants inspired by the Elizabethan era when Mrs Pamela Franklyn lived in Trumpeters' Lodge and her daughter who lived in one of the apartments.
Bridget Cherry & Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England: London 2: South (Penguin) 1999; ' LB Richmond Local History Notes 'Trumpeters' House - Old Palace Yard, Richmond' (Richmond Libraries' Local Studies Collection, n.d.)