Harrow Park, (also known as Flambards), Harrow, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest: 

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

The old mansion of Flambards, or Flamberts as it was sometimes referred to as (Victoria County History 1971), probably dated back to the 14th century. By 1664 Flambards was described as being the largest house in Harrow. It stood at the south end of the village of Harrow on the Hill surrounded principally, as recorded by John Rocque on his survey of 1746, by agricultural land. In 1767 the Flambards estate was sold to Francis Herne and a year later Lancelot Brown (1716-1783) and Henry Holland (1745-1806) began work to improve both the house and landscape. Over the next three years they undertook work to the value of £12,000 (Ball 1980). After Herne's death the estate passed to his sister Mary, and in 1787 to Richard Page, the step-son of Hearne's sister Anne. Ten years later Page started work on a new house to the north of the old mansion. The Enclosure award of 1803 makes it clear that the basic structure of the 20th century landscape was in place by that date. Details of the design is shown on various sale plans of the late 1820s.

In 1805 Page died and the house with about 35 hectares of land was sold to George Fleming of Hillingdon. Fleming never lived at the house and the estate was sold on to John Rushout, second Baron Northwick, who owned a great deal of land in the area. Although the sale was not completed until 1807, Lord Northwick lived there from 1805 and the architect John Shaw was undertaking alterations at the house in 1806-1807. It would appear that Northwick also worked on the grounds, Lyson recording in 1810 that the pleasure grounds were much improved. John Rushout was a governor of Harrow School, which by this time was well established. Founded in 1572 under a charter from Elizabeth I, by the early 19th century the 'Free Grammar School' had grown to dominate the town, and the boys were allowed to use the grounds of the new house for recreational purposes. Lord Northwick's daughter Anne was an accomplished water-colourist and a number of her paintings of Harrow Park survive (Ball 1980). By 1823 Lord Northwick had moved away and the house, referred to as Harrow Villa, and 23 hectares of land were put up for sale. In 1824 the estate was purchased by Archibald Campbell on behalf of Major General Alexander Mcgregor. In the same year, before the sale was completed, Mcgregor employed Decimus Burton to build Gothic Villas on part of the park (now Nos 7-17 London Road). By 1828 most of old Flambards house was gone.

In 1831 the Reverend W W Phelps, an Harrow Master, bought Gothic Villas as a boarding house for the school and shortly after purchased the main house, the walled garden, a cottage, and part of the park (by now known as Harrow Park), for use by the School. In 1885 the Harrow Park Trust took over the freehold of the house and grounds from the Phelps family. This led to the development of the park for use by the school and many of the buildings in the area date from this period. From about 1897 (Ordnance Survey) the house was named The Park.

During the 20th century much of the park was converted into a golf course and a small area set aside for a nature reserve. In the 1970s a number of houses to the south-west of the park were demolished to make way for a covered reservoir. The site continues (1999) to be owned and used by Harrow School for recreational and sports purposes, a large part of the park being managed by the school as a private golf course.