BROOMFIELD HOUSE PALMERS GREEN

HISTORY AND OWNERSHIP

There has been a house on the site for at least 400 years and a park for perhaps 280 years.

For most of its history Broomfield was a comfortable timber framed manor house with a few hundred acres of land attached to it, belonging to a succession of families who made their money as merchants in the city.

The estate probably gets its name from John Broomfield, a leather merchant who in 1566 sold land in Southgate to Geoffrey Walkeden who owned the property until the early 1600s.

By 1606 “Bromehowse” was in the possession of Sir John Spencer. By 1624 it had been sold to a prosperous London merchant Joseph Jackson. The Jackson family remained in possession of the estate until 1773.

Early in the 18th century the Jackson family made major alterations to the interior of the house. The grand new staircase was constructed, and the murals (dated 1726) were painted by Gerard Lanscroon. Some of the ground floor rooms were remodeled with new paneling and chimney pieces. It was probably also at this time that the formal park was created, with ponds, parterres, avenues, brick walls and other features.

In 1816 the house and estate were inherited by the Powys family. The design of the exterior had been little changed since the 16th century although the original modest farmhouse had been enlarged to turn it into a more convenient and spacious residence. A chimney had been constructed and an additional timber framed gabled wing added at the north end, over a brick basement, with another chimney on its north side. This area is now the entrance hall and staircase hall.

The house was U shaped with a little open courtyard facing east. It was described as a timber framed, many gabled building, with low ceilings.

It is probable that the Powys family felt the design of the house old fashioned and their 19th century ‘make over’ drastically changed the shape of the building. Steven Brindle in his history of the house writes that “The north end of the house was demolished and rebuilt in plain stock brickwork as it is today. This provided two
big, much higher reception rooms on the ground floor. Much of the roof was taken off, and the rows of gables on the east and west fronts were cut down. On the east side, the little courtyard was built over, giving the building a straight profile as it is today. On the West side, Tuscan pillars were put in front of the front entrance and the first floor was carried out over them, squaring off the line of the house to form a simplified rectangular building.”

For most of the 19th century the House was let to tenants; William Rathbone, a deputy of the Corporation of London, lived in the House from 1858 to 1883. He was succeeded by Ralph Littler, a barrister (it was Littler who led the campaign to separate Southgate from Edmonton in 1881, and who assisted in the campaign to acquire Alexandra Palace for public ownership in 1900).

Littler left Broomfield in 1901 and soon after most of the land was sold for development, 54 acres including the house being bought for £25,000 by Southgate Urban District Council for use as a public park (opened in 1903).

In the early part of the 20th century other small alterations were made, the most significant of which were the mock Tudor additions to the east and west front. Southgate Urban District Council had decided in 1928 to strip off the existing roughcast, and repair and strengthen the exterior walls with half timbered oak woodwork. It was not realised at the time that this Mock Tudor timberwork enclosed a central core of genuine 16th century timber framing.

In 1950 the house and stables were listed Grade II on the statutory list of buildings of special architectural or historical interest.

In 1984 the roof and top floor of the house were damaged by fire, caused by an electrical fault. Efforts by Enfield Council to repair the house were not realised. Subsequent fires (the last in 1994) caused further damage to the structure and despite efforts to find suitable uses for the building none has yet been finalised. The Mural, items from the museum and many of the important architectural features of the building were removed and are in safe storage.

To date, the Task Force set up to restore and find a new use for the house is seeking funding for a project that would restore the building and reopen it as a self funding community and educational facility with a park café.