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Woodlands House

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Coordinates: 51°28′47″N 0°01′02″E / 51.4796°N 0.01733°E / 51.4796; 0.01733
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(Redirected from Woodlands Art Gallery)

51°28′47″N 0°01′02″E / 51.4796°N 0.01733°E / 51.4796; 0.01733

For the house designed by Richard Norman Shaw in Holland Park, see Woodland House.
Woodlands House

Woodlands House is a Grade II* listed[1] Georgian villa, next door to Mycenae House, Mycenae Road, in the Westcombe Park area of the Royal Borough of Greenwich. From 1972 to 2003 the building served as a library and art museum, known as the Woodlands Art Gallery. Today it houses a Steiner School.

History

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The building was built on a site leased in 1774 from Sir Gregory Page by John Julius Angerstein (a Lloyd's underwriter). Angerstein made his fortune in the East Indian trade as well as having West Indian business links, including a third share in a slave plantation in Grenada.[2] His art collection was bought in 1824 to form the nucleus of the National Gallery, London. Angerstein occupied a house in nearby Crooms Hill, Greenwich, while the villa was constructed over the next two years to a design by local architect George Gibson[3] and was completed in the summer of 1776.[4]

It was described in Daniel Lysons' The Environs of London (1796):

"Woodlands, the seat of John Julius Angerstein, Esq. (between East-Combe and West-Combe), occupies a situation uncommonly beautiful. The surrounding scenery is very picturesque; and the distant view of the river, and the Essex shore, is broken with good effect by the plantations near the house. The grounds were laid out, and the house built about the year 1772, by the present proprietor, who has a small but valuable collection of pictures; among which Sir Joshua Reynolds's celebrated portrait of Garrick between Tragedy and Comedy, the Venus, a well known picture, by the same artist; a fine portrait of Rubens, by Vandyke; and a very beautiful landscape, with cattle, by Cuyp, claim particular notice. The greenhouse is to be remarked for its collection of heaths."[5]

This photo of Woodlands House appeared in the November 1897 edition of Cassier's Magazine as part of an article about Alfred Yarrow.

Angerstein extended Woodlands in the late 18th century, adding a west wing, conservatory, out-buildings and a stable and riding school (most of these were demolished after the sale of the Westcombe estates in 1876). After Angerstein's death in 1823, the property became the family home of his son John Angerstein (who was elected Liberal MP for Greenwich in 1835 and devoted much of his time to development of the Angerstein estates).

In the late 1890s, the property was purchased by the shipbuilder Sir Alfred Fernandez Yarrow. It became the Yarrow family home and later, during the First World War, served as a hostel for Belgian refugees. In the 1920s, it was sold to a Catholic religious order, the Little Sisters of the Assumption, for use as a convent and novitiate; during the 1930s, an adjacent building (today Mycenae House) was constructed to expand the novitiate accommodation.[6]

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Acquired by the Royal Borough of Greenwich in 1967 after the Little Sisters relocated to Paddington, the house opened as a local history library and contemporary art gallery — known as Woodlands Art Gallery — in 1972. It held an extensive range of solo and group exhibitions.

Exhibitions
Dates Title Artist(s)
25 July - 6 August 1974 Four artists from Kent[7]
  • Dorothy Fairweather-Walker
  • Julia Easterling
  • Brian Hargreaves
  • Joyce Hargreaves
14 February - 14 March 1976 Valentines: Greetings Cards[8]
20 March - 2 May 1976 Design Review (V&A)[9]
6 May - 1 June 1976 Mary Rhodes and her embroiderers and Tapestry Weavers Mary Rhodes[10]
5 - 27 June 1976 Paintings and Drawings[11]</ref>
  • Jean Cooke
  • Diana Cumming
9 October - 9 November 1976 Paintings[12]
  • Ian McGugan
  • Ed Perera
13 November - 14 December 1976 Paintings, drawings and prints[13]
  • Frederick Palmer
  • Max Middleton
18 December 1976 - 18 January 1977 Watercolours and drawings of places in the Borough of Greenwich Llwyd Roberts[14]
3 April - 1 May 1977 Postcards Collection of Richard Moy[15]
11 June - 12 July 1977 Women's International Art Club [16]
12 January - 14 February 1978 Exhibition[17]
  • Clem Beer
  • Roger Butlin
1978 Solo Show Cristiana Angelini[18]
26 August - 26 September 1978 Textiles, Wall Hangings and pottery[19]
4 November - 12 December 1978 Pottery Ken Bright[20]
1979 Memorial Exhibition[21]
Jan 1980 Solo Show Maureen Black[22]
1 - 30 September 1980 Pottery [23]
  • Ray Auker
  • Dave Edmunds
13 June - 14 July 1981 Solo Show Victor Pasmore[24]
1981 Group ’77 Printmakers
1982 Solo Show Zadok Ben-David[32]
1982 Artists in Adult Education
1983 Goldsmiths’ show
  • Christopher Andrews
  • Kerry Andrews[46]
  • Philip Bird[47]
  • Graham Coupe[48]
  • Pamela Day[49]
  • Alan Franklin[50]
  • Martin Spanyol[51]
  • Victor Willis[52]
20 August - 20 September 1983 Textiles Maria-Theresa Fernandez[53]
10 November - 4 December 1984 Work by Beckenham Textile Studio[54] Beckenham Textile Studio
12 October - 5 November 1985 Retrospective Show Rowland Hilder[55][56]
1986 Solo Show Manuel Aja-Herrara[57]
8 August - 2 September 1986 Solo Show Pierre Vivant[58]
11 August - 9 September 1990 Creative Textiles and Ceramics[59]
1991 Solo show Kathryn Ensall[60]
1992 Retrospective (1942-92) Pedro Friedeberg[61]
26 November 1994 - 14 January 1995 Abstract paintings and prints of painters' painter Albert Irvin[62]
December 1995 Retrospective John Christopherson[63]

In John Christopherson died with instructions for donations to Woodlands Art Gallery.[64]

In October 2003, the local history library was moved to a new site on the Royal Arsenal site in Woolwich[65] – now the Greenwich Heritage Centre,[66] and the gallery subsequently closed.

Steiner School

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The council sought proposals to redevelop Woodlands House, the adjacent Mycenae House and surrounding grounds, with a proposal incorporating premises for a local Steiner School being approved in July 2006.[67]

Website Greenwich Waldorf School

References

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  1. ^ Historic England. "The Woodlands (1078946)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  2. ^ A Virtual Tour of the Black and Asian Presence, 1500 - 1850. Retrieved: 30 December 2019.
  3. ^ Rhind, N. (1983) Blackheath Village & Environs, 1790–1970, Vol 2 (Bookshop Blackheath, London), p.274.
  4. ^ "Woodlands, Mycenae Road, Blackheath, c. 1790 | | Ideal Homes". ideal-homes.gre.ac.uk. Retrieved 29 January 2025.
  5. ^ From: 'Greenwich', The Environs of London: volume 4: Counties of Herts, Essex & Kent (1796), pp. 426–93. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=45486&strquery=Woodlands%20Blackheath. Date accessed: 24 September 2007."
  6. ^ "History". Mycenae House. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  7. ^ "Artists show local scenes". Sevenoaks Chronicle. 27 July 1974. p. 14. Retrieved 29 January 2025.
  8. ^ Art books 1950-1979, p.1080
  9. ^ "Crafts Magazine". reader.exacteditions.com: 47. March–April 1976. Retrieved 28 January 2025.
  10. ^ "Crafts Magazine". reader.exacteditions.com: 46. May–June 1976. Retrieved 28 January 2025.
  11. ^ Art books 1950-1979, p.360
  12. ^ Art books 1950-1979, pp.670, 783
  13. ^ Art books 1950-1979, p.812
  14. ^ Art books 1950-1979, p.520
  15. ^ "Card show". The Observer. 3 April 1977. p. 31. Retrieved 29 January 2025.
  16. ^ "Spare Rib Magazine". Spare Rib Magazine (59): 25. June 1977. Retrieved 28 January 2025.
  17. ^ "Exhibition Clem Beer and Roger Butlin". Coventry Evening Telegraph. 28 December 1977. p. 44. Retrieved 29 January 2025.
  18. ^ Buckman, p.70.
  19. ^ "Crafts". reader.exacteditions.com: 15. July–August 1978. Retrieved 28 January 2025.
  20. ^ "Crafts Magazine". reader.exacteditions.com: 15. November–December 1978. Retrieved 28 January 2025.
  21. ^ Buckman, p.54
  22. ^ Buckman, p.154
  23. ^ "Crafts Magazine". reader.exacteditions.com: 15. September–October 1980. Retrieved 28 January 2025.
  24. ^ Babington Smith, V. (Veronica) (1982). International directory of exhibiting artists, 1982. Oxford : Clio Press. pp. 298–299. ISBN 978-0-903450-61-4. Retrieved 28 January 2025.
  25. ^ Buckman, p.62
  26. ^ Buckman, p.192
  27. ^ Buckman, p.582
  28. ^ Buckman, p.504
  29. ^ Buckman, p.1058
  30. ^ Buckman, p.1200
  31. ^ Buckman, p.1292
  32. ^ From two worlds. London : Trustees of the Whitechapel Art Gallery. 1986. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-85488-069-0. Retrieved 28 January 2025.
  33. ^ Buckman, p.52
  34. ^ Buckman, p.102
  35. ^ Buckman, p.246
  36. ^ a b Buckman, p.430
  37. ^ Buckman, p.466
  38. ^ [Buckman, p.558
  39. ^ Buckman, p.696
  40. ^ Buckman, p.814
  41. ^ Buckman, p.1110
  42. ^ Buckman, p.1124
  43. ^ Buckman, p.1140
  44. ^ Buckman, p.1188
  45. ^ Buckman, p.1292
  46. ^ Buckman, p.68
  47. ^ Buckman, p.150
  48. ^ Buckman, p.298
  49. ^ Buckman, p.338
  50. ^ Buckman, p.444
  51. ^ Buckman, p.1130
  52. ^ Buckman, p.1288
  53. ^ "Crafts Magazine". reader.exacteditions.com: 59. July–August 1983. Retrieved 28 January 2025.
  54. ^ "Crafts Magazine". reader.exacteditions.com: 57. November–December 1984. Retrieved 28 January 2025.
  55. ^ Buckman, p.580
  56. ^ "Kent scenes". Sevenoaks Chronicle. 27 September 1985. p. 22. Retrieved 29 January 2025.
  57. ^ Buckman, p.58
  58. ^ "Building Design Supplement , 1986, UK, English". 8 August 1986. p. 12. Retrieved 28 January 2025.
  59. ^ "Crafts Magazine". reader.exacteditions.com: 85. July–August 1990. Retrieved 28 January 2025.
  60. ^ "Homemade and uneasy". Huddersfield Daily Examiner. 27 March 1992. p. 12. Retrieved 29 January 2025.
  61. ^ The dictionary of art. New York : Grove. 1998. p. 775-6. ISBN 978-1-884446-00-9.
  62. ^ "Albert Irvin". The Independent. 26 November 1994. p. 22. Retrieved 29 January 2025.
  63. ^ "Independent , 1996, Ireland, English". p. 16. Retrieved 28 January 2025.
  64. ^ "John Christopherson Death Notice". The Independent. 2 September 1996. p. 16. Retrieved 29 January 2025.
  65. ^ Combined Services, 30 July 2003. This is Local London. Accessed: 23 August 2015
  66. ^ Greenwich
  67. ^ lease

Sources

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