Carville Hall (Brentford)

File:Carvilleh.jpg

{{Short description|House and gardens in West London, England}}

Carville Hall is a large house and estate in Brentford, West London. Today the grounds, now a public park, are divided into two by the elevated section of the M4 motorway.

There are records of the house from 1777, when it was owned by the wealthy distiller and brewer David Roberts (c1733-97).A. Bassett. A Survey and Plan of the processional boundaries of the Parish of Ealing (1777) It was extended and re-fronted in the Victorian era, when it was known as Clayponds. From the late 1800s Carville Hall was the home of coal and horse racing magnate William Lancalot Redhead (c1853-1909)'Romance of a Strand Restaurant', in The Daily Telegraph, 6 November 1900, p.12 and his daughter the philanthropist Margaret Hunnam Redhead (1897-1991),'Margaret Lady Harmsworth Blunt', obituary, The Daily Telegraph, 25 November 1991 who later married Esmond Harmsworth, 2nd Viscount Rothermere.[https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Gardeners_Chronicle/F_M9AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Carville+Hall%22+%22Brentford%22&pg=PA230&printsec=frontcover The Gardner's Chronicle (1890), p. 230] Before the war ownership of the house had passed to Thomas William Crowther.'Carville Memorial Park', in The West London Observer, 24 December 1926, p. 6

In 1918 the property and grounds were acquired by Middlesex County Council to make room for the building of the Great West Road.'Great Western Road: Details of the Proposed New Thoroughfare', in The Times, 3 December 1913, p. 5 Brentford Urban District Council acquired the park as a War Memorial and open public space in an otherwise dense area of industrial buildings and housing.[https://brentfordhistory.com/2014/02/03/carville-hall/comment-page-1/ 'Carville Hall', Brentford History]'Open Spaces', in The Times, 9 December 1919, p. 11 In 1959 the grounds were further divided by the building of the Chiswick Flyover above the Great West Road, now the start of the M4 Motorway.'Raised Motorway's Route of Fewest Demolitions', in The Middlesex Chronicle, 30 January 1959, p.3

By the 1950s the house had been converted into flats, but later fell into disrepair. Carville Hall Park South retains a flavour of the original gardens. Carville Hall Park North has open grasslands used for playing fields, a pavilion and a children's playground.