🖤 H i s t o r y 🖤
The Mansion is a Grade II* Georgian building, meaning it is of architectural and historical significance.
The stable block, now known as the Homesteads, suffered a fire in 2011 and has now been the subject of Heritage Lottery funding and has recently been restored.
In the long term, the local Council hope to obtain significant funds to fully restore the Mansion as well.
The Mansion was built for John Cator, circa 1760 - 1762. John Cator (21 March 1728 - 26 February 1806) was an English timber merchant, landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1772 and 1793.
He became a landowner with estates in Blackheath, Beckenham, Addington, Croydon and Waltham Forest.
John Cator created the park much as we know it between 1762 and maybe as late as 1793 in the land of the Manor of Foxgrove. In 1773 he also became Lord of the Manor of Beckenham, having purchased land from Frederick St. John, Lord Bollingbroke.
The Mansion is believed to have been known as ‘Stumps Hill’ at first, and was built as a gentleman’s seat in Beckenham, Kent.
It was a grand family sized house intended as a pleasant retreat from the hubbub of London.
1934
The park was opened up to the public as a municipal golf course.
1980-2000
The Mansion was used to house a collection of theatre memorabilia of Mander & Mitchensen and there was an intention to convert the Mansion to a theatre museum, but funding for this project failed.
2016
The golf course was closed at the end of October 2016 by Lewisham Council, who said they could not make it financially viable.
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