Richmond Lodge
Richmond Lodge was a historic property located near to the River Thames in Richmond, London at what was then part of the Old Deer Park. It was in the lands of the historic Richmond Palace, but was sometimes referred to as being part of Richmond Park which is on the other side of the town of Richmond. It was located close to the King's Observatory. It should not be confused with Pembroke Lodge or the White Lodge, both in Richmond Park, or a variety of other similarly-named properties.
Owned from 1704 by the Irish aristocrat the Duke of Ormonde who completly rebuilt the house, it was known at the time as Ormonde Lodge.[1] Ormonde was a leading Tory politician and soldier appointed Captain-General in 1711 to replace the Duke of Marlborough in command in the War of the Spanish Succession. Following the Hanoverian Succession in 1714 he was dismissed by the new regime. In 1715 facing impeachment by Parliament, Ormonde fled to Paris where he joined the Jacobite pretender to the throne James. He was attainted and all his properties including the Lodge were seized by the government.
In 1718 the estate was purchased by George, Prince of Wales. Following a dispute with his father George I, part of the wider Whig Split, the Prince and his wife Caroline of Ansbach were forced to leave St. James Palace. During the winter months they established a separate court at Leicester House, but their summers were spent at Richmond.
George III later merged it into the Kew Gardens estate, and it was demolished in the 1770s.
References
- ^ Desmond p.2
Bibliography
- Dennison, Matthew. The First Iron Lady: A Life of Caroline of Ansbach. HarperCollins, 2017.
- Desmond, Ray. Kew: The History of the Royal Botanic Gardens. Random House, 1998.