Ruskin Manor, Denmark Hill, London

South-east garden front view of Ruskin Manor, a substantial brick house built between the late C18th and early C19th.

Ruskin Manor (as it was later named) was once the family home of John Ruskin from 1842 to 1871. Ruskin’s parents lived here and it is where his wife lived from 1848 until 1854 when the marriage was annulled. He wrote about this house: "It stood in command of seven acres of healthy ground, half of it meadow sloping to the sunrise, the rest prudently and pleasantly divided into an upper and lower kitchen garden, a fruitful bit of orchard and chance inlets and outlets of wood walk.". The nearby railways were one of the reasons Ruskin left the property as they were said to have ruined the view from the house.

The Manor became the Ruskin Hotel in the early C20th and was eventually demolished in 1949.

The site of the old manor is today Cross Court SE5 8HH

Trebartha Hall Cornwall

The origins of the original Trebartha hall appear to stretch back as far as 1300 as the Trabartha family house, but some accounts state the building date as 1500 and the Spoures family living there. This first hall was burnt down and rebuilt in 1720. It was then left to Francis Rodd Esq. of Herefordshire in 1730 by the last remaining female descendant of the Trebarthas. In the early 1800s plans were drawn up to update the house to a regency / neo-gothic style. The plans were never carried out but a fashionable hooded bay was added to the west front around this time with views down to the nearby weir.
This view shows the south main entrance front which overlooked extensive parkland. To the north of the hall, a cluster of service wings spread north, out of view, leading to the kitchen garden and conservatories. To the NE was a wooded plantation which visitors would travel through having entered via the Highpark Lodge entrance. The hall was demolished in 1948 following years of decline, having been used for a time as a hospital during WW2. Some of the buildings to the north of the main hall still survive today and are in domestic use.

Canwell Hall Staffordshire - James Wyatt C1800

Sir Francis Lawley, 2nd Baronet acquired the estate of the dissolved Benedictine priory (1149-1525) at Canwell, Staffordshire in the late C17th. A house was built on the site of the old priory some time after 1764, which became the Lawley family seat. Sir Robert Lawley 6^th Baronet employed James Wyatt around C1800 to enlarge the house and estate buildings to the design shown in this photograph. The hall was let after 1851 and the family finally sold it along with the estate in 1872. The house was again sold to Birmingham council to become a rehabilitation home for WW1 soldiers in 1920. In 1957 the hall was demolished except for the servants quarters. A new building was constructed on the site roughly following the original foundations.