*Historical* This wonderful 300 year old orangery in the heart of Carshalton, was an outbuilding for a grand palace that was never built. An orangery was a place to grow exotic fruit trees.
The huge main house was planned for Carshalton Park. Paid for by Sir Thomas Scawen and designed by Venician-born architect Giacomo Leoni, in 1723 – the to-scale image below shows where the house would have been.
The orangery became stables for the smaller Carshalton Park House, shown below, which stood where the road called Brookside now is.
The orangery is currently offices, and in the 80s it was owned by movie star Oliver Reed. You can see the building for yourself. It’s situated on the corner of The Square and Brookside in Carshalton. It’s not clear whether Giacomo Leoni designed the orangery too, but he is attributed to the Leoni Bridge in The Grove.
🗝 Scawen got quite far with his house-building project before the money ran out – he created the main gates, a grotto, an orangery and a huge circular driveway.
Does this finally solve the mystery of the Frying Pan in Carshalton Park
love these history spots .. so much to see on a walk round Carshalton Village if you know where to look