Valentines Mansion & Gardens | Open House London 2019

Borough

Architectural period

Architectural type

Facility

The 2019 programme is now past. We will be launching the 2020 programme mid August 2020.

Valentines Mansion & Gardens

Richard Griffiths Architects

Emerson Road, Ilford, IG1 4XA

Toilets, Disabled access

Travel Information

Nearest tube: Gants Hill

Nearest train: Ilford

Bus routes: 150, 167, 296, 123, 179, 128, 396

Large, late 17C Grade II* listed house with fine staircase and Venetian window and Georgian additions, used as a family dwelling until the early 1900s. Reopened to the public in Feb 2009 following extensive restoration works.

Design

Original design: Richard Griffiths Architects, 1696

Type: Historical house
Period: Georgian, Victorian

History

Valentines Mansion is more than 320 years old.

The house was built in around 1696 for Elizabeth Tillotson and her family, after the death of her husband, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

At that time the new brick house stood in open countryside, several miles from the edge of London.

Valentines has changed hands many times since then. City merchant and banker Robert Surman bought the estate in the 1720s and created the walled gardens, dovecote and grottoes.

In the 1760s owner Sir Charles Raymond spent part of his fortune renovating Valentines, giving the house its Georgian appearance.

Sarah Ingleby, the last private resident of Valentines, died in 1906 and the Council acquired the house in 1912. Since then, the mansion has been home to wartime refugees, a hospital, a public health centre, and a council housing department.

After standing empty for 15 years, Valentines Mansion was restored with Redbridge council and Heritage Lottery funds, and strong community support to create the historic but contemporary venue it is today.