Dorian Gerhold's definitive work released by the Wandsworth Historical Society
Ashburton House, north of Putney Heath,
drawn by R.B. Schnebbelie in about 1820. (Collection of Michael Bull)
Villas and Mansions of Roehampton and Putney Heath, the much-acclaimed book by Dorian Gerhold is being made available online for free.
Wandsworth Historical Society has decided to release a free-to-download digitised version of the book.
‘A most impressive work’ was how the leading Wimbledon historian Richard Milward described this much praised study when it first appeared in 1997. In essence, it is a history of Roehampton’s great houses and those who lived in them, and the amount of research that went into it was phenomenal. As a consequence, its author, the award-winning local history writer Dorian Gerhold, was able to give an outline architectural history of each of the numerous houses, with as complete a list of their owners and occupiers as was possible, and he accompanied it with a significant collection of contemporary illustrations.
For a long time the book has been out of print, but to make it widely available once again, the Wandsworth Historical Society has produced a fully-searchable, free-to-download digitised version.
To obtain a copy of Villas and Mansions of Roehampton and Putney Heath go to the society’s web site and scroll down to the relevant link and updated notes on a number of the illustrations.
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September 23, 2022
