Addington Palace

Addington Palace stands on the edge of the London Borough of Croydon, an 18th-century mansion built near the site of a 16th-century manor house. The Leigh family owned the estate for centuries before selling it in the early 1700s. Barlow Trecothick, a merchant and later Lord Mayor of London, bought the land and commissioned Robert Mylne to design the new house in Palladian style. Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown landscaped the grounds, but financial troubles forced a sale in 1802. In 1807 the mansion became the summer home of six Archbishops of Canterbury until 1897. The palace has been home to institutions such as the Royal School of Church Music and served as a fever hospital during the First World War. It was listed Grade II* in 1951 and now sits within a park shared with golf courses. A cedar of Lebanon beside the building is one of the Great Trees of London. The estate passed through diamond merchants, Red Cross hospitals and local government before becoming a private venue. Visitors find a grand mansion with single-storey wings and landscaped gardens largely unchanged since Brown’s work. The Grade II* listed building houses a conference and banqueting venue, while the surrounding park still shows traces of its earlier life. The cedar’s wide branches overlook the golf courses and the exclusive Bishops Walk housing development. St Mary’s Church nearby contains the graves of five archbishops who once summered here.