Kemnal Road, Chislehurst

A walk up and down Kemnal Road

Aerial photograph of the road
The houses in Kemnal Road

Start at the south east junction with Ashfield Lane and head north. The first view is of Marlowe Close.  This was built in 1956 on the site of Meadowcroft,  This house was first owned by Sir Walter Murton, built in 1874, and over 82 years it had only three owners until it was demolished in 1956. It was Murton who purchased the land opposite Meadowcroft on Kemnal Road, now known as the Amenity Strip in order to preserve it.

Telson Lodge is the next house on the right, with the private estate of Queenborough Gardens behind.  These were built in the late 1980s in the grounds of Hoblands, which in 1926 had replaced the original house, Woodheath. This house was ravaged by fire in 1909, and again in 1913. It was then left unrestored until it was rebuilt in its present form in 1926, and renamed Hoblands, an ancient name attaching to this area. Its original grounds included Hoblands Cottage, which was originally the stables, but was demolished in 2010 and then rebuilt. Additional stables were built to the south in 1908. These were later developed into a house called Woodheath Cottage, recently demolished. Chislehurst’s first swimming pool was also built here.

Nizels, next on the right, cannot be seen from the road. First occupied in 1882, a drawing of this house was displayed at the Royal Academy in 1891. By 1909 the house had been extended. Trees and Walden were created as separate households within the same building after 1950. The house is one of the few original buildings still standing. There is a separate entrance to Trees and Walden, on the northern boundary of which stands a massive wall for which statutory listing was requested in 1995, but not granted.

Behind the black railings, Oaklands was built on the site of South Home. First named The Hollies, the original house was demolished in 1958, and replaced by a block of apartments, also called South Home, which in turn was replaced by Oaklands in 2000. Its grounds include a property now named Wild Wood, originally two homes for servants of South Home, which now has its own entrance.

Next is Inglewood. The first house here was built in 1881. The house and gardener’s cottage were replaced in 1963 by the existing block of flats and Inglewood Cottage. The modern houses Cascades and the very recent Buxton Manor (which replaced another modern house, Columbine), were built on land which formed part of Inglewood’s grounds.

Passing Kemnal Lodge, built to replace the original lodge to Kemnal Warren, and then Little Byfield (built on Kemnal Warren grounds), we arrive at the entrance to the apartments called Kemnal Warren, after the original house. Originally called Homeleigh, the house and its grounds were acquired by the owner of Mulbarton Court in about 1935 and the house was demolished, with its grounds incorporated into those of Mulbarton Court. The present block of apartments was built on the site in 1961. Avondale was built at the same time.

Mulbarton Cottage, next on the right, was the original lodge to Wyvelsfield, a large house, later renamed Mulbarton Court. This magnificent house was badly damaged during bombing in October 1940 and except for the annexe of Barton, was demolished by 1958. Mulbarton Court flats were built on the site by 1960. Piermont is a new house, built on the Mulbarton land and bringing back to Kemnal Road some of the grandeur of the original houses.

Foxbury had two lodges. South Lodge, at the entrance to Foxbury, was rebuilt around 1920. The Tiarks family purchased land from the owner of Kemnal Manor in 1874, on which they built their large mansion. The family moved into Foxbury in 1877 and lived in it for 60 years. Other properties within its boundaries include those of Home Farm and Bothy Cottages. In 1937 the Foxbury estate was sold and the house used for various training purposes until it was re-acquired as a private residence in 2003. 

A long walk down the private part of Kemnal Road brings us eventually to Foxbury’s North Lodge. As you walk towards it, on the right you can catch glimpses of Foxbury, high on a prominence.

Just beyond North Lodge is a footpath into Kemnal Manor. The Kemnal Estate can be traced back to 1150. The last rebuilding of the house was completed by 1875. It was occupied as a private home up to the start of the Second World War, when it was taken over by the War Office. There is nothing to see now of the original buildings after a fire in 1964, although the Glass House is visible on the left, and if one takes the right fork at the top of the slight climb you will get a view of the redeveloped Farm buildings of Foxbury. Now much of the grounds of Kemnal Manor is used as a burial ground.  

Returning to North Lodge, and looking across at the new modern building, one is looking over the original site of the farmhouse on the Estate, long gone. The houses beyond are all post-war, and we have not researched their histories. Kemnal Road extends from here to the A20, but there is no access to the A20 for road vehicles.

Returning southwards up the hill, on the right is Foxberry Hill, once part of the Foxbury estate, and then the overgrown garden of Foxearth. Originally Woodheath Cottage was situated on the junction of Kemnal Road and Kemnal Lane, the footpath to Belmont. A new house was built by 1921 by the Tiarks family and renamed Francis Lodge. In 1940 its name was changed to The Foxearth. At the time of writing the house and grounds are deserted and neglected and in a terrible state.

Continuing beyond the footpath, there are three modern houses, the Marmot, Woodside and Jackdaws, and then the entrance to Acorn Close, all built on land formerly part of the grounds of Holly Bowers. Designed by George Lethbridge, this splendid house was set in very large grounds. The house was damaged during the Second World War but repaired in 1946. The stables were developed into a separate dwelling house around this time. The main house was demolished after a fire in 1964, to be replaced by Mapledene flats in 1966. Beyond Mapledene, we come to Eaton Court, which, together with the north side of Dickens Drive and Copperfield Way were also built within Holly Bowers’ original grounds.

The south side of Dickens Drive, Dorritt Way and Pickwick Way and four neo-Georgian houses, Pickwick, Cherith, Middlemarch and The Roses, are built on the land of the former Kemnal Wood. This house, designed by George Somers Leigh Clarke, had a most unusual design. After the Second World War it was divided into three residences, and then demolished in 1972. There is now no trace of the house.

Selwood can be seen from its entrance. First named Timara, the house bears a date of 1878 on a plaque on the west wall. Willett House, a modern care home, was built in 1962 on Selwood land.

Next, the large apartment block of Worsley Grange which holds a prominent position on the road is set in the grounds of Westerland. Built in 1876 and originally called South Laund, the house was renamed in 1930. It was demolished in 1957, and replaced with flats also called Westerland. These were in turn demolished and replaced by Worsley Grange in 2003. Westerland Lodge and the stables, now The Coach House, were originally in its grounds. The gardens of The Coach House include a strip of land formerly part of the grounds of Woodlands on Ashfield Lane.

Continuing towards Ashfield Lane, is the length of the Amenity Strip. Behind it are the modern houses of Roehampton Drive and Liskeard Close, built on the grounds of Woodlands, which itself was built in 1871. Although the house and its grounds never had any access onto Kemnal Road, we include details here given that its eastern boundary is one of the longest on the road. It was owned until 1923 by the Webster family and was acquired by the Church Missionary Society after 1945, who used it as a training school and renamed it Liskeard Lodge. It was sold for development in the 1960s. Cottages on Ashfield Lane to the west, still standing, though much modified, were orginally known as Webster’s Cottages after the first owners of Woodlands, and the pond, which was on the corner of Kemnal Road and Ashfield Lane but has now disappeared, was known as Webster’s pond.

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