Cannons

There is archaeological evidence the site was used in Roman times for brick and tile making. In mediaeval times the site was a part of the endowment of the Priory of St Bartholomew's which operated St Bartholomew's Hospital in London. This gave it the name Cannons, canon was an archaic term for certain orders of monks including the Augustinians of St Bartholomew's Priory. At the Dissolution of the Monasteries the land was sold into private hands in 1543. A large house was built during the 16th and 17th centuries at one point owned by Thomas Lake, James I's Chancellor of the Exchequer. James Brydges was an MP for Hereford who achieved the post of Paymaster General to the Forces. He retired…

.]] Chandos remodelled the pre-existing Jacobean house built by Thomas Lake (which is believed to have been designed by John Thorpe). The new three-storey house took 10 years to complete and was designed as a square block with four new pedimented facades and a large internal courtyard. The Duke went through several architects beginning with William Talman in 1713 who produced twelve plans but was dismissed in 1714 before starting any building on the main house. Next was John James who designed the north and west ranges (and also rebuilt the local parish church, St Lawrence, Whitchurch, with a baroque interior). On advice from Sir John Vanbrugh the Duke appointed James Gibbs in 1715. Gibbs…

Such was the fame of the house that the duke had to introduce crowd control measures – including a one-way system – to manage the large numbers of visitors who flocked to the estate.}} A few years later Alexander Pope was seen as satirising Cannons in his poem Of Taste (1731), which ridicules the villa of an aristocrat called "Timon" and includes the lines: you devoutly stare, Where sprawl the Saints of Verrio or Laguerre... |source=lines 143-146}} Timon, like Chandos, is a patron of the painter Louis Laguerre and listens to elaborate music in his chapel. After adverse comment, including a caricature by William Hogarth of Pope splattering Chandos' carriage, the poet apologised to the Duke,…