Standen House

Venturing towards an early morning walk  over Wimbledon Common a few days ago I met in Wrights Alley a man who turned out to be the same age as myself.

He told me that he lived in a house next to the Crooked Billet pub having moved from Tunbridge Wells quite recently.

He had two daughters who he had had to bring up alone as his wife had I believe he said, died a  few years back. He found that task far from straightforward but  of course, most worthwhile. 

Upon our talking of The National Trust which one does upon meeting a total stranger in SW19, he recommended a visit to Standen House which was not to difficult to access.

Mrs maytrees and I then decided to visit Standen the following day. As the school holidays were causing so many to queue at airports, the roads away from airports were  freer of queues than is often the case and the travel time down the A3/M25 was barely one hour.

Standen House was one of the best National Trust houses we have visited and most of them are excellent.

There was a small live group playing seventies pop music in the sunshine to which we listened after enjoying lunch on the estate.

The history of the house appeared to be that Mr and Mrs Beale lived there with their 7 children in c. 1925. They were apparently good socialists though with  fine house and some 13 servants, I am not sure how they would have fitted in with the current UK Labour movement.

William Morris seems to have had  an involvement with the house as some of  his beautiful linens were on display; for example as in the centre picture above.

Amusingly, one of the National Trust volunteers in the house after telling us that Morris's London manufacturing centre had been in Colliers Wood London, mentioned that she had lived in nearby Mitcham. After mentioning that we too had lived there before being bought out by developers, it turned out that she had lived close by in the same Mitcham road - a small world.