OATLANDS PARK HOTEL
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History
Its picturesque red brick buildings surrounded numerous open courts, which were connected by gateways flanked by octagonal towers.
It covered over nine acres of land. It was an imposing building and must have closely resembled St John's College at Cambridge and the Palace at Hampton Court. There is an artists impression of this building hanging in the Lounge bar area
However, the Queen for whom it was built probably never lived here, and Henry himself only visited it occasionally, though there are some grounds for thinking that he may have secretly married his next Queen, Katherine Howard, in its chapel.
Only on rare occasions did his son, Edward VI, or his daughter, Mary I, go to Oatlands, but Elizabeth I was frequently there with her court, either on one of her Royal progresses through the country or to escape some prevailing epidemic in London. She often hunted, and spent considerable sums in making the place more habitable and comfortable.
James I and his Queen, Anne of Denmark, made Oatlands one of their favourite residences, spending much money in reconstructing the building, making and planting new gardens and vineyards, and in founding "The King's Silk Works", where silk worms were bred to provide silk for silk weaving.
Charles I spent a great deal of time at Oatlands and filled it with pictures and works of art. The Queen lived here during the King's campaign in Scotland, and gave birth to her son, Prince Henry. A fine Cedar, said to have been planted to commemorate his birth, still stands beside the main drive of the Hotel.
In 1643 Oatlands was Prince Rupert's temporary headquarters during the Royalist march on London. The property changed hands in 1649 and was sold to Robert Turbridge of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. It was valued at £4,023 18s. 0d. He then demolished the palace.
After the King's execution, materials from the demolished buildings were sold to Sir Richard Weston who used them to build the locks and bridges of the Wey Navigation Canal, which he was then making from Guildford to Weybridge; the first canal in England.
In 1652 the Parliamentary Survey mentions a house on the estate of the demolished Palace, and a house is certainly indicated in this position in Antonio Van Wynegderde's drawing of Oatlands Palace, dated 1552, a copy of which is in the Weybridge Museum. The Surveyors recommended that it should be let, as it would bring in more money than if it were pulled down and its materials sold.
After the Restoration, Oatlands reverted to the Crown, and in 1689 John Evelyn states in his diary that Sir Edward Herbert, the Lord Chief Justice, was living in the old house to which he had made additions. This house quite definitely was on the Hotel site. Sir Edward followed James II into exile and his estate was forfeited to the Crown, but William III granted it to Sir Edward's brother, Arthur Herbert, Earl of Torrington, who was the Admiral in command of the English and Dutch Fleets at the battle of Beachy Head. Lord Torrington was court-martialled for his conduct in this battle, and the grant of Oatlands may have been made to him as some token that he had not fallen from Royal favour.
He died in 1716, bequeathing the house and estate to his friend Henry Clinton, Seventh Earl of Lincoln, whose son Henry, later created Duke of Newcastle, had traveled widely on the Continent, and on his return rebuilt and enlarged the mansion. He also enlarged the estate and laid out the formal gardens and terraces, traces of which can be seen to this day. The Arms of the Duke of Newcastle can still be seen on the main gates at the entrance to the Hotel.
During this period, and influenced by his travels abroad, Newcastle built the celebrated Shell Grotto near the site of the present Dogs' Cemetery, and here years later, in 1815, the Duke of York entertained the Emperor of Russia, the King of Prussia and their retinues at a Banquet in celebration of the great victory at Waterloo.
There are a number of prints illustrating this mansion and its terraced gardens, and also of the Grotto, hanging on the walls in the Lounge Bar area. In 1790 Oatlands was leased from the Crown by the Duke of York, son of George III. Although he was dissolute and reckless, his faults were in many ways due to the times in which he lived, and he rendered the State loyal and efficient service, especially in his office of Commander in Chief of the Army. His statue surmounts the tall column at the top of the Duke of York's steps, leading from the Mall in London. The Duchess of York was a quiet lady who spent her days doing kind actions for the poor and needy and entertaining such diverse friends as Haydn and Beau Brummell. She loved animals and was always surrounded by a multitude of pets, and some of the headstones from her dogs' Cemetery can be seen set in the lawn near the Lounge Bar patio. Such was her popularity with the local population that on her death a monument was erected to her memory at the bottom of Monument Hill, Weybridge, outside the Ship Inn.
In 1794 the mansion was burnt down and was rebuilt in the debased Gothic style of the period. Unfortunately the Duke of York was always in debt, and in 1804 an Act of Parliament was passed to enable him to acquire the freehold of all the property he held on lease from the Crown. He very soon mortgaged his whole estate to Sir Thomas Coutts and Sir Edmund Antrobus, and after the death of the Duchess of York in 1820, the whole property was sold.
It was bought by a Mr. Edward Hughes Ball Hughes, popularly known as The Golden Ball, a man of fabulous wealth and notorious as a leader of fashion in the decadent days of the end of the Regency. He is introduced by Mr. Jeffery Farnol as one of the characters in "The Amateur Gentleman", and Fanny Hamble has an amusing account of him shooting pheasants at Oatlands, dressed in the latest London fashion followed by two gamekeepers, who carried his guns.
Hughes pulled down a great deal of the Duke of York's mansion, and made many alterations, but his extravagance eventually compelled him to let it to Lord Francis Egerton, who lived there until the early 1850's.
He was succeeded for a short time by a Mr. Peppercorn, who became bankrupt, and Hughes, who was living more or less in poverty in Paris, ordered the sale of what remained of his once extensive property.
Oatlands was offered in lots, to be cut up for building, and a small syndicate bought the mansion and some of the adjoining land for the purpose of converting it into a Hotel. The house was again re -modeled and the present Tudor Wing added, and in 1856 the Oatlands Park Hotel came into existence, with Mr. Peppercorn as its first Manager.
For many years prior to the Great War, the Hotel was owned by the South Western Hotel Company, and an extract from one of the earlier Tariffs is appended to this brief history.
Famous guests who stayed at the South Western (later Oatlands Park) Hotel included Fanny Kemble , Emile Zola, Charles Dilke, Anthony Trollope and the cartoonist and artist Edward Lear.
In her biography of Edward Lear -The Life of a Wanderer, Vivien Noakes writes...."He needed some cedar trees that were within easy reach of London, and he found them at the Oatlands Park Hotel at Walton-on-Thames."
Whilst he was working on his nine feet long picture of the Cedars of the Lebanon, he used to pen letters to his friends including Emily Tennyson, Sir George Grove and Chichester Fortescue, to whom he wrote in 1860, "The Hotel then is a large and sumptuously commodious place….I have a large light bedroom and wanting for nought."
In 1916 it was requisitioned and during the War was used as a Casualty Hospital for the New Zealand Forces serving in France. New Zealand Avenue, at the end of Oatlands Drive, is named in memory of the New Zealanders who died here.
Shortly after the War the property was purchased by Mr. M.F. North and Mr. R.W. Black, the founders of the North Hotels, and in 1924 the estate was considerably enlarged by the purchase of Oatlands Lodge, a large mansion now demolished, which stood on the site of the present Lily pond. As the years have passed the Hotel has been considerably enlarged, notably by the extension of the restaurant with the suites over in 1927 and by the addition of the ballroom wing in 1930.
Barclays Associate Hotels owned the hotel for some years until the 1980's. Oatlands Investments Ltd, acquired the hotel in 1986, restoring and refurbishing it to a standard which takes the Oatlands Park Hotel into the 1990's and beyond. Retained is the character of the Listed Buildings and the grounds which are included in the Register of Gardens and Parks of Special Historic Interest.
